The clock on the dashboard finally flicked over to 18:00, which meant the aquarium she was parked outside with the engine idling had now closed. She pulled her keys from the ignition and felt the familiar hum of the engine die so she now sat in total silence, the setting sun reflecting off the hood of the car making her squint. Pulling the sunglasses of her eyes and throwing them onto the passenger seat, she pulled herself up out of the low car and made her way over to the main entrance, needing to get there before the security guards came over and locked the front door.
“Sorry Miss, the aquarium is now closed,” the woman manning the front desk called to her as she entered the reception.
“I know, I’m here to see Jane Mallory,” she replied sounding bored, as she did almost every time she came in here out of hours, she would have expected the staff to recognise her by now, but apparently her face wasn’t once they remembered.
“Oh okay, she’ll be closing up somewhere, just head through,” the woman waved her through her eyes already back on the computer screen in front of her, making Diana distantly wonder whether she was actually doing any work or not. She only thought it spoke volumes for their lax security that they just let her walk on through, she could be a thief or something, not that she knew how someone could walk out of there carrying a two hundred pound fish. But from some of the things Jane had told her she knew stranger things had happened at her work.
The hallways of the aquarium were dark, lit only by emergency lights that lined the floor, pointing the way towards the large enclosure out the back of the building, where she could usually find Jane feeding some kind of fish/dolphin/shark that she couldn’t name. The darkness amplified the feeling of being underwater that the rooms had been designed to create. Following the familiar path she made her way to one of the outdoor pools, and was momentarily blinded by the sunlight, making her wish she hadn’t left her sunglasses in the car. Once her eyes adjusted she spotted the lone figure of Jane stood over a bucket that smelt so bad Diana was sure she didn’t want to know what was in there.
“Jane!” she shouted a moment before she jumped on her back, wrapping her arms and legs around the slightly taller girl, having settled for the next best thing when she realised pushing her into the pool wouldn’t be very nice at all. She didn’t really want her best friend to be eaten by sharks even if it might be funny for a moment or so. Sliding off her friend, she kept once arm slung around her neck and wrinkled her nose.
“You smell like shit.”