That following Monday morning, just two days after Lewis' funeral, Cleo finds herself feeling extremely on edge as she walks through the school gates. She feels like she is about to explode any minute, and the mermaid is genuinely worried that her powers are going to be accidentally triggered at some point and there will be a huge water explosion somewhere within the school. Cleo can only hope that if that happens and she does get splashed, that she can find a way to escape before the rest of the school sees her as a mermaid. Although, she doesn't want it to come down to that. The teenager hopes that the extreme tension, fear and guilt that she is feeling will start to subside if she distracts herself with the mounds of assignments and tests that she has coming up within the next few weeks. So far in the last couple of months, her schoolwork has managed to keep Cleo from constantly breaking down in tears over Lewis, though of course there have been times where distractions don't work. But overall, Cleo thinks that she could be dealing with all of this a lot worse, though she is sure that her friends and family disagree on that point.
However, the mermaid isn't sure how well her distraction coping mechanism is going to go today, since she had a horrific nightmare last night where she had woken up screaming and tears pouring down her face. Cleo's father had to shake her and yell at her for five minutes before she even began waking up, let alone calming down, which took another several minutes. Cleo won't ever forget the terrified, broken and distraught look on her father's face. It was clear that he hated seeing Cleo suffer so much, but deep down knows there isn't much he can about it other than offer empty reassurances.
Her little sister on the other hand was much less sympathetic. Kim had stormed into the room shortly after Cleo had calmed down a little bit and yelled at her older sister to shut up and reminded Cleo that she wasn't the only person in the house. Kim had also snarkily remarked that Lewis is dead and Cleo needs to move on already, as Lewis would not want to hear Cleo screaming from down in his grave either. Don had to hold Cleo back from launching herself at her little sister in rage. The only slightly good thing that came out of last night is that Kim has now been grounded for a month and got a good scolding from their dad.
The nightmare had been about Lewis, of course. The nightmare started with Cleo finding herself standing in front of an aquarium tank, along with a large crowd who are gasping in awe. It didn't take Cleo long to figure out what they are amazed by; the only creature in the tank in front of them was Lewis in his merman form. Cleo's eyes widened in horror and she ran up to the glass and started banging on it uselessly while screaming out Lewis' name, not knowing what else to do. Lewis then swam up to the glass and started banging on the glass as well, and it appears that he is trying to shout something, but unfortunately, Cleo couldn't hear him through the water and glass. He looked desperate and afraid though, which broke Cleo's heart.
Suddenly, a spear had burst through Lewis' chest and blood expelled out into the water. This caused Cleo to scream in horror while the crowd around her cheered and clapped. Doctor Denman then swam out from behind Lewis, not in any sort of scuba or swimming gear and instead in her lab clothes, smiling menacingly at Cleo before she started to speak. Although Cleo couldn't hear what Lewis was saying earlier, Denman's voice had rung loud and clear in her ears:
"Maybe if you had gotten to Mako on time, things might have been different. I may have not been able to capture Lewis. I should be thanking you for allowing all of this to be possible. You have been the true reason why all of this research has been made possible. Everyone, give Cleo Sertori, the girl that made it all possible for us to be standing here today, some applause!"
The crowd had then grown a lot wilder; cheers, clapping and shouts reaching fever pitch. Linda slowly began to eerily fade out of view and pulled the spear out of Lewis. The boy in question collapsed onto the tank floor, curling in on himself as he turned pale while blood continued to swirl around in the water. Cleo cried out his name again as she fell to the floor and continued banging on the glass as hard as she can, with a desperate hope that it would start to crack. Slowly, Lewis then turned his head to glance over towards Cleo with hurt, fear, sadness and defeat clear in his eyes. He opened his mouth to speak again, and while Cleo couldn't hear the words that he said, she could read his lips: "I'm dead. And it's your fault."
After another couple of agonisingly long seconds with the crowd continuing to cheer as Cleo hopelessly smashed her hands against the glass, the scenery around her suddenly started to blur and spin as it morphed into another reality entirely. The mermaid notes that she was standing in a completely different room at that point, certainly not in the aquarium anymore. Another thing Cleo quickly noticed was that the cheering crowd behind her had suddenly vanished, much to Cleo's relief. However, that relief is short-lived when she began to take notice of Lewis and Doctor Denman in the centre of the room that felt both large, yet tiny at the same time.
Lewis was strapped down to a table while Doctor Denman was ripping him apart piece by piece, the marine biologist completely ignoring Lewis' screams of agony, while Cleo stood in the very corner of the room watching the situation unfold in horror. She tried to run forwards to pull Denman away from her boyfriend, but no matter how fast Cleo ran, she never could get any closer to Lewis or Doctor Denman. It's as if she wasn't moving at all. Cleo cried out to Lewis desperately and tried to reassure him that everything would be okay, before yelling at Denman to get the hell away from Lewis. However, neither Lewis nor Doctor Denman acknowledged Cleo's shouts. Hell, it was as if they didn't even know she was in the room.
Nevertheless, Lewis started and pleading out for Cleo, sounding weak and in pain. Cleo shouted back even louder in response, her vocal chords feeling like they have been ripped apart, but once again Lewis doesn't hear her. Cleo continued running, not wanting to give up that easily. She had to get to Lewis somehow. The mermaid cried out in frustration and hated how agonisingly close she was, but at the same time feeling as though she was a million miles away. Lewis' cries for help get even more desperate as Denman started to cut off a piece of his tail as she stared down at Lewis with fascination. The sight had made Cleo want to throw up, but somehow she managed to keep it together by a thread. At some point, Cleo tried to use her powers to knock something over, or to make a droplet of blood on the metal table move in order to get Linda or Lewis' attention, but it was no use. It was as if her powers have suddenly stopped working, which made her feel even more useless.
Eventually, after what felt like forever of uselessly running, shouting and attempting to use her powers, Cleo had finally collapsed onto the ground sobbing and felt exhausted. She closed her eyes for a moment and hoped that when she opened them again, she would have been whisked away from this hell. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. When the mermaid did reopen her eyes, Cleo gasped in shock as the floor that she had been laying on was now covered in shimmering blue scales. What's even more horrifying is that her hands were covered in blood. Lewis' blood. Another alarming realisation was that Lewis had finally stopped screaming. Cleo hesitantly glanced over to her left side and felt her whole world come to a stop when she saw Lewis' limp body lying only about half a meter away from her, his blood having splattered everywhere. His hand was reaching out towards Cleo while panic had frozen onto his pale, lifeless face. Cleo didn't move for a couple of moments, barely able to breathe as she continues to look at the sight in front of her. She eventually started to reach a shaky hand towards Lewis', but his body quickly disintegrated before her hand could clasp onto his. Without warning, Cleo then felt an icy hand grip tightly onto her shoulder. Cleo spun around and glanced up into the face of a grinning Doctor Denman who was holding a familiar toenail clipping in her free hand.
It was at that point Cleo had woken up in her bed, screaming and crying her eyes out. She did not get any more sleep that night, and it was super awkward between her dad, Kim and herself at breakfast this morning. While Cleo isn't exactly thrilled about going to school when she's so tired and stressed, it is better than staying at home with her family. If anything, that would increase the mermaid's stress levels. At least school will be able to potentially distract her, even though there is probably more of a risk of losing control of her powers and even getting exposed as a mermaid.
Cleo quickly makes her way through the school grounds, trying to get to her first class as fast as possible. She had left home several minutes later than she wanted to, so she is starting to push it for time. Usually, Cleo would meet up with Emma and Rikki before whatever their first classes of the day were, but she was now running late; Emma had also texted her a few minutes prior, explaining that she and Rikki couldn't wait any longer and had to go to class. Besides, Cleo doesn't feel like talking to Emma or Rikki at the moment anyway. She is not in the mood to explain her nightmare to them. All the brunette wants to do is just try and forget last night even happened, but she knows that if she runs into her friends — especially Emma and Rikki — they would be immediately be trying to figure out what's wrong and offer meaningless comments of sympathy. Of course, Cleo is glad to have such caring and supporting friends, but she wishes that they knew that words can't fix how she is feeling, nor the rest of the damage that has been left behind by Doctor Denman.
Eventually, Cleo hurries up the last flight of stairs and arrives at the front of her English classroom. With a tired sigh, Cleo quickly readjusts her bag hanging off her shoulder and then she opens the classroom door and enters the room to see most of her class already sitting down and grabbing out their books and pencil cases. Thankfully the teacher, Mrs Jones, hasn't arrived yet; it looks like Cleo had made it to class just in time. The mermaid hurries over to her usual seat next to Ash and begins pulling out her English books and her stationary, dropping them onto the desk.
"Hey," Ash greets the still frazzled girl in a friendly voice. Cleo shoves her bag under her desk before she turns and glances over towards the horse rider.
"Hi Ash, how are you?" Cleo replies, trying to put on a smile, but she isn't sure of how convincing it is.
"I'm the same as ever, I suppose. Not a fan of having English as the first lesson of the day though," Ash chuckles lightly.
"You and me both." Cleo agrees while rolling her eyes. Mrs Jones is one of the strictest teachers in the school; she is so uptight about such tiny things to the point that it is ridiculous. If she had seen Cleo walking in late to class, she would probably have put Cleo in detention after school, which is the last thing that Cleo needs at the moment.
"How come you were running late today? Emma said that you guys didn't meet up before school like you usually do," Ash continues the conversation, a small frown starting to appear on his face. Cleo assumes he is starting to take note of how tired she looks and will probably start trying to ask about that, which would then become a conversation that Cleo does not want to have.
"I slept in, I guess," Cleo says quietly with a small shrug before turning back to her desk and organising her books and stationery, trying to prepare for the lesson that will begin very shortly. She knows that Ash is still gazing at her with concern, but Cleo decides to ignore that, hoping that Ash will just drop the issue.
Thankfully, after another 30 seconds or so, Mrs Jones walks through the classroom door and walks to the front of the room, causing the class to go silent. Cleo is relieved when she sneaks a glance over at Ash to see him focusing his attention on their teacher instead. As always, Mrs Jones dives straight into the lesson, so Cleo quickly opens her notebook and begins scribbling down notes.
The first 20 minutes of the lesson go by without a hitch. Mrs Jones had the class discussing the literary techniques of chapter 11 of 'Jane Eyre' with each other that they should include in their essay about the novel later on, once the class has finished the book and they can make a start on their essays, that is. However, as the lesson continues to push on, Cleo starts to feel restless and irritated. She glances around the room, watching as everyone is discussing the literary techniques of a novel and jotting down notes in their books as if nothing has changed in their lives at all.
Cleo can't help look over to the empty desk on the right side of her, the desk that Lewis usually occupied. How can her entire English class, including Mrs Jones, pretend that everything is okay? Their classmate, their friend, Mrs Jones' student is missing and presumed dead! Why are they continuing with stupid and pointless assignments and reading novels like Jane Eyre? After the first couple of days after Lewis had vanished, everyone had stopped mentioning Lewis entirely, as if he never existed in the first place.
Cleo's hands clenched into fists as she hears a group of students at the back of the classroom laughing at a joke that one of them must have told, once again seemingly unaware of how dark the situation for Lewis is right now. Either he's dead, or being tortured in some way. Yet here in the Year 12 English Literary Studies class, kids are laughing and having a good time and overreacting to unimportant situations such as someone's parents grounding them for sneaking out to a party late at night. Does no one in this room understand that there are bigger problems at hand? How can they be so happy?
The haunting images of Lewis strapped down to a table covered in his own blood, screaming in pain and terror as Doctor Denman rips him apart piece by piece suddenly flash through Cleo's mind painfully vividly. She shuts her eyes for a moment to try and push the horrid memories away. 'It was just a nightmare,' Cleo silently reminds herself, but the thought doesn't give her as much comfort as she would have liked. The ticking of the clock suddenly becomes too loud for the mermaid; it is as if the clock is stuck inside her head, considering how loud and painful the ticking sound has become. The voices of the students all around her add to Cleo's headache and the sensation of being trapped in a corner as all the walls close in around her. Her chest is beginning to tighten, feeling as though she can barely breathe, but Cleo can't tell if that's because she is being suffocated or her throat has been choked up with sobs that are about ready to burst.
Eventually, Cleo snaps, feeling something explode inside of her.
"I can't take it anymore!" The mermaid shouts loudly as she slams her hands down on her desk while she leaps to her feet. The classroom goes silent and everyone turns to stare at Cleo in shock.
"Miss Sertori, what the hell do you think you're doing?! Sit back down this instant and get back to work! And I'll expect to see you in my office after school!" Mrs Jones retaliates in a loud, stern voice as she stands up from her seat also, staring at Cleo with a frown.
"Ha, do you really think that I care about getting detention? Should any of us care about that right now? Hell, even continuing on with this English class is pointless! This is all just smoke and mirrors!" Cleo scoffs, shaking her head in both amusement and disbelief.
"Cleo…" Ash begins quietly, slowly standing up from his chair to walk towards the distraught girl, but Cleo doesn't pay him any attention.
"Lewis, your student, is gone! And we aren't doing anything about it! He could be dead, and the only thing we are discussing are the stupid literary techniques of Jane Eyre?!" Cleo continues yelling, glaring at her teacher furiously.
"Lewis is dead! What are we supposed to do, Cleo? We can't cry about him forever!" Mrs Jones replies frustratedly. This causes a few of the students in the room to gasp in shock, unable to believe that the English teacher actually just said that; Cleo is in disbelief herself. Sure, Mrs Jones has always been a very stern and uptight teacher, but no one expected her to ever make such an inappropriate comment to an extremely distressed student.
"He's not dead! But I'm sure that would be the easiest thing for you all to believe, isn't it?" Cleo exclaims while glancing around at everyone in the room with an angry scowl, especially Mrs Jones. Without waiting for anyone to protest, Cleo storms out of the classroom without her belongings and rushes down the hallway, tears beginning to blur her vision. She continues running until she reaches the end of the hallway and collapses down in front of the lockers, trying to regain control of her breathing. Cleo is relieved to have escaped from the classroom, she doesn't think that she was going to be able to keep her powers under control for much longer in there. In fact, Cleo is surprised with herself for making it as far into the class as she did.
"Cleo, are you okay? What happened in there?" A familiar voice calls out, snapping the mermaid out of her thoughts. She quickly sniffles and wipes away the tears from her face before she looks up in the direction that she heard the voice coming from. Sure enough, Cleo spots Ash walking over to her with a concerned frown on his face.
"What? Y-yeah, I'm okay. English is just a frustrating class that's all, and I wanted to make it more interesting for everyone. Plus, it was about time someone really got under Mrs Jones' skin. Mission accomplished, right?" Cleo says in a poor attempt of a lie whilst trying to put on a fake reassuring smile. She is still not feeling like talking to anyone about the nightmare or the immense guilt and frustration that has been boiling up inside of her ever since the night Lewis vanished. Even though she hates it, lying is a lot easier for her right now. However, judging by the disbelieving look on Ash's face, he is not buying into Cleo's excuse at all.
"Sure. And I'm the President of the United States," Ash replies sarcastically with a smirk as he sits down against the lockers next to Cleo.
"Haha, very funny," Cleo grumbles as she wipes the tears from her eyes again, sniffling a couple more times as she folds and rests her arms against her chest.
"So… what was all of that about back there? I've never seen you go off like that before." Ash asks carefully while gazing at Cleo curiously.
"This is all my fault..." Cleo sighs sadly and closes her eyes, feeling as though her heart has sunk into the depths of despair and shattered into a million pieces.
"What's your fault?" Ash continues to try and press the subject gently
"Lewis' disappearance. He wouldn't be missing if it weren't for me. God knows if he is even still alive at this point. What if… what if Lewis really is dead? I hate to think about that possibility, but if it were true, I would feel like the blood would be on my hands. His family wouldn't be grieving right now if it weren't for me." Cleo replies quietly. It is now clear to the mermaid that Ash is not going to leave her alone until he finds out the truth, so there's no point in trying to lie about it, even though it would be the less painful option. However, Cleo is a terrible liar and her resolved would have likely crumbled at some point during the conversation anyway.
"What? How is any of that your fault?" Ash asks in surprise.
"I should never have gone to Miriam's stupid party the weekend after I became a mermaid. Then Lewis may never have found out about our secret, and he would still be safe." Cleo
"You can't know that for sure, Cleo. Even if you didn't go to that party, Lewis may still have found out about you guys one way or another. Also, he still could have been exposed to moon pool water while trying to do research on the island's magic. You can't blame yourself for what has happened to Lewis. Denman is the only one at fault here." Ash says firmly while reaching out and giving Cleo's shoulder a comforting squeeze.
"I should be trying harder to find him, but I've achieved nothing in three months. Not even the tiniest lead on where he might be. God, Lewis would be so disappointed in me!" Cleo cries out in frustration as she brushes Ash's hand away from her and hugs her legs up to her chest, wanting nothing more than to hide away from the world under her bed covers right about now.
"No, he wouldn't! I have never even met this woman before, but if she really wanted to get away with this, Denman would have been smart about it," Ash replies, trying to reason with Cleo. He pauses and takes a breath before continuing talking, "Denman would have made it basically impossible to trace Lewis' disappearance back to her. From what you guys have told me, she sounds like a smart woman and unlikely to make many mistakes. Hell, maybe that netting the police found was deliberately put there by Denman just to tease us, almost as a way of trying to tell us that she won and that we won't be able to find her, since she is so confident in leaving the tiniest piece of evidence lying around."
"And that's supposed to make me feel better how?" Cleo raises her eyebrows in disbelief while giving Ash a harsh glare.
"Well, to be honest, I'm not trying to make you feel better, because there's nothing to feel good about right now. You're right, we don't have any leads on Lewis' whereabouts at the moment, or even know if he's still alive." Ash admits truthfully with a small shrug.
"What the hell is your point then?" Cleo asks, narrowing her eyes at her friend. If this is supposed to be some sort of 'don't give up hope, Lewis will be okay' speech, it isn't going well.
"My point is that you can't beat yourself up for any of this. It is not your fault, and we all know that you are trying the best out of any of us to find any sort of leads. I think Lewis would know this, too. I'm sure you've heard this a million times, but Lewis would be relieved to know that you're safe. He wouldn't want you to put yourself in danger trying to find him." Ash replies.
"Yes, I have heard that a million times, and it's such bullshit. I'm pretty sure the police think that I killed Lewis, so I'll probably end up in jail for the rest of my life anyway. Not that it really matters, prison would be way better than being tortured by a crazy scientist." Cleo sighs defeatedly, slumping back against the locker.
"I can't believe they think you had anything to do with Lewis going missing, that's crazy!" Ash exclaims, shaking his head in disbelief.
"What else are they supposed to think? I was the last one to have any contact with him, and he was never seen after supposedly coming to meet me at the moon pool. I have also been sketchy with how I have explained everything about Mako Island and the circumstances of Lewis' disappearance. It makes sense for me to be a suspect." Cleo says with a half-hearted shrug.
Ash opens his mouth to say something in response to Cleo's comment, but before he can get any words out, Mrs Jones starts shouting both of the teenagers' names from down the other end of the hallway.
"Ash! Cleo! If you don't get back into class now, you will both be receiving after school detention for a week! Miss Sertori, you have already earned yourself detention for today, don't try and go for more!" Mrs Jones yells sternly.
"Can't you see that Cleo is upset? I'm trying to help calm her down!" Ash retaliates with exasperation as he glances over towards their teacher.
"I don't care, Mr Dove. Lewis has been gone for three months now. If you two can't cope with that fact, go back home. We need to keep moving forwards in class so that we can finish everything by the end of the year. No more time for grief and distractions; year 12 is too important for that." Mrs Jones scolds the boy before turning back around and walks back into her classroom with a huff, obviously expecting for Cleo and Ash to eventually follow suit.
"What an asshole," Ash mutters while shaking his head in annoyance.
"Come on, Mrs Jones is right; we should be getting back to class. Going home isn't going to make things better." Cleo sighs as she gets to her feet and wipes her eyes one final time.
"Wait, are you okay to go back inside though?" Ash frowns worriedly as he stands up also.
"Yeah, I'm alright, I think. I mean, I'm not really alright obviously, but I don't feel like I'm going to have another sudden breakdown and lash out again though, so that's good at least." Cleo replies with a small attempt of a smile.
"Well, as long as you're sure." Ash says, still gazing at the mermaid with concern and uncertainty.
"I am. Thanks for trying to comfort me, by the way. You didn't have to do that, especially knowing that wrath that Mrs Jones will now unleash upon you, too." Cleo remarks, voice filled appreciation. Sure, their conversation hadn't exactly been the most uplifting or hopeful, but it was still nice for Cleo to get some of her feelings finally off her chest. It had all been weighing on her much more than she had previously thought.
"Of course, Cleo. What are friends for?" Ash comments with a grin.