The Cinders of Dezu

1st: Glistening Red (4)

"So, I don't mean to fanboy out on you or anything..."

Devin cracked a small smile with his eyes still closed.

"Mmhmm."

"I've just gotta know, how is she?"

"Who?" said Dev.

"Corrine Morrin, man! How is she?"

"Oh!" he gave a bit of a chuckle, "Yeah, she's cool! Real cool! Hard worker. Kind of a diva, but that happens a lot. Kinda comes with the territory."

"Really? Why?"

Devin laughed again.

"I don't know if diva is the right word, let me re-nig' that. She just has standards for the people she works with and she insists upon those standards. Let's put it that way."

"Huh... Yeah, no, that sounds diva-ish."

Devin still had his eyes closed but was smiling.

"Naw, I mean it could turn into that but... Honestly she's cool to work with. She plays her part well."

He sat up to look at him.

"I'm the high strung chief of police right? And she's this no nonsense truth seeker type. She came at me hard enough in some of the scenes it was hard to compete with her, if I'm honest. She's just got that energy, you know? She keeps it up here! And I'm like reachin to contend with that. She's really good!"

Julian nodded.

"Very cool."

"Julian! You ready man?" came Cairo's voice from the water.

"Yeah, I'm coming!" he called back.

The two headed up the side of the rocky hill that cradled the beach. Raina got out of the water to follow but Devin called out to her.

"No baby girl, you still aren't old enough yet."

"Daaaaaaad, " she groaned, "I'm not a baby. You know I hate that. Why not? I'll be fine!"

"Look, they just finished school and have their whole lives ahead of them, " said Devin, "If they want to kill themselves right before things get started, that's on them. But you are my responsibility."

Raina growled and huffed as she turned around to get back in the water. Cairo and Julian had reached the top of the cliff. The water below them was dark and clearly deep. Raina waded to the side of their plunging spot, bobbing up and down with the waves as she looked up at them.

Cairo almost went first. He got to the edge and looked over and could see it was a safe path all the way down. He decided it was the 'all the way down' part that bothered him. Raina looked quite small. And, even though he had been here some time ago and done this before, he still hesitated and backed up.

Julian decided it was best not to overthink it. He took a quick look over the edge to make sure he wouldn't hit anything and then just took the leap. He decided halfway down that the hang time was the worst part about the fall. He was in the air longer than he wanted to be and felt if he had had a watch he could have checked it mid-drop. The water was forgiving when he landed though. He sank deep into the warm tropical waters.

After a moment his head came back up to the surface with his tongue out, taunting his friend still high up on the ledge.

"Come on man! I haven't even done this before! What's wrong with you?"

Cairo shook his head, smiling. Julian looked over at Raina, now next to him in the water.

"You're cousin is a stiff."

Raina nodded but wasn't looking at him.

"Yeah I know, I'm glad you're here to help me keep it fun around here."

She was looking down. She was trying to keep her face out of the salt water but he could see she was obviously trying to see something. He was about to ask when he heard a splash and felt water hit the back of his head. He turned around to see Cairo coming up from his jump. He was squeezing the water from his eyes.

"Do you guys see that down there?" said Raina.

They both looked at her.

"See what?" said Julian.

Raina frowned.

"It's some kind of glowy thing. It's red."

They were all looking down now.

"I don't see anything, " said Cairo.

"I can grab the snorkel stuff, " said Julian.

He began swimming for shore. Cairo kept looking with Raina who was trying to point below the surface.

"See it? It's like a red rock but its shiny."

Cairo didn't want to open his eyes under the salt water unless he had to. He still kept looking though until Julian was back shortly with the snorkeling gear for all three of them.

Julian exclaimed through the snorkel when he spotted it. Raina was right, it was glowing and red and partially covered by sand all the way down at the sea floor. Cairo resurfaced and took his snorkel off.

"I don't even know how you saw that."

Julian lifted his head up and blew water out of his tube.

"I know right? Crazy."

He looked up at the cliff ledge and squinted.

"You think if we dived again we could reach it?"