𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐒 𝐒𝐎 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓 ➝ 𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐧

𝟏𝟕. 𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍, 𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍, 𝐓𝐎 𝐆𝐎𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐎𝐖𝐍

"Roger that, X marks the spot," He responded from the steering wheel as he turned it with his hands. I stood next to Kie, the wind blowing our hair behind us. While JJ worked with the steering wheel, and John B and Pope worked with the drone, Kie and I worked on the tether, making sure it didn't get lost in the water.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen," John B said as he grabbed the drone and brought it over to the side of the boat, "To going full Kook," He lowered the drone into the water while Pope controlled the device from a large box at a table.

I fed the tether into the water while Kie made the markings while watching the distance that the drone was reaching. While John B called the directions, the only other sound was the thunder above us. The wind started picking up, making it harder to control the drone, and harder for us to concentrate.

"How we lookin', Kie?" I asked her, watching as she drew another line on the side of the boat.

"Three hundred feet, y/n," She called to me as I let more of the tether slip through my fingers.

The waves crashed against the boat, causing us all to lose our balances for a mid-second. "And to quote The Hobbit, 'down, down to Goblin Town. Down, down, you go, my lad," Pope quoted as Kie called 'Five hundred feet'.

"Pope, maybe don't quote old movies and focus on the drone. Have you found anything?" I told him over the wind as the boat rocked back and forth.

"Nothing yet, just nothingness, small fish, a scary squid, and more nothingness," He said as he kept his eyes on the screen.

"Hey, hey, hey," I called nervously, "The tide's turning," The water pushed us away from our target and John B told JJ another command.

John B called out more commands, such as 'twenty seconds mid-speed, south' and 'ten second west'. The waves pulled the tether away from the boat and I tried my best to keep it away from the motor.

"Seven hundred feet," Kie yelled over the wind, creating another mark with a piece of chalk. The thunder became louder and closer and I could tell that we were running out of time and low currents.

Thrown to the side, I gripped the edge tightly while the tether rubbed uncomfortable against my other hand. "The storms getting worse, and we just reached nine hundred. Have you found anything?" I yelled as knots formed in my hair.

"Crank it north by northwest! Ten seconds!" John B ordered as JJ spun the wheel.

"There's too much current, we're going to lose it!" Kie shouted as she grabbed a part of the tether, trying to keep it from slipping away.

"Nine eighty," I called to the boys, both of them hunched over the screen. "Please tell me you found something!"

"I'm at the bottom. I'm at the bottom," Pope shouted out and Kie and I pulled against the tether, trying to stop it from leaving our grips. We made sure that the tether wouldn't move anymore before making our way towards Pope and John B. "Holy shit," Pope muttered as he stared at the screen.

"It's the Royal Merchant," John B breathed and my eyes widened as the drone glided against the bottom of the ocean floor.

There's a moment in every kid's life when you feel like anything's possible. When you feel like you've got the total mojo. You could land on Mars, get elected president or even kiss the boy you've been fawning over for weeks. The whole world's there for the taking if you've got the balls to go for it.

And then, when you least expect it, some Kook shows up and tells you there's no eternal mystery. And all that talk about Mars, the president, and that boy... complete and utter bullshit. Magic gets cancer and dies.

"It's not there. Look, just pull the drone up," John B said, taking me out of my thoughts.

"What if we do another pass, recharge the battery and send it back down," Pope offered but I knew that it wouldn't be worth it.

"We've checked three times, it's not there," I muttered as John B walked away, running a hand through his brown hair.

"The gold could be buried, we don't know," Kie told us in a positive tone, but even she didn't believe her words.

"If it was there, it would've been found on the metal detector, okay?" John B interrupted, clearly annoyed. I knew how much this gold meant to him, meant to all of us, and to come so close.

It's like playing baseball. You get up to bat and foul off two balls, leaving you with two strikes. You're 0-2, and before you lose all hope, you take a deep breath and focus. You get into your stance and wait for the pitch to be thrown, and when it's thrown, you hold back thinking that it's a ball. But then all the colour leaves your face as the umpire calls it a strike and you slowly walk back to the dugout, completely defeated.

"Somebody beat us to it," Pope said defeated as the currents changed.

"Or it was never there," I mumbled, knowing that this was more fantasy than reality. And fantasy was really kicking us in the ass.