Definitely not the Little Mermaid

The Aquarium

Chapter Twelve

I couldn't believe that I was condoning this. Heading into work was one thing but practically breaking in was something else entirely. I glanced over my shoulder anxiously, waiting for the twins to finish whatever they were doing. Beside me, Laiken tapped his feet, gazing around.

A seagull flew overhead, calling loudly. I jumped and looked up. The twins moved back, throwing their arms open in dramatic triumphant.

"Viola," they grinned, turning around.

"Did you open it?" I asked softly.

"Yep."

"And the alarm?"

"Not gonna activate."

"Where did you learn to break into things?"

"Movies."

I frowned. Right, I'm definitely going to cut their movie time shorter now. Biting my lip nervously, I pushed the door open and stepped inside. The building was dark and gloomy and everything looked way more threatening. I reached into my satchel and pulled out a torch. Slowly I flicked it on and hovered, gazing uneasily around. The twins and Laiken slipped in behind me. I heard the door click shut.

Two more lights joined my torch and we began to make our way to the back. I took a quick detour to the manager's office and borrowed his key card. I considered using the key card to open the Staff Only doors but quickly realized that that would trigger the lights and I really didn't want anyone to know what we were in here. So instead I led them to a side door and took them through the delivery entrance. We crept along the road, warily eyeing the parked trucks and huge metal doors.

We eventually reached a tall fence. A gate sat on the end of the fence, a red light happily telling us that we couldn't enter. We stood there for ten long minutes, trying to figure out a way around it. Austin offered to jump the fence but I dismissed that suggestion on the grounds of it being plain dangerous. Finally I decided to risk the key card and stepped forward. I swiped the card and watched the light unhappily change from red to green. I pushed the gate open and let the others in first before bringing up the rear and allowing the gate to close and automatically lock behind me.

"Don't do anything yet. I need to make sure that there's no one here," I whispered, edging towards the veterinarian's office. There was no light in the office or in any other office along the pools. Frowning to myself, I gestured for the others come forward.

The boys hurried over to me. Slowly we went to the pool, taking care not to alert any of the other animals to our presence. We failed at that as every other animal in the pools emerged to watch us with wide, curious eyes. Laiken inched a little closer to me as he made soft sounds to the animals.

We stopped at the mermaid's pool and knelt. I glanced over at Laiken. He was sitting a little further away than us, watching the water with a mixture of horror and delight. I took a deep breath and turned off my torch. Gareth turned his off as well and Austin set his down beside him. I reached into my satchel once more and pulled out a sheet of seaweed.

Once it became clear that we'd have to use the twins' plan, they decided to get things to lure the mermaid to the surface. It was actually Laiken who suggested seaweed while we had been trying to think of things mermaids ate. When we had to leave, I had just stuffed the entire packet into my satchel. Which now smelt like the ocean.

I passed a piece of seaweed to Laiken. He blinked at me gratefully and nibbled on it. Slowly, I lowered another piece of seaweed into the water. It bobbed happily. The water began to ripple. The twins moved back. Something broke the surface. I let out a terrified squeak and scrambled back.