The Worlds Between Us

HERSHEY'S FINEST

CHAPTER FIVE

I desperately tried to cling onto sleep as Charles began to shake my dead-to-the-world body. My stubborn eyelids started fluttering as I huffed in pure annoyance, feeling my soothing dreams give away into nothingness. In frustration, I opened my eyes as wide as I could in the middle of the night, pushing Charles's stupid warm hand off my shoulder.

"Don't touch... me pesk..y...human subject. I will launch a tsunami upon your tiny castle..." I slurred out sleepily. Of course Charles laughs. As if I wasn't being dead serious. I huffed again as the moonlight streaming through the bedroom caressed my cheek.

"Get up. We're gonna start heading to California now. Ya know, before they actually remember 'that one Asian intern that got us coffee and hasn't shown up in two days,' that one." A frown settled on his face. I hated the way my heart clenched and the gills along my neck flared at the sight.

I wondered how anyone at a lab filled with supposedly "wise" people could miss the way an entire room dimmed when Charles wasn't in it. Always smiling with eyes that shimmered like sea glass in the endless sun. I wished silently to not meet anymore humans like Charles, because then I'd turn soft. And I can't protect my people, my Jules, if I'm a sponge.

"Charles, the sun isn't even up yet. Stop moving and let's sleep a bit more." I beckoned him with my pale fingers waving carelessly. I really did not give a fish if he came back to bed or not. This merman was going back to fucking sleep.

Charles quickly grabbed my hand, wrapping his large hand around mine. He easily yanked me off the bed into his (of course) open arms as my skinny (and useless) body slotted against him (so fucking effortlessly.)

"California! Beaches! Oceans! No more legs! Home!" He chanted as I wildly protested. I felt my nails extend into talons on instinct, and for a moment I was considering gouging his eyes out.

But then no Treasure Island Beach. Back to the evil lab full of ugly humans in uglier fabrics. And filled with Kaden's nauseating presence.

I relaxed, untangling myself from him and uprighting myself on the cold wood below my webbed feet.

"Ok. Ok yes I wanna go just, turn down your sunlight like...all the way down. Too early." I complained.

He ignored me as he grabbed up his metal box and a big sack. He tossed the sack at my chest with a smirk.

"Those are gonna be your clothes and things until we can take a rest break in Pennsylvania. I... dipped into my life savings for this trip so we'll be fine money wise." He said it so casual, as if we weren't technically "bad people," says Charles's dumb mirror box. The real bad person here is the one who thinks a living creature deserves to be poked, prodded, shocked, and trapped all because of "science." Science must be the human word for torture.

Charles grabbed my hand again (why do I let him) and pulled me out of his room into the humid night. The air clung to my skin and his hoodie felt like a buoy holding me down. We stood in front of a red metal... box? Object?? With rubber wheels. He let go of my hand hesitantly to pull the handle of the box's door, then he shoved me down into soft chairs. Gently, he grabbed a strap and pushed me against the chair. Slight panic arose in me as I registered a quiet click and the slam of the door.

I thrashed in the chair, not liking the strap or the confined space of the box. My gills flared angrily as I scratched at the strap. Charles dipped in the chair next to me, which was so close but divided by a weird joystick with foreign symbols. He stopped my frantic hands and clicked himself in, looking me straight in the eyes as a glow emitted from the top of the box. He used his free hand to grip the rubber circle in front of him, then, weightless as we raced the stars above.