Mermaid Effect

57:[-] am.

When a woman in a tight leather jacket was facing a bloody scene she had never seen before, panicking to the extreme, at the other end of the city, Rand was lying on his bed and sleeping.

The air is filled with the smell of the lawn baked by the heat of the sun, and the humidity is very high. The smart terminal of Rand's mobile phone sent him a weather forecast before, indicating that there will probably be a big thunderstorm this night. heavy rain.

The air conditioner in the room was fully turned on, and Rand curled up in the heavy bedding that didn't match the weather, his eyeballs were trembling rapidly under his closed eyelids.

He had a dream.

He dreamed that he fell into the sea.The sea water was extremely clear blue, the waves were rolled up by gentle waves, and white flowers bloomed on the sea surface.A huge moon hung like a dead man's face in the dark purple sky.The silver phosphorescence trembled in the ripples of the sea water, and everything around was so cold. When it was extremely cold, Rand had that strange illusion, as if there was a cold flame burning in the sea water.

He was sinking slowly, and the air bubbles were like quicksilver beads, jumping playfully out of his nose and mouth.Strands of red ribbons spread out from his body...

Rand felt panic and despair. He fluttered his limbs, but unexpectedly found that his hand was as slender as a child.

As if sinking forever, the light of the moon gradually became weaker.

In his blurred vision, the last thing he saw was a shadow with a faint blue light coming from a distance.

Something colder and wetter than sea water caught him...

"Tick tock..."

"Tick tock..."

"Tick tock..."

……

Rand opened his eyes suddenly.

Panting heavily, he sat up and found that the temperature in the room was terribly low, so that when he exhaled, he could even vaguely see the white air spreading from his lips.

Rand had a splitting headache. He held his forehead and moaned vaguely, then stood up slowly and glanced at the thermometer of the central air conditioner.

"Oh...what the hell..."

The set temperature has reached the minimum.

Rand cursed under his breath.

He figured he must have accidentally got the number wrong before going to sleep, so now he's freezing like a quail on a summer night, and having to have the nightmare of being so cold when it's too cold. Always have this dream.

The cold water, the blood flowing from him (which slowly turned into red ribbons in the water), and the cold hands.

It wasn't a comfortable dream, so Rand had always loved heavy quilts, preferably hand-quilted ones.

But at this moment, the sound of water droplets in his dream still vaguely hovered in his ears, which made him feel very unbearable.

Did he forget to turn off the tap after getting the air conditioner setting wrong?Rand thought, and then he rubbed his hair in agony, suppressed the urge to fall back on the bed, and staggered to the kitchen to try to deal with the damned dripping sound.

However, when he saw the scene in the living room clearly, he realized that he didn't seem to have made such a low-level mistake as not turning off the tap tightly.

The aquarium, which was too small for his pokemons, seemed to be at the end of its life—a crack nearly the width of a hand appeared in the aquarium wall, there was still some water left on the corner table where the aquarium was placed, the carpet It would have been a disaster.

And the cast iron baking pan that gave Rand a great sense of security fell crookedly to the ground, followed by water droplets falling from the edge of the table.

Of course, this is not the point, the point is——

A limp, strange creature is clinging to the edge of the aquarium, just barely getting out.

"Oh, no no no—"

With a scream, Rand rushed over and pushed it back into the empty aquarium, then roughly picked up the cast iron grill pan and set it on the wall of the aquarium.

The little monster protested with a "chirp". It put its head on the crack and tried to squeeze out unwillingly.

It wasn't until this time that Rand recovered from the hazy state full of sleepiness.

He couldn't believe that such a tragedy really happened in reality - at such a midnight time, his aquarium leaked!

Rand couldn't help but look at the crack. Its edge was not smooth, and there were some white debris on the edge of the crack.

Rand really didn't want to believe it, but he had to admit that the crack seemed to be dug open from the inside out by something's claws. Thinking of this, Rand fixed his eyes on Munster with a livid face. On the two new little claws (or fins?), on top of the pale blue spines, those little hooked claws...

No matter how you look at it, it doesn't look like an organ that can do such a "big project".

Rand rubbed his hair again, trying to regain his sanity.He thought he must be insane to think that this flimsy little thing could dig a hole in an acrylic aquarium with its toy-like claws—if Rand remembered correctly. , the mechanical strength of acrylic is ten times that of glass?And the strength of glass is...

Oh, no, no, no... Rand shuddered, realizing that he had once again fallen into the state of scattered thinking that is unique to drowsiness, he pulled himself together, and decided to show off for now Damn the aquarium, but get rid of the mess in front of you first.

First up is Munster.Rand looked at its streamlined body and its smooth skin because of its fine scales, and thought that it should theoretically be an aquatic creature, or some kind of amphibian.All in all, water should be very important to it—even now in an empty aquarium, Munster still looks alive and kicking, with an energy that drives Rand crazy.

Its two tentacles protruded from the crack, dangling in the air.

Rand immediately felt the muscles on his cheeks spasm unconsciously.

He looked around the kitchen behind him, trying to find an alternative to the aquarium, but it soon became apparent that it wasn't going to be easy.Munster's size already makes it unlikely that he will continue to live in a salad bowl anyway.

In the end, Rand set his goal on the sink—if that was the case, Munster might be barely able to fit it in, and the cast iron grill pan could still function as a cover on the sink.

Thinking of this, Rand let go of the baking tray.

After taking a few deep breaths as a mental construction, he held his breath and stretched his hands into the aquarium, trying to get Munster out.

Munster didn't feel as disgusting as Rand felt before. Its skin was moist, cold and slippery unique to aquatic creatures, but under that slippery layer of skin, its muscles were unusually strong and smooth. tight.It felt like a cold, slippery solid rubber rod or something, which meant, of course, that it was much heavier than Rand had estimated.

Rand unconsciously hugged Munster to his chest slightly when he carried Munster out of the aquarium, and the problem happened at this time.

In an instant, Munster hooked the pajamas on Rand's chest with his two fat and short fin claws. Its strength was incredible, and its movements were more dexterous-after a few seconds, it had already slid down Rand's chest. It jumped onto his shoulder, and then slid down Rand's back with a clatter.

"Oh, God!"

Rand whined softly at the slight sting when its tiny claws hooked through the pajamas on his back.Then he turned quickly and tried to grab Munster, but Munster had already slipped, supported by his strong pectoral fins, and rushed down the corridor towards Rand's open bedroom.

"Stop, no, stop, that's not where you should be."

Rand followed in shock, all his efforts... the final result was that he finally touched Munster's slippery tail - and at this time, Munster had slipped straight into him. under the bed.

……

Rand stood by his bed in despair, and for the first time wanted to curse Caroline's good taste in furniture.This bed is indeed very comfortable and spacious to sleep on, and its four side panels covered with black calfskin make it look very elegant.

However, the narrow distance of less than [-] centimeters between the bottom of the bed and the ground put Rand in great trouble at this time.

He got down on his stomach, reluctantly tucked his arms and most of his shoulders under the bed, trying to catch the little bastard, but the latter had already slipped to the other side of the bed at this time.

And when Rand got up panting and moved to the other side of the bed, the little monster was already crawling in the opposite direction.

Rand never imagined that one day he would face a damned amphibian (or something else), and experience the feeling of utter helplessness.

Moreover, he was very tired, sleepy and tired, and the previous overcooled air conditioner brought throbbing and painful temples.

Rand almost collapsed.

He lay there stupidly, with his face pressed against the ground, looking at Munster through the narrow gap.

The guy was propping himself up on his pectoral fins, watching Rand motionless, the tentacles on his head erected with tension.

"Hey, come out."

Rand said to it coldly, his tone frustrated.

"Haw... chirp..."

He wasn't expecting a response from an animal, but he was surprised to hear a stream of Munster muttering from under the bed.

"I say, come out! I don't care what the hell you are, but I won't let you under my bed, you know? Come out!"

Rand took a deep breath, then spoke to it.Even he himself felt hopelessly stupid at this moment—for God's sake, what the hell was he doing?Lying on the floor, talking to a little monster?

"Chirp? Chirp... chirp..."

Munster continued to make a series of inarticulate sounds.

It was almost as if someone had mixed potassium chlorate and toner in his head—and finally Rand jumped up.

He tore all the sheets and bedding to the floor and lifted the mattress.Without the bed as an obstacle, this time he finally caught Munster.

but……

Rand frowned and looked at the "victory" in his hand.

Munster still flicked his tail as before, trying to break free from Rand's grasp, but Rand could clearly realize that its strength was much smaller than when it just crawled out of the aquarium.

What is even more interesting is its skin.

The slime had dried (of course, a large part of it had rubbed off on Rand's carpet), and Munster felt a little loose and shriveled, and those fine scales even looked a little brittle.

"Wait a moment……"

Rand narrowed his eyes and looked at Munster.

"So, you...you are short of water! Damn it!"

After reacting, Rand jumped up.