Scales

My dad was never home. He was either at work figuring out how to create a cure for all disease that sea creatures could have or at the bar down on Lambert St. When I did see him, it wasn’t something that I looked forward to. He also would nag me about cleaning my room or keep a B average in school. Every since mom left, he never really showed me any type of positive attention. It went from,

“Hey Jenny, you need anything?”

or

“Hey Jenny, how was school?”

to

“I never see you doing shit, get your lazy ass up and do some homework.”

This made me wish that  he was the one to go instead of my mom.  My mom had left us roughly 3 years ago. She never really told me why. I remember about a year ago receiving a postcard from Hawaii that simply said,

“Hey Jenny it’s mom. I’m doing much better. The people out here are so wonderful and I found a new man  that showers me with gifts and pays me all the attention that I need. I think I might marry him. Toodles!”

I guess she was receiving the cold shoulder from my dad that I am now receiving. I mean, my mom was never really there either. She was too busy tying belts around her arm to find that perfect vane to eject herself with drugs that she never really gave me the time of day. However, I would prefer a lifeless body laying on the couch for 3 days straight, then a mad scientist that gives me his ass to kiss as if I had done something to him. But hey, I couldn’t exchange the piece of shit parents that God left me with.

I was in my room painting when my dad knocked twice and came in,

"Get up Jen, you're going with me today."

"Going where?"

"Stop asking me questions, and get washed. Meet me in the car in 20 minutes." He walked out my room and slammed the door

The ride to the lab was much different from the last time. The old crumpled buildings were replaced with tall apartment buildings, so tall that when I tilted my head back to see the top of the building, it hurt my neck if I stared too long. It took us about 30 minutes to get to the lab and about another 20 for us to sign in.

The first time I came here I was probably about 5 years old. I know thats too young to remember a lot of things 10 years later but I don't remember going through these procedures.

In order to be allowed in the Lab, I had to get my finger scanned to make sure I was a United States citizen. A nurse wearing a all white jumper then dug a 6 inch needle in the side of my arm that felt like it was sucking the life out of me. She then took what seem to be a pint of my blood and squirted it into a tube. The tube turned a bright yellow and a bright green "A" ran across the screen that the tube was connected to . The giant double doors sled open and my dad and I walked through.

"What was that tube, and why did it glow up?" I asked

"Its to make sure that you weren't ill because if you were, you would not be allowed in the Lab. And if you were ill, The tube would turn blue, and the darker the blue the higher your level of of contamination  would be. In some cases the nurse would have to.. Never mind"

I didn't ask anymore questions. I knew that if I did, my dad would stare at me so hard he would burn 2 holes on the side of my head.

We walked down about 20 different hallways before we got to to the room marked “ML Testing 213”. If anything, this was the only thing that I remembered the last time I was here. I knew that once these doors opened I would be greeted with the most beautiful sea creatures god could have ever created.   

As we walked through the doors, I noticed something was very different. The room was quiet and deem. There were tall black drapes that started at the top of the ceiling and dropped down 2 inches before the ground. I reached for a string that seemed to be the key that opened the drapes when I felt my dad yank my shoulder and stare at me blankly.

“Jen, I promise you, what you remember being here is no longer here. “

What do you mean, aren’t there still fish?”

“There are, but they are much different, much much different.”

“Im sure its not that bad.” I reacher for the string.

My dad grabbed my arm again and with a stern look he said, “I warned you.”

I snatched away from him and pulled the string as quickly as possible. When The drapes were completely open, my eyes grew wide and I stepped back.

The fish were still here however like my dad said they were much different. So different that I could not take my eyes off of them even though I wanted to. Some had double heads with 8 eyes, others had tentacles growing out of the place where there eyes would be and others were covered in brown bumps that oozed orange every time the inhaled the mud brown water they lived in.

“Why? What happened?”

“They are sick, I have been trying to cure them for about 4 years now. But every time I dump a different cure in the water it has created a different mutation.”

“You did this to them?” still staring at the tank.

“Not exactly. They were already ill internally. “

“So  what are you going to do?” turning to look at him.

“I have made another potion that I believe is the answer. The answer to every single  disease that aquatic life could ever have. All I need you to do is go get it out of the closet.” he pointed near the door.

I walked over to the closet. There was a keypad on the door meaning that it needed a code.  Unconsciously, I typed in my birthday and the red light that glowed so brightly turned green. I reached into the closet. There was a tube that was similar to the one the nurse squirted my blood in, the only difference was that it was much larger and inside the tube wasn’t liquid. There were little fish the size of a quarter that swam back in forth so fast that I didn’t even know what they were until I stared for about 30 seconds.

“Come on, Jen, Bring them to me,”

“What are they?”

“I will dump them into the tank. This is the cure.” he grabbed the tube from me and stared at the tube as if he was amazed by what he was seeing “Help me.” he shouted to me as he tried to climb the ladder to the top of the tank where there was an opening for food.

“They are called Micro Aqafinic bots. Once I drop them into  the tank, they will swim in the heads of the fish,” he continued up the ladder, “they will than arrange the fish brain cells so they can send a steroid like substance to the fishes white blood cells. This will than make the fishes white blood cells strong enough to kill any disease that tries to enter the body of the fis....”

Before he could finish his words, we both were on the floor. The ladder had snapped into two and fell from the side of the tank. The  top to the tube was across the floor and the bots were everywhere. I looked to my left and I noticed that my dad was laying on the floor lifeless.

“Dad !.” I tried to get up and move to his body but something was holding me back. I felt a stinging pain on the bottom of my right leg. I pulled my pants leg up and one of the bots were crawling up my leg. It had broke my skin and was making it’s way to my brain.

“Ahhhhhh!” I screamed “Dad! Help me! Help me ! I cant get it out.”

But there was no response. I was too focused on how I would get the bot out my leg that I didn’t notice the pool of blood around my fathers head until  it was too late. I clawed at my skin but it would not stop crawling. I felt it maneuvering through all  the blood vessels and ligaments that were once placed so neatly in the muscles of my hip now being torn to shreds. My side, my shoulder and then my ear, the bot had finally reached its destination. I dug at my ear but there was no turning around. The bot had made its way in my ear and before I knew it my head had hit the floor and everything became a blur.

“Dad..” I said in a faint whisper reaching towards his direction and then the room fell black.  

I was awaken to a room filled with big white lights. I attempted to hold my head up but there were wires that ran from my forehead to a machine that would not allow me to do so.

“What is this? Where am I?” I attempted to yank the wires out of my head but they would not budge.

“Get these off of me ! ”I screamed so loud it made my throat hurt. I heard the clicking of heels as the ran to my bed side. Within 20 seconds, there were about 5 nurses wearing white jumpers standing over top of me. They all took turns looking at me and by the glow of their eyes, I knew they saw something that surprised them.

“What? What is it?”

but no one responded.

I looked to my right side where the machine was placed that feed the wires to my head to see if there was a way for me to detach the wires but I found something different . The machine contained  a blank screen which made it possible for me to see my reflection. Well, the reflection of what I was becoming. I reached to touch my face in disbelief of what I was seeing.

There was green slime falling from my eye socket and the soft skin on  my checks were replaced with rock hard scales. I tried to get up but the place where my feet once were was replaced with webbed feet. I fell back in disbelief. I heard as the monitor that I was connected to beep in an extremely fast past. Everything became a blur again, but I saw as the nurses put on gloves and started hitting buttons on the monitor. The room fell black and all I could hear were high heels clicking as they scattered to and from my bed side..

One yelled, “We have to operate!”

When I opened my eyes, I was back to normal. The scales were gone and my beautiful soft skin was finally replaced. I looked back at the monitor and watched as my soft black hair fell over my face. I wiggled my toes to make sure that those too had changed back and they did.  The wires were still connected to my head but they were much longer now and I was able to get up.

There were big glass windows but I couldn’t see what was on the other side. I remember this room when I was younger. This is where they would bring the test subjects so they could inject them with their latest creations. But I was no longer someone who observed a test getting ran on a species. I was the one getting tested. I looked around the room and noticed a white jacket with a black collar like my dad wore to work.

“Dad?” I thought “Where’d my dad?”

There was a thin remote next to my bed that had a woman silhouette on the side.

I clicked the orange button and in about 1 minute a nurse was at my side.

“Where is my dad? Why am I in here? I want my fucking dad right now!”

“Please Please just calm down.”

“I want my dad! Let me the hell out now!” I screamed.I hit her in the side and she flew across the room I had never been this angry before. My chest was beating so fast that I could see the print through my shirt. My face began to turn read and hot. When I went to wipe away what I thought was tears, I found the same orange slime as before.

the nurse got up and pressed a big red button on the side of the wall. A loud alarm went off that made me grab my and rage built inside of me. The webbed feet and the scales returned but not just on my face and feet, they were everywhere. I jumped up and the wires did not detach from  my head. I yanked them so hard that they finally came off with about 21 scales flew off of my face.

“Ahhhhhhh!” I screamed  and fell to my knees. I reached for the spots on my head where I expected the scales to be missing from. But just that quick they were replaced with new ones.

I saw the knob on the door twist and I knew that I had to hide but it was too late. The nurse I had hit across the room had regained her strength and was making her way towards me. I jumped up and grabbed her by the mouth and pulled her behind the door.  In barged a man wearing all black with some sort of gun in his hand.  I grabbed a serigen  that I saw on the table that was next to door the door and walked slowly from behind the door with the serigen  pointed towards her neck.

“ Let me out of here, and if you try anything I will plunge this needle so far into her neck you won't be able to get it out.”

“Calm down please, we will not hurt you. We are here to make you better. Please just let her go and let us take care of you.” the man said.

I could not bring myself to let her go. I saw as the man reached out towards me and before I knew it the serigen  was no longer in my hand but hanging from the nurse’s neck. Blood gushed everywhere.The man dressed in all black  plunged on the floor to catch her before she fell and by the time he touched her lifeless body I had slid past and made my way for the door.

I ran faster than I ever did before. I did not know where I was at but I knew I had to get to water quick because as I ran my hand on my scaly face, it  felt dry. Everything felt dry. It was so hard for me to breath the point where I was panting and fell to the floor every 10 steps as I was running. My mind could not think of  anything else but water.

The alarm was still going off and I heard footsteps running behind me.

“Stop her! Someone stop her !” a distant voice shouted.

I had came across a room at the end of the hallway that read “Releasing 23”. This was the first door I saw that did not have a lock so without hesitation I barged in. In the room was as flight of steps that looked as if it lead to heaven. I had no other choice but to climb, I was extremely clueless as to where the stair cases leaded.

When I finally got to the top of the staircase, there was a big glass window with a door in the middle. Behind the window, it seemed to be an ocean.

“Water!” I thought, and without hesitation, I reached for the doorknob. As  my hand touched the doorknob, a shock ran through my body that made me fall to the floor. My body was stunted and it was extremely hard for me to get up. Before I knew it, bars that looked like they belonged to a cage began to rise from the floor. I grabbed on to the bars in an attempt to get up but just like the door knob, a shock was sent through my body.

“A trap.” I thought, but it was too late for me to do anything about it. I still has not reached the water that my body so desperately needed and on top of that I was being electrocuted.

While I was laying there, I noticed that the alarm went off. I laid on the floor lifeless.

About 2 hours went pass when I heard a buzz noise indicating that someone had entered the room. I laid there stiffly as I heard the screeching sound of heels clicking up the steps.

“Jenn..” a male voice said to me softly, “Jenn, look at me. We are here to help you.”

The voice was so familiar. But I knew it was no way possible for it to be who I thought it . I did not have enough energy for me to turn around and see who it was. My eyes were so dry that they would not open no matter what.

“Jenn, turn around Jenn. Im going to help you, I just need to know that you are not going to hurt anyone else.”

I Felt someone stroke the tear away from my face and continued speaking

“Jenn, I’m so sorry I am the reason this is happening to you.”

I could not believe it. It was so hard for me to open my eyes but when I did, I was blessed with the presence of my father. He looked health and unharmed.

“I thought you were dead,” I bursted out in cries, “Daddy, I’m so scared. Please let me out of here, I want to go home.”

“We will, but it will take some time. I have to sedate you so we can operate. just stick your arm through the bar.”

“Okay,” a tear rolled down my face, “Just promise me you won’t leave me here dad promise.”

“I promise, Jenn.”

I stuck my  arm through the bar and I watched as my dad stick a 6 inch needle through my scales. I drifted off slowly and before I was completely asleep, I noticed one of the nurse who came up with my dad pull out a remote, point it to my father, and click a button and just like that he was gone.

I couldn’t scream. The liquid that the hologram of my father injected into me made me extremely weak and just like before, my head fell smack to the ground and the room fell black.

When I woke up, I was in a room that looked like a one room apartment, it had everything I ever needed for the rest of my life. I scanned the room, and I noticed, that this is where they planned to have me for the rest of my life because there wasn’t a door insight. Next to the bed was a huge tank, big enough to fit about 4 adult whales.

This reminded me of the fact that I was now  a subject in their experiments and I grew angry.  I kicked the tank constantly. I picked up any and everything that I could see and threw it at the tank.

“Stop it subject 453 before we have to shock you!” a loud voice ran through my room.

I didn’t pay it any attention. I picked up heavier and harder things which created long cracks through the tank, the voice  grew stern,

“This is the last time. Subject 453 stop it now!”

I screamed to the top of my lungs and began to bang at the side of the tank. I heard a buzz noise like before that indicated someone was coming in but there was no door. The top of my  ceiling began to rise and down fell 3 black boxes. There were wires that flew out the boxes and connected to every part of my body. Before I could react my body was already shaking outrageously and there was nothing I could do about it. I fell to the floor and orange slime ran out my eye socket. A bright white light lit up the room and I laid there lifeless.

“Im done please just turn off the light”

I realized that my life would never be the same. I was going to be stuck on this hell hole until I died and there was nothing I could do about it. I was stuck in the body of an unknown creature and I had no choice but to donate my body to science.