Species Unknown [Book 2: Pisces)

02. SOMETHING FISHY

"FIRST THINGS FIRST" Flip began after he had led me down the hallway to his office. Rummaging through his desk, he pulled out a sleek black tablet. I watched as he scrolled through what looked to be a long document, pausing at the end where there was a blank line.

"I just need you to sign here and we can get started." Flip grinned, handing me the tablet.

I looked at the tablet and back up at Flip.

"And what exactly is this for?" I asked, glancing down to scroll through the contents of the document. I sucked in a breath when I read a section titled IN CASE OF DEATH.

"It's just a formality, every job has an employee contract. This job in particular requires a rather lengthy one." Flip said with a shrug.

I looked back down at the tablet, scrolling through and pausing when I saw another section titled CAUSE FOR EMPLOYEE TERMINATION.

"Employee termination?" I read aloud, pointing out the section to Flip.

Flip ran a hand through his wild hair, "It's a confidentiality agreement, basically you can't tell anyone about what you see in here or else." He said, letting out a breath.

"Or else what?" I asked, looking at him over the tablet.

Flip refused to meet my eyes, looking around the room, "Just don't tell yeah?" He said, hugging his arms to his chest and giving another half hearted shrug. For the first time since meeting him, Flip didn't seem genuine, and I could tell he wasn't being 100% truthful.

I should leave. I thought suddenly.

I should just go home and forget this ever happened.

But for some inexplicable reason, I couldn't. It's like my finger moved on it's own, signing my name on the tablet. Before I even had time to process what I just did, Flip grabbed the tablet from me and quickly slid it into his desk drawer.

"Alright, now that that's out of the way, let's get you a wetsuit." He announced excitedly, rummaging around the pile of boxes behind his desk. Pulling out a black wetsuit, I watched as he checked the tag for the size before putting it back, grabbing another to repeat the process.

While he looked, I figured I would try to find out more about what I'd be doing. Which, in hindsight, is something I should have figured out before signing the contract.

I sighed, "So, I guess I'll be working with...uh fish right?" I began, not doing that good of a job hiding my disgust.

I could hear Flip chuckle, "How'd you guess?" He replied sarcastically, still sifting through the boxes for my suit. The more suits he looked at, the more it sank in that I would be going in the water. Today.

I had to think of a way out of this.

So, naturally, I lied.

"Flip, um, I actually can't swim." I said suddenly, not thinking of anything else that would keep me out of the water. I thought about lying and saying I had an allergy to fish or something equally stupid, but I felt that was too much of a stretch.

Flip paused, looking up from the boxes to gape at me.

"You can't swim?" He repeated incredulously.

"Yeah, uh, I never learned. Crazy huh?" I said, fidgeting under his gaze. I was a terrible liar. Perhaps that was something Flip and I had in common.

Flip thought for a second before responding, "Well...that's fine, in any case you can still do most the tasks, we'll just leave the tank cleaning to Noah." He said, closing up the boxes of wetsuits and standing up.