Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Syrena and any alterations to the original storyline plot her presence creates to various readers amusement everywhere across the globe.

Fish Out Of Water Chapter 7

The next time she visits Eliza brings another surprise for Syrena and the Amphibian Man alongside the meal of boiled eggs.

A record player.

To start with Liza bore no fear in turning and leaning back against the pool over the red line, placing two separate boiled eggs on the edge. A small smile etched across her face when she observed two hands simultaneously reach up from the water's surface and claim them. Eliza then wastes no time switching on the record player to draw them out further.

Syrena and the Amphibian Man are unable to resist the tune. Both have different reactions to the sound. Syrena is more familiar with the aspect of music because her kind are known for their singing, but never in instruments, words, and alternate voices while the Amphibian Man has never really heard anything like it before now.

So when Eliza experiments by stopping the music he is eager for her to start it up again. Only when he copies the gesture for music in sign language does the record player activate again.

As the music plays throughout the lab the three of them share dinner together.

Over the next few days, this becomes routine for them.

Eliza would sneak inside during her lunch break bringing boiled eggs to share, the record player, and different arrangements of music to see which ones the duo preferred to hear. In the face of the cruelty from the head honchos here at the facility, this is a pleasant reprieve each day. To entertain them further there are times when Eliza even dances to the music as she is cleaning the floor around their tanks.

It's during one of these intervals when Syrena is dancing in the water of her tank to the bewitching rhythm of "Star Dust" as much as she can in the limited space that she spots Dr. Hoffstetler watching them interact from the shadows. Syrena chooses not to alert the others to his presence. The expression on Dr. Hoffstetler's face indicates he doesn't disapprove of the interaction and won't make any room to intervene. He's simply staring at them in awe and wonder not reproach and anger. There's no trace of vehemence in his demeanor. He's fascinated by the amount of feeling and the strengthening bond radiating between Eliza and the Amphibian Man. Including the level of intelligence and communication that's never shown when Strickland or any of the others are around. Sure he's witnessed Syrena speaking to the Amphibian Man in her species own version of sign language, but has never really been able to understand it as of yet.

This is a major revelation for someone so integrated in science such as him.

Currently he's carrying a tray of food to give to Syrena and the Amphibian Man. Some raw meat and eggs for the Amphibian Man and a variation of fish and shellfish for her.

Guaranteed Dr. Hoffstetler will mark all of this down as notes in his journal. He's confident his Russian comrades will be highly intrigued by these findings.

Only when the janitorial woman, Elisa, exits the lab does Dr. Hoffstetler step into the light as if he's just arrived.

Almost immediately Amphibian Man retreats toward the back of his containment unit while Syrena remains where he can easily see her.

Syrena's gaze is penetrating as always.

As usual, Syrena takes the measure of him with her intelligent and calculating eyes as he approaches. First going to the Amphibian Man's section to deliver his food before her has become his routine. This became a habit after it was made known the Amphibian Man wasn't nearly as receptive toward him as she was.

Discovering what type of food, she preferred to consume was actually quite hilarious. Dr. Hoffstetler and all the rest made the mistake of believing her kind liked to eat raw meat from land mammals. Curious about it Syrena had taken a single bite, hissed, and spat it out, refusing everything else offered to her. That is until Dr. Hoffstetler finally brought her fish. Dr. Hoffstetler felt like kicking himself in the back for not realizing it sooner since her kind only resided in water in general.

Poking her head above the water Syrena lays crossed arms over the edge and places her chin over them, sharp eyes tracking his every movement.

Not breaking eye contact with him, Syrena grabs a clam and consumes the meat in a single gulp. She does the same for the other shellfish displayed before her.

Dr. Hoffstetler is utterly entranced by her features, eyes tracking every movement and shift. But his stare hardly traveled away from her face.

Following a few minutes of this Syrena decides to experiment with him again. Rising from her very soul Syrena hums her song in its hypnotizing and soothing melody filled with sadness and sorrow for the fact she's here and not in the ocean she loves.

From the first note there's no doubt Dr. Hoffstetler isn't affected. He releases a shaky exhale, a misty gleam to his eyes behind those glasses as every emotion she is emitting touches his heart to the very core. The air between them is intense even more so when Syrena slowly reaches out and lays her palm against his cheek.

Dr. Hoffstetler is officially under Syrena's spell.

Funnily enough, that's just the way the man wants it.

Go figure.

Authors Note:

For those of you on fanfiction I'm sure you've been facing the many unwanted ads when you're reading a story. Well, yesterday, I finally had enough, and I got an adblocker app. It worked! No more ads on any level! The one I got is Adblock Pro: Safari Ad Blocker. It really works. Just follow the instruction video that it attached to it.

Heads up everyone there's someone on fanfiction you need to seriously watch out for. Early a couple of months ago after I woke up I was checking my email and I saw I had a new guest review on my A Dog's Purpose Is Strange Magic 2 sequel. I took a look at it and got a very big shock. Some random person I've never spoken to before on here or anywhere else in my life was basically threatening me. Intimidating and practically ordering me to write a threatening letter to someone on their behalf, telling to stay off of for life or else they and everyone else close to them would be killed, disgustingly telling them to kill themselves. And at the bottom of the message this crazy person wasn't done. Warning me that if I don't send the letter then they would kill me and for confirmation to email them to make absolutely sure I complied with their demands. Of course I did nothing of the sort. Instead of doing what they wanted I reported them to the website, sent copies of this deplorable guest review message to police officer cousins of mine so they could have it on file, and I went to a nearby police station and reported it.

When I spoke to the police officers and they checked everything on the message they saw, that while the address and names of business were accurate the people and their names were not. They agree it was more than likely a scam because of the email address on the bottom in order to perhaps get access to personal information or potentially hack my computer. Despite that I'm still very happy they took it seriously as I showed and told them everything. All the same I'm still very happy that I brought this to the attention of law enforcement. Even though the entire thing might be fake I'm still very happy to have brought this to the attention of those who can do something about it if it was legit in some way. This may have been a scam, but it's obvious these people are beyond irresponsible if they try to goad people into sending death threats to random strangers just to get access to info.

Be that as it may if this does unfortunately happen to you do not send any messages to the email addresses they put down and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you bring the message to the authorities immediately whether it is legit or not.

Because it's a guest review it might not be visible for a couple of days as it loads if it is sent to you. But when it does you should definitely pressing the report abuse button and send it to the email that leads to the support staff that is available.

Just a heads up to those of you who aren't aware of this yet, Email alerts for this website are now only active if Email opts is enabled in account settings.

I hope you all like this one! I certainly did while writing it for your vast enjoyment! ;D

For those of you just starting out with my stuff there are other works on my profile that may catch your interest. I highly recommend you take a look as soon as the opportunity presents itself to you. Who knows, you may be pleasantly surprised by what you discover.

Stay safe everyone. Especially with all of these crazy natural disasters occurring a lot lately due to global warming and climate change everywhere for sure. I swear it's like they're getting worse and worse all the time and it's like officials are simply just ignoring it or pretending it doesn't exist entirely just to go on with their daily lives. Especially those in multi-million dollar companies that rely on certain elements of our planet that we rely on to naturally keep us safe instead of adapting and finding new safer ways to keep in business. There are so many options out there where they can adapt, but they just refuse to see it because all they care about is money. Climate change is altering so much faster than anyone can really keep track of.

So, in light of all this, it is important to live life to the fullest as much as anyone can.

I know I am. ;) See you guys next time.