Emma Gilbert was what you might call a Type A personality. She followed rules. She made other people follow rules. And she had a perfect, strict schedule from which she did not permit herself to deviate. Which is why she found her present circumstances so perplexing. She wasn't actually missing anything important to be here, but she also didn't have a particularly compelling reason for coming along on what could be, at best, a less-than-safe outing into open water.

Emma had been walking home after swimming practice when she heard Cleo call to her and she had come over to see Cleo talking to the new girl that she had mentioned yesterday. Cleo then began to explain that Rikki had fixed the boat she had been gifted by Zane Bennett and Rikki was inviting them to take it out.

'Are you sure you fixed it?' Emma had asked, somewhat skeptical, and Rikki had just rolled her eyes.

'Yes, I am,' she had said. 'Look, it's not mandatory but if you have an hour to kill…'

Emma had looked out at the placid blue water and the shimmering sky and some part of her decided that, if only for Cleo's sake, she may as well spare a moment. Cleo, while no great fan of the sea, or ocean life, or boats for that matter, had seemingly been swept up in the new girl's enthusiasm for a boat trip. That, or she was too polite to say no. Either way, Emma came to her rescue and agreed to join them on the water.

'So, where did you move here from?' Emma asked, raising her voice to be heard over the engine and the wind.

'Brizzy,' Rikki shouted back. 'Well, the suburbs, anyway.'

'Not too far, then,' Emma shouted awkwardly. Rikki didn't even bother to reply.

'It's cool that you fixed the boat,' Cleo piped up, looking away from the sides of the vessel as it zipped through the waves. The chop had increased the further they had gone from shore. 'So, where are we going anyway?'

'I thought we'd try that island over there,' Rikki said, waving a hand towards a volcanic island visible to their right.

'NO,' Cleo and Emma said simultaneously, and Rikki raised her eyebrows at this strong reaction.

'It's…' Emma started to say, trying to explain their refusal. How did you explain Mako Island to someone who didn't understand it? Sure, she could mention the sharks, or the reefs closer to the surface than one would realise. But the real reason was so ingrained in her, a fear that both Emma's and Cleo's parents had fostered. She hadn't realised they were headed out this way, or she never would have allowed it. The island wasn't just dangerous, it was–

'Cursed,' Cleo said aloud, and then blushed furiously, looking away again.

Rikki laughed aloud at that. Emma could understand why, but she also needed to make it clear to Rikki that they were not going anywhere near that place.

'It's not safe,' she said. 'Turn around and let's go back.'

'Ok, ok, don't get your knickers in a twist,' Rikki said, still with that slightly mocking laugh. Emma decided, in that moment, that she didn't like Rikki Chadwick very much. 'Come on, we'd better get back, anyway.'

As Rikki made to steer back the way they came, Emma glanced down at the controls and saw the fuel gauge.

'Is it supposed to do that?' she asked, a lump starting to form in her throat. The indicator was rapidly spinning towards empty and Rikki followed where Emma was looking.

'No,' she said, all laughter gone. 'Shit.'

Rikki quickly turned off the engine and began to look over the side of the boat.

'What's going on?' Emma asked, hoping she didn't sound as panicked as she felt.

'We're out of petrol,' Rikki shot back over her shoulder.

'I can see that,' Emma snapped back. 'Why?'

Rikki didn't answer right away, still trying to look over the side of the boat.

'I think we must have dinged the fuel tank,' she mumbled. 'But we would have felt it if…'

Emma watched Rikki come back up and she was momentarily gratified to see that Rikki wasn't always as unruffled as she had seemed at first. Until she remembered what that meant.

'We need to call the coast guard,' Emma announced into the silence. 'Or a water taxi, at least.'

Rikki blanched, but she didn't say no. Cleo had remained silent throughout, but was clearly not having a good time. She nervously looked over the side of the boat then back at her hands, folded in her lap.

'It's close enough that we can paddle over to the beach there,' Rikki suggested, pointing again at Mako. 'At least we'll be on shore when they get here.' She spared a look at Cleo, who was clearly increasingly unhappy about being out on the water, which was growing increasingly choppy.

Emma bit her lip. The boat was tiny and the last thing she needed was Cleo having a panic attack out here. But she didn't want to be on Mako either.

'We'll wait on the beach,' Emma said finally, with a nod. Cleo looked at her gratefully.

'The beach,' Rikki repeated, handing a paddle to Emma, who grudgingly took it. After a quarter of an hour, Rikki looked over the side again and smiled.

'It's shallow here, I can bring it in,' she said, jumping out into the water before Emma or Cleo could squawk out a warning. The water only came to her chest, but it remained choppy and Emma was still nervously watching the waters for shark fins. Nothing happened, thankfully, and by the time the water was to Rikki's waist, Emma jumped out to join her in pushing the boat towards the beach.

When it was more or less secured on the sand, Emma helped Cleo step out and she gave her shoulder what she hoped was a reassuring, firm squeeze.

'Come on, let's find a place to sit,' Emma said, guiding Cleo away from the waterline.

Rikki was fiddling with the radio and muttering to herself. Emma, having deposited Cleo on the dry sand further up, looked back to see that Rikki was not looking her best.

'What is it now?' she asked, exasperated and frightened in equal measure.

'Radio's not working,' Rikki sighed, holding it up for Emma to inspect. 'We'll need to call.'

'There's no reception out here,' Emma said, and she retrieved her phone from her bag, holding it out to Rikki to show her.

Rikki pressed her lips tightly together and said nothing.

'I cannot believe you've stranded us out here!' Emma hissed at Rikki. 'You don't even understand how serious this is! How much trouble we're in!'

Rikki definitely looked unsettled, but Emma could see she was trying to turn it around.

'We'll go up there,' Rikki said, pointing to the volcano's peak. 'Maybe we can get a signal up there.'

'Absolutely not,' Emma said firmly. 'We're in enough trouble, we're not going for a casual hike on Mako Island.'

'Ok, fine, I'll go by myself,' Rikki said, shrugging, and made to walk past Emma. Emma grabbed her arm.

'We're not splitting up,' she said firmly. She didn't need Rikki Chadwick's blood on her conscience and she wasn't convinced that there wasn't something on this island that was dangerous.

'Then we'll go together,' Rikki said, just as firmly. 'Look, we can't just sit here, it's going to get dark soon.'

Emma knew that Rikki had a point, but somehow the thought of being further inland on this island in the dark was activating all of her childhood fears at once. Rikki must have understood at least some of this, because she sighed and tried another approach.

'Why don't we walk the perimeter of the island, see if we can get a signal that way? It wouldn't take much, we won't stray from the beach.'

Emma said nothing for a long moment, then finally nodded.

'Great,' Rikki said, straightening up. 'Let's go.'

Emma reluctantly went to get Cleo. While she was probably not going to enjoy this little jaunt, it was better than sitting anxiously on the beach. Cleo didn't take much persuading. She seemed to be running on autopilot and was content to let Emma steer the ship, so to speak.

The walk was a tricky one. The powdery sand made trudging difficult and at various points, they had to walk further inland than they might have liked to make way for an outcropping of mangroves, or impossibly slippery clay. It was on one of these little inland sojourns that Cleo fatefully slipped. Emma barely had time to react and didn't grab hold of Cleo's hand before it disappeared from view down a narrow opening.

'Cleo!' Emma shouted, and Rikki came back to look down the opening. 'Are you ok? We're coming to get you!'

Without a second thought, Emma lowered herself into the opening and carefully made her way down, slipping at one point as her foot wasn't able to find a hold.

'Damn it!' she hissed, before suddenly looking up and around her. Cleo was already standing off to the side, looking directly upwards.

They were in a cave, inside the volcano.

'Oh, my God,' Emma muttered, looking up at the rim of the caldera.

'Yeah,' Cleo just said, not looking away.

They were broken out of their momentary hypnosis by the sound of Rikki ungracefully landing on the rocky ground.

'Ow,' she complained, before casting her eyes where they had just been looking.

'Why did you come down?' Emma started in on her, pointing a finger at the opening. 'Now we have no way of getting back up!'

'Did we have one before?' Rikki asked, annoyed. 'I didn't know what had happened to you, you both just vanished! We're not splitting up, right?'

Emma just growled to herself. Rikki had a point and that annoyed her more than anything.

'Come on, let's look for another way out,' Rikki said, shaking her head in annoyance.

The cave wasn't big, but there was one major feature that they hadn't really noticed before now. A pool of water, not very big but with clear tidal marks leading up to the little spit of sand that surrounded it.

'It's tidal!' Emma shouted. 'It leads out to open water!'

'Great,' muttered Rikki, eyeing up this pool and looking less than thrilled. 'So your solution is to swim out through a cave into shark-infested waters.'

'Better than whatever you'd come up with. You've just gotten us into more and more trouble,' Emma retorted.

'Hey!' Cleo's voice rang out and echoed in the cathedral-like space. Emma turned to stare at her, surprised by this outburst and Rikki just rolled her eyes again.

'We need to figure something out, not stand here fighting,' Cleo continued. 'If Emma's idea is to swim through, then we have to try it.'

Emma felt pleasantly surprised. Sometimes she forgot that they weren't pre-teens anymore and Cleo could, in fact, stand on her own two feet. Though it was clear to her that Cleo was barely holding it together, her multiple fears of rule-breaking, the wilderness, the sea and everything else all swirling around her.

'Fine,' Rikki said. 'Whatever.'

Emma nodded her head decisively.

'So I'll jump in, swim through there and see where it lets out. Then I'll come back for you two.'

'I hate this idea,' Rikki said sullenly.

'Me too,' Cleo said. 'But it's the only one we've got.'

Emma glanced around herself apprehensively before diving in. The water was so cold, it took her breath away momentarily and she found herself gasping when she quickly resurfaced before diving down again. She glimpsed Rikki and Cleo watching her from the water's edge and then she was under again, carefully holding her breath and looking around herself. The salt stung her eyes but she pushed through the discomfort, following the flow of the water out, out, out until she was through a little tunnel and then shooting back up as quickly as she could. She gasped again as she surfaced and looked up at the sky. It was bright with stars, the light pollution from the city not reaching out here, and the moon was full overhead. Less dark than she was afraid of, then, but it was also not a comforting thing to be in the water in the dark, where she knew dangerous animals were out swimming.

No other options, she told herself, eyeing up where the shore was and how long it would take to swim there, hauling along a struggling Cleo. She dove under again and, after a little while, resurfaced in the cave. Cleo practically screamed with relief.

'I was so worried about you!' she said. 'You were gone for so long!'

'It's fine,' Emma assured her, paddling over to the shoreline. 'It's a longish swim through the tunnel, but I'll be guiding you and we'll be fine. Once we're out, it's just a short way to go and we're back on the beach.'

Rikki looked skeptical, but Cleo just nodded firmly. Emma knew she trusted her entirely. Best to not let that trust be misplaced.

'We'd better get going,' Emma spoke up again, still in the water. She was afraid if she got out, she'd lose her nerve and they'd end up sleeping in this cave.

Cleo and Rikki exchanged a look, and Rikki gave a small shrug before launching herself into the pool next to Emma.

'Shit!' she shouted as she surfaced. 'It's so cold!'

'It's the ocean,' Emma deadpanned. 'What did you expect?'

They both turned to look at Cleo, who was looking faintly green at the idea of jumping in the water. But Emma gave her a quick nod and Cleo closed her eyes and jumped in alongside them.

'I hate this so much,' Cleo said when she surfaced, shivering. Emma was about to say something soothing, but at that moment her mind seemed to go blank. Nothing mattered except the water they were floating so peacefully in. She raised her head automatically and looked up at the shimmering orb floating over the rim of the volcano's caldera. She could stay here forever. She would stay here forever. And then into this blissful nothingness floated a single thought: GET OUT. She tried to shake it away, but the effort of countering it made it grow larger and larger until she found that she was shouting it aloud and splashing frantically in the water. Rikki and Cleo blinked at her, seeming to come out of similar dazes.

Emma glanced around herself, slightly panicked, and took in the cave, which was now as bright as if it had been day, the light from the moon filling the place in a way that was not at all natural.

'We need to go,' she whispered, and the other two nodded. She grabbed Cleo's arm and then they dove under, as she pulled them through the water, all the while mentally fighting the blankness that was trying to seep back in, squeezing out her rational thoughts. She didn't know what it was, but she knew that it couldn't be good. She was relieved to see that when she surfaced with Cleo, Rikki was there, too. The moon and the stars brightened the space around them, so at least they weren't floating in pitch darkness.

'Come on,' she said, trying to avoid a mouthful of seawater. She was relieved to find that the assault on her mind was gone for the present. Cleo was shivering violently, but Emma didn't know if this was from the cold water or something else. Rikki looked vaguely frightened. She began to swim, dragging Cleo along and trying to keep her head above water. It wasn't a terribly long way to go and easy enough for a champion swimmer like her, but whatever had happened in that cave had rattled her. When they finally crawled up onto land, breathing heavily, Emma wanted nothing more than to give in to exhaustion and collapse, but she knew they had a little way to walk to get back to the boat.

'Look!' Cleo called out, pointing, as artificial lights from a coast guard boat flooded their field of vision. Cleo jumped up and began to wave frantically, running in the direction of the boat until the floodlight settled on the three girls and stayed there. A voice announced something over a loudhailer, but Emma couldn't understand it. She was nervously looking back in the direction of the volcano and the cave, wondering what it was that had happened in there and whether they had just managed to escape with their lives.