Chapter 5: Homecoming
They all stood there for a couple of minutes, when Cleo grabbed her phone and dialed a number.
"Cleo, hi!" They heard a voice coming from the other end of the line.
"Em, something happened." Cleo said still crying.
Emma froze hearing her friend's sobbing.
"What is it, Cleo?"
"Em, it's Rikki." She took a deep breath to calm herself down. "There's been an accident with her plane. She was meant to fly to London with her dad, but the plane crashed and-" Cleo burst into tears again. "On the news they said there were no survivors found to this moment."
Emma also bursted into tears. It couldn't be. All the memories suddenly floated right before her eyes. The constant races with Rikki, the arguments they often used to have, everything.
"Cleo, listen, I'll take the first possible flight today. I'm coming home." She stated confidently.
"Ok, Em. I'll be waiting for you and I'll keep you updated if something comes up." And Cleo hung up the phone.
The brunette threw herself in Lewis' arms and bursted in to tears.
The group stood silent for a few minutes when Will suddenly broke the tense silence.
"We have to go search for Rikki. I don't believe she's dead, besides we don't know what had happened out there. If the plane had crushed in the water she might've swam away."
"You're right." Lewis nodded in agreement. "We can't just sit here and do nothing."
"I think it's better for us to be in two groups. Bella and Cleo will go search in the water, while Lewis and I search the land." Will added.
"Sounds like a plan to me." Lewis nodded quickly. "What's more, when Emma comes back she can join the girls and that way we can cover as much area as we can. And-" He hesitated for a moment. "I think we should call Zane."
He hadn't even finished the last sentence when someone knocked the door.
"I'll get it." Cleo said and went to see who it was, wiping her eyes with the back of her hands.
She opened the door and after a quick grimace of shock ran through her face seeing the person who was standing at the door, she moved to let him in.
"Come in."
Zane came rushing through the door.
"What was the number of her flight? Please, I need to know."
But their tears answered his question.
His felt his whole world crushing down. He could barely stand on his feet. Lewis who was closest to Zane noticed that and helped him to sit down on the couch next to them.
Tears started running down Zane's face. He buried his face in his hands whispering "No, no, no" quietly to himself. Cleo sat next to Bella and put her arm on his shoulder to show him support.
"Zane, before you came here, we were discussing whether we should go and search for her. If there's even a smallest chance for her to be alive." Lewis said quietly. "Would you join us?"
Zane nodded and he picked up his head to look at the other boy.
"Do you know where to start from?"
They all shook their heads. They had no idea. That's when Bella suddenly spoke up.
"Why don't we start with Mako? If the plane had crushed in the water and she had swam away, it's more than possible for her to be there. Even if she's not, we would've at least checked the place."
The others nodded in agreement, knowing she was right. Without wasting time they went to Will's place.
The boys took Will's boat and the girls dived in the water, heading straight to Mako and to the moon pool.
But Rikki wasn't there.
The place was still the same as it had been for the party. Tears started running down Cleo and Bella's faces and they hugged each other.
"It'll be ok." Bella said quietly. "We'll get through this."
They continued they searh in the water, but Rikki was missing without a trace. The boys were searching the island, but found nothing. No trace of her.
Their next destination was the island where the plane crushed, but they knew it was way too risky for the girls to swim there. Diving teams were searching the water, and they could easily bump in to them.
But they knew they had no choice.
Will as a professional diver joined the team of the divers, so that he could help them and keep an eye on the girls, just in case. Lewis and Zane joined the teams that were searching the island.
The search lasted hours, but with no result at all.
Bella and Cleo couldn't come near the sank plane, but they tried to stick to the closest area around it. Then suddenly something caught Bella's eye. Something was shining on the ocean floor. She pointed it to Cleo and the two quickly swam down to it. When they neared it Cleo covered her mouth with her hand.
The thing that was glimmering was a beautiful crystal necklace, like the ones hanging from their necks. Bella quickly grabbed it and pointed up to Cleo.
They swam to the surface and even though Cleo's face was wet from the water it was easy to notice the tears running down her cheeks.
"That's not a good sign." She said sobbing.
The two hurried to the island. They had to tell the boys.
On the island Will had joined Lewis and Zane and now the three were quietly walking through the island to the place they had to meet the girls.
Will was looking at his right side when something caught his attention. Blood. Small drops of blood which were leading to a side of the island no one had searched yet. He decided to follow them.
"Will?" Lewis called after him but he didn't answer.
When he and Zane noticed the drops of blood too, they both followed him.
Will followed the drops to an entrance of a big cave and he suddenly froze. There at the entrance of the cave the drops were bigger and bigger. In the middle of one of the drops something golden was sparkling in the sunlight. He kneeled down and picked it up in his hand. It looked like a scale of fish, but much bigger. "Rikki!" he thought and looked further inside the cave.
"Hello?" He said, but nobody answered. "Anybody?"
But the cave was empty. Will turned to face Lewis and Zane.
"She was here. I found this." And he showed them the scale.
Lewis was in shock. Tears filled Zane's eyes. Will took the scale with him and they looked inside the cave when something caught their eye. There was something written on a small stone in the end of the cave. The world "Help". It was written with…
"Blood." Lewis said his eyes wide open, analyzing the stone. "Do you think it's hers?"
In the back of Will's eyes tears started to form. Zane was shaking.
Lewis slowly took out his phone and made a photo of the stone. Then they all decided to get back to tell the girls. It took them only a couple of minutes to walk in silence when they reached the place where they should meet them.
When Cleo saw them coming she was the first to speak.
"We found something."
"So did we." Lewis said. "But you tell us first."
"We found this." Bella said and showed them the crystal necklace. "Rikki's necklace."
Zane put his hand on his mouth. Lewis and Will were staring at shock.
"And we found little drops of blood. We followed them to a big cave where they were bigger, way bigger. In one of the drops we found-" And Will got it out of his pocket. "-this." He opened the palm of his hand to show them the scale but in the warmth of his pocket it had dried and now it was just a piece of skin. "It was a golden scale, but it seems the warmth of make pocket dried it off."
"We also found something else." Lewis added and took out his phone to show them the photo of the stone. "We think that's her blood." He finished.
Cleo ran to him and hugged him bursting into tears. Bella fell on her knees crying and Will came to her and hugged her. Zane's eyes were full of tears while he was just staring out at the ocean.
They just stood there for about a couple of minutes when Lewis broke the silence.
"Let's go home now. We can come back tomorrow."
Everyone nodded and they slowly walked back to Will's boat.
It was big enough, so the girls also climbed in too tired to swim back all the way. After about an hour they were at Cleo's. They were all sitting on the couch. Cleo's dad made hot chocolate for all of them.
"Thanks, dad." Cleo said quietly, taking the cup from her father's hand.
Something came up to Lewis' mind.
"Mr. Sertori, you know these waters better than anyone else. Do you think that you can help us figure out where exactly to go and search for Rikki?" He asked.
"I'll be glad to help. I will go and take all the maps of these waters I have, as well as some helpful literature. I'll need a little time, but I'll work through the accident and where the plane sank, so that I can figure out a search area." Cleo's dad smiled to them and went upstairs.
Then someone rang at the door. Cleo went to see who it was. When she opened the door she threw herself in the embrace of the person on the other side of the door. Then they both came in.
Emma had come back. Along with another person.
"Hi, Ash." Cleo said and gave him a hug too. Then she turned to the Bella and Will.
"Bella, Will this is Emma. She became a mermaid with me and -" She couldn't finish the sentence, but they understood and nodded quietly. "And this is Ash, her boyfriend. Emma, Ash this is Bella, she's also a mermaid, and this is Will – her boyfriend."
The two couples nodded silently to each another.
Lewis also gave a hug to Emma and Ash. Emma truned to look at Cleo.
"I want to know everything."
Cleo nodded silently, took Emma's arms and walked her to the sofa.
Word by word she told her everything. And she showed her what they had found. The brunette also told her about the nightmare they all have had. It turned out that Emma, Ash and Zane had also had the same nightmare. Both Emma and Cleo ended up crying and hugging each other.
"We've got to find her. She's obviously alive. Tomorrow we'll go search for her again, first thing in the morning.""Emma stated.
Bella walked over to where they were sitting on the couch and they all hugged each other.
The next hours the group just sat there in silence some with tears running down their faces, others in a complete shock, trying to assimilate what's happening.
They all had a long day after all.
The girls had found the locket of their best friend and the boys had found drops of her blood. Not to mention the world "Help" written on that stone.
It was too much for them to handle, but at least it was a sign that Rikki was still alive. What's more, now Emma and Ash had come back home. And they all were not going to give up until they find Rikki.
They loved her so much that deep down in their hearts they all thought the same thing - Rikki Chadwick was a survivor. She had to have survived. And they were going to find her.