Weakened and exhausted when she piled into a toasty living room, she tossed her bag to the side. Giving it a swift kick, she leaned against the wooden frame of their front door.
"Lara?" the winsome call echoing the walls of a dim hallway, its muted tune trailed, "Is that you?"
Propping her head forward, she put on her best smile and grudgingly extracted her willowy self from the entry. "I'm home!" she chimed. Lifting a heavy leg, she pushed towards the hall.
Stopping short when the gleam of a silvery hue ricocheted the lighting above, she glanced down. On the carpet laid a fractured frame. The glossy glimmer over an old picture grabbing her attention in a faux, reminiscent memory she couldn't recollect, Lara soured.
Her mother.
The genuine smile and bright eyes would have deceived her had she known the young woman then. Squatting to pick it up, she ran her fingers atop the surface housing the picture of a person she barely knew but through distant chatter. Beautiful, golden hair in wisps over a shoulder, a pair of eyes darker than her hazel stared from the frame.
She had walked by this picture for years. Never did she think to stop and really look at it. Following where it fell from, her sights landed on suitcases gathered around a dainty table.
"What do you have there?"
Starting, Lara briefed the narrow hall leading to their kitchen. Her aunt casually idling, a dishtowel was wrapped in her hands as brows quirked.
Fingers twiddling on cracked molding, Lara murmured, "I found it on the floor."
Her aunt sauntered closer. Peering at the split frame, she gasped. "Oh! I must have hit the table by mistake."
When hands came out to grab the picture, Lara steeled. Shyly, she stepped away. With a guilty smile, she tightened her grip. "Can I keep it for now?"
Tempered eyes hushing to a close, the towel in Jessica's grasp resumed its drying. "Of course." A wistful gaze to the ironed picture, she tapped a corner. "We'll have to fix that."
Wandering from the topic, Lara quietly questioned, "I forgot, when do you have to be at the airport?"
Checking her wristwatch, Jessica awed. "In about half an hour." Whirling, she offered a reassuring grin. "Don't get too sad, kiddo. I'll be home before you know it."
"I'll try."
Maternally at unease with the response, Jessica searched and searched until she came to a conclusion. Slapping her arm in revelation, she pointed at Lara. "Why not hang out with some friends? Like that boy... Vince, was it?"
"He's been busy with Cliff lately," Lara staunchly replied.
Unruffled, a slick, sweet smile trudged to Jessica's countenance. "Why not get yourself a honey?"
Muted to the audacity of the suggestion, Lara coughed.
"You know, a boyfriend?" as if it would change anything, Jessica teasingly expounded.
"I'm good, thanks." Scraping her feet, Lara hurriedly redirected the conversation, "Say, since you won't be here, can I take your car to work?"
Curious, brown eyes fixated on her. "The SUV?"
"Yeah."
"My precious baby?"
"Yeah..."
Flinging a hand to her forehead, Jessica restated in exaggerated monologue, "The treasure I've spent so much time and money on to keep in pristine condition?"
Lara's shoulders dropped in resignation. "Fine. I'll walk."
The lines around Jessica's eyes softening in blithesome regard, she laughed. "You can use it, I trust you."
Like a child in a toy store granted the choice of any item they yearned for, Lara ran over and enveloped her aunt. "Thank you!"
Locking in the embrace, Jessica stroked her back. "Why are your clothes damp?"
Bulging eyes to a wall, Lara thought quickly. "Some of the whales are excitable."
"Ah."
Minutes disappearing, Lara struggled to hold on to them. After driving Jessica to the airport, she reluctantly climbed out of the vehicle to help unload the luggage. A clock ticking down the flight's departure, she grew antsy with every bag taken.
While Jessica challenged suitcases to stay put, Lara bit her gums. "I'm going to miss you," she muttered.
When the older woman was sure everything was where it was supposed to be and accounted for, she went to kiss Lara on the forehead. "I will, too. Take care of the house, okay?" Grasping the handles, she turned, then waved. "See you in a couple of weeks! I love you."
Lara wove her hand in the air in a petty goodbye. "Love you, too." An inaudible murmur later, she smiled to the retreating woman, "Stay safe."
A brilliant grin in goodbye, her aunt began steadily rushing towards the terminal. Hobbling from the cold of autumn and into the vehicle, Lara froze with two hands firmly braced on the steering wheel.
She didn't want to go home due to knowing what it would feel like as soon as she entered the house. Her aunt was no stranger to these trips when Lara was old enough to be left by herself, however, on this occasion, it was different. Not foreboding, not comforting. Just different.
To the beat of a wary heart, she started the engine.
She had driven miles until hitting an annoying stop light. The blurry sheen of red producing an eerie mist of condensation, impatiently, she tapped her fingers while a foot was kept ready on the pedal.
As soon as the light signaled, a car she hadn't seen veered from behind her to get in front. Luckily at a roll, she was able to slam the brakes so to not plow into them. Gritting her teeth, rapidly decreasing taillights stung her vision as they sped off without cause or reason.
Holding her breath, she looked to the roof. If she wrecked her aunt's vehicle now, she'd be a complete buffoon.
Managing to not catch anymore traffic lights, a stop sign put an end to her streak. Appearing out of nowhere, its glow got more noisy and demanding the closer she got. Snappish, she groaned and came to a crawling stall.
Nonchalantly scoping the area while she waited for a couple of cars to take their turn, she recognized this road. Wondrously, she paused for a moment longer, thankful no one was behind her. Stretching her neck in the direction of a familiar path, she realized it was the long way to the facility.
She gnawed on her gums when a queasy feeling of trepidation set in. Somewhere in her subconscious, she wanted to deter and take the road. Rationally, she knew it would be wiser to stay on track.
Regrettably, it wasn't often that she listened to her own logic.
Out of habit, she flipped the right blinker on. And following that wretched feeling, turned.
It wasn't long before the statuesque building drew to tentative prospect. Coasting, she pulled into the desolate parking lot and stopped.
Comparing the absence of her home to the darkened void usually alight with various cars and amped people, the only thing keeping it operative at this hour were the street lights cemented in a winding row around the lot.
What was she doing? This was stupid.
Still, even with the sensible, apprehensive thought, she got out.
Quietly shutting the door, she looked over widely designed, lancet windows that led to the aquariums housing many of her beloved sea creatures.
With an irresolute step bypassing darkness and light, she crept to the lobby doors. Standing in their towering shadow, without delay, she shrank when reality kicked her in the gut she had trusted.
They were locked.
She was an idiot.
Bouncing her head to the dusky sky, a growl irritably tumbled. Thrusting a restless hand to her scalp, she ran it over impliable, dry hair left amok by what chemicals tainted the water in 507's tank. Saving herself the trouble of prolonging embarrassment, the sole of her shoe squeaked on a smooth turn.
With the shift, her pocket jingled.
To rephrase from earlier, she was a much bigger idiot than originally given credit for. By far humiliated regardless of there not being a soul in sight, she yanked the keys from the tight confinement and held them up.
"I have no words for myself," eyeing the glistening of silver, she mumbled.
The knob inducing a rattling noise while she worked the lock, she heard the intonation of a successful clink and poked the door open. The foyer vivid in abstruse patterns and low-lit lighting, it was meant to mimic aquatic imagery, but it made her feel tiny and claustrophobic.
She slowed her breathing to meet the unhurried serenity. Now that she was here, what did she have to do? She followed the pull, yet there was nothing to show for it.
Entranced by something her conscience didn't understand, her feet began roving before she could intervene. Barreling through halls and latches until greeted with an all too nostalgic scene, she blanched.
Beta-507's enclosure.
She was going plain mad.
Quietly, she closed the iron gateway and fully immersed herself in the room. Dauntingly silent and empty, she looked towards the robust tank and squinted to find any minuscule trace of the merman. And as expected, he wasn't anywhere that she could see.
Leisurely, she walked to the glass and placed a limber hand on the cool surface. "You there?"
Not only should she have known better, it was near impossible to penetrate the sound barrier from this distance. And him responding to her question was as good as nil. It wasn't as if they were friends now.
Sighing, she shook her head and turned away.
Sealing her eyelids, she took a deep breath and reopened them to omniscient darkness obscuring the mass of the room. Though, she knew it well enough to know what should have - and what shouldn't have - been there. Such as the book on a metal counter sprawled open for her and everyone else to see.
That wasn't there when she left earlier. Stationed on the top of the feeding cabinet, there was no doubt she would have noticed it. If she had been hasty, she would have noticed it.
Inching to it, Lara inspected the accessible pages. Scanning nonsensical words and mathematical equations she was careful to not put her hands on it. She didn't trust what courses were taken to catch and prevent someone from prying into their studies. Even if it was rather ignorant to leave it here unattended and exposed.
Pulse escalating, she got the distinct feeling of needing to hightail it away from here. Eyes darting from the journal and to the entrance, she briefly came back to it to randomly land on a specific passage further down the page.
"Electromagnetic..." Held in the air, a finger trailed the words. "Therapy?" Retracing lines, she was quicker in absorption. "Electromagnetic shock... therapy." She flinched. Deciphering context, she sped through and to a sensible paragraph.
Studies suggest the specimen has been active approximately eighty to ninety years. Their lifespan on a general consensus is undetermined. However, this specimen is healthy and does not present illness or the ailments of age. This solidifies our belief that their life expectancy may be of great nature. Further analysis is required.
Well, that wasn't unexpected. An ensuing gape of the mouth, danger tugged on the strings of morale upon the next sentence beginning with the capitalization, NOTES:
Based on the conducted research of, yada, yada, analogy, and formula. We have come to the decision that subject, Beta - lot number - five-zero-seven, is beyond our faculties and erudition. We feel it is no longer within our capacity to sustain this case. It has come to a unanimous agreement that we transfer the specimen to the regional, Marine Sciences Institute of Santa Fe in the coming weeks of finalizing our data constituting its -
She stopped reading altogether.
They were going to move him? Flashbacks of their conversation from hours ago hitting her, Lara wobbled back.
"When your entrails are prodded through for the sake of nonsense, come back to me."
If this facility had done that to him, there was no telling what the institution in Santa Fe would do. If they indeed had more to offer in terms of capability, he might not even survive their trials. And once geologists would start homing in on merfolk as a whole, it was game over for the species.
She didn't know much about the benefits or why humans were obsessed with meddling in the lives of other creatures that were content to stay where they were. She did know her fellow kind, though. The ones who spent most of their time at the top of the ladder, keeping the lesser than subdued. She understood humans enough to know they could be absolutely cruel to get what they wanted.
These people, given a peg to stand on and a bit of stature, typically expressed desire to come together so to create an inner, working circle. But really, it was about getting a hold of the throne amidst an evolving food chain. To establish supremacy, they had to dissect, remove and conquer any and all competition.
Because that was how mankind functioned.
And perhaps heroically misguided, Lara aspired to be the brick wall that stood between that vocation and simplistic existence. If they truly believed beings with like-minded intelligence were of equal value, 507 wouldn't be crammed in a fish tank as she stewed on it.
Nauseated, Lara geared around to stomp towards the glass. Giving it a sharp tap, she was dire, "Mr. Merman, you're in trouble." Reticence reflecting back to her, she tapped again.
In a rapid sloshing of water, fingers that weren't hers flattened against the window. Knuckles rigidly arched like he were culling the material into his palm, or trying to break it to throttle her, she jarred and waited for the water to subside.
Beta-507's chastened tail swaying, his profile soon arose. She quickly moved in to barter, "I want to help you."
He was a lot of things, interested wasn't one of them. Irked, she went on to irrevocably expand, "I'm not as incompetent as you treat me. Give me a chance and I'll do what I can within my power to get you out of here."
Eventually, he adopted an expression akin to diluted fascination. Now that she had him hooked - which was a very bad way to say it - she hoped that she could vouch for the brave declaration.
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