Hey guys! I wanna say, I meant to update ages ago, but I got super duper sidetracked and time dribbled away like water. Sorry! Hopefully I'll get the next chapter up real quick.
"I love what you've done with the place."
"Lewis, stop being sarcastic and hold still," She chided, flipping the lid on a bottle of disinfectant and squirting some out on her hand. They were back in her cave, where the cold stung and she had put tape over all the places prone to leakage. He didn't complain. "This'll sting."
"Firstly, I meant that comment with the utmost sincerity, and secondly – what the heck is that stuff? It hurts!" He howled, shooting her a death glare.
"I kinda did warn you."
"No warning in the entire world could prepare me for this!"
"Stop being such a baby." She said, now done with his ankles and moving onto his wrists. "And trust me; an infection would be a heck of a lot worse. You don't want it to get infected, do you? Do you?"
His lips pursed. "I guess not,"
"And anyway, we're all done now." She said, flicking the bottle over her shoulder where it landed in her open bag. She went to go pack it away properly, and a memory crept up on her while her back was to him. It was one obtaining a rather similar argument about disinfectant...
A seven-year-old Cleo Sertori giggled as she walked on top of the fence like a tightrope walker.
They were at Lewis's uncle's farm, on a warm summer's day, and it featured luscious grass and plenty of fences to hop. Her mother had frequently told her it was too dangerous to walk the fences, but she so wanted to impress Lewis she did it anyway.
"Come on, Cleo! You're almost there!" He cheered jubilantly from the grass below.
She wobbled a bit, crying out and thrashing for something to hold onto. "Don't worry, Cleo!" She dared open one eye to look down at the beaming Lewis, with his arms outstretched. "If anything happens, I'll catch you."
That gave her the confidence to keep going. She stumbled to the edge, clinging to the post and letting out a little shriek of triumph. "I did it! Lewis, I did it!"
"Yes you did!" He grinned at her, and in that one second of happiness and security, she accidentally let go of the post. She screamed as she tumbled down from the fence, limbs flailing. And then all of a sudden, there were warm, steady arms around her. Her heart fluttered with hope, but then her stomach lurched once more as the sheer force of her fall sent both of them sprawling.
She lifted herself partway off the ground, coughing as everything swirled around her. As she blinked the haze away, her eyes focused on the lying heap of Lewis. He was fine – he'd landed in the soft wild grass. She breathed a shuddering sigh of relief and tried to stand, but let out a yelp as she tumbled straight back down again.
She flipped herself over, her messy brown locks falling over her eyes. A steady dribble of blood was trailing down her leg from a large gash on her knee. "Owchie," She said, wrinkling her nose.
Lewis crawled over to her and frowned empathetically. "Aw, Cleo!" He said, shaking his blonde mop of a head, "You're so accident prone."
Cleo scowled something terrible – stupid Lewis and his smarty pants words. She tried to swipe away the blood bravely with her hands to prove to him that she was the superior one, despite her war wound, but just ended up with sticky bright red fingers. "Ick!" She shrieked, hurriedly wiping her hands off on the grass.
"Don't worry," He said, smiling at her warmly. "I'll go get your mum."
Cleo's little nose wrinkled as she thought of the fierce telling off that was sure to ensue. "Alright," She said, defeated. "I guess."
Lewis ran away and she could hear his faint yelling as he thrashed about in front of the kitchen window where her mother was doing the dishes.
He came back minutes later, chattering away to Mrs Sertori about Cleo's fall.
Beverly knelt by her young daughter, her mouth a pensive line. "What did I tell you about the fences?"
Cleo made a face. "They're dangerous," She said in a prissy high-pitched voice, even though her mother sounded nothing like that. Lewis snickered. "You tell me off all the time. It's not fair! If I want to play on the fences with Lewis, I should be able to!" She argued, her bottom lip sticking out defiantly.
Beverly looked over her shoulder and cast Lewis a wary look – he had obviously not told her that part of the story. Her brown curls, the ones Cleo had inherited, fluttered in the steady breeze as she looked back at Cleo, with a hard stare that did nothing to quell her soft features.
After a moment of battling glares with her daughter, Beverly sighed and threw her hands up in the air. "We'll talk about this later. For now, let's just get you fixed up."
She opened a first aid kit, and Cleo gulped nervously when she caught sight of the large needle gleaming in the summer light. But to her relief, Beverly simply took out a pack of bandaids and a purple bottle of something Cleo had never seen before and thought had a needlessly long and complicated name: disinfectant.
She watched curiously as her mother squirted some of the bottles contents out onto her palm. "Mum, what's tha –"
She let out a shriek and found that she didn't need to finish her sentence. She knew what this was – her mother was trying to kill her.
"Sweetie, hold still." Beverly said, frowning as Cleo flailed and screamed. "It's really not that bad."
"Of course it's bad! You're poisoning me!" Cleo screeched, trying to inch away from her mother who had suddenly turned into a fiery demon of pain.
Beverly held Cleo's legs down while she applied more disinfectant. "This is something to keep your cut from infecting. Do you want to get infected? That'll hurt a lot more!"
"No it won't! I'd rather get infected! I'd rather get infected and die!"
Lewis squeezed her hand. "Don't worry, Cleo. I'm here. Just look at me."
Cleo bit her lip and glanced over at him.
And suddenly, everything was okay.
"Why are you smiling?"
Cleo shook her head as the memory faded. "It's nothing."
"Alright," He said, deciding to push off her weird behaviour for now.
She picked up her bag. "I'm going out for a while."
He frowned concernedly; worry flashing in his blue eyes. "Where?" He asked, pushing himself upright. "You're not going back... there, are you?"
"Don't worry, I'm just gonna go see how much trouble we're in with the whole kidnapped thing," She said, grabbing her hoodie and sunglasses for emphasis.
"Oh. Sure." She said, seeming satisfied that she wasn't going to run into trouble – or that much, anyway – and lay back down.
She waved to him and slipped out of the cave. She trusted him to get some sleep – it might not be proper sleep, but it would be better than what he'd been getting recently. She jogged up to the street, where people were milling about for another day of work and she could easily slip into the large crowd, unnoticed. No one would remember her.
She bit her lip – she felt bad about lying to Lewis. She was going back to 74th. She couldn't just rest easy when there were people out there who knew her secret and had no qualms with unleashing it to the world.
She shook herself – that's why she was going back there, to stop them. There was no point in getting anxious about it and talking herself into not going. She was going to stop them. She had to – if she didn't... she didn't want to even think about it.
She told herself this as she walked all the way to the richer part of town. Perhaps she hadn't really been lying to Lewis – she was going to check on their situation and see whether her or both of their names came up on the news. Now she just needed to find that electronics shop again.
She looked around, trying to remember where the store had been. The entire neighbourhood was pristine – it looked so perfect it seemed impossible that humans actually lived in each of these big white households. She walked down a street and turned a corner, and there was the store she had seen last time. She ran up to it, pushing her sunglasses up her nose and flicking up her hood.
It was the local news again, luckily. She pressed up against the glass, straining to hear every single word that came out of the slightly chubby reporter's mouth. She watched for a few minutes until the section she had been waiting for came up: MISSING PERSONS.
Pictures dotted the screen – at least twenty people missing. In the middle row, she spotted her face. And at the bottom right hand corner was Lewis. I had been wondering whether they'd actually classified him as missing, she thought, frowning slightly as her heart twanged for the eighteen other missing people. People who were actually missing.
And then her face was on the screen with the reporter speaking in his ridiculous American accent. She must have been some sort of top story, because she'd been shown at least twice, and she didn't even live in this country yet they'd put her on their missing persons list. She stared at the screen, ridden with guilt as she watched her friends shy away from flashing cameras and eager reporters.
"Sad, isn't it?" She turned around to see a pretty woman with wavy black hair and bright blue eyes. She was walking a baby in a stroller, looking at the screen forlornly. "You spend so much time and effort raising a beautiful child with a bright future and then someone just comes and snatches her up. It's tragic." She said, shushing her baby when it let out a few weak wails. She started walking away; her shoulders slumped, when she suddenly turned around. There was a fierce look in her eyes. "Whoever took that poor sweet girl, wherever he is, I hope he's getting punished for his sins and then some."
She wiped at her face, swiping angry tears, and briskly walked away.
Cleo stared after her, a horrible feeling – something akin to guilt and rage, rage she realised, at herself – rising in her chest. She slumped to the ground and covered her face with her hands. She sat there, silent tears running down her cheeks, until she finally got up. She wiped at her eyes with her sleeve and ran away and out of the neighbourhood and its stupid uniform houses.
She ran all the way to 74th. She glided through the broken window and onto the ground below. She checked for guards, but there were none. What did our escape result in? Where are the guards now that they're no longer needed? She thought, and something in the back of her mind flared. What I really want to know is who that strange woman is, she mused, her nose wrinkling at the thought. She didn't like not knowing.
She walked through the warehouse to find it relatively empty. Her footsteps echoed lonesomely, and there wasn't a single person in sight. How could they all have just disappeared? This wasn't right. This wasn't right at all. Yesterday there had been a dozen or more guards posted outside Lewis's cell, but now she stared at it full on, and if she hadn't seen it for herself she would very well think this place had been uninhabited for years now.
Even though there was no reason for alarm, the hairs on the back of her neck bristled. It was eerie, like something out of one of Rikki's beloved horror movies. The whole sense of this place reminded her of a tiger ready to pounce on its prey.
Prey.
Suddenly she felt very closed in, as if the walls were shrinking around her. Everything seemed distorted and terrifying as she realised what this place really was, and had been since she had set foot outside it with Lewis.
Trap. It's a trap.
She knew things hadn't been right. She should have run as far and as fast as she could away from this place, never looking back. But now she watched in horror as everything seemed to come alive, like an infant drawing its first breath.
Men dribbled out of every corner and crack, every hiding place she'd ever considered.
She screamed, but a hand clutched her throat and squeezed so hard she couldn't breathe. She tried to kick and thrash, but soon her arms and legs were pinned down. Tears prickled at her eyes.
A man stood in front of her, raising a gun. She tried to scream, but the hand clenched again and her throat felt like fire.
"Nighty night, mermaid." He said in a cruel, cold voice. He squeezed the trigger.
Bang.
Cleo woke up dizzy and disoriented.
Her eyes tried to focus and eventually succeeded after a few minutes, and she saw the sun shining through an open window. She heard birds twittering outside.
This isn't right, she thought erratically. I should be in a cell or something.
The sound of fingernails tapping on wood brought her attention to a woman sitting in front of her. They were separated by a desk, close enough that Cleo could see her individual eyelashes.
"Why hello there," She said in a clear melodious voice, like the chiming of bells.
Everything finally came into focus and Cleo shook her head. They were in an office, painted a serene light blue, and the strange brunette woman was sitting right there, with a window directly behind her making her shine with morning light.
"Yes, I'm sorry about that trank. It does leave a few unfavourable side effects." She said, smiling, and tapped her right temple. "Addles the mind, doesn't it?"
"I don't want to talk to you," Cleo said firmly, her competence now restored after all the dizziness from the drug wore off.
"I completely understand," Said the woman almost empathetically.
"Who are you?" Cleo demanded, staring into her odd blue eyes. She was rather beautiful, with long brunette hair that curled at the tips and blue eyes that shone like the sun gleaming on the ocean. "Are you some lackey of Dr. Denman?" She asked. She had thought Denman would be here by now. To get her revenge at being humiliated so devastatingly.
"Ah, the good doctor," The woman said, smiling like she knew something Cleo didn't. Cleo was sure she could count a dozen things she was sure this person knew that she herself did not.
"I've had a few nice chats with her,"
"What does that mean?" Is she speaking in riddles or something? How can she not be with Denman?
"No, I'm delighted to say I am not in leagues with your precious biologist." The woman said, her eyes glittering. "She did make quite a fool of herself, didn't she?"
"If you're not working for her, then how do you know she 'made a fool of herself'?"
"The modern and rather fantastical methods of interrogation." She was tapping her fingers against the desk again. "Although when one is almost bounding and pleading to blab all about your little fishy side, it's not much of an interrogation anymore, is it?"
Huh. Cleo wouldn't have take Denman as a 'spill your guts' type of girl. Not when it came to something with such potential to make her an over-night millionaire.
Then again, she was probably relieved that after all this time someone was willing to believe her.
"Alright, so you're not with Denman." Cleo was silently overjoyed. At least with this woman there was probably less chance of a public flogging in her near future. "Then who are you?"
"That doesn't matter, what matters is who you are." She said, the smile never wiping off her face. Cleo felt she would very much like to smack it off.
"Why does that matter?" Cleo snapped, frowning.
"You're a mermaid," The woman said, her smile now dancing on the borderlines of ghoulish. "That's why it matters."
"You kidnapped my boyfriend!" Cleo spat, suddenly feeling an unquenchable rage. "You hurt him!"
"All because of you," The woman said, her grin definitely eerie now. "So really, you only have yourself to blame, don't you?"
Cleo felt like she had been slapped in the face. Her mouth opened and closed repeatedly.
"For goodness sake, it's not anything you didn't already know," The woman snapped, her fingernails tapping on the desk with impatience.
Cleo spluttered and took a deep breath in, feeling a little lightheaded. "I... I didn't..." She gasped out, "I wouldn't hurt him!"
"Oh, I know that," Said the woman, her lips curving downward into a sarcastic pout. "An innocent girl like you will have nothing to do with violence."
"I... yes!" She said feverishly. This woman had been able to poke at sore spots Cleo didn't know existed.
"Then could you please explain my several injured guards, hmm?" She smiled, showing too many teeth. "Not so innocent, are we?"
Cleo scowled. Then she frowned. Wait, several? I maybe hurt a couple, but I didn't hurt seven people!
"Ah, you may be a little confused," The woman grabbed a laptop, pressed a few buttons and the screen flashed to life. There was a recording of her using her powers to escape some guards. The day of her birthday. She hadn't known people had gotten hurt after that, her only thought had been to run.
"It's a pity I didn't hire people who know a ruse when they see one," She sighed, snapping the laptop shut.
"No, it's a pity you didn't hire people who could contain a mermaid." Cleo said, and felt a little bit proud of herself.
"That too," The woman said, smiling.
Cleo winced at the nylon cord tying her wrists to the chair. It cut through her skin whenever she struggled and her wrists were now stinging.
The woman seemed to notice this, and something flickered in her eyes. Impatience. "Jeff! Doug! Get in here!" She yelled, tapping her fingers on the desk again. It seemed to be a habit of hers.
Two men came scrambling in, guns attached at their hips. Cleo grimaced at the thought.
"Cut her restraints," The woman said, "I'd rather be equally matched against the person I'm talking to."
The guards looked hesitant for a moment, but as the woman's face grew thunderous, they hurried to let Cleo loose.
The guards left and Cleo rubbed at her red, raw wrists. "Why would you do that?"
"Like I said. I believe in an even playing field." The woman said, with a decisive little nod.
"But I'm a mermaid," Cleo continued, even though what she was about to say wasn't going to be for her benefit, "No matter what the odds are always going to be in my favour."
"Perhaps," The woman smiled that ghostly smile and tapped her right temple. "But perhaps you're forgetting that I have a dozen guards stationed outside, all loaded up with the finest in mermaid artillery."
Cleo's lips pursed. The woman was right, if Cleo dared to run, she probably wouldn't even make it a foot out the door.
"Now, let's talk about your attempts last night," The woman said, the unsettling smile never leaving her face.
"It wasn't an attempt. We made it out, didn't we?" Cleo snapped.
"Not as one would like to think, no."
Cleo stared at the woman. "What do you mean?" She said, confused.
"Think about last night. Think very hard." The woman's entire face was now beaming with eeriness.
Cleo frowned, but did as she was told. Alright... Lewis went through with the plan, I hit that guard, and then we waited. Her mind stopped up short. But it all went wrong. The guards all rushed in at once. That wasn't supposed to happen...
She suddenly understood why she had been asked to think about it.
"It is marvellous, isn't it?" The woman grinned, knowing that she had trumped her and there was nothing Cleo could ever do now to come out on top.
No. It wasn't supposed to happen. More than not going to plan, it was impossible! She thought, her mind a whirlwind of despair. They knew. They knew all along. I wasn't operating in secret with Lewis, they were watching the whole time. They were waiting. Waiting for the right time to strike.
When she looked up again, her eyes filled with tears, the woman had placed the laptop in front of Cleo again.
It played.
She saw herself and Lewis flash onscreen. She screamed at shook him vigorously. "Lewis!"
"Cl... Cleo? Is that you?" She heard him ask, each second more horrible than the last.
"Yes, it's me," The woman pressed a button and the video paused. Cleo's own lips were in mid-sentence and her eyes were bright, frozen in the screen.
Cleo looked up at the woman, her mouth agape in shock.
"Yes, we knew all about your little plan from the very beginning," She said, her voice serene and even.
Cleo stood slowly, her face to the wall.
"So you see? It really was inevitable." Came the woman's voice from behind her.
Cleo whirled around and pinned the woman to the wall. "Big mistake setting me free,"
The woman opened her mouth to yell, but Cleo pressed her harder against the wall. "Don't you dare scream."
A ferocious wind blew the door closed, and there was a loud click; the door had locked shut.
"You listen to me. You will never ever come near me, Lewis, or my friends again, or I swear you'll get a lot more than bruises," For Cleo this was an empty threat, but the woman certainly didn't know that. "Do you hear me?"
The woman was whimpering now. She nodded, her ghoulish smug smile washed away. Her blue eyes shone bright with fear.
"I swear I will never hurt any of your loved ones ever again," She choked.
"Or any other mermaid for that matter," Cleo spat. She didn't want another helpless girl forced into to what she herself had gone through.
"No no, never," The woman mumbled, tears glistening in her eyes now.
Cleo let go of her, and the woman stumbled forward, struggling to breathe. Perhaps Cleo had held on a little too tight.
"And this is just a little taste of what you'll get if you break any of those promises," Cleo said, twisted her hand and a fierce wind knocked the woman backwards so she slammed hard into the wall.
The woman blinked against the sudden whirlwind, her screaming drowned out by the howl. Her eyes burned and she squeezed them tight.
When she opened them again, Cleo was gone.
All I can say is whoa. I know, I know, the ending was a little over intense, but maybe it's good that way. I dunno, I'd like your advice. I guess I could always just re-write it, but I save doing that for huge mega-big lapses of judgement in storylines. And P.S., this story'll be wrapping up pretty soon. Hope you've enjoyed it so far!