Safety in the Seafoam (DNF + Karlnap)

Chapter 107: A View

Only a few chapters left.
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Dream POV.

We rounded a corner, where the floor widened and windows ran along our left side. My hands were still sweating around the metal head of the bed before I heard a voice calling for us to stop. It was George, with Karl muttering something similar. Hesitantly I slowed my movements, looking down at the fair brunette beneath me to see what he was after.

His gaze was fixated out of the window, and as I stood there I noticed the way he fully relaxed for the first time in what felt like weeks. His eyes were glistening in the evening light, matching the beautiful way the reflections bounced off of the waves. “George?” I asked quietly.

“It’s there.” He responded, sounding as though he was close to crying. “It’s… just there…” His voice was soft, as though putting too much into this would result in the illusion shattering. He pushed himself up as much as the restraints would allow, hands clawing at the fabric as he looked out at the ocean, stretching out into the horizon.

“It… is?” I cautiously nodded, for the moment being unaware of the significance of this sight for him. Behind me, Karl was also straining to see as much as he could, being close enough to the glass to press his hand against it, which attempted to dig into the clear, flat surface. Sapnap was also watching this, just as cautious as me.

To be fair though, I didn’t really have a right to be cautious about this, to be confused. In fact as I stood here I couldn’t help but think about how we were torturing these poor creatures, who were looking out over their home, the large expanse of where they’d come from, with them being trapped behind the invisible wall of glass.

There were still voices coming from another corridor nearby, and against the hiss of the waves against the ship I attempted to listen to see if they were getting closer at all. As I walked around George to look I noticed the way his body twitched excitedly at the sight outside.

Since he arrived here (was brought here against his will) he’d never had much room to move, being restrained by walls and cages and chains for the first time ever. Now he was able to see an almost never-ending expanse of freedom which he wasn’t able to reach.

“Home…” I could hear Karl whimpering out, his tail thrashing more violently against the leather securing him to the table. “I-I miss home.”
“I know you do.” Was all Sapnap could say, it was all I could probably say too. It was either that or stand here blandly as they resisted the urge to break down.

This was the first time they had actually seen the smudge of yellow and red sky, or any sky for that matter, and the first time they’d seen the enchanting, churning, deep blue of the ocean. George let out a noise of awe, or happiness at the sight. Before today I don’t remember him seeing any colour other than the beige of the sand.

Now he was being flooded with a whole spectrum of colour, just on the other side of the glass, yet Sapnap and I were going to torture them by pushing the beds back downstairs into the large windowless room where their tank was located. That was just us being cruel, showing them what they could have had if I had simply not spotted them that day.

George turned his head away from the window, making me worry that perhaps he had burst into a quiet fit of tears. Now he was looking towards a plant near him in a navy blue pot. They were spaced out throughout the entire ship, a flick of green to remind the crew of the vast expanse of nature back home, and now George was here studying it.

One of his hands moved to touch a leaf, fingers running along the leathery textured plant. “What are these?” He asked softly, seeming to find this a distraction from looking out of the window at something he couldn’t reach. “Is it a form of seaweed?”
“It is not.” I informed him with a shake of the head.

For a brief moment George’s expression shifted as he moved to look at me, always slightly interested to learn more about the things he didn’t understand about the human world. “It is a type of plant, just like some seaweed.” I explained to him. “It grows on land, and provides oxygen which we breathe.”

“And we breathe oxygen too?” George asked, to which I nodded. As I spoke to him I was grinning proudly, happy to educate and bring a little bit of joy to the mermaid. When I fell silent though, my mouth pressed itself into a line, glancing around anxiously every few seconds to make sure nobody was around.

“Dream…” I glanced over as Sapnap spoke, my brows furrowed. “What should we do? Should we take them back to their room?”
“Already?” George muttered, his gaze snapping over to us.

He was full of fear and anxiousness, not wanting to be pulled away from the outside world this soon after getting here. “I’m sorry…” I muttered, looking over towards the brunette. “But it isn’t safe to be out here.” I explained to him and Karl, despite knowing how desperate he likely was to be out with the natural light.

“But when will we next see the outside?” George asked. “Will we ever?”
“I’m not sure.” Sapnap was the one to answer. “Hopefully the aquarium will have something…”
“Hopefully?” George asked. “You don’t know if the aqua-ree-him will let us see outside?”

His gaze narrowed at the two of us suspiciously, as though we were somehow responsible for this, which I admittedly was. But it made me feel even worse, and for a moment I stepped away and my gaze drifted down the hallway, instead of towards the other three who all seemed to be waiting in a tense silence.

The distance wasn’t too long from here to the end of the hallway. Windows ran along the side the entirety of the length, with some of the same plants with leathery leaves in navy blue pots spread every fifteen steps or so. Opposite the windows were doos, leading to rooms that I had never been in, but they felt insignificant.

“What are you thinking about?” Sapnap questioned, and I turned to look back towards him momentarily before looking back at the hallway. At the far end of the hall was a set of metal double doors with portholes which showed the light sky of the evening. “Dream?” Sapnap asked, then I fully turned towards him.

“How about we go for some fresh air outside?” I asked.
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1152 words