The Mer Prince

Chapter 30

Charles POV

Where am I? Why is it like this? I'm terrified and no one cares. Every time that hatch opens over my head I've either been pelted by fish or questions, the people in coats here seemingly aiming for my face. When I duck down and come back up, they've closed the hatch and I've pressed lightly on it with my palms.

It's so cold. The metal is so cold. I'm cold. A cold merman. I couldn't understand why it was so cold for a while, until I started noticing the whole facility seemed underground. I could press my ear to the glass that looked out into the lab, and all I saw were people in lab coats, long sleeved ones by the door. I heard some researchers comment how thankful they were it was cold down here. Hawaii in the summer, of course it's unfortunately like Arctic waters in here for me.

I started to lose track of time. The lights always seemed on, people always in. My cylinder of water was always in a half shadow, and I moved the dead fish over to a side away from my 'bed'. The man who caught me and bright me here? His name was Dr. Washington, and he was an asshole! I don't usually use profanity but he was! This cage I'm in isn't even suited for a living-room aquarium!

The water started running out of oxygen, so I had to start stirring the water when there was just one person in the lab, tail useful for forcing oxygen down into the water. I need oxygen, just the dissolved sort. Sadly, I was feeling more and more like a neglected prized goldfish that was won with too little thought, the only helpful thing in this water being the occasional salt water treatment.

One day an intern rushed and ended up dropping in a burrito, still warm, from Taco Bell! Dr. Washington was furious as I rushed with the prize to the other side of the tank with the burrito and scarfed it down, careful not to get it wet and holding it above my head between bites to keep myself from drowning above water. I forgot how goooood fast food was! Even if that fast food was Taco Bell. I had been living off raw store-bought fish that made me gag, this was a amazing gift. I was certainly in a better mood for a while, though missing XY was tearing at me with worry.

"Taco Bell, Taco Bell...." I tapped the glass of my cage and chanted the jingle enough that someone eventually changed my diet. They put it on a mini raft, the same intern having to bring it as a 'punishment'. At this rate I didn't mind him. He was a skinny guy with dreadlocks, intern getting experience for a future career in marine research and exploration. Eventually, though, he and I started talking.

"So, you're actually a human...?" He asked one day, as I picked off some cheese that I was learning would cause me indigestion off a taco.

"Yes, and no...." I looked to him and around in case anyone was around with a recorder or something. All I could see was the same camera that kept above my tank. "It's a little... complex." I told him.

"Can you tell me about it?" He sat at the edge? and I placed my taco down on the raft, taking a dip down and back up.

"I don't see why not." I told him. "I am apparently a prince that was sent away to be a human during a time of war."

He looked at me curiously. "You're serious?"

"I don't see why I would lie at this point.... You're a better listener than that asshole 'Dr. George'." I told him, before ducking down and moving over by him, scaring him back a bit. I raised my head and offered a hand to shake. "I'm Charley by the way, what's your name?"

"My name is Bill...." He hesitantly took my hand and shook it. "So, you were born a merman, and then became a human, and... the war ended?"

"No." I frowned, placing my hand where my mother's shell had been. I had lost track of it with everything that had happened, though I suspected that salty damn Saline had it. "I was on a field mission for finding the new species of bluish lion fish."

"Aren't those things poisonous?" Bill inquired.

"Venomous, not poisonous. If you got a spine up your skin then you might have a problem, but these new ones were non-venomous." I told him. "Mer people eat them. I think they might be like catnip." I remembered XY coming in the hatch and sighed, remembering if he had not been there after them, then, I would have none of this.

"You want to be out of this tank, don't you?" Bill frowned, misreading the sigh, but still right.

"Of course I do! I didn't volunteer for this! My cuts are all healed, and I'm pretty sure some of my organs have been illegally removed." I groaned. "I just want out of here. Not back to the castle but... back to someone, in the ocean."

"Girlfriend?" Bill asked.

"No."

"Boyfriend?"

I blushed lightly. "No." I slid back down into the water to cool my face and breathe before coming back up.

"So, he's a love interest then?" Bill did a suggestive eyebrow wiggle. "Gay in the Sea."

"Oh, my god. You are ridiculous, you made that sound like I'm part of a romance novel." I scoffed.

"Is it better, down where it's wetter?" He quoted from The Little Mermaid.

"I'm not talking to you." I told him, dropping down in the water, face flushed and the cold water making it lightly sting. Bill was a new friend just for The Little Mermaid quote though.

Of course, I had to go back up to finish my lunch though, and thankfully, there was no more teasing. Just more mermaid questions- like the pee question.