//Paranormal Paradox\\

Chapter 17

Zac POV:

My dad was analyzing the wound on Rita's head, while I sat in the corner talking with Ondina. We had agreed not to tell my father about everything that was happening recently. He would surely try to stop me from being involved, which I didn't want to happen. These people had been so kind to me and helped me a lot, even forgiving me and Cam after we let the power of the trident get to our heads. We were reckless in those times, and I truly realized i only cared about myself in that time, as much as I tried to justify it for persona reasons, I knew it was selfish and my "reasons" Were nothing more than a feeble attempt to comfort myself. Thankfully, we had decided not to tell my father about that ordeal either.

I still commonly felt bad, even though Rita was the only one to truly remember that time. Nixie and Lyla were long gone, and Mimmi and Ondina knew only what Serena had told them. I tried not to dwell on it too much, I had been selfish and stupid. Although Rita assured me not to feel bad, my life had been turned upside down within a day and three mermaids suddenly showed up, trying to take my gifts. Only later to learn that my principal was, it brought me a slight bit of justification.

My father begins to clean up his materials, saying she'll be alright. He assures us to watch out for signs of head trauma, mainly speaking with Veridia. To keep things less awkward we have lied and told him she is a human friend of Rita's, so he didn't bring up anything even remotely suspicious that may cause someone to slip up on the truth. If my father was good at one thing, it was keeping secrets. He was a horrible liar, but keeping secrets normally did not entail lying for him. And as far as he knew, Veridia was human.

We  all sat there silently, discussing what to do with the next full moon. it was only three days away, and with the amount of dragons it proved something frightening was happening. "Well, my mom thinks the water dragons may want mako. We've all always said there's something special about it. I mean as far as we know it's the only place where a human can be turned into a mermaid...She thinks they awoke when she did, and now they're after mako. They might be using Rita to help gain control of it." Mimmi said, which made us all nod. It made so much sense it almost frightened me.

"Likely...But we still have the dragon bracelet correct?" Veridia said, arching an eyebrow. "I don't know....you heard them destroying the grotto. I don't know what's destroyed or what isn't." Rita said, standing up. "They could still be down there!" Ondina said nervously. 

Rita opened the bookshelf with a sigh. "I know." She murmured, before disappearing down the steps. I got up to follow her, Mimmi right behind her. "Oh my gosh...." Mimmi muttered, as we walked down the cave and into the grotto. Alost everything was knocked over, contents of bottles and jars spilled all over the floor. The stair railing was on the ground, and there was a large indent in one of the walls. Rita's old wedding dress laid on the floor, torn to shreds and charred an icy blue from the dragons fire.

"I's so sorry Rita..." Mimmi said, walking down the stairs and picking up the tattered dress in her hands. "Don't be..." Rita said, picking the photo of her and Harry up off the floor. The grass was cracked, but the photograph was in tact. She set it upright on the couch, which was now bare rocks, the cushions halfway across the grotto. "It was just old memories. No need for me to hold on to them"

"Now..." Rita said, placing her hands on her hips. "This place isn't gonna fix itself now is it? We've got a full moon to prepare for." She smiled a bit, and I smiled back. It was nice to see her returning to her old self, when she didn't stress over little things. She found optimism in almost every situation. Mimmi and I worked together to pick back up a table, and the others came down to help us.

Veridia eventually had to go back to the pod,  but within a few hours we managed to restore the grotto. Rita assured us that everything mostly could be restored with some searching, and the really rare things were never used by her anyway.

She bent down, and reached under a table, picking up the golden dragon bracelet. It was something we had all forgotten about over the past few hours of repairing. She slid it onto her arm for a moment, before placing it back in a chest.

"And what are you gonna do with that on the full moon?" Ondina asked, curious as to who would have to wear it. "I'm going to use it." Rita began "And I'm boing to destroy the dragons."