Dreams

Water

Chapter 1
I am weightless, drifting through an endless water that will engulf and drown me if I don't hurry to the surface. My hair rises and falls with the ebb and flow of the current, dancing around my face in little tendrils. I move my hand in front of my face and it sends my hair swirling backwards. A small smile sprawls across my face at the sight of the pruney fingers.

A light at the bottom of the water turns green, signaling that it had been thirty seconds since I had gone under. Panic flutters through my chest, like a butterfly taking off, but is quickly replaced by the serenity feeling once again. These people are going to help you, I tell myself. They are helping the others, and will do the same to you.

I win my subconscious over, letting my legs go slack without the fear in my head any longer. I can feel the rest of my body beginning the strangest thing in the world. My fingers stretch out, filling in skin between them. From there, the water wraps around my arms and makes my skin harder, able to withstand the deepest parts of the ocean. My feet begin to flatten out, as if someone was driving a car over them. My lungs burns, begging for air. I start to thrash around, trying to get to the top of the pool I'm in, but my body is still changing, rendering any necessary movements unable to be completed.

The butterfly panic is back, but this time it is like a flock of birds has taken flight while a tornado spirals out of control and eats them up. My vision starts to darken, and I grab at my throat. Black dots speckle the water, and I know I am going to die. I take a breath. And I'm fine.

Without realizing it, my very much needed gills had formed at some point on my throat. The deadly water I was in was now my home, and I plan on staying in it.

This is what I was born to do.

The green lights in the water change to yellow, and I let out a large, gargled sigh. It is time to go in, they are draining the pool. With an aquatic body that feels like lead, I slowly make my ascent to the top.

I swim the same as I used to, before I became a scientific anomaly. I kick left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, over and over again. The force necessary to propel me is light, I was already skinny before the transformation, but the change makes me even lighter. My hands scoop the water in front of me, and the water feels strange on my newly webbed fingers.

My eyes are sharp, despite the expected blurriness that comes from being under water. I see the walls of the pool, all of them are plain white and very boring. Why couldn't we have gone back to the ocean? I complain to myself as I reach the surface.

Blinding white light flashes across my enhanced vision, making my recoil and want to seek shelter in the water. I start to let myself sink, but two large hands grab my slippery skin and force me out. I struggle to breath at first, my lungs still adapted for water. Fortunately, the transformation goes backwards, and my gills are the first go.

Thirty seconds after being yanked from the water, I am able to breath on dry land. Another minute, and I'm human. The new skin dissolves back into my body, and my hard shell is flesh once again. The scientist watch in amazement. Several of them take notes as I revert back to being human once again.

“She seems to be a lot more advanced than the others” a man says. He has buzz cut black hair, and a thick beard. His Nigerian accent matches his dark skin, and his eyes say he had seen a lot in his life.

Another woman with a blonde ponytail nods her head in agreement. “Perhaps she has had this ability longer?” She has a French accent, and hearing her speak calms me for  some reason.

The man shakes his head with a puzzled look on his face. “They all got them at the same time, maybe her body was just more prepared?” The other people murmur in agreement, except for one man.