Katie

I start a little as Luna nearly barrels into me in her haste to hurry into the cave. A look of childish glee adorns her face and she keeps something clutched to her chest. I have a pretty good idea of what it is and, sure enough, as she curls up on the sand, a starfish falls from her hands and into her lap. Her finger ghosts over its surface lovingly. The creature was her reward, something she had asked for, as promised by Dr. Auldon for being good the past month. He’d stated that he would be starting out small and the better we did onwards, the bigger our rewards could be. I had been hoping to be able to spend the day outside. Not in the ocean or anything, just outside; to be able to feel the sun, see the world after so long stuck indoors. I’ve never been cooped up like this before and it’s starting to drive me crazy. Dr. Auldon hadn’t gone for the idea though, so instead I’d gotten to eat chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner. Apparently the change hasn’t affected my ability to digest human foods. The scientists think that Mer stomachs are like human ones and can digest a wide range of foods. The meal is sitting pleasantly inside of me. I’ll admit that I gorged a bit.

I push off the grassy cave floor and swim over to sit beside her. “So, why did you want the starfish again?” I ask curiously. It had been something she was very eager to have, but she made it very clear that she wanted it to be alive, that she didn’t want to eat it, so I’m unsure of its significance to her. She grins up at me and, instead of answering, rubs a finger across the creature’s underbelly. Its limbs shudder, quaking as though tickled, seconds before it begin to sing.

Singing is the best word I can use to describe the long, comforting, and beautiful melody escaping the little five-limbed thing. I watch Luna’s eyes slide shut, her fin twitching and swaying slightly, while her thumbs rub over the starfish’s limbs. The cave seems peaceful for a few moments as the song slowly fades back into silence.

“I didn’t know that they did that,” I comment. “Maybe people can’t hear them, and that’s why there’s never been any mention of starfish singing. We have a couple back home and I’ve never heard them do this. Maybe it’s because you can hear so much better,” I state. Luna shrugs and continues to massage the starfish’s long appendages. “This is something you remembered, isn’t it? That’s why you wanted a starfish so badly. You remembered what they sounded like.”

Luna nods, her head finding my shoulder as she releases the starfish back into her lap. ‘I really love starfish song. It is pretty and calming and it reminds me of home.’

I drape an arm around her shoulder and hug her close. “It is a really pretty song, isn't it?” I agree. “How often do they do that?”

‘Starfish like to sing and they love to have their arms massaged because they stiffen up and have no way to relax by themselves. A starfish will sing if you ask, and it is always polite to give them a rub afterwards,’ Luna answers. ‘That is what my mom told me.’

“You’ve never mentioned starfish before,” I comment. “Is this something you’ve recently remembered?”

Luna nods. ‘Yes. It was when I saw you drawing in the sand a little while ago. You were tracing the outlines of dolphins, shells, and starfish. I joined you, remember? And when I started drawing starfish too, I remembered holding a real one and how much I wanted to see one again. Then I started to remember a bunch of things about starfish. I was hoping that actually getting to hear one sing again might help me remember more about my past,’ she explains.

“Well, did it?” I ask.

She shakes her head. ‘No, but it is still nice to be close to something from my past.’

I nod. “Still, the fact that you’ve been remembering things at all is good, Luna, really good,” I start, hugging her tightly. “We just have to find more triggers.”

Luna nods and is still for a moment before she raises her hands to reply with, ‘I wonder what my name is. It is so strange that I can remember that I like starfish and that I was six years old when I last saw my family, but I cannot remember what my name is or what my mother looks like. How come I cannot remember the important stuff like that?’

I chew on my lip and drag my fingers through her forest of hair. “Well, to be honest, I’m not sure why, I don’t know much about how the mind works. Maybe it’s because you don’t have any reminders of things like that. Like, drawing starfish allowed you to remember that you liked them, and then why you liked them, but no one has addressed you by name in so long that you don’t remember what people called you, and you have no connection to anyone that fills the maternal role to you even a little around here. If you did, maybe that would trigger something. Like if there was a woman here that you were close to and she wore a shirt one day that happened to be the same color as your mother’s scales; you may feel comforted and reminder that ‘oh yeah, my mom’s scales are that color,’ and that would lead you to think about her. Maybe that would lead you to remember her hair and eyes and then it would be easier to keep her image in your head. You were so young when everything was torn from your life that it’s not surprising that your memory is frayed and needs to be triggered by something,” I say. “Does that make any sense?”

Luna nods slowly, a yawn splitting her features and revealing the pointed ends of her fangs. I rub her shoulder and nod towards the large grass bed before us. “It’s been a bit of a crazy day, and tomorrow we have to perform all day. We should get some sleep,” I suggest. Luna nods and yawns again, her fisted fingers coming up to rub at her eyes. I take her hands and pull them away from her face. “Don’t do that,” I scold gently. “I doubt that they were lying when they said you had an eye infection. Just in case, you shouldn’t rub at your eyes unless you want to spend another hour or so completely blinded.”

Luna shudders and shakes her head, wringing her fingers. I pull her up and lead her down into the grass. She curls up around her sea star and pulls her fin up to brush her nose. I drift down beside her and stretch out on my back, relaxing into the grasses. One of the few benefits of my situation would be the weightless feeling, even when lying on the ground, leads to a very comfortable slumber. I yawn and let my eyes slide shut as I relax and it isn’t long before sleep takes me.

***

I wake with a start and shoot upright. A quick glance shows Luna just as tense next to me, her eyes wide, head slanted to the left as she listened to the noise that woke us. Echoing like distant thunder, the stomp of footfalls ascending the metal ramp.

‘Do you hear it too?’ Luna asks.

I nod, even as my brow furrows. “No one comes up here this late,” I murmur.

‘Are we in trouble?’ The flash of crazed fear in her eyes has me pulling Luna close.

“We didn’t do anything,” I reply. “Maybe Dr. Auldon decided to have us do some late night training?” The words feel dead and stupid long before I’ve finished speaking them. “Should we go up and see what’s going on?” I suggest finally. “So we don’t have to sit here and worry?”

I watch a fang poke from her mouth as she nibbles on her top lip, a nervous tick I’ve noticed in her. After a long moment, her muscles bunch as she pushes off the sand, her sea star lying forgotten. A slight current blows at my bangs as her fin flashes in front of my face. I ease out of our cave behind her and crane my neck towards the surface. Shadowy figures are bustling about above, their reflections blurring to dark, disfigured blobs across the skin of the water. The commotion is certainly far from normal and seems unnecessary both for the late hour and for if it happens to be a training session. There is not much to set up for a training session and we would have been called if we were wanted or in trouble. After a moment’s hesitation, I gather my courage.

“I'm going up,” I decide. “Do you want to stay here?” I glance at Luna as I ask the question. A bead of blood is dispersing into the surrounding water with how hard she’s bitten her lip. Finally her head shakes furiously.

‘I will go with you,’ she decides, puffing her chest out in an attempt to appear braver than I know she feels. I take her hand, smile in response to her look of gratitude, and then lash my fin as I head up.

We’re just about to break the surface when a pair of gloved hands dips into the water, grabbing me by the shoulders and hauling me up, a second person going after Luna. A hand is clamped over my mouth, cutting off my startled shriek, and I’m given no chance to catch a glimpse of the people here as a thick blindfold is pulled over my eyes and a fabric gag replacing the hand over my mouth. I hear Luna’s fin smack against the concrete floor, her hiss cut off midway, and a torrent of fear sweeps through me as my unknown assailant forces my tail to my chest and ties my wrists together so I'm hugging the sleek scales.