"Shit," Delia muttered under her breath as she slammed the breaks, stopping before the glaring red light. 'Just what I need,' she thought, 'another red fucking light.'
Sitting on the edge of her seat she drummed her fingers upon the steering wheel. "Come on, come on, come on... Why can't you just turn green?"
The light, that in reality would only stay red for a short while, now seemed to stay red forever. "Come on! The one time that I'm already running late you decide you like the color red?!" She all but yelled at the bright red light.
It was almost as if the light had heard her because right at that moment, it jumped to green. "Yes!" She exclaimed, speeding off as fast as she was allowed.
She was nearly there, only a couple of hundred meters before she reached the aquarium. A quick glance at the clock told her that it was 18:13, meaning that she was 28 minutes too late for her shift. 'Let's hope Janet is in a good mood...'
As quick as she could she parked her car and started making her way over to the backside of the building. By now she was nearly running as she burst through the employee entrance.
"There you are." A voice said from beside her.
"I know I'm late." She said turning towards her co-worker Damian. "I just had the longest lecture of my life and then I had to find my car, and everything just seems to be going wrong today..."
"Don't worry, it's all taken care off, Janet didn't even ask." He replied taking Delia's jacket.
"She didn't?"
"Well not exactly..."
"What did she say?" Delia asked raising an eyebrow.
"Well, she did ask where you were and then I said that if she didn't ask any further you'd close off tonight." He said, hoping Delia wouldn't' kill him.
"What!?" She exclaimed turning towards him, "What did you do that for? Maybe she'd let me of with a warning."
"I know, I know I'm sorry, but I kind of panicked. She was in a bad mood, and she this look on her face and I just... I just didn't know what to do."
Delia sighed, putting a hand to her forehead, "It's fine... It's somewhat my fault for being late. But you're staying late with me."
"Why do I need to suffer for you being late?" He asked as they started walking towards the exhibits.
"Why did you volunteer me for closing tonight?"
"Fair point."
During the day the aquarium was a busy and bustling place, but at night it would be almost deserted. The only people there were the employees, either cleaning, feeding or checking up on the animals. There was a large variety of people that worked at the aquarium, ranging from the researchers all the way to the cleaning crew.
Then somewhere in the middle, you had Delia, who kind of just helped where ever she could. On some nights she would feed the animals, on others she would help with the cleaning or tidying up. If she worked during the day, which was mostly on weekends she would sometimes give tours.
But on this particular night, she had to feed the animals and close for the night of course.
"Did you feed the otters already?" Damian asked as he walked into the room.
"Yeah and the turtles too, I think that we're done for today," Delia replied, checking the time on her phone. "And that forty-five minutes before we can close off..." She sighed sitting down in one of the chairs.
"So how do you wanna kill the time?" Damian asked, leaning against the door.
"I don't know..." she replied, "I just want to go home..."
At that Damian chuckled, "I had gathered that much, but that's sadly not an option. But I do have another idea."
"And what is that?"
"Well..." Damian started, "They finally finished the 'View into the Ocean exhibit today. It's opening tomorrow, we could go and sneak a peak."
That caught Delia's attention, "It's done already?"
"Yeah, I don't know how but they finished early."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Delia said getting up from her seat, "Let's go."
"If you say so," Damian replied with a chuckle.
The 'View into the Ocean' exhibit was located on the far side of the aquarium, right where the building bordered the sea. The idea behind this exhibit was to give the visitors a view of the local ocean life. So, for some time now this exhibit had been in the making and that part of the aquarium had been closed to the public.
"Here we are," Damian said, gesturing to the previously closed off area. "Ladies first." He added, holding the door open.
"Why thank you," Delia replied jokingly, stepping inside.
She gazed upon the new room that lay before her. "Wow..." She said, taking in the newly created exhibit. "This is cool."
The newly build room was quite large and elliptical in shape. On one of the long sides of the room, the entire wall was made up of glass, with the sea right behind it. On the other side of the room was a large wall with information, small screens, and a few small tanks on it. In the middle of the room stood an oval couch, half of it facing the ocean and the other half facing the information wall.
As Delia started to walk further into the room, she heard Damian close the door behind them. "Are we even supposed to be in here?" She asked him.
"Uhm..." He started, rubbing the back of his neck, "I'm not really sure, but let's not tell anyone."
"Alright," She chuckled, "I won't."
Despite the fact that it was dark outside, she could still make out some of the shapes in the seawater. A group of small fish swam passed the glass before they disappeared out into the darkness.
Delia walked over to the couches and sat down on the side facing the glass wall. "This is so weird..."
"I know right," Damian replied standing behind her.
As Delia stared out into the depths of the sea before her she noticed something in the distance. Something caught her eye as it moved away. A glimpse of something shiny and green suddenly appeared and quickly disappeared.
"What was that?" She asked confused.
"What is what?"
"That green thing that we just saw move away."
Damian furrowed his brows, "I didn't see anything."
"Are you sure?
"Yeah I am."
"Strange I thought I saw something..." Delia muttered.
YOU ARE READING
Unknown Depths.
RomanceThe story follows a college student, named Delia, who works at an aquarium. When the story starts a new exhibit at the aquarium is about to open. Here the visitors can look into the local ocean on which the aquarium borders. Whilst working at night...