The Sea in our Veins

Virgil awoke to find himself in mer form floating face down in a large tank of water. He quickly raised his face out of the water and took a deep breath, frantically scanning the room outside the glass wall. His heart sank when he recognized the bird symbol painted on the wall. He reached frantically for the top of the glass wall of his tank and was just too short to reach it. He closed his eyes and tried to shift into human form and sighed in relief when he was successful. He tried again to reach the top of the glass wall but the wall was still too tall. Virgil treaded water as he banged frantically against the glass, but no matter how much he banged on the glass, he couldn’t crack it and no one came. Eventually, he gave up and floated in the water, shifting back to his mer form when he grew too tired to tread water and instead swam anxiously around the tank, over and over waiting for something to happen. When the door to the room finally opened, Virgil swam up to the glass and watched as a woman dressed in a lab coat walked into the room. She was carrying a clipboard and was reading off of it, muttering things quietly to herself. Virgil watched her silently as she ignored his presence. She finally finished reading her clipboard and glanced up, only to freeze when she saw Virgil staring at her. The woman and Virgil stared at each other, as Virgil was unwilling to look away first and the woman seemed unable to think. Finally, the woman managed to gasp out, “You’re real,” she said.

Virgil opened his mouth annoyed, “Of course I’m real,” he spat, “What do you want?”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Virgil immediately regretted it. He froze and waited for the woman to get mad at him but instead she said in a breathy voice, “You’re a mermaid,” she said, “A real live mermaid. And you speak English.”

“No duh,” Virgil couldn’t help getting offended, starting to grow slightly more confident in what he was saying as the woman didn’t make a move to punish him.

“My name is August,” the woman said, “Do you have a name?”

“Virgil,” Virgil said obediently. He couldn’t help asking curiously, “What did the others tell you about me?”

“Nothing,” the woman said, “I’ve always theorized that mer- people existed. I got an anonymous call one day about someone interested in my research. When I met up with them, they said that they had read my research and had found a real life merman and they wanted me to study you. I was brought here after I agreed.”

“Oh,” Virgil started swimming mindlessly around the glass tank as August watched him, “Have you seen someone named Roman here?” he asked, desperately hoping that Roman hadn’t been captured along with him.

“No, sorry,” August said sadly and Virgil felt even more lonely, though he was also relieved that Roman hadn’t gotten caught.

“It’s okay,” Virgil replied.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. August quickly wrote down a note on her clipboard before she said, “I have to go. I was only given twenty minutes to meet you but I’ll be back tomorrow and we can talk more then.”

“See you tomorrow,” Virgil said. He didn’t know whether he was dreading tomorrow or looking forward to it.