I Am a Lab Project

I was awake before my eyes opened, if that makes sense. And even before I opened my eyes I knew I wasn’t home, or even in the ocean anymore.

And I was terrified.

For one, my body was completely dry. I felt...itchy and very uncomfortable.

And another thing, it was way too bright to be in the ocean. Even before I opened my eyes I could feel the bright light of...where ever I was, streaming through my eyelids.

I started panicking and tried to breathe but I ended up choking. And that’s when I finally knew I was no longer near the water. Sure, we mermaids and mermen can breathe in air, but we preferred not to do it because it dried our throats out and it took some getting used to.

I peeled my eyelids open, which were cracked and dry, and I tried to get used to the lighting. When I didn’t have to squint anymore, I noticed that I was lying on my back looking up at a big white slate. Turning my head I saw that I was in an enclosed area. It was a square and there seemed to be no way out. Various objects were strewn around this area, and I noticed that I was lying on a slate as well, though not as big as the one above me.

I tried to sit up, but my wrists were bound to the slate. I looked down to see the same bindings were applied to my fin and my tail. When I was very little, I had been caught in seaweed before, kind of like I was bound now. I knew that seaweed was slippery and if I moved my arms slowly I would be able to slip my body out of these bindings.

But these bindings seemed to be much different than seaweed, and as I tried to slip my way out of them, they seemed to only get tighter. I started panicking and stopped trying to slip my arms and fin out, but now I was struggling and pulling as hard as I could on the bindings, hoping that they would break. I moved my fin around and tried slamming it down a few times, which caused a few loud noises.

Suddenly I heard a few voices outside of this solid cage. I started breathing unevenly as I panicked even more. I used all my might to pull out of my bindings, but no matter how hard I tried, the bindings stayed.

I started choking, not used to the air and breathing this way, as I heard the voices getting louder and louder. I needed to get out of here!

But where would I go? This solid cage was enclosed and even if I found a way to get out, I don’t know how I would get around. I was obviously on land, and I didn’t have feet or legs, so I couldn’t walk. And it doesn’t seem like there is an ocean near by; I don’t hear any waves.

The voices outside got louder and louder and louder until, there was an opening in the enclosed...thing, and 3 people walked in.

They were all males, and they all wore a white coat on over their clothes. I looked down at their hands and noticed that they were all wearing clear gloves. For a few moment’s, I was caught up in fact that an actual human, a two-legger was standing right next to me.

But the astonishment soon turned back into panic when they tried to come closer to me. My struggling started up again.

“No, no, no. Its ok, you don’t need to be afraid of us. We don’t want to hurt you...” he cooed to me as if I was a baby. I decided I wasn’t going to cooperate with these men. Maybe if they realized I wasn’t going to help them, they would put me back in the sea!

So I stared at him, as if I had no idea what he was talking about.

“Can you understand me?” he asked, staring into my eyes.

Again, I stared at him as if I had no clue what he was talking about.

“Maybe she can’t talk” one of the other men said. It seemed that the man who was talking to me was the ‘leader’ of the group, and the other two were there just to help him. The question was, to help him do what...?

“Her throat might be very dry, seeing as how they don’t come out of water much or not for this long of a time” the other assistant said.

Though I didn’t want to let them know that I could understand what they were saying, my throat was extremely dry, and some water in it would be nice.

I looked over at the ‘leader’ to see what he was going to do. He put his fingers on his chin and tugged on it a little.

That must mean he’s thinking, I thought to myself. My father used to do that when he would think. It was strange how alike our species were. I wondered what the females looked like, and if they kind of look like me.

My father

The thought of my father, and mother, and my two younger sisters almost made me weep. I wondered if they had noticed that I was gone. I wondered if they were looking for me.

But a small voice inside my head worried me with bad thoughts.

They probably think it was your own fault that you were caught. You’re the one who snuck out!

I turned my head to the side, away from the ‘leader’ and silently wept.

Suddenly I felt two drops of water fall down my face, relieving the path that they made on my face of the dry itchy feeling that I had been feeling, even if just for a moment.

“Walter...” I heard one of the assistants said, “I think she’s crying”

It seemed that the assistant was referring to the ‘leader’ by calling him Walter. Walter. That certainly was a funny name. I didn’t know any mermen named Walter.

But he frightened me when he puts his hands on my head and turned it around so it was facing him. The next thing he did scared me even more. He grabbed one of the objects that were scattered around the enclosed cage. He began to bring it closer and closer to my face.

It scared me so much that I screamed! Well it was more like a call...a dolphin call to be exact. I took a course on dolphin speech in junior year, and I have all of the dolphin calls and any other sounds they make and all of their meanings memorized.

So when he scared me, it just kinda...came out. And apparently that scared them because they all jumped back. Now I had an idea....

I started to try to squirm out of my bindings again. But this time, when Walter came closer to me I screamed at him in a dolphin call. And every time someone would try to come near me, I would make a dolphin call. I tried to make my calls sound panicky, as if I was actually saying something like where am I? Get me out of here! and such.

You know, even in situations like this, it was hard not to laugh at their worried and confused faces. But it would have ruined my act if I started laughing...or just make them more confused.

I could tell they were trying to figure out a way to make me shut up. I was getting tired from struggling so much and my voice was tiring from calling so much, so I slowly stopped calling and I slowly stopped struggling until I was still, just turning my head nervously, looking around at the relieved faces.

“We are going to have to figure out her language...” one of the assistants said.

Walter ran his fingers through his hair, “No shit Sherlock” he spat angrily at the assistant.

His frustration made me happy.

They all stood silent for a few minutes. Walter thought to himself, and the two assistants looked back and forth at each other, trying to decide what to do.

Finally after a while, Walter sighed and said, “Let’s go. We’ll discuss what we have to do in the meeting room”

They nodded and started walking out. I started to struggle again, trying to let them know that I wanted to be lat out.

They just ignored me and continued to walk away.

I heard the entrance of the enclosed cage close behind me. I groaned, which hurt my throat.

It was hard to believe that I was stuck in this position. Teachers, parents, rulers, everyone tells us that we should never get caught. And look at me now. I’m caught.

No one has ever been caught before, so no one has ever been able to tell us what they do with us when we’re caught. Though, I doubt anyone who gets caught has much of a chance to come back...

I turned my head to the side and began weeping again. More drops of water came out of my eyes, and rolled down my face.

What were these drops on my face? One of the assistants called it crying. I’ve wept before but there was never any water coming from my eyes. Or, maybe there always was but I just didn’t feel it since I was surrounded by water...

“Help me?” I whispered to my enclosed cage. “Please?” I said a little bit louder.

“Let me go!” I said louder, crying harder. “I want to go home!” I said louder.

I started struggling and crying harder as I used all my might to try to get out of the bindings that were confining me.

With a ‘humph’ I stopped struggling and layed myself down on the slate, continuing to cry.

I must not have heard the enclosed cage being opened by someone, and since the opening was behind me, I didn’t see that someone had come in and was leaning on the big slate standing up behind me.

But I knew someone was there once it started to talk.

“Busted” said the voice