Mermaids, Wolves and Vampires - H2O Just Add Water/TVD crossover (2018)

2 - Golden Eyes

The guilty mermaid froze with shock. She didn't understand what had just happened. She didn't want to believe what she had done. She never wanted to kill Charlotte, she just wanted to mess with her a bit. But this?
Suddenly, she also started feeling a lot of strength pulsing through her body. She didn't understand what it meant or where it came from. If she could see herself, she would also notice that her eyes turned golden for a short while.
When she finally collected herself a little, she looked around to make sure nobody was there. She didn't see anybody and she hoped that nobody witnessed the scene of her killing Charlotte. Still panicking, she jumped into the water. Maybe there was still a chance to save her...
Unfortunately, it was too late. Cleo didn't know what to do, so she decided to drag the dead body in the middle of the ocean so that nobody could find her. When she reached a place where she was sure nobody would look for a corpse, she swam to Mako because she needed to be alone and wrap her head around everything. She realised that she was swimming faster than usual and she was in the moon pool in no time.
She spent long hours there trying to calm down and come up with a plan of how to deal with this whole situation, wondering whether she should tell Rikki and Emma about this. In the end, she came to the conclusion that they wouldn't understand it. Yes, they did hate Charlotte, but they wouldn't forgive Cleo for being a murderer...
Cleo's heart sped up. She was a murderer. Just like that, she went from an innocent girl to a criminal. But if she wanted to stay safe, she had to keep her mouth shut about it, no matter how much it worried her. She had to pretend that she didn't have a clue where Charlotte could be. This was another big secret in her life and Cleo had the feeling that it was much worse than the first one. She committed the worst crime, though unintentionally.
When stars started shining in the sky above the moon pool, Cleo realised that it was time to go home, so she headed there, all scared of what was ahead of her.
As soon as she got to her bedroom, she checked her phone. She had several unread messages and two missed calls from Lewis. She remembered that they had planned going out for dinner tonight, but she wasn't in the mood for it, so she didn't even call or text him back. Instead, she grabbed her diary, which was already full of secrets that couldn't get out into the world, and wrote about today, about her feelings, about everything. When she finished, she went to the bathroom to at least brush her teeth because she didn't feel like taking a bath, but Kim was in there and the door was locked.
Cleo knocked on the door loudly. 'KIM! Hurry up!'
'You can't hurry up the beauty process!' Kim snapped at her. 'Try it in an hour or use dad's bathroom.'
'In an HOUR? Are you kidding me? GET OUT!' Cleo's patience was already gone. She reached for the doorknob and she pushed into the door a little... And she accidentally smashed it open.
'How did you do that?' Kim screamed. 'The door was locked!'
'Maybe you forgot to lock it,' said Cleo, although she knew that wasn't true. She didn't understand her new strength either and she wasn't going to talk about it with Kim.
'No, I didn't,' argued Kim. 'What the hell, Cleo?' 
'Just drop it. And get out!' Cleo raised her voice again.
'I told you I needed more time.'
Cleo got angry once again and...
'Your eyes!' Kim shrieked out in horror. 'DAAAAD!' She rushed out of the bathroom, squealing. 
Cleo looked in the mirror and she almost squealed herself. Her eyes reminded her of two golden flames. She jumped back from the mirror and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, their colour was normal again. She breathed deeply to calm down. A minute later, Don appeared in the bathroom after Kim persuaded him that Cleo had turned into a monster. 
'She looks normal, Kim,' he told his younger daughter, who was hiding behind his back. 'Stop messing with me, young lady. I'm tired of your stupid jokes.'
'It wasn't a joke! Her eyes were glowing, I saw it!' Kim objected, but Don wasn't listening to her anymore and he was already on his way downstairs. Kim threw Cleo a suspicious look and then she quickly followed her dad.
Cleo brushed her teeth, she put on her cute pyjamas and lay on her bed. She attempted to fall asleep, but her brain was keeping her awake. When she finally fell asleep, it was only for a few hours filled with horrible nightmares about Charlotte, golden eyes and full moon.

THE NEXT MORNING

'Hey, guys, have you seen Cleo?' Lewis rushed towards Emma and Rikki. It was a regular school morning, but soon, everything was going to change.
'No, we haven't seen her,' replied Emma.
'Not since yesterday afternoon when she went looking for you,' added Rikki.
'Looking for me?' repeated Lewis, surprised.
'Yeah,' confirmed Rikki. 
'That's strange...' Lewis mumbled for himself.
'And how was the romantic dinner last night?' asked Emma curiously.
'She never showed up,' said Lewis with a worried look. 'She didn't return my calls either. She doesn't usually act this way. I'm really scared that something's wrong.'
Emma shrugged. 'Are you sure it can't be because of Charlotte? She's not very happy about her still living here.'
'I don't know. It might be the reason why she didn't want to talk to me last night, but where is she today?'
'Dodging the Science test?' shrugged Rikki.
'She's not a cheater,' Lewis stood up for his girlfriend.
'Alright, she may be sick or something,' suggested Emma while reaching for her phone in her bag. 'I can try to call her.'
'Excuse me, are you Mr Lewis McCartney?' asked a deep man voice behind them. They all turned around and saw two police officers wearing their uniform.
'Yes, that's me. What's going on?'
'I need to talk to you because a girl you know very well is missing.'
Lewis and the girls exchanged frightened looks. 'Oh no, Cleo!' they all shrieked out.
'Who's Cleo?' frowned the other police officer.
'The missing girl, of course,' said Lewis as if it was obvious.
'But her name is Charlotte. Charlotte Watsford.'