Broken Tides

Chapter Sixteen

"Marlowe."

I looked around to see if I could find the voice that had called out to me, but everything around me was a deep grey blue, and it was hard to see.

"Marlowe, look at me."

I couldn't see anyone or anything for miles. I looked up, only to see the surface of the water showing above me; far, far away.

I looked down, the water deep, cascading into a vast black, almost never ending.

"Marlowe, just look."

I looked at myself, my arms scaley, my gills venting in and out; my legs were hazy. I couldn't make them out, like I could see them but I couldn't all at once.

Panicking, I looked up to the surface, trying to swim up. As I did, the surface got smaller and smaller, like I was swimming further down.

"Where are you?" I called; as I did I realized the voice calling out for me was my own.

I slowly opened my eyes, laying in my bed. I had forgot what happened when we got home, it was fuzzy. I vaugly remember changing but that's about it. As I sat up, I felt cold, but my face felt hot and my head achey.

The cold weather and having unintentionally falling off the boat combined into me getting a cold. I was supposed to go to pyshical therapy, and babysit Milly, but I was stuck in my room running a fever.

Kat and Jay both felt bad about me being sick, so Jay had stayed over to hang out while Kat made a very large pot of "various seafood soup"; which was actually incredibly good.

At one point Dee came over, dropping off some bath stuff. I had no clue what any of it actually was, but it seemed to be various soaps, bath salts, and a very orange bath bomb which I enjoyed.

It smelled like I stuck my head into a container of vapor rub and citrus, and felt like someone scooped all the sick out of my lungs.

Bathing had gotten strange, considering the recent discovery of my new gills and fins. The fins themselves could be flattened to be nearly invisible, the gills less so. Not to mention it was just like breathing, and having weird fancy soap stuff in the bath made it difficult to breath in through my sides; so when I used weird fancy soap stuff I taped my gills down.

Jay thought it was funny, and Kat was worried I wouldn't be able to breath-as if I haven't been breathing air through my nose my whole life.

The fin on my back was a different story- it was incredibly uncomfortable to sit with if I sat with my back flat against anything, and it was hard to sleep on my back- I had a bit more control over the fins on my arms, and my scales, but being able to see then helped. Not to mention never having had to be afraid of poking little holes in my clothes before.

All of these occurrences were strange but I knew whatever change was coming was inevitable, so I didn't let it stress me out too much. It was like puberty in an unusual fishy way.

I found dealing with all the things I had read my dad experiencing. Esspecially the hunger, now that I had basically shed away all my old skin- impressively enough, my scales were translucent enough that all my tattoos were still visible.

The past week had been filled with me continuing reasearch, and experimenting with the newer features of my body. I learned that my father's journal was waterproof, I think the pages weren't made with paper but maybe cloth? I wasn't quite sure.

After a few days, my cold had gotten better, and I no longer had to stay in the house. Bored, I desided to see if Dee was up to anything.

His phone only rang twice before he picked up.