A/N: Hi everyone, thank you for reading the story, it means a lot! I just wanted to apologise for this slightly later than usual update, as I have been caught up in watching the Olympics haha. It'll be back to Mondays next week. Enjoy the new chapter!
Cleo finally finishes explaining the story after roughly an hour, having gone into as much detail about each event as she could. Surprisingly, Cleo didn't start to break down or choke up, nor did a lump form in her throat throughout the entire explanation. In the last few times that she has talked about Denman and what has really happened with Lewis, break downs always occurred, so she was definitely expecting to start losing it today as well. However, as it so strangely happens, none of this occurred during her tangent. If anything, she felt somewhat calmer the more she talked.
"-and so that's everything, I think. That's all I know about Denman and her plans, anyway." Cleo finishes saying while sitting cross legged in the sand, her arms leaning out back behind her.
"Wow, I don't even know what to say to all of that. I'm so sorry, Cleo, I can't even imagine how terrifying and stressful this all has been for you guys." Max comments whilst shaking his head in disbelief.
"Did Lewis ever mention Denman to you?" Cleo asks Max out of curiosity as looks down to where her hands are casually swirling around the sand, the grainy particles getting stuck underneath her nails, but Cleo doesn't care all that much about it.
"No, not that I can remember. Although, I was there with him when he spotted what I presume what must have been her research boat. We had been talking on the beach when he suddenly just ran off to investigate the marina, but I never got any answers from Lewis about what happened that day. In hindsight though, his behaviour made sense." Max shrugs. A calm silence then settles between Cleo and Max as they both ponder over their own thoughts.
From the corner of her eye after about a minute or two of silence and nothing happening, Cleo notices Max glance down to look at his watch and then up towards the sky.
"It's getting late. The full moon will be up in a couple of hours," Max points out matter of factly.
Cleo hums in agreement as she lifts up her head and looks out towards the horizon for herself, noticing the sun starting to sink. In a couple of hours, it will look as if the ocean has swallowed the sun.
"You might want to head home now though, just to be safe. It's not a good idea to try and get back home at the last minute, since there could be any sort of unexpected hold ups. And as you know very well by now, anything can happen to you guys on full moons." Max continues, a hint of caution underlying his voice. Cleo nods in acknowledgement.
"Yeah, probably a good idea. But I wish full moons didn't have to be such a problem," Cleo sighs tiredly, remembering how last month Emma had become moonstruck and created a blizzard in Emma's living room and was acting like a child. That was not fun in the slightest. Thank god Emma's family had gone away for the weekend, considering Cleo, Emma, Rikki and Ash had spent the rest of the weekend cleaning up. Cleo is glad that she has decided to spend this full moon at her place while Rikki is staying with Emma at the Gilbert house. She doesn't feel like dealing with any mayhem tonight, and since her dad is now in the know about everything, staying locked up in her bedroom all night is probably the safest place Cleo could be, to be honest. It seems like any time that the three girls try and prepare for the full moon together, it means that there's even more chance for one of them becoming moonstruck.
"Gracie always found them to be a menace as well," Max chuckles lightly.
"Did they manage to find a way to manage it? Gracie and the others?" Cleo asks hopefully.
"Gracie never did, but if she hadn't given the whole mermaid thing up, I'm sure she would have gotten the hang of it. After all, Louise and Julia eventually found a way to manage the moon, so it's not impossible."
"Do you know how they did it?"
"Not really, no. They never really explained what changed for them, apart from the fact that they were glad they didn't have to worry about the moon anymore. We all went our separate ways in life shortly after that, unfortunately." Max answers, looking down towards the sand glumly.
"Well, I'm certainly jealous. Almost every full moon brings about a nightmare for us," Cleo chuckles in amusement.
"There was one time where the moon might have been on my side, though." Cleo adds thoughtfully, her eyes narrowing slightly.
"Oh? How come?" Max queries, looking back over to the mermaid with curiosity.
"Heh, well long story short is that when Lewis accidentally became moonstruck for the first time and took off for Mako Island, I followed him," Cleo replies.
"I get the feeling that there is a but here," Max comments, to which the teenager nods in acknowledgement.
"Yeah, that's when it got strange. For some reason, I didn't fall under the moon spell that night, not even when I was staring directly up at the moon. I never figured out why that happened, and obviously I am not super keen on testing out theories any time soon." Cleo says.
"Hmm. Well, at least it is proof that you guys can manage the full moon. Perhaps it's not about trying fight off the moon spell or be afraid of it, but instead to accept it and work alongside it." Max ponders thoughtfully.
"Maybe…" Cleo frowns, silently mulling over several ideas in her head about why the full moon hadn't affected her that night. At the time it happened, she had thought that maybe the moon was somehow wanting for Cleo to help Lewis, but she brushed away that theory shortly after, as it had seemed ridiculous. Now though, maybe it's not as ridiculous as she had once thought. If Max is right about needing to learn to stop fighting the full moon and be more willing to embrace it, perhaps that's what had happened to her last time. Cleo knew she had to find Lewis no matter what, and wasn't going to let the high odds of being moonstruck herself stop her from trying to find her boyfriend. For the first time, she wasn't afraid of the full moon, but instead terrified of what was going to happen to Lewis if she didn't do something. Thankfully, the gamble had paid off.
Suddenly, a wild and exciting thought occurs to the mermaid. 'Wait. What if something like that could happen again? What if the full moon could be the answer to finding Lewis?' Cleo silently wonders to herself, her heat skipping a small beat as she takes in a sharp inhale of breath. A hundred more theories and possibilities flood into Cleo's mind, along with an emotion that she has not felt in months: hope. Perhaps it could be possible for Cleo to allow herself to fall under the moon's spell and hope that it will lead her to Lewis. Why couldn't that be possible? The full moon had allowed Cleo to not become moonstruck so that she could go and support Lewis at Mako once before. So, using the logic of the moon actually helping Cleo to stop something bad from happening, what's stopping the moon spell taking over Cleo in order to track down wherever Lewis could be? Although risky, it still seems like it could be worth a shot, considering no one has yet to find any solid leads. This might be Cleo's only chance to find Lewis again.
"-Cleo? Are you okay?" Max's concerned voice snaps Cleo out of her spiralling thoughts that are trying to form a plan. She blinks and shakes her head for a moment before glancing over to the fisherman sitting beside her.
"Wait, what?" Cleo asks obliviously, feeling breathless as her heart begins to race a million miles an hour.
"You've been silent for several minutes now," Max points out.
"Oh. Um, yeah. Sorry, I was just thinking about something. Max, do you think the full moon could help me find Lewis? I mean, we are both somewhat connected to the moon, after all." Cleo inquires, her eyes widening slightly with desperation. Max stares at her in confusion, a frown forming on his face.
"Well, I… I don't really know. But it seems like it would be a bit of a reach though. Why do you ask?" Max answers, suspicion heavily laced in his tone.
Cleo quickly scans the area around them, making sure that they definitely alone and that her friends are in sight. She knows that it's silly for her to even be worried about her friends suddenly making their way down to the beach and somehow overhear about Cleo's quickly forming plan to save Lewis. However, on the other hand, she is certain that if her friends knew what she was thinking, they would do everything in their power to stop her. If Cleo is to go and find Lewis, then it will be better off for Emma, Rikki, Ash and Zane to find out afterwards. Her dad too, actually. Once she has made sure that the coast is clear, Cleo turns her attention back to Max.
"I'm thinking that maybe I'll let myself be moonstruck tonight so that when I wake up, I can at least be somewhat closer to finding Lewis." Cleo says quietly.
"What?! No, that's way too dangerous! You can't possibly be serious!" Max exclaims, his eyes widening in shock.
"You would do it for Gracie if this had happened to you guys!" Cleo protests in annoyance. She watches as the horror written on Max's face slowly turn into sadness. He sighs tiredly and leans backwards slightly, obviously reminiscing about the time that him and Gracie had together. Cleo bites her lip slightly, feeling a pang of guilt for bringing Gracie into this, but at the same time it doesn't change Cleo's stance on the issue.
"Look. I know that it will be risky, but I'm sick of sitting here and doing nothing. The police still don't have any leads; Denman was obviously smart in covering her tracks. Lewis needs me, Max. I have to find him." Cleo states firmly.
"What about your family and friends? What are you going to tell them? What if something happens to you as well? You have no idea what could happen," Max questions the mermaid worriedly.
"I think it's best for them not to know. Not now, anyway. They would try and stop me if they knew," Cleo sighs.
"Well, I wouldn't blame them. Your plan seems borderline suicidal."
"Please, Max. Please don't tell the others about this, okay? Leave it to me, I'll talk to them about it as soon as I can, I swear." Cleo pleads desperately, her voice hitching slightly, very aware that this is going to be her best shot at finding Lewis.
"But I-"
"Promise me you won't say anything, Max! For Lewis' sake," Cleo interjects, quickly cutting Max off before he can finish his sentence. The fisherman looks torn for a few seconds, his heart wanting to pull him one way while his brain is trying to pull him in another direction. Cleo is certainly familiar with that feeling and knows how shitty it is.
After a couple more seconds of hesitation and contemplation, Max finally answers, "Alright, fine. I promise I won't say anything to your friends. But only on the condition that you find a way to contact them as soon as you can."
"Thank you! This means a lot and I really appreciate it!" Cleo exclaims happily, beaming from ear to ear.
"You're welcome, but please be careful, Cleo. And I really hope that you manage to find Lewis," Max replies with a small, wary smile.
"I'll be fine, I promise." Cleo states with a curt nod.
"Well, in that case then, I better be off. Since I haven't caught any fish today, I guess I'll have to figure something else out for dinner." Max chuckles as he gets to his feet and begins packing up all of his fishing gear.
"Mm, sounds exciting," Cleo says sarcastically as she stands up also and helps Max pack away his things, avoiding the fishing rod that is still covered in water droplets, of course. Once the two of them have packed up everything and Max has tucked it all under his arms, Cleo and Max say their farewells before Max starts walking back up the sandy shore and back towards his house, leaving Cleo standing on the beach alone.
Once Max has disappeared from sight, Cleo turns around and faces towards the horizon again, staring out into the ocean with a fierce determination that she didn't even know she had. She even finds herself starting to smile ever so slightly, something that she hasn't done genuinely in months. It's strange, finally having hope. It feels too good to be true. Why hadn't she thought about trying to use the full moon to advantage before? All of this could have been solved weeks ago if she had just been willing to think outside the box.
Oh well, what's done is done; she can't change the past. At least she is going to do something that genuinely has a chance of being helpful now. It is becoming obvious to Cleo that neither her nor her friends, or even the police for that matter, will be able to track Denman down without having a little bit of help, so, Cleo must do all that she can to get the help and clues that they need. The mermaid decides to make her way closer towards the shoreline —she is not going onto the wet sand for obvious reason though— and sits down in the warm sand once more. She pulls her knees up to her chest and allows her chin to rest on her knees while looking out towards the water, prepared to wait out here until the moon rises.
As the hours start to tick by, Cleo hears her phone's message alert sound go off at least several times, the messages probably from her friends wondering why the hell she left school grounds after lunch without notifying anyone. She has no inclination to answer her friends now, either. She can't let them get into her head and stop her from going ahead with the plan.
The sun also begins to sink lower and lower towards the horizon out on the ocean, Cleo's nerves start to increase. She supposes that's not totally unexpected, given how many bad experiences that she and her friends have had with full moons in the past. It's a little terrifying to think that she is going to have to completely trust that the moon is actually going to lead her on the right path instead of making her go mermaid crazy and send her to Mako Island. Despite these fears, Cleo knows that this is the right thing to do. If this is how she can find Lewis, then so be it. At least the full moon won't feel like a curse to her for once, Cleo supposes.
Eventually, the sun begins to set below the horizon, the sky turning into a mixture of orange, dark purple and blue while stars begin to appear and sprawl out across the skyline. It is quite a beautiful sight to Cleo; she kind of wishes that she could just stay out here and look at the stars while listening to the ocean for another couple hours, not having to face the problems and fears consuming her reality. She quickly brushes the thought to the side and tries to refocus herself on the upcoming task at hand. 'Tonight is about finding Lewis,' Cleo firmly reminds herself.
The mermaid takes a quick deep breath and closes her eyes, letting memories of Lewis flash through her mind. Her heart aches as she relives the memories, just reconfirming how much she misses Lewis. God, she can't wait to finally be able to see him again. She just hopes that Denman hasn't completely broken him yet. It's a thought that is constantly haunting Cleo at the back of her mind. Who the hell knows what that crazy scientist could be doing to Lewis. Hopefully, he won't be trapped with that woman for too much longer, if Cleo has anything to do with it.
Eventually, Cleo slowly reopens her eyes and is almost startled by how dark it has gotten so quickly, the sky now completely black with stars littering all across it. Clearly, she had lost track of time while she was thinking about Lewis, having her eyes closed for longer than she thought. Cleo glances down at her watch, which tells her that it's quarter to nine. That should mean the full moon should be up by now, but obviously not enough for the moon's reflection to be visible on the water's surface yet.
Cleo's heart skips a beat and her breath catches slightly in her throat as adrenaline and nerves course through her veins. Once she turns around to face the moon, there's no going back. There's no telling what will happen, but Cleo knows that she has to try. There's no other option. Her phone starts ringing from her pocket, but she decides to ignore it once again. The ringtone continues for about 10 seconds before it finally becomes silent once more. Cleo decides that she should probably act now, before someone else inevitably tries ringing her.
"Okay, Lewis. Let's hope this works. Hang in there just a bit longer, okay? I'll find you; I promise." Cleo mumbles quietly to herself as she begins to push herself off the sandy ground and making it to her feet. She takes one more deep breath to calm her lingering nerves and then slowly starts to turn around towards the land where she knows that the full moon will be waiting for her.
Sure enough, as soon as Cleo has turned to look back in the direction of the row of houses sitting just behind the sand dunes, her eyes are immediately drawn to the full moon that has begun to rise above the city skyline. Almost instantly after her gaze fixates on the moon, everything goes black while she slips back into the moonstruck state that she won't even remember happening once she wakes up in the morning.