Deeper Waters [Leviathantale]

Ch1 - Freedom

Cookies POV
You were awakened from a deep, dreamless slumber when a firm tapping sound echoed all around you. At first, you tried to ignore the sound, content with whatever little sleep you could manage, but the sound became louder, more persistent. Your eyes flickered open, emerald-green eyelights hazy from the sedatives that tainted the water of your tank. Waking up was always harder than you would have liked it to be.

At first, you didn’t recognise the figure in front of you, too busy focusing on the pain that rippled through your body. The small space forced your tail to contort at odd, uncomfortable angles, a position that made  everything ache. Whilst your tail was flesh and muscle, the upper portion of your body was entirely skeletal.

The scales that adorned you had dimmed from a beautiful ebony-black to a sickly faded grey, and whatever patterning it once held was impossible to discern in this unhealthy state. Even your bones had faded, thin from malnourishment and littered with countless cracks.

Another hard tap and your eyelights sharpened into focus. Not completely, but as best as you could manage in your predicament. In front of the glass was the main researcher, an older man with long, greying hair and sunken blue eyes. His labcoat was stained with blood and dust, one hand pressed against the tank whilst the other girmly held onto an axe so tightly that his knuckles had gone white.

You tilted your head, confused at the sight. He was normally so clean, always priding himself in a perfect appearance, but something was clearly wrong. Did something happen? His eyes were so intense, crazed even.

Satisfied he had caught your attention, the man begun to speak, his loud voice only slightly muffled by the thick glass between you. “All this time, we thought you were just some worthless deep-sea mer. Ten years, we’ve had you, without a single clue of how bad we had fucked up...” 

There was a loud bang as he balled his fist and hit the tank wall hard. All you could do was whimper and shrink back a little, the chains and smallness of the space still severely restricting your movement.  “You are a godamn leviathan. A baby. Fucking. Leviathan. One of the gods of the sea! We couldn’t possibly have fucked up worse than we did!”

A wicked, crazed laugh bubbled from his throat. You could only stare as he continued on with his speech, not understanding a word that came from him. Why was he calling you a leviathan? What did that even mean? What did he mean by god of the sea? He wasn’t making any sense! 

“Keeping you is a sure death sentence from the other leviathans... But its okay! I did the... the right thing! I... I killed them. All of them. Anybody who laid a hand on you. Anybody who even knew about you. All of them! Dead!” His maniacal laughter increased in volume as he spoke. You knew him to be such a calm and methodical man, but right now, he sounded absolutely crazed, his insane ramblings frightening you.

“And now I’ll.. I’ll set you free! Then my sins will be forgiven! Haha! Yes! Nobody else has to suffer from our mistake! Nobody has to endure the wrath from the other leviathans when they figure out what happened to you! I just... have to send you back to the sea! Nobody else has to die!”

You stared at him in horror. Was he saying he had killed his employees? Was that why he was covered in blood and dust? Why? Why had he done such an awful thing? You whimpered, not understanding. Why was this happening?

A loud bang reverberated from your tank as he swung the axe hard into the glass, the fluid inside rippling from the sheer force of the impact. You jerked back at the noise, instantly hitting the glass behind you, terror filling you. There was another bang, and then the sickening sound of splintering as the glass that had imprisoned you for so long suddenly let out the awful sound of cracking. 

Before you had any chance to prepare for what was about to happen, the glass completely shattered, water spewing forward and soaking the floors. Your body was jerked in the same direction, only to remain limp and upright due to the chains that so cruelly kept you in place.

Your neck, wrists and tail were all shackled with thick metal, chains connected as an unnecessary measure to keep you restrained. You choked and spluttered as the water drained away, unable to breath, fear and panic overwhelming you. You were so frightened, unsure of what was going on. Were you going to die? Was he going to kill you?

Whilst some mers and sirens could spend a small amount of time exposed to the air, you were completely unable to – it was painful, and after the tests the scientists conducted on you regarding it, you learned it took only a few minutes before you would literally pass out.

You had to be kept in a special tank as well, one with higher pressure, because your body was specifically adapted to being in deep waters. In other words, being out of the water like this was sure to be a death sentence.

Weakly clawing at the shackle around your neck, you barely registered when the man raised the axe again, slamming it against the chains in order to free you. The chain broke where he hit it, the heavy material clattering noisily to the floor. Your frail body slumped to the ground in an instant, the remnants or shards immediately digging into the flesh of your tail, what remained of the water turning a pinkish hue from blood.

You gaped and choked, weakly thrashing your tail as you were forcibly dragged, glass dislodging deeper into you as you struggled. Your very soul pulsed with distress and pain. The man dragging you was still talking, but everything sounded distorted, your vision slowly becoming blurred and dark from the lack of water.

Slowly, your thrashing faded as all adrenaline left you, and you became limp, barely clinging to consciousness. The pain had faded to numbness. You could barely feel your body being dragged, but you did feel the sudden sensation of falling as you were pushed over the edge of the ship that had kept you contained for your whole life.

You fell, plummeting to the water with a splash, and as water greeted you, you could breath once more. You choked a little as you adjusted, but the exhaustion was too strong, and you merely sunk, unable to remain conscious any longer, even with how desperately you tried to stay awake.

As sleep took over, you barely even realised that you were in the ocean now.

That you were finally free.