𝚋𝚘𝚛𝚗 𝚒𝚗𝚗𝚘𝚌𝚎𝚗𝚝 {𝚓𝚓 𝚖𝚊𝚢𝚋𝚊𝚗𝚔}

𝚜.𝟷 𝚎𝚙.𝟺 -𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚘𝚗𝚎-

"hold it right there / I don't wanna move / summer it begs / it begs us to prove / that we can last / just one more season / and that there gives me a reason."

~

The Lucky Compass

Tate felt like time was slowing down. There was a hollow feeling in her chest to match the ringing in her ears as Pope scanned over the area for the third time. There was nothing there. The Royal Merchant was gone. It was all for nothing. John B finally let out a defeated sigh and stepped back, running his hands over his hair. "It's not there. Look, just- just pull the drone up." Thunder rumbled and Tate was brought back to reality with bone-crushing force. "Shit," John B muttered under his breath as he stepped back and JJ started to turn the boat back towards shore.

"Look, we can do another pass," Pope insisted, reluctant to give up just yet. "We'll recharge the battery. We can- we can go back down."

Tate stepped back and fought the lump in her throat down furiously. JJ gave her a miserable look and turned back to the front. "We've done it three times," he muttered. "There's nothing there."

"Shut up!" cried Kiara.

JJ whirled around angrily. "What? It's true!"

"It could be buried," Kiara argued, her hair whipping in the wind. "We don't know."

John B shook his head. "If it was there, it would've been found on the metal detector, okay? Somebody beat us to it."

"Or it was never there," muttered JJ.

Tate shot him a warning look and wandered over to the side of the boat where John B was leaning against the hull, staring down at the waves with the hood of his sweatshirt up. "Hey," she said softly, joining him at the railing. "It's okay."

"It's bullshit," he said quietly.

She hated seeing him like this. Out of the two of them, John B was always the optimist- the one who believed that they could do anything despite the world going up against them. Now it was her turn. "It's not bullshit," she said just as quietly, but with force. "We've come this far, man. We can't give up."

"How can you say that?" John B asked, glaring at her. "I mean, seriously. We just saw that there's no treasure. It's over."

"It's not over."

"-And don't you have bigger things to worry about?" John B continued, getting more and more heated. "I mean, your mom skipped out on you, dude. And you haven't even tried to find her. Don't you care at all? And the DCS-"

Tate didn't want to get into it. "Jesus Christ, I was just trying to help," she muttered and turned to walk away before her cousin could say anything else.