Ow, what the hell?
That was the first thing to enter Lewis' pounding head as he tried to focus his eyes on the dim, cloudy sky above him. Taking a moment to gather his bearings, he laid against the unforgiving ground, sopping wet from the night before. He raised his head slowly, turning it to look up and down the sandy beach along the shore of Mako Island before raising into a sitting position and turning to look at the dark cone of the island's central volcano.
Oh, for the love of Christmas… That was his next thought, or at least something along those lines. He let his head drop back, squinting against the filtered light of the early morning din, he allowed himself a moment of self pity. His head was killing him, his back ached where it had clearly had an unfriendly encounter with something hard and he just knew his day was about to get worse, especially if the chill being carried on the sea breeze was anything to go by. Both of his shoes were missing and he was wearing only khaki shorts and a white short sleeved button down t-shirt, he knew that he was going to get cold in his sodden state.
Taking one more look down both ends of the beach Lewis determined that he was sat roughly where he left his boat, yet it was nowhere to be seen. Being on that particular island, Lewis didn't even bother to check his phone, he knew there would be no signal. He was broken out of his musings by a particularly infuriating creature; a sandfly. Swatting at the infernal winged demons that started to take an interest in him he stood up and made his way towards the tree line. There was no point in standing out in the mercy of a chilled sea breeze, especially when he was still dripping wet.
As it happened, Lewis didn't have to walk far as he found a clear patch of dirt, free of any dried leaves that may house lurking scorpions, behind a small row of trees. It allowed him enough cover to be mostly free from the onslaught of the oceanic draught but also allowed him enough of a clear view to signal any boats if needed.
He sat down heavily, letting out a sigh broken up by the first of his shivers. He was having a pretty terrible morning, that was not in contention, but it was nothing compared to the night before.
The second that Lewis realised that he had the wrong time for moonrise he immediately went to the window. Pulling the curtains back sharply, his eyes met the relentless glow of the silver full moon. He frowned, keeping his head low but his eyes pinned on its taunting visage, causing an angry shadow to dance beneath his brow. He hated it even then, what it represented, the lack of control and danger it posed to all of them. But mostly because it is a reminder that he cannot protect the girls from it, not fully. Scientists, crazy boyfriends and random bodies of water he could handle, but the moon always managed to take whatever confidence he had around magic and shattered it into a million tiny pieces.
Lewis whipped the curtains shut again, turning back toward the large space that made up Emma Gilbert's kitchen, dining room and living room.
"Girls don't-" he started, quickly silencing himself after realising there was no one around to hear him. He walked further into the room, thinking they'd be on the main stairs or in the space by the front door. He was met with an open front door and a distinctly empty hallway.
"Girls?" He called into the apparently vacant house. Realising what the returned silence meant, he ran outside, following in the footsteps of the three young mermaids before him. He quickly made his way down to the dock at the back of the Gilbert residence, calling to the three moonstruck women.
"Guys, stop." He said, attempting to keep his voice calm and even. "Don't look at the water. Turn around and come back to the house." Taking the time to breath heavily when he could, he tried to remain encouraging but only managed to sound mildly panicked. The girls all slowly turned their heads towards the blond boy, regarding him with their cold, blank stares. Lewis took this as a good sign, remaining ever optimistic.
"Good, it's me. It's Lewis, your friend." he pleaded, still panting. For a moment he thought they might listen to him, that they might have control back, but that changed when they did not react and turned their heads back to the shining waters of the canal. He knew what was coming next.
"No no no no, don't do that. You're only going to make things-" he was quickly cut off by a splash, as all three girls dove into the canal and disappeared. "Worse." he finished with a sigh.
Taking a moment to curse himself, his software and the moon itself as well as to gather himself for what may be one of the most ridiculous plans he's ever carried out. He quickly made his way to the marina in record timing, knowing the girls were headed to Mako, he jumped in his small aluminium boat and drove as fast as he could out into the open ocean. He quickly dialled Cleo's number leaving a rushed message about where he was going as he sped out into the choppy waves.
Bouncing across the top of the rough sea, Lewis cursed himself, knowing that whatever happened tonight was his fault, that he had put his girlfriend and the girls he considered to be his closest friends in danger because of his need to understand. That made guilt bubble up in his chest, causing him to swallow hard and grind his teeth in order to focus on getting them out of the trouble he brought upon them. He stayed in that half self deprecating, half planning state until he reached the Western shore of Mako Island.
The moment that his feet hit the sand, Lewis was focused and running for the Moon Pool land entrance, tearing through the jungle at an alarming rate. His shins, arms and face stung as he collided into various branches as listening for the telltale sound of the inland waterfall. Hearing the consistent hiss of gushing water he made a sharp left and tore trough the tree line, bursting out onto the rocky landscape that surrounds the Moon Pool. Lewis was thankful for the amount times he had traversed the treacherous landscape as it allowed him to skilfully leap from point to point, before finally sliding down into the cave without any hesitation.
Lewis had never been in the cave during a full moon before, he noted the natural glow produced by the water was more vibrant and the air crackled with energy. While he admitted it was beautiful, the feeling set him on edge but did not frighten him. He decided to make a note of that later and come back on another full moon to make a more detailed analysis. His research, however quickly gave way to anxiety over the girls as the rippling pool was distinctly empty of any mermaids.
"Cleo? Girls? Are you in here?" he called out into the echoing chamber "It's me, Lewis". He sighed running a hand through his windblown hair. A smooth, monotone voice sounded behind him.
"Lewis" The aforementioned boy whipped around to see a lone blonde mermaid staring at him, blank and cold as the grave.
"Emma," he sighed relieved that he had found one of his friends. "You're lucky I found you. Where are the others?"
As if on cue the remaining two girls rose silently to the surface, staring just as blankly at the one that intruded upon their home. Lewis softened further, relieved that they were both safe. Seeing the blankness behind their eyes, however, Lewis quickly formulated a plan.
"Lewis" Cleo stated with an intensity that she was not usually capable of commanding.
"Cleo," Lewis said softly, dropping his guard slightly at the sound of his girlfriend's voice. "are you alright?"
"You have to leave Lewis." She responded in the same flat voice.
"We told you" Rikki chimed in, her voice conveying more anger than the two girls before her. "We don't need your help."
"I was really worried about you. I take full responsibility for everything that's happened tonight." he said encouragingly, trying to meet their eyes. "Let's go home." Cleo swam forward to the edge of the glowing pool looking at Lewis fully for the first time all night.
"We are home." she deadpanned.
Lewis recoiled a bit at that, looking around nervously at the cavern walls, expecting them to give him the answers. Now that he was crouched he could feel the thrum of energy beneath his hand shift, becoming more intense as the moon began to creep its way over the cone of the volcano. He would later swear that it was then he knew something was going to happen. In reality, however, he brushed it off as nerves.
He started "Yeah, well I thoug-" he was cut off by Cleo raising her hand towards him, sending a strong blast of air swirling around him, catching him off guard. As the newly stirred wind encircled the body of the now terrified boy Rikki raised her hand to the heavens, drawing in a more static feeling, filling the air with ozone as lighting began to jump across the skyward hole.
"You can't take us" called Emma, rather too menacingly for Lewis' liking. "But we can take you."
She raised her hand towards her petrified friend, strengthening the air around him enough to lift him off of his feet. Flailing, panicking and desperate Lewis pleaded to know what was going on as he was lifted higher and higher towards the now lighting filled sky. Just as he thought he was going to be sucked into the forming cyclone above his head, the moon centred itself fully, causing the pool bellow to bubble and broil with magic. This distracted the ravenous mermaids, bathing them in comforting warm glow, causing them to drop their prey. Lewis then crashed into the pool below, knocking against the tails of his friends turned assailants. Disoriented, he clawed at the water, feeling claustrophobic from the amount of space left by the fins as well as being unprepared for the lack of air surrounding him.
His feet then struck against the sandy bottom of the pool, propelling him towards the surface, breaking through with such force that half of his body leapt out of the water. Taking a large gasp of breath he swam as fast as he could to the submerged stone step closest to him and pulled himself out of the water. Allowing himself a moment to breathe, while the girls still remained fixated on the moon, before making his way to the land entrance with what little energy he had left. Using the rope that Dr Denman left dangling down the rock slide Lewis pulled himself up the chute, his entire body screaming with pain and shivering from either adrenaline, the cold or from fear, he honestly couldn't tell anymore. He then sat on the rock just outside of the entrance to properly catch his breath, believing he was safe from the girls and reasoning that if the girls wanted to stay on Mako he could come and get them in the morning.
Just as his breathing returned to normal, the cyclone began again with renewed intensity. Lightning danced across the sky and lashed out at the Earth with a vengeance that Lewis had never seen. The wind seemed to bite every exposed piece of skin, tearing whole branches off of trees and using them as canon fodder for the unwary. Rain fell sideways, striking him in the eyes and leaving freezing cold streaks of water across his face. Blindly, Lewis fumbled his way down the rocks of the water fall, panicking with every step, both for his own life and for the girls' as he tried to find his way back to the boat. He managed to feel himself to halfway through the jungle when a branch struck the back of his head, causing him to fall to his knees before stumbling the rest of the way to the beach before passing out in the hard damp sand. His boat drifting off into the mountainous waves as his vision faded.
Yeah, I'd constitute that as a pretty bad night. He thought to himself, gently placing his fingers on the back of his head, burying them into his soggy blond locks, searching for a gash left by the branch. A lump but no blood. Should be okay, if not a minor concussion. He tried to stand again, resigning himself to checking the Moon Pool for the girls, only to be met with an ungodly amount of dizziness, plonking him straight back down again. The thud reminded him of just how beaten up he was, making him groan under the various aches and pains.
Let's stay here for now Lewis. Don't need to do any more damage. He grumbled to himself. He though he probably deserved it anyway, he got himself into that mess and put the girls in danger, it was only fair he was the one that got hurt. Any sane person, however, would disagree, no one should be tossed into a cyclone for one mistake in timing, but Lewis was not in a good state of mind to realise that.