Called to the Deep by Desirée M Niccoli

Author:Desirée M Niccoli
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: City Owl Press

Chapter

Twenty-Two

The close call with Carrie, the hunger, haunted her.

Throwing herself into work probably wasn’t the healthiest coping mechanism, but it was the one Lorelei knew best. She’d done it after her mom’s death, and she was doing it now. When everything went to shit, work was at least something she still had control over.

While she felt confident about her museum exhibit proofs, and her second interview prep, doubt crept in. Something as good as a job couldn’t come out of this week, especially not since her post-interview plan was to out herself as a people-eating mermaid.

Monsters like her didn’t deserve good things.

There was no way of predicting how badly the marine biologist might react to her secret. Fear. Disbelief. All likely scenarios. But maybe instead of agreeing to help, Lila would have her locked up. Kept for research.

It was a terrifying prospect, and yet, no matter how bad the possible outcome, she had to come clean. Living in fear of herself and for others was not an option.

Looking in her car’s visor mirror, Lorelei frowned at her reflection.

Cold compresses and makeup barely hid the visible bags under her eyes, but nothing could hide the monstrous creature that lurked beneath. Staring at her mouth—a mouth that had now consumed human flesh—her stomach turned.

She smacked the visor back into place.

Grabbing her coffee and briefcase, she entered the research center, a red brick building with a modern interior, and signed in at the security desk. An office assistant led Lorelei to Lila’s office, making cheery comments along the way about their state-of-the-art facilities, but Lorelei barely registered any of it beyond the glass doors and clinical white walls and tiling.

All she could do was put one foot in front of the other.

Lila’s office was warmer than the rest of the building—that much she noticed. The walls were lined with marine animal photography, framed degrees, and awards. Potted native Maine plants clustered together on the windowsill behind her desk. Joe-pye weed, maybe. Some New England asters.

Outside, through a piney tree line, glimpses of the ocean beyond peeked through the gaps between branches.

Lorelei looked away sharply, making eye contact with the marine biologist instead. Her dark, rich browns shone with warmth and excitement. That should have been encouraging, but shame and guilt made Lorelei’s stomach churn with nausea. Pretty soon the scientist would learn how unsuitable an employee she’d be.

Portfolio great. Background check? Doomed to fail as soon as she disclosed that she might want to eat her coworkers.

After greetings, Lila sat down to review the proofs, her smile growing wider and wider as she flipped through the layout diagrams and concept art. “How long did you spend on these?”

“About twelve to fourteen hours a day.” Nothing like ignoring personal problems to improve work ethic.

The scientist blinked a couple times, surprised. “Well, you’re hired,” she said, closing Lorelei’s portfolio with a firm pat. “And as I promised, I’ll pay you for the time you’ve already spent working on the project. Email me a log of your hours, and on Monday, we can talk about budget and logistics.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.