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Sarah awoke with her head in a fog. The last thing she remembered was being in the elevator in her apartment when she felt a needle prick. After that, nothing. Opening her eyes she was met with a blinding light high above her. She tried to move but her arms and legs were bound. Slowly, her eyes adjusted to the light and she could see she was in what looked like an operating room. Had she been in an accident? If so, where were the doctors? And why was she restrained? Just then a voice came from a nearby speaker.

"Ah, I see you're awake. How are you feeling?", a woman's voice asked.

"Where am I? What happened to me?" She asked

"All in good time. For now, please just answer my questions. The sooner we get through this part, the sooner you can begin your adjustment period"

"What do you mean, adjustment? Adjustment to what?" She was getting a little worried now.

"Just answer my questions and I promise I'll answer yours after."

Not seeing much choice, she agreed and the woman asked her many odd questions. Questions about her medical history, personality questions, even some very personal stuff. She ended with, "Thank you for cooperating, it makes this so much easier. Now, before I begin the next phase I just have two more questions, how tall were you and what did you weigh?"

Although the questions weren't too odd, especially considering some of the previous ones (are you allergic to any kind of aquatic life? for example), the context struck her as weird so she asked, "What do you mean by how tall 'was' I? I'm 5'6. The same as I've been since I was 17. And I weigh 115 give or take a few pounds."

After a few minutes of silence the woman came back on the speaker and asked her to relax while she took some readings. She also made good on her promise to answer any questions she had. The first thing Sarah asked was, "Where am I?" to which the woman replied,

"I'm sorry I can't tell you that."

"Ok", Sarah said, "Then what happened to me and why am I tied down?"

"Again, I'm sorry but I can't go into all the details just yet. I can tell you that you're safe and the restraints are for your safety. It's a long way to the floor in your condition"

"What does that mean? What condition? And why did you ask me my height and weight in the past tense?" It seemed to Sarah that each answer only raised further questions.

"I'm very sorry about that", came the reply. "I was originally under the impression you were a volunteer and understood what was going on. Apparently, you were brought here by mistake. Please accept my humblest apologies and my assurance that every step will be taken to make your life here as comfortable as possible"

"WHAT?! My life here!", Sarah was getting nervous now. "Whatever you did, I promise I won't tell. Just untie me and let me go. Please, I..." Suddenly she started having difficulty breathing. As she started to suffocate she could hear warning alarms go off and the woman's voice, this time full of panic, shout, "She's entering the last stage sooner than expected. Quick, someone open the holding tank" as her binds were pulled off with great force and she was lifted by some kind of crane that moved very fast and dropped into a tank of water.

She landed with a splash and struggled to stay afloat but was still having trouble breathing and sank down. As she sank to the bottom she felt oxygen rushing back into her body again, only not from her mouth. She could feel it coming from the sides of her neck. Touching her neck, she felt gills. Horrified, she pulled her hands away only to see a fine webbing between her fingers. Looking down to her feet she expected to see webbed toes but instead saw a fin where her legs should be. Knowing in her mind this can't be real but unable to deny what she was currently seeing, not to mention she was underwater and breathing, Sarah realized what the woman meant by her condition. She was now a mermaid. She quickly surveyed her surroundings only to see she was in a large tank with nothing but rocks at the bottom. Looking outside all she could see were blurry shapes moving around. Even though she had never seen a water tank from the inside before, she still knew there was something wrong about those shapes. They seemed too big. She swam up to one of the walls and tried to get a better look when the whole tank throbbed with loud banging on the opposite wall. The thunderous bangs were so loud they almost hurt. When she turned toward the wall, she saw a giant woman's face peering in at her. Next to the face, a giant finger was tapping the glass of what Sarah now knew wasn't a giant water tank. It was an aquarium. And she wasn't just a mermaid, she was shrunken to the size of a doll.

As scared as she was, the woman's face seemed friendly and Sarah felt she could trust her. She opened her mouth to talk and was shocked to hear only high pitched shrieks come out. The woman, obviously prepared for this took out a notebook and wrote something on it then held it to the side of the tank. "I'm sorry, you won't be able to talk anymore. Not in the way you know at least"

This revelation was the final straw for Sarah. She started yelling, which came out as more high pitched shrieks, and pounding on the walls. The woman, again seeming prepared for this, held up another note, "Please try to calm down. Your body is still weak from all it’s been through."

"Go to Hell!" Sarah mouthed, this time not bothering to make the sounds that only upset her more and kept pounding on the walls.

She heard a rumbling from the top and saw the woman's hand hovering over the top. She dropped some kind of pellet into the water that dissolved instantly. Nervous, Sarah looked back to her giant captor who was ready with another note, "That's just a sedative. It won't knock you out but it will take some of the fight out of you."

As promised, Sarah almost immediately felt very relaxed. She was still aware of what was going on and still angry, she just didn't really feel like fighting at the moment.

Seeing her relax made the woman happy and she held up another note, "I'll be right back with something that will help us talk a little easier"

While she was gone, Sarah was enjoying the ride the drugs were taking her on. She just floated in the middle of the tank, lazily flicking her tail and moving around slowly. She was so relaxed she didn't even worry about how quickly she was adapting to this situation. She was almost even excited.

After some time had passed, how much Sarah had no idea thanks to the drugs, the lid was lifted again and a small speaker was lowered into it. Suddenly the whole aquarium vibrated with the woman's voice, "CAN YOU HEAR ME? YOU MIGHT NEED TO ADJUST THE VOLUME, THE DIAL IS TOO SMALL FOR ME TO OPERATE" Sarah clapped her hands over her ears and the woman got the message right away and stopped talking. She wrote another note and held it up, "The volume control is on the right side. You'll most likely want it very low because your hearing is enhanced in this form"

Sarah swam over to the speaker, which was about the size of a walkie talkie to her, found the dial and with her webbed fingers turned the volume down to 3. When she was done she gave the woman the thumbs up (as well as she could with the webbing) and her voice, much softer but still a bit loud came out of the speaker, "How's this?" Sarah turned it down to 2 and motioned for her to speak again to which she replied, "Now?" She gave the awkward thumbs up again and the woman spoke again, "Excellent. I have a lot to tell you but I should start with a proper introduction. My name is Ellen"

Sarah waved in acknowledgement.

"Now, first I'll answer the questions I know you have and can't ask. Stop me if I go to fast. Yes this is permanent. There's no way to reverse either the shrinking or the transformation. Yes, your voice as you know it is gone for good. There is still a way to communicate with us humans (Ellen referring to herself as human really creeped Sarah out but again the drugs made her not care), it's a very efficient way and nothing is lost in translation. You'll be set up when you move to your private tank in my room." That comment startled Sarah even with the drugs, which Ellen noticed and replied, "Yes my room, I'm getting to that" Although Sarah was nervous, she somehow knew she would be safe with her.

"I'm sure you want to know why you were chosen, right?”

 

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