Chap. 10

Jessie

I found Mary the next morning at her locker. As I walk up to her, she seems fidgety and nervous. It was peculiar of Mary to be like that.

"Hey," I greet her when I walk up. She looks over at me and gives me a half hearted smile. My expression twists as I know it. "What's wrong?" I ask her with concern.

"Hi," She returns the greeting. "It's nothing," she tells me. I know her too well otherwise. "Just a little nervous."

I look at her curiously. "What about?"

She shrugs her shoulders at me. "Tonight's the half moon, remember?"

I forgot about that. "Oh, yeah… I forgot…" I admit.

"I'm just nervous about what might happen…" she says. I nod understandingly.

Her face changes. There's something else that's bothering her, too. "What else is it?" I ask. She smiles knowingly, as if giving me the mutual signal that she knows I know her too well.

"It's Anna," she says. I'm confused. She sees this, so she explained. "Yesterday, Anna came up to me and tried to mend things. I reluctantly did, but I think there's something else."

I could see where she thinks this. "Yeah, Anna's not exactly one to let go of a grudge…"

"Exactly," Mary says, confirming my thought. "It wasn't like her… I think she's has something up her sleeve, and it's starting to worry me."

I try to reassure her. Besides, we have bigger issues now. "Don't worry about it," I tell her. "We have other problems to worry about now anyway. She can't do much about it either way. As long as we're careful nothing could go wrong." I bite my tongue when those words come out. Whenever a person says that in the movies, everything goes wrong. I gulp and hope I'm not a movie.

She shakes her head, as if trying to shake out the thoughts. She eventually nods. "You're right," she says. I give a mental sigh of relief knowing my words made her feel better, glad that she doesn't know they made me possibly feel worse. "We just need to get through tonight before we worry about anything else."

I nod. Suddenly, the bell rings. "We better get to class," I tell Mary. She also nods.

For the rest of the day, we go through our classes, anxiously awaiting whatever will be in store for us later.

…

Will

Bella, Cleo, Rikki, and I walk home together after school in order to prepare for our journey to Mako.

When we get to the boathouse, we grab a bag and start putting useful supplies in it. Maps, a compass, calendars, and most importantly, the crystals that make this all possible. As Rikki throws a pencil in to the bag, she comments, "So which one of us is going to be the test mermaid for this one?"

I scowl at the way she says it. She made it sound a lot worse than it really is. "Mary said she would this time. She told me that last night."

Bella knows me too well. She sees the look on my face that I'm trying desperately to hide. She knows I don't want Mary to do this. "Will, I'll do it instead."

I know Mary won't go for that, so I speak for her instead of myself. "No, Mary needs to do this. I don't want to put you through that anyway."

"I know you don't want to put her through it either," she counters.

"It was her idea," I say right back. She shrugs and lets it go. She knows how it'll end anyway.

Finally, Mary and Jessie come in. "Hi," they greet the four of us.

Now that they're here, we can go. "Ready?" I ask them nervously.

Jessie twists her expression in confusion. "Shouldn't we wait until the moon rises?"she inquires.

I shake my head. "It won't matter anyway. As long as it's that day of the lunar cycle, whatever's meant to happen will happen."

Mary shrugs. "Then I guess we're as ready as we'll ever be." She glances at Jessie. She gives a slight nod.

"Alright," I say. "Let's go."

We head out the door. The five girls dive off of the dock and I jump in my boat. Then we're off.

…

Anna

As soon as school's over, I get home as quickly as possible, running as fast as I can to get there. By the time I finally make it, I'm out of breath and have to stop for a minute. As soon as I'm recovered, I go inside and throw my school bag down. I grab another one that I packed last night for Mako out of anxiousness and take it back outside. I run towards the docks and throw the bag in to my dad's small fishing boat.

I jump in to the boat myself after that and turn on the engine. As soon as I get it working and I'm out of the docks, I take a map out of my bag and study it, trying to make my way to the mysterious island. We did it once, I could do it again.

It takes me about thirty minutes to make my unfamiliar journey. I start to think I read the map wrong and that I was going the wrong way, but then Mako Island finally showed itself over the horizon of the water.

I finally docked my boat on the shore. Looking down the sandy beach, I see another boat similar to mine. It's peculiar that anyone would be here, but it also reassures me in a way that someone else is here. If anything were to happen to me, at least someone would be around to know.

I take out a different map and begin making my hike. I walk, pushing my way through heavy jungle. I'm looking for the cave we were in before. Other than that, I have no idea what else I'm looking for…

I try to look around me for things that are familiar. I vaguely remember some of it, so I hopefully assume I'm going the right direction.

Finally, the trees open up and I come to the familiar clearing. I see the large rocks and the familiar waterfall. I carefully make my way across the rocks and find the opening between them, forming the cave that we slid down before. I slide down it now as my heart beat races up. I hit the ground at the bottom with a yelp.

I smile, as I realize that I made it. I might actually get answers. I look up. On the other side of the cave, I see the opening to the other. I see a blue light and feel a draft, but as quickly as I saw it, it goes away.

I narrow my eyes at it. I slowly get up and soundlessly make my way towards the other side of the cave…

…

Mary

We mermaids made it to the cave before Will could, but he was only a few minutes behind. The other girls had gotten out and dried themselves off while waiting for him, leaving me behind in the pool, as we all knew and decided that this was going to be my turn. I gulped.

Will finally came in with the bag containing the crystals. He was out of breath, signaling he had made the hike as fast as he could. He looked down at me in the pool. "You ready?" he asks me.

"Yes," I say, but everything in my head is screaming no. I don't have a good feeling about this, but I need to take one for the team. If this is going to haunt us, we can't risk anything.

"Ok," Will says. He looks at me suspiciously, as if he knows my true feelings about this, but he proceeds any way. He takes the crystals out of the bag and I brace myself as he begins placing them. But before he can, Jessie calls out.

"Wait!" she yells. This stops Will abruptly.

"What?" Rikki says irritated. She obviously wants to get this on, too.

Jessie walks towards the moon pool. "I want to do this with Mary," she says confidently.

Will raises his eyebrows at her. "You sure?"

She jumps over the side and splashes into the moon pool next to me. She transforms then looks back up at Will and nods. "I'm sure."

He nods. "Ok," he says solemnly. He places the last crystal.

The cave, as expected, comes alive. I look at Jessie. She gives me a reassuring nod.

Everything starts happening. The wind starts blowing and the blue glow falls over the cave. Bella, Cleo, Rikki, and Will all cling to the rock wall to stay back.

But suddenly, we hear a scream. A human scream.

I look at Jessie. The fear in her face tells me she saw it too. I don't waste any time. "STOP!" I yell. "PULL THE CRYSTALS!"

Will immediately does as I say. He heard the scream too, and by the looks on the other girls' faces so did they. Suddenly, we hear footsteps.

They become closer. My stomach tightens. The person finally comes through the passage of the cave.

It's Anna.

I stay stiff. Her eyes widen as she sees me and Jessie I the water. I glance over at Will. I see shock all over his face, as well as the feeling that he has no idea what to do. I look at the other girls. They are showing shock as well. Finally, I glance at Jessie. She's staying like I am. She's not breaking.

I finally say the first thing that comes into my mind. My voice is quiet and slow.

"I can explain."