I think of a wild, predatory place, full of danger and life. That there is something untamed about it, and that it cannot it contained - not forever. This story is inspired by that belief, by that feeling.
Return to the sea
When Yrene closed her eyes, she saw the ocean; the vast, endless stretch of jewel-blue water, glittering beneath a warm, cloudless sky. She imagined her sisters with their iridescent tails darting through the water, cutting through schools of silver fish, like a blade through grey flesh. The hunt. That’s what she missed; the rush, the warm flow of blood down her throat, the tang of the salt on her lips. In that vast ocean, she was free.
Then, she opened her eyes and the image was dispelled, the dream shattered like shards of glass at her feet. She scowled scornfully at the glass that marked the edge of her freedom, the world beyond dark and unknown. Sometimes, she’d see humans peering through, watching her, making notes. Occasionally, they’d drug her and she’d awaken in another room, sometimes strapped down, others not. The tests always happened after that, most painful, few were not.
The passage of time was impossible to track like she was used to. Before, she had the sun to guide her, though only when she’d been so bold to venture to the surface. Even then, the ocean told her. Time for her wasn’t marked in days. It was by raging storms, fierce winds, waves so high you could ride them from within. In her glass prison time was marked differently; by the meals, which always made her tired, and by the tests.
It seemed an eternity before the meal door hissed open and a tray was pushed through, hurriedly, not with it’s usual careless calm. She eyed it tiredly before she dragged herself to her feet – another side effect of what she’d become – and took up the tray. The usual order of grey slime, a vague concoction of fish, sedatives, and something that might’ve once been kelp. Yrene hated kelp.
She ate the food slowly and set the tray back down, then waited for the inevitable drowsiness to follow.
Only, it didn’t.
She lay there for what felt like an eternity but no darkness tugged her down. In fact, she felt sharper than usual, her body buzzing with energy. Perhaps, she pondered cynically, they were trying a new drug. As she stared up at the ceiling she tried to fathom its purpose. She rolled over, tried to close her eyes when, after several moments, she heard the familiar hum of the door. Her torturers had arrived and she was wide awake. Something within her purred with predatory satisfaction. She felt her claws lengthen in response, her fangs biting sharply into her lips. Warm blood sprung in her mouth.
With her eyes closed, her mind sharp, she let them get closer. A hand closed on her upper arm. She stilled herself until they seemed to loom over her – then she launched. Straight at them, fangs and claws, and sunk her teeth into soft flesh. Blood gushed down her throat as she drank it briefly, greedily, and with a savage hunger. As she yanked her mouth away she launched at the other, tearing her sharpened claws across his throat. He was dead before he hit the ground. Another ran for the door but, high on blood, she was faster and had launched onto his back, knocking him to the ground. His head was torn clean from his neck.
In front of her the door started to close. Heart racing she propelled herself through and sprinted down the hallway, her feet pounding the polished concrete. Harsh lights nearly blinded her from above. She reached a cross road in the hallway and looked around, trying to pin her escape.
“Take the left path. It’s the fastest way outside,” declared a voice from one of the nearby speakers.
Yrene started with a cry of alarm. “What?”
“You’d better hurry. I can only distract them for so long,” urged the voice, low, masculine – kind, too.
She darted to the left. As she rounded another corner she barrelled into a security guard. He staggered back in surprise, started to turn, thinking it was a clumsy scientist. Surprise splashed his ruddy face as she tore out his throat with her teeth.
“Well, that seemed unnecessary,” mused the voice.
“I’m hungry,” she said, setting off again as she wiped the blood from her mouth. “Besides, you unleashed me.”
The voice offered no more comment, only when she hit strange doors and corridors, and signs she couldn’t read. It seemed a slow route she was taking, and she wondered if it was to have her avoid people. To reduce her carnage. She didn’t know how that made her feel.
At the base of what seemed like a thousand stairs she paused. Something snaked down her spine. A second later, she realised what it was. The call of her sisters. The song of the ocean.
“Is that?”
“Yes.”
As if he knew exactly what she sensed. If she saw him at that moment, whoever he was, she might’ve kissed him. She raced up the steps, her heart pounding with tremulous excitement. Though pain lanced through her weak and untrained muscles she didn’t care – she couldn’t. Not when the ocean was so close, just within reach. Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she rounded the last flight of stairs, the door within sight. By the time she reached the last step her legs threatened to buckle from beneath her. She shakily reached for the handle and froze. A sickening thought coursed through her.
“This is a trick, isn’t it? Some sort of game? You drugged me and I’m hallucinating right now,” she snarled accusingly.
“Go through that door and see for yourself. Then you’ll know,” said the voice but there was a tremor of tension there, a thread of fear.
It made her hesitate, just for a moment. She grasped the handle impulsively and threw the door open. A gust of wind caught the door, yanking it from her, sending her careening forward – straight into a railing. The hot, salty sea air hit her in a blast. She gasped as her eyes set on it, that bright, blue world.
Home.
She glanced up at the nearest speaker, a camera locked firmly on her. “Why did you do this? Why save me?”
“Redemption – now, go! I can’t-“
The voice cut out in a blare of alarms. Shouts belted down through the speaker, ordering security to corral on her position. She scrambled over the railing and leapt without fear, down into the water. Several feet down pain exploded through her, a welcome fire that enveloped her. Two legs became a tail, gills tore through her neck as her secondary lungs, weak from lack of use, gulped in oxygenated water and expelled the bubbles. She hummed, just for a moment, then dove down – straight into the darkness. Just as the light seemed to die away completely she stopped, looked up and wondered about that voice. What human would save her? His final word resounded in her mind.
Redemption.
She smiled up at the facility. She didn’t know if it was hers to give but given the circumstances she gave it freely. Consider it yours, she said silently, then turned down to the dark depths below and began to swim home. A story, a song, a dreaded tale burned in her chest.
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