The hover car stuttered to a stop a few feet from Benbow inn, the lights behind the glass windows glowed a homey aura, shadows drifted pass and I wanted to get in there, fast.
The grumpy old alien beside me had tufts of red hair at the top of his balding yet fat rolled head. His eyes sunken from prominent eyebrows and his ghastly mutant pig nose could probably smell my distaste for him.
"Here?" He grumbled, pushing a button which stopped the crappy little engine. "27 Gold and a mint if you have one," He eyed her in the back and cocked an eyebrow the size of an Ey'ey Slug. "It's like the whole ocean is in the back." He rested his hands on the metallic wheel as I paid the grub.
"Okay, thanks." I grunted as I left the car, speed walking as fast as I can. I opened the door and the flood of salt hit my nose, I had to shiver in sourness. I climbed in, and hovering over her body, her skin was plush and plump, her cheekbones high and pink in colour. She really is healthy.
I managed to use one of my hands to loop around her neck, and when her head lolled uncomfortably, I decided to go around her shoulders, and gently scooted her out. Once half in and half out, I cradled her huge tail that I forgot was real heavy and victoriously got her out the cab.
"Thanks, man." I said to the grubby old man who just watched and did nothing and carried her limp body up towards the Benbow inn. The sun was high in the sky and my mother's restaurant would be in full blow. I had to go around the back, if not, the kitchen or front door it is. But inside the kitchen, the door is to go into the busy tables where they are a lot of nosy alien diners.
I hefted her body every time she slipped, even if her tail was slowly drying out, it was still as slimy. I successfully jiggled open the back door and looked down the dimly lit hallway, I heard rustling from the eating area and metal crashes from the kitchen, and the hushed whispers of everyone.
Slowly walking through the wooden hall towards the stairs, I hear the familiar gasp I know all too well.
"Jim!" My mother screeched behind me but quiet enough for only my ears to hear. I heard the back door slam behind me, even the girl in my arms flinched, but was still silent. "What are you doing with...With her..."She shuffled over to my side, and I fluffed off my jacket from her tail for my mother's trusty eyes to see. Thick, red blood still seeped out of her tail it would look fatal on a human child.
I looked up to see my mum's wide eyes, her pupils shrinking and fluttering as they drifted over the girls scaled green tail. "Mum, she's hurt, please just...Help me." I looked at her pleadingly and witnessed my mother's caring side kicking in and nodded. Her hair was coming out of her loose ponytail and her working dress ruffled, sweat beaded her forehead from this place and it's heating system.
She moved between me and the stairs, grappling the girl's top half of the body and I hefted the tail that weighed a little less going up the stairs.
"Who-What is she?" Mum blabbered, looking back constantly as we descended the stairs. I watched her face twist in awkward disgust; I looked down on the girl's face that, again, flinched. Then realised I knocked her tail off of the brass banister.
"I found her-Well, this kid found her," We made it to the top of the corridor and I nodded towards the guest bedroom. "On the shore down town." I grunted.
Mum booted the door, which isn't like her, and we gently placed her on the bed. The king size bed covers were soft and pillows full of Helios duck feathers, "luxurious brand" as the Doc had piped up. The spacing was large and the floor was wooden, Fergul rugs and a window with metal frames to open fully, half or blinds to change the view or temperature.
"I think she's a siren, or mermaid." I rubbed my head, and then winced, knowing there was slime now on my forehead. "I can't take her to the hospital." I nodded towards the tail wounds.
"Well..." She mused, walking around the bed to me, examining the girl. Her red, stringy hair covered most of her chest, but you could still make out her shell bikini top, which mother looked back at me and raised fine eyebrows. "Why can't you?"
"Mum, they'd tear her apart." I looked out at the town below, all busy, smoke puffing out of every house, hover crafts and robots. "They wouldn't know what to do with her. They'd take her to scientists and experiment on her, probably cut her tail off, then goes into the sea to look for more of...Her kind." I folded my arms and struggled to keep my thoughts up with others. It is possibly true, they'd be scared of what power she could possess (I looked back at her fluttering eyes, wondering if she does have power), scared of what she can do to our planet, hell the whole galaxy.
"Jim, we can't keep her here-"
"Mum, we can't chuck her out!" I butted in, facing her and flinging my arms out. "She'd definitely get killed." I watched her face for a few seconds until she smiled sadly.
"You always butt in before I get to finish my sentences." The smile was gone and a serious face came through. "No, there are inspectors coming to brief the place tomorrow in the evening." She nodded towards the girl. "She can stay till then, but tomorrow, she needs to be hidden elsewhere." She smiled again. "But now, I can't help you. I have work to do, but I'll get B.E.N up here."
And with that, she was out of the door, and when I chuckled to myself I spotted movement and seen the girl sit up.
"GAH!" I flinched into a nearby seat, arms perched on a dresser and the wall, stiff as poles and my heart in my throat as her large blue eyes dropped on mine.
"Please, don't freak out!" She gushed, reaching forward and numbly falling on her chest, and holding herself up on her palms. "Please, I need your help." She sounded tired and pained her voice almost cracking.
"I-I-I-I don't know what to do-"I squeaked which is very unmanly of me.
"Plea-"She was cut off when the door to the room bashed open and a happy, bouncy B.E.N jumped in.
"Jimmy-Yikes, who are you!" B.E.N freaked when she said yikes the toned it down. He approached the girl, as I eased in my seat. I relaxed as B.E.N walked around the bed, his round mechanical eyes zooming in on her face, her tail and stringy hair. But I tensed when she was cowering away from him, her eyes seeking help from me, like she wanted me to intervene.
"Don't be afraid." I calmed her, but I was also telling myself this. I slowly got out my seat as B.E.N took out his chest panel and starting dialling and searching for his answers to questions I didn't know he was thinking to himself. I had my head down as I approached the bedside, her eyes the only part of her moving, watching my every move it made me uneasy.
I was by her side, gently crouching to not make her feel small. "Do you have a name?" I said calmly, hearing my own voice strain.
"Ariel." She said sourly, her face twisted in pain as she squirmed so she was lying back on the pillows, her hair strung along her face and was caught around her neck, her chest quickly going up and down, which I shouldn't be looking. But I was attracted to her large blue eyes up close. They seemed to shine, a brilliant blue, blazing, in fact. "What's yours?" She whimpered, her voice slowly getting quieter and raspier.
"Jim." There was no need for me to fully introduce myself in this situation. The whirring of B.E.N's panel was buzzing in the background as me and Ariel stared at each other. It was eerie, and yet soothing. She was slowly breathing to the beat of my heart, quick yet sudden. Her eyes drooping here and there, her hand gently moving from her side to meet mine.
I was resting my hands on top of each other on the bed, with my chin upon both hands, and her hand connected to my face that I flinched from how cold she now was just a moment ago.
"Are you meant to be this cold?" I raised my head, from making her gasp with my sudden jerk.
"I'm warm-blooded." She croaked. Now I was worried.
"B.E.N, what's wrong with her!" I whispered harshly, his pixel blue eyes changing dramatically.
"She's a mermaid, Jimmy." He typed with his stick thin metal fingers, tapping wicked fast. "She thrives underwater, surviving on eating algae and seaweed, most likely with many others and has this fish like tail that is like another life, another heart for them-"
"Alright, alright, but what's wrong with her!" I demanded, standing suddenly that this time, she didn't even realise. Her eyes were finally closed. "Damn, B.E.N what is it?" I whisked by her cold body, my knees sinking the bed by her side that she dipped towards me. I gently touched her cheek, cold to the touch and her green scaly tail wasn't shining in the light anymore.
"Jimmy, mermaid's can only survive for so long on land without sea water on their tail-"I didn't let B.E.N finish his sentence, I quickly grabbed her and her heavy tail and rushed out of the door and down the hall towards the bathroom and set her down on the counter that was clear. The bathroom was a pure white, with a light blue checker shower curtain. A mega toilet and floor bath, where the floor has a bath tub, but technically it's a hole in the floor.
I started to fill it with warm water, then realised it needs to be cold. But I didn't know what would be best, so filled it with warm water, I was about to run down to the kitchen to get bottles of salt, until I ran into B.E.N who was still tapping at his chest panel in the doorway.
"She needs sea water on that tail straight away, Jimmy, or she'll start drifting in and out of consciousness." He whirred.
"Alright, B.E.N, get me some salt from the kitchen." I turned and went back to Ariel. "Now!" I commanded when I still seem him there, tapping away. He fumbled with his panel and saluted me, hearing the whirr of his joints move as he ran.
I looked down on her, the window with a beach themed blind was on, and automatic light filled the room, her skin now pale and ashy. Her lips cracked, but her eyes fluttered open.
"Ah," She moaned as she tried to move on the hard counter.
"Don't move," I held her down by the shoulders, letting up when I felt I was pressing down on her too hard. "I'm going to help you." Her blue eyes, startling, wavered on my face for a few seconds; a small smile crept on her face, her lips splitting.
When I was about to leave her and get the salt myself, B.E.N rushed into the bathroom, grease dripping from his tin head, even robots sweat. He rushed past me and dolloped a heap of salt into the warm water, sprinkling and disintegrating straight away and I could already smell salty water.
I carefully picked her up and waddled over to the floor bath, knowing it would be difficult to put her in by herself from this height, I kicked off my boots with ease and slowly started to step into the bath, the ceramic steps almost made me slip, but my now dampened socks made me stick.
"Jim, are you sure you wanna get wet?" B.E.N asked, he tentatively held the salt container, it screeched when he twisted it in his metal hands.
"I'll have to get used to it." I peered down on her face, her eyes open in slits, the steam making it hard to bare. I kept descending into the large tub, water soaking my trousers, seeping higher and higher to the belt. When I was waist deep, I loosened my arms; Ariel began to float in the water.
I begged to myself that this worked, letting the water soak up her hair, her tail getting plump and sleek, her fins at the end of her tail splashing, when my eyes reached hers, they were big and bright, a pink smile on her mouth.
She moved so fast I didn't expect it; her embracing hug knocked me onto the tub steps, knocking my coxis and making me wince.
I don't normally like hugs, but this hug was odd, I actually enjoyed it. Her shell top however dug into my chest. I looked down her back to see her tail moving willingly and it looked 10X better already. Even B.E.N to the side was wiping oil from his eyes.
"Are you crying, B.E.N?" I chuckled, Ariel leaning back to smile up at the robot.
"No, I just got some speck in my eyes." He wailed fully and rolled to his knees.
"Are you okay, now?" I asked, my hands resting on her sides, her skin felt smooth and I was talking only to her, B.E.N's tearing up and the water still running and thundering into the bath.
"Yes." She chirped up, her eyes so transfixed on my body. "Wow, your skin is just like mine!" She poked at my collar bone, fingering my cheekbones and playing with my hair and feeling her own. "Your hair is so soft!" She cheeped. Then her fingers picked at my clothes. "What is this?" She tugged at my shirt that I thought she was almost going to pull it off, but I peeled her hands away.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I chuckled, but worried she didn't know these things. "I'm wearing clothes, what you're..." I gestured nonchalantly to her bikini shell top. "Like you have...On." I rubbed my lips, trying not to look, so stared at her eyes.
"My shell top?" She half smiled still perched against me.
"Yeah, so wait," I held my hands up. "You seriously haven't been around someone?" I couldn't believe she hasn't been around a human or robot, it sounds inhumane.
"Around someone human." She confirmed. Her eyes diverted from my clothes to my eyes, and she suddenly became all shy, her smile was slowly dispersing. "You're the first human I saw." I was about to butt in, she seen me about to move my lips and laced one finger against them, I was speechless and stunned for a second. "I seen you the other day, water fell from the sky, and you were on this high ground. I didn't want you to see me, so tried to swim away." She smiled again, her teeth a brilliant white.
"So you were the thing I seen in the water..." I whispered to myself but she heard.
"Thing?"