Curtisson: The Mermaid & The Mafia

Chapter 3: Sven's Story

Sven wrote his story...

For as long as I can remember, I swam within a glass container watching the scientists write on their clipboards and tap on their tablets. I didn't know why I was there, but I did what I was told. The only Doctor was allowed to talk to me in Swedish.
They taught me, fed me, tested me, I thought they were family. But I never got to play. I was the only mershark there.
Until I was 15, I thought I was the only merman. But then they brought in another tank. Inside, was a man with a gray tail that moved up and down, white hair, and dark red eyes. I wanted to know him, but we couldn't speak through the glass.

He came closer to get a look at me and that's when I notice, he's covered in scars. I wanted to ask what did that to him. He started tapping. I recognized the patterns. Doctor would do those weird taps.
"My name is Henry. What's yours?" The gray merman tapped.
I tapped slower than him "I am Sven. Are you hurt?"
"Not right now. You are untouched?"
"Doctor did that?" I start to panic a bit.
"Punished for trying to escape."
"Escape?" Henry was confusing me.
"Why do you think they have us trapped? We're experiments." Henry explained, rather intensely.
"I guess I've never thought about it." I was beginning to worry. "But what can we do?"
"I'm working on a plan to escape. You in?"
I glanced at the doctors on the other side of the see-through wall. They looked different. Almost scheming something sinister to do to us. I tapped, "yes."
Straight after that, they separated us again.

Tests got harder and failure lead to... punishments. A month passed before I got to see Henry again. We altered our communication flipping the alphabet to scramble the letters we tapped.
"They hurt you." Henry tapped.
I responded, "I am fine. How is the plan?"
"Close to complete. I will depend on you to get us out of here."
I nod, "You can count on me."
"Our best bet is to start in the vents. How high can you jump?"
"Jump?" I look at him confused.
"You know. Jump!" He demonstrates by swimming around to pick up speed and leaps out of the water.
I shake my head "I don't know." I try to imitate what he did, but my tail doesn't even leave the water.
Henry gives me a reassuring smile. "It's ok. I can work with that. After the vents, it would be best to find some coats. It is really cold out there. There is a room full of coats near the entrance."
I gasp "You went outside?!"
"Made it a few steps before getting tranquillized. We'll also need boots. There's white stuff that turns to water if you touch it."
I was starting to get nervous about this.
"It's ok. We got this." Henry then starts making hand gestures towards a girl doctor, who returns the gestures.
I stare, confused.
Henry turned back to me "Do you know ASL?"
My confused expression got more intense.
"Sign language. I can teach you. I was asking my doctor if we could meet out of the tanks."
"And what did she say?"
Henry looked annoyed, "Eventually." He sighs, "Anyways back to the plan."
We continued to talk about the strategy for the escape. There were a lot of backups if the plan doesn't work out. But I was starting to feel confident we could do this!
We prepped this way for a few months. Until the day came.

The doctors had left around 12 and Henry was the first to act, jumping out of the water and quickly drying himself to climb into the vent. He open my vent and reached his hand down. My turn to leap out of the water and he pulled me up, I dried up.
Henry made his hand gestures. "Nice jump. Now let's get out of here."
"Ja." I nod as I sign 'yes'.
We crawled through the vents and into the coatroom. Putting on the clothing we needed and I took this cool furry hat that looked warm. With all the clothes we easily were able to sneak out the front door.
"Ha en god natt ni två." The guard at the door wished us a good night and waved. He didn't see our faces or care to check if we were even staff.
I had to respond and wish him the same. "Tack. Du också."
We made our way out the door when the cold hit me. I started to get really sleepy and loose balance. Henry props me up and the guard comes over.
"Är du okej?" The guard asked if I'm ok.
"Ja. Ja. Jag mår bra." I said I'm fine, then I whispered to Henry, "Say... Jag tar hem honom."
"Uh... Jag tar, hem... honom."
The guard crunched his face, nods and heads back.

Suddenly, the alarms go off and a loud voice speaks "Attention. Experiments 1 and 2 have escaped. I repeat, experiments 1 and 2 have escaped. Be on the lookout for Blonde-haired and White-haired males."
Henry and I run as dogs come out, barking.
We get to a 10 foot tall metal wire fence with barbed wire on top. "Now. You know what to do." He signs.
I slap my cheeks to wake myself up enough and unlock my jaw. Tearing open the fence and tearing out my teeth. That was painful, I cover my mouth as my gums start to bleed. We went through the hole and kept running till we reached the ocean. Henry started carrying me since I was slipping into hibernation due to the cold.

He swam us both south until it was warm enough for me to wake up and we kept swimming; hunting any fish we come across until we found ourselves on a secluded warm beach.
"So this is freedom?" I signed. Grinning with new teeth that replaced my last pair.
"Yes. Finally, we're free." Henry signed back. He looked so blissful.
We heard noises coming from further on land.
"Doctors!?" I sign frantically.
Henry shakes his head. He lead me futher into land and we saw the streets and humans bustling about.
I went back to the water. The humans were overwhelmingly loud.
Henry urdged me to come with him but I declined, staying in the water. "Stay safe. Come find me if you change your mind. Thanks for the help escaping, Sven." And with those hand gestures, he disappeared into the city and I never saw him again.

3rd person:
"Wow..." Was all Burt could do to respond.
Sven held back as many tears as he could. "Burt... Help... Me." He spoke in English.
The accountant collected his thoughts for a moment, then held the shark boy tight. "I will. I will do everything I can to help you. No one is going to hurt you again. I promise." And the merman hugged him back.