Chapter Text
“So, Link, remember. Before entering your exhibit, make sure your halls are vacuumed and all litter is disposed of. Once a week, you must clean your tank – you need to vacuum any waste left by the habitants, hose down the rocks above the water level, and scrub any scum, dust, or fingerprints on the windows, both inside and out. Every day, you must feed your habitants twice a day. Once when you clock in, and once before you clock out.”
“Okay. I think I can handle that.”
“Good. Now, I understand you’ll also be expecting tours in a couple days, given the exhibit will be ready between then and now. Here at the Marine Science Facility and Aquarium, we like to make our tours fun and interactive for our visitors. Your exhibit especially would attract more guests with an interactive gimmick. Once you have an idea you think could work, contact me for approval.”
“Wait wait wait… What exactly is my exhibit? Like, what animals am I watching over?” Link stopped his supervisor dead in her tracks. She looked up from the list of duties on her iPhone and caught Link’s eyes with a cold stare of her own.
“Oh you’ll see,” she responded. She then turned and continued leading the new aquarist to the end of the west corridor. There was a sign between the gate and the shuttered-down window reading: Coming Soon – Trevor the Merman. Link furrowed his brows in sheer confusion. His supervisor cleared her throat impatiently, hinting at Link to continue following her.
He was led down a winding hall that opened up to the clear skies and large, flat rocks beneath their feet. The supervisor handed Link the exhibit key. The young man excitedly unlocked the interior gate and trotted giddily inside, getting as close to the edge of the tank as possible without falling in. He stretched and squinted into the water, trying to find the supposedly mythical creature.
“Isn’t there supposed to be a merman in here? All I see are… some kind of fish… What are those? Trout?” he asked.
“Mhm…” the supervisor answered. “And he’s in there. He’s just been reluctant to show himself since he got here. Shy beasts, those mermen are. At least that’s all I’ve gathered babysitting him before we hired you. Who knows… Maybe you’ll break him into being more sociable.”
“I guess we’ll see… uh, Kathleen,” Link commented, reading her name on the plastic tag pinned to her shirt.
“That’s ma’am to you, newbie,” she retorted sharply. This was obviously a woman Link didn’t want to argue with, so he nodded as he corrected himself. “Good. So that’s all I got for ya regarding your job requirements. You can stay in the exhibit if you wanna try getting Trevor to come out and play. Just remember to lock up when you’re done. I’ll email your work schedule to you in an hour so you can start first thing in the morning.”
Before Link could ask any further questions, she left. She surely had other business to attend to, so whatever he wanted to ask he could shoot her an email later. He took a quick glance at his phone. 11:42. He had plenty of daylight to catch, and he didn’t have anything else planned for the day, so he thought he might as well hang around the tank for a bit… see if the merman would show up.
He lied flat on his stomach by the water’s edge with his chin resting on his folded arms. He watched the school of trout swim about aimlessly, wondering what their lives must be like. He asked them random questions and answered for them in funny voices. After a few minutes, he shook his head to help him come back to reality.
“What am I doing?” Link asked himself. He looked around briefly, spotting the large tanks filled with minnows and crawdads. He peeked into the tank. There were still a few minnows swimming around with the trout, but very few crawdads.
Link put on the safety gloves and grabbed a handful of crawdads, tossing them into the tank in the hopes of the merman coming out for extra snacks. However, the trout swarm the crustaceans and gobbled them up like a pack of ravenous wolves. The fish dispersed and returned to their regular swimming, but there was still no sign of the merman that was supposedly in there.
He checked his phone with a solemn sigh. 3:30. The aquarium was supposed to close at 4. He felt like he should start heading home, accepting that he was just hired to babysit a bunch of smelly trout. His hand gripped the locking mechanism on the exhibit gate…
… when he heard a strange sound.
It was ethereal and hollow. The whisper-like song sounded like it emanated from his own head, vibrating his skull in a wavelength that felt soft, fuzzy, and quite pleasurable.
Link froze in shock until he heard the voice beckon him again. There were no words in the song – at least not any words Link could understand.
The confused brunet developed sharp goosebumps down the length of his sun-tanned arms. He stepped away from the gate and returned to the water’s edge. Listening intently for any more ghostly singing, Link sat by the very edge. He mindlessly dipped the tip of his index finger into the water, moving it in circles like how someone would rub the edge of a glass to make it sing. He soon found himself humming the tune he heard, replicating the tone as best as he could.
The singing returned, answering to Link’s verse. Link was so entranced by the alluring voice, he didn’t notice his finger being slowly tugged deeper into the tank. The force grew suddenly stronger, waking Link from his trance.
“Whoa!!!” he yelped, freeing himself from the hold and scrambling to his feet. He was about to make a run for it when something green and somewhat humanlike emerged slightly from the surface of the water. It looked like a full head of seaweed green hair with a piercing set of bluish-green eyes. The multi-toned, emerald skin of the creature shimmered from the slick droplets of water.
A gasp slipped through Link’s parted lips as the creature exposed more of himself, right up to his broad, striped shoulders. The creature had a short, green beard that resembled soft coral. There was black twine tied around his smooth neck, with a tiny shell fastened in the center.
The creature’s large eyes gazed at the human with a sparkle of admiration as his mouth opened slightly in sheer curiosity. He swam hesitantly toward the edge of the tank as Link took baby steps toward the same destination.
“H-h… Hi…” Link stuttered. He took a big breath as he kneeled closer. The merman twitched further back with widened eyes. Link brought his hands up in a surrendering motion. “Shh… It’s okay….” The merman’s eyes darted around the exhibit before landing once again at the human before him. “My name’s Link,” the human said with a chuckle. He held a trembling hand towards the other. He braced himself in case the creature decided to try to drown him again. After realizing the merman wasn’t going to return the gesture, Link withdrew his hand. “Sorry… You probably can’t understand a word I say, can you?”
“I can understand you fine,” the merman growled. His thick, dramatic eyebrows furrowed on his prominent brow. Link’s bright, blue eyes widened in surprise and fear as he fell back on his bottom. The merman snatched the edge of the tank, hoisting himself up on his strong arms. “Now, let’s get something straight,” he threatened with a burly tone. His turquoise irises held a burning intensity that made the mysterious creature so much more intimidating than what Link had expected of such an elegant specimen as a merman. “I’m sick of all you humans prodding me and capturing me and doing ANYTHING YOU CAN TO HURT ME! I WILL NOT BE CONTAINED BY YOUR FILTHY, GREEDY KIND! AS LONG AS I AM KEPT IN THIS TREACHEROUS CONFINEMENT, YOU WILL GET NO BENEFIT FROM ME! I WILL DIE IN THIS TANK IF NEED BE!!!”
“Wait! Wait!! Please!!” Link begged, sitting himself back up. “I don’t want to hurt you, okay? I – ”
“I know why you’re here…” the merman growled, calming the intensity in his tone. “You’re gonna sit here and study me… just like all the other imprisoned beings in this facility.” He dropped himself back into the water, turning back towards his underwater cave.
“Wait, no! You’ve got it all wrong…” Link called, crawling closer to the edge. The merman exposed his eyes and up from the water, glaring impatiently at the human. “I’m just here to take care of you.”
“I don’t want to be taken care of. I want out of this prison,” the merman retorted with a grumble.
“I’d want the same thing if that were me in there,” Link said. The merman’s tension relaxed some as he listened to what this human had to say. “You… You don’t deserve to be locked in here. You’re… a beautiful… magnificent creature. You weren’t made for human eyes.”
An indigo hue tinted the merman’s face as he continued gazing at the seemingly distressed human. He tried to keep his façade going, but he was having some trouble resurfacing it after such meaningful, flattering words. There was something different… something special about this human, and whatever it was was getting to him.
The merman swam right up to the edge to find the human spawning water droplets from his eyes. The tiniest of whimpers and sniffles made the merman feel something he never felt at the cause of a mere human. He tentatively raised his green hand from the water and gently touched Link’s chin, holding it up until their eyes met.
“Trevor,” the merman half-whispered. “They call me Trevor.” Link’s nerves rattled at how close this encounter was. The merman actually touched him! He tried to hold back a smile, but the corners of his mouth quivered as his face turned bright red.
A sudden marimba melody alarmed the both of them. Trevor released Link’s chin, and the brunet took his phone out from his pocket. It was 4 o’clock. The aquarium was closing.
“I, uh, gotta go,” Link said. The blush on his face didn’t want to fade just yet. He stood up and started walking backwards towards the gate. His eyes were locked onto the magnificent sea creature staring back at him with a confused expression. “I’ll… I’ll be back in the morning… See ya… Trevor.” With that, Link left the exhibit, making sure to lock everything up before heading out of the building.
The merman let out a loud sigh as he submerged back into the tank. The trout all stared at him from all around him.
“Yooo… dude, what the heck was that?” one of the trout asked.
“I thought you straight-up hated humans, man. What’s your deal?” another added.
“I, uh… I do…” the merman answered. He kept his head dipped, hoping the trout wouldn’t see the bluish blush creeping up on his face as he started towards his cave.
“Nah-ah. That’s not what it looked like,” another trout commented. “Something happened up there, and we wanna know what went down.”
The merman ignored the prying fish, diving deep into his personal dwelling. When he first arrived, he made a point to ensure his own privacy. He curled himself at the dead end of the cave and held his dark emerald tail close to his chest.
With only the rock walls to hear his thoughts, he whispered, “I honestly don’t know…”