Once she has made her way down to the beach, Emma doesn't waste any time dropping her bag and towel down by the rocks on a secluded part of the beach before running into the waves. She grins as the familiar rush of excitement and adrenaline starts coursing through her body as she runs further out into the ocean. Just as she starts to feel her legs start to tingle and her body begins to turn into water, Emma quickly dives underneath the waves. She feels her legs quickly fuse together and as she quickly glances behind her, once again her legs have transformed into the familiar golden fishtail. In some ways, Emma knows that she will never get used to this. In other ways, she feels that this was all meant to be, sometimes feeling more at home in the water as a mermaid than on land as a human.
With a quick flick of her tail, Emma is zooming away from the shore in a blur of bubbles, her hair swirling all around her. She doesn't know exactly where she wants to go, but being in the ocean helps her to destress. Plus, as a former elite swimmer, Emma always loves to push the boundaries of what she can do. Every time she is in the water, she tries to go just that little bit faster, or hold her breath for that little bit longer. There's a reason why Cleo, Rikki nor Lewis have ever beaten her in a race to Mako island thus far, and Emma certainly plans on keeping it that way.
The mermaid continues speeding through the water that is cool against her skin, enjoying the swirl of bubbles surrounding her as she swims, her tail performing quick, but strong and powerful movements. Still fizzing with energy, Emma decides to have some fun and pulls off a small loop-the-loop before zig-zagging through a maze of coral, rocks and seaweed. Her heart feels like it is going to leap out of her chest in joy as she continues weaving her way between large sections of coral and rock while a school of fish swim past her. Even after two years of being a mermaid, Emma is still certainly not getting tired of the thrill of swimming in the ocean; it feels like a whole other world down here.
After another 10 minutes of zipping about in the water along with brightly coloured schools of fish, Emma heads off towards Mako Island, deciding to rest in the moon pool for a while. It has always been a good place for her to go and reflect upon things and clear her head a bit. Considering how messy her and her friends' lives have been lately, Emma would definitely benefit from a clear head right about now. She just needs the world to stop for a moment so that she can catch her breath before moving forward; whilst Emma is obviously aware that the moon pool can't exactly freeze time, it is at least the next best possible thing for the mermaid at the moment.
Emma begins to slow down as she approaches the familiar coral reefs and mangroves that surround Mako, happy to take it nice and slow to make her way towards the moon pool entrance. Once the swirl of bubbles around her begins to dissipate, the teenager slowly paddles her way down towards the sandy ocean floor, with her arms doing most of the work instead of her golden tail. As she reaches the sea floor, the mermaid quickly starts moving the sand around with her hands, trying to feel for anything that could be slightly buried under it. Considering that she is already in the ocean today, Emma decided that perhaps she could look around for a unique shell or treasure to bring back for Ash. Since she revealed her secret to him, Emma has already given Ash several different shells and trinkets that she has found while going for a solo swim. Ash always appreciates whatever Emma brings back for him, and the look of happy surprise and appreciation on his face when she does always warms Emma's heart.
Several minutes go by as Emma continues searching the ocean bed while slowly letting herself be guided along by an ocean current towards the underwater tunnel entrance of the moon pool. Already, she has already felt her stress melt away the longer that she stays in the ocean, almost feeling at one with the water and the fish swimming all around her. Emma spots a small glimmer of something small and shiny several meters away from her, right next to a large patch of coral. With curiosity consuming her, she quickly gives her tail a flick and swims over towards the mysterious shimmer and digs up the sand around it. A couple of seconds later, Emma pulls up a silvery metal pocket watch from the dredges of the swirling sand. The mermaid stares at the small object in wonder, surprised by the fact that the pocket watch has barely rusted yet. Perhaps it was only dropped in the ocean recently? Either way, Emma considers it a lucky find and is sure that Ash and her friends will get a kick out of seeing this. 'How does a pocket watch of all things end up buried in the sand on the ocean floor? I wonder how far it has travelled?' Emma silently ponders, turning over the pocket watch in her hand to examine it more closely.
Suddenly though, the ocean around Emma seems to darken, with the once small shadows from the sun shining down onto the rocks underwater now quickly creeping forward and overtaking everything else. Emma frowns in confusion, knowing for certain that the sun can't have set yet; she had only arrived at the beach at 3:30 pm and it had been a clear, sunny day. Something else must be causing the darkness. As the mermaid glances around her, she notices that the shadowy darkness only stretches out several meters in each direction. 'What if it's a boat?' Emma wonders idly to herself. She glances up towards the water's surface and quickly realises that she was right; there is a boat heading towards Mako Island. The realisation makes Emma pause for a moment, wondering who would want to head out to the secluded island this late in the afternoon. Could it be the police? Although, from what Cleo and Lewis' family have said, it doesn't sound like the police have found anything that could give them a solid lead and have started looking into other places and possibilities. However, there is one detective that has been increasingly suspicious of Cleo and has been more interested in Mako than the rest of the Gold Coast Police Department currently are.
At first, Emma hesitates on whether or not to investigate the boat further or to ignore and just continue swimming to somewhere safe from danger, but curiosity eventually ends up getting the best of her and she starts swimming up towards the surface, her body moving in a slow, fluid motion just like a dolphin. As she gets closer to the surface, Emma quickly has to duck to the side as an anchor is thrown into the water, barely missing pummelling into her tail. Once she has gotten over her mini heart attack of almost becoming a fish kebab, Emma continues her way up towards the surface, staying close to the boat but keeping her distance from the propellers in case the people on board decide to take off without any warning. She hesitates just underneath the surface, nerves finally starting to kick in. This is an extremely dangerous idea and knows that her friends would be screaming at her to turn around and leave. Hell, a part of herself is telling Emma to get out of here. On the other hand, something in the mermaid's gut is continuing to push her to find out what's going on in the boat. It is a strange time for people unaware of Mako's magic to be coming to the island, after all.
After a couple more seconds of internal debate, Emma finally plucks up the courage to break the water's surface, immediately feeling the cool sea breeze against her face as her head pops up from the water. The mermaid quietly takes in her first breath of air in about 20 minutes, and while she hadn't been struggling to hold her breath underwater, her lungs still welcome the relief of fresh oxygen.
Voices from aboard the boat quickly catch Emma's attention and cause her heart to race fearfully. Out of instinct, the young mermaid paddles closer towards the boat and grabs on to the life ring that is hooked onto the side, hoping that being pressed up against the boat will help keep herself out of sight. Once the panic starts to fade away, Emma turns her attention back towards the voices on the boat, her blood suddenly going ice cold and her body tenses up completely as she recognises the voice of an all too familiar scientist: Doctor Denman.
"Is the scuba gear ready to go, Adrian?" Emma hears the marine biologist say from somewhere above her on the deck of the research boat.
"Yeah, all set. How many underwater cameras do you want to set up around the island?" A male voice responds, sounding closer to Emma's side of the boat than Denman was, making Emma feel more anxious, fighting every instinct inside of her that is screaming for her to swim away.
"Oh, only two or three. We just need the cameras at the underwater tunnel that is roughly 30 meters in front of us. It shouldn't be too hard to spot." Denman replies casually.
"But, why just that particular tunnel? I've studied the map; there are dozens of underwater caves and tunnels all around Mako." The man named Adrian asks, sounding confused.
"Trust me, Adrian. This one is special. You could say that it leads to some sort of magic." Denman answers and Emma can practically hear the smile behind her words. It takes a lot of effort to not scoff in annoyance, as that would give away her position.
"Magic? As in, is this where the merfolk live?" Doctor Denman's colleague remarks with curiosity. Emma's heart stops beating for a moment and a pit forms in her stomach, causing her to feel extremely queasy. This all but confirms that Denman must have Lewis somewhere, and she is trying to catch out the three mermaids as well. Emma wonders if Denman actually knows that they have gotten their powers back, or if she is going off on a whim. Lewis wouldn't have sold them out like that… would he? Who knows what Denman is doing to him? 'No, Lewis wouldn't betray us like that.' Emma reminds herself sternly, ashamed that she even briefly thought that Lewis would be capable of such a thing when he knows that Denman has no worries with experimenting on teenagers.
"Sort of, yeah. I think it's where they get magic. I just need to find out how and why. Not to mention that if Lewis' friends are mermaids again, they will almost certainly be heading back towards the volcano cavern that this tunnel leads to. Robert Wilson wants photographic proof that Cleo, Emma and Rikki are still mermaids before we can take further action." Doctor Denman says, quickly snapping Emma out of her thoughts.
"Further action, Doctor? Adrian asks for clarification.
"I'm sure our investor would want more than one or two fish in his aquarium, wouldn't he? I know I would." Linda Denman responds with a laugh. Emma grinds her teeth together and scowls at the side of the boat that is directly in front of her face, trying to keep her calm. If Denman spots her, Emma's fate would not be good.
"I guess," Adrian says, sounding somewhat hesitant, which surprises Emma, but she decides not to dwell on it. As it so happens, Emma wasn't the only one that picked up on Adrian's hesitation.
"Don't worry, the police have stopped their investigation on Mako. They had no leads to go on and had to conclude that something else must have happened. We won't get caught. Even if we did, I'm sure the police would see to reason and even help us find the half-fish creatures." Denman comments in a reassuring tone.
"Alright. Well, the scuba gear is all set. We just need to put our wet suits on and grab the underwater cameras." Adrian, says after coughing lightly to clear his throat.
"Perfect. I'll see you back out here in a few minutes," Denman replies cheerfully, and then Emma hears footsteps walking further away until she hears a door open and close, indicating that Denman has gone inside. However, Emma has not heard her colleague move yet. She frowns, wondering what he's waiting for.
The man on the boat lets out a loud sigh and begins to walk towards Emma's side of the boat as suggested by the louder footsteps approaching. Unfortunately, Emma realises this fact a second too late, only just managing to let go of the boat, but as she slips back into the water, she spots a head of curly black hair appearing over the railing of the boat above her. The teenage mermaid freezes up in fear as she stares up at the man, who in return is gazing back down at Emma with widened eyes, his jaw-dropping slightly and his face begins to go pale.
She sucks in a shallow breath as she continues to bob up and down in the water, not knowing what to do. This guy is working with Doctor Denman, a marine biologist turned mermaid hunter, and has now seen Emma as a mermaid. Is there even a point in trying to swim away now? This Adrian guy will surely report back to Denman about what he saw, and that woman would then know for certain that Emma, Rikki and Cleo all have their powers back. The three of them will be in the same situation as Lewis very soon, all because Emma just had to be curious about the boat. God, she feels so stupid.
The scientist and mermaid continue staring at each other in shock for a couple more moments. From Emma's perspective, it seems that neither one of them is sure on how to proceed as their minds are filled with panic and their hearts are beating as loudly as drums. It almost feels as though time has completely frozen around the two of them and it is driving Emma insane. Finally, after several painfully long seconds, the man begins to open his mouth to try and say something, but is quickly interrupted by the boat cabin door opening, causing Emma to hold her breath fearfully and her muscles to tense up defensively since she knows that she doesn't have any time to escape before Denman discovers her. She watches as Adrian tears his gaze away from Emma and turns around to face Denman.
"I thought you were getting changed?" Adrian laughs nervously.
"I was, but I left my phone out here, and I need to make a quick call to Robert. Why are you still out here, though? Is there something interesting in the water?" Doctor Denman responds, sounding curious. Emma closes her eyes and sighs to herself silently in defeat, knowing that this is it; her life as she knows it is going to be over. God, what would her family think about her when they inevitably find out that she's a mermaid? Would they be outraged that Denman would want to experiment on her, or would they happily shove Emma into Denman's lab and never look back?
However, what Adrian says next catches Emma off guard: Instead of turning around and immediately blabbing to Denman about a mermaid clinging to the boat as Emma would have expected him to do, Adrian completely denies seeing anything out in the water.
"No! No, I was just in deep thought and, uh, spaced out for a minute. I wish I could say that I saw more interesting things in the ocean than just the usual evidence of coral bleaching. It's quite sad," Adrian explains hurriedly. There are a couple of seconds of tense silence and Emma worries that Denman doesn't believe Adrian's rushed and vague story.
"Well, that is why our work is so important, I suppose. But we can go back to focusing on the health of our oceans once we have completed our merfolk study. If anything, the money that we could make from that would certainly help in putting funds towards more ocean environmental studies." Denman finally replies, much to Emma's surprise.
"Yeah, I guess…" Adrian comments in a mumble that Emma can barely understand.
"Anyway. Let's get changed and go set up those cameras," Linda Denman says enthusiastically, to which Adrian hastily agrees. Two pairs of footsteps walk further up the boat and disappear after the door opens and closes again once more, leaving Emma alone, treading water next to the research boat.
Although Emma is very curious to know why Linda's colleague didn't want to mention anything about a mermaid because it makes no sense for the two scientists to keep secrets from each other, she also realises that she has pushed her luck enough today as it is. Staying any longer could result in Doctor Denman spotting Emma herself. It's time for the mermaid to get the hell out of here and warn the others of Denman's presence on the Gold Coast. Without wasting any more time, Emma allows herself to sink below the surface before beginning to hastily swim back towards the mainland in a flurry of bubbles while her golden blonde hair trails along behind her.
Unlike her trip heading out towards Mako Island only a short while ago where the ocean made her feel carefree, Emma's mind is now filled with worry and confusion about the encounter that she just had. Who the hell was that guy? How is he involved in Denman's research? Did he help Denman capture Lewis? Why wouldn't he tell Linda about what he saw? Emma's tail had clearly been in view and the guy seems to already know about merpeople, making it less likely that he will believe that it was a crazy hallucination. So why didn't he jump at the chance of capturing the prize of a lifetime? And why did the man almost look… afraid? He didn't look afraid of Emma, but he seemed like he was afraid for her. Is it possible that this Adrian guy doesn't want Denman to find out about Emma, nor does he want Emma to be captured? None of this makes any sense!
While continuing to speed back towards the shore, Emma slightly shakes her head to herself, deciding to just thank her lucky stars and forget about this strange dilemma. Maybe Emma had just misread Adrian's expression and tone of voice. It doesn't matter. He is still working with Denman, who both have Lewis locked up somewhere and have been experimenting on him for months. Emma's stomach twists and churns as the many horrific and terrifying possibilities of what they have done to Lewis begin running through her head.
Yes, for Emma and her friends, there are much more pressing issues to focus on solving right now than some random scientist being somewhat hesitant about the discovery of magic and merpeople.
That night at the dinner table in the Sertori household, Don could tell something was bothering his oldest daughter. She had barely touched her food, choosing just to stare at it while pushing it around her plate instead. Don figures that she must be thinking about Lewis, that isn't anything new. Ever since the boy's disappearance, Cleo has been worried sick and overwhelmed with constant anxiety. Don also suspects that Cleo has become depressed; it's a big reason as to why Don really wants to encourage Cleo to see a psychologist. However, even with all of this being the new normal for his daughter, tonight she has seemed… different. She seems to be worse than usual, dare he say, but Don can't quite put a finger on why he thinks that. Cleo isn't acting hugely different than she had been in the past few months, but she certainly looks more tired tonight, the bags under her eyes much more obvious. It looks like the life is slowly being drained out of her, and that thought scares the hell out of Don. He needs to get to the bottom of this.
"So, Cleo… how was school?" Don asks, internally wincing at how awkward his question sounds as it breaks the long silence that had fallen over the table since the moment everyone began eating.
"It was fine, I guess…" Cleo mumbles quietly before taking a small bite of her lasagne.
"That's not what I heard. Amy's brother, who is in your English class, told us at lunch that you had a complete mental breakdown." Kim pipes up while she continues to eat, not paying any attention to the angry glare that Cleo is sending her way.
"What? Is that true, Cleo?" Don frowns in concern. Things are worse than he had originally thought. Don is almost certain that his oldest daughter is hiding something from him. For whatever reason, Cleo hasn't told the whole truth about what happened to Lewis. If Cleo is this distraught and overwhelmed three months after Lewis' death to the point where she is having nightmares that she needs to scream herself awake, Don can't help but suspect that she knows more than she's letting on. This is especially concerning considering that Cleo feels like she is to blame for whatever happened to her boyfriend.
"It was nothing, Dad. I just needed some air." Cleo replies, quickly snapping Don out of his spiralling thoughts.
"Is that what you call screaming at the teacher before storming out of the room?" Kim scoffs in amusement.
"Shut up, Kim!" Cleo yells, practically giving her sister the death stare.
"Cleo, don't talk to your sister like that. And Kim, please let Cleo explain what happened at school, okay?" Don interjects sternly before Kim retaliates and a full-blown argument between his two daughters commences.
"Ugh. I was just trying to keep the conversation honest. But whatever," Kim rolls her eyes and goes back to eating her lasagne and scrolling through her phone, likely texting her friends. Don sighs, rubbing a hand over his face, not knowing what to do. He can't exactly force Cleo to talk to him, but he doesn't want to see her life decline anymore either. Don knows he has to be careful with how he handles the conversation from this point onwards.
"What happened in class? Did you get detention? Is that why you got home later than usual today?" Don asks gently, once again fully focusing his attention back onto Cleo, hoping that Kim doesn't try and interrupt and make the situation worse again.
"Yeah, I got after school detention because I walked out of class. Don't worry about it." Cleo sighs, staring down at the table intently to avoid meeting her father's gaze.
"I'm your father, of course I have to worry about it. Why did you walk out of class? Did you really start yelling at your teacher?" Don continues with his questions, refusing to back down.
"Was it because of your nightmare last night?" Don adds quietly, wondering how all of the pieces of the puzzle of his daughter's behaviour over the past few months can possibly fit together.
"Because it's not fair that we all can go on and pretend like life is normal when Lewis could be in terrible danger! How can I possibly concentrate on some stupid novel when Lewis could be really hurt?" Cleo exclaims in frustration as she slams her hands down onto the table, catching Don and Kim by surprise. Cleo finally glances up and meets Don's gaze, her eyes shining bright with unshed tears. Don's heart aches at the sight of his daughter looking so broken. How could have everything gone so wrong?
"Honey, we went to his funeral. I know that you want to believe otherwise, but Lewis is d-" Don begins to say, but Cleo quickly interrupts him.
"No, I know he's not dead! He can't be dead; that wouldn't make any sense. But I can't possibly expect you or anyone else to understand that!" Cleo says loudly and determinedly before subconsciously beginning to stand up from her seat in frustration. However, as Cleo gets to her feet, she accidentally knocks over the glass of water sitting in front of her in the process, resulting in water spilling all over her. The anger that had been on Cleo's face merely a second ago is suddenly replaced with shock and terror. Without saying another word, Cleo sprints away from the table and up the stairs, despite Don's protests.
"I told you that she's having a mental breakdown. If she has to go to a psychiatric hospital, can I have her bedroom?" Kim comments in a smug tone, still not bothering to look up from her phone.
"That's enough, Kim," Don tells her sternly before getting up from his seat and makes his way up the stairs to find Cleo. Whatever she has been hiding from him, Don will get to the bottom of it tonight.
"Cleo? Can we please talk about this some more? I've been really worried about you," Don calls out as climbs the last few stairs, walking down the corridor towards Cleo's bedroom, where he assumes, she must be. His theory is proven right when he hears a loud and sudden thud come from the direction of Cleo's bedroom. However, the noise also increases his worry by tenfold. Had Cleo fallen over and hurt herself?
"No, Dad! Just leave me alone!" Cleo cries out from somewhere on the other side of her bedroom door.
"I think I have done enough of that already, young lady. Even with putting my concern about your mental health aside, there is still another huge problem. The police are starting to think that you have something to do with what happened to Lewis! Why is that? This is serious, Cleo! You need to tell me what the hell is going on!" Don exclaims as he stands in front of the door, arms crossed against his chest, finally starting to feel like he is getting to his own breaking point.
"I get that, but I don't want to talk about it right now!" Cleo calls back in response, sounding panicked and distressed. The panic in her voice reminds Don that Cleo could very well be injured. Why would she try and hide it though?
"What was that thud a few seconds ago? Are you hurt? Is the door locked?" Don asks worriedly, a million horrible possibilities running through his head. What if she had cracked her head open on a bedside drawer or her bookshelf?
"No, no! I'm fine, I promise! Just go away! Please!" Don's daughter pleads through the bedroom door, doing nothing to ease his concerns.
"I'm coming in," Don says, ignoring Cleo's request. He reaches a hand out towards the door and begins twisting it, somewhat surprised that the door is unlocked; Cleo rarely leaves the door unlocked these days since she doesn't want to be disturbed. So why isn't it locked now?
"Dad, don't!" Cleo yells out, sounding terrified. This makes Don pause for a moment, wondering if he should just leave her daughter be. Then again, considering how much she has been deteriorating lately and how much of a depression Cleo has fallen into, Don isn't sure that's a good idea. Don takes a deep breath before twisting the handle fully and then pushes the door forward and steps into the room. The sight before him was one that Don had never expected in a million years, almost having a heart attack right on the spot.
"What the hell is this?!"