Chapter 33

Lewis was just finishing off some research notes in his office, when his colleague Alan Xavier knocked on his door.

"Alan, come in," he smiled. Alan had blonde hair and was a man in his early twenties. Alan was fresh out of university, unlike Lewis who had been working there for almost nine years. Lewis had taken a liking to Alan from the start, he reminded him of himself at that age. They soon became close friends working on things together and Lewis often found Alan coming to him for friendly advice whether it was about work or something in his personal life, Lewis was always happy to help. His advice was generally helpful but when it came to tips on women, well let us just say they weren't so helpful.

"What can I do for you?" Lewis asked.

"Could you help me with my report?"

"Sure," he smiled. They chatted and Lewis pointed out errors and things that could be modified in his report to make it better.

Lewis took a sip of water.

"Lewis, do you know anything about...mermaids?" Alan asked out of the blue.

Lewis almost spat out his drink.

"Mermaids?" he choked, shocked. "You know they are just a myth right?"

"Yeah, I was just wondering what you knew."

"What brought this on?"

"Well, it's one of the myths that really interests me. It's a myth that has been around for so many years. Plus, my aunt keeps having recurring dreams involving them."

"Your aunt?"

"Yeah, she's had amnesia, still can't remember much of what happened before the accident and she still has these dreams all these years later."

"Oh." Lewis had an idea of exactly who Alan's aunt was.

"So, do you know anything?"

"No. Not really. They are supposed to be half fish half woman right? Some say that they are like that permanently. I haven't really looked into them," Lewis lied convincingly.

"Okay, thanks."

"You're welcome, sorry I wasn't much help."

Alan soon took his edited report and left Lewis' office.

Lewis sat back in his chair, hands behind his neck; this was not good news.

OoOoO

"How was work today?" Cleo asked Lewis as he came in the door.

"It was alright,"

"What happened," Cleo asked.

"It mightn't be a problem..." Cleo gave him a look.

"Alan asked me about mermaids today, I guess it just rattled me."

"Mermaids? Why?"

"I don't know what goes on in that boy's head, he mentioned Denman."

"Denman!" Cleo shrieked, "How is that nothing? How does he know her? I thought she had amnesia!"

"She does! He didn't say Denman specifically, but it's definitely more than a coincidence. A marine biologist with amnesia having weird dreams about mermaids..."

"She's having dreams about us and telling people? Not good."

"No, it's not, but there is no reason for them to suspect that the mermaids in her dreams were real, people suffering trauma, in this case inducing amnesia, often have unexplainable dreams,"

"So, what did you tell Alan?"

"Nothing. Just what every person ought to know about mermaids. That they are half human, half fish, and live in the water,"

"But we don't live in the water..."

"Look in mythology Cleo, it never really says that mermaids can live amongst humans."

"Right. Hopefully nothing will come from this."

OoOoO

"Linda? Do you believe mermaids exist?" Alan asked his aunt. She was working again as a marine biologist. Linda Denman could remember everything that had happened to her except while she was apparently working on the Gold Coast , This was one year in 2007 and then 2014 these two years were complete blanks, both times she was working on the Gold Coast, the years between she only had patches of memory. The only thing was, although she had regained most of her memories, she still had recurring dreams ten years after her accident, and they were to do with mermaids. She had no idea what was going on in her subconscious mind but she felt it was trying to tell her something, she wrote them off anyway. Everyone had written them off as trauma induced, that they were not compressed memories. Alan thought there was something more to them however.

"Alan, I've told you before. I am a marine biologist, I can't believe in anything until I have observable facts and sightings."

"But, what about your dreams?"

"They are merely dreams," Denman had barred herself from believing in mermaids, thus she had convinced herself that her dreams were just dreams.

"Outside of science, personally do you believe in mermaids?" Alan asked.

"Neither yes or no, Alan. I keep my mind open."

"Right; your mind open..." Alan said to himself.

OoOoO

"Oh no!" Jake exclaimed, "I left my homework at home!"

"Can you hand it in tomorrow?" Bella asked patiently. All the mothers and their kids had arrived at the mainland house to head off to school.

"No! We've had two weeks and it's a really important project,"

"You head off to school then with the others and I'll go grab your assignment, I'll bring it to your class." His mother said. Bella wasn't due into her school until second period so she could spare some time.

OoOoO

Meanwhile...

Alan sat in his boat using the sonar scanner and recording details for a daily sea life check he was instigating. Suddenly a large fish came onto the scanner. It was swimming much too fast to be a dolphin. It was going double the speed of a motor boat if not faster. He had never seen a sea creature so fast. The large fish disappeared off the scanner's radar before he could really look into it. Something made Alan not file this phenomena until he had more solid facts.

OoOoO

Bella had sped back to Mako, grabbed her sons project before placing it in a waterproof bag. She walked back down to the moon pool and launched herself back to the mainland.

OoOoO

There it was again, the large fish was going back the same direction, as if it had purpose. This wasn't just any old fish. This time it was swimming the same depth but slower, it seemed to have acquired something square shaped.

"Very peculiar," Alan muttered.

A/N: Please review!