Crap. Crap. Crap.
The word chanted through her head, Lara pulled to a bone-cracking wakefulness. Eyes sliding to the clock, she was thirty minutes late.
Tossing messy sheets aside, she didn't bother checking herself in the mirror when she tossed on whatever hit her sights first. Running a brush that had seen better days quickly through frizzy, shoulder length hair, she sprinted from her room and down forever stretching stairs.
Nearly hitting her unsuspecting aunt had she not bent herself in such a way that her spine audibly cracked, she gulped pain and air back into her lungs and contorted her waist to lean over the railing.
"What on earth are you rushing around for?" the petite woman's usually soothing voice dropped to a tone of accusation Lara knew all too well.
She offered a sheepish smile at the hardened, brown-eyed daze of Jessica. The woman was, in loose terms, Lara's joy in life and more. Her mother, Anne, had run off the night of her birth. No contact, no calls, no reason offered. She had no father in the picture, a result of her mother's promiscuous ways when nights were long and lonely bit into her like a soured apple. Though, none of that truly mattered.
"Lara?" the coaxing voice drove her back to reality. "I asked you a question, honey." Delicate wrinkles lining the older woman's mouth etching to worry, she pensively waited.
Fearfully, Lara wheezed, "I'm late."
Taken aback, her aunt finally clicked the two together. "To that little place you're volunteering at?"
"Yeah..."
A forthcoming tsk, she gently berated, "Look at what those late nights are doing to your health. You're only nineteen and your face is already worn."
Lara started to phase out of the usual, caring rant. Staring off, sleep held her in its grasp. Jessica meant well, but so often it was the same old scold of concern.
"You're right." Lara jumped in, crossing her fingers she could stop this short. "I'm young, so I really can't afford to lose this opportunity." Clasping her hands, she begged the woman to understand.
Maybe it was because Lara was the only kid her aunt ever had to care for, being that she never married nor had children of her own, but sometimes, she worried far too much.
Jessica bit her bottom lip, in an internal debate with no end. "I get it, I do. But at least eat. You haven't touched your dinner in days." Reaching forward, she pulled Lara to stand next to her, meanwhile snatching her face up into slender fingers. "See, I can feel the bones in your cheeks."
Lara wanted to laugh, but remembering her current predicament, she softly pulled her aunts hands down. "I will." Letting go, she leaned away to pick up her bag. "But I've really got to go. I'm on cleaning duty." Her smile lopsided, she did hate having to clean up after people who didn't care if their food fell on the floor or on their plate. But work was work.
The frown her aunt sported sunk deeper. "Alright, go." Arms flinging to usher Lara out like she were vermin, she kindly requested, "Don't come home too late, please?"
Lara laughed, ducking around her aunt, she placed a hesitant hand on the doorknob. "I'll try."
》
She was so, so, so late! She could already foresee the looks of disapproval she would get.
Apprehensively stepping into the towering building bitten at by over-hung trees no one ever bothered to cut back, the first person to greet her caused a withheld sigh to release.
The moment he caught wind of her, Vince hammered on a caution-induced grin and waved. "Lara!"
A wave of her hand in rejoinder, the lithe man
padded over. Coming to a prompt skid, hands cupped his knees as he exhaled. "Good thing you're here." Cerulean eyes focusing, perfectly styled, short golden hair fell over a sculpted brow. "Where were you?"
The bag hanging off her shoulder felt a hundred times heavier while she searched for the excuse she had made on the way here. "I had to help my aunt?"
He stared. Maybe it was her anxiety talking, but she wanted to find a hole and die in it. Albeit Vince was incredibly easygoing, how much was questionable.
A smile pushing the corners of his lips, he hummed. "Other than the obvious fib, you're here now." Standing, a pale hand went to pat her shoulder. "We're short on staff today. Most everyone took Valentines off."
Covering her bluff in an array of flushed skin, she dawdled, nearly forgetting what today signified. With a deep sigh, she placed a dramatic hand to her forehead. "What are we to do, Vince?"
Following her lead, his head leaned back with an exasperated groan. "If only Cliff were here to whisk me away." A saddened expression marring his features, she muffled a squawk-ish noise.
"At least you have me," she reassured.
His jovial smile breaking into a wider show of teeth, he looped an arm around her and swung her hands in his. "Let's make him jealous."
Bursting, she joined in unison. "We'll send him selfies of us by the fish tanks making kissy faces."
He nodded along, then stopped. Seeming to remember his obligations, he shook his head. "Let's get the list of things we have to do out of the way first." Lips drawing together in disappointment, he jerked a piece of paper from his back pocket. "These people leaving their jobs to us, I swear. We don't get paid enough for this shit."
"We don't get paid at all," she noted.
"Oh, right."
Disregarding circumstances, Lara couldn't help but to feel more relaxed having Vince with her. Acquaintances before she started working here, this devouring job did manage to bring them closer to friendship. And for that, she was grateful. Though it would have been nicer if she had gotten to know him sooner.
Casually, she dropped her bag by the clock-in station and began slipping on a cleaning apron. "What do we need to do?"
Vince stirred in thought, a playful aura replaced with seriousness fitting to his work-mode persona, fingers propped to count. "I handled the visitor schedule and cleaned the headquarters." Two fingers went down. "And finished treatment on some of the beluga whales," feathering off, he looked her dead in the eye. "Just so you know, Percy is still a bitch." He scowled on the name of their beloved, ill-tempered whale. Shaking his head, he plowed on, "I'll have to consult the list, but for now, cleaning around the enclosures remains."
Lara waved a dismissive hand. "Leave it to me. Anything else?"
A moment passed, Vince's lips parted as if sudden realization brushed him. "I think fish-boy has to be fed? I would do it, but all those mean stares he gives when I go in to just change the temperature gets me so hot and bothered." Sarcastically, he swooned with a grip on his heart.
Lara wanted to roll her eyes right from her head. Slapping his arm, she choked on a laugh. "Shut up." Then it struck her. Her mouth going stick-straight, she asked, "He still hasn't been fed?"
"If the schedule is anything to go by, not since last night.
If that were the case, that meant she was the last to feed him. It wouldn't have been too big a problem if the creature weren't found to have a metabolic rate requiring him to eat roughly thrice more than a human being. Being that he was likely the most expensive thing inhabiting their facility, why would anyone let starvation carelessly happen?
"Why didn't the lab workers take care of this?" she sourly questioned.
Vince looked as lost as her. "Since they've been busy figuring him out, I think they're primarily relying on extra hands for now." He blinked. "Which, I guess that means us."
Lara had no words of reason to give, or a way to explain it, either. "If he's that important, why neglect his primary needs?"
Vince sympathetically nodded. "Maybe the fancy-schmancy lab techs are running tests of endurance or some bullshit like that."
Needless, it looked like the first thing she'd be doing was ensuring their merman was alive and well. "I'll check on him. Thanks, Vince." Attempting to smile, it came weak. She couldn't shake the feeling that this was somehow her fault. Even is she was a singular person that needed a break as well.
"See you later?" he softly interjected.
Bucking her head, she tried to stay positive. "Don't miss me."
Watching his retreating figure, it was after he turned a corner that she succumbed and heavily sighed, tying her apron closed in the process.
》
Conditionally unlocking the restricted section of the facility, she gained entry after several fumbles of keying in the complex code. Daunting, automatic doors at last coming free, they hushed to a close behind her.
Mouth in a grim line, she desperately wanted to avoid the creature lurking somewhere inside the tank. Protected by a thick wall of glass or not.
A bucket of meat retrieved, he was nowhere to be seen. Taking this chance, she hurried towards the feeding panel. Quickly entering the code designated for the small, framed hatch, she shoved as much food in as humanely acceptable. Working at a rate she never thought herself possible of doing; she punched in the code again to lock the first door.
The other side of the cube opening, she wiped a brow.
Smiling to herself, the expression died as soon as she glanced within to where the food had disappeared and sighted the merman. Curiously picking up the morsels and inspecting them, he twirled them in his fingers like a toy. A toy he didn't appear happy or pleased with whatsoever.
Lara bit hard into her cheek. Did she forget to calculate the right nutrient percentages? Was it too bland? Was the temperature set right? All of these questions didn't prepare her for what he did next.
She watched in horror as he took the raw flesh and tore it into bits and pieces as though nothing. Tossing each away from him, they drifted in a bloody mess towards the other, unsuspecting organisms inhabiting his space.
What the hell was his problem?
Finding what he was digging for, Lara observed him hold it up in nonexistent air. Something of a metal consistency glinting through fluorescent-lit water, he eyed it for a few seconds, turning it in a palm like he had struck gold. Emotions of all kinds - too fast for her human eyes to comprehend - blew across his features. The emotion she did catch was one she didn't expect. One that finally sat on his face like it lived there.
Pride.
In a coming breath, an object of whopping magnitude smashed itself into the proofed glass she was looking through. The water supporting its minuscule weight, she had to calm a pounding heart. Readjusting her view, she stepped closer.
Brows furrowed, she was trying to understand just what she was looking at. Out of curiosity, she looked towards Beta-507. He kept a safe distance, but there was no denying the accusatory look mingled in with that prideful wash of glory he'd exhibited moments before. Except, his hands were empty. Instead, they positioned to cross over a broad chest, waiting for her reaction.
Ah, so he threw the item he had been holding. She never saw him move. With mixed feelings, she glimpsed the hard material bobbing against the glass. It couldn't be... If the familiar look and color were anything to judge by, she'd guess she was staring at a small block of -
"Lead?" she mouthed the word. A head shooting to his form, she declared, "I didn't put that in there!"
Who was she kidding? He likely wouldn't understand what she was trying to tell him. Exhausted and plain defeated, Lara puckered.
Though, to say she was shocked when a grey brow gradually lifted to express doubt would be an understatement. A sharp, sly grin fermenting disbelief, the fish-bait had perceived exactly what she was relaying.
This wasn't a coincidence, either. She hadn't moved her hands in any, obvious gestures. The water distorted her expressions and mouth movement, no doubt. Not anything she did would invoke a grin such as the one he was modeling unless he understood her words.
He had been purposely playing along. Purposely being uncooperative. And the knowing glint housing itself within the deepest part of his pupils validated that.
"You understand me," she spat.
His eyes flashing with something feral, he cocked a head at the proclamation. It was so quick she had to strain to see it. Had to decipher whether it happened or not.
He had rolled his eyes at her.
As if she could get any closer, she stomped up to the glass to confront the block of lead. "And this," an index finger was shoved at the mineral, "was not my fault." The blank stare he shared with her said it all.
Not his problem, not his business to seek a solution.
It was going to be hilarious if anyone ever looked at the security footage. Her stomping around the tank, talking to the glass and pointing at objects like she'd done lost her mind.
A big joke.
The staring contest went on forever. She must have blinked a dozen times while he remained glassy-eyed. This was ridiculous. And apparently, he thought so, too. Shrugging her off, he went to leave.
A desire to yell, she settled on an irritated grunt. "You better eat those pieces! I'm not subtracting them from your meal plan!" Heaving, she unplastered hands that had somehow wound up glued to the glass.
She spent no time swiveling to storm her way to the exit. A head thrown over her shoulder, she growled, "You snooty fish!"
Comments (0)
See all