Serena

Serena
         For the majority of my life I lived in peace with my home and with the people who invaded it. But when my family was murdered because of our differences I acted out. I alone was saved during this siege they thought they could cage me and put me on display. I was the last of my kind the final mermaid.
         Being placed in an aquarium all alone made me feel angry and claustrophobic. I needed open space to swim. I needed ocean water. I wanted my revenge and being caged up made me too weak to be able to do anything. There was one person who had shown me any sort of kindness. His name was Dan. Dan was the new boy at the aquarium and because I wasn’t exactly nice to those who fed me he was forced into the job. I wasn’t very nice to him at first. Actually the first time he came into my cage I pulled him into the water but when he just quietly swam away from me I knew he intended me no harm. So I decided to provoke him. Yet he seemed worried about me. He noticed that I was getting weaker. I no longer had the strength to pull him into the tank. It was on a day when I couldn’t even swim off the floor of my tank that I saw him on the other side of my tank. He was watching me like so many before him had but when I saw him watching I felt worse than before. It made me sick to know that he could find joy out of my torment. It didn’t help that he was with Sarah. He had told me about her. That she was this friend that he didn’t get to see that often. Yet he talked about her a lot. And that bothered me. On that day he brought her into my tank area. He was showing me off like a possession. I hated it. I wanted to rip her hair out. But I couldn’t go up to reach her. I was too weak. Dan leaned over the tank calling to me through the water.
“Serena, I brought my friend Sarah to meet you!” he watched me for a moment; “I know you can hear me!” he called again. He sighed and ushered Sarah out of the room apologizing for my behavior.
         A half an hour later he was back in there without her. He took the net that they used to clean the take and handed one end of it down to me to grab a hold of.
“Come on Serena, take it.” So I did. He pulled me up through the water till I was near enough for him to touch. He grabbed my hand and helped me up onto the platform next to him. Silently he handed me a towel and helped me dry off so I would get my legs. I was confused.
“Dan, what are you doing?”
“You don’t belong here. I brought a dress for you to wear. I want sure of the size. I thought one dress would be easier to fit than pants and a shirt.” I looked at him still confused. He laughed at me.
“Serena, I’m breaking you out,” he said quietly. My whole expression brightened and I hurriedly put on the dress.
         Hand in hand we ran out of that building. I slowed him down a bit. I wasn’t used to having legs. When the guards began chasing after us he urged me to go faster but I was already at maximum speed. Just as we thought we had made it, we got away. It began to rain. Dan tried to shelter me but it only took a few drops and I changed. We lost precious moments in my change. Dan picked me up and tried to run again but they were all around us. There was no escape.