It was nearing midnight as Chloe nursed a beer while across from her at the kitchen table her husband was on his second beer. Normally neither of them where much for drinking but they were trying to decide what to do.
“We have to go to the doctors?” stated Luke for possibly the millionth time since they found out that all three of them were becoming merpeople.
“I agree with that.” Stated Chloe “But what happens after that? We end up in some lab. Will we even be considered human?”
“What about Nathan?” Stated Luke as he looked over her shoulder to where their son slept on the couch. Normally he would be in his bedroom but both of them wanted to keep an eye on him. “We have to protect him. We could end up behind glass for the rest of our lives or worse.”
“The baby girl seems our best bet but why would the police let us see her again and what could we gain from her? She did this to us?” stated Chloe
“I don’t think she did it on purpose.” Stated Luke “She is just a baby after all.”
“I know…” said Chloe, whenever she thought of that little girl in her arms her heart felt warm and without her around it felt empty. It was almost as if she saw the little girl as her own daughter now. “We need to figure something out by dawn.”
“Agreed.” Confirmed Luke as he stood up to get himself another beer. “Want one?”
“Still nursing this one.” Explained Chloe as Luke moved toward the fridge and opened it. She watched him just stand there for a long time.
“If we are out close it.” Said Chloe or she would have, if her mouth was able to open. Her eyes widened in fear as she tried to scream but found that apart from her eyes her entire body seemed to be locked in place.
Slowly turned away from the fridge, leaving behind blood on the kitchen floor. Chloe’s eyes shot to the back of her husband’s legs where the flesh was beginning to fall off leaving behind a bloody trail, below her husband’s flesh was the scales.
“WHAT THE FUCK!” she tried to scream but found she couldn’t as she rose to her feet as well, her body no longer under her control. She had just enough time to see a pool of her own blood on the floor below where she had been sitting. On the couch, her eight-year-old son Nathan had stood up, the couch soaked with blood as well as his scales was coming in just like her husbands. Nathan’s eyes were closed as if he was sleep walking which seemed to be.
Neither Chloe nor Luke where sleep walking, they were fully awake even if their bodies where no longer under their control. Leaving a path of their blood behind, they walked toward the car, Luke grabbing the keys as he went.
Nathan got into his normal spot behind the passenger seat and even buckled in while Chloe, fighting every minute she could got into the passenger seat and got herself situated. Luke got into the driver seat and within minutes they were heading down the road in the middle of the night with their bodies outside of their own control.
They followed the same path they had earlier heading back toward the beach. All the while Chloe and she assumed Luke as well was fighting to regain control of their bodies. From the corner of her eye she could see that Luke’s legs were now totally covered with scales and she could feel that she was sitting in a liquid, likely blood so she likely had scaled covered legs as well.
They turned off the exit before the beach and came to a stop inside the parking lot of the local hospital. The car ideal for a moment, before to Chloe’s amazement in a small flash of light she felt pressure on her lap. She turned her eyes downwards to see, sound asleep in her lap was the little girl who had turned them into a merpeople, in fact the baby’s tail was quickly returning as well. She didn’t understand what was happening but then car headed off again.
This time they went pass the beach where they had found the little girl and then away from the more public areas and more into the hills surrounded the city and off the main highway.
It was nearing dawn when they where suppose to make a turn to stay on the road but instead, they kept going straight. Straight…straight off a cliff, it wasn’t far down to the water but it was far enough to make Chloe scream but she couldn’t scream as her body was still locked in place as the car plunged into the water.
Then everything went black as the water rushed into the car.