Crimson Reef ✔ A Superhero Origin Story

Chapter 6

It was dawn by the time I drove back to the house.

My mind was spinning with information.

Bigg Oil was killing the ocean.

I don't even know how they managed to channel oil, but that's what they are doing.

Besides that, I seem to have powers. It wasn't all a dream. I can heal coral and if I can do that, I probably can shoot coral out of my palms.

How do I explain this to Josh?

Should I?

Can I keep this a secret?

Josh works for Bigg Oil.

Is he involved?

All these questions seem to whirl around in my head, but no answers.

The only thing that is painfully clear is:
I need to do something.

"You have a very vivid imagination," Josh said after a while, later that same evening.

It was difficult, but I managed to relay my experience to him.

My heart sank.

The only person in the world I can trust, and he doesn't believe me.

I pull up my imaginary sleeves and start figuring out ways of infiltrating Bigg Oil and bringing them down.

PLAN A.

I get dressed, all black, naturally. How else am I going to sneak around a big oil ship? Then my trembling hands grab a ski mask.

I look at the mask and smile, wondering if I'm going to make myself a super suit one day.

"Where are you off to?"

"Just going to grab some... women stuff from the shops", I lie quickly, but I could feel the disbelief in the air. I get out before he can question me further.

The drive was fairly quick and the swim went much faster now that I know where I'm going.

I follow the oil right back up to the ship. I point my palm up to the top of the ship and close my eyes, this needs to work.

I feel my palms tingling, but when I opened my eyes, nothing has happened.

I try again, thinking harder, my eyes squeezed shut with effort.

I feel my palms tingling, but when I opened my eyes, nothing has happened again.

"I just need the damn coral to shoot up on to the ship," I muttered to myself, as I point my palm back up to the ship.

This time I imagined that I could extend my arm and reach the top, my palm started tingling again, but this time, within a second the coral had shot up onto the ship.

I look at my hands in wonder, I can actually do this.

I've spent hours thinking about this moment. The whole plan hinging on me getting on the ship.

I try and pull on the coral to climb it, like a rope, but it's difficult to grip it with the coral coming out of my palms. I sink back into the water and sigh. This is so frustrating. I just want to get to the top, it can't possibly be that difficult.

My palms start tingling, I frown down at them in confusion. The coral is retracting.

No.

No. No.

I panic and close my eyes, trying to extend it out again.

But, suddenly I got pulled up out of the water so fast I didn't have time to even open my eyes before I stopped with a jolt.

My hands holding onto something ice cold.

To my amazement, I was on the railing of the ship.

There was no one in sight, so I slipped onto the ship and ran to the closest door. I slipped on my mask, chastising myself for not thinking of it earlier, before looking through the window.

There he was, Mr Bigg Oil himself, counting his golden coins. I open the door and stood in the doorway, my palms tingle, the coral shooting out, twisting around Jeremy, just like I planned.

Before I could start with my superhero monologue, I was surrounded.

Three men in black suits had pulled their guns on me from inside the ship. And two more approach me from behind.

Torn between catching the bad guy and escaping to safety, I did the one thing I told myself I was not going to do.

I hesitated.

Seconds ticked past into what felt like hours. I kept my hold on Jeremy, and they kept their guns on me.

"Okay, I surrender," I say quietly, "I'm just going to remove the coral, please don't shoot."

The men lowered their guns slightly as I retracted my coral.

They stepped closer, my heart sank in defeat.

I have failed the ocean.

No, it is not ending this way. I can't just give in.

As they clipped the handcuffs onto my wrist, I pull forward and shot out my coral, in one last effort to get control over the situation.

I lost all sense of time, as everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

Two of the men went flying overboard.

I managed to shoot out my coral and have it twist around a third one.

I got on to the railing, I tried to fling the man overboard after his colleagues.

But bullets came flying past me.

Until they weren't flying past me.

I saw the bullet coming towards me.

My eyes following its trajectory.

I tried to move.

Not fast enough.

It hit my chest.

The force pulling me overboard.

I dropped into the ocean.

Sinking deeper.

And deeper.

The tide pulled me down.

My eyes open as I feel myself hit against the ocean floor.

I pass out.

The reef turning crimson as my blood seeped out into the ocean.

***AUTHORS NOTE***

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