The Fish are Calling

Waking up to the loud sound of my neighbor’s lawn mower was not the way I had wanted my Friday to start. I had imagined a much more exciting start considering today was the last day of school before fall break at my high school. Squinting at the rays of light peering through my lavender curtains, I realized that not only was I about to be late, but I had forgotten my biology class was headed to the Dallas World Aquarium for a field trip.

Jumping out of bed as quickly as possible, I tie my auburn hair into a high ponytail. Oh, how I had wished my hair could cascade down in luxurious curly locks, instead of the pin straight hair I had inherited from my mother. I make my way to the bathroom and splash my face with cold water to fully wake me up and stop dead in my tracks as I notice my reflection.

My nails are black although I had gone to sleep with no color on them. I shrug it off thinking maybe my bratty little sister Penn had painted them while I was asleep, but as I dry them on my towel, I notice my nail color fade and turn back into my natural color. I start to shake as I realize that somehow the water had caused my nails to change color. I try to steady myself on the bathroom counter but the panic in my eyes was apparent. “What the hell is wrong with me?” I gasp loudly.

My thoughts are interrupted by a loud knock on my door. “Sweetie, Myrah is here to pick you up for school. Something about you girls needing to take off for a field trip.” I snap back to reality and grab my neon green backpack off the floor. This unsolved mystery will have to wait until I can make better sense of it.

On our way to the Aquarium Myrah does not stop talking a hundred miles an hour about the boy she’s currently in love with which usually changes at least once a week. All the while my mind is consumed with so many questions as to what happened this morning. Part of me feeling as though it never happened while the other part knew fully well what I had seen and experienced. I try to focus on what Myrah is saying throughout the bus ride but the chaos in my head doesn’t allow me to.

As we line up and walk through the aquarium doors the smell of the salt water inside the aquarium makes me incredibly hungry. “Elora, why is your stomach growling so bad?” Myrah states with a look of both confusion and concern. “Did you not have anything to eat?” I look over at her confused myself as to why my insides feel as though they might eat themselves. “I’m fine, I just smelled the salty water from the aquarium and for some reason it opened up my appetite.”

“You can smell the water from the aquarium tanks?” Myrah begins to sniff around and looks puzzled at the idea that I can smell the tank water. I begin to shift from toe to toe trying to calm the anxiety inside of me. My stomach begins to turn with the realization that something almost supernatural is happening.

“Hey girl you definitely don’t look so great right now are you sure you're okay? You’ve seemed extremely quiet and almost disturbed by something.” Myrah places her hand on my shoulder as to try and pull me out of the thoughts that seem to be consuming me. I want nothing more than to tell her what is happening but I know if I say something it would sound completely insane.

I giggle nonchalantly, “yes of course I am, sorry if I’m totally freaking you out, I just didn’t get enough sleep last night. I’m going to go grab a quick snack from the concession.” I walk away from her before she has more questions that I can’t answer.

I end up ordering a salty pickle from a small booth beside our group and watch as the freckled boy who serves me looks at me in disgust. I can’t blame him for looking at me the way he does as I instantly began to devour the pickle right in front of him with no shame.

Noticing the rest of the group not paying me any attention I wander off from the crowd trying to seek some solace in my own company. I begin to feel a little drowsy from all the high stress of the morning and decide to lean up against the aquarium glass. I hadn’t been able to enjoy the day at the aquarium with the rest of my peers because of how concerned I had been.

Things were feeling so out of control but for all I knew this was just a bad case of teenage hormones. “Mommy, why are all the fish in the tank over there by that weird red headed girl?” chills run up and down my spine as I hear a little boy addressing his mother. I turn around to face the aquarium glass and feel terrorized as I see a massive number of fish looking straight into my soul. I hear whispers and gasps behind me as more people notice the odd occurrence.

Heart pounding in my chest, I start walking as quickly as I can towards the nearest exit. At this point I was less worried about what was wrong with me and more concerned about escaping. My thoughts were racing at a million miles per hour, and it seemed as though nothing would quiet them. Just as I am about to reach the exit, I hear a deep yet raspy voice beside me, “Wouldn’t you like to know what is wrong with you Elora?” I see a tall mysterious man walk out of the shadows towards me and I tense up. “I think at this point I’m more concerned with who you are and how you know my name,” I scoff back as he draws closer.

“You want to know about little old me? That’s so interesting because I am much more interested in studying you and your kind,” he sneers as he continues walking closer to me. I begin to take steps back until I feel the railing overlooking an aquarium tank, bump my back. “Now stay still while I throw you into this water to see if my theory is true.” He lunges his body and arms towards me as I scream the loudest most chilling scream I had ever heard. The shrieks of panic continue coming out within me like a ripple effect I cannot contain. I see the look of horror on his face as he covers his ears and I hear screams of panic coming from the rest of the aquarium.

I try to stop the screams forcibly coming out of me, but it is as if a deep-rooted pain or anger that I have held onto for centuries is being unleashed. I feel the earth shaking and it was in this very moment that I feared myself. As I continue to scream, I see people rushing out as best they can to reach safety.

I always thought if something supernatural ever occurred that I would be the heroine of my own story, not the villain, and yet in this moment I realized that would never be the case. Tears begin to stream down my face as I come to the realization that if I don’t find a way to control my screams, I might very well cause the destruction of this entire building.

As I feel my panic dwindling down and my screams reach an end, a large sound of shattering glass is heard. The aquarium was in fact crumbling to bits and pieces, and my only hope was to run, but I knew very well I could never go home, not after this.

Everyone in the aquarium had seen me including my classmates from school. I didn’t have any answers as to what I was, but one thing was clear, I was not human. Whatever or whoever I was would become a target to curious minds. Just like the fish in the aquarium people would want to study me for their own selfish gain, while others might want to hunt me for sport. I needed to find the answers to all my questions, but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do that here.

I ran that night for what seemed like forever in every and any direction. I ran away from the city of Dallas I once considered home, not knowing if I would ever return. Although that night was filled with so much uncertainty, one thing rang true, there were others out there in this world just like me, and I would let nothing get in the way of finding them.

-Lizelle Jeanine Morales