Marcus waited as they thoroughly toweled off Ondina's hair and tail, watching them with rapt attention. David flipped the sign on the door to closed and closed the curtains, ensuring that no one else would stumble upon the secret. When Ondina's tail disappeared and was replaced by her legs Marcus's eyes widened in surprise but he quickly struck the expression from his face. He waited for Ondina to get to her feet before crossing his arms and saying, "Okay, now start talking."
"Do you have any idea what you have done?" Ondina demanded, walking across the floor and getting right in Marcus's face. "Any idea at all?"
"Well, I seem to have pissed you off." Marcus observed.
"Marcus, people can't know about this." Evie told him fervently. "Even David, Cam, and Carly shouldn't even know."
"I'm going to guess this has something to do with the mermaid council." Marcus mused.
The café was silent for a moment that was heavy with tension before one of the girls, Mimi he recalled her name being, said in a shaky voice, "How do you know about the mermaid council?"
Ondina grabbed a juice that David had been in the process of making and emptied the contents over Marcus's head. He nodded slowly as the juice, this one blue, began to travel down his neck. "Okay," He said fairly, "I probably deserved that. I overhead you guys talking the other day when I met Principal Santos. I forgot my bag and went back to get it when I overheard you guys arguing."
"So you eavesdropped on us?" Evie asked, outraged.
"That's such an ugly term." Marcus said, frowning. "I prefer the term 'gathered information.' You kept on talking about all sorts of weird things. I kind of thought that you were crazy to be honest, up until you talked about that Moon Pool cave or whatever it is. Something is up with that, isn't it? I fell in there, twice, and I felt like the water…. I don't know. I can't explain it."
"You fell in the Moon Pool?" Mimi demanded, "Last night? The night of the full moon? When? We were guarding the Pool!"
"I really don't know." Marcus said honestly. "I fell over the side of the cliff and hit my head pretty hard. The sun was still setting when I fell. When I woke up it was pitch black except for the moon. I climbed back up and… I don't really know. I felt like the moon was calling me. Next thing I know was that I was falling into the water. I grabbed onto the rope and I managed to pull myself out of the water before it knocked me out again."
"Again?" Cam repeated. "It knocked you out before?"
"Yeah, that first time I found that cave." Marcus said. "I fell in and I woke up underwater outside the cave."
"Underwater?" Zach repeated. "You didn't drown."
"No, that's the weird thing." Marcus said. He suddenly frowned and glared at the people staring at him. "I thought I was the one asking questions here."
"Who says we are going to answer anything you ask?" Ondina growled, obviously still miffed about the whole tail thing.
"Do you want to play the silent treatment game?" Marcus asked her. "Because I can promise you that you won't win. I don't even like talking to you to begin with."
"Well that makes two of us." Ondina said, stalking away and pulling up a chair. She sat down and began to systematically shred a napkin that had the misfortune of being on the table in front of her.
"Anyways, yeah I was underwater when I woke up." Marcus said, now doing his utmost to ignore the angry blonde female. "I even took a breath. It didn't kill me, obviously, it felt pretty normal actually."
"Have you tried breathing underwater since?" Serena asked, finally speaking up. "The Moon Pool can do strange things to humans."
"You know, intentionally drowning myself hasn't been that far up on my list of things to do. Strange, I know." Marcus said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "I've answered your questions, now you answer mine."
Everyone in the café with the exception of Marcus exchanged loaded glances and the room fell into silence. When it looked like no one would speak Marcus made a noise of annoyance and stood up from his seat. "Fine." He told them. "If you don't want to tell me, that's fine. But I will find out what's going on here."
He had made it to the door when Zach finally spoke up. "Marcus, wait." He told him. "I'll answer your questions."
"Zach!" Everyone in the bar except for Evie and Cam exclaimed.
"Look, he already knows about Ondina and the Moon Pool." Zach explained patiently. "We might as well tell him what he doesn't know."
"Look, I have no intention of revealing your secret to the world." Marcus told them, frowning at the formality of the phrase. "Seriously. We all have our secrets. I know yours and David knows mine."
"He's a multi-millionaire." David said immediately after being fixed with a positively terrifying look by Ondina.
Marcus rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger before clapping his hands together. "Well, now you all know my secret. Thank you David for letting us all know you are awful at secret keeping."
"Sorry mate." He apologized. "Seemed only right."
"Multi-millionaire?" Cam asked incredulously. "And you want to work? Here?"
"I am more than happy to discuss my financial state at a later time." Marcus told him. He paused for a moment and then changed his mind. "Actually I'm not. Don't ask."
"Marcus, it might be better if we had this conversation with someone else." Mimi told him with surprising gentleness. "Meet us at Rita's house in an hour and we'll answer all of your questions."
"Fine." He said, happy to finally be getting some answers. "I'll be there."
"Serena, Ondina, come on." Mimi told them. "We should go warn Rita. She'll want to know about this."
They left the café as one, none of them so much as sparing a backward glance for Marcus or any of the others. "They don't like me very much." Marcus observed. "Can't blame them."
"No?" Evie asked, surprised. "Why not?"
"Because I uncovered their secret." Marcus said bluntly. "I shouldn't have. I can't even say I'm glad I did because I'm not. I think I just made life a whole lot harder on your guys."
"As long as you keep our secret, no you didn't." Zach told him. "Cam, David, and Carly know."
"But I'm guessing you've known them for a while." Marcus said. "You've known me for, what, like two days? It's probably a lot harder to trust me."
They seemed to be at a loss for words. Marcus smiled at them and shrugged. "You don't have to worry about me, or keep an eye on me for that matter. Your secret is safe with me. Just worry about yourselves. I'll see you guys at Rita's."
The sky had grown dark whilst Marcus was inside and the rumbling of thunder now seemed almost constant. He glanced up and sighed, knowing he would not make it to his house in time to avoid the rain. He wanted to change his shirt before going to Rita's, and possibly get a shower as well.
It turned out that he was correct, but he was on his front step when the rain finally began. The clouds burst forth and a heavy downpour quickly drenched Marcus as he fumbled blindly for the key in the flower pot. He had just unlocked the door when he suddenly felt his legs grow numb, hot, and cold all at the same time. "What the…"
His voice trailed off as he stepped through the door and shut it behind him. Suddenly, he pitched forward as his balance was compromised. Holding himself up by his elbows he tried to get to his feet. His legs however, were not responding as they should have. He turned around and saw the reason for that. A long blue tail was flapping against his hardwood floor as he tried to move his now nonexistent legs. "Oh come on." He moaned, putting his forehead against the floor. "This can not be happening."