Age anxiety and fish trouble - Chapter 10

Metamorphos

Monday

I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night because it hurts so much in both legs that I feel almost faint. It hurts so terribly and I don't know what to do.

I can feel the legs with my hand and they are really warm. I turn on the bedside lamp and stare at my legs. They actually look a little red. Roughly the way they can look if you've sunburnt your legs way too much.

I climb out of bed and go into the kitchen. I take two alvedons and sincerely hope that the pain will go away. I think for a moment that maybe I should call 112 but dismiss the thought.

It tightens my neck quite a bit at the marks as well and I sigh deeply. What should I do? Finally, I go to bed again. I'm drenched in sweat so I don't pull the covers over me but just lie on top of the sheets.

The pain in my legs comes in waves but in the end it seems to subside and I soon fall asleep again.

I wake up sometime later in the night because something feels wrong. I try to ignore my feeling but finally wake up. I'm lying on my stomach and it feels a little uncomfortable so I decide to turn on my side.

It just doesn't work. The legs don't move as they should and behind me I hear a funny slapping sound and I feel something down there brush against my smaller bookshelf.

I wake up immediately and try to move as I'm used to. Finally I manage to get to one side and now I can see the legs or rather what should be the legs.

They have grown together and are now one big long leg. The leg has grey-blue scales like a fish and at the far end where the feet should be is now a strong fish tail. Kind of like mermaids have. My fish tail is black with yellow small dots on it from the middle out to the end of the fin. The colors look good together and I should be proud but I am horrified by what I see and manage to stifle a scream.

I check my hands and see that there is webbing between the fingers and at the very end at the nails I have sharp claws. I think they are similar to the claws of the monster from "Black Lagoon" but not exactly the same.

I also feel that I am not breathing as I usually do, but that most of the air is coming in at the throat. It feels okay but a little unusual.

So those lines were gills!

I gently feel my hands at the gills and feel them open and close automatically at regular intervals. I think it's good.

I lie there quietly in bed and just stare at my scales and fish tail. I wag the tail a little and it reacts immediately to my command. There is a smell of fish in the room and I realize that it is me who smells.

I'm still uncomfortable and figuring out what it is.

I should be in water and not on dry land.

Of course it is. A fish cannot survive on land for long. I don't have a bathtub, but I do have a shower. That should be enough, I think. But how do I get there?

With the help of the tail and the body, I manage to get on my stomach again. I think I have to crawl off the bed and drag myself to the shower if possible. Pulling myself forward with the power of my arms seems to be going well although it is receiving in the bed.

I manage to pull myself down to the floor and I land with a thud and a clutch from the tail. I pull myself away towards the shower. It's slow but there's no other way to do it.

Finally I lie there in the shower. It's not that big and it feels tight but I can't do anything about it. I turn on the water and after getting a minor shock from the hot water, I change the temperature so it's lukewarm water instead. The water splashes nicely on my body.

I lie on top of the floor well and after a while there is relatively much water around me. I dip my head under the water that is there and feel the water flow through the almost dry gills. It's a wonderful feeling and I lie there for a while.

Soon it's full of water around me and the shower stop will overflow. However, my fish tail is not under water, it is resting against the wall. It actually feels a bit uncomfortable. Sometimes I wiggle it a little and it makes a funny sound as it moves on the wall.

Hey mom and dad and everyone. Look what I can do!

Water has started to run over the floor from the shower stop and somewhere around here I get an idea. I'm going to try to flood the apartment so I can swim around in it and not have to lie here all day. The electrical sockets in my apartment are quite high, even the stove is high, so there shouldn't be any problem with the electricity in any case.

I remove the stopper with my clawed hands and then I look for something to set or put on the floor drain so no water can run down there. Finally I find a washtub big enough to put over. It's a bit of a struggle to drag it there but I'm not giving up.

It doesn't take long until the whole bathroom is full of water and it has started to flow into the bedroom. I choose to bide my time and take it easy.

I study myself and find that I have some smaller fins on both sides of my body. I touch them a little. Between some of the fins I also have some thin sensory sprouts. I gently feel my hand on them and it feels funny but interesting. The fins are probably used in the water to steer with, but perhaps also to impress possible females.

Hmm, about that.

I wonder about my manhood. It takes a while but eventually I find it. It is hidden behind another fin further down the front body.

Whew! Lucky it's still there.

I decide to open the water faucet to the sink as well so that the water in the apartment will rise faster hopefully. The sink is not that big so it should be relatively quick to fill it. I put a piece of tape there that I found in my bathroom drawer that is on the floor. I carefully plug where the water should normally flow out and then I turn the tap on full blast.

Soon water is running from the sink as well and the water level outside in the bedroom has become a little higher so I decide to go there. I swim a bit lightly with the tail and I am surprised at how fast it moves forward.

Once in the bedroom, I take the opportunity to check what time it is. It shows 04.44. There are guaranteed to be a lot of people sleeping right now, but I'm awake. It feels a bit boring and in a way lonely too. It would actually be nice if I had someone to talk to right now.

I check out the living room and the kitchen. There is hardly any water there yet. The floors are clean as they should be, so the water won't get dirty anyway.

I start talking quietly to myself but all I can hear are funny creaks and snaps. Not unlike the sounds that dolphins make. I try again and raise my voice. Now there is more creaking and a high-pitched sound as well.

So much for communication with others. Just great

That setback doesn't exactly make me happier. So I cannot make myself understood by others who are not mermen or mermaids.

I'm lying there in the bedroom and I feel sad.

At 07.25 the whole apartment is full of water, although it is not very deep yet. I swim around the apartment feeling at peace with myself despite being transformed. The fins on the side prove helpful when navigating around the floor.

The whole fishtail is under the surface and I notice that it is very strong. Such speed I get when I move forward. As fun as it gets.

When the water level has become so high that I float on the surface, I swim to the bathroom and turn off both the shower and the faucet at the sink. Not a good idea to do more water damage than I've already done, I think.

Afterwards, I aimlessly swim back and forth in the apartment and just be. I'm starting to get hungry and try to open the fridge to grab one of the fish I caught the day before. I don't quite reach the top but get an idea to use a longer broom that I have and thus move the bag with the fish. It succeeds after a few less good attempts and soon the bag is down on the floor. It bobs there in the water.

I carefully open the bag with my clawed hands and grab a few fish and bring them to my mouth. It's not long before they're gobbled up and I take another fish but decide to save the rest for later. With the help of the broom, I manage to get the bag back into the fridge and close it.

It is now around 11 o'clock and I feel a little bored. Although I can swim around the apartment, it doesn't really feel like fun. However, swimming out in the open sea. It would have been something.

Somehow, however, I feel proud of the way I look. Too bad no one else in the house can see me. I mean, my fish tail and my fins are great and the scales are also a nice color.

My tail My fins My scales.

I'm lying there on the water-soaked floor when my whole body suddenly starts to feel strange. I get really hot everywhere and it seems like..

as if..

well, I'm actually slowly turning into a human again. I feel the gills close and I start to breathe as I usually do. My legs sting like hell, but after a while I lie there in the water like a normal person with legs instead of a fish tail. The hand and fingers also look normal.

What to do now then?

I make small talk and I sound just like I always have. I get up and stand there in the water staring like a fool. Then I get speed. The water must be removed.

I rush into the bathroom and remove the washtub that was on the drain. The water starts to flow down there. I unclog the drain at the sink as well.

When the water has run off, I take out my swab and start using it in the rooms that don't have drains. I also open the apartment door so the water can run out that way too.

I'm starting to feel hungry even though I ate some fish before. Presumably the transformation takes some energy so the explanation probably lies there.

I decide to have breakfast and have boiled eggs and several sandwiches with ham on them. I like the salt in the ham.

Most of the water has now disappeared and I walk over to the front door and check out the stairs. There is a large puddle outside my door and some of the water has started to run down the stairs to the next floor. Wonder what the neighbors will think.

I stand and think for a while and then I take out a window scraper and scrape away all the remaining water towards the stairs so that everything flows down there. Better that people don't know where it comes from

When the floors are completely dry in the apartment, I go into the bedroom and sit on the bed and start thinking. So far it has been in good agreement with what the fortune teller said. What has happened so far has been a trial for me but I wonder if more things will happen. Will I transform again? I really hope not.

The day goes by and not much happens. I'm thinking about calling Tony and telling him what happened. He will probably just laugh at me and I would feel humiliated even though I know what happened was true.

No, I have to solve this myself. I can't involve others in this. I thank my lucky stars that I got today off.

Even later in the day, I make lunch and it turns out to be fish. I hear people outside my front door and they seem upset. Of course, they have seen all the water and wonder where it comes from. No one rings my doorbell and after a while they seem to have gone into theirs.

I go to bed much earlier than I usually do. It's been a busy day for me and I need the sleep.