Sarah couldn't believe the room she had been given to stay in at the casino. One of their large honeymoon suites had been converted to hold her. Sarah wondered just how quickly they had built this for her and what if she had decided not to take the deal they offered her. The cynic in her thought they had already built it and were willing to take any dumb girl.
A large pool took up most of the room. There was a large low bed across from the door. The furniture was low to the ground and looked made to accommodate her extra length. A large low bed was across the pool on the opposite side of the room from the pool. As tired as she was, the large pool of water called to Sarah more than the bed. She pulled herself across the floor and looked into the water. She didn't know the best way to get in, so she lay along the pool's edge and rolled into it with a big splash.
Sarah panicked at first as she sunk to the bottom, but then she let go of her breath, and as the water flowed into her mouth, it was forced through her gills. The sensation was still weird to her, but other than tickling her gills, it felt no different than regular breathing. It took her some time to get used to her body in the water, her arms were not enough to propel her through it, but she didn't quite know how to use her tail. She had to pull herself along the bottom of the pool towards the shallow section to make it back to the surface. Once she was hanging on the pool's edge, she practiced trying to use her tail in the water.
After about twenty minutes, there was a knock at the door, and then it opened. In walked a man in a nice suit. Sarah thought he was handsome, but something about him didn't seem right. His skin was too wrinkle free, and his smile was too perfect. Something about his eyes didn't seem right. They had a cat-like quality to them. Sarah knew that the rich were using gene splicing as extreme plastic surgery to keep themselves looking young. The man looked only a few years older than the beautiful girl beside him. They shared the same black hair and facial features, so Sarah figured they were related.
"Welcome Sarah, My name is John, and this is my daughter, Rachel. I am the owner of the casino."
Rachel looked beautiful. Sarah couldn't take her eyes off her. She didn't look like she had had any gene splicing done and must have been around Sarah's age, but she had the other trappings of wealth wrapped around her. Her wrists were lined with gold bracelets, and hanging from each of her ears were elegant earrings overflowing with diamonds. If Sarah could steal one of those, she could live off it for over a year. Where there seemed to be some gentleness to John, Rachel looked like she was a bitch. From how she had her arms crossed and her lips pursed, she did not look like she wanted to be there.
"Ok," Sarah said.
"So, can we see it?" John asked.
"Of course you can see it. You paid for it, didn't you? Get out now," Rachel commanded. Sarah stared at her, wishing she wasn't in this situation because she would rip the earrings right out of her ears after knocking her out. Rachel stared right back. Sarah took a deep breath. The last thing she wanted was to be sent back to the prison work camps and undergo the gene-splicing again so soon.
Sarah grabbed the pool's edge and started pulling herself out. It was hard to do with all of the extra weight from her tail. John walked forward to help her, but Sarah shook her head and said she had it.
I have to get used to this body to make it my own again.
Just because she technically belonged to him until her contract was paid off didn't mean she couldn't keep some of her pride.
With some grunting and swearing under her breath, Sarah finally pulled herself out of the water. Their eyes went wide. Sarah didn't know what to do with her tail yet on dry land, so she propped herself on her arms and let her tail rest in the water. Neither one said anything as they looked down at Sarah. Sarah could see the thoughts going on in John's head, no doubt about how he could best use her to make money. It looked as if Rachel was checking out Sarah for a moment, but her face quickly hardened back into its default state of resting bitch face.
Sarah's arms struggled to keep herself upright with how unbalanced her body felt now, but she held herself up firmly to not look weak in front of them.
John was the first one to speak, "You look absolutely marvelous. I will give you a few days to get comfortable in your new body, and then we will train you for work. Rachel will get you clothes and anything you need to be comfortable, so don't hesitate to ask her for anything." John lingered for a moment, looking her up and down. Sarah was intensely aware of how he could look right down her cleavage through the soaked gown the Gene Inc company had left her in, and then he turned to leave. Sarah was left with Rachel staring down at her.
"What's your problem," Sarah finally asked. She was just sick of the way Rachel looked down at her.
"My problem is that you are just some trashy criminal who got lucky to be here instead of rotting in a work camp. I don't care what my dad just said. I will not be your servant, running around getting you whatever you want. I have my own things to work on, so if you need anything, don't ask me. Whatever I do get for you will be good enough for scum like you."
"I don't want anything from a stuck-up bitch, so don't worry."
"Great," Rachel said and spun around to leave, her heels clicking as she walked away. Sarah hated to admit that her ass looked great in that tight black dress.
Now that she was alone, Sarah eased her body back into the water. It was too cumbersome to stay out of the water for too long. Once Sarah was submerged, she felt much better. There was enough room in the pool for Sarah to swim laps back and forth, or she could also swim along the edges since the pool was a wide circle. Sarah barely knew how to swim. Growing up in the slums of the city didn't leave her much time or opportunity to strengthen her stroke. Besides, she wouldn't want to go swimming in most of the water she was around because it was so polluted. This water was probably purer than she had been drinking her whole life.
Even though she didn't need to, Sarah took a deep breath before sinking under the water. She held in the air for her first trip across the pool. When she exhaled, water flowed into her mouth and through her gills. The sensation of breathing through her gills felt weird; the water that moved through it tickled the new sensitive skin. At first, it was awkward for her to swim with her new body. She tried to swim as she would when she had legs, but mentally trying to kick caused her to move her tail with one side uselessly and then the other.
Sarah remembered seeing how mermaids swam in a cartoon and started trying to swim like that, even though she felt ridiculous as she did it. Her tail was more powerful than she could have imagined, propelling her through the water. She realized that using her arms slowed her down, so she held them forward to slice through the water even faster. Sarah smiled as she moved faster. The sense of joy and freedom at moving so quickly made Sarah laugh, causing bubbles to trail behind her as she moved through the water.
When Sarah climbed back out of the water, she saw on the TV's digital clock that she had spent an hour in the pool. Sarah's body was sore from working out so many new muscles, but she also felt refreshed. Sarah pulled herself across the tiled floor towards the bathroom, wondering how thoroughly they had thought about her needs when outfitting this room. There was a wall panel low to the ground that when she pressed on it, the door slid open. Inside was a large bathroom that left plenty of room for her to move around. The counter was lowered for her, as was the toilet, which was wider as well. The bathtub shower combo at the back of the bathroom reminded her of the one in Gene Inc.
After some awkwardness using the restroom, she climbed into the tub. The hot water felt amazing on her body. The bathroom was set up with toiletries, but only with the mini-hotel ones.
Great, I will have to ask Rachel about getting the right products for me.
Sarah dried off and went back to the main room. Sarah climbed into bed and rolled herself into a cocoon of silky smooth blankets. Sleep came easily for the first time in a month.
*****
Sarah woke up the next morning to a large platter of food being delivered to her room. The resort worker placed the food on the low table, and after asking if she needed anything else, she left. Sarah felt uncomfortable with how much the worker had looked at her and normally would have told her off. Still, the girl had tried to show restraint, and when Sarah looked over her bottom half, she didn't blame the girl. The platter had way more than one person could eat for breakfast, but as Sarah ate, she realized she wasn't getting full even after eating a third of the food. She remembered the scientist said that increased hunger was a side effect of going under the gene-splicing procedure. Sarah was surprised when she finished all of the food. Sarah felt no more full than she would have after eating a normal-sized meal.
After eating, Sarah dragged herself to the pool's edge and dropped in tail first. Immediately she was relieved to be back in the water. She felt so awkward and heavy on land but felt at peace in the water. Since Sarah didn't have any bikini tops or clothes beside the hospital gown, she swam nude in the water. She quickly built up speed again as she swam in a circle. That same joy returned, and she swam for hours without tiring.
Sarah knew that she could swim even faster if only she had a bigger pool of water. Now she suddenly understood why so many people were going crazy over aquatic creatures supposedly having too small of an environment when kept in captivity. Sarah thought about what it would be like to have an entire ocean to swim in instead of just this little pool.
Lunch was delivered around noon, along with a waterproof phone. Sarah was starving from all of the swimming. Again she ate all of the food given to her. She had gone hungry often enough to where she could more than appreciate the quality and quantity of food to her. She prayed that her metabolism and swimming would be enough to burn these calories. She didn't want to be the world's first living mermaid and end up looking more like a manatee.
