Mermaids and Mysteries | H2O

Chapter XIII

*Bella's POV*
"W-What are you doing here?" Cleo muttered at the sight of Dr. Denman's devilish snare.
"Can't a woman get a juice around her?" she demanded.
"Well, what would you like?" Rikki asked.

This was the first time I'd met the doctor who'd trapped Emma, Cleo and Rikki in the moon pool years ago but I could easily see why she was to be feared. She had a creepy smirk, which made you suspicious of all her documents. Her blue eyes were too close together but were dark, yet very beautiful.

She pushed all her documents that were set out on the table into a small briefcase and turned her chair towards us. I felt sick just looking at her, the stories I'd heard about her scared me enough to have nightmares about this woman.

I rememered Emma was probably still in the office, hungover and fast asleep. I couldn't hear her snoring nor could I hear her doing anything else. All I could hear was my own nervous heartbeat in my ears.

"Rikki? Is that you?" the woman asked.
"No, no, I don't know what you're talking about, sorry," Rikki said flatly.
"Yes, you do, you're Rikki Chadwick," she announced.
"No, I'm really not."
"It is you; Rikki, Cleo and Emma. The mermaid girls or ex-mermaids, should I say?"

Had she just mistaken me for Emma? Was she really that dumb, we look nothing alike. I couldn't speak up though or I'd ruin Rikki's scheme to make Denman believe it wasn't us. Maybe she'd forgotten what they actually looked like if she couldn't see a difference between Emma and I.

"Mermaids? That's silly," Cleo laughed, nervously.
"So, I take it you're all human again? Haven't gotten your powers back or anything?" she questioned, standing up and walking towards us.
"Are you alright, ma'am?" I asked.
"Why would you even want to give up such amazing powers? It makes you question if you really would," she cackles.
"I'm not too sure what you're sure," Rikki says.
"So you won't tell me anything, that's fine. I'll just have to figure it out myself," she said.

She pulled a small black box from her pocket and threw it on the ground. Smoke immediately began to rise from the box. I stood, wondering how a small smoking box could do anything to three mermaids.

*Nala's POV*
I felt the need to go find Rikki, to apologize, maybe I did overreact. I also needed to apologize to Ezra for walking out on him last night and not returning his calls. I hope he wouldn't be angry at me, I was really starting to get along with him.

Tammy anchors the motorboat off Mako Island. We were going to go diving on the reefs and try to find the underwater entrance to that cave, considering the hike was quite exhausting. Tammy dives into the water, I hesitate and wonder if I could just stay in the boat and sleep but I follow her.

The reefs sparkled in the early morning sunshine, everything looked beautiful and it took my mind off Rikki and last night, which I was thankful for. Swimming always made me feel better, maybe being a mermaid wasn't so bad, after all.

*Bella's POV*
The smoke was rising towards the roof, her plan was becoming clear to me, the woman was smarter than I thought. We had to get out of here, fast, but how could I tell the others without being too suspicious?

I start chocking on the fumes from the box. My thoughts were mumbled and panicked, the panic must have shown on my face because when Denman turned to me, she let out an evil laugh. I looked over to Cleo and Rikki, both were staring down at the box with confused looks on their faces.

"Maybe we should go, we need to catch up on that homework, remember?" I furiously motioned towards the door.
"Bella, it's summer break, what are you talking about?" Rikki retorts.

The smoke alarms went off suddenly, with a loud pop. It began spraying water everywhere, Dr Denman cackled as I looked over to Rikki and Cleo for help. We had 10 seconds, there was nothing we could do.

If we ran off, she'd follow us. If we dived into the canal, she'd have enough information to realize we were mermaids. If we stood here and let our big orange tails flop in front of the mermaid hunter, she'd definitely know.

Rikki rushed into the staff room, Cleo and I panicked and followed. It wasn't the best idea but what other option did we have? I slammed the door behind me, which unfortunately had no lock. The three of us fell face-first onto the tiled floor which Denman had to of heard, it wasn't exactly a silent fall.

I was so scared, I could already see her face when she found three mermaids on the floor of a staff room. My heart was beating faster than it ever had. This woman was wicked and terrifying. Nobody spoke, we just listened and awaited certain doom.

The smoke alarm turned off and I could hear Denman's footsteps splashing towards the staff room. The water had leaked under the door so we couldn't dry ourselves off. I was on the verge of tears, we were sushi for sure.

The beaded café door had rattled which meant customers had started to come in. It was bad enough being exposed to a mad mermaid-hunting doctor, let alone random customers I'd never met. The door handle began to rattle and I slapped myself against the door to stop it from opening, Rikki did the same.

The door knob began to turn and all three of us push against the door to stop Dr. Denman from discovering mermaids, for the second time. There was still a thin layer of water on the ground from the fire alarm that Rikki dried to frantically vaporize.

I could hear footsteps splash through the water outside; "Hey!"

The voice is friendly, yet very familiar. The doorknob stops rattling and I hear the doctor walk away from the door and begins having a muffled conversation with the customer that had just arrived.

They talk for a few minutes before the beads in the door rattle again; could there be another customer or had the last customer left after being sweet-talked by Denman. Rikki had finished drying the floor and began drying herself.

"Guys, it's me," said a voice through the door.
"Lewis?" I whispered.
"Could be a trap," Rikki whispered, she brushed herself off and began drying Cleo.

Rikki was right, Denman was smart; a woman of many talents. She could easily set this all up and used some sort of voice disguiser or maybe she'd made a deal with Lewis for information or maybe I was just paranoid.

"Really? I can hear you guys. Cleo, it's me, your boyfriend. What could Denman have done to make me betray you guys. I was there when she captured you the first time and I helped when Charlotte became a mermaid, I found Max. And then at Don and Sam's wedding-"
"Lewis. Shut up," Rikki retorted.
"Yep, okay, point taken."

Cleo and I slide away from the door, letting Lewis into the staffroom and Rikki begins drying my tail. I'm so relieved Lewis wasn't a customer, coming to watch us get exposed by Dr Denman.

We thank Lewis for once again, saving the day. What would we have done without him? Even though this was my first encounter with Denman, I could already tell she was a very dangerous woman, not to be messed with.

"So how'd you get rid of her? We heard you talking," Cleo asked.
"Ah, well, the doctor seemed to recognize me after all these years and who could blame her? It's hard to forget such a pretty face-"
"Lewis," Rikki moaned.
"Okay, okay, I guess she realized she couldn't be very sneaky with a spectator, so she said a quick 'hello' and left. She didn't even mention mermaids," Lewis stated.
"If you ask me, I think this woman is a little crazy in the head," I add.
"You're not wrong," Cleo giggled.
"Hey guys?" Lewis said.
"Yeah?"
"There's only three of you, where's Emma?" he asked.

I hadn't even realized that we'd left Emma here to sleep off her hangover while we chased down Tammy and Nala. Cleo and Rikki left to go search the café, leaving Lewis and I stuck on the floor.

"There's a towel in the cupboard," I point out, bluntly.

Please vote and comment to tell me what you think, it means a lot. Are you excited for the the new season of Mako Mermaids? I'm most excited to see Rikki again, she's so grown up, oh my gosh, I can't wait!
-Myah xx