-1-

“What are you doing up this early on a Saturday ?,” Jayden asks, padding into the kitchen in his matching monogrammed pajama set.

Shit, I’d tried to get out of here before he saw me.

“Going to class,” I say, not daring to look up from my phone to see his exaggerated look of shock.

“Since when--”

“I’m thinking about applying to this marine science program, okay ? I’m just auditing this course at East Arizona. No big deal.”

I look up at him and he hits me with a quizzical look. Then he reaches into the kitchen cabinet for…yep, his favorite Saturday morning breakfast of mixed berry Cream of Wheat.

Jayden’s dad has been my cub scout leader when I was in 1^st grade.  I thought he was the coolest dude in the world since my Dad had been nothing but a few quickly penned birthday cards from prison (dear old Dad had stealing problem)  and I made it my mission to make Jayden my best friend.

When his dad and my Mom started talking marriage I was kind of excited to have a brother because I thought it would be a never ending sleepover  but as we got older it turned into a  never ending calling-me-on-my-shit party

“Why would you go all the way to East Arizona to audit a course? State is only a 10 minute drive from here,” he questions mixing up his disgusting hot cereal.

“I don’t know…change of scenery,” I shrug

“Why do you need a change of--”

I put my hands on my throat and start to pretend-gag.

“Jacob be serious--”

“Can’t. Talk,” I pretend to gag. “Cream.Of.Wheat.Too.Strong.Must.Save.Self.”

“Jacob--”

I tuck and roll for the door as the microwave beeps, filling the townhouse with the noxious berry smell.

I wanted to tell Jayden the truth, about Søren and AquaWorld but I couldn’t get the words out. I didn’t know how to explain it and how I’d gotten myself into this.

I’d been unsuccessfully searching for clues to where Luka was since I left Søren at the pool. I’d rummaged through Dr. Woods’ car and gotten Søren’s necklace back. I wore it around my neck, tucked in my shirt and the second heartbeat hadn’t stopped yet. It slowed down at night when Luka was probably sleeping but there were some times when it beat so fast it freaked me out and I wanted to take it off.

I’d  tried to follow Dr. Woods and Abbott to get more answers but going under the radar was kind of hard to do with my stupid motorcycle.

 I’d searched through the last six months of news to see if I could see anything about Abbott or Woods that would hint at where Luka might be. I'd heard them use the name Maria but when I put the name Maria into Abbot’s e-mails nothing came up.

I’d finally looked on Facebook and found a picture of Abbott, Dr. Woods and a woman named Professor Marisol Albrecht at a steakhouse in the Philippines. The restaurant was serving some rare exotic meat and Abbott couldn’t help but to let people know he was eating it. The Philippines was close to Guam, which was where Søren has said he and Luka were taken.

Professor Albrecht was a professor in the Life Sciences department at East Arizona University. She had a preoccupation with paranormal studies and managed to get the university to fund her studies on unexplained biological phenomena. She was usually trotted out for tv shows to talk about how aliens could be walking among us and then be made fun of.

I read she had a lab at East Arizona and  since East Arizona was a private school  I’d enrolled as in s graduate course to get a closer look. Going to class on a Saturday sucked but here I was.

The class was listed under Professor Albrecht but was being taught by one of her postdocs, a middle aged brunette who looked as tired as I was. The class was about marine ecology and I’m just barely following along for the whole six hours.

 When the class is over I make a beeline for the postdoc’s desk. She is hurriedly packing up her laptop so I get right to it and ask if I could get a one-on-one with Professor Albrecht to pick her brain.

“Do I look like her secretary?,” the postdoc spits.

“Sorry, I’m new I--”

“Professor Albrecht doesn’t talk to undergrads or first year grad students,” she says. “But if you want, you can try e-mailing her.”

“Maybe you can answer my questions. You work with her, right ?”

“Not anymore,” the postdoc practically growls incredulously. “Professor Albrecht is working on some privately funded project and told all her postdocs and grad students  we couldn’t use the lab anymore. I had to get a whole new thesis committee--”

“Wait, was this like…three months ago ?,”

She fixes me with a stare.

“Yes…actually.”

Another student comes to ask a question and I leave the lecture hall.

-2-

Instead of leaving the building though, I hide out in an empty conference room and study the fire exit map and a map of the building I found online just in case I need to make a quick exit. East Arizona had a good sports program but the sciences were pretty underfunded which meant I was pretty sure there were no cameras in this building.

Once I’m sure the building is empty, I leave the classroom and quietly walk down towards the basement laboratories. The necklace Søren gave me comes to life the minute I hit the basement. It’s not just the heartbeats—it feels warmer against my clavicle and the heart rate gets quicker, like Luka knows I’m near and is very excited.

I don’t have to guess which lab he must be in because just as the heart rate increases to something beyond human I hear a scream from Lab 8. The cry is terrifying and it keeps coming in short intervals. I can’t hear words but I can hear what sounds like begging.

Just as soon as the screams start, they stop—the necklace going colder and the heart rate comes down.

Lab 8’s door slams open and I quickly duck into the stairwell. I watch from a crack in the stairwell door  as Professor Albrecht walks out the lab wearing a coverall and glasses covered in blood splatter and carrying something that looks organ-like in a Tupperware container.

Once the coast is clear I try the door of the lab she just walked out of, but it’s locked. I’m about to try my hand at lock picking when I hear footsteps coming back. I consider just attacking Professor Albrecht for the key but assaulting a woman could get me thrown in jail.

Plus, assaulting a woman to save a mermaid would get me institutionalized

I bolt back into the stairwell, go to the first floor and hide out in the darkened admin offices.

The receptionist had left her computer on and what is clearly her password is on a sticky note under the keyboard.  Figuring I have nothing to lose, I log in and start poking around. I get all of my suspicions confirmed; Abbott was a big donor to the department, Albrecht had taken a week long work related trip to Guam a few months ago and had put in a bunch of orders for new surgical equipment with some new money she’d suddenly gotten.

What concerns me is what the receptionist has on Albrecht’s calendar for next week. She was having a moving truck and GS-9 guards come to the office to move some of her “sensitive equipment”, then she was taking a year long sabbatical in Dubai.  I look at the confirmation and it’s a first class ticket, which doesn’t seem like something a college professor could afford; unless it was being funded by Abbott.

 

***

I loved my motorcycle but it was really pissing me off now. If I was going to get Søren  and Luka out of AquaWorld I needed to do it now before they were taken to Dubai. I didn’t know how I was going to do it what with Arizona being landlocked and me being an  ex-animal trainer turned adult lifeguard but here the fuck I was.

It’s almost 11PM when I get back home and Jayden’s living it up,  sprawled on the couch reading a Vince Flynn novel and sipping on a yogurt smoothie. He could really get into his books, so I take advantage and quietly go open the antique credenza by the door to get his minivan keys.

They were gone.

“Jacob. What are you doing ?,” he asks not looking up from Act of Treason.

“What are you doing ?,” I say back.

He puts his book down and walks over to me, his arms crossed.

“You know if you want to borrow my van you can just ask,” he says.

“Yeah, right. You never let me use your van--”

“Yeah, well, that was the old Jacob,” he says. “The new Jacob can.”

“New Jacob ?”

“Yeah,” he says like I’m an idiot. “Dude, do you think I haven’t noticed what you’ve been up to ?”

I freeze. My mind replays all the lying, trespassing and illegal shit I’d been doing since meeting Søren.

“I--,”

 “I thought this AquaWorld thing was going to put you in a spiral,” he says. “But you’ve really changed for the better. You’re not drinking, you got a job, you’re participating in the class action suit and I mean hell you’re even taking a college class. On a Saturday. I don’t know what’s gotten into you but I like it.”

“I--” I begin but don’t know how to continue.

Instead I sigh and get as close as I can to the truth.

“Look, do you ever see the world in one way and think you totally know what’s up and then suddenly that gets changed and you don’t know what to do with that ?”

He laughs.

“Everyday,” he says. “I can’t ever tell them this, but I learn a little more about the world from my students everyday.”

“That’s kind of what I’m going through right now and it fucking sucks because I know I’m not enough to fix things.”

His eyes get all sympathetic and I want to kill this moment with fire.

“I know I can be kind of self-righteous sometimes but I get that this whole AquaWorld thing has been rough on you,” he says. “I’m sorry if I’ve been a dick about it just because we made different choices and mine worked out.”

“It’s not like that. I’m proud of all the shit you do and I’m figuring my shit out.” I say. “I just need to do something and I need to do it tonight.”

He looks at me silently, pulls open the cedar box on the credenza and tosses me the van keys.

“Just know I’m always here for you when you need me, big bro,” he says as I turn to the door.

“I know,” I tell him, opening the door and closing it behind me.

I palm the van keys in my hand, banging the back of my head against the condo door before opening it back up again.

“Actually, Jayden,” I call. “Are you ready to have your mind fucking blown ?”

 

---

-3-

“Holy crap,” Jayden whispers under his breath when we walk through to the restricted area of the aqua stadium.

Jayden had been decidedly silent when I ran into Wal-Mart and bought an inflatable swimming pool, aquarium salt and a gardening flat wagon. I couldn’t explain everything to him and I figured it was better he see it for himself.

Søren is floating in the water on his back with his arms outstretched like a gnat caught in beer. He startles when the door closes—which is odd because he always seemed to have super natural hearing. He doesn’t go into fight mode, but sinks beneath the water.

Søren could intimidate the crap out of me but he was clearly just as afraid of humans as I had been of him.

“It’s me,” I say. “ This is my brother, Jayden. You can trust him. He’s going to help me bust you out of here. Tonight.”

Søren floats back up, his eyes dart to Jayden who gives him a super awkward sheepish bow. Søren seems to momentarily find this gesture funny and then cuts his eyes to me.

“I’m not going anywhere without Luka,” he tells me.

“I think I know where he is,” I tell him. “Look, Abbott is taking you out of the country and if he does that there is nothing I can do to help you.”

“I will not leave this place without Luka--,”

“I know. We will get Luka,” I say hoping I’m right about Luka being in the lab and not about to star in my very own version of My Roommate The Mermaid.

I roll the flat top gardening wagon in front of him.

“Hop on,” I tell him.

Søren pulls himself out of the water and hops like a seal, in quick undulations, towards the wagon. While I knew he was mobile I didn’t think steps and changing terrain would do him any good. He pulls himself into the wagon, his tail curling to fit.

“Lie down,” I whisper

He does and I cover his lower half with a thick Minions blanket I picked up at the Wal-Mart and wheel him out of the park. Søren can’t help himself as we leave, he stares at everything; the outside of the aquastadiums, the park, the parked cars. He looks terrified.  

Jayden and I load him into the back of the minivan, where we’d filled the inflatable pool with water and aquarium salt to mimic salt water. The pool isn’t big enough for Søren but he squeezes himself up to make his body fit.

I notice a change once he’s in the salted water, his tail becomes more luminous, his skin brightens, he dips his face into it and breathes deeply.

“The chemicals,” he says rubbing the salt water in his hair. “The chemicals in that pool were awful,”

Once the van door is shut I get into the driver’s seat and head for East Arizona University.

“Dude,” Jayden says in a whisper from the passenger seat.

“I know--,”

“Dude,”

“Yeah--,”

“No, but, dude—”

“I thought the same thing.”

“But…How--,”

“I have no fucking idea.”

***

“This is going to be so suspicious,” I seethe, pulling the wagon—with the pool balanced precariously on top—down the hall of the East Arizona Life Sciences building.  “We should have left the pool in the car. What if we have to make a quick getaway ?”

“You will figure it out. Luka will not go with you if I’m not there. And if Luka is suffering in this place he will need the saltwater as soon as possible,” Søren explains.

Which is easy for him to say since he just had to act as a 200 pound weight while Jayden and I lug our new portable pool system up the building’s steep wheelchair ramp.

We take the service elevator down to the basement with Søren using his freskish hearing to listen for anyone else in the building.

“Yes,” Søren says the minute the elevator door opens to the basement. “Yes, he is here. Luka.”

 “Do you hear anyone else in here?”

He shakes his head no, but he seems distracted. He’d taken the necklace back the minute we got out of AquaWorld and he’d been rubbing it the whole time.

We head down the hall and before I can say which lab it is Søren has his hand outstretched toward Lab 8.

“Open it,” he orders.

“On it,” I say taking Jen's trusty crowbar out of my bag.

“That’s your plan ?,” Jayden says at the crowbar.

“I’m going to pry the hinges off. You have a better one ?,”

“The janitor’s closet,” he says like I’m an idiot. “The night crew will have keys to the labs.”

“Not this lab—it’s locked down. There’s a freaking mermaid in there, remember ?”

“So ? I’m sure that no matter what’s going on in there a tenured professor isn’t going to clean it up. You could get in trouble if you destroy university property.”

“Fine. The janitor’s closets is on the 4^th floor by room 439,” I say.

Jayden does a double take

“What ? I had to study the map.”

Jayden takes off up the steps and comes back triumphantly waving a ring of keys and fobs.

“Told you,” he says in the way only a little brother can.

He waves each individual fob in front of the lock and it unlocks on the third one.

-4-

“Luka!,” Søren shouts the moment we are inside, his voice full of fury and panic. It echoes around the empty lab.

Empty.Lab.

The lab looks like a standard lab except there are bankers boxes everywhere, filled with paper and equipment. It seems to have everything  a scientist would need but no merman.

“I don’t see him--”

“Back there,” Søren says pointing to a small backroom.

We pull the wagon through the narrow door of the backroom and I can’t help but to notice a list of sanitary warnings for entering the necropsy lab on the room’s door. 

“What the fuck,” Jayden says under his breath.

The steel slab of the necropsy table is empty but stained with dark blood.  There is a  large aquarium on the far wall with filthy water and overfilled with different species of fish, fighting for space. Most of the fish looked dead.

 The lab’s counter tops are crowded with stacked clear containers  and Tupperware holding either blood or organs.

A small thud sounds from one of the large steel drawers on the backwall  and Jayden and I jump a foot.

“Luka!,” Søren cries from the wagon. ”Don’t just stand there, fucking open it.”

I’m too shook but Jayden has the sense to  pulls the drawer open. I prepare myself for seeing a dead body but  instead of a toe with a tag looped around it I see a mess of translucent orange fabric like fin attached to thick tail and finally the body and face of a man.

He looks almost the same age as Søren. His skin is a golden bronze and his dark curls are highlighted with blonde. Tears are brimming in his bright green eyes as he looks up at me and Jayden.

A piece of duct tape cover his mouth and he’s restrained in the drawer by a series of complicated straps.

 “Don't worry.We’re here to help,” I say

“Ignore them, just look at me,” Søren says from the wagon. I can tell he wants to get closer but the space is too cramped.

Luka just closes his eyes as Jayden and I stumble over the restraints. Luka’s body is slim and reminded me of guys on the swim team who dropped weight too quickly. His skin is burised,  , ugly looking stiches cover his lower back  and track marks make a line up his arm. Parts of his tail are wrapped in bloody gauze and I’m almost certain chunks of it are missing. When I unsecure his cadual fin it falls in layers like a fancy dress but appears to have been ripped in places.

When we finally get him loose, Jayden helps him sit up, scoots him to the edge of the drawer and then he flops into the pool/ wagon on top of Soren, who splashes the salted water on him.

The pool is barely big enough for one of them, let alone two. Their lips meet and and Søren runs his  fingers affectionately through Luka’s curls. He flips their bodies so Luka is lying in the water and Søren is on top of him, his forearms braced around Luka’s shoulders.

“Søren--,” Luka starts

“Shhh. My heart. My heart,” Søren whispers and for the first time I see a smile on his lips. “You scared me.”

“I’m so sorry--,” Luka says, his face still painted with fear. “I shouldn’t have had you take me to see the humans. This is all my fault--”

“It’s okay,” Søren  says.

“No it’s not--”

“I don’t want apologies,” Søren says. “ I don’t care. Look at you, you’ve suffered enough. I’ve found you. That is all the matters.”

“I hate to interrupt this reunion,” I say. “But we need to get the hell out of here.”

Søren nods and it takes both Jayden and I to pull the wagon with both of them back to the back of the van.

Søren tells Luka an abbreviated version of how we were able to find him as we go. When Luka asks if the men at AquaWorld ever hurt him Søren lies and says no. Luka doesn’t get into  details about what Albrecht was doing with him but I guess it was some kind of freakish experimentation.

 “Okay,” I say once we have the pool back in the van. “We have to get you guys to the ocean. This is a landlocked state so who’s ready for a road trip ?”

I was well past midnight but I didn’t feel tired. Just amped up on adrenaline.

“I’m down but I’m driving,” Jayden says taking the keys from me. “Can’t have you getting a speeding ticket.”

“We can’t leave yet,” Søren says. “We have to make one more stop.”

***

-5-

As Jayden pulls out of the Sushiholic parking lot I can only hear the muffled sounds of Luka and Søren’s conversation in the backseat over the mindfulness podcast Jayden was blasting. Their conversation sounds happy and it makes me feel good.

Jayden drives the speed limit and manages to get us to the San Diego shore just as the sun starts to rise.  I don’t even notice the time pass because he’d switched to his Vince Flynn book on audiobook and I kind of got into it.

The beach is empty this time in the morning and no one pays us any mind as we roll the wagon on to the sand and towards the shore.

Søren climbs out first, helping Luka down and then hoisting him in his arms. He carries him the few inches to the shore and places him in the surf. Luka turns on his stomach, gripping  Søren’s forearm and watches us. Jayden and I  follow them, rolling up our pant legs as we step into the spray.

“Can you get back home from here ?,” Jayden asks looking into the distance where the shore met the horizon.

“Yes--,” Søren begins, his hand stroking Luka’s back.

“Bring your boat. We can meet up at a location and you can come with us,” Luka says which makes Søren frown.

Jayden and I exchange a look.

“No, my love,” Søren says. “Boats are not easy things for humans  to get. We can't wait for them. We need to get back to the tribe and let them know we are alive.”

“Mother will want to bless them for helping me,” Luka says and looks up at us. “A blessing is like....I think you would call it…magic or wishes. Humans like it very much. It doesn’t hurt.”

“Uh--,” I begin

 “Soren's right, We can’t come with you,” Jayden says for me. “We don’t have a boat and we don’t know how to sail. Um, plus we both have to go to work on Monday.”

 “You are a good humans,” Søren says, taking off his constellation  necklace and tossing it to me. “When you do make it out to the sea, rub this necklace five times and you will see us again. Then we can make things even.”

“Yes,” Luka agrees. “Anytime. We will never forget your kindness.”

“Yeah,” I say. “We’ll never forget you either”

Søren  nods and Luka smiles and then they push themselves further into the ocean, swimming off towards the horizon. For a moment I can track their movement and then they’re gone in a blink like they were never there.

Jayden and I stare off into the ocean for a few minutes and when we are sure that nothing else fucking amazing is going to happen we head back to the car.

“I-,” I start.

“Dude, we’ve been up all night. The only word I want to hear is coffee,” Jayden says.

“Aye, captain.”

-6-

I drive us to the nearest coffee shop and while I order the largest frozen caffeine chocolate monstrosity on the menu, Jayden get his fix from two-bag black tea with milk.

Not that either of us consume our drinks.

We just sit at the coffee bar staring into our cups  trying to process how we were supposed to go back to normal life.

And how long it takes to learn to operate a boat in open ocean.

“Bad day already, boys ?,” A woman jokes sitting next to me at the bar.

I crack a smile, I couldn’t help it.

“Sort of,” I say. “Unfortunately you wouldn’t believe us if I told you,”

Jayden elbows me.

“I don’t know about that,” she says. “I’ve seen some shit. Come one give me a shot,”

“Okay,” I look at the name scrawled on her coffee cup. “Delilah. But trust me you won’t believe this.

🧜

- Fin -