Debbie showed up only a few minutes afterwards. Johnny still sat leaning against the chair as he took in every last detail of the girls face. This was really messing him up emotionally and I had wished I would have never mentioned it. If I hadn't said anything than he would have been able to just forget the girl, and focus on the mermaid as a new person entirely.

"Oh my god!" Debbie shouted as she walked around the corner. I was standing by the faucet, working on shutting the water off as she screamed. The shrill noise echoing through the rest of the business. Johnny jumped at the sound, but stayed in the chair.

"I told you I wasn't making it up," He mutter, the older woman running towards him wrapping her arms around him like she was hiding from the creature. I shook my head still trying to get the ringing noise out of my ears.

"Now that you are here, let's get to work on making a plan, how are we going to expose her, so that people believe us and we get the right news traction. The world needs to know about these creatures," I felt a lump forming in my chests as I spoke. I wasn't sure I had said the right thing. The world didn't need to know about mermaids. Maybe it would make things worse if they did.

People were always scared of things they couldn't explain. The discovery of a mermaid would send the world into a fit of worry. People would bring out their pitchforks and torches in hopes to get a piece of the action.

I shook my head looking at the creature that was now completely covered by the water in the tank. She was even more beautiful underwater. Her eyes closed, due to respect, her hair flowing around her head as a silvery mess covers her face. I hadn't noticed before but covering her arm were lacerations, they had heeled mostly, but they formed a diamond pattern that crossed her arms. After further investigation I realized it was on her back as well. Had she been trapped in a net?

My heart started pounding as the realization came over me. The small tiny cuts were in a perfect pattern, the exact pattern that would be created if she was trapped in a net, and a weight had fallen on top of her. I shook my head swallowing the lump that was slowly forming in my throat.

Had I killed the poor thing?

I couldn't bring myself to believe this was my fault. But if it was my fault it wouldn't really be fair for me to turn her in. If I'd killed her, I'd never be able to forgive myself for profiting from it.

I took a few steps back realizing my entire livelihood had been from killing sea creatures, and getting money from them was the only way I had known how to survive. This was the same exact thing, but this girl had a face. Unlike the lonely dead eyes of a sea bass this girl had actual emotions, dreams, ideas, thoughts, and my best friend had talked to her the day she died. I needed to stop thinking about it. I needed to figure out what was going on. I couldn't keep talking myself down these rabbit holes. The more I did, the worse I felt about the whole damn thing.

"I'm not sure this is something we can do Johnny," Debbie whispered, leaving her husband's side as she strolls over towards the girl in the tank. She searches her for a few moments, taking all the details.

"You damn fishermen," She turned to look at me. The words cutting like a knife.

Debbie and I had always been able to get along, but I wasn't sure what had made her so angry with me.

"Hey, I didn't do anything," I griped. My eyes falling over the graying brown hair that covered her face. Out of the three of us she had aged the best. All of her skin products she used to worry about must have helped.

"You killed you, and brought her here, wanting to make money off of her, she is an innocent girl that was a little different," Debbie shook her head walking back to her husband.

"He didn't kill her," Johnny interrupted, taking his wife's hand as he held it close to his chest. I glanced up wondering why Johnny would defend me after I had said something so insulting earlier.

"What do you mean, there are very clear laceration marks from a fisherman's net all over her body, she was crushed to death under the waves, she didn't drown, it may have been unintentional but this was a murder," Debbie's words cut life a knife, bringing a whole new hatred that I never would have expected to come from such a petite woman. I bowed my head, everything she was saying was true. There was no reason for anyone to pity me. I'd broken my net and she must have been caught in it. I'd killed her. It was all my fault.

"Debbie, we need the money we could get from this, you can be mad at Tyler all you want, honestly. For now, let's focus on how to move forward from here. We have to do something with the body, our fingerprints are all over her, and honestly she is a mermaid so if we were to drop her somewhere they would check for prints, but we wouldn't get in trouble for murder. I think we should just contact a scientist, maybe the students at the college, they could do a huge project, it'd be good for both the school and the exposure for us. That's what we need is the exposure, we can't go on much longer with the money we've saved and we aren't making any money here anymore," Johnny seemed restless, like the entire thing was too exhausting for him to even think about anymore.

"He's right," I took a step forward looking at the couple as they spoke.

We had to do something.