Main Attraction

The first thing I noticed was the cold. It seeped through my dreams, trails of frost and foreboding tugging at my consciousness. I squeezed my eyes tight, afraid to open them. Afraid to make it real.

Then the sensation of being watched. A tingling at the base of my spine, creeping up to choke me on my own fear. Eventually not seeing became worse than whatever was waiting for me. I blinked, my eyes gritty and swollen, still stinging from the pepper spray. Everything was blurry and dark.

Gloomy shapes rose around me, rocky formations that glistened wetly. A cave? Damp sand clung to my skin and the slight blue tint of the shadows lent credence to the idea. I got to my knees, head pounding, breath escaping in ragged plumes. Grabbing onto the nearest outcrop for balance I realized it was hollow – fibreglass, perhaps. Not a cave, then.

“Help!” My voice echoed around the large space, high-pitched and panicky. I stumbled towards the watery light, only to bang my head on an invisible barrier. Glass – a glass wall! I felt my way up it, trying to find a latch or frame. Nothing – just seamlessly smooth from the ground up.

I thought I heard laughter.

My hands flew to cover my breasts, wondering why I hadn’t realized I was naked until now. The fear – it clouded everything. My skin was as pale and bright as the moon, I could feel my heartbeat pulsing from every vein, like a beacon in the darkness. Nowhere to hide.

“What is this place?” I asked the emptiness, my echo taunting me.

“You’re in my aquarium.” A man’s voice, muffled by the glass. He sounded amused.

My legs gave way beneath me, and I hit the sand hard enough to send pain shooting up my tailbone. I curled myself into a defensive huddle, arms wrapped protectively about my knees.

“Why?”

A movement from beyond the glass.

“Why not?”

A lighter sparked, then the glowing red tip of a cigarette. No smell of smoke – only salt and dampness.

“You can’t keep me here! They’ll be looking for me!”

“Who? Your family? Friends? The police, perhaps?” He inhaled sharply, smoke clouding the glass for a moment. “I doubt it. I chose you carefully. A sister in Ohio, a mother in the hospice. She doesn’t even remember your name anymore. And you’re not really the social type, are you? All work and no play… besides, since the pandemic nobody is thinking about anyone but themselves anymore. We live our lives behind computer screens, rate our popularity in likes and subscribes. Nobody will miss you.”

He was right, damn it. It might be weeks before anyone reported me missing.

“Please! What have I ever done to you? Just let me go, I won’t tell anyone!”

He laughed. “Does anyone really think that will work? You’re always watching those true crime shows, have you ever once seen it happen?”

How did he know so much about me?

Suddenly fluorescent white light blinded me. I squinted as I tried to examine my surroundings. The artificial rocks boxing me in on three sides, reaching far above my head. The thick glass barrier between me and my captor. Trapped. I ran to the window, hurling myself at it in a frenzy, smashing my fists against it till they bled.

“Are you finished yet? This tantrum is growing tiresome.” He sat in the front row of an auditorium, tiered red velvet seats all facing towards me. I’d never felt so vulnerable.

I lay in the sand, shivering, my sobs subsiding.

“What do you want with me?”

A loud rumbling came from behind the rear wall. I turned in horror as jets of icy water spurted out from pipes hidden in the rocks.

“I’m going to turn you into a mermaid.”

***

Weeks passed. I fought so hard, refusing to wear the stupid costume with its skin-tight tail covered in iridescent scales. I lied and said I couldn’t swim - only for him to play a video on a projector screen from my childhood diving competitions. I clawed at the slippery walls, trying to climb to freedom, only to discover the fake rocks stopped 8 feet shy of the top.

Bad behavior was met with freezing blasts from the jets, and hours spent treading water before finally fading into unconsciousness, only to wake up in the empty tank once again. If I refused to play his games he fed me only rotten fish heads.

I could endure the torturous chill of the water, the constant threat of drowning. I ignored the food, willing to starve myself before I gave into his insanity. I longed for the sweet release of pneumonia.

“You can’t keep this up,” he told me as I lay gasping for air, the water draining from the tank.

“Watch me,” I spat, my hatred for him warming my blood.

“No, you watch. I didn’t want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice.”

The projector screen lowered behind the glass, an image of a vast aquarium filling the screen. I recognized the rock formations – it was a movie of my tank.

Sharks swam listlessly around in circles; hammerheads, a large leopard shark, casting grey shadows on the sandy floor. A scream tore through the auditorium, blaring from hidden speakers. A frantic scream, one of pure unbridled terror.

The surface of the water was disrupted, bubbles rippling out as something descended into the tank.

Not something – someone. A woman, long blonde hair floating wildly around her face as she thrashed her head violently back and forth. Her torso naked, hands bound tightly to a hook above her head. And below the waist – a long blue tail. The sharks barely glanced in her direction, uninterested in her struggles.

“Is that your next trick? Drowning me in a shark tank? How can that be any worse than this?”

“Keep watching.”

A mechanical whirring noise began, and the hook rose up from the water, the girl breaching the surface and gasping for breath.

“Who are you?” The man’s voice, off-screen.

“I’m Megan Clarke, I’m human! I’m not your mermaid, not your mermaid…” Her protests stopped abruptly as the hook began to descend once again.

“I hate to do this to you, Megan. You had such potential.”

“Oh!” She looked down in confusion at the arrow lodged above her navel. No, not an arrow – a harpoon! Blood blossomed from the wound, dripping into the water as she continued moving downwards.

Realisation and pain widened her eyes.

“No, please, not the sharks, please, just kill me now, just kill me!”

“Too late, Megan. What a waste.”

The water turned crimson around her and suddenly there was a blur of movement, excited thrashing and gurgling noises. The noises stopped long before the sharks.

“Please, turn it off!” I pleaded. “I’ll do it! I’ll do it!”

“Do what?” He asked calmly.

“Be your mermaid.”

“That’s better. I knew you’d come around.”

***

The lights went down in the auditorium, excited children munching from buckets of popcorn shaped like dolphins. I sat on the narrow ledge at the top of the tank, watching the bubbles ascend from their hidden tank below. I took a deep breath, adjusted my clamshell bra and dove in. The water was warm, embracing me as I dove down towards the glass wall. I stared out at the sea of faces, scanning the audience for anyone who could help me. I waved and smiled, and dozens of sticky hands waved back. I ducked behind the rocky cleft to use the rebreather, then swam in summersaults, my sparkling red tail wafting gracefully behind me. Clapping and giggles from the audience, as I opened the treasure chest and took out a fork, began brushing my hair with it. A security guard stood just beyond the glass, and I imagined myself tapping to get his attention. His gun firing into the glass, shattering it, releasing me from my watery prison.

Instead I posed for photographs, a fake smile plastered over my silent screams.

The curtain fell, and I swam up to the surface, pulling myself up onto the ledge once more.

He watched me from above.

“What are you?” He asked.

“I’m your little mermaid,” I told him.

“Yes, yes you are.” He opened the hatch to my holding tank, and I crawled over the metal walkway and waited to be lowered inside.

A fresh sandwich and glass of milk sat beside the mattress, but I ignored the hunger gnawing at my stomach. Instead I took out the fork I'd stashed inside my waistband. Crawled over to the corner and began digging away the sand that covered the drain to the main water pipes. Maybe today was the day I'd escape.

There’s something he’s forgotten about mermaids. We lure men to their deaths. And it’s almost his turn.