The way the light refracted off the pool water reminded me of Sapphires in the sun. Leaks of light dancing in shades of cerulean blue against the dim and dreary laboratory.

Dr. Schafer had his own personal aquarium where we studied the rarer or unidentifiable species we’d find on our expeditions. The whereabouts and knowledge of its very existence was secure with a select group of marine biologists including myself. Many of our test subjects where considered to be highly classified.

His existence, was highly classified.

I pressed my palm against the cool exterior of the glass wall.

The water was deep and in some areas very dark, specifically designed to replicate his natural habitat. The tank itself was phenomenal, a work of art and the best in the entire aquarium— possibly even the world—but it wasn’t enough.

On the most recent exhibition far off the coast of A few uninhabitable islands, I had found him. I had shot him.

Dr. Schafer had reprimanded me for my negligence as soon as we arrived back to the lab. I would have been fired had I not brought back the most valuable test subject yet. My roll in the lab was stripped down to night duty, watching over every marine animal and especially catering to him.

Suddenly the window reverberated in a loud, thunk!

The creature appearing from the darkness of his pool, threw his body weight against the glass, sending vibrations through my palm.

He had been angry with me, and I couldn’t blame him. I’d shot him after all. However, unlike when I had shot him, I wasn’t scared. I pressed closer into the glass.

“Hi there, it’s nice to see you again,” I said making my voice small and gentle, slowly stroking the barrier between our worlds. I needed him to know I wasn’t a threat.

The creature circled back and stared at me, tawny large irises blinked through translucent vertical slits for eyelids.

“I didn’t want to hurt you,” I continued, still as gingerly as I could muster, “you had frightened me, and had I known . . . I would have never—“ I stopped short as he pressed his hand on the other side of the stratum. He had hundreds of small suction cups lining his palms, retracting every so frequently like individual living, breathing things.

My cheeks warmed as I stared at his palm beneath mine.

“We are so alike but so different,” I whispered examining his every feature. His long waxy, scaled legs that ended in two large fin-like appendages instead of feet. Large frightening gills on either side of of his jugular, and fish-like lips. As he’d breathe his gills would expand and flutter. And I am infatuated with him.

“What a frightening beast.” Dr. Schafer had said earlier that week.

I shook my head in anger at the memory, as if to cleanse myself of it, “you’re no beast, he is.”

His eyes flashed quickly over to a bucket in the corner of the laboratory.

“You’re hungry?”

Those yellow eyes just blinked again.

I nodded, as if a simple blink was as clear as a yes, and grabbed the large pale and began to fill it with feeder fish for him.

His yes burrowed into my back, following my every step up the rounded staircase. I couldn’t tell if it was from malice, or curiosity.

My stomach formed knots when I’d feed him, or whenever I was near him for that matter. There was no denying how frightening he was, the brut strength, those odd spell-binding eyes.

In an odd way I felt close to him. He was stripped from his home and freedom, he was lonely, and that was a feeling that I was all too familiar with. Majority of my days were nights, cooped up in a giant aquarium all alone. His sentient company was all I truly had to look forward to.

I wonder if he could sense how alone I am too.

His head broke through the top of the water, staying a safe distance from the edge of the pool, and I did the same. Our gazes held a together like a line of electricity. In some strange way it felt intimate, causing goose flesh to prick a the skin on my neck.

“Hi again,” I smiled warmly and took a seat on the wet ground to get closer to eye level with him. The cool saltwater immediately soaked into my jeans and I pulled off my boots and socks. This was highly frowned upon, and If anyone had seen me it could have been grounds for removal.

The creature held my eyes for a moment longer before slowly inching closer to the side of the pool.

My eyes widened and I scooted an inch closer to the edge as well in attempt to show mutual trust.

He froze.

Afraid that i had frightened him I stopped as well. A moment passed without either of us moving.

I dragged in a breath through clenched teeth before mustering up any morsel of courage I had left and passing the red caution line. We didn’t break the eye contact as I made it less than a foot before the brim.

The salty air was thick with a palpable tension.

“You’re not a beast,” I repeated for the second time that night, pulling out a single fish, “you’re beautiful.”

It’s clear he doesn’t understand, but I continue anyways, “I wonder what you’re thinking, what you think of me.” The second I finished speaking he lurched forward.

An estranged gasp broke through my lips and I fell back, losing the fish in my hand.

His greenish body was above the water hovering over my knees, closely examining me as I did him.

My heart beat so loudly in my own ears I wondered if he got any closer he could hear it. A warm nervous blush bit my ears to my fingertips and I held my breath to keep still.

His gills flickered before quickly grabbing the pale and jumping back into the water.

The pounding in my chest thumped on as I scrambled to try and get to my feet, but my bare feet kept slipping against the slick terrain. By the time I managed to get into an upright standing position I was falling again, one leg submerging under the water

Suction cups circled around my ankle.

My eyes widened, and I forced back a scream to take in a deep breath before the creature dragged me under. The chill of ice cold water dug into my bones.

I tried to remember my scuba diving lessons but all I could think was I’m going to die.

He dragged me further and further under water until we met with the glass that separated us from the lab. With a firm force, he put his hand over mine and held it against the glass, like we had been doing earlier.

I don’t want to die.

With each precious second that drew by I continued to beg in my head with my hand pressed against the glass. Trapped.

Through my water distorted vision I turned my head to him and understood. For the first time I was seeing what it was like to be on the other side of the glass. It wasn’t curiosity he had been looking at me with, it was malice. He has been trapped here for months, and it was my fault. I had done this to him.

It wasn’t long before the last bit of air escaped my lips, sending my lungs on fire.

Then there was darkness.