Part 8 – Adrienne (1/...)

The tram cart was, as usual on a Saturday morning, not particularly full. A few weekend workers off to do whatever they did, some annoying youths and a young family of four. All in all nobody paid much mind to a lone girl in a hoodie. Yet even with the glasses and muffler covering most of my rather inhuman face I had quite a hard time having it stay like this. I had to constantly focus on my hair to keep it from slipping out and attaching to whatever came close. I was just about to give up and simply let the tentacles do whatever when my gaze fell upon a screen with a news report.

“In other news today. Yesterday evening the Amsterdam police got a rather odd call when a local University Janitor reported being assaulted and “hexed" by mysterious assailants. Citing the leaked police report, the man was just about to close up the university pools, when he stumbled upon a duo of “Fish-girls" groping each other in one of the pools. Apparently he assumed that they couldn’t understand his words and was about to call the police, when one of the girls tackled him to the ground. Thankfully no harm came to him as the other girl intervened. In the following telepathic conversation, they introduced themselves as Abominations. After making him fall asleep they left the building without a trace.”

The video cut out and instead showed an artist’s rendition of both Clarissa and me. Well, at least something coming close to one. These looked rather like high-quality sex dolls than people in my opinion. ‘The fuck? My lips aren’t that pouty! And Clarissa just looks totally wrong!’

“If any of our viewers have laid eyes upon one or both of these Sea-Witches. We implore you to call the following number. As soon as we get any new information we will keep you up to date. This was Ignus Clarkson, for AM-News.”

‘Well. Shit.’ Despite being fully clothed I couldn’t help but glance towards the other passengers. None of them really seemed to pay me any mind but considering the newscast it was only a matter of time until someone would put two and two together. Hopefully the ride home would go on smooth and after that I could look into how to proceed with my life. I was just about to lean back on the chair when a painful tugging spread on the underside of my thighs. After not even a minute I had to get up, the sensation was just too much to suffer through. Thankfully standing up and walking around lessened the pressure tremendously. ‘Just please don’t have me change in the tram!’

Trying my best to ignore the feeling of muscles and skin rippling and reforming I leaned against the wall closest to the doors. As soon as they opened at my stop, I would make a dash for it, better to be save than sorry, right? Waiting around without anything better to do than trying to will my body into submission, I took out my phone.

Almost immediately my lips cracked into a dopey smile at the sight of the background. The void was as alien and comforting as the first time I had looked upon it, after a second my smile drooped as I realized what this meant. My phone was a gods' damned artefact! This basically put it on the same page with things like Excalibur or the fucking Necronomicon!

Not sure on how to properly take this in, I just swiped open my messenger app and began looking through it. The first thing I noticed was the staggering amount of messages in the university group. As I started scrolling I found dozens upon dozen of people talking not only about the newly christened ‘Sea-Witches' – apparently that name had stuck better than abominations, who could have guessed – but I saw several people referring to a picture in the chat itself.

After a few dozen more messages I found the culprit for it all. And seeing it I couldn’t help but bang my head against the sliding doors. At the very least Clarissa had been so clever to actually suppress her own phone number. But still this was literally a selfie of her! Thankfully it wasn’t quite her full face but only half of it but still! She actually had the guts to post a picture of herself after her face had changed.

Just like with my own it was basically unrecognizable to anyone but me. Her hair had shed in favour of frilly bright red fins almost resembling a Mohawk, her eyes were large, shiny black, and simply adorable with her ghostly white skin! Even her gills had grown a bit it seemed. The one thing that stood out to me, was how her nose closely resembled my own.

‘Maybe it is so it closes up underwater?’ To be fair she looked very cute but that wasn’t the fucking point! What does she think she is doing!? And why write: ‘Nice phone this girl had, mine now!’? Like this people would believe she had killed someone for a phone, especially with a grin like this! With the fury of a pissed elder Sister I started writing.

“Clarissa! What the fuck? What do you think you are doing! Stop making people think we are monsters! And why did you even send a selfie in the first place? Are you trying to get the police on our ass? There already was a news report about yesterday! We can be lucky that most meta-humans are a tightly knit bunch and nobody from the dinner reported us!”

For several seconds I furiously stared at the screen when finally an answer came, sadly it wasn’t the one I had hoped for. Instead it was actually rather dismissive.

“Sorry ‘bout that. Mother said it was fine, we talked after you explained things to her bout yesterday. I shouldn’t have run away, sorry. Ah, can’t talk much right now. I’m packing my stuff at the moment. Old parents want to make me a gift later. I promised to stay until then. See you soon Sis~

‘Oh, that annoying little... tadpole! When I meet her I will so beat her pale ass as red as her gills! And why did Mother encourage her to post that selfie!? I know she wants the best for us but I don’t think she quite understands the concept of exposure or law enforcement. Wait what did she mean with... a gift? I hope it is really just a goodbye present.’ I was so immersed in my own thoughts that I didn’t even notice when the odd feeling in my legs subsided. Only when a while later, close to my stop, I felt a very obviously weird and impossible sensation I looked up from my phone. At the same time I heard a young voice call out excitedly.

“Look Mommy! This woman has funny tails!”

By now I had put the sensation into the partition: ‘Tiny kids' hands touching stuff they shouldn’t’. The only problem was I could see the child from the corner of my eyes and she wasn’t touching the back of my legs. Even worse was the sudden wave of hunger overcoming me at the same time, something just had changed but what? Before I could even properly react a loud scream already pierced the air.

“LANA! Don’t touch my child you... thing!” Like a mother hen on crack the woman barrelled towards me. One moment I was still standing and minding my own business the next a surprisingly strong backhand knocked me to the ground. ::...disgusting freak!...:: I had barely enough time to wonder what the fuck was going on before I already impacted with the ground. Her reaction had come so fast and unexpected that I hadn’t even thought about using my powers to defend myself. Worse even, the smack had not only broken my sunglasses but from the fact that I was tasting, dust, metal, and plastic I knew that my hood had fallen down.

When I came back to my senses I could see the mother raising her hand as if to hit me again. This time though I wasn’t just going to let it happen! I was already preparing to take her out when her hand was suddenly stopped by a much larger grey-skinned hand.

“Lady, if you hit this girl again I will have to see this as assault. Then I will have to file a report as well as have you signed over to the authorities.”

The man that had spoken easily dwarfed the woman by an entire head and me by almost two. Adding to his rather imposing image were the tusk-like canine teeth and the fact that he was dressed in a rather tight-fitting security guard outfit.

“H- How dare you! This... creature was molesting my child!”

“No. I saw very clearly that your child grabbed on to her... appendages. Despite that, it is against the law to speak of meta-sentients as monsters. If you don’t want me to note that down too, I ask that you leave to a different wagon.”

“Fine! It is only obvious that you inhuman types would stick together! You will be hearing from my lawyer!”

“Yes. I am sure of that. Good day now.”

It must have been quite the sight to see me sitting there on the ground. Despite trying my best it had taken not even an hour for my disguise to fail. At least I now could see what the girl had been touching. Right beneath my butt I had grown two identical tentacles long enough to easily reach the ground when standing. Currently they were wrapped tightly around my legs and had taken on the colour of the tram floor, apparently, in my shock I had instinctively changed colours. Together with my mental powers maybe I could hide from the view of other people completely!

“Well, then little... Mermaid?” Upon hearing his voice again I looked up a bit confused. Why was he still around? When I didn’t answer, he only sighed and bend down to help me. Unsure as to what to do I simply accepted his hand and let myself be pulled up.

“Don’t worry about this little incident, the humans can be a bit... rough to anyone that is different. Don’t take it too much to heart, there are quite a bit of fine people aside from those. Considering the commotion I think I’ll stick around though and make sure you’re safe.”

All I could do was stare at him in utter confusion. This had never happened to me before! Why was he being so nice and considerate despite not knowing me? Had he not seen the newscast? And yet still, instead of calling the police or station he just sat down, smiled at me, and started staring other passengers into compliance. I hadn’t even spoken a single word but he didn’t seem to mind. To him I was a good person just because I was different? Was this why apparently no one from the dinner had called me out and why Karen had helped? Having grown up in mostly human high society this was as alien to me as my body was to a human.

The rest of the ride went over basically without any other problems. Though to the menacing Orc security guard next to me, a lot of the passengers switched over to another cart. Be it because they had problems with meta-humans or because they were genuinely scared I could not tell. Still while to some he may appear like a threat, to me his silent companionship made me feel safe and welcome like never before. Just maybe being a human had never truly been my destiny.