🦀 Crab Fest by Lena Ng

There were banners everywhere. No one could not know it was Crab Night. I’m not too partial to crab myself, but my husband loves it so I looked forward to it on his behalf. A line of chefs greeted us in their starched white uniforms, with a nice detail of a small red crab embroidered on the right pocket of the shirt. They handed out mallets at the door, but if that didn’t suit you, they pointed to a table. I picked out a hammer. My husband picked out hedge clippers. He’s a weird guy. 

The crab was chained to the center of the room. It looked down on me with its wet, beady eyes and swung its giant claw as far as the chain would let it. 

“It’s so fresh,” whispered my husband, awed. He raised his hands to the heavens.

“How is it going to fit in the pot?”

He shrugged. The captain blew a whistle.

The crab cracked off the lower leg of the nearest man and gobbled it up. That’s only fair, I thought. We were going to eat one of its legs, why shouldn’t it eat one of ours?

The crab had a whispery voice. I couldn’t speak crab so I had no idea what it was saying. I saw a vision: all things turning into crab. Everything evolves into its shape. Was it a man before? 

Or maybe it was a god? Instead of fleeing like the others, amidst the screaming, I clasped my hands and began to pray.

Lena Ng shambles around Toronto, Canada, and is a zombie member of the Horror Writers Association. She has curiosities published in weighty tomes including Amazing Stories and Flame Tree’s Asian Ghost Stories and Weird Horror Stories. “Under an Autumn Moon” is her short story collection.