The Dark Issue 86 by Ai Jiang

Author:Ai Jiang
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: dark fantasy, fantasy, horror, magazine
Publisher: Sean Wallace
Published: 2022-06-28T15:17:45+00:00

James Bennett is a British writer raised in Sussex and South Africa. His travels have furnished him with an abiding love of different cultures, history and mythology. His short fiction has appeared internationally and his debut novel Chasing Embers was shortlisted for Best Newcomer at the British Fantasy Awards 2017. James lives in Spain where he’s currently at work on a new novel. Feel free to follow him on Twitter: @Benjurigan.

A Game at Clearwater Lake

by Gillian Daniels

We were in fifth grade the February we played hockey on the lake. It was Ryan, Becky, a few other girls in our class, and I. It was my idea. Recently, I had seen curling on TV for the Winter Olympics and thought we could figure out how to do it with real stones and evergreen branches as brooms, but Ryan wasn’t interested and Becky just nodded politely. It must have sounded to them like the time I got really into Swiss Family Robinson and wanted to build a fort in the woods with the kids I babysat. When I instead said “hockey,” though, Ryan and Becky lit up. The rink in town was being used by the boys in our class that day and the snow had melted enough that we could ride our bikes to Clearwater Lake.

When we looked down at it from the top of the hill, he stood on the ice. He was a black pupil in the center of a white eye.

At that moment, I should have known what sort of story I was in. I used to yell at characters in horror movies who split from the group or went into the basement without turning on the lights. I threw popcorn at the screen which always made Ryan laugh and Becky smother her giggles. Maybe I didn’t realize it because, when you just think of yourself as the hero of your own story, you don’t realize you’re the bit player in someone else’s.

“It’s just a kid,” I told Becky and Ryan. “It looks like a boy.”

“Should we wait for him to leave?” Becky chewed on the end of the string from her hoodie. Her bobbed hair stuck to her round cheeks. She looked like Snow White.

Ryan shook her head. “Nah. We should tell him to fuck off.” You don’t see girls named “Ryan” anymore. She was singular even then.

“He might be angry. He was here first.” Becky chewed on the other string, now.

“Who cares?”

I saw some of the other girls arrive. Among them were Natalie, Sarah with an “H,” Sara without an “H,” Katie, Catie with a “C,” and Kady with a “D” like in katydid, which was a bug you get in that part of Ohio. They looked as baffled to see the guy as we were.

While Ryan and Becky argued, I went to the edge of the lake, sat down, and laced up my skates. I wanted to start the game before it got too late. Back then, being impulsive seemed like the grown-up thing to do, so I didn’t tell them.

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