And Why Reef Did.

The same day. Artisan school’s infirmary. Arney, Albert and Angelica left after staying with Reef and Crysty, missing that day of school. Reef is still there.

-“Crysty, we can fight this! We got this! So get well, please!” Reef quietly begs her.

Crysty remains unconscious, unable to answer.

“Come back so we can show them all! They can’t mess with us!” He tries to create hype.

He then slows down. “Please come back.” He says, falls into tears, and cries.

He holds her hand as he sits next to her bed. Hours pass without movement until multiple people enter in a ruckus.

-“Who are you kid?”

-“I’m her... Boyfrie...”

-“We have to take her to a hospital, please step aside.”

They all rush and move her to a mid-air floating ambulance.

-“Can I come with you?” Reef asks.

-“Who is this kid? Is he her family?”

-“YES!” Reef answers and hopes into the ambulance, not waiting for them to answer negatively.

-“Time is of the essence, let’s go.” One of them says, as they finish getting into the ambulance and start flying to a hospital.

They fly really fast. Suddenly, Crysty wakes up.

-“Reef... What happened?”

She barely opens her eyes and is still very week physically.

-“Hello Crysty, how are you feeling? Is the boy with you?”

-“Yes...” She answers.

-“HOW MANY TIMES MUST I TELL YOU THA...”

-Reef...” she interrupts him while he yells at the medical team, not taking his word for it.

-“You went unconscious, fell to the ground.” Reef tells her.

-“I think... My father heard about what happened, that’s why they are transporting me.”

-“He can probably afford the best medical team, right?”

-“I think so. I think, he is afraid I will have the same disease as my late sister and mother... But I’m adopted. It’s unlikely that I would have that same sickness.” She coughs a bit. “It was just all too much for me, that’s all.”

-“Don’t worry, I’ll be right there with you.”

They hold hands. They keep flying as she is laid down while Reef and the medical team sit next to her. Eventually, they arrive at the hospital.

They move her inside the hospital into her own room. Reef sits there with her until the evening when she finally says: “Reef, you should go home.”

-“No! I can’t leave your side!” He says emotionally.

-“Reef, I’ll be fine. They can’t make room for you here. Go tomorrow to school like usual. You can even come visit me after, okay?”

-“Okay... How are you feeling? Any better?”

-“Only because you held my hand all this time. Now go refuel your hand.”

-“What does that even mean?” She made him laugh a little.

-“Go! I’m fine! Good night!”

-“I’ll go straight after school, okay?”

-“Okay.”

The next day. Reef is in class. The rest of the group don’t know what to say to him. They see him down, unmotivated.

The classes pass slowly. Reef can’t focus at anything. He just waits until the day is over.

Finally, the school day ended and Reef rushes to the hospital. He takes a transportation pod and arrives relatively fast. He goes straight to her. She is asleep. He gently touches her face and strokes her hair.

-“Reef..?”

-“Oh, did I wake you up? I’m sorry I jus...”

-“Don’t stop...”

He keeps up with the gentle hair strokes. Every time he gets tired he switches hands. Hours pass and it’s night time. She is fully asleep. He kisses her goodnight and walks back home.

The morning arrives and Reef doesn’t go to school. He just goes straight to the hospital. He enters her room, seeing her awake, looking week, depressed and tired.

-“Reef... Can you...” She says as she struggles taking his hand, trying to put it on her head, patting herself with it. He keeps stroking her hair like the day before.

For the next few days, Reef keeps blowing off school, going to her hospital to be there with her. Sometimes she is slightly awake. Sometimes she isn’t awake for the entire day.

One night he can’t seem to fall asleep. He thinks to himself: “Yesterday I fell asleep just fine though... Maybe I was just at my limits.”

The next day he goes straight to her per usual. As he arrives at her floor, he hears sounds of turmoil. He runs towards her room and he hears a machine beeping loudly as Crysty is unconscious. He sees a medical team running back and fourth.

-“So she doesn’t have the family’s disease?”

-“No, she is clear.”

-“Any new symptoms?”

-“Her condition has worsened. We didn’t identify anything new.” They discuss while trying to care for her.

-“What’s happening?” Reef asks, terrified.

-“You can’t be here right now.” One of the medical team throws at him.

Suddenly, the machine beeps faster. The medical team personnel switch up gears.

-“Let’s bring her back!” Their lead yells.

Reef stands there, unable to do a thing. He hears them vaguely, losing all focus, with sounds of machines, and the “CLEAR!”s in the background. He can’t believe what’s happening.

Year 2300. Reef just eavesdropped at the city council and ran away, devastated that the janitors are going to lose their job. He runs at full speed and he gets to a certain spot, the small area near a park where he met Mr. Blue for the first time. His memories are all over each other. He keeps returning to that day in the past as his mind sends him back and fourth between the times.

-“’Worse than theft’, huh?” He remembers his teacher’s words.

⚔️”It’s worse than murder.”🔪

His mind is in shambles. Everything is so noisy. It turns into a cloud of fear and uncertainty. He hears unending beeping sounds that wouldn’t go away, seeing the team caring for her is moving so fast.

He puts his ear buds in to listen to Crysty’s playlist.

-“Time of death, 8:06.”

-“How in the world couldn’t we find any new symptoms?”

The music starts playing from the last point it stopped. A song just ended and a new one starts playing. Reef stands there traveling in memories.

-“Who is the kid? Did he witness the whole thing?”

-“Is he next of kin? He shouldn’t be here.”

Drums are heard vaguely. The beat starts consistently.

-“Someone attend to him.”

-“Hey, are you okay?” One of them turns to Reef, yet he is paralyzed and doesn’t answer.

The drums can be heard rising in presence. Reef recognizes this is the song she needed him to record with - the song that was unusual to her style. He turns the volume all the way up.

-“Aahh... Thank you Crysty...” He says as he looks at the clean area.

-“Any marks of self harm?”

“You would never do something like this...”

-“No, nothing.”

“...But with this Beat...

-“She wouldn’t kill herself!” Reef suddenly yells at them. He then looks at them with sadness.

“Although you wouldn’t do it...”

💔“She died... Of grief.”💔

🔥“You gave me the courage.”💥

Electric guitar intensifies with the drums beating nonstop. Reef picks up a piece of paper off of the floor. He clenches his fist holding it so fiercely - he gets annoyed by any tenth of an inch of the paper that is still straight and clean.

🎵Cry out loud in pain🎵

He makes it into a paper ball and throws it, then kicks the trash can. It gets detached off of the floor. All the trash flows outside. He reaches to a crystalite pipe that is attached to one of the buildings and grabs it, trying to break it, managing to, making the blue liquid crytalite substance drip out.

🎵You don’t have to bear... You don’t have to sustain🎵

The loud beat and drums in full volume echo in his mind. He uses the pipe like a bat. He smashes all around, breaking the bench and denting the trash can. He picks up stones and throws in all directions. Windows break.

🎵If you don’t let it out today and tonight🎵

A small A.I robot scans a few litter items on the floor, raising the fine by a 1,000$ after each one it finds, getting to 23,000$ already. It then finds Reef and starts scanning him for his personal info.

🎵You won’t forgive yourself for forgetting to fight🎵

Reef smashes the robot with the pipe, making it unable to finish the scan. The robot’s screen increases to 123,000$ after smashing the robot, then the screen turns off and the robot shows no signs of life.

A bunch of other robots are heard driving to the area on their small wheels. Reef throws away the pipe and gets away. He runs fast, not looking back with tears in his eyes, and a smile.

Current time, Reef comes to from all the memories flashing back, standing in that same area near the park, holding the glass cup that reminds him of the one Mr. Blue used to drink coffee of.

“The destruction of our city, the vandalism, the litter terror...” He quotes expressions describing the events that took place by his own doing.

He looks at the sky and asks: “Do you know the difference between tourists and terrorists?

🔥The way we pay for your service.”💥

He then smashes the glass cup onto the floor, creating a bunch of tiny glassy pieces, flying in all directions and walks away.