The next morning, Cleo is pacing around her room nervously, fidgeting with her very messy and frizzy bed hair as she does so. The mermaid could not sleep at all last night, no matter how much she tried. Cleo's mind was completely focused on Lewis; her heart racing a million miles an hour as she tossed about beneath her bed sheets all night, her gut instinct telling her that something was seriously wrong. Every few minutes during the night, Cleo kept checking her phone to see if Lewis had messaged her at all. Unfortunately, no messages ever came.
At 7 am, the mermaid decided to give up on trying to sleep entirely. Clearly, it was not going to happen, so she resorted to walking around her room, trying to burn off some of her nervous energy. Cleo keeps trying to tell herself that Lewis will be fine, just as all of her friends tried to reassure her last night. She so desperately wants to believe that to be true but refuses to get her hopes up about it since it is looking highly unlikely. Lewis would never keep her in the dark like this. He isn't the type of person to bail on a date and not apologise for it. Not to mention, Lewis clearly wasn't the only one at Mako last night. Whoever that was there with Lewis is almost certainly the reason why he was gone by the time Cleo showed up. The poor girl's mind is whirling with so many worries and theories that she starts to feel a little dizzy, a throbbing headache starting to pound against her brain. As she continues pacing, the more and more Cleo wants to scream in frustration. She just wants answers. She just wants Lewis to call her and reassure her that he is okay. Why can't he call her? Does he even have his phone on him? Why is this happening?
Suddenly, a knock on her bedroom door startles Cleo out of her thoughts, causing her to jump in surprise and snap her head to look over at the door. Only a second later, the bedroom door opens to reveal her father, Don Sertori, walking into Cleo's room.
"Morning, Dad." Cleo mumbles, trying to not let the distress that is eating her from the inside creep into her voice.
"Good morning, sweetheart. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you, honey. I'm about to head off to work, and I was just coming to let you know that I'll be working very late tonight. There is a lot is going on at the moment, with one of my boats currently out of action just as the demand for fish decided to spike up. Anyway, I'm going to give you some money so you and Kim can order some pizza for dinner for yourselves." Don says with an apologetic smile. However, his smile quickly fades as he starts to take notice of Cleo's very dishevelled appearance, with bags and black-purple rings under her drooping eyes, indicating to Don that his daughter didn't get any sleep last night.
"Are you alright, Cleo?" Don frowns in concern as he steps towards his daughter.
"I'm fine," Cleo responds snappishly as she turns away from her dad while hugging her arms close to her chest, barely keeping it together at this point. The mermaid's eyes are beginning to sting with unshed tears and her throat feels like it has swallowed a toad that has gotten stuck there.
"Hmm, well you don't sound fine," Don says, unconvinced. He makes his way over to his daughter and places a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"You can talk to me, chooks. You can tell me anything, remember?" Don reminds his daughter in a soft voice. There is a moment of silence between the father and daughter as Cleo pauses, hesitating with the decision of whether or not she should tell her dad about her fears for Lewis. Eventually, Cleo decides that she can't keep this fear from her dad. He would likely have found out about it at some point anyway. Besides, what if he knew how to help?
"Um, well... Last night, Lewis and I were supposed to go on a date," Cleo begins nervously as she turns back around to face her dad.
"Go on," Don says sternly with a frown, already not liking where this is going. Lewis had seemed like a good kid in the rare occasions that Don has spent time with him, but if Lewis has hurt Cleo in any way, Don swears that he will make Lewis regret it until the day he dies. No one messes with Don's daughters.
"Oh, god, Dad, it's not anything like that!" Cleo groans, knowing exactly where her father's line of thinking is going.
"Then what is it like, then? Has he hurt you? Ugh, I knew you were too young to have a boyfriend! Why did I ever agree to let you have one?" Don replies, his thoughts clearly spiralling out of control. Cleo can almost see the cogs turning in his head as he tries to plan a way to punish Lewis.
"Dad! First of all, I'm almost 18! I'm not a little girl anymore! And second, just let me finish explaining instead of just assuming the whole story, please!" Cleo exclaims frustratedly, starting to think that maybe telling her father wasn't a good idea after all.
"Fine, fine. Please continue." Don sighs defeatedly.
"Thank you. Now, as I was saying, Lewis and I were supposed to be going on a date last night. However, when I arrived at the location, Lewis was nowhere to be seen. But the area was all set up for our date! He was definitely there before I arrived! And... I-I think someone else was there with him." Cleo continues to explain hurriedly, leaving her feeling breathless.
"So he's cheating on you?!" Don shouts in horror.
"That son of a bitch, I'm going to kill him-"
"Dad, stop! Lewis is not cheating on me, okay? Stop jumping to conclusions!" Cleo interrupts her dad abruptly, shouting over the top of him, stunning Don into silence.
"Whoever it was that was there with Lewis, I don't think it was anyone with good intentions towards him. I'm... I'm really scared, Dad. I'm terrified that something terrible has happened to Lewis. I just have a really bad feeling about this." Cleo continues, much more quietly this time, her voice wobbling as she tries her hardest not to cry. Cleo's vision blurs as tears begin to fill her eyes and her bottom lip begins to tremble.
Don stares at his daughter in shock, unable to comprehend what is happening. Cleo does indeed look terrified and on the verge of bursting into sobs. It is clear that she truly believes that something bad must have happened to Lewis last night. Don isn't sure if that is true though, as he still thinks it's very possible that Lewis just bailed on Cleo and maybe even ran off with some other girl. However, as he looks into Cleo's distressed and tearful eyes, Don decides to give her the benefit of the doubt. They have to get to the bottom of this.
"Have you tried to call him?" Don asks, getting straight down to the point.
"Yes. Over 50 times, as well as at least a hundred text messages. No answers whatsoever." Cleo responds sadly, biting her lip in an attempt to keep her from completely losing it and crumbling down into a ball on the floor while sobbing her heart out.
"Okay... how about his mother? Or any of his brothers? Have you tried them? I'm sure one of them would have an idea of where Lewis might be." Don tries to suggest helpfully, hating to see Cleo so upset like this.
"N-no, I haven't actually. I-I was planning on it, but I hadn't gotten around to it... it's just that Lewis never has his phone off, so that's even more of an indicator that something is terribly wrong. And I'm kind of worried about alerting Lewis' family to that if they indeed don't know where he is..." Cleo stammers, quickly wiping away some of the silent tears rolling down her face. Don sighs and pauses for a moment, considering how to respond next.
"Well, you're going to have to call them eventually, sweetheart. They have to know about this. And besides, maybe they already know where Lewis is? Like you said, we shouldn't jump to any conclusions, right?" Don says, hoping to calm Cleo down a little bit.
"I guess so..." Cleo mumbles as she looks down at the ground, her vision still blurred from her tears.
"Hey. It's going to be okay, sweetie. I promise." Don says as he gives Cleo's shoulder a comforting squeeze. Cleo looks up at him blearily, her eyes red and puffy from the constant tears streaming down her face.
"How? How do you know that, Dad?" Cleo asks, her voice breaking a little, which in turn breaks Don's heart. He never wanted his little girl to sound this completely heartbroken and afraid. He quickly pulls her into a tight, warm and comforting hug, which Cleo gratefully accepts and returns.
"Lewis is a smart kid. He will be okay," Don reassures his daughter firmly, but in his mind, cracks of doubt are starting to form. If Cleo is right about this, Lewis could be in big trouble. They may never see him again. Of course, Don doesn't have the heart to tell his daughter that. How could he? It was clear that Lewis means the world to Cleo. She would be absolutely destroyed if the worst has indeed happened to him.
"Anyway, I wish I could stay and talk about this with you more, but I really have to go. I strongly suggest that you give Mrs McCartney a call today. I'll see you tonight. I love you, honey." Don says after a couple of moments of silence, pulling out of the hug and giving Cleo a quick kiss on the head.
"Okay, Dad. See you tonight. I love you too." Cleo sniffles and wipes the tears away from her face once more. Cleo even attempts to give her dad a reassuring smile as he begins to exit her room.
Once her father is gone though, and her bedroom door is closed once again, Cleo can't hold back her emotions anymore. The mermaid collapses onto the floor as an unstoppable waterfall of tears pour down her face, dripping onto her bedroom carpet. Her sniffling turns into sobs, which then quickly turns into full-on wailing, her body shaking as she heaves in and out. Cleo holds her head in her hands as she continues to cry in despair, feeling completely helpless and alone. How could this be happening? All Cleo wants right now is for Lewis to be right here beside her, reassuring her that everything is going to be okay. That Lewis is okay.
Later that morning, Cleo is sitting down in the living room, feeling numb. She had stopped crying hours ago. She thought crying would be the worst part, hating how she couldn't stop the tears from falling and blinding her vision, or how her body was constantly trembling, or especially how she could barely even breathe. However, the numb and empty feeling that came after the tears was worse. Much worse. It feels as though someone has punched a hole right through Cleo, and the life is slowly draining out of her. She feels less connected to her surroundings and is instead stuck in the emptiness and darkness of her mind. Cleo feels like she has lost a part of herself. The teenage mermaid realises that she should be concerned about these feelings, but at the moment at least, she honestly doesn't care. All she wants is to have some sort of confirmation, no matter how small, that Lewis is safe.
Unexpectedly, the ringtone of her phone finally snaps Cleo out of her numb and miserable state. Cleo jumps in surprise and her heart skips a beat before fumbling around in her jeans' back pocket to grab her phone. Once she grabs hold of it, she hurriedly flips it open, presses the answer button and holds it up to her ear.
"Lewis?!" Cleo asks breathlessly.
"Um... no, I'm afraid not, my dear. This is Kelly McCartney, Lewis' mother." The voice on the other end of the phone answers hesitantly.
"Oh... sorry..." Cleo mumbles, unable to hide the huge disappointment in her voice as she slumps back down into the couch, feeling deflated.
"I was actually ringing you to ask if you knew where Lewis was... he didn't come home last night, which is not like him at all. I thought that he might have been with you, or that you at least might have known where he is." Kelly continues talking, her voice tightly laced with panic. Cleo's stomach drops and dread starts crashing on top of her like a tidal wave. Mrs McCartney's words are just the cherry on top of the cake for Cleo. There's no doubt in her mind now. Lewis is missing, and she highly doubts that it's because he ran away. Why would Lewis even want to run away?
"No, I'm sorry, I haven't seen him. We were supposed to go on a date last night, but he didn't turn up. I was planning on calling you today to see if you knew where he was." Cleo answers reluctantly, hating to break the news to Lewis' mother. Going by how Cleo herself feels after Lewis has been missing for only around 12 hours, Cleo can't even begin to imagine how Mrs McCartney must feel.
"Have you... have you tried to call him?" Kelly asks in a small voice.
"Yeah, but he hasn't answered. I tried to call him many times, and I've sent him a bunch of texts, but I haven't gotten any response. I'm assuming you haven't gotten a hold of him either?" Cleo sighs sadly.
"No, I haven't..." Kelly replies, sounding defeated.
"I'm really sorry, Mrs McCartney. If I hear anything from Lewis, I promise I will call you." Cleo says, trying to sound reassuring for Lewis' mother. Figuring out that your son is missing would be one of the worst things imaginable.
"It's okay, Cleo, it's not your fault... but I think it's about time that I call the police." Kelly McCartney sighs sadly.