Mermaid for a Day

15

I felt trapped as I floated in tank of water that showed no sign of entry or exit except for a small hatch placed on the top of the aquarium. I found edge to the chamber which was made obvious by a two-way mirror spanning the wall of the aquarium. I felt like someone had put me into prison with no possible way of escape. I struggled to remain afloat as amputated appendage seemed to squirm helplessly in the water. The only thing that made the dank tank livable was my ability to breathe underwater.

I noticed, as drifted in the current created by my struggle to swim, a small rectangular box that protruded from the edge of the mirror. The box suddenly opened up to reveal a fish already dead in a plastic wrapping tagged with utensils while pinned to a tray. The box ejected the platter to me floating the water. It began to sink to the bottom of the aquatic prison cell where trudged to the bottom retrieving it.

I pried the utensils off the bag and ripped it open with what now looked like claws at the end of my webbed fingers. I stared at the strange talons thinking about the sharpness to them match the precision of a surgeon's scalpel. I had dug into the fish gnawing at it like an animal feeling hungry from it long rest of hibernation, and like that animal, I was clueless to how long I had really slept.

My mom had dug into me to knock me out this time as if she didn't feel like she could trust me while I was awake. I wish this hadn't happened. My family history was crazy enough, but this was ridiculous. I was hauled off to an aquarium to who knows where, and my mother was completely insane. What she was going to do was insane. It would kill me in the least.

Suddenly a vibration rang through the water coming from the walls, and the two-way mirror began to crack spilling water out of the fracture wall. The whole thing looked like it was going to bust. Then a two men came crashing through the screen like maniacs. One was holding my tail fin in a bag of ice hanging from his shoulder and the other stared at me blankly with gorgeous emerald green eyes. It was Jacob and Damien coming to rescue me out of this flooded prison cell. Both of them grabbed me rushing past people in white lab coats stare helplessly as I heard one call security.

Making their way towards a pickup truck, they shoved me into the bed as security officers began shooting at us like mad men. The two of them got up into the front with Jacob in the driver's seat turning on the ignition. The stupid engine wasn't turning over, but as he slammed onto the accelerator and turn the key the car jolted to life lurching forward at break neck speed as the officers continue firing rampage. In the back seat, laid my tail frozen on ice calling to me.

Jacob rode the truck like a serious psychopath as he continued to cut people off on the freeway to make headway with the officer's cars still behind us. He hit the accelerator down with force that sent me flying three feet up clinging to the railing at the back of the truck. What in the world was my brother doing, and why was Damien here? In fact, what exactly was going on here?

My brother rode the truck like a mad man going off the deep end, and I was in the bed on his pickup truck. I was moving at radical speeds even without my tail fin. My tail fin that laid in the back seat. I was, for the moment, a finless mermaid in a truck. What had the world come to?

[\]s