#hand slipped oops

[dryope]

interview with the vampire / safet zac, 1943 | allegories of fate / sandarafreedompark / ilya rempin, ivan the terrible and his son ivan / fka twigs, home with you / the 1975, inside your mind

[woodelf114]

So, what happens when I discover someone who does beautiful au work and writes gorgeous stories on said aus?

My writer brain goes, "gotta write, gotta write, gotta write, gotta write-"

So, this piece here is inspired by @llamagoddessofficial and her new Tilikum story! She's done amazing work, so go check her out! I have a feeling that for now, a lot of my drabbles/works are going to be inspired by her stuff, so sorry not sorry haha.

Anyways, for context, I'm taking a different spin on how MC meets Skull, because I love that big boy so much and he deserves the best. Also, going to be using third person pov with my Horrortale oc Lucy, because I'm not super great at reader insert pov style.

Now, enough chatter, let's roll!!

---

That field trip literally changed her life.

Her 5th-grade class took a field trip to the local aquarium, the world-famous Ebott Aquarium, known for its exotic attractions and colossal size. But the most exciting part of this place was the sirens. Sirens were known for their speed, power, intelligence, and habit of luring humans with their songs before drowning and eating them. They were extremely dangerous.

So, naturally, Ebott Aquarium had the three largest held in captivity.

Lucy trailed along with her classmates as her teacher started pairing them into groups. Somehow, she had been missed. Probably because she wasn't paying attention and slipped under the teacher's radar. She had her iconic leather journal in hand, but she wasn't taking notes on anything the teacher was saying or anything in the aquarium.

If she was being entirely honest, she wanted to leave.

The vast size of the location, plus the extreme business of people bustling around them, set off her social anxiety and sensory overload. Everything was ringing in her ears. Occasionally her small frame trembled as she took deep breaths to soothe her panic.

When it started to become too much, she wandered off from the rest of her group, desperate to find someplace quiet to have a panic attack in peace. So, it wasn't a wonder that when she spotted a dark room with hardly anyone in sight, she made a beeline for it. Relief immediately washed over her as she stepped into the large room. There was a massive tank with an artificial cave put into it. The tank and the room were darkened, and it didn't even look like anything was in the tank.

Maybe this is an empty tank, or they're preparing the space for something else, Lucy thought as she looked around while slipping her small backpack off her back. She stepped over to the glass, peering inside. Nope, nothing here. Must be empty.

She turned and pressed her back to the glass, sliding down to a sitting position and rubbing her temples. She hadn't really considered the implications of getting lost in such a vast place; otherwise, her panic would have increased tenfold. She didn't even know that at that moment, her group was doing a quick headcount and realizing that someone was missing and that the chaperones were rushing to find a staff worker to help find their missing student.

Lucy opened up her journal delicately. The old thing was worn down enough that she feared it would fall apart if she was too harsh with it. She pulled out a pen and started scribbling random thoughts on the blank pages, using the pinkish-red light to see it better-

Hold up. Where is that red light coming from?

Lucy felt the hair on the back of her neck prickle. The red light was originating from behind her, in the tank.

Her heart began to pound, and she tugged nervously on her beanie. She didn't want to turn around or even move, but her instinctive "prey" fear was screaming get out, get out, get out, get out, get out-.

With a shaky breath, Lucy swallowed a lump in her throat, then slowly twisted her neck to look over her shoulder.

A gigantic smiling skull stared back at her, inches away from the glass that separated them.

She released a small gasp, stiffening even more, but she didn't move. The creature had an upper skeletal body that was taller and broader than her and a lower mass of dark, writhing tentacles. The suckers were stuck onto the glass.

A siren.

Lucy let out a tiny breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. She noticed all the scars littering his bones, locking onto the gaping hole on the upper right side of his skull. His left eye socket was empty and dark. The right one, however, had a glowing red orb with a dark circle in the middle, resembling some kind of "eye" that was utterly honed in on her.

When they finally made eye contact, that orb expanded, and the siren tipped his head to the side like a curious dog. The grin widened significantly.

"Woah..." Lucy finally whispered. She turned around fully, now that the initial fear was gone, replaced by awe and wonder. She leaned closer to the glass, putting a hand on the cool, smooth surface to steady herself.

The siren finally broke eye contact briefly to look at her hand, so tiny in comparison to his own face. To her shock and wonder, he lifted his own skeletal hand up and pressed it against the glass where her hand one. His hand was bigger than her own head and absolutely dwarfed her hand in comparison.

He looked back at her, and Lucy could have sworn that his eyelight was sparkling. His grin was impossibly wide, and it might have looked insane to an onlooker.

To Lucy, it was... kind of adorable.

"Hi, big guy," she whispered, even though she knew he couldn't hear her. "What's your name?"

He cocked his head again, his eyelight briefly glancing down at her moving lips before looking back to her eyes. Like he was... trying to read her lips.

Intelligent, indeed.

She finally broke eye contact to glance around. She spotted a sign near the room entrance on the tank, and she started slowly moving towards it to get a look at it. The siren drifted alongside her, watching her movements closely. It made her giggle a little bit.

She read the sign, which gave information on what kind of siren he was and a brief description... very, very brief. There were many "not much is known about..." sentences.

What caught her attention was the name below its official scientific name.

"Skull."

"Skull, huh?" She asked, looking back at the giant skeleton siren. "Is that what they decided to call you?"

"Skull" was staring back at her, smiling still, and she realized she was smiling back. He seemed just as entranced with her as she was with him, and she felt oddly flattered that such a gigantic creature took an interest in someone as small and insignificant as her.

Probably because you look like a tasty snack, drifted across her mind, enough to make her smile falter slightly. Logically, that made sense. It was probably similar to a big carnivorous cat at the zoo stalking a toddler. It looked cute from behind the safety of the enclosure, but realistically she would probably be torn to shreds if she was in the water with him.

Apparently, her thoughts (or at least emotions) translated to her face because Skull's smile actually dropped as well, eyelight even contracting a bit. He put his hand on the glass again. Lucy looked at it for a moment, brows furrowing before she put her hand on the glass overtop his. His smile brightened again, enough to make her smile return.

Well... maybe he actually is just interested in me-

"LUCY!! There you are, for goodness' sake we've been looking everywhere for you!"

Lucy jumped like she heard a gunshot, stumbling back from the glass and whipping around to see her teacher and a zoo staff member. The teacher looked angry and relieved, while the staff member stared at her like she had grown another head.

"How did- How did you get him to come up to the glass?" The staff member asked.

Lucy blinked, shrinking back timidly and stepping away from the glass. She went to look back at Skull, almost hoping for some form of backup, but the giant siren was gone.

"I- uh- I didn't- he just came up to me, I-I don't know," Lucy stammered, heart pounding. "I-I'm sorry, I just needed somewhere quiet, and this place was empty, a-and I didn't realize how long it had been since- I don't know I'm sorry."

Her teacher huffed for a moment. "Lucy, you know you can't just wander off like that," she stated, stepping over to the young girl.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry," she mumbled on repeat, sounding like a broken record as she started grabbing her things. She cast one last glance at the tank as her teacher started leading her out, still going off on her.

She spotted the red eyelight from inside the artificial den staring at her.

She smiled slightly and offered a little wave, though it was bittersweet. She was sure she probably would not see Skull again anytime soon, if ever.

To her delight, Skull lifted one tentacle up and poked it out. At first, it looked like it was just floating in the water, but then the tip of it wiggled, mimicking the motion of waving back.

Her smile widened considerably before she finally turned and followed the teacher out of the exhibit, not even noticing the dumbstruck jaw-dropped look on the staff's face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lucy was shocked when the aquarium contacted her family a few weeks later to offer free weekly visits in exchange for participating in some kind of research survey. Really, all it seemed to include was hourly visits with her new favorite siren.

It seemed like a win-win.