Alone With You (Remma)

Moon Spell

Cleo was working the ice cream stand at the Marine Park when an older lady, dressed in all blue, approached her.

"I've come to warn you..." the woman told Cleo, seeming to appear out of thin air.

Cleo took a frightened step back. "Warn me about what?" she asked.

The woman smiled. "Don't ever talk to sea perch, you can't trust those fish."

Cleo grinned at the ridiculous warning and asked, "Why would I talk to fish?"

The woman's face went dark and serious. "Listen carefully, this is very important," she started. "You must not look at the moon's eye."

"The moon's wha–"

"The full moon!" explained the lady. "It's dangerous. Do not look at it or its reflection, and when it's out, do not touch water, whatever you do."

Cleo looked to her left for a split second but when she turned back the woman was magically nowhere to be found. Her brows furrowed and she shook her head in confusion, wondering what just happened.

—

"She knows about us!" Cleo told Emma and Rikki. "She said something about the full moon being dangerous... and not to talk to sea perch!"

Her friends laughed at the absurdity of Cleo's words.

"Sounds like she's had a bit too much sun," Rikki joked, hanging a balloon on Emma's stairwell.

They were setting up for a surprise party for Emma's dad's birthday. Emma had gone a bit crazy with preparations for the party, getting twice the amount of seafood they needed and having Elliot assembling decorations for days. Cleo and Rikki had voiced their concerns about how Emma was too stressed about this party, and that maybe she should take a break and relax. She told them she was fine and that she just wanted her dad to have an amazing birthday no matter what it took. Somehow, they knew she was lying, something else was clearly on her mind, but they decided not to press on the topic further for fear of making her angry. Rikki remembered how Emma had said she was going through something but the fact that she couldn't even talk to Cleo about it worried her.

Rikki also felt that Emma had started to distance herself more and more and she wondered if she was still angry at Rikki for some reason. She didn't like to constantly worry about things out of her control, she wasn't that kind of person, but lately, she couldn't stop. She wished she could see the inside of Emma's brain and figure out what was going on straight from the root, but that's impossible. All she could do was hope that Emma felt better soon and would start to want to talk about it. Rikki hoped that would be soon. She had never known how draining constant worrying was and just wished it would end already.

"Cleo, can you help me hang this banner up by the door?" Emma asked the brunette.

"I'm doing the streamers right now but Rikki can probably help yo–"

"Nevermind," Emma cut her off, "I can probably do it myself."

Cleo and Rikki exchanged puzzled glances. Cleo mouthed the words, "IS SHE MAD AT YOU?" but Rikki only shrugged her shoulders in response. She didn't think so. She hoped not.

Rikki decided the only way to get to the bottom of what was going on was to ask. She slowly approached where Emma was standing on a chair, struggling to get the banner to stay up.

"I said I didn't need help," Emma said without even a glance down at the girl.

Rikki froze at the harsh words and a scowl spread across her face. "It looks like you do," she remarked.