Day 662

The aquarium changed at night.
As soon as the sun fully set, a few hours after closing time, everything took on a different shape.
It would begin with the front doors, gradually going from navy blue to deep purple.
The same shades spreading throughout the entire complex, every inch was altered.
Even the doors, even the handles and hinges sharpened and twisted like an auger seashell.

Complex patterns formed on the floor, replacing the starfish pattern with elaborate sigils.
If one were to follow these one would encounter a door leading out of the aquarium and into the sea.
Not our sea though, not exactly.
It led to the sea where all the night creatures came from and where they roamed both day and night.
This was just one of many changes that took place during the night shift.

Even the information posts changed, simple descriptions now fitting the new creatures inside the glass tanks.
There were all kinds that couldn't possibly exist, things whose very existence contradicted themselves.
Like the Gangura Trout who ate its own fins in order to absorb their proteins to grow bigger fins.
Or the amphibious whale - size of a rottweiler with external gills, fully functioning lungs and chicken-like legs.
Or the mermaids, impossibly larger than the aquarium they resided in, drifting lazily past every window.

Eventually a night shift of marine biologists was assigned to document these new species.
They were disbanded after three days, hanging around when the changes took place distorted everything.
Some swore that everyone they now saw changed at night, even their family, even themselves.
They'd rant for hours that we're the exhibition, we're as much fish as everything else.
Three months on and none of the original team have survived.