It was great to be able to vacation again. John, Mary, Annie, and Jimmy sat on a small boat over water. Each of them wore their own wetsuit. On the boat, an instructor also wore his own wetsuit that drove the boat to a spot of clear water.
"Okay. You all have your scuba gear, your tank, goggles, and flippers. Did you all take your diving pills before coming out here?"
"The man wouldn't let us on the boat until we did." The father, John, replied. "I don't get why we had to take it in the first place if we weren't even feeling sick."
"It's a preventative." The instructor explained. "Okay, the depth of this water is about twenty feet deep. There's a reef less than twelve meters away from here. Hop on in."
Jimmy, a child no older than twelve, eagerly fell backwards into the water with a smile on his face.
John chuckled at Jimmy. "He's quite impatient." He dove in right after with Mary.
Annie's heart pounded excitedly and nervously at the same time. She dove in last after the family.
Jimmy kicked his flippers in the water as he sank down six feet. The sun shined through the water enough for him to be able to see what was going on. His black and blue wetsuit immediately felt strange when he went into the water, stranger than when he had to use it in the pool. He would have said something, but he had an oxygen machine over his mouth that helped him breathe. In addition, he was underwater.
John's body also felt a bit unusual, but he dismissed the strange feeling. The suit and flipper clung to his body. He was unaware that his suit began to not only fuse, but also replace his skin, as did the rest of the family's own suits.
Mary's face began to feel a bit strange. Her back felt lighter, and she reached around to feel that the oxygen tank on her scuba suit fell off from behind. Her eyes grew wide and she pointed to it frantically. She tried to get the family's attention, but she didn't want to breathe. She let out a sharp gasp as she felt herself breathe. She wondered how that was even possible, but then she felt 'where' she breathed in. She breathed in from two neck slits that appeared on her the moment her oxygen tank fell off. She developed a set of gills!
Annie's tank fell off shortly after Mary. She looked a bit worried at first, but then her face smiled as she could breathe, but she wasn't quite sure how. She felt her gills, and then giggled excitedly. Bubbles flowed from her mouth as she did. Her legs also felt strange. She glanced down and noticed her heels vanished, but she still had her pink fins.
Jimmy changed with Mary and Annie. He felt relieved to have the tank removed from his back. The suit that covered almost his entire body except for his face crawled upwards and covered his eyes. His goggles fell off, yet he could see just fine without them. Even when the suit covered up his eyes, he managed to see even better than before.
John panicked when his own mask covered his eyes. A rush of bubbles escaped from his regulator. He grabbed it and tried to pry it off since he knew it was useless without the scuba tank, but it felt as if he were trying to pull his own mouth from his body. The suit blocked his sight temporarily before his sight reappeared, but things looked stranger than before. His goggles fell from his body, and he waved his hand in front of him. He tried to close his eyes, but he couldn't. He looked down at Jimmy and noticed Jimmy had five eyes, and John could only assume he had the same amount.
Mary's suit didn't cover her brown hair, but she felt it creep up behind her until it covered up her face. Like John and Jimmy, her eyes reappeared, but unlike them, she only had three eyes in total. She swam up to try to get help from the instructor, but just as she did, the instructor quickly drove the boat away.
Jimmy's tube, not attached to the scuba tank anymore, fused with his shoulder. His gills opened and closed in timing with his breathing. He noticed his mom swim up afraid, but he was more excited. He could swim around so much easier with his transformed feet. Even his fingers merged to make it that much easier to swim. He spun 360 degrees vertically with a visible smile underneath his regulator.
Annie looked just as excited. Her mouth felt strange, as if it 'pushed' forward. She tried to open her mouth, and she was able to do just that. "I'm a mermaid!" she said as bubbles escaped. The regulator that was once covering her mouth now served 'as' her mouth.
"If you get to be a mermaid, then I get to be a shark! I got all these extra eyes too so I'm a special shark!" Jimmy replied as his regulator split open and now served as his mouth. He didn't even question how or why he could talk. He just accepted it and loved it.
John and Mary looked at each other worriedly as their transformation finished. Each of them changed in a very similar manner. The only difference between them was that the females had three eyes, but the males had five.
John swam upwards to try to signal for help, but as his head came out of the water, he felt a burning sensation in his lungs. He could no longer breathe regular air! He pulled himself back down, and shook his head at Mary. "I guess we're here for the long haul." It felt strange talking underwater. He didn't even know how it worked, but wondering about underwater conversations was the least of his worries.
Mary looked down at her children. Sight with three eyes that couldn't blink was strange, but she was thankful she could still see. "At least the children like it."
As time passed, the police declared the family missing with no evidence as to where they would have gone. The last they knew was that they went on a scuba diving trip the same day a man at the docks reported a strange group of mermaids underwater.
