From the Depths

Chapter 17 - Red Lung Disease.

Henry had been nagging at her all afternoon. His constant complaining and the never-ending sound of his voice was giving her a nasty headache. She sat at her small desk in her room, her head in her hands. Her finger massaged the bridge of her nose as she tried to find the words to fill in the report for the king.

"And do you have no-"

Heaven's he was still going, she tried her best to ignore him as he passed the room behind her.

"It's dangerous!"

No shit it was, his voice was slowly killing her. Could he not see that he was the most dangerous thing in her life right now?

"You can't allow it-"

"Ren, he has a name." She couldn't stand that, referring to him as though it were nothing, not even a living creature.

She heard him sigh. "I'm freaking out here..."

"You think!?" She responded sarcastically.

"How do you expect me to act, like you!? You're not normal!"

She rolled her eyes, please, for the love of god, she wished he would start rambling again.

"Kirea, it's intelligent, as intelligent as you or I!" He explained.

"Yes, I'm aware." She'd only been trying to get the point across for days!

"You don't know what that means!" His eyes were wide as he pleaded with her to understand.

She sighed, what was he getting at? Oh god, she had to ask, didn't she? "What does it mean?" She asked dryly wishing she hadn't.

"It means there is most definitely more out there, and what happens when they find out we are holding one prisoner?"

She slammed her head down on her desk, giving up on the report for now. Rolling her head to the side she watched him pace the room as he continued having a meltdown in her room. Her brain was pounding in her skull and she was beginning to feel nauseated.

"What if they come for him!? Does that mean we end up going to war?" His hands flailed around as he spoke. "A war against fish! Kirea a war against fish! We can't fight that, all they need to do is pull us under the surface and all the soldiers will drown!"

He'd lost it, truly.

"He needs to be set free, but we have to not let the king know about it. We need to make like a dummy - thing, or something that looks exactly like the merman."

"No, we don't." She tried to cut in but he just kept going on with his rant.

"I can work on a mechanism that can make it look like it's swimming under the water, and the King can still have his pet, it's a win-win!"

"He doesn't want to be set free." She tried to inject.

"Yes, we can set it free... " He stopped, finally looking at her. "Wait... what? How do you know that?"

"Because Ren told me."

"He doesn't know what he wants, he's a captive!" Henry started pacing again. "Just give me some time and I can think of a foolproof plan."

Shaking her head she winched, her eyes were starting to feel heavier these days. She was going to bed earlier and sleeping more, but she still felt tired. Sitting up she placed her hand over her chest as she felt an odd sensation. She coughed, trying to clear her throat, it just seemed to make it worse.

Shit, not now! Not in front of Henry! She knew what it was. She couched again, this time harder. It slowly turned into a coughing fit. She gasped for air in between coughs as she fumbled around to find a piece of stray cloth. She stumbled to the ground her hands flailing around in an attempt to find the wash basin.