The Girl and the Mermaid

The Mermaid

In the fic, "this formatting means, that someone is talking" while this formatting displays written words "And this one sign language"

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Anthea sneaked down the staircase. Today was one of the rare days where both her dads weren't home. That didn't mean though that Thea was alone; the staff that worked for her dad was still in the house, cleaning the numerous rooms or preparing food for the Doctor and his family.

Thea knew that she wasn't supposed to be sneaking around in that part of the villa, her papa had scolded her already many times because she had enteed rooms that were off limit for her, but Thea had gotten curious. Why was she not supposed to be down here? Did her father store corpses in the basement? Or some secret scientific experiments? The girl wanted to find out.

She walked slowly, carefully placing her feet on the floor, hoping she didn't make a noise. Most of the time, Thea didn't care much about being deaf, but in a situation like this, being hearing would've helped her a lot.

The girl eventually stumbled across a locked door. She smiled. She knew how to open one of these. She'd read a book recently about detectives and in it had been a pretty good instruction about opening locks. She'd tried opening the lock of her closet a few times and eventually got the hang of it. She took the little wire out of her pocket and pressed it into the keyhole. Thea knew that opening a door would be more difficult than a closet, but she wanted to try it.

It took her almost ten minutes, and one time she'd thought the door had been opened but it turned out to be still locked. But eventually, she won. Thea opened the door, turning on the flashlight she'd brought. She didn't want to turn on the ceiling lights.

Thea sneaked past some old furniture. Damn, her fathers really had a lot of old stuff down here. Then she saw some outdated medical equipment. It seemed like this was something like a storage room for old things.

Then the girl saw the closet. It didn't fit into the room, and it didn't match the rest of the furniture. It was big, black and looked relatively new. Thea tried to open it, but it was locked too. She was able to open it after a few minutes too. Thea grinned when the door yielded to her wire, and she opened it.

Behind the closet was another room. This one was unfurnished except for a few empty fish tanks. Thea frowned. Why did her fathers keep fish tanks down here? She stretched out her arm and shone the light through the empty spaces.

Then she saw something moving in the dim light. Thea jumped back and pressed a hand to her mouth. She'd just screamed, hadn't she? Thea hoped that no one had heard her.

Slowly, she pointed her flashlight back to the spot where something had moved. There was a big fish tank. And in it was a mermaid.

He (Thea wasn't sure if mermaids had the same concept of human sexes and genders) looked at her, scared. Thea slowly pointed the flashlight at herself, showing to him that she wasn't a threat to him. Then she stepped slowly closer until she was able to press a hand against the glass. The mermaid looked at her, his eyes looking at her sadly. His hair was dark and long, like a winter night.

He had a turquoise fishtail but white skin. Something about him seemed... old. He had tattoos or markings on the front of his head, curved lines. Thea wondered what they meant.

Eventually, the mermaid (or was he a merman?) swam closer. Then he raised a hand and pressed it on the other side of the glass. Thea smiled at him. She signed "Hello." and watched as the man raised his eyebrow in confusion. Thea sighed. Seemed like she had to try it in a different way. "Hello?" She said unsure. She didn't like speaking aloud much, but her fathers had insisted on her learning it in case she ever needed it.

The merman shook his head sadly. It seemed like the glass blocked her voice or that she didn't speak loud enough. Or that they didn't speak the same language.

Thea started thinking, then she signed "Coming back in a second." He wasn't able to understand her language, but she still decided to talk to him.

Thea returned to the room with the old furnishings and after a few minutes, she found old toys of hers amongst the chaos of furniture, including a pen and a block of paper.

The girl took both the pen and the paper back to the merman and started writing.

Hello

She showed him the paper and the man squinted. Thea shone her flashlight on the paper and watched the man move his eyes, then he smiled and nodded. Thea grinned.

My name is Thea

She wrote and showed it to the man again. He read it, then nodded.

Thea smiled.

What is your name?

The merman read the question, then said something. Thea paid attention to his lips, trying to see the movement they made when pronouncing his name.

Kassaras?

She wrote. The man shook his head, then nodded. He pointed at the start of the name and formed with his other hand a C shape. Thea noticed that his fingers had webs in between them.

Cassaras?

She wrote again and the merman nodded when she showed him the paper again.

Why are you here?

The girl continued to ask. Cassaras looked sadly at her. "Someone caught me in a trap. Put me in this tank. I've been here ever since. A long time." Thea nodded when his words made sense in her head.

Are you a mermaid? Merman?

Cassaras nodded. "Yes."

Thea looked astonished at him. So, he really was a magical being, like one of the figures in some of her favorite books! Thea examined his body interested. He wasn't wearing any clothes and Thea hoped he wasn't cold. She took a look at the top of the tank, but it was sealed off with a metal plate which was locked by a chain. There was a lock on it, the kind of lock which required a code. Eight digits. Thea signed a curse. There were two tubes that lead into the tank, one which probably infused that water with oxygen and one which might provide food or fresh water for the mermaid. Another tube led out of the bottom part of the tank, probably for the old water to be drained. Thea swallowed. Cassaras was a prisoner.

I can't open the tank. She wrote.

Cassaras smiled sadly at her. "I know. I tried too." He flexed his muscular arms. Thea nodded angrily. Who would lock up such a powerful being? The fish tank wasn't even big enough for the merman to swim around. Tears appeared in Thea's eyes.

I'm sorry. You shouldn't be locked up.

Cassaras nodded. "Who are you?" He asked her. Thea flipped to a new page and tried to formulate her answer as short as possible.

This is my pa's house. I explored the basement and found you.

Cassaras frowned. "Do you think your papa locked me up?" He asked her. Thea took a sharp breath.

Why?

Cassaras shrugged. "This is his house." Thea nodded. This made sense, but why would her pa...?

Her eyes widened when she remembered the numerous times when he'd locked her in her room. That one time he was gone for almost a month for no reason, no explanation. The many times he'd forbidden her to go anywhere near the basement...

Thea nodded slowly.

But why?

Cassaras shook his head. "I'm not sure, but-" Thea's phone vibrated, and she pulled it out of her jeans pocket. It was her alarm ringing, telling her that her fathers would return soon.

I need to go, but I will come back.

She wrote down. Cassaras nodded sadly at her and watched her leave.