Sea Stars & Wishes

Prologue

Song

The water shimmers wrong under the human's lights, and the fish swim lifelessly around me. There is no sea magic here. The scales on my tail and torso, devoid of sea magic, have completely silvered- the color of an almost dead merman. The humans aren't aware I am sick; they are too mesmerized by the beauty of my presence, an imprisoned merman. An enchantment in their everyday mundane lives. Something so beautiful and elegant, yet they keep me prisoner in this tank.

It's been 637 days since I was dumped into this excuse of an ocean duplicate. I'm a form of entertainment for their flashing cameras. I'm exposed in every corner of the tank. The square sides open to eyes to peer in. The bottom of the tank curves so they can walk below in an all-glass air tunnel. I barely find peace above the water on my "rocks" under the lights that mimic the sun. Access for all eyes as they circle around me. I am a prisoner, and they do not care for my sadness or notice my sickness.

I didn't want to accept my fate, but after a few weeks I came to accept that this was going to be how I spent the rest of my days. It won't be too much longer now. The marine biologists haven't noticed, and when they do, it'll be too late. It will bring me satisfaction watching them scramble around to find what caused this and a cure. After all, I'm their number one attraction; the reason they have so much money. They will have to explain how they killed me. How I died in the hands of humans.

I will win in the end.

I pick another scale off my tail. My body has yet to feel the effects of impending death, but soon it'll happen. It will hit me like a tsunami, and it won't take long to succumb.

I survey the empty room and rejoice that this prison is closed to the public for the week. But I know I'm not off the hook.

Every five months, marine biology students from universities across the country come to study for a week. According to a student I met the first time I experienced this study program, this is the country's largest aquarium. It only made me feel sicker hearing that. So many lives trapped, and so many who will never get to experience the ocean again.

Most of these students choose me as their study topic. Mostly the female students. As flattering as it may seem, they're delusional. A merman and a human? What a joke. However, the students are not permitted to touch or do experiments on me. Something about how 'we are lucky to have one, especially with the circumstances that he is unfit to return to the ocean' and 'he has been through enough' and 'he is similar to us humans, wouldn't you hate to be experimented on or touched?' Delusional. Psychotic. They call themselves humane, but keep healthy wild animals in little showcase tanks instead of setting them free. Humans think they can just own everything and anything they want. They're the invasive species on Earth.

"And over here we have our infamous merman, Song," a man's voice drags me out of my infuriating thoughts. I look up and spot Junhee guiding a rather small group of students towards my tank. I slowly scoot towards the edge of the rock, dipping my tail into the water, ready for a clean escape.

"The first-ever merman rescued," Junhee explains, "Song, here, was speared by some fisherman and the captain of the ship brought him to us so we could allow him to heal. Through his healing journey the care specialists deemed him unfit to return to the ocean."

I slide into the chemically treated seawater. I swim around to the other side of the rock formation before bringing my head to the surface again, hidden away from the group. They would see me later anyway. Anything to spare a few more minutes alone.

"That's so sad," a quiet female voice shakes the silence, "to be trapped and put on display like that."

"He's not trapped," Junhee awkwardly laughs correcting the girl, "he was deemed unfit to return to the ocean due to the extent of his injuries. He is more than safe and healthy here."

"What if it were you?" She retorts.

"That's enough Miss Belle," an older gentleman scolds.

I pull myself along the rocks, and peek a fraction of my head out to look at the group. Who would boldly say something against the popular opinion.

Then I saw
Her.