by Amy Cross
“Do you want to show us the way?” he asks from behind me. “You're in charge, Sylvia.”
I turn and look at him, then at Ms. Harper, and then I look along the corridor again. I hesitate for a moment before starting to make my way forward, although each step feels heavy and wrong. My bottom lip is still trembling and I feel like I'm about to burst into tears, but somehow I manage to get all the way to the double doors, which Mr. Randall helps me open so that we're finally able to step through into the main room.
The lights are back on now, but there's no sign of Doctor Collier.
Ahead, the mermaid is in the tank. She looks to be examining something around the vent, although after a moment she turns and looks at us, and then she quickly swims around the sunken boat and disappears from view.
“What the hell was that?” Mr. Randall asks, stepping past me and hurrying over toward the tank.
“What was that?” Ms. Harper says, placing a hand on my shoulder from behind. “Sylvia, what was that thing? It looked like a...”
I don't answer. Instead, I watch as Mr. Randall approaches the tank. I don't know why, but deep down I've got a really strong feeling that I made the wrong decision, that Mr. Randall shouldn't be here. Mother told me over and over that I should keep this place a secret, just between the two of us, and I think that she might have meant that I shouldn't ever tell anyone, not even after...
After she's gone.
“I want to go to her,” I stammer, turning and trying to go back to the elevator. “I want to go to Mother!”
“Keep her here!” Mr. Randall calls out, and Ms. Harper immediately grabs my arm.
“I want to go to her!” I sob, trying to peel Ms. Harper's fingers away so that I can run.
“Sylvia, what was that thing?” Mr. Randall asks, his voice filled with a sense of awe. “I only saw it for a second. How do you make it come back out?”
“I don't know,” I whimper. “Please, can we just go?”
“Bring her over!” Mr. Randall says.
“Hey Sylvia,” Ms. Harper says, “let's go over and take a closer look, shall we?”
“I don't want to!” I shout.
“Just for a moment.” She grabs me arms firmly and starts forcing me to walk. I try to pull away, but I'm not strong enough and finally we stop next to Mr. Randall as he continues to watch the tank.
“Sylvia, I want to see it again,” he says, looking down at me. “You've been here before, so you must know how to make that... thing come out of hiding. I just need to see it, so I can be sure whether I was right before or whether I imagined it.”
“I saw it too,” Ms. Harper adds. “I can't believe it's real, but... I saw it.”
“I want to go to Mother!” I sob.
Mr. Randall sighs. “Sylvia -”
“I want to go!”
“Well, you can't,” he says firmly. “Not right now. Your mother would want you to help us right now, so you have to start by telling me what's in this tank. It looked like a mermaid, but -”
“It is a mermaid!” I shout. “It is, but I don't want to be here! I want to go to Mother!”
“This is nuts,” Ms. Harper says, still holding me tight so that I can't run away. “I mean, come on, we both know mermaids aren't real. This has to be some kind of illusion, or a hologram or something.”
“A hologram in a multi-million dollar water tank?” Mr. Randall replies. “A hologram that was shipped here the other day?”
“I don't know,” she snaps, “but mermaids aren't real!”
“You saw -”
“I don't care what I saw! I know what makes sense, and that's that this isn't what it looks like! It can't be! Let's not lose our minds here!”
“Well, let's see for ourselves,” he says. “Sylvia, I want you to look at me.”
“I want to go to Mother!” I shout.
“You will look at me!”
“No!”
“Yes.” He grabs my face and forces me to look up at him. “Let's be friends, Sylvia,” he continues. “You've been down here at least twice, so you must know something about how it works. Now please don't make me ask you again. We're friends, we're on the same side. I need you to tell me everything you know about what's in this water tank. Your mother would want you to talk to us.”
“What's going on here?” a voice calls out.
Mr. Randall lets go of my face, and I turn to see Doctor Collier emerging from one of the side rooms. He's wearing his white lab coat, which has lots of blood stains all over the front.
“Keep her here,” Mr. Randall says, before turning and heading over to meet Doctor Collier halfway. “You must be Doctor Ian Collier,” he continues, reaching out to shake the doctor's hand. “I've heard about your work. My name is Michael Randall, I was Catherine Sykes' personal assistant and legal counsel. I say was because, unfortunately and very tragically, Catherine Sykes passed away this morning.”
“No!” I whimper, still trying to get away from Ms. Harper's grip. “I want to go upstairs!”
As Mr. Randall and Doctor Collier talk, I try yet again to peel Ms. Harper's hands away from my arms. She's holding me too tight, though, and I'm starting to feel a burning rage in my chest as I struggle to escape.
“Please!” I sob. “I just want to go upstairs!”
“This is all a hoax, right?” she replies, looking down at me. “Tell me the truth, Sylvia. There's no mermaid in that box. There can't be a mermaid in the box, because mermaid's aren't real, so your mother must have been working on some kind of huge trick. That doesn't sound like her, but it's better than believing that she's got a real live mermaid here in the building.”
“She has!” I shout. “Mother never lied about anything! She's got a mermaid!”
“That's impossible!”
“I've seen her!”
“Sylvia, listen to me. I know you want this to be true, but you're caught up in some kind of huge lie. Your mother must have been losing her mind toward the end. Maybe the drugs were affecting her more than we thought. Believe me, Mr. Randall and I both worked very hard to hide the worst of her condition from you. We're good people, Sylvia, and we're on your side, but you have to accept the truth.”
“No!”
“Mermaid's aren't real!”
“Let's see for ourselves,” Mr. Randall says suddenly, and I turn to see that he's come back over to us while Doctor Collier is at the computer terminals. “I spoke to Doctor Collier,” he continues, “and he understands the nature of the situation. He's agreed to give us a demonstration. Really, I gave him no choice. I told him he'd be thrown out of the building immediately unless he proves that this isn't just a giant fraud that was used to target a wealthy, dying woman.” He turns to look at the water tank. “We're about to see what's in this thing, one way or the other.”
“This is insane,” Ms. Harper replies. “I don't know what's going on here, but I know fantasy can't be real!”
As she speaks, I feel the hairs starting to stand up once again on the back of my neck. I know that means the nausea's about to return, and sure enough a few seconds later I start to feel my guts churning.
“Stop it,” I whimper. “Please, don't do this.”
“It's just to make her show herself,” Mr. Randall says. “That's what he says, anyway, and he certainly sounds like he believes it. Either the guy's completely loopy and he managed to con Catherine, or the pair of them have made one of the most remarkable discoveries in the history of this planet.”
“Make it stop!” I sob as my skin starts tingling. “I don't like it! You're hurting her!”
“A little pain never hurt anyone,” Mr. Randall replies. “That's another thing you're going to have to learn as you grow up, Sylvia.”
While still trying to pull free from Ms. Harper, I stare into the water and watch the shipwreck. I know the mermaid's behind there, I know she's hiding and doesn't want to be seen, but she won't be able to hold back forever. Still, she seems to be more determined than before. By this point
last time, she'd come out and let us see her, whereas now she seems to be resisting the charge in the water. At the same time, my skin is itchy all over and finally my legs buckle. Ms. Harper holds me up, but that's not enough to settle my tummy and finally I double over, retching violently until a little sick comes up into my mouth and dribbles down my chin.
“Stop it!” I gasp. “Let her -”
Suddenly the mermaid shoots out from behind the shipwreck, swimming fast toward the front of the tank until she slams her tail against the glass.
Mr. Randall and Ms. Harper step back, and in the process Ms. Harper lets go of me. I sink down onto the cold floor and immediately wipe my mouth, but now the horrible sensation is passing and I realize Doctor Collier must have turned off the machine that causes the charge. I don't know why, but I always feel the charge in my own body.
“This isn't possible,” Ms. Harper says behind me. “This has to be a trick.”
Looking up, I see that the mermaid is swimming around and around in circles, just like she did one time before. I know what she's going to do, and sure enough a moment later she swims back toward the front and slams her tail into the glass again. She doesn't cause any damage, of course, although I've started to notice that she seems to always hit the exact same point.
Pulling back, she stops in the middle of the tank and stares out at us.
“It's a woman in a costume, right?” Ms. Harper says. “I mean... What else could it be?”
“It could be a real live mermaid,” Mr. Randall mutters, stepping closer to the tank and staring up at her for a moment, before turning to Ms. Harper. He looks shocked, but he's also starting to smile. “It could be a real live mermaid, it could be right here with us, and it could be worth billions!”
Chapter Twenty-One
“This is a scientific study, first and foremost,” Doctor Collier continues, talking to Mr. Randall and Ms. Harper over by the computers while I struggle to get the door open. “Catherine Sykes and I were agreed on that from the very beginning. This isn't some circus freak to be revealed to the world.”
I try again to get the door open, so I can run back to the elevator, but Mr. Randall managed to lock us in here and I can't even make the handle turn.
“She has a team in Geneva,” Doctor Collier explains, “working on sequencing the DNA. Plan A was to isolate the regenerative material and use it as a cure for her condition. Plan B was a little more wild, it involved direct manipulation of human DNA in order to mimic aspects of the specimen. This is cutting-edge science, and I warned her repeatedly that the chances of success were small. She was still willing to go all-in.”
“Catherine Sykes died this morning,” Mr. Randall says calmly. “I'm sure we can all agree that her death is a tragedy, and a shock, but we have to decide how best to proceed with this delicate situation.”
“She thought she might find a cure,” Doctor Collier explains. “She said she'd looked into everything else and she had no faith in conventional medicine. She specifically told me that she didn't want to spend her last years hooked up to chemo bags, getting weaker and weaker, and she was worried about her daughter's condition too. She wanted to fight this thing, and she had the money to do it. And when she heard about the lifespans of these creatures, she became convinced that somehow we'd be able to unlock a secret that would save her.”
“And have you made any progress with that?” Mr. Randall asks.
“There's no progress to be made. I told her it was basically impossible, but she couldn't let go of the hope. I want you to know that I was completely upfront with her the whole time. I didn't manipulate a dying woman so that she'd fund my research. She knew the situation and she was willing to take the risk. Sadly, I always knew that it wouldn't work out for her, although I had no idea she was so close to the end. I'm sure she herself thought she had months left, maybe even a year or two.”
“I was aware of an operation in Geneva,” Mr. Randall replies, “but I had no idea it was anything like this. I thought it was more conventional cancer therapy research.”
“Hey,” Ms. Harper says, and I turn to find that she's come up behind me.
She crouches down, and I can see a sense of fear in her eyes..
“Is this real?” she asks. “I feel dumb for even asking, but right now I can't wrap my head around any of it. I mean, I've seen it, but I still don't know if I believe it.”
“I want to go to Mother,” I reply, feeling the anger still bubbling in my chest as if it's about to burst out at any moment.
“Your mother's dead, Sylvia.”
I shake my head.
“Yes she is,” she continues, “and you know it. You're a smart girl. You're just in shock.”
“She wouldn't leave me!”
“No, she wouldn't. Not unless she absolutely had no choice.” She pauses. “But her sickness gave her no choice. Maybe she should have told you, but you have to understand that she didn't want you to get upset or scared. I'm sure that she really, truly believed she was going to find a cure.” She turns and looks back toward the tank for a moment, although the mermaid has gone back into hiding. She waits, and then she turns to me again. “I'm thirty-five years old and I'm freaking out right now, Sylvia. You're not even ten, so I can't imagine how you're feeling.”
She reaches out and touches my arm, although I immediately push her hand away.
“I just want you to know how sorry I am,” she says. “About your mother, I mean. It'll be okay in the end, but you must be so scared.”
“I want to go to her,” I whimper. “I want to try to wake her up. Maybe you didn't do it right.”
“We did everything we could. We were just far too late.”
I open my mouth to tell her that she's wrong, but somehow the words don't come. Deep down, I know that she's right, and finally I let go of the door handle and sink down to the floor. Putting my head in my hands, I start sobbing, and a moment later I have to push Ms. Harper away as she tries to give me a hug. She tries again, and I push her away again, but this time I feel really angry.
“Don't touch me!” I hiss.
“Sylvia -”
“Don't touch me ever again!”
She pulls back, holding her hands up as if she's scared.
“Okay,” she says, getting to her feet. “Calm down, Sylvia. There's no need to get mad.”
“I want to go back upstairs!” I yell. “I want to go back up right now!”
“Soon.”
“Now!”
“I'll talk to Mr. Randall for you,” she says, backing away. “Don't worry, just stay calm.”
With that, she turns and walks away, hurrying slightly.
“No!” I snap, starting to hurry after her as the anger begins to boil. I've felt this kind of rage before and I hate it, but there's nothing I can do to hold it back. “I want to go back to Mother! She might just be sleeping, I might be able to wake her up!”
“Just stay there!” Ms. Harper says, gesturing for me to go back to the door as she hurries on. “Calm down, Sylvia. Think about something that makes you happy!”
I pick up my pace, determined to get to her and force her to give me what I want. For a moment, all I can think about is trying to hurt her until she gives in, even though deep down there's a part of me that's horrified and that's begging the rest of me to stop. And then, just as I'm about to break into a run, I spot movement in the corner of my eye and I glance over at the tank, and I see that the mermaid is watching me.
Stopping, I stare at her for a moment, and all my anger seems to drain away in an instant.
Instead, I stare back at the mermaid and find myself marveling at the beauty of her scales. With the strong lights still trained on the tank, the different-colored scales almost seem to be glittering in the water, and after a moment I look at the mermaid's face and see that she's still staring straight at me. And somehow, impossibly, I realize after a few more seconds that every grain of anger seems to have slipped away from me.
I step toward the
tank, and I instantly feel even more calm.
In fact, by the time I reach the tank I actually feel as if everything's going to be okay. I stare up at the mermaid for a moment, and then I slowly place my hand against the tank, hoping that she'll do the same from the other side. I wait, convinced that she's going to swim down to me and offer some kind of connection, and all the while I can feel a kind of intense calm radiating out from her and reaching me through the glass. She's so beautiful, I think I could stare at her forever and ever.
“My mother died,” I whisper, and now the truth really hits me. “She's gone. She died in the night.”
The mermaid doesn't respond in any way. She simply continues to watch me, almost as if she's trying to figure something out. She doesn't seem scared of me, however, and that simple fact makes me feel a little better.
“I want to go up and see if there's anything I can do,” I continue. “Can you wake dead people up? Is there anything you can do to help her?”
I wait, but again she doesn't react.
“Can you even understand me?” I ask. “Are you -”
Suddenly there's a loud rushing sound from high up, and I turn to see that one of the large pipes running into the top of the tank has begun to shudder. For a moment I worry that something might be wrong, but then I hear footsteps coming up behind me and I turn to see that Ms. Harper has come over.
“What's happening?” I ask.
“How are you feeling, Sylvia?” she replies. “Are you still angry?”
“What's that noise?” I turn back to look at the top of the tank, and I'm shocked to see that the water level has dropped a little. “What are they doing?”
“Mr. Randall and Doctor Collier have been talking,” she says, “and they just need to do a little test. It's nothing to worry about, they're not going to hurt her. They just need to figure something out.”
“What are they doing?” I ask again, but as I take a step back I can already see exactly what's happening.
The tank is being drained, and now the mermaid is starting to swim around and around in circles as if she's getting upset.
“What are you doing to her?” I yell, turning to see that Mr. Randall and Doctor Collier are at the computer terminals. “Stop! Why are you doing this?”
