I Look Hideous

Esmeralda's POV

My name is Esmeralda and I am a secret Miracle Dr Annabelle Thorne's had performed. I am a hybrid, half human, half something I don't still understand.

Knock! knock!

I heard the clicking of heels echoing down the stairs. I didn't need anyone to tell me, that was my creator, my mother Annabelle.

I was still trapped in the incubation tank for over sixty days or so. My mum told me I was sixty days old but looked like a twenty-two year old beautiful lady. She said I was a cluster of cells in a petri dish but now I am a full grown woman and today I would be released from not just this tank but the basement. I would be allowed to roam freely. I was honestly so excited.

"Can you hear me, Esme?" Annabelle whispered, pressing her palm against the reinforced glass.

I nodded my head signifying yes. I could breathe in water but of course I couldn't talk in water. She tried different water creatures in my tank before but I just couldn't communicate with them. I only speak human languages.

My mum walked toward the mirror she had covered. It was a full length mirror covered with a long red cloth. She said she wanted to surprise me. She told me I was the most beautiful living thing currently on this planet.

The mirror made a screeching sound on the floorboard as I watched her struggle to drag it to my very front. It was still covered so I couldn't see my reflection yet. The mirror was finally facing me. A cold chill ran down my spine as the eagerness to see what I looked like grew in my mind.

Annabelle climbed on the wooden ladder attached to my tank. I heard a steel like sound like irons rubbing together as the steel cover of my tank was opened. It made a creaking sound that only heightened my anticipation more.

She stretched her hand over to me and I grabbed it, climbing out of the tank gently. Water dripped down my body as I walked closer to the mirror.

"Woah....If there was a God, I doubt he could create a prodigy like this." Annabelle boasted as she flung the cloth of the mirror.

For the first time in my sixty days of living, I finally saw the prodigy my mum had been boasting about. My very own reflection but it wasn't beautiful, it was a total disappointment. I looked hideous, I looked nothing like my mother.

I didn't move. For a second I forgot to even breathe.

I stared at my reflection in the glass. I was slim, tender figure that looked so fragile almost like a porcelain doll. My skin was so pale, I doubted it was human red blood that ran through my veins. That wasn't the weird part. I had a small diamond shaped scales of brilliant sapphire blue dusted on my collar bones, stretched to my thighs and my arms. They shimmered like jewels. My eyes were like that of an animal she brought here before. My pupils weren't anything human, they were glowing yellow.

I removed my gaze from the mirror, fixing my eyes on my mother. She had long blonde hair that danced at her back as she giggled and jumped in excitement. I looked back at my reflection and tilted my head back, my hair wasn't blonde. It was pitch black, long enough to twirl on my tiny waist line.

I reached out, my fingers trembling as I touched the surface of the cold mirror. Hot tears streamed down my cheeks, a drop then another drop.

"I....I don't look like you," I whispered, my voice very thin.

My mum walked closer to me, stretching her arms and pulling me to a tight hug.

"You...are my daughter Esme. The universe wouldn't give me a child, so I made one for myself. Something far special and better than any other creation." 

She pulled out from the hug. But her hand still gripped my arms tightly. Her eyes softened with love that made something in me melt. Of course..I was special.

I let out a dry laugh that was immediately shortened by the slamming of the doors on the wall. It instantly made my heart jump, almost out of my body. It was Mr Rick, my mother's husband who despised me with everything he had. Mr Rick had come down here a few times just to taunt me with hurtful words, and to convince his wife to just end my life.

He walked in from the shadows as the light finally cascaded on his broad shoulders. His jaw was tight and sharpened enough to cut through anything. His fist tightened as his eyes scanned my naked body from head to my toe. He had only seen me twice, but this was his first time seeing me fully developed, as a grown woman.

I felt my scales prickle...a strange, reaction to his mean gaze. His eyes weren't as soft as my mother's. There was no wonder, no pride. Instead his light brown pupils were blown wide, as his chest rose and fell in heavy heaves.

"Isn't she marvelous Rick," my mother cut in, smiling from ear to ear.

He didn't say a word. His eyes remained fixed on me like he didn't just hear his wife speak. He took a few dangerous steps forward, his heels clicking on the floorboards in a horrifying rhythmic sound.

He halted to a stop. But he was standing so close to me, so close enough that I could feel his hot breath against mine. My body shook in an unfamiliar way, as I tilted my face to my mother. My eyes begging her for help, I was honestly so scared of her husband.

He immediately reached out his hand.

"Ouch!" I whimpered. Shifting a few steps back. My hand holding my nipple he had just pinched.

"Why would you do that Rick?" My mum barked, walking up to him. "She is a woman!"

 "A woman?" Rick let out a dry rattling laugh. "Don't tell me...you think this thing is human?" his husky voice struck me deep, he just called me a thing. Was it because of the way I looked? I mean I am aware my mum made me with her human DNA and that of some sea creatures, that makes me partly human doesn't it? I asked myself silently.

"She is a human, Rick, she is our daughter! Your DNA and my DNA is in her!" My mum barked.

"What?" Rick growled. His voice rising an octave. He looked back at me, his face frowning in disgust. "You must be joking, I told you not to use mine!"