The music in my mind was more pronounced under the water, so I reasoned the lake was where I belonged. Even though I was part faerie, the music in Aurora Springs did not hold the same intensity as beneath these waters. Yes, somewhere within this underwater world was where I belonged. But, where?
As I moved ahead, I noticed a flickering light in the distance. It looked like some kind of light atop an industrial building. The other light sources that blended together from afar now came into clearer focus. From what I could see through the willows, it appeared as if there were multiple city lights. Was I swimming toward an underwater city?
My curiosity propelled me to swim faster. The blood from my arms and chest trailed away from me as I swam. Some of the willows slapped against my tail as I rushed through the dense brush. As I approached the far edge of the forest, I paused and hid behind a cluster of high reaching bulbous plants while I surveyed the sights before me.
It appeared as if I had come upon an industrial development. There were rows of plain brown buildings set on a level clearing. Light posts were intermittently lit along the dirt paths lining the building fronts. The largest building that looked like a warehouse had a flashing light on its roof that reminded me of the lights on top of old fashioned police cars that I had seen in dome cinema movies.
I didn’t see any signs of life around. Aside from the industrial lights, the city showed no signs of occupancy. I wondered how in the world this town could have been built underwater. I had never heard of people creating such structures in the depths of a lake. But, here they were before my eyes.
My curiosity got the best of me. I couldn’t help it—I had to explore this setting. What could possibly be inside of these buildings? Were they simply empty and abandoned structures? No, that couldn’t be. Somebody was manning them because the lights were lit. My mind raced with questions.
I decided to swim around the back of a row of small buildings. If anyone was around, I figured they would be less likely to notice someone in the back hidden away from the light posts. The warehouse peeked my curiosity the most. It was the biggest, so I assumed it was the main building and would likely hold the most important materials, if any materials at all.
There were three back doors and one double door that was wedged partway open. With the back exit set ajar like that, I got the feeling that someone or something was inside working. Maybe whoever was in the warehouse was in the process of moving things out and that was why he or she left the doors insecure.
To my relief, the blood seemed to have stopped flowing out of my arms and chest. I hid on the side of the building behind some stacked up, empty aquariums, cages, and medical cargo. The aquariums and cages were of a variety of sizes ranging from the size of my hand to the size of a whale. Now my curiosity was even stronger. What could these apparatuses be for? Though, I admit, I was frightened, I just had to know. A part of me feared that maybe I had come upon something top secret.
I wanted to sneak into the warehouse so badly, but I tried to control myself and wait to see if anyone would come out. But, every minute felt like an hour. As I waited, I tried to figure out who could have built these structures and why did they build them.
Whoever erected these buildings must have known about the huge, overpowering light deep within the lake. I reasoned that the light or the use of the light must somehow be connected to this project. At this point I couldn’t fathom how or why, but I was determined to find out.
Though it was probably only ten minutes or so, it felt like ten hours had passed without any sign of anyone. I decided to swim into the warehouse through the back double doors.
Hesitantly, I inspected the dimly lit large room. I didn’t see anyone inside. There were many aquariums inside much like the ones outside.
The first large aquarium looked empty aside from a big black boulder and a steel windmill set on a silver pole. I stared through the glass trying to figure out what the habitat was for. But, suddenly a red light flashed from behind the rock. I flinched and hurtled backwards from fright—a turtle with a human head swam out from behind the boulder.
The being looked at me fiercely for a moment. It had long blond hair and blue piercing eyes. Then it turned to the windmill and started spinning it with the claws of its webbed green feet.
It spun the apparatus faster and faster. The water began to swirl, gaining momentum. The creature looked at me. Its hair was wild in the water. Its shell was lifting up from the newly created force and flow. A sort of twister started forming.
I didn’t know what to think. The mystery of it was frightening.
But, nothing beyond that happened. The human-headed turtle merely stopped spinning the windmill and the water calmed. A brine shrimp swam out from behind the rock and the creature ate it in one swallow, sucking it into its mouth in the manner of a fish.
After my body relaxed for a moment, I noticed a small XZX attached to the side of the aquarium. Out of curiosity, I lifted the cover. The screen lit. It listed all the information about the being before me.
There was a lot of technical language that I didn’t understand, but from what I read, the creature was a genetic crossbreed between a female human dwarf and a prehistoric sea turtle.
Nervously, I looked around the warehouse for human presence, but saw none. Because there were so many aquariums and cages placed and stacked throughout the large room, someone could easily be out of view and behind one.
The dwarf headed turtle was so bazaar to me that I hardly knew what I thought of it. I did wonder if it could talk, but from the way it acted, it seemed dense with a turtle brain.
I should have left the vicinity, but my curiosity was even stronger now. Quickly I swam to the next aquariums. There were two tanks stacked up on top of each other here.
The upper tank had a maze in it made out of a clear winding tube that overlaid in twists and turns. Large cockroaches with mice heads were swimming through the apparatus. They were gruesome sights.
Below that tank were teeny tiny swimming horses with duck heads. Though they were odd indeed, they were actually kind of cute. Their white feathered heads blended seamlessly with the white horse hair and manes on their lower bodies.
The next huge aquarium faced away and was darkened on the sides, so I had to swim around to its front to view its contents through the clear glass. When I approached, I nearly fainted. A huge barbaric giant with gills on the sides of his face was shackled inside. The man, dressed in an animal pelt, was sleeping in a chair with his wrists secured to the back of the aquarium.
He was huge. His body was hairy and each leg was bigger than my entire being. He had an overgrown beard that was brown and speckled with grey. Certainly, he looked mean and scary, but I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him trapped inside such confines.
What was this place I had found? It must be top secret. If the U.S. was still in power, I would suspect that it was government run. Then it occurred to me that maybe Mazen Tratzel might have known about it or could even possibly be involved with it. Maybe the secret nature of these facilities is the reason the community is forbidden to cross the boundary line that separates the lake from the woods.
My mind reeled with various contemplations and scenarios, but I didn’t have time to figure it out now. I wanted to explore more and I wanted to move quickly before I got caught. If I was to be discovered in such a place, I imagined the involved would have to kill me for fear that I might reveal their secret.
Each aquarium had some sort of crossbreed. Quickly, I viewed the contents of as many as I could. There were dolphins with bird wings, crocodiles with human legs, water dogs with cheetah spots… I was so perplexed and fascinated—I wanted to study these creatures more closely, but there wasn’t enough time. I had to get out before I was discovered.
The rabbits with pig snouts were strange looking and they were able to change from the physical to the ethereal in shadowy figures like the goat cat that had attacked me in the willows. But odder than that were the huge phosp
horescent eggs that were in large incubators. I wondered what were going to hatch from those.
Now that I was in the back of the warehouse, I saw another doorway. So far I hadn’t been caught. Maybe if I just peeked inside, I might find something to explain this facility. Maybe I would find a clue or maybe the company name would be displayed somewhere so that I could figure out who was running such a lab.
I pushed the door and peeked in. It was dark. Surely nobody was in there considering the lights were off. I swam in hesitantly and listened. Nothing. No sounds at all. I was pretty certain, I was alone in the room, so I felt around the wall for a light switch. It wasn’t there so a checked the next wall.
Something grabbed my arm. I screamed as it pulled me to it. How stupid I had been. How stupid.
10
“Help me,” a masculine voice said as some unknown creature pulled me up against the metal bars of its cage forcefully.
I thought I was going to die from fright. What had I done? How stupid I had been to go into this room. Wasn’t it enough just exploring the warehouse?
To my utter shock, the music in my mind burst out of my body and was playing a wondrous, magical song like I had never experienced before. I struggled to get away, but the creature was so strong and it managed to grab my other wrist too and pulled me right up against it. I could feel its heart beat against mine.
I felt the strongest sensation of love that I had ever felt. Music was everywhere. It was like an electrical storm in the heavens. This was crazy. What was happening? I wanted to get away. I wanted normalcy, a regular life.
Lyrics came into the music. The words were in Hebrew—what my mother called the holy language of God. The words of the bible flowed through me. I could hear the creatures in the other room thrashing around from the excitement.
Colors lit up before my eyes. I saw an opening above my head split the darkness and explode with the most intense heavenly light. In this vision, I saw a cave within the brightness. My consciousness travelled through it.
There was the biblical patriarch and matriarch, Abraham and Sarah. How glorious! They lifted in perfect form and grandeur from their graves. I saw myself rise from another grave, shining with light and shocking beauty like I had never seen. How could such a woman be me? And at my side, a man of great height and physical perfection and light rose up from his grave beside mine. He took my hand. The music lifted to the Godly, to perfect unity.
I looked at the creature pulling me up against the cage. He was lit from the light above now. He was me. I was him. We were one.
“Eve,” He said. “Eve.” His voice was soft.
I cried. The history of the world rushed through me in Hebrew song with visions of clarity. I loved him. “I deceived you. I deceived God,” I said. “I brought death to the world.”
He wrapped his arms around me through the bars. I felt so ashamed and naked. “Adam,” I called this glorious being holding me against his chest. “I am of your flesh, created from your rib.”
The boy before me also had a fish tale, but his skin was made of the flexible, but strong material that fingernails are made of. He had eyes of every color and dark hair that shined in heavenly light from the vision that waded above us. He was the most beautiful being in the world. And he was good.
But, then I felt a hard blow to my head from behind and I passed out.
When I awoke, I was trapped inside a cage about seven feet high and four feet wide. To my right was another cage of the same. It contained a human girl with a zebra body. Her skin was black and her hair was long and red. She was pretty with light blue eyes, full lips, and fine features. To my left was a tall aquarium containing a tiger with a tropical fish body of bright colors. And in a huge cage before me, just several feet away was a giant man even bigger than the other giant I saw prior.
“Finally, you are awake,” the zebra girl said.
Startled, my head jutted back. I wasn’t expecting her to be able to speak. I didn’t think any of these creatures could talk. “Uh, yeah—I’m conscious.” I was in a different room than the other two rooms I had explored earlier. I looked around.
“You’re surprised to be here?” her beautiful eyes narrowed as she looked at me. I noticed her tale swatted away a small fish that swam inside her cage through the bars.
“Yes, I am surprised,” I said as I looked around the dim room. Though I was very interested in speaking with her, I was anxiously surveying my surroundings. “Where are we?”
This room was smaller than the main room in the warehouse where I had entered. It appeared as if the three creatures I mentioned and I were the only living beings within. There was a work desk and a metal cabinet against a far wall with a few empty medical beds with straps and shackles set up in a row to the side.
“We are in hell,” The giant said in a thunderous voice. He was sitting inside his cage, slumped over in a chair. His expression was melancholy.
I couldn’t help but feel frightened when I looked at him. He was probably nine feet tall and his body was so thick and wide. Like the other giant, he had a beard, but his was solid brown as was his thick head of hair.
I looked over at the tiger with the fish body. It swam around this way and that as it tilted its head back in what looked like a “roar,” but I couldn’t hear any noise through the glass.
“That thing doesn’t talk,” the zebra girl laughed.
The giant looked at her sternly and for a minute her body stiffened. In her stillness she almost looked like a statue. “If it can talk, we wouldn’t know…” the giant grumbled as he continued to stare at the zebra girl, “…because the aquarium glass mutes the sound waves.”
I noticed the giant had many red welts up and down his arms. Some were in the process of healing and pinkish in color, but others were bubbled up with puss oozing out. Oddly, the welts looked like burn marks. I couldn’t figure out where he could have gotten such wounds.
The zebra girl hunched forward suddenly as she coughed and gasped for air. “You wretched fool!” she hissed at the giant as she stared back at him with her intense blue eyes. “Stupid! You think I won’t get you back for turning me into a statue?”
Suddenly, the giant flinched and hollered in agony as he pulled his right arm away from her harsh gaze. “Evil beast,” he grunted. “If I could get out of this cage I would eat you up and burn your bones!”
A small circle of skin on his arm was lit with fire. Twisting in his chair, he patted the flames out. I was surprised how fire could light under water. Apparently these creatures had unusual powers.
Their banter frightened me. I didn’t want to be subjected to the wrath of their powers. It appeared as if I was in a horrible bind once again—trapped between two vindictive creatures with nothing to do but torture each other. I had so many questions, but I wasn’t sure if I should continue talking for fear of directing their machinations toward me.
“I’m sure you are very curious about your situation, sweetheart,” the zebra girl said. “You don’t have to worry—I won’t hurt you. I’m thrilled to have a female companion. This place is lonely.”
I was relieved that she had no plans of evil intent toward me, but I didn’t trust her. I swam around my cage feeling around and shaking the bars to see if I could free myself.
“Wouldn’t that be nice if you could simply break open the bars,” she said as she tied her long red hair in a knot on her head. “I wouldn’t even know what to do with myself if I were to get away. My entire life has been in this cage in one room or another or on the leaders’ experimental cots.” She pointed to the medical beds lined up against the wall.
“We were born here,” the giant said as he held his wounded arm. “The leaders created us and all the other cross breeds. They must have made you too—half girl, half fish. Are you a stray from Azkelon?”
The zebra girl interjected, “Of course she is! We can tell you were not raised in the facilities in a cage because you have a wild look in your eyes. You are from the outside.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I just kept quiet.
“We’ve been taught about the outside,” the giant said. “Adam—he is a tri-breed of the first man. He taught us even though he is forbidden to reveal the secrets.”
“Yes,” the zebra girl said excitedly. “The leaders created him with incantations and DNA crossings. Adam was born with knowledge. We hate Adam. But we won’t tell on him to the leaders because we like to know the truth.”
“He tells us that we are forbidden forms. Crossbreeding two different species defies the laws of the universe. Every creature is only to mate with its own kind.”
My eyes widened. “But, Adam is a crossbreed,” I said. “I saw him in another room before I was caught. He looked half man and half fish like me.” I decided not to mention that I am part faerie. It seemed to me that the less they knew of me, the better.
“You are almost right,” the zebra girl said. “He is a tri-breed. A genetically altered creation of the first man. He is one third human, one third fish and one third butterfly, a unique mixture of the elements of earth, water, and air. This is also a forbidden combination.
“Using the bible as their source, the leaders dug up the bodies of the original man and woman, Adam and Eve, in the Cave of Machpela. Because of their purity and high connection to God, their bodies did not decay, but remained after all these years in perfect form.
“From these bodies, the leaders extracted DNA which they combined with the DNA of fish and butterflies, thereby joining the elements and creating genetic alterations of the original man and woman.”
“Why?” I shook my head. “Why would they do this?”
The giant scratched his thick mess of brown hair and explained now, “With their creations they could gain access to the Garden of Eden and eat from the Tree of Life, thereby establishing eternal hell on Earth. With eternal evil in place, they would gain power over all.”
Girl Enchanted (Book 2 of The Girl Trilogy) Page 7