Mermaid Effect

"Will you be a good boy?"

The demonic voice whispered in Rand.

Her voice was hoarse, as if her tongue had been scorched by the brimstone of hell, and behind every syllable was the scream of a devil's soul.

"I will."

——When Rand woke up from his dream, he heard himself talking to himself.

His body twitched unconsciously... He quickly pressed the back of his tongue against his palate, and the trembling disappeared after a few minutes.

Rand lay panting on the bed, his pajamas wet with cold sweat, which made people uncomfortable.

nightmare.

Rand knew he was starting again, which happened often, even when he was living peacefully with the Asian couple.The psychiatrist said he had suffered some sort of trauma, but Rand thought he was fine.

It was just some babbling in the dream and some physical convulsions after waking up, and Rand was getting used to it now.

Soon he woke up, and found that the nightmare-like headache had disappeared.

It felt good, reborn, or so to speak.

Rand got up from the bed and found that the clothes he wore yesterday were neatly folded and placed beside the bed. A faint smell of women's perfume remained in the room, which belonged to Rogers.

This overly feminine thoughtfulness made Rand feel an indescribable embarrassment. He looked at the clothes, then grabbed them, and stuffed them into the washing machine as he passed by.

In the living room, Rand couldn't help but pause, the smell...

Rand felt as if he smelled something again, a slight rot.

But the smell is almost ghostly, once you pay attention it disappears.

To deal with the smell, which might be an illusion, Rand jerked the curtains open.It was still early, but the sunlight pouring into the room still made him squint his eyes in awe.Other side effects from the vaccine remain, some bearable debilitation.

The sound of water suddenly came from the kitchen. Rand rubbed his forehead and slowly came to the kitchen. Then he saw the water flowing on the cooking table and the fish swirling in the basin.

He couldn't help but paused.

Rand immediately noticed that the fish's wound was healing, the white membrane was falling off the bottom of the basin, the water was a little cloudy, and it emitted an unpleasant smell.

"Oh, I forgot about you."

Rand raised his eyebrows and said to the little guy in the salad bowl.

He walked back to the porch, found the fish food recommended by the previous pet shop owner from the sundries, and scattered them randomly on the water.But the fish just circled lazily, without any desire to eat at all.

Rand stood by the cooking counter and watched for a while, flicking the side of the salad bowl with his fingers, but the fish still didn't respond, as if the fish food was just dust falling on the water.

Rand couldn't help flicking the salad bowl again, simply trying to get the fish's attention—forgive him, after all, he didn't raise any animals in his limited memory.

At this time, the fish suddenly came out of the water and bit his finger.

"Hey--"

Rand immediately withdrew his finger.

He almost jumped up in fright, but completely different from the horrible scene of being bitten off by a fish in one bite, the fish just bit him symbolically.

Lifting his finger, Rand could see a faint white mark there.

It wasn't until this time that cold sweat slowly rolled down his forehead.

"It's not fun."

Even knowing that it was impossible for a fish to understand human speech, Rand couldn't help but raised his voice and said to it.

"..."

Naturally, he got no response.

The fish, glowing a beautiful blue-green neon, turned lazily, its fat belly bumping against the stainless steel surface of the salad bowl, each scale looking like a work of art.

Rand raised his eyebrows, suddenly realizing that he was talking to a fish.

Yes, admit it, it's kind of stupid.

He seemed to hear a voice speaking cheerfully to him, and he turned his attention away from the salad bowl to the aquarium materials by the door.

Theoretically, at this time, he should get himself some toast, a scrambled egg, and a cup of black coffee that exudes a charming smell—oh, no, no coffee, he forgot that he just got vaccinated.

All in all he should have gotten himself some breakfast, but the scene of the fish slumped in the salad bowl was depressing indeed.

(Forgive him for starting to put himself in a fish's shoes.)

In the end, it took him a little longer than expected to get the simple aquarium together.It looks good.The only problem was that Rand sprinkled some sea salt when mixing it, but in the end he decided to follow the guideline, and anyway, the final effect was at least better than what he made with sea salt and water—even if Thinking so, when Rand put the fish in his newly arranged aquarium, he still felt a little nervous.

What if this fish just can't get used to the "sea water" with a good ratio?

Funny thoughts ran through his head, and it wasn't until this moment that he realized that he had begun to look forward to this weird little thing...

Rand was stunned for a moment, then smiled wryly.

Well, this is indeed a new experience for him (remember what we said before? Rand's limited memory has never raised anything, but the reality is that more often he is only responsible for raising him himself and the cockroaches in his rural New Jersey apartment—you’re not responsible for the roaches, of course).

Rand didn't know if it was a good transition, but, like the song said, let it be.

He looked at his handiwork, and the water pump was a little crooked by him, but the wonderful thing is here, it’s just a simple aquarium, the bluish liquid in it matches the obviously more leisurely fish, which makes him produce A wonderful sense of satisfaction.

Oh, anyway, at least he has a fish now.

And this fish looks a lot cuter in the aquarium than it does in the salad bowl.Naturally, it didn't show any signs of incompatibility, and it seemed that it was indeed very tenacious in its life.

Rand remembered what the shopkeeper had said to him.

"little monster."

He stretched out his finger, tapped the fish through the wall of the resin tank, and muttered unconsciously.

After a while, it occurred to Rand that "Monster" might be a good name for an oddball fish.

Rand got some fish food on the water almost lovingly, hoping that Munster could eat it in a comfortable environment, but the same thing happened again, and his attitude towards fish food could still be "disdainful" A glance" to describe it, and Rand didn't want to experience the feeling of being bitten on the finger by a fish again (even if it didn't cause him any harm).

He felt a little confused, not sure if it was Munster's problem or the fish food problem.

In the end Rand decided to make himself breakfast first and find a way to find the answer on the Internet... if he could find it.

However, when he finished the toast and reappeared next to the aquarium with a plate, he found that these fish feeds had been given a new meaning by Munster—a sticky sticky substance similar to snot appeared. In the corner of the aquarium where Rand had spent a lot of time, the fish food, colored with food coloring, dotted the surface of the slime like some special decorative material.

There's an obvious hollow in the middle of the slime blob, it looks like a cocoon or something, but whatever it is, it looks pretty gross.

Rand looked at the thing with a twisted face, and Munster was busy transporting fish food from the water to the surface of the "cocoon".Rand wasn't sure fish could sense human emotions, but Munster actually turned around when Rand felt uncomfortable.

It holds many small particles of fish food in its mouth, and the markings on its body are much brighter.It touched the wall of the aquarium comfortingly with its mouth, and then began to be busy with the decoration of the "cocoon", as industrious as a worker bee.

Frowning, Rand turned his gaze back to the plate in his hand, where there was still a small ball of scrambled eggs, and Rand found that he had lost his appetite.

Within 15 minutes of deciding to get a pet, Rand started to regret it.