Tales From Mako Island

Seeing Red

It was already dusk when Rikki finally was on the way to the Gilbert’s house. Just today, her mom had been home and shown a sudden interest in her daughters whereabouts. Usually she enjoyed these mother/daughter nights, since it showed that after all her mom did care. But tonight it was different. So she told her mom she’d be on a sleepover with Emma to get away. This was why she was carrying a shoulder bag with pyjamas and a toothbrush.

Emma still didn’t get back to her, and she was anxiously waiting for her mobile to ring. She was almost at the corner to Emma’s street, when she felt the pricking sensation of the vibration alarm on her leg. She hastily reached for her pocket and tried to pull the phone out, almost dropping it in the process. On the fourth ring she got it out, and disappointment washed through her as she saw the name on the display:

Lewis

She picked up, and sighed. “Hi, Lewis”, she said flatly.

“Wow,” Lewis’ voice sounded from the other end of the line, “I might have expected a bit more enthusiasm.”

“Sorry, I was hoping it was Emma. Did you find her?”

“Err, no”, Lewis admitted. “But I found something quite intriguing” Lewis loved highbrow talk, and he was really enjoying it, when he found something geeky to talk about. So she braced herself for some geek-speak. Lewis didn’t disappoint her.

“I did a database dump, and guess what I found. Someone was not just meddling with the data, they planted a stored procedure and manipulated the database table.”

Rikki rolled her eyes. “In English, please!”

Lewis cleared his throat. “Urm, sorry. Someone planted a bit of code in the school database, that shows different entries in the class register, depending on who is using it. In Emma’s case, it shows a lot of absence, except for the classes the logged-in teacher gives. For them, it shows the correct values. Cool, eh?”

Rikki was taken aback. “Why didn’t anyone notice that. I mean, Emma was at school, so the teachers should have noticed, something was wrong.”

“That’s the elegance in it, Rikki.” Lewis seemed to be quite impressed by what he found. “Most teachers tend to look at their own data more closely than to others.”

“But someone must have noticed, that she’s noted absent only in other classes.”

“Sure they did. But people have a tendency not to question things that flatter them. And believing you are the one teacher who’s classes visited by a notorious class-cutter is quite flattering. They have been shown what they wanted to see!”

Rikki had to give Lewis credit for his excellent deductions. “Makes sense. This is quite an elaborate prank. Any clue who pulled this?”

“Working on it. They must have left some traces. We have to be careful though, this is not your average practical joke.”

Rikki had arrived at the Gilbert’s house now. “Thank you, Lewis. I’m at Emma’s now. I call back when I know more.”

She hung up, and wondered what to do next.

Officially Emma was still grounded. Mrs. Gilbert didn’t want her daughter to have contact with Rikki anymore, so maybe Emma was staying at home, because she was sick. And maybe her mother had found the texts on her mobile, and had taken away the phone.

For a moment Rikki stared at the huge tree in the Gilbert’s garden. The wind was rustling in it’s leaves, and in the fading light she could make out the huge trunk she had used to climb up to Emma’s bedroom window. She pondered whether to climb in through the window, but decided against it.

This time she would confront the Gilbert’s to find out why they were so resentful.

She walked up to the front door and rang the bell. A few seconds passed before Mrs. Gilbert opened the door. Rikki was appalled by the woman’s appearance. Her hair was untidy, her dress crumpled and her eyes were red and swollen. When she saw Rikki, her face fell. Obviously she had expected someone else. Something in Rikki’s chest formed painful knot. Mrs. Gilbert’s appearance seemed to confirm her worst fear. Yet she tried not to jump to conclusions.

“What do you want?”, Mrs. Gilbert hissed. There was no kindness in her voice. Rikki straightened her back.

“I want to see Emma, please. And before you say she doesn’t want to see me, I want to hear that from her in person.”

To her total surprise Mrs. Gilbert did not yell at her, instead she began to sob.

The knot in Rikki’s tightened.

“She is not here, is she?” Rikki’s voice trembled.

“As if you didn’t know!” Mrs. Gilbert snapped between her sobs. “All of this is your fault. All of it!”

Rikki tried to fight the rising panic, as she felt the temperature around her rise. She had never been good at keeping her super-powers under control and now her fear mixed with anger. Anger towards whoever wanted to hurt Emma, but also anger towards Mrs. Gilbert, who stood there and blamed her for Emma’s disappearance. Why should she take the blame, just because she liked Emma so much. It wasn’t her fault after all, that Mrs. Gilbert couldn’t cope with the reality that her daughter was dating a girl. Rikki could not explain the woman’s rage against her with anything but this. She knew it was probably unfair, but she couldn’t help herself.

“And why should that be? It wasn’t me who believed all that crap they made up at school! It wasn’t me who locked her in the house for days! And it wasn’t me who barred her from seeing her friends, just because you can’t accept that she is a bit different!”

“How dare you, litte twerp!” Mrs. Gilbert shot back. “Don’t you ever insult me in my own house! All of this began when you turned up! She’s been a good girl until you came! And then you changed her, you tempted her, twisted her mind, and now you dare to call yourself her friend? You are her worst enemy, nothing less!”

Tears shot to Rikki’s eyes, but she stubbornly fought them down.

“Emma was right to fear your reaction. I didn’t expect you to be happy about finding out about us, but I thought you’d be enlightened enough to at least accept it! And talk about it over a cup of tea or something!”

Mrs. Gilbert stared at her in disbelief. “You actually think that doing drugs is something we could discuss over a cup of tea? How stupid are you?”

This literally knocked the wind out off Rikki. Her anger seemed to evaporate.

“Wait, what?” She blinked.

Mrs. Gilbert yelled: “I said; Are you stupid?”

Rikki ignored the insult. “No, before that. Did you really think we were doing drugs?”

For a moment Rikki felt the impulse to laugh out loud. This was, after all, the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard.

“I don’t think this is funny, young lady! What else would you have done with my daughter, if you weren’t doing drugs?” Mrs. Gilbert snapped.

The next words involuntarily burst out of Rikki’s mouth.

“Her,” she said. “I was doing her.” When she realized, what she just said, she blushed.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Mrs. Gilbert breathed, now less sure of herself.

Rikki took a deep breath. In the end, it was much easier to say, than she had imagined.

“Emma and I aren’t just friends. We…, we’ve been sleeping together.” Saying it loud felt as if a heavy weight was lifted from her shoulders.

Mrs. Gilbert’s blinked in surprise. “But, the school counsellor said, in situations like this, it’s usually drugs.”

“Yeah,” Rikki retorted, finding back to her snippy self. “And I bet that counsellor stood under the bedroom window and watched us. Did she show you the video?”

“But,” the anger was building up again, “why didn’t she tell me anything? She never had secrets from me before.”

“I wonder why” Rikki thought, but aloud she said. “Would you have listened?”

Instead of an answer, Mrs. Gilbert started crying again. “Why did she have to run away?”

Rikki put a hand on the older woman’s arm. “She didn’t. I don’t know if you believe any of the things I just told you, and honestly, I don’t care. But believe one thing: If Emma would plan something like running away from home, there would be exactly one person she would tell. And that’s me.”

Mrs. Gilbert seemed to calm down a little. “Do you have any idea where she is?”, she asked weakly. Sad, Rikki shook her head. “No.”

“When she didn’t come home for dinner I called Dr. Denman, and she said that Emma didn’t show up for her counselling. I thought she might be with Cleo, or even with you!”

Rikki was alerted. “Wait, who?”

“Dr. Denman her therapist.”

Rikki felt the lump inside her cramp painfully. She should have known this.

“Dr. Alice Denman?” She asked.

“Yes, why. Do you know her.”

Rikki nodded gravely. “That woman is not a therapist. She’s a psychopath. …A dangerous psychopath.”

“What? I’ve been talking to her, she’s with the school.”

“Do you know where she is?”

Mrs. Gilbert was very confused now, but Rikki had no time to explain. Rage was brewing up inside her, and she felt the temperature around her rise. She didn’t know how long she could keep herself in control, and worse, she didn’t know whether she wanted to.

“Her office is somewhere in Mermaid Waters”, Mrs. Gilbert went inside to pick up a card from the kitchen table. She went back to the door, and handed it to Rikki.

“Mermaid Waters. What a coincidence”, Rikki thought. Although she was slightly impressed. Mermaid Waters was one of the rising suburbs along the Gold Coast. Real estate prices where on the rise there, but on the other hand, it was pretty much what she had expected from Denman. And she could be there in a couple of minutes.

“I can call her again”, Mrs. Gilbert suggested.

“No!” Rikki cried. “She’d be warned! Call Cleo, she will explain everything!” Rikki was slightly afraid Mrs. Gilbert wanted to join her. “Someone has to be here, in case Emma comes back!”

“Yes, yes you’re right. I call my husband, He’s in town, looking for her.”

Before Mrs. Gilbert could do or say anything else, Rikki had turned and ran out onto the streets. The moment Mrs. Gilbert realized that all this meant, Denman had kidnapped Emma, she would undoubtedly call the police. Rikki planned to be there first. It would not do any good if the police stormed in, and found a teenage mermaid swimming around in a tank. Rikki was quite sure, that Denman had forced Emma into her mermaid form. For the reason, that it was easier to hold her captive that way. Rikki tried not to imagine what sick experiments the crazy Doctor would perform on her girlfriend. Her face was unmoved, but inside her a storm was raging.

She walked faster, unaware that she was leaving a trail of singed leaves on the hedges she went past.

Cleo picked up the mobile immediately when she saw the Gilbert’s house number.

“Emma?”

“Oh, hi Mrs. Gilbert.”

Lewis looked up from his computer. “Something new?”, his face said.

“Yes. She is what?”

“Yes, I know that woman, she has been harassing me earlier. No, she’s not a psychiatrist, she’s a marine biologist. And she has had some funny ideas, I believe she’s unstable.”

“What? You let Rikki go there alone? Yes, I’m coming. And call the police, for god’s sake!”

She hung up. Lewis looked at her expectantly. “Rikki was at Emma’s place. Emma didn’t come home from her therapist. Guess who that is: Denman!”

“Oh!” Lewis seemed to understand, what he had been looking at all day. “That explains a lot. We have to do something!”

Cleo nodded. “Rikki went to face Denman alone, she’s in big trouble.” Although, after Rikki’s odd behaviour, and the incidents with her super-powers, Cleo wasn’t sure whether it was Denman, she should be worried about.

“What do we do?”

“Take a risk.” Cleo got up and hurried out of her room, calling: “Dad?”

Rikki arrived at the Denman address shortly after. The place was a rather big estate, but looked a little out of place. The dense and unkempt vegetation was very much unlike the rest of the town, and everything looked as if someone moved here in a hurry. Rikki entered the estate and marched toward the house. The front door was locked. Rikki didn’t bother ringing the bell. She pressed her hands against the door, and let her rage flow through her. The wood of the door splintered under the wave of heat that shot through it. She kicked in the smoking charred door and entered the house. The place was furnished like a middle class household, with light wooden chairs, armchairs and a couch. But it looked more like a home-centre ad, than a space anyone lived in. Rikki looked around the house. The only place that looked in use, was the small office. Rikki entered and flipped though some of the folders. One of them raised her interest. It contained full dossiers on Emma, Cleo and herself, and there was even something on Lewis. There were photographs of all four of them. Some pictures showed there families, and one, that had been taken from quite far away, showed Emma and Rikki at the school gate, kissing. It must have been taken yesterday. On the backside was a handwritten note, that said: “Might be dangerous, separate them”.

In a flare of anger Rikki threw the photo to the ground. It burst into flames before it landed on the floor.

Rikki stuffed the dossiers in her backpack, and grabbed the next folder. She opened it, and stumbled back. The first page was a picture of Emma, who was strapped to a table. She was in her mermaid form, while Dr. Denman cut with a scalpel into her fishtail. Emma’s face was grimaced in pain. Rikki felt the heat flowing out of her, and the bookshelf to her right caught fire. Denman had obviously used her time with Emma effectively, there were tons of data. The last page caught her eye. It had an address on it, from a nearby business park. Seemingly Denman rented a lab there. Since Denman had full access to the labs at the research facility she worked at, there could only be one reason for this.

Rikki ripped out the page with the address and threw the rest of the folder into the burning bookshelf. Then she turned around, and left the house, leaving a trail of flames behind her, that set everything alight that it touched. She headed straight towards Mermaid Beach, and jumped into the sea, taking the fast lane towards the business park.

The Satory’s car stopped at the house in Mermaid Waters. The road was blocked by two fire engines, and the firefighters were on the estate trying to extinguish the flames that still shot form the charred remains of the house.

Cleo immediately knew what had happened. “Oh my god!” She jumped out of the car, and ran up to the one of the firefighters who was trying to direct the jet of water from his fire hose into the flames, stopping them from spreading through the dry wood in the garden.

“Was anyone in there?” She asked.

“Not now girl.” The firefighter said through gritted teeth, trying to keep the jet on the flames. Cleo looked at the jet and -using her powers- massed the water over the flames, and let the whole body of water shoot into the base of the fire at once. A thick cloud of steam rose, and the flames ware taken out in an instant.

“Was there anyone in the house?” She repeated her question.

The firefighter stared at the place where the flames had been licking up the trees a moment ago. Bedazzled, he just shook his head. “No, it was empty.”

“Thanks!” Cleo left the puzzled firefighter and headed back to the car. Inside, she looked at Lewis.

“She was here, but she wasn’t in the fire.”

Lewis looked at his girlfriend. Cleo could be a real chick sometimes, but he loved how she took initiative when things really mattered.

“What now?” He asked. They weren’t a step closer to finding Emma, and Lewis had no illusions about who set the fire. They had a rogue mermaid to deal with too.

Cleo sighed. “I guess we follow the trail of flames.”

The minutes it took Rikki to dry enough to transform back into her human shape were painstakingly long. She had landed on the beach near the business park, and it was only a few minutes walk to the labs were Denman was.

She tried to use the heat she generated to speed up the process. It worked, but she burned her trousers. It bewildered her, that her own fire was so harmless to herself. Her trousers were set on fire, and the skin on her legs wasn’t even reddened. As soon as she was on human feet again, she bolted towards the lab. She cursed herself for not having her pepper spray with her. Might have been handy. She left her bag at Mermaid Beach, hidden behind some rocks. While most of what she was wearing magically disappeared, when she transformed (Lewis had mused about other dimensions, when he was wondering where the stuff went), her backpack stayed where it was, and it wasn’t waterproof.

So she had to rely on what she had. She didn’t bother finding a way to sneak in. She spotted two security cameras on her way to the front entrance. They exploded into tiny fireballs. The front door was an automatic glass door. It was locked. Rikki was in rage, but never before she had more control over her powers. She directed the heat towards the automatic doors, and the sudden change in temperature made the glass shatter into thousands of small pieces. An alarm went off, but Rikki ignored that.

She walked in. The concierge-desk was abandoned, and the place looked as if it was mostly empty. But on the desk, she found what lab-rooms were occupied. She stepped into the elevator and made her way up to the labs on the third floor.

When the lift doors opened, she blasted another security camera, which was mounted opposite to the elevator doors. A man came running towards her. Her entry had not gone unnoticed then. The man held an electrical Taser weapon in his right, but when he saw that the intruder was a teenage girl, he hesitated to use it. Rikki didn’t waste a second. A blaze of heat rushed over the man, scorching the tips of his hair. The heat accumulated in the plastic handle of his weapon, making it melt.

Screaming the man let go of his weapon and staggered backwards. Rikki stepped towards him, grabbed him by the throat and pushed him into the wall.

“There is a woman in here. A scientist. She brought a blonde girl with her. Where is she?”

The man muttered something incomprehensible, that sounded a bit like an insult. The wallpaper left and right of his face caught fire.

“Where are they?” Rikki repeated in a cold voice. The man just pointed to his right towards the entrance of a lab.

Rikki let go of him, and walked towards the lab door, not even turning around to see how the guard slided down the wall, and sat on the ground, gasping for air, while the fire began to spread along the wallpapers.

Rikki kicked the lab door. It was unlocked and swung open. From one of the rooms a tall guy in an ugly leather jacket appeared. Unknown to Rikki, it was the man who had helped kidnapping Emma. And he held a gun.

“Stop right there!” He snarled. Rikki knew he would shoot, and she wasn’t sure if she could act fast enough.

She turned towards him. “Where is Emma?” She asked. Her voice quivered with anger, but the man seemed to mistake that for fear. Rikki wasn’t afraid of the gun, the thing part of her feared more, was, that she could hardly stop herself. She was not under the influence of a full moon, but yet. Her aggression was real, and she was ready to do almost anything.

The man with the gun waved her toward a door, and she entered. Behind the door was Denman. She wore a white lab coat and latex gloves, with stains on them, that looked like blood. Rikki felt the air around her heat up again. If this was Emma’s blood…

“Where is Emma?” She asked again.

“Oh, your friend is quite fine. She’s in her preferred element. I didn’t think you would come to join her.”

“Let her go.”

“And why would I do that? If this story goes public, you’ll all end up in a place like this. Or in a zoo.”

“I doubt that. You have nothing.”

Rikki wasn’t so sure, if that was the truth, but she tried to play it cool for now. Inside her, things were different. If Denman had harmed Emma, Rikki would let go of her powers. And then all hell would break loose.

“Let her go or I’ll…”

“Or you what?” Denman turned around and pointed a water-gun in Rikki’s direction. “You’ll grow a tail?”

Denman continued. “I don’t wish any of you harm. If you would come to me, all three of you, we could achieve great things. Aren’t you curious what you actually are?”

“You had your chance to ask, the very first time we met. Now it’s too late. I’d rather die, than be your prisoner!” Rikki shot back.

“To bad! I thought you’d be more cooperative. But maybe that changes over time.” Denman pulled the trigger of the water-gun and the jet hit Rikki right in the face. Rikki tired to dart out of the way, but the man with the gun blocked her way. She stood there, soaked and shaking with rage.

“Wait ’til she transforms, then take her to the other one.” Denman ordered. “And turn of that damn alarm!”

Rikki felt the transformation, and then stumbled and fell over. The lackey caught her and then dragged her through a second door. Rikki had never felt so helpless before. In the room stood a glass tank, about for times the size of an ordinary tub filled with water. Inside it was Emma. She had several bandages around her arms. Otherwise she seemed unharmed. Emma pushed her head up through the water. “Rikki!” She called.

Rikki had seemingly given up. All she did was to look wearily into Emma’s direction. The man was now dragging her up a small staircase that led to the top of the tank, and lifted her up.

“Stand back in there!” He ordered Emma, then plunged Rikki’s body into the water head first.

That was the moment Rikki had been waiting for. She grabbed the man around the waist, while letting her mermaid tail fall backwards, behind her. This made the man loose his balance, and he toppled over the rim of the water tank and into the water.

Rikki’s tail hit the opposite wall of the tank painfully, but she had no time to think about that. She had lost her grip around the man’s waist, and he was already getting towards the rim again to pull himself out of the tank.

But he was only human, and also fully dressed; and both made him a bad swimmer. He might be stronger and faster than the two teenage girls on land. But this was their element. Rikki had turned around and surfaced behind the man only seconds after their fall. Her arms wrapped around his neck, and she submerged almost effortlessly dragging the man down. He tried to hit her, tried to fight his way up, but two strokes of the mermaid tail brought him to the floor of the tank. Only several seconds later Rikki let go of him, and he shot back to the surface. The water was just to deep for him to stand with his head out of the water. He broke the surface and took a deep breath. Rikki was over him again, arms around his neck.

“Welcome to my world!” She said. “Can you hold your breath?”

“Fuck you!” The man managed to say.

“Bad answer.” Rikki dived again. This time she held him under water for about thirty seconds. He was in complete panic, when she let him get up for air.

Emma surfaced beside her friend. “Oh my god! You’re killing him!”

“That’s the plan, yeah.” Rikki was still so pissed, she wasn’t sure if she was actually serious about it.

“Please Rikki, don’t!” Emma was in real panic now. Strangely, that soothed Rikki. She let go of the man, but blocked his way out of the water.

Rikki stretched her arms out to her girlfriend. “It’s OK, sweetie” she said. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine. Are you here to get me out?”

Rikki nodded and began to answer, when the door opened and Denman stormed in.

“What the hell is going on here, Walter?” She cried.

Walter, the man she had pulled into the tank, tried to pull himself out of the tank once more, but Rikki knocked him back into the water, with a blow of her tail.

“Congratulations, Walter.” She told him. “You just got promoted to hostage.”

Emma understood what her friend was planning, and grabbed Walter by the collar, and pulled him under again. She was a bit more insecure in her actions, but in her mermaid form, she was a lot stronger than him. After all, the same force that allowed her to out swim a boat, could easily be used to knock down a man.

“Let him go!” Denman commanded.

“How long do you think he can hold his breath?” Rikki asked. “Longer than Emma? You surly have data on that!”

“You cannot actually believe that this impresses me.”

“Do you know what to do with his body, when he drowns? A lot of people will ask questions, when one of your employees drowns in a closed down lab facility.”

Denman’s voice was quivering. “Emma’s not a killer!”

“What makes you think I’m not?”

The self-confident smile had gone from her face. She was afraid. The situation has gotten out of control. Emma released Walter, and he came up panic-stricken, gasping for air.

Rikki’s patience was wearing thin. She pulled herself out of the tank, and slid down the stairs.

“Towel!” She commanded.

Denman turned around, and headed for her lab. A blaze of heat singed her hair, and the door handle began to glow, just as she grabbed it.

She screamed in pain, as her flesh was burned by the intense heat.

“You will let us walk out of here, and you will never, ever talk about us again!” Rikki told her in a threatening tone.

“You haven’t the faintest idea, what we are, and what we’re capable of. You’d better not mess with us anymore!”

“You can’t get away with this, they will find out about you. I have proof!” Denman held her injured hand in her armpit.

The heat in the room was so intense, that the water on Rikki’s body evaporated into steam. Dry now, she turned back into her human form and stood up.

Emma had released Walter, and climbed out of the tank. Rikki grabbed a towel from the shelf that was mounted right to the lab door. She wrapped it around Emma’s body, trying to avoid getting wet again.

She ignored Walter’s attempts to climb out of the water tank. A few seconds later, Emma morphed into her human shape, naked under the towel. Rikki put her arms around her girlfriend and went for the door.

Denman was still standing there blocking the way, but only glaring in disbelief. Rikki stood before her, looking into her eyes.

“You haven’t got the faintest idea about who and what we are, and what we’re capable of.” She told the older woman. “Next time you get near my friends. I’ll burn you to ashes!”

Demen swallowed hard, but said nothing. She let the two girls pass. From behind Walter was still struggling to get out of the tank.

“Dr. Denman, can you give me a hand here, please?”

On their way through the lab, everything made of paper magically burst into flames as the girls went past it, and as they went outside they saw that part of the building was on fire. A firetruck was parked on the road, and several police cars. Rikki spotted Mr. Satory’s car and looked around for her friends. She spotted Cleo and Lewis, arm in arm, anxiously waiting for their safe return. She wanted to run to them, but firefighters and policemen where heading towards Emma and her, leading them away.

Later that evening the girls sat in the Gilbert’s living room. Everyone was there, Cleo, her parents and even Rikki’s mum, who told everyone how proud she was of her daughter, and how happy to have her back safe and sound. Rikki hadn’t had that many hugs from her mum in years.

Mr. Gilbert was still in disbelief over the story, his daughter told her.

“So that crazy woman actually believes my daughter is some fairy tale creature?”

“Yep.” Emma told him. “And Rikki can throw flames from her hands!”

Rikki grinned. “That would be rocking!” The three mermaids exchanged a conspiratorial look.

After everyone had said their things, Mrs. Gilbert brought Emma to bed. After being pushed up by adrenaline all evening, the shock was slowly setting in, and the doctors at the hospital had said, she needed to rest.

“Can I stay with her?” Rikki asked Mrs. Gilbert.

Mrs. Gilbert looked at her daughter trough the open door, then nodded.

“She needs you, doesn’t she?” There was a tone of sadness in her voice.

“She needs her mum too.” Rikki replied. Mrs. Gilbert sighed. “They grow up so fast.”

Then she turned to Rikki. “I owe you an apology.”

“No, you don’t.” Rikki said. “You feared for her. I’ve been there myself. It’s a pretty dark place.”

Mrs. Gilbert pulled Rikki into an embrace. “You really the best friend my daughter could find.”

When they parted Rikki walked into Emma’s room. “Care if I join you?”

Emma smiled in the darkness. “Not at all. I’m cold, maybe you can come and warm me a little?”

Rikki smiled, closed the door, and dropped her clothes to the floor. Then she slipped between the sheets and curled up in Emma’s arms.

Emma kissed her temples. “Thank you for coming and saving me.” She said. “My knight in shining armor.”

“Not so shining.” Rikki sighed. “I was really scared.”

“But you came!”

“It’s not what I meant” Rikki sat up, and looked at Emma’s pale features in the twilight of the room. “When I saw Denman with those blood-stained gloves, I thought she’d hurt you. I really was ready to kill her!”

Emma smiled. “But you didn’t. That’s what makes you the good guy!”

“Maybe. I don’t know. That’s the whole point! I shouldn’t be in a position where I actually can consider killing someone. It would have been easy!”

Emma began caressing Rikki’s head. “You are not a killer. I know that. You would never harm anyone willingly.”

“It just…It made me think. I always believed that our conversion to mermaids was some kind of magical fairy-tale thing. Maybe some sort of natural phenomenon.”

Emma nodded. This is what she thought too. But Rikki wasn’t finished.

“What if there is a more sinister purpose behind it?”

“What purpose?” Emma sounded surprised.

“What if someone, or something, did this to us. All these super-powers? It may well be that we are, you know, some kind of weapon?”

That idea frightened Emma deeply. She pulled her girlfriend closer.

“I don’t want to believe, you’re a weapon. You’re just very special.”

Rikki decided, that it might be a good idea to drop the topic for tonight, and leaned into the embrace.

“What are you wearing?” Emma just now noticed, that Rikki was naked.

“Not a thing.” Rikki murmured, kissing Emma’s soft lips.

“I’m two parts behind. You think you can give me a hand?”

“I can give you more than just a hand, honey!” Rikki grinned sheepishly, and dived under the sheets.

 Previous chapter