16 year-old Flo North visits the world famous mer-aquarium for the first time. She had no clue it would change her life.
When Flo meets gorgeous merman,Noah, she had no idea what was going to happen.
Will she do the right thing or is she falling in...
His ears twitched and he stopped swimming. He looked over his shoulder and made eye contact with me. His eyes widened and he completely paused. It was like he had forgot what he was doing. The audience slowly put down their cameras. The diver launched at Noahs wrist and grabbed it. Noah still gave no reply.
"Im so sorry ladies and gentlemen but due to difficulties we have had to cancel todays show, please use the exit on your right"
The audience started shuffling out of the room. I was going to be forced to leave anytime soon. I looked around me.
My eyes lurched at a tall fake plant. I ran behind it and ducked. I could still see everything and since I was short I was pretty sure they couldn't see me.
The scuba diver heaved himself out of the square tank. He took of his gear and reached for a walkie talkie out of his back pocket.
Noah was still in the tank. He looked around confused and scared as to where I had gone. He probably thought I had left him there alone.
"Please hang in there Noah" I whispered to myself.
Three aquarium workers came out of a staff only door. They did not look happy. The four of them circled around the tank. Noah's face crumpled with fear. They reached in and grabbed his wrists. He was then yanked out of the water.
Two of them had is back cradled in their arms and the others had his tail. They shuffled through the room.
One of the divers shouted "Ugh, this one is heavy man"
"You're an idiot!!" another shouted in Noah's face.
While they were still walking one of the aquarium workers said "What are we going to do with this one, he's been acting up since he got here"
As he was being lifted through the tunnel Noah noticed me through to plant pot. He looked extremely embarrassed.
When they had gone, I scooted out of my hiding place and trailed after them through the tunnel.
They pushed their way through a staff only door.
Agh. What was I going to do now. I sat down on one of the benches in front of me, to give me some time to think. I saw a sudden movement from above the tank.
It was Noah. The poor guy was then chucked into the water. Bubbles escaped everywhere and rose up to the surface.
Running his back from where he had been thrown he looked around frantically a looked directly in my eyes. I stepped forward, looking around to see if anyone was behind me, and looked at him through the glass.
"Its been a while" I laughed.
He didn't laugh back but plainly just looked at me helplessly and pointed to the staff only door.
I couldn't go through there.. could I?
He looked so desperate, his life basically sucked, I couldn't say no.
I trudged towards the door and pushed it open. I trailed my way through these wet, damp,stone rooms. An awful smell hit me. I looked at the buckets of fish lined up on the floor. That was probably their food.
I stepped into this light room. Was this the top of the mer dome ?
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It had a large skylight and half of it was tiled floor. I stepped onto it.
There was a rise of bubbles and the water surface broke.
"Noah?"
"Flo!!"
HE HAD A VOICE. It echoed around the room.
"You can talk!?" I gasped.
"We have secrets to protect aha" He laughed back at me.
"Come closer"
I walked up next to him and sat down, dangling my legs in the water. He put his two arms on the side and pulled himself out of the water. His back had a huge red mark on it from where they had thrown him.
He was really staring me down. He looked at me from head to toe. I felt quite uncomfortable with him doing this but I realised this is what he had to go through every day so it only seemed fair.
"So how long have you been here?" I asked
"I got here eight weeks ago so i've been here before it opened five weeks ago" he answered quickly.
"Wow, how can you keep time like that, it must be pretty difficult" I queried.
"I feel the tides" he replied calmly.
His back was burning red now.
"Noah.. Is your back ok?"
"No" he laughed painfully. "But i'm used to it"
"I'm so sorry Noah, I really am sorry."
"Flo you must not be sorry. Its my fault i'm here. I was such an idiot."
"How did you .. you know..."
"End up here" we said at the same time.
He slipped back into the water and sighed.
"I was out with my younger sister, Saffron, and my older brother Cody. "
Family. I forgot about family. He probably had a mom and dad that had no idea where he was.
"I was trying to entertain the group by pulling on this rope we found in the sea. It started spiralling around me. My siblings tried everything to get me untied but they got caught too. we were heaved onto a boat."
"Are you with your family now?" I asked.
He took a deep breath and sighed "Saff got left at the other aquarium and Cody and I were moved here,"
I took a deep breath, I could imagine what it would be like to be separated from your siblings. Don't get me wrong, I love Bella and she's the greatest friend I could ever ask for but siblings come on top of that.
"Do you have any siblings?" Noah asked, suddenly changing the topic.
"Im a triplet" I laughed back.
Noah looked at me quizzically.
"Triplet?"
"I have two brothers who were born at the same time as me and we look very alike."
"Ohhh so the same as a Kolu" He replied calmly.
"Mers have their own language!?" I exclaimed.
"Of course we do! But we were also taught English in School, "
"You go to school?" I asked back in total shock.
"Yeah.. well um not anymore..obviously." He looked at one of the glass walls below him.
Nervously, I asked "How many people..I mean mers are in here?"
He thought for a second. "I think about 250"
Woah.
"How long have you been living in aquariums for?" I asked before blushing and thinking I might have pushed it too far.
He calmly replied "4 years now," he then trailed his head to the floor.
He looked up at me "Flo how old are you?"
"sixteen , how old are you?"
"Ok don't freak out but mers have a different way of ageing. One year for you is equivalent to five hundred and forty five years for us"
No wonder mers were so miserable. Noah had been held captive for four years but in mer time this must have felt forever. I started feeling homesick for him.
Noah started to continue. "So im 8720 in mer-years but in human years I guess im also sixteen."
A silence filled the air between us, but it wasn't awkward.
The silence then broke when Noah blurted out, "Can I touch your feet?"
