So, after that debacle of a phone call, I decided to drag my ass to the bathroom and regroup. And re-moisturize. My skin wasn't so much beat as downright downtrodden. 

I pad over to the closest bathroom and shut the door. I then start running the water in the bathtub. I go about removing my makeup with a few wipes Mimi keeps in the cabinet over the toilet. Hopefully, by the time I'm finished the water will be warm enough for me to slither into. I was never really a fan of how this bathroom was set up and I make a mental note to include Bathroom Remodeling in my agenda for the family meeting with Mimi. 

It was pretty cute as shitty bathrooms go. Cute pastel yellow and white tiled floor. Cute, fuzzy pink toilet cover and rugs. Cute little toothbrush holder. Cute, cute, cute. And then you get to the bathtub. This bathroom doesn't have a bathtub/shower combo like in the other or a shower stall like mine at home. This is a claw-footed bathtub. The bathtub has feet. Like, how old fashioned can you get? And then, get this, it is right next to the big window. Like, sure, we have curtains and all, but what if one day I came home dog tired and forget to shut them? What then? The neighbors get to see my sorry ass sitting in a fizzing bathtub like a two year old. The bathtub is fizzing of course because I like to dump half a bottle of body wash into the water. Like I am doing right now. 

I peel my sweaty clothes off, rip my hair tie loose, and sit into the foamy water. It smells like strawberries and I'm living for it. I glance over to my right, towards the window. I peek through the curtains. It's getting late in the evening, no one is going to notice me just looking. 

Sirena Falls is really something else. I can see into our neighbor's yard next door. They had a pool with a deck. I don't know why you'd bother setting one up when just a little in the distance, there was the ocean. It was glittering in the orange-pink colors of the sunset. Twinkles of light danced over the distant waves. I could almost hear the ocean. 

I never really was an ocean kind of girl and the smell of sea salt can kind of make a girl sick, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that that view was exactly what I needed to see. 

I let the curtain fall back into place as I let my head hit the back of the tub and I sank deeper into the warm, sweet smelling water. I let the sweet sent of strawberries take me away.

 I stared at the blackness behind my heavy eyelids. I saw the ocean in my mind. There it was. Blue and... wait. It was sunset. And yet, I'm being drenched in violently blue light. It was so much blue. I was looking through a window out at the ocean. No, out... into the ocean. Was I under water?

I back up, away from the window. I'm in this dark room. Whatever light there was was filtering in from the windows, and it was so blue. I shuffled further back and took in the room, which looked like an aquarium. Wherever there weren't windows, there were tanks. Big tanks. I can't even imagine what could fit in them. I looked across the room at them, and strangely enough I saw no fish or, i don't know, whales, in them. They were empty. No decorations. Sterile.

I backed up into a wall now. I jumped and whipped around. It wasn't a wall. It was another tank. The rooms walls were just these big tanks. I couldn't understand it. What awful room decor. I look at the tank close up. I didn't even get to get a good look when something rushes to the glass at full speed, making this loud thump against the glass. I lurch back. My heart is racing as I look at the figure whacking its hand against the glass. 

It was that... Thing. From my dream earlier this morning! He didn't look too happy to see me again either. His pupils were like slits in their bright eyes. His mouth was open, revealing rows of sharp teeth. They were gnashing at me as he was whacking the glass. His long hair was floating around his angry, yet oddly angelic face. I notice a scar across his nose. His nose with flaring nostrils. I could hear muffled screams through the glass. The tank was filling with bubbles as he thrashed around. He banged on the glass with what feels like... desperation.

I steel myself and walk closer to the glass to look at him. He stops thrashing gradually, but his eyes are locked on mine as he begins to tap the glass. I come closer, and he uses his index finger to wag me even closer to him. I get right up the glass and his face is inches from mine. The only thing keeping his sharp teeth from my face is this glass. God, I hope its bulletproof. 

His hair floats gently over his face, but he doesn't blink. He looks. His long, reddish tail is glowing, reflecting the light through the glass, casting little rainbows on his torso and arms. He's really beautiful when he's not freaking the fuck out. 

He mouths something. 

"Wh-what did you say?", I speak through the glass. My hands pressed right up against it.

He mouths something again. His mouth opens wider, and I can see those teeth again. 

Let me out. 

"Let you out?", I say louder into the glass. 

He nods. He points over to a steel desk in the corner of the room. It was so unnoticeable in the blue light that I could barely make it out. I look back at him, wide eyed, and he rolls his eyes at me and then jerks his chin out towards the desk. It's as if he's saying "Focus, over there". Pushy much. I'm not the one who needs your help, Nemo. 

I look back at the desk and walk over. Immediately, the fish man is on the other side of the room with me. The tanks are interconnected. Creepy. He's pointing down at the desk desperately. 

The desk is covered in papers and files. There's a desktop on it, someone was logged into it. Meaning they could be coming back. I look back at Nemo and he's looking down at the desk. 

"Well, what now?"

He glances at me, snorts, and points again. I look back at the desk, following his long finger to a piece of plastic sticking out of the nearest file. I grab it and look at him. He's nodding vigorously and quickly jets back to the first tank. He points to his left at this scanner next to the tank. There was a message on the scanner that read "AIR-LOCK ACTIVATED"

I glance back at Nemo and he's pointing at the scanner. Then he takes the palm of his right hand and places it on his left. Over and over. 

"Yeah, buddy I know how to work a scanner," I say, placing the plastic card on the card reader. There's a ping and I see a message pop up asking me if I wish to inactivate the lock. I tap "Yes" and there is another ping. And suddenly the room is filled with a whoosing noise.

I look back at Nemo and he's racing through the tanks around the room until he disappears. I have no idea where he went. I got the same feeling when my parents flushed my pet goldfish down the toilet all those years ago. 

And then the alarm went off. It was loud, blaring, and piercing. The door behind me opened and suddenly I was faced with two dudes in lab coats rushing into the room, in a panic. They run right through me and go towards the desk in the back. I panicked and dropped the key card on the floor and dashed through the glass door down the halls. 

More guys in lab coats were running, yelling towards me, towards the glass doors I just left. Then I see two suits walking my way. They rush directly towards me and the smaller of the two is pissed, rightfully so. 

"What. Did. YOU. Do?!", he hollers at me, grabbing me by the shoulders and throttling me. 

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH", I scream, tears streaming down my face as I kicked at the man. I clawed at his arms and he wouldn't let go. His fingers dug into my arms and all I could hear were the sirens. And his screams.

"HONEY!"

"LET GO OF MEEEEE!"

"HONEY, WAKE UP WAKE UP!"

I was being throttled. But I was wet, and cold. And... fragrant. 

I lurch up, splashing water everywhere. All over Mimi. MIMI.

"MIMI, OH MY GOD IT'S YOU. YOU CANNOT BELIEVE WHERE I-"

I stopped. I looked at Mimi, drenched now because of me. Her eyes were wide as she held my arms. I was suddenly aware of how naked I am right now. 

"I'm... naked"

"Yeah, you are. You were, like, having a seizure in the tub or something. You must've dozed off pretty bad, huh? That was sooo scary to walk into by the way."

"Oh- I'm sorry. SO sorry. I didn't mean to fall asleep like that, but oh my god that was the worst dream I've literally ever had!"

"Honey, you're shaking! Why don't you go... get less naked. I'll go heat up some leftovers. Take my robe", Mimi lets go of my arms and turns around towards the hook near the door and grabs a big fluffy blue robe and hands it to me. 

I climb out of the tub, yank the plug and watch the water rush down the drain. I get this eerie feeling wash over me. Like, I've seen that before. I shake it off and pad out of the bathroom behind Mimi.

"Dinner'll be ready in as second, okay?", she calls out over her shoulder as she walks to the kitchen.

"Yeah, thanks. Be there in a second."

I close my bedroom door behind me. My room is my room and I'm standing in it. But I'm still so shaky. That dream was so real. As I grab my pajama bottoms and top from my dresser I can't shake the feeling of getting shaken up like that. 

And... the guy. If I can call him that. I walk over to my bedroom window and look out at the ocean in the distance. 

What was that?