Cleo looked around to see one or two cameras being taken out of a few peoples pockets, and she started to panic. "Please, put all cameras away. "
Don was frozen like a statue, still in shock with what had happened.
The girls performed a circle in front of everyone to signal to them causing everyone back away slightly. "Our secrets out. We can't go on living like this anymore" Rikki stated.
Emma thought hard, "Agreed. We need to make a decision and fast."
Cleo could only think about her family, not the fact that she would become known to everyone around the world. Think of it like a sideshow freak, that were popular back in the day.
"Right, I'm going to have to do this... And I want you guys here. It's time for the truth." Rikki grabbed the microphone to which karaoke was on the agenda for, and began to speak.
"Hi, everyone, I'm Rikki. I'm a mermaid- well, partly. Before anyone leaves, I want to tell our story." Everyone looked interested. "A few years ago, it was just Emma, Cleo and I. We were as normal as you all are. We went out to sea one day, and long story short, fell down into a cave. We thought nothing of what had happened that night until we all grew a tail the next day. We found out that any contact with water would turn us into full mermaids within ten seconds. We found out that we had gained fantastic powers too. Emma, she freezes water. Cleo can manipulate water, and I, I can heat water. We didn't want to let this secret get out, because we knew that there would be people who would use us at their advantage. We were people that wanted to keep this a close guarded secret. This is hard to believe, as this has never been seen before, but it's real. The amount of situations we have had to get out of incase we change is crazy- the pageant? Cleo had to use her powers to make the water go around her. Miriam's pool party? Emma had to freeze the lock when Cleo got thrown into the pool. Emma ended up leaving Australia, and we felt lost without her. By chance, we met Bella. She was in Ireland when she became a mermaid, and had the power to turn water to a gelatine. We kept this secret from you all to protect us and yourselves. Can anyone understand this?"
The audience quietly nodded and talked amongst themselves. "Thank you for listening."
Rikki went over to Bella, Cleo and Emma. "You all know what needs to happen now."
The girls grabbed their families, and close friends, and lead them towards Dons boat. Cleo went up to her dad and told him the destination, as the boat left the doc. The girls walked up to the sideline the boat, in front of everyone, before Bella turned around and said "We'll meet you when you get off." With that, they jumped into the water, towards a very familiar place. When they arrived, they immediately jumped out and dried, before Cleo was pacing. "Is this the right idea?"
"Of course it is! Tonight's the night."
The quiet girls jumped out of their thoughts when they heard complaints about the cave being dark and wet from Kim... Then they all appeared, and gathered around. The mermaids were on one side, and the guests were opposite. Emma spoke, whilst holding her blue necklace, identical to the others'. "Thank you for coming. This place holds a special place in our hearts. This is where everything happened. This is where 'we' happened. This is where the gossip about family, friends, plans, relationships and break ups were discussed."
The mermaids all jumped into the pool as their normal selves, and appeared at mermaids. They joined their blue necklaces together, and the cave rocks glowed blue. Everyone stood back and gawped at the magic. A projection of the their story and the happy times they had as a mermaid appeared as if it was engraved into the walls. The moon slowly moved over the moon pool, with some storm conjured up by the strength of the girls powers and a light pretty much blinding the guests.
The girl started to cry and hug, leaving everyone else confused by what was to happen. The storm became stronger, then stopped dead, along with the light. The guests looked back at the moon pool and found the girls in their normal clothes, drenched. They got out as a wet version of themselves as they went in.
"It's gone. We've got rid of everything- the powers, the tails, everything. We are normal people with normal lives."
Kim walked up to her sister. "How do you know it's not temporary? Charlotte said something about you've done this before."
"Charlotte isn't a mermaid now because the exact same thing happened to her. There are no mermaids. No one knows of any now."
"But why?" Rikki's dad piped up. "Why did you do that? It's fantastic that you girls had that."
"Dad, it's not irreversible. Yes, it was nice having the other persona, but we can't carry on living like this. Yes we'll miss it, but we need to look at the positives right now. Don, Cleo can join you on the boat. Emma, you can be a professional swimmer. Bella you can join Will on his dives. We don't have to worry about the rain, the snow, the ice, drinking water, having a bath, playing beach volleyball... You know the normal stuff people do. I miss it. We all miss it."
The moonlight disappeared from the moon pool leaving the cave in darkness. "Come on, let's get back. It's been a long day for all of us." Said Don.
Everyone fled onto the boat, except the four now normal humans.
"I'm going to miss this place" sighed Bella.
"We all will." Said Rikki, with everyone else agreeing.
"No matter the good times and the bad, it was here for us." Said Emma.
The girls took a deep breath and glanced around for the final time before walking our to the boat.
"This is goodbye", Cleo choked out, as the island faded into the distance.
Hi everyone, its taken me 5 years to complete this story. I never leave things unfinished, no matter how long it takes me. I hope you liked it, and I wish you all the best for the future. This is me, signing off. This is goodbye.