Chapter Text
“Oh look!” a child shouted, pointing upward at a tank.
A figure, rounded with red and white fins, swam by. The algae that covered the tank made it hard to tell what it was.
“What is that?” the woman besides the child asked playfully. The child looked like what one would imagine the woman had twenty years prior.
“A fish!” the child said, pointing upwards at the then-moved mystery figure.
A black triangular object came into view, clear water replacing the algae-tinted view with a swiping motion. A man's face with the aforementioned red and white fins was shown. He grinned, and the child screamed, running away from the tank.
“Mommy!” the child said. “The scary mermaid fish!” They huddled closer to their mother's legs, looking scared.
The “mermaid fish” moved its mouth, but the tank's glass walls combined with the building's insulation made it hard to hear what it was saying. In fact, the vibrations could not be felt even in the mostly empty aquarium.
Evidently dissatisfied, the “mermaid fish” continued cleaning the algae, its expression unreadable.