Unknown Depths.

Chapter 18

"I don't wanna..." Delia softly muttered under her breath...

"I don't wanna..." She said a little bit louder, as she stared at the employee entrance of the aquarium. 

"I really don't wanna..." She sighed out as she grabbed her back from the front seat, "But I have too..." 

Slowly she got out of her car, closing and locking the door behind her. She then took a deep breath and started walking, at a brisk pace, to the door. 

Then once she reached it, she placed her hand upon the doorknob, hesitating a moment before finally opening the door. 

The stress she was feeling seemed to dissipate a little after she noticed that there was nobody in the room. Breathing out a breath of relief she went over to her locker and got ready for her shift whilst putting away her bag. 

Once she was ready she walked over to the mirror. It was still strange seeing her 'new' appearance. Now a pair of unfamiliar, yet somehow familiar blue eyes was staring back at her, accompanied by incredibly light hair... Delia brought up a hand to touch the hair, almost to check if it was still attached to her scalp. 

She was then brought out of her trance when she heard a door open, accompanied by the voices of two of her coworkers. Startled she quickly made sure her name tag was on right before exiting the locker room. 

Trying not to run into anyone Delia started making her way over to her first task of the night, feeding the porpoises. As she neared the tank, however, she noticed that Damian was standing right next to it. 

'What do I do now?' She thought as stopped walking. 'What do I tell him? Oh yeah, this? Well, I just turned into a mermaid overnight. I know! Crazy right?' She mentally slapped herself, 'Think! You can explain the hair, but the eyes are just a little weird...' 

It was then that Damian turned around and noticed her standing there, waving at her excitedly. 

'Shit...' She thought... 'Well, time to face the music...'

Together with her buckets of dead fish, porpoise food, she continued her walk to the tank.

"Hey! there you are!" Damian said with a bright smile on his face, "I was wondering when you'd show up again." 

"Well someone has to feed these guys," Delia said returning the smile. 

"Here let me help you," Damian said taking one of the buckets from her.

"Oh you don't-" She started saying but was cut off by Damian. 

"I don't have to, but I want too." He said smiling. "Besides, you, my friend, can use a little extra kindness after what happened." 

Delia sighed, "Thank you..." 

"No need to thank me. So tell me, how are you? Are you ready to be here again?" He said in a soft voice as they started feeding the animals. 

"I'm... Good..." Delia said, causing Damian to throw her an incredulous look. "I mean, I'm good considering... But physically I'm fine, I got out of it unscathed luckily." 

"Well, I'm glad to hear that." 

A comfortable silence settled among the two for a few seconds before Damian spoke up again. 

"I've got to ask though..." 

Delia looked up at him with a questioning look on her face. 

"Why the grey? I mean I love it on, you. But I thought you wanted a more, natural look?"

At that Delia chuckled, "I guess I changed my mind." She said hoping that it would be enough on that subject, and luckily it was. 

After that initial exchange, Delia was set at ease when it came to the recent changes to her appearance. In fact, after that, he didn't mention it again. 

Together they fed the porpoises and continued working on the rest of her tasks. During this time Damian asked her to tell him everything about the break-in and Delia did. The two of them worked their entire shift together until it was time to lock up for the night. 

Each of them checked a different part of the aquarium to make sure that everything was ready for the night. It was then that Delia once more found herself in the "A View into the Ocean" exhibit. 

Somehow this room had become a fascination to her, a mystery she wanted to unravel. A mystery that she wasn't every sure was there. She turned off the lights in the room as she started walking over to the dark wall that was the ocean. 

Quietly she stared into its depths, desperate to see something...

But she didn't see anything... No light, no movement and nothing green. 

Out of nowhere her phone buzzed startling her. Once she realised what it was she grabbed her phone. She had a new message. 

Hey, it's Gabriel, now you have my number too :)