GLASS BACK [COMPLETED]

11

"Hadal mermaids have special eyes to see in the dark but are not used to a lot of movement. They food selection is rather small, feasting mostly on pearlfish and eels. In extreme cases they survived by eating marine snow, but it is not known how long a creature of its size can subsist on such a small serving size."

The dark little creature continued to butt it''s head against the glass, staring at Henric maliciously. It... kinda looks like a human. Henric thought. Barely.

The weird creature was short and slightly humanoid with their lower half being a fishtail, like most normal depictions of mermaids. But it still had very big differences. It was a leathery black with shiny scales, looking like a fusion between a bat and a fish. It's upper body was small and emaciated, like a person with severe anorexia. It had no hair on the top of it's head, but small fins and ridges that looked like strands of hair. It's eyes seemed to fade from green to blue, and it had no pupils.

A small eel tried to swim past the mermaid creature but failed. As soon as the mermaid sensed its presence it lost all interest in Henric. It dashed towards its prey and caught it in its mouth, swimming in circles while stirring up dirt with its hands as it ate. Henric moved along to a door with a sign that read, "Please Remove Your Sunglasses Before Continuing."

He took off the glasses, momentarily plunging himself in darkness before opening the door to the next exhibit. This area was more like the aquatic factory. The walls and ceiling were all glass panels and fish could be seen floating around. Unlike the tanks at the factory, these huge aquariums were perfectly clean and brightly lit. The underwater flora was so multicolored and beautiful Henric almost forgot what the exhibit was for until he got close to the glass.

"Limited information is available for the remainder of the exhibit." the hologram guide spoke from the intercom.

The sign for this area said H-Mermaids, Specimens #7 & #8 M:1 F:1

Henric looked around but didn't see any mermaids. He turned around and went to the other side of the glass, hoping that would prompt the hologram lady to speak, but she said nothing. He pressed the button on the screen and spoke aloud, "Where are the mermaids?"

"The mermaids in this aquarium were provided by Bickerstaff Labs."

Bickerstaff? Henric had never heard that name before. His dad had never mentioned them. Then again, he never told him about Rick, or the mermaids, or this entire floor of the building.

"There are no mermaids in here." He spoke, holding the button.

"If you have any questions about the exhibit that have not been answered by the information already provided, please press the button and repeat your query in an interrogative sentence.

You didn't say anything at all about this exhibit. Henric thought, annoyed. He pressed the button again and tried a different question.

"What type of mermaids are these?" He asked and waited.

"These are variations of the Hadal Mermaids transferred from Bickerstaff Labs. No more information is available at this time."

Henric walked to the next exhibit hoping there was something to see. This lab was similar to the one before, except the ceiling wasn't connected, it was black with two long fluorescent bulbs in the center. The glass walls went up to the ceiling, but the water didn't. It stopped slightly above the halfway point, but this area didn't have a bed of sand at the bottom of the glass. It continued further down where Henric couldn't see. The door to the next exhibit had a poster on it with a drawing of two mermaids, one was the length of the entire poster and the other was as small as the bigger ones fin. The poster was light blue and artsy, with a caption that read, "If you thought those were cool, wait till you see what's next!"

Henric thought about Eve and the other mundo mermaid he saw rotting away in a test tube.

I've seen enough of them.

He turned to leave the exhibit and it happened.

He turned to his right and a man was watching him. Or, half of a man. His lower half was almost like Eve's, a beautiful fish's tail with a metallic shine glancing off the scales. It shone from blue to green. But it wasn't like Eve. He wasn't like Eve. The point where the fishtail and torso meet was red all the way across, with sutures holding them together. It was puffy and swollen, it looked infected. If the man felt any pain, he didn't show it. He had dark bags under his eyes and could barely keep them open, even while he was staring at Henric. Henric ran to the glass and knocked, waving frantically.

"Hey! Sir! Can you hear me? Can you read my lips?"

The merman blinked slowly and mimicked him, waving back. Henric noticed a medical identification band on one hand and a medical bracelet on the other. He looked weary, maybe even drowsy. He did not look like he was supposed to be in the water. Henric started motioning upwards towards the surface.

"Hey! Swim up! Up!" The guy gave him a confused look before yawning. He yawned. Underwater.

Instantly he began choking violently, eyes bugging out in shock.

"GO UP!" Henric shouted. "UP!"

He pressed his face against the glass and looked both ways. He couldn't see any land for the merman to land on. He ran through the giant mermaid door but to the left was a massive concrete wall that stretched so high up Henric couldn't see.This was like his dad's area, which meant he wouldn't be able to access anything that would get him inside an aquarium. Especially not with Rick's ID. He rushed back to the area where the mermaid was choking just in time to see his sutures rip apart, the man's abdomen away from the fish tail, clouding the water with dark red blood.