A Delicate Ecosystem

Jason couldn't take his eyes off of the monstrous great white as it swam overhead. The literal belly of the beast was only inches away, and when it passed he swore he could feel the water being moved around him.

"The great white shark is one of our proudest features in the immersive experience here at the Aurora Aquarium," a voice blared out from the speakers mounted throughout the tunnel. Her voice was somehow calm, gentle, and violently shrill all at the same time. "Great whites are rarely if ever seen in captivity. While many have tried, most of these sharks will simply refuse to eat if they aren't out in the ocean. Thankfully, our marine and engineering experts here at Aurora Aquarium work tirelessly to maintain a delicate ecosystem in which this magnificent creature can thrive."

Jason felt a heavy, pointed nudge on his hip before turning towards Petra's unnervingly massive grin. He didn't know if he had ever seen her this happy.

"She weighs over three THOUSAND pounds!" Petra whispered, pointing at the great white circling back towards them on the other side of the all-encompassing aquarium glass. "She's the biggest one ever officially recognized, and she's the only one in the world known to thrive in a captive environment."

"Petra," Jason sighed quietly. "You know I love you, Sis, but you sound like that pamphlet they gave us at the beginning of the tour."

Petra's eyes widened gleefully. "It's VERBATIM!"

Jason sighed again, less quietly this time.

"SHHHHHHHHHHH!" came from an elderly woman standing next to them, scowling at Petra. Jason wanted to say something, but he wasn't going to ruin Petra's trip. He pulled her in close with his arm over her shoulder instead, offering a kind smile to his sister, then an icy glare to the woman to their left.

"Don't worry about her," Petra whispered. She wasn't going to let some stranger keep her from enjoying the aquarium.

Petra's love for the ocean and its myriad of majestic inhabitants was something that wouldn't allow for anything but joy and wonder. She had spent two weeks the previous summer attending the same marine life camp twice. It took another two weeks in between to convince her parents to let her go the second time. Both Petra and Jason knew how much their parents wanted her to branch out, but everything else turned into another discussion of what scientific names or minor facts she memorized most recently.

Jason wasn't nearly as interested in the sights at the aquarium as his sister, but he couldn't help being entranced by the building itself. On the outside, the whole place looked like an ordinary sports stadium. The simple, cement facade belied the maze of tunnels and stairways which wormed their way through the unfathomably large aquarium. Even in the most open of spaces, no surface was ever quite out of reach, lending a sense of heart-stopping tension to the tour thanks to the sheer proximity of the guests to the creatures behind the glass. As he peered into the water right next to him, Jason wondered if those on the other side were as aware of his presence as he was of theirs.

"Jason!" Petra was nudging at his hip again. "Come on."

By the time Jason looked down, Petra was already halfway down a dimly lit hall. He could see the rest of the group filing along down another hall. The crackling voice through the speakers followed the group on their pre-planned route, getting quieter as the distance between them increased. He turned towards them just in time to see the old woman from before giving him another nasty glare.

"Hag," Jason muttered as he turned back to follow Petra. "Hey, sis, the group is going the other way, y'know?"

"Come over here," he heard her call from around a corner. "I found something!"

Jason couldn't hear the group anymore once he found Petra bathed in a dim blue glow. The light emanated from a doorway hidden behind one of the few hall panels that wasn't made of glass.

"Look," Petra gently pushed the door back with her elbow, revealing a spiral staircase leading up several stories. "I bet this is how the employees get around."

"Yeah, Petra, that's probably it," Jason said. "We really should catch back up with the group, though. We don't want to get caught in here when they close down for the night. These late night tours aren't exactly lock-ins, y'know?"

"I know, but come on! This is so freaking cool," Petra said bouncing in place. "Besides, there's gotta be an emergency exit back there in case we get stuck, right?"

Jason sighed, "Petra, come on."

"Jaaaaaay-soooooon." He couldn't stand it when she said his name like that. "Come oooooon. What are they gonna do if we get caught anyway? Kick us out?"

He couldn't stand that she was right, either.

"Okay," he whispered. "We can do a little exploring. But if anyone asks you had to use the bathroom, deal?"

"Deal!" Petra exclaimed.

"Shhhhhh," Jason hissed back.

Petra shot him a glare before heading for the staircase, "Now you sound like that old lady."

"Whatever, runt. Let's go."

The two ascended the staircase, the blue light washing over them through slim, offset windows into the aquarium. As they corkscrewed upwards, Jason caught glimpses of schools of fish dancing their way through the water. Halfway up the staircase, Petra stopped to peer through a window and take in everything on the other side.

"Hey, Jason?"

"Whatsup, sis?"

"What's that?"

Jason leaned over his sister and looked into the window for himself, catching the sight of a two large, cylindrical arms propped between opposing corners of the aquarium. It was just out of sight from ground level, but where he and Petra stood the apparent machinery was easy to spot.

"Looks like some sort of pump system, maybe," Jason said. "It kind of looks like hydraulics."

"Why?"

"What do you mean why?" Jason shot back. "I literally don't know how this place works, sis. It's just part of the aquarium."

"But why is it moving?"

Jason looked back down at his sister. He didn't understand her question until he stared back at the cylinders and saw them slowly collapsing upwards. The panels making up the walls of the aquarium's hallways seemed to shift with them.

The sound of a door latching below sent a chill down both of their spines. The siblings locked eyes before simultaneously looking back down the stairs to see that the door they had come in was shuttered behind them. Jason rushed down to push it back open only for it to stay firmly in place.

His eyes stayed down at his feet as he ascended the stairs once more. "Guess we're finding that emergency exit, sis."

"I'm sorry, Jason." He could hear the disappointment in her voice.

Jason put a hand on her shoulder and pulled her in close. "It's okay, sis. We've just gotta go up until we hit the next door. Besides, what're they gonna do, huh?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Kick us out?" Petra asked with a twinge of fear in her voice.

"At the worst. Now come one, let's get out of here."

Jason took Petra by the hand and led her up the rest of the stairs to another seemingly hidden door that led out to another hallway. This time the two found themselves standing on glass instead of surrounded by it, with the black walls and ceiling making the waters below seem infinitely deeper than they truly were.

"This is creepy," Petra said with a tremor in her voice.

"It's fine, sis. Like you said, this is just how the employees get around, right?"

"I guess so," Petra said softly. She gripped Jason's hand tighter and stared down into the waters below. A thin film appeared on the other side of the glass beneath her feet. She looked away and clenched both hands around her brother's.

The two reached another panel at the end of the hall, and when Jason pushed, it gave way to another spiral staircase leading down.

"See? Now we just pop back out downstairs. I bet we even catch back up with the rest of the group."

Jason could see the fear in Petra's eyes. His heart sank for her.

"Listen," Jason said as he knelt down to meet Petra at eye level. "We are going to be fine. Let's just go catch up with the rest of the group, and even if they kick us out for sneaking off, we still got the best show out of anyone, yeah?"

A minuscule grin formed at the corners of Petra's mouth as she wrapped her arms around Jason's neck and latched on for a hug that nearly knocked the air from his lungs.

As they descended the next set of spiraling metal stairs, Jason peaked through the same kind of thin, offset windows as before. This time the water seemed different somehow. A thin film formed on the other side of the glass, and Jason stopped to take a closer look.

"Why are you stopping?" Petra asked him tugging at his hand.

"I just want to see something," Jason said, his words trailing off as he squinted through the window into the aquarium. He could see another set of mechanical arms collapsing up, this time clearly dragging glass panels along with them. The great white rushed past the window, swimming down towards the bottom of the aquarium. Jason followed it with his eyes, tilting his head down to see it nearing another glass hall below.

"Jason?" Petra asked in a hushed tone. "Are we going?"

Jason turned his head up on a swivel before turning on his heels. He couldn't make any sense of the building. He could see through the water where the lower halls cut through the aquarium, but he couldn't make out where he and his sister had come from just before.

"Yeah, sis. Let's keep going."

Jason pushed on another panel when he reached the bottom of the stairs, expecting it to lead him and Petra into a hall identical to the one they had been in when they initially left the group. Instead, they stepped into a wider hall with a single cinderblock wall across from one massive pane of glass that looked out into where the guests were taking their tour rather than the aquarium itself. Jason could see the old woman from before wandering it on her own.

"I guess she had to use the bathroom for real," Petra said with a giggle. She didn't notice the glass panels on the other side of the woman shifting upwards.

"Thank you for visiting Aurora Aquarium. We appreciate you taking part in the tour and choosing to become a part of our delicate ecosystem," the woman's voice blared through the speakers. It was even louder from the side of the wall where Jason and Petra stood.

"What does that mean?" Petra asked aloud. Once more she didn't notice the glass panels shifting.

But Jason did.

"Petra, we need to go," Jason stammered out. "Come on, let's find an exit. Now."

"But what does that me-" Jason didn't let his sister finish her question before scooping her up in his arms and rushing down the hall away from where they had entered. He turned one corner after another upon reaching the end, desperately searching for any sign of an exit.

Petra stared back over her brother's shoulder as he carried her. She could see the old woman staring down at the water rising around her ankles. The great white waited on the other side of the aquarium glass as the panels which separated it from its prey slowly moved out of its way.