Definitely not the Little Mermaid

Laiken the Fishboy

Chapter fourteen

Groggy was probably the best way to describe how Laiken felt as he woke up. For a moment he remained motionless, silently staring into space. Then he frowned. Where was he? He had been at the aquarium with Angelica and the twins but some people had come and tried to take him away. Then they hit Gareth with one of those tiny balls that killed people in movies.

Laiken stiffened. Was Gareth dead? He hoped not. He liked the twins and he was pretty sure that being twins meant there had to be two of them.

What happened after that was a bit blurry to the merman. He vaguely remembered being grabbed and bundled into a net. He was carried away from Angelica and the twins, who had been panicking, and into the night. He had been stuffed into a giant roaring car and pricked with something. Something that put him to sleep.

So where was he now?

Laiken scrunched his face up and considered this question. For the first time since waking up, the merman took stock of his surroundings. Or tried to rather. He just pushed himself up and the horrifying realization of where he was dawned on him.

He was underwater.

Laiken liked water. He enjoyed the bath and was pretty positive that he'd enjoy swimming too if given the proper chance. He didn't however, like waking up completely submerged in water. Like any normal person, Laiken had panicked and swam around in a frenzy, trying to escape. He just ended up hitting glass.

Just when he thought he was going to drown he remembered that he was a mermaid and therefore he had gills. Just to make sure though, he tentatively felt them. Yep, they were there, in all their fluttery glory.

Laiken looked down and saw his tail as well. He also noted he had scales on his arms, webbing between his fingers and almost translucent fins on his forearms. Cautiously he poked at his face. It felt the same, which was a good thing. A very good thing. He didn't think he'd be able to handle having a fish face. Not that there was anything wrong with fish faces, he just didn't think he'd look very good with one.

The merman tore his gaze away from his tail and instead looked around. He was definitely in a tank. He could see the outside world though. It looked like he was in a distorted room full of people in white coats with boards. They looked at him and scribbled something down.

A lady stepped forward and rapped on the glass.

Laiken twitched and shot backwards.

He didn't like that.

"Hello," the lady said. At least Laiken thought it was the lady. Her mouth moved, but it could just as easily be someone behind him. He spun around just to check. There were people behind the tank, staring at him with large eyes. Laiken twisted back to face the lady and gave her a little wave.

"Subject understands and responds to human speech," the lady said into a small grey device that looked like a phone. Laiken pressed against the glass, staring at the phone in awe. Was the lady talking to someone?

"Can you swim to the top please?" the lady asked. She gestured upwards for clarification.

Laiken detached himself from the glass and glanced up. He looked back at the lady. She nodded encouragingly at him. Cautiously he swam upwards. Much to his surprise, he broke the surface of the water and some much needed air hit his face, startling him. Laiken sputtered and sunk back under. He waited until his gills stopped flapping like crazy before surfacing, this time slower.

He peeked around. He was definitely in a room. It wasn't as distorted as it had first seemed. There were multiple tanks and jars on the tables scattered around the room. Laiken swam over to the edge of the tank and lifted himself up, peering at the humans underneath him. They all stared at him with strange looks on their faces. He dropped back into the water and rested his chin on the rim, staring back at the humans.