The Fish

Chapter Six

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

The faint beep of the heart monitor prevented me from sleeping every night.

I glanced around the room to see the sunrise in the window, which actually looked very pretty. I focused my eyes on the orange blob in the low horizon. A pink layered the sun, and birds flew over the parking lot.

Why couldn't I be that free?

Sighing softly I turned my head on the fluffy pillow to see a television playing the same shows as yesterday.

And the day before.

I shut my eyes for a few moments, and of course, someone had to disturb my peace. I heard the door click open, and shut again. Not bothering to open my eyes, I waited for the person to speak.

"Aquaria? How are you doing, sweetheart? Aquaria can you please open your eyes?" Forcing my burning eyes open, I glared at the Doctor.

"Aquaria, today's the day you get to go out." I almost fell off of my bed in excitement. Hot, salty tears brimmed my eyes and I wanted to thank the Doctor, but I couldn't, since I was strapped down to the bed.

"We're going to fly you down to California, but you must keep this a secret, okay? No coming onto shore during the day, and NO talking to humans. Alright?" He was speaking slowly and smiling, and I couldn't help but smile myself.

Things were finally turning around.

Later that evening, I was resting in the warm sand of the Malibu beach. My scaly feet splashed in the water, and I was happy.

Really, truly happy.

"Okay Aquaria, want to try going in the water?" I nodded, and the Doctor shoved me into the water. I thought it'd be scary but it was exhilarating. It came as easily as breathing did. Fish tangled in my hair and I laughed.

We have discovered that I can be outside of water for a maximum of one hour at a time. That's it. So, going onto shore and thanking the Doctor one last time, he smiled.

"Good luck in life, Aquaria. I wish you the best of luck. We'll come back down here once a month or so, to check up on you." He smiled once again, and made his way to the road. Biting my lip, I flopped back into the water and swam down. The water has never felt so nice.

Hours went by, and it was dark.

I thought I was fearless, but clearly not. Dark waters, with fish scientists don't even know about, scare me. Staying as close to the shoreline as I could, I took steady breaths.

Until I heard people coming.

<<Shit, shit, shit, shit>>

Going a little bit deeper, I noticed that all the people that were running down the sand were all boys.

Just my luck.

One of them splashed into the water and headed straight towards me. I froze. He smacked into my stomach and his head bobbed up.

"Hi." I forced a smile and turned away.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Shaking my head I swam away, only to have him follow me.

Fantastic.