She woke up from the crackling of the speaker. "It is the 315th day. Get to work Kat.", the LiQuid Crow screeched through it. She hated that he called her Kat. That was not her real name. But it was her only name and she hated having to use it.
The room was only illuminated by teal, wavering light coming through the tiny scuttle, granting her a view into the ocean. It was a small room. On one side, a bed made out of steel pipes and wires, with a dirty mattress and grey bed sheets. On the other, a desk with a stack of papers, an inkwell and a quill. The desk stood under the scuttle. Kat had to sit on it to look outside and get a good view. She better got started.
The ocean always looked wonderful. So many colors and creatures. Despite having no visible light source, it was bright as day down here. She had placed her bandaged arms onto the frame of the window and stared outside for many hours in the past. Her arms still hurt. She would ask the FuzzY Shadow if she could cut some other body part instead later. Kat came to be with a long grey dress with long sleeves, but the FuzzY Shadow had ripped most of it off so she could cut her skin better.
Kat thought she found an idea in the ocean and quickly shoved the chair back to the desk in order to draw it. She always tried to use all of the ink. The LiQuid Crow gets mad if she didn't and would say she was wasting it. She doodled some people interacting with her idea on some extra pages until all the ink was used. She was very proud of her idea and hoped the LiQuid Crow would like it too. She still had some time until the LiQuid Crow came to look at her idea, so she waited for him while looking out the window and playing with her dirty black hair that was longer than her entire body. Nobody ever cut it and it would keep her warm at night.
The speaker crackled again. "Your time is up. I am now coming!" the LiQuid Crow announced before his body poured out of the speaker. The thick black fluid began to form a crow and his rusty metal beak appeared out of it. He rather clumsily flew over to the desk and looked without eyes at Kat's idea. Kat hoped he would like it. He twisted his head a little and then said:" Yes, very good Kat! Very good! I can use this." Kat was relieved. She didn't like it when he didn't like her ideas. He gets scary then.
His body became more fluid and flooded over the papers to absorb the ink. Afterwards he regained form again and filled Kat's inkwell with his saliva. She saw her tongue in his beak that allowed him to speak and held her hand before her lips instinctively. Without saying anything he pressed himself through the speaker again and was gone. Kat hopped from her chair and danced as much as her maltreated limbs would allow her. Then she sat down on the bed and waited for the FuzzY Shadow.
She always came when the LiQuid Crow liked her idea. And she always cut off a little piece of her skin and took it with her. Of course she always bandaged the wound and was a very nice shadow. But Kat still was afraid of her. She hoped she got the courage to say anything to her this time.
Kat watched the door next to her bed. It never opened. The FuzzY Shadow always glided in through under the doorway.
And there she was. Slowly her big fuzzy body appeared in the room. When she was fully there, she walked over to Kat and took her knife out of her mouth. While most of her body looked like a big dark translucent pile of fur, her hands looked like Kat's. Small and soft. Kat didn't have to say anything, the FuzzY Shadow saw her arms needed time to heal. Instead she cut off a piece of her skin from under her ribcage. The pain stung but Kat remained silent. The FuzzY Shadow bandaged her and ruffled her hair. "Good girl." she said. Kat smiled. The FuzzY Shadow vanished again and Kat laid down in her bed to sleep.
~~~
"It is the 316th day. Get to work Kat." And Kat did. The sea was beautiful as always. All those colors. Kat stared outside for hours.
What was that? Kat saw something red flashing by the window. It was gone and didn't appear for a while. Then a red face suddenly appeared in the window. Kat fell off the table and her open wounds made the pain of falling even worse. It took some time until she could stand up again. The face was still there, looking worried. When the red face noticed Kat looked at it, it released a big bubble out of its mouth which contained the word 'Sorry' in colorful letters. Kat climbed up the chair again to look at the person behind the window. It was a girl with red skin. A kind of mermaid, with a very long, red-scaled, serpent-like tail. She had long black hair that flowed through the water and sometimes hid her face. She had a childish face, with a big smile and curious teal eyes.
She was happy seeing Kat was alright. Mostly. "Who are you?" the red mermaid asked with her bubble language.
How could Kat tell her? Oh, of course! Kat took a paper and wrote her name on it. Then she showed it to the mermaid girl.
The mermaid smiled and released another bubble. "I'm AbiGail." she said with one bubble. "What are you" "doing in there?" she asked with two more.
"I make ideas."
"What kind of" "ideas?"
"Ideas that make people happy."
"Can I see" "such an idea?"
"No. Sorry, the liquid crow takes them."
AbiGail suddenly made a scared face. She spoke an empty bubble and swam off at a very high speed. Kat was surprised. Had she written something wrong? She turned around and there he was.
"Your inkwell is empty." The LiQuid Crow noted. She hadn't noticed him announcing himself.
"Can I see your papers?" Kat didn't know how to react. She didn't want him to be mad again. Oh please no, please no, don't be mad!
The LiQuid Crow hopped closer. "I politely asked you to show me your papers." He said. His body pulsed like a heart engulfed in tar. She gave him the papers, not knowing what else to do.
"What is this? This says you make ideas for me. But where is it? I don't see one, do you?"
His beak was opened wide, awaiting an answer she couldn't give. Again she saw the pink tongue that was once hers. He had taken it the first time he wasn't pleased with her work. He closed his rusty beak again and continued to speak.
"If you see any ideas on this paper..." he unfolded his thick gooey wings "... then maybe there is something wrong with your eyes. " She wanted to beg him not to take her eyes too but she couldn't. His disgusting body jumped up in the air and flew towards her. She closed her eyes and flailed her sore arms around in hopes of keeping him away from her. His beak pecked into them, she felt her bandages fill with warm blood. Then something shattered. Water hit her face. Carefully she opened her eyes again and saw AbiGail's thin body sticking through the small window. Water streamed in from the sides and washed the gooey body of the LiQuid Crow away until there was only his black skeleton and his heavy beak with Kat's tongue in it. She saw AbiGail trying to give her a message, but then notice that she wasn't underwater anymore. So instead she just grabbed Kat with her long, thin arms and pulled her through the window. Kat had to close her eyes again as AbiGail pulled her through the water at a dizzying speed.
Finally she stopped and Kat opened her eyes again. The water didn't burn in her eyes, but it still took her some time to get used to it. What she was more concerned about was the amount of air in her lungs. AbiGail didn't understand what was wrong with her and just watched helplessly as Kat blacked out.
~~~
Air! Kat could breathe! But... she was still underwater. She was floating just a little above the yellow sand on the ground. She breathed out and bubbles came from her mouth. But the air in her lungs didn't get less. She stared at the bubbles for a while, as they slowly floated up. Then something long and red swirled around her. AbiGail's long serpent tail formed a circle around them. Kat only then noticed the beautiful fin at its end.
"You are okay!" AbiGail bubbled.
Kat nodded and the water didn't seem to slow down her movement.
"I'm sorry" "I forgot you couldn't" "breathe here"
Kat made a bubble to demonstrate that she can now.
"I'm sorry I didn't" "ask for permission" "I filled your lung with" "air" "forever."
Kat didn't know any other way to express her gratitude than to wrap her arms around AbiGail. She had many questions but no means to ask them. All that came out of her mouth were empty bubbles.
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