Dry

I woke up to the driest throat I'd ever had. I was cotton mouthing bad. I pushed up off the bed quickly, and it felt like my brain rolled in my head. I grabbed the edge of the desk to steady myself. I waited for the room to stop spinning before walking out into the kitchen to get a drink of water.

I fumbled around in the cupboard for a clean glass, and set it on the counter as I turned the sink on. I ran my hand under the water to see if it was cold enough yet. A tingling sensation ran over my hand as my hand changed. Webbing spread out between my fingers.

"What the fuck?" I scrambled away from the sink until my back hit the table, "What the fuck is this?"

I grabbed a handful of my shirt, and wrapped it around my now web fingered hand. Not being able to see it helped me calm down a little. I pulled my hand out of my shirt when the tingling started back up again. Watching as the webbing receded back to normal hand. I felt my freaky hand with my normal one.

It felt like normal hand again. I didn't understand what happened. I filled my glass hastily, and drank the whole thing way too fast. I could feel some of the water go a little wrong, but I didn't feel the urge to cough like I should have. I felt my chest carefully as I tried to calm my breathing.

I reached to turn off the sink, but stopped with my hand on the knob. I set down my glass carefully, and ran my hand through the water again. My hand went all webbed again. I pulled my hand back out of the water, and stared at the webbing between my fingers. I closed, and then reopened my hand.

Then I started making different hand symbols. I could feel the webbing stretch, but my hand still felt like my hand. It didn't hurt to stretch the webbing, and my hand moved just like I wanted it to. When it felt like my hand was dry the webbing receded again. Like it had never happened.

I did the hand motions again now that my hand was normal. Felt like it always did. I refilled my glass, and drank it down quickly. I was still super thirsty, but at least now I didn't feel like I was cotton mouthing so bad. I turned the water off, and sat down at the table.

I kept looking at my hand. I couldn't even process what was happening right now. I don't know how long I sat at the table like that. A startled shout brought me out of my stupor, and rushed downstairs.

"What the fuck?" Jack shouted from somewhere in the shop.

I rushed into the shop, and as soon as I heard the water pump I knew what had happened. Jack had gotten wet. I rushed to the tank, and started shutting off valves. Cutting off the water the everything one by one.

"What the fuck is this shit?" Jack yelled from the shower.

I rushed over to the shower, and pulled open the door. Jack was laying on the floor of the shower. Apparently he'd decided to take a cold shower this morning. He had himself propped up into a sitting position.

"Sam," He looked up at me, "What the fuck is this shit?"

I realized why he was on the floor pretty quickly. He didn't have legs anymore. He had a fin like a fucking mermaid.

"What the fuck are you staring at?" Jack startled me by shouting.

"I don't know what's going on," I grabbed Jack's hand when he reached out for me, and I could feel my hands change as soon as they hit the wetness of Jack's hand, "But it happened to both of us."

I drug Jack out of the shower slowly while trying to keep myself from getting any wetter. It was a damn good thing that the dry dock didn't have any windows.

"What the hell is this?" Jack winced as I drug him out onto the dry cement of the dock.

"I don't know," I rushed over to the shower, and closed the door.

"What the hell is this?" Jack was breathing hard as he lifted his fin off the ground.

He dropped it back down with a slap. He laid down on the cement, and started looking at his now webbed fingers. I looked at my own webbed fingers as I moved over to grab the towel Jack had left hanging on the ring. Trying not to get my feet wet in the process. I tossed the towel at him.

"I'm pretty sure you'll go back to normal if you dry off," I headed towards the cabinet where we kept the towels.

"How do you know?" Jack started drying himself off with the towel.

I showed Jack my own webbed fingers, "I woke up first this morning. Got my hand wet when I was getting a drink."

"What is this?" Jack looked down at his fin as he hastily tried to scrub the moisture away.

"It's a fin," I dried my hands off, and watched them go back to normal, "I probably have one too. I just haven't gotten my legs wet yet."

I put my shoes on so my feet wouldn't get wet, and walked over to the shower so I could turn the faucet off. I went back to the water tank, and started turning valves back on.

"Are you sure this will work?" Jack tossed the wet towel to the side, and grabbed a fresh dry one from the stack.

"No," I looked at Jack's frustrated face as he tried to get himself dry, "But either this works or we are screwed."

"Wait," Jack flinched, "Somethings happening."

Jack's fin started to shrink, and split back into legs. I leaned against the wall, and sighed heavily. Even if we could turn into mermen we could still turn back. Then the new problem hit me. I sunk to the floor slowly.

"Jack," I gripped the front of my shirt tightly, "You run a diving business. How are you going to do that when this happens every time you get wet?"