Ten years ago is when our family went broke. The usual spots that Fine Fin Foods would fish for its mermaid livestock seemingly went cold overnight. My dad tells me it was a lot harder than just going to a given spot to fish them. One would have to track them and wait for the mermaids to feel safe again and then you fish them up. I was around thirteen years old myself when I last saw a mermaid. Growing up I remember I would see the mermaids behind glass at the Fine Fin’s factory, though it was a fleeting interaction. The mermaids in tubes would smile when they saw me in particular. I thought it was because I was special, but I found out they would usually smile at human children.

After all this time I’m finally laying my eyes on a mermaid again, it’s been well over a decade. The mermaid in front of me was giving my father, his two helpers, and me a piercing look. She was frantically swimming in the rather uncomfortable-looking glass cylinder she was placed in. This glass prison had a removed top so you could easily drop in a mermaid. The tube was long enough so that even the strongest mermaid could not jump out, even with a swimming start in the tube. This container was large enough so that she could swim around in it but not comfortably. The water that housed the mermaid was stale and stagnant.

“Please let me out.” It was almost as if my dad and his crew could not hear her but they very well could and would smack the glass when she tried to communicate with them. When the mermaid spoke I locked eyes with her and now how her fragile golden eyes won’t stop staring at me. My father seemed kind of annoyed by her pleas but was probably used to ignoring a mermaid’s scowl.

Father and his chums were just laughing and talking about all the money offers they had already received for the creature. My dad glanced over at me and saw that I was staring back at the sad mermaid.

“Mermaids will try to sucker you in by any means. Don’t fall for its charm, just ignore it.” How could I ignore the wails of such a beautiful creature? It was hard to shut out the gripes of the livestock in any of the factories I worked in, but what could I do to help them? I may just be overthinking this whole situation after all she's just a "beast-like". I used to work in a factory that would kill animals and beast-like by the thousands every day and at some point back then their cries just turned to another sound in my ear. As I turned to my dad I could see him absolutely elated. It’s been years since I’ve seen him this happy. He looked back at me with tears in his eyes and was overwhelmed with joy and hugged me.

“This is really going to save us Zeb, I think things are starting to look up for once.”

My dad and his two stalky crewmates just could not stop reveling in the details of her capture.

“And you thought it was just a dolphin”

“Oh come on, who would have thought it was an actual Mermaid?” The laughter and tearful joy between the men continued as they kept recounting the story of how they caught themselves a mermaid. My dad’s face went white as he looked at his lit-up phone screen.

“Check out this price, this rich guy wants this mermaid for his private menagerie.”

“This one says he can possibly try cloning her, they made several breakthroughs in science stuff like that over the years” his crewmate Piero said as he stumbled over his own words. I looked at the screen and I saw prices in the millions for her. I could not be happier for my father and yet every time I looked at her, she appeared just miserable.

“Hey Zebbadia, we are pretty tired from the whole trip out at sea and were wondering if...”

Before Marty the third crewmate could finish his sentence I cut him off. “Don’t worry I’ll watch her for you. You all get some rest.” I can tell the three men in front of me haven’t slept in a while and I need time to think about the whole Noira predicament so secluding myself in here could be what my mind needs.

“Thanks, Zeb, I could use a proper night’s sleep, I haven’t touched an actual bed in too long. Oh, and we can’t tell a soul about her. If any sort of wildlife foundations, competition, or anybody on this forsaken peninsula finds out we have this money maker, they will try to rip her from our hands.” My dad and his friends take one last look at the mermaid with smiles and tears on their faces as they leave the small abandoned warehouse. For a moment all I could hear was the sound of the hard rain hitting the small sea warehouse.

“What are those people going to do to me?” I promptly ignored the mermaid’s question. My dad always warned me not to get attached to livestock when as a child I would make faces and seemingly play with the mermaids behind glass. She’s just gawking at me, “You didn’t celebrate with them. You are different than them. please let me go.” It’s maddening listening to a creature talk to you before you are about to let them die. “I lost my family, I have to find them.” I couldn’t tell entirely, but she looked about the same age as Noira and me. most beast-likes aged like humans with a few species being the exceptions. She was so stressed that she was beginning to look pale and about to pass out in that tube filled with green water. There isn't much I can do for the Mermaid and she realizes that and just drops to the bottom of the tank. Before she was swimming all about in the tube, now she’s just sort of sunk at the tube's floor. She wrapped her naked body in a circle lining the floor, resting her head on her arms. There were large weighted sandbags at the bottom of the tank that were at least ninety pounds each. That's why I find it weird that every so often I would see the ones she was laying on begin to float a little and carry her up a few inches. I just heard her sobbing for about an hour straight. She was too afraid to cry any louder than the hard rain pouring outside from the dark sky.

I kept seeing Noira’s face in my head but with the creaky wooden hut in the rain, the drops falling on my head constantly, and the weeping coming from the glass tube, how am I supposed to get any thinking done? As the mermaid’s skin grew paler and paler, she was looking a lot like the mermaids that used to float through the factory tubes. She was laying there just sobbing and I could see the contour of her back musculature. It's amazing how without the mermaid's tail, she appeared almost human.

I can only imagine Noira’s reaction to me safeguarding a mermaid only for it to be thrown to some shady character who will most likely serve her at some banquet. I stood up and made my way to the cylinder prison, my boots making the wood beneath my foot creak and bend loudly. I know this Shack is sturdy but I still get the feeling that at any moment I'm going to break through the harbor and fall right into the ocean beneath me. She doesn’t notice me partway leaning on the inch-thick glass. “Are you hungry? I could toss in some of that...uhh chum stuff over there.” I was right up next to the glass now and her sad eyes met mine as she poked her head out of her curled form. She gave me a glare and put her head right back in her arms. I make my way to an area piled with junk an old sea shack like this would be stocked with. I shuffled through some of the things laying around this old place. From what I could tell, this hut used to be an area where they would store fish and not mermaids per se, but large trout or bass. While looking around I accidentally knocked over an empty metal barrel that was upside down with some buckets and an old rusty harpoon gun placed on top. The metal barrel had three capital Fs on it which was the old logo for "Fine Fin Foods''.

I was able to find some canned chum that was used as bait. I walk up the loud metal staircase to go above the long dirty tube housing the mermaid and empty the can inside for her to eat. She doesn’t respond to the food. I just keep getting more anxious the more I look at her and I’m not sure why. I think it’s in part to having an illegal creature stashed away like this. Mermaids were now on the list of creatures to be turned over to the Polite Society if found. What they would do to her I haven't a clue. I walk back down the steps and to the bottom of the tube to where she’s laying.

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“Can you sing? I hear a lot of mermaids tend to have lovely voices.” Did I just try to make small talk with the creature? I doubt an animal like her would even want to converse with people.

“I’m not going to sing just because some human commanded me too” she responded to me though I didn’t think she would. I would find it insensitive too if someone was about to kill me but also trying to carry out a normal conversation.

“I’m not commanding you to do anything, don’t worry.” She began staring at me again as she did earlier when we locked eyes. I wasn’t trying to stare back but the thing with mermaids is they know how to draw your attention. Without realizing it or really meaning too I smile at her. It was ever so slight but she gave a tiny smile back. With our eyes locked she suddenly springs up and floats toward me.

“Let me go and I’ll sing for you as long as you like.”

“Are you trying to tempt me to break you out?” It was a legitimate question. I had no idea a mermaid would think to do such a thing as bargain.

“Come up here.” She said as she floated to the highest part of her dirty water. I don't know why but I walk up a few metal steps to get at her eye level. Her eyes and mine met at the highest point where the water stops in the tube though there were still several feet of glass tube above her.

“There is something I have to tell you.” she has this rather playful look on her face, “did you know that I can do magic! It’s true. Put me back in the sea and I’ll grant you a wish.” I can’t help but chuckle but she goes on, “You think I’m making it up? Fine.” She swims back down swiftly and puts her hand on one of the large heavy sandbags that was at the bottom of the tank and it goes floating up past my line of sight to the top of the tank like a ping pong ball then immediately it sinks back down. “Lighter than air,” she says with bravado.

“Do you really have magic powers?”

“All mermaids do.”

“Why haven't you used them to try to escape?” She looked angry when I asked her that question. I was legitimately wondering why, but I guess to here It sounded like I was holding the fact that she was a prisoner over her head. She just gets an irritated pouty look on her face as she crosses her arms then floats back down. She curls up at the bottom of the glass cylinder again as she had previously done. All I can see as I walk back down the steps is her back facing me. Her long blue hair shined with a Cyan gleam in the light. I have never seen a mermaid with a full head of hair before today, usually, they were cut bald by the time they were brought to the factory. Folklore spoke of mermaids getting power from their hair but I’m not sure how true it was. Since old times hunters would chop off a mermaid's hair before processing them. I doubt a mermaid could learn real magic, all the famous mages I read about take decades to learn spells in the great mage halls of the world. Then again all those mages were human.

Just seeing this beautiful creature sad in the tank is making me sad too. And my mind begins to race again about Noira, losing my job, and how disappointed my dad might be when I tell him. I lean against a spout sticking out of the wall, resting my arm on the faded red crank, no hose attached but I’m guessing this spout was there to fill up the tank. I keep thinking about Noira and how down she must be feeling. The thought of sending her a message kept permeating my mind. It's been a few hours and although she wouldn’t want to see me, maybe she wouldn’t mind getting a message from me. I reached for my pocket and realized I left my phone back at home. The only phone in this place was an old-looking phone attached to the wall, I doubt it even works anymore. Maybe I can just call her? I doubt she would answer. I just stood there looking outside a nearby window at the black cloudy sky with just the sound of rain hitting the thick aluminum leaky roof.

The mermaid began to stretch and move around a bit. Her poses and the way she moved made me glance back at her a few times, again her upper body was almost identical to a human. In old times apparently, mermaids would lure men to their deaths with seduction and song. The mermaids I’ve seen never seemed hostile so I’m not positive of the validity of those old tales. The world seemingly grew desensitized to the idea of treating any sort of creature the way you would a person. She spotted me gazing at her and without looking my way spoke.

“I don’t think I'm that heavy and I saw that the ocean is near to here. You could carry me there easily.” she is now glancing at me just over her soft pale white shoulder “I may even be able to crawl to the ocean if you just take me out of this cell. I can last a long while without water.”

“I’m afraid you won't last long in any stretch of the sea this side of the Hook Foot Peninsula, there are underwater drones for miles out and across the coast searching for mermaids, merros, sirens, and really any other sort of rare aquatic creature. You don’t seem to be going anywhere.” She appeared even more disparaged than before and broke down crying again.

“Please stop doing that, It's…” I tried to tell her until she shot me a look that shut me up instantly then proceeded to continue crying. Telling her not to cry was pretty insensitive considering her situation. I don’t know what came over me, but consoling her seemed to be the thing to do now. “Look I’ll talk to my dad, I’ll make sure he doesn’t sell you to anyone who plans to kill you” after the words left my mouth I could feel how horrible they were. It was shameful that I even tried to cheer up a creature that I was actively holding captive.

“So I’m going to be sold as someone’s pet or possibly worse? I would rather die.”

She was right to feel the way she did. As I paced around the musty-smelling warehouse, I could hear the floorboards making even louder cracking sounds, it emphasized how silent it was on this rainy night. The ringing of the old wall phone startled me pretty bad. Even the mermaid jumped for a second.

“Hey dad”

“Good news! We found a buyer. This rich guy wants to serve mermaid at some grand gala he is throwing and wants the clout of being the only guy in ten years to serve mermaid. Our rich client and I came to the conclusion that sending her off whole would be dangerous, There are too many checkpoints and patrols on the main roads. They will bust us if we are caught with a mermaid, so we are going to have to ship her piece by piece. Can you clean off one of the butcher tables laying in there and have her prepped by the time we get there? We are going to ready up some of Marty’s old fridge trucks so we can ship her in increments. We will be there around sun up, just have the meat prepared by then, I’ll see you soon.” My old man hangs up way too fast. I drop my phone letting it crash on the table next to a bunch of other tools. Does he have any idea what he is asking me to do? Damn it old man.

I must have had the most crazed look in my eyes because when I turned to the mermaid she visibly shuttered. The floorboards are creaking to my every step as I pace back and forth faster and faster. I can see how frightened she is now, I don’t think she could hear the phone conversation and could tell by the way I'm moving that something is about to happen. I don’t know what’s about to happen. My dad is counting on me, we need this money. Wait, why am I hesitating? Maybe I should just call him back and tell him to kill her himself. I reached for the phone I had slammed on the table. My hand moves past the phone and clenches an old rusty harpoon gun. I don’t think my hands have ever shaken this badly. I’m struggling to load this old thing, I even drop the heavy harpoon on the ground. It pierced the wood at my feet pretty deep from such a small drop. The blood-curdling scream that came from behind me, resonated through my bones. Each scream is like having my nerve endings ripped out through my pores. She can tell what is about to happen. Each shriek that belts out of her mouth, the cold frightened look on her face combined with the shaky grip my sweaty hands have on the harpoon are making this possibly the hardest thing I have ever had to do.

“Why would you make me do this dad?” I kept mumbling under my breath uncontrollably as I walked up those metal steps. Step by step my legs were getting heavier and heavier. Through the mossy glass, I could still see how brightly her orange eyes shined at me, killing her was absolutely the most heartbreaking thing I have ever been tasked with. For the good of my father I’ll do it, I’ll butcher the beautiful mermaid. My dad caught her, he deserves all the good things that come with a rare find like this. After all the hard work my dad puts in, he deserves a little bit of happiness. Damn it he deserves to be happy. What right does his good for nothing son have to take that away from him? When I reach the top and aim the gun down at her she begins to beg and plead for her life. Damn, damn, my eyes are filling with tears, I keep having to wipe them on my shoulder sleeves.

“My dad really needs the money! damn it, I’m sorry. I'm so sorry... Please, please forgive me!” I clench my teeth so hard, I can hear them creaking almost as loud as the swaying wood shack. The tears poured from my eyes uncontrollably and the loaded harpoon gun was almost shaking out of my hand but I held tight. I had the gun pointed right at her and squeezed the trigger just hard enough so that it wouldn’t go off. Through the sounds of her begging and pleading for her life, I just let out one final scream. I hear a loud thud then the sound of the harpoon going off.

So that's my choice. About five feet down from the level I was standing at I saw the Harpoon itself lodged into the wall where it shot, the gun left a huge dent on the wood floor where I had tossed it away.