GLASS BACK [COMPLETED]

9

Older Henric woke up ten minutes later, in a daze. "What happened?" he asked groggily.

"You overdosed on these," young Henric shook the red bottle. "I told you that was too much."

Old Henric shook his head and stood up. "It did its job. Look at me, I'm back to normal!" He tested his legs in a little dance, making Henric smile. "Your turn. You should only need one."

Young Henric looked at the bottle, skeptical.

"I don't know about this. I don't even see a name on the bottle."

"It's coded. You'd need to own a scanner or be an automaton to read the label. Just take one and we can leave. You won't even need your crutches." Older Henric handed him a cup of water, and he took the pill."

After a few minutes a warm feeling overtook his body.

"Alright. Let's go." Older Henric helped him stand up.

He stepped gingerly with his leg.

"It's starting to feel kind of numb." Young Henric replied, staring down.

"Just wait. Soon your leg will be good as new. But we need to talk about this, and it's going to be hard to explain."

"What?"

"Everything. Let's start with Dad. His name is David McCathey, right?"

Young Henric nodded.

"Right. And technically, we both think our name is Henric. That needs to change."

"I'm not changing my-"

"Wasn't asking you to." The elder replied. "I'm changing mine. My mom called me Ricky when I was younger, so I'll go by Rick."

Don't you have a middle name? Henric asked.

"Yeah, but I refuse to use that." Rick answered. "So I'll just be Rick from this point forward. Now, I need you to listen to me calmly and carefully as I explain this. Do you understand?"

Henric nodded.

"Good. Now, you've seen the mondo mermaids. Have you seen the real ones?"

"Real?" Henric asked. "What do you mean by real?"

"There are four types of mermaids in the aquatic division. You have seen the mondos, the huge ones that swim through the connected tanks. There are also the real ones. They are way smaller than what you normally think a mermaid would be, some barely reaching five feet in length. Their whole body is scaly and they don't think or act like people, despite all the tests, brainwashing and torture the scientists did. They don't like light and they aren't even mammals, they live very deep in the ocean. There's clone mermaids, and they either look like humans, similar to the mondo, or they just look like the real mermaids."

"Clone mermaids?" Henric asked quietly. "Why would they make something like that?"

"Because scientists are always curious, and curiosity is the devil." Rick replied.

"They throw ethics and morals out the damn window. Those mondos? Clones. They can barely keep them alive, only four were successful. Two males, two female. It was still pointless, they couldn't get them to procreate. That's not even the worse thing they did. The Janus mermaids... they are..." Rick shut his eyes and shook his head. "I saw them do the procedure once."

"What's a Janus mermaid?" Henric waited, watching Rick's sick expression. He looked like he was about to vomit.

"They take someone's body, presumably with permission, or waiver or something. The cut it open. Saw off the lower half and take the bottom half of a mermaid clone. They put it together. They cut open the chest and do something to the lungs. Finally, the lobotomize the person. They change them, make them forget everything from their past life, and put them into a tank. They've even done it to their own fellow scientists, all in the name of science."

Henric didn't know what to say. He could hardly believe him. He hadn't seen any other mermaids besides the mondo ones. Then again, Seeing Eve alone should be proof of what Rick was saying.

"Wait what is that?" Rick moved past him towards the door. He pressed his ear against it but didn't open it.

"There's footsteps. Not human. They don't have machines this big in the medical wings." Rick told Henric.

"It's probably Wireless, the robot I told you about. I mean, automaton."

"It sounded like this when it walked?" Rick asked, wild eyed. "The medical automatons are lightweight, nearly silent when they walk. It wouldn't be this loud."

"Yeah. It was kinda big. It said it had to download new medical procedures and stuff, It didn't know enough to help me."

Rick backed away from the door and motioned for Henric to stay back.

"Please be a laundry bot. Please be a laundry bot." Rick chanted, keeping his eyes locked on the door.

"Slowly, the door slid open, revealing the 6th foot tall robot Wireless, looked directly at Rick. Instead of white the eye indents on his face glowed a light blue. He looked at each boy and stepped further into the room, letting the door close behind.

"Henric McCathey and Henric McCathey. "It's surprising to see that you are still alive."