I Am a Lab Project

I suddenly froze with fear. I heard the voice coming from the opening of the enclosed cage but I didn't dare move my head to see who or what it was that had spoken. I just stared straight up to the white slate above me.

It stayed like this for a while. Me looking up and the person or thing not moving or saying anything. After a while I thought he might've left and just not closed the opening. So I took a chance a brought my head up.

I had to look down my body and past my fin to see the opening. Standing there was a male leaning up against the side of the opening.

My head shot back down and I looked up at the big white slate again.

"Ah! So you did hear me." I heard the male say. I had only gotten a quick glimpse of him when I looked up but it was enough to realize that he was a male like the other men who had come into the enclosed cage that I was being kept. But it was also enough for me to realize a difference between those males and the male who stood before me. This male was much younger. You could tell because he had a younger face with softer eyes and no facial hair. From what I had judged he was around my age.

I didn't respond to the second thing he had said. I stayed still as I had before. Hoping that this boy would go away.

But instead of going away, he did the exact opposite; he came closer to me. I could hear whatever was on his feet hitting the floor each time he took a step. And as he walked he said, "It's funny because my dad and his two assistants just walked out here talking about this mermaid communicating like a dolphin would." by this point he was standing about a fins-width away from the cold, hard slate I was laying on.

I kept my eyes looking up at the ceiling though the gears in my head were turning. 'Walter must be the father of this boy'.

For the next five minutes we both stayed absolutely still, me looking up at the ceiling and him looking at me, I could see him from the corner of my eye. At first his eyes looked cold, like he wanted to hurt. But as the minutes passed, It seemed as though his expression softened.

He sighed and muttered, “I’m turning into my father. I must be spending too much time with him”

He then began to come closer to me. I squealed and squirmed in my bindings, hoping that somehow they had loosened; but they hadn’t.

The boy was startled at first, for it was the first time I had moved since he came closer to me. But he regained his control and still came closer to me. “Don’t worry; you don’t have to be afraid of me.”

But I didn’t believe him. I still squirmed and struggled and tried to get myself out of the bindings that held me before he came too close to me.

“Hold on a second.” He sound frustrated now, and he came close enough that he grabbed my wrist where the bindings were tied.

“Let go of me!” I screamed, not thinking about keeping my secret that I can speak as they do. All I cared about was getting this boy away from me.

But he only held onto my wrist tighter. “I’m trying to help you. Stay still!” But I refused to let him get control of me. I leaned as much of my body weight that I had control over away from him, pulling my wrist as far as the bindings would let me.

He struggled to try to grab my wrist before muttering, “These knots are ridiculous.” Then he went to get something from inside the clothes he was wearing and pulled out a knife.

I panicked then and yelled, “No!” just as he brought his knife closer to my wrist. I pulled as hard as I could and I closed my eyes, not wanting to see the outcome. But suddenly my arm flew back as if released. I looked back and saw that the bindings that were holding my right wrist had been cut and my arm was free.

I didn’t have time to process the reality of it before the boy had moved around the slate I was lying on and was working on cutting my other wrist free.

That wrist was soon free and he quickly moved to work on unbinding my torso. I rubbed my wrists and watched him work. He finished and moved away from me, leaving my fin still bound. I didn’t blame him, after seeing how much I was trying to get free. This boy was being nice, but not that nice. But it allowed me to sit up on the slate I was sitting on which gave my back a nice stretch.

“I told you, you didn’t have to be afraid of me” He said, a little bitterly.

I wasn’t sure what to say. “Thank you” I muttered. It was the only thing I could think of.

He looked a bit surprised. But he regained his cool and replied, “No problem”

We stayed silent for the next few minutes. I was rubbing my wrists; he was looking down at his pocket knife. I watched him for a little bit, twirling it around in his hand. I was caught up in it for some reason, until he looked up at me and our eyes met. His eyes were a greenish blue. Like a turquoise.

Embarrassed, I looked away almost immediately.

He cleared his throat and said, “Uhm, so I think I have the right to know what your name is. Now that I made you a little more comfortable”

Out of the corner of my eye I looked up at his face. He was smiling, which meant he was just teasing and being nice. I couldn’t help but smile too. “Morgan” I told him “What about you? I should know the name of my savior” I said, making the word ‘savior’ sound sarcastic.

He chuckled. “I’m Aiden. It’s nice to meet you Morgan.” He put his hand out, for me to shake it.
At first I hesitated. I didn’t know how much I should trust him. But I figured it wasn’t a risk to shake his hand. I slide my hand into his. His was warm, but it felt a little sticky and itchy on my skin, so I let go. A little, too quickly it seemed because he gave me a look.

“I’m sorry,” I said trying to explain, “your hand is just a bit too… dry for me I guess.” I looked down at my fin again, embarrassed by my differences, I suppose.

Aiden didn’t seem fazed by my explanation. He looked like he was about to respond, but then we heard footsteps in the hallway. Both of our heads snapped towards the place where Aiden had come into the solid cage we were in. The steps were slow and deliberate, and as they passed us, we were silent.

It wasn’t until we could no longer hear any movement that Aiden began to talk again, “I’m not really supposed to be in here and much less be freeing you from your bindings, so I could get in a lot of trouble if I were caught” He looked nervous but then his expression softened a bit and a faint smile could be seen forming, “But I’ll come back again tomorrow to give you a break from your bindings again. And maybe tomorrow I can help explain to you why you’re here…” He must’ve seen the confusion on my face from earlier. “But for right now I need to tie you back up again.” His voice and his expression were both sympathetic, which made me dislike him a little bit less.

I slowly laid myself back down onto the slate and he came over to me and retied my bindings.
Suddenly I remembered one of my questions from earlier, “What am I lying on?” I asked him.

“It’s just a medical table. There really shouldn’t be anybody tied to the top of it but my father…” he sighed and shook his head. It seemed like he wasn’t going to finish his response to I went onto ask another question.

“What’s below us? Like, what are we standing on?” For a second he stopped and looked down at the solid slate underneath us.

“You mean the floor?” he asked. I shrugged. I didn’t know what he was talking about. “You don’t know what a floor is?”

“How would I?” I asked back, challenging him a bit.

He shook his head a bit but seemed to understand.

I went on to ask him more questions and I found out that what surrounded us are walls, and the ceiling is above us, and what he came in through was a door and the entire area was called a room. Throughout it all Aiden seemed bewildered that I didn’t know any of these words, but how could I? We didn’t need these things in the ocean.

Aiden said goodbye and left through the door he came in.

I was left alone on the cold medical table, wondering about the new knowledge I learned. Then I realized that Aiden allowed me to forget about the family I was missing behind. Maybe not everything on land was bad.