The first thing that Oliver could feel as he woke up was that he was feeling cool. Not cold, but cool. It was as if he had multiple different fans on him as he laid in bed. But....he was moving. His eyes shot open as he looked around and realized that he was not in his bed. He was..somewhere else. His eyes began to register to this unfamiliar surrounding. It was blue, and he could see his backyard through it.....and then Oliver realized where he was. He had spent the night in his pool, blatantly disobeying what his parents had told him. He panicked, and shot himself up to the surface.
As Oliver was waking up, his parents were doing the same. They were talking as they put their housecoats on.
"Let's take Oliver out today." said his mother. "Get him away from all this. We'll go to the forest, or a mall or something, but let's get him out of here for the day."
"You're right." said his father as he opened the bedroom door. "He can miss a day of school today."
Oliver's parents walked over to his bedroom, and knocked on the door.
"Oliver?" called his mother. "Are you up? We have a surprise for you today-" She reached for the door handle and realized that the door wasn't locked. They looked at each other in panic.
"Maybe he had to go to the bathroom during the night." said his father, an air of fear in his voice.
"Oliver? Oliver!" called his mother. "Oliver, I'm opening the door!" There was no reply. His mother opened the door to see Oliver's empty bed.
"Where is he? Where is he!" yelled his mother frantically. Oliver's parents ran downstairs and out to the backyard just as Oliver was coming up to the surface. He saw them come out just as he reached the top and peered over the side of the pool.
"Mom!" cried Oliver, gasping for air. His gills weren't closing. "I don't know what happened! I...I..." Oliver's voice trailed off as he saw his parents slow down and stop in the middle of the yard.
"Mom?" yelled Oliver, his face turning red. "Mom, what's wrong?"
Oliver's mother and father stood there, looking at their son. His mother could hold it in no longer. She screamed. His father ran up to her and put her face in his shoulder as she started to wail. He looked up at Oliver with a mixture of worry and fear. Oliver began to cry as well, and slipped back underneath the water. He took a deep breath. He could see his reflection before he stopped going down. His eyes...they weren't human anymore. They were jet black, with no pupil, no iris, just black, devoid of any humanity. But his face was the same, it was still his. He looked down at his body for more changes. He saw that his hands had been replaced by fins and his legs had changed. He tried to move them and realized that they had stuck together, and now he could only wiggle his new tail. He shot up towards the surface again and tried to take a breath, but he couldn't. He tried again, but it didn't work. He slipped under the surface and took in a deep breath. His torso was still human except for a great protrusion coming out of his back. It was a dorsal fin.
His mother and father ran up the steps to the top of the pool and Oliver shot up to meet them. His mother, hysterical grabbed at him and pulled him out of the water.
"Oliver...it's going to be okay." said his mother between fits of tears. "We'll move away. We'll get you fixed. We'll take you to a real doctor-" she said, as her son began to struggle.
"Mom....." said Oliver, whose face was turning red, looked up at him with his black eyes. His gills were opening and shutting. "I...can't breathe...."
"Let him go!" yelled his father. His mother dropped him and Oliver fell into the water. He took a deep breath, and then swam up just beneath the surface of the water.
"I...I can't go anywhere now." said Oliver to his parents above the water. "I can't breathe out there anymore. I have to stay in here now." His parents stared at him, unable to say anything. At least his mom had stopped crying.
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His mother had been unable to feed Oliver his breakfast, so his father chummed the water with pieces of dead fish. Oliver tried his very hardest to fight the urge to eat it, but it was too much, his body could smell the meat and the blood and he began to eat.
His parents were eating inside, as his mother couldn't bear to watch her son eat.
"We're going to go to those doctors in town," said his father. "And we're going to get them to change Oliver back."
"What if they don't?" said his mother. "We signed a contract."
"Screw the contract. If they don't fix him, we'll blow the lid off this place." said his father. "Can you imagine the outrage if people all over the world found out about this place?"
"Okay." said his mother. "But what are we going to do about Oliver. He can't go anywhere."
"We'll leave him here for a couple of hours." said his father. "He can't come with us, and he can't go to school either."
Once they had finished their breakfast, they went outside to Oliver, who was watching for them from the bottom of the pool. Oliver swam up the stairs that ran up the side of the pool as his parents walked up them. He met them at the top, sticking his head out of the water.
"No, Oliver, go back under." said his mother. "You can't breathe up here." Oliver slipped back down into the water.
"Your mother and I are going out for a few hours." said his father. "We're going to talk to your doctor about getting you all fixed up."
"So I have to stay here?" asked Oliver from under the water. "I don't want to. Can't I go somewhere else?"
"No, Oliver." said his mother. "I'm very sorry, but you have to stay here and wait for us to come back."
"What will I do?" asked Oliver. "I can't just sit here. I'll go crazy in this place."
"I thought you liked swimming." said his mother.
"I did before." said Oliver. "But now I just want to get out of here."
"We'll get you out of here. We'll bring the TV outside for you to watch. It will be like we never left."
"You'll move me before tonight, right?" asked Oliver. "I don't think I should spend another night in here."
"You won't have to." said his father reassuringly. Oliver could detect a hint of doubt in his voice.
His parents brought out the TV like they promised and set it on the grass in front of the bottom of the pool.
"Can you hear it?" yelled his father. Oliver swam up to the side of the bottom of the pool where his parents were standing.
"I think my hearing got better last night as well." said Oliver. "The TV is fine, and you don't have to yell. I can hear you when you speak normally."
"We have to go now, Oliver." said his mother. "But we'll be back in a couple of hours, all right?"
"Bye." said Oliver as he watched his parents leave. He wished he could hug them.