ᴡʜᴇʟᴠᴇ ━━ 𝐣𝐣 𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤

𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒏

✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧
chapter seventeen
[star shopping]
✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧

John B lowered the drone into the water slowly, Pope and I sat near the computer. JJ was behind the wheel, he was probably the best at knowing how to handle a boat with what we were doing right now.

"Alright JJ, we're almost over it. Ten seconds northwest!" John B called out to JJ.
"Got it, ten seconds northwest." He repeated, reminding himself so he wouldn't forget.
"One hundred feet!" Kie informed us.

Pope suddenly gasped from beside me, causing JJ to rush over. Catching sight of the fish that was on the screen, JJ sighed.
"Don't do that to me man." JJ turned around, heading back to the steering wheel of the boat.
"I just thought i saw something." Pope spoke, turning to me.

"You saw a fish, Pope." I chuckled, shaking my head at the boy.

"Four hundred feet!" KIe shouted, drawing a line on the side of the boat with the chalk she had.
"Hey, JJ? Ten seconds easy, south- southeast. Alright?" John B instructed.
"Copy that!" JJ replied.
"JJ, Twenty seconds, mid-speed, alright? south."
"Copy that."

"You don't have any idea what they are saying, do you?" Pope turned to me, smiling at the dumbfounded look on my face.
"No but you don't either." I replied.

"Keep the tether out of the prop!" JJ shouted towards Kiara.
"I'm trying!" Kiara said, struggling to pull on the yellow tether.

"JJ, keep going." John B spoke.
"John B, is that good?" JJ responded, turning back to look at my brother. I watched them all with curious eyes, I had no idea what was going on but it was fun to watch; for now.
"We're good, we're good!" John B called back quickly.

"Seven hundred feet!" Kie put another mark down.
"JJ, hold it steady!" John B yelled out. The thunder and the wind was picking up at this point, causing the boat to shake even more. I wouldn't admit it to anyone but I was getting scared.

"Nine hundred." Kie yelled out. I could barely hear her over the wind and silently prayed that the boys could.
"JJ, we're going to turtle in this storm, man!" Pope shouted out, nervousness laced in his voice. Good, at least i wasn't alone feeling like that.
"Nine twenty." Kie spoke up again.

"Crank it north by northwest, ten seconds." John B shouted at JJ, the blonde boy concentrating on what my brother told him to do.
"Almost there." Pope assured us all.

"John B! There's too much current! We're gonna lose it." Kiara yelled out to John B, struggling to hold the tether. I got up from my position next to Pope and rushed over to help her.

"South- southwest JJ, hard!" John B ignored Kie, turning to JJ. "Half spped, steady at this bearing. What do you got Pope? C'mon man. What do you see?"
"Nothing, a whole lot of nothing." Pope said in anger.
"We should be right above it!"

"Nine sixty."
"Nine seventy."
"Nine eighty."

"I'm at the bottom, I'm at the bottom!" Pope shouted, his voice excited.
"Steady here, JJ! Hold this speed!" John B rushed over. "You should be seeing something, man. You should be seeing something."

"Good god." Pope spoke, i looked over at the screen and wanted to cry at the sight. Everything we had done was finally coming together.
"What is it?" JJ asked,
"The royal merchant." John B replied, almost out of breath. "It's not there. Just- just pull the drone up." John B turned away.

And there it was, we had hoped for far too much and this is what we got. There was no sign of the gold. We found the royal merchant and that was an accomplishment, but it wasn't the gold.
"We can do another pass. We can change the battery, we can go back down !" Pope tried.
"Guys, we've been through it three times. There's nothing there-"

"Shut up!" Kie snapped,
"What? It's true!" JJ shouted back at her.
"The gold could be buried, we don't know!" She replied, almost crying.
"If it was there, it would have been found on the metal detector, okay?" John B sighed, looking at the girl.

"Or it was never there." JJ mumbled, like a grumpy old man.

I wanted to cry, to scream. I had let myself get my hopes up; I wanted a purpose in life and I thought that finding this now non existent gold was going to help me find that.
It had failed, and i knew now that i should've given up a long time ago. I was stupid, i should've known that the gold wasn't real.