𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 19.

━ 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗴.

"𝐃𝐎 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐃 𝐈𝐅 I just relax on this one? It's been a long day, and a lot of weird stuff has gone down." Jj hummed from the back of the van.

We were driving down a long and deserted road, the sun long gone in the sky, and the tinniest of stars starting to appear in the distance. My hands were covered by the tips of John B's sweater as I sat in the passenger seat next to him, and he drove with one grip on the wheel, staring out at the road ahead of us. The cold air outside was wafting through the window, and I was glad that I wore the sweater, because my fingernails were turning a deep purple underneath the sleeves.

"You know, I'm just gonna lay low," Jj continued. He was sitting in the very back of the vehicle, behind the couch seats for an unknown reason, with a rolled up paper between his fingers. "Oh— did you want a hit of this?" He looked to Pope who was leaning against the wall across from him.

"I keep the signal clear." Pope replied blatantly, while grabbing the paper from Jj's grasp with his two fingers, and discarding it somewhere else inside the van.

"Dude, okay, do you understand, that your problem is that you don't get creative," Jj persisted, speaking to Pope with an annoyed tone. "If you got creative—"

"Look— guys, I know I was wrong about the lighthouse, alright," John B cut his friend off, talking to everyone. "And wrong about everything else going on, but I misread the pin board," he looked to me.

"And what does that mean," Kiara mumbled from behind his seat.

"My dad is still trying to tell me something," he said. "I just know it."

I looked away from John B, down at my hands which were folded on my legs. I don't really know why I decided to come this time, he didn't force me, he didn't pick me up, he didn't trick me. I chose to go, because I felt bad for him, and I didn't want to make him upset.

"John B," Kiara spoke sadly, with a hint of doubt.

"No, just— trust me on this, okay?" He only snapped a little bit, but he wasn't angry, he was smiling. "Charlie was there." He looked over at me again, but I didn't look at him.

"Yeah, so, about that," Pope began, putting his finger up as if starting a new topic, "Why is she still here?" He said, with a surprisingly casual tone of voice.

"Don't be so rude, Pope," Jj hit his arm lightly.

"I'm just asking," Pope defended himself, calm.

"Dude, you didn't abduct her again," Jj looked at John B through the rear view mirror, his head tilted to the side.

"You have to stop with that, John B," Kiara laughed softly.

"Stop with what," his eyes narrowed as he glanced back to his friends.

"Abduction," Kiara responded.

Jj sniffed, "kidnapping."

"Forcing her against free will," Pope added.

"Jesus, guys," John B rolled his eyes. "This time she decided to come with."

"Well," I said quietly, looking out the window.

"Bro, this is what? The fifth time already," Pope groaned.

"Not important information, Pope." John B spoke.

"Where are we even going, JB?" Jj asked, with a distracted tone.

"To hell," I replied for him.

Jj's eyes widened. "Ooh fun,"

"How many ghosts do you think we'll see," I turned my head around and looked at him, my eyes foolishly wide as well.

"I'd say at least a dozen if we get lucky," he responded, going along.

"That's not funny," Kiara hit his arm, "seriously, John B, where are we going?"

"You'll see," he shifted his eyes to her in the mirror, "we're almost there."

"Does Charlie know where we're going," Pope asked with a slight attitude, "cause you seem to tell her everything." I didn't think Pope was fond enough of me to use the nickname.

"Why the salt, Pope?" Jj tapped his friends shoulder, talking childishly.

"All I know is that this has something to do with that compass you guys found in the boat," I said casually, shrugging.

"Dude, how much did you tell her!" Pope exclaimed, widening his eyes at John B.

I bit my lip. No one replied.

"Ah yes," Jj huffed out excitedly, "now she's forced to come with us all the time,"

"I cannot believe you, John B," Pope sighed in disbelief, shaking his head from side to side.

"Relax," I laughed lightly, "it's not like I have anyone to tell."

"That is a solid point," Jj commented. He had his arms propped up on the back of the seat, still sitting in the trunk, and his chin was leaning on top. "I say we all take a hit—"

"That's not the problem," Pope continued, "I thought this was a Pogue thing, bro."

"She sort of is a Pogue, Pope," Kiara said, her tone of voice sounding like she didn't want to offend him.

"You guys just don't get it," he closed his eyes in a hard blink, "we had the perfect ratio,"

"The fuck is that," Jj's eyebrows narrowed.

"That's what you're on about," John B laughed from the front seat, "because she ruined our ratio?"

"Yeah, dude," Pope's eyes were wide.

"She's right there," Jj added.

"It was always four, two for lookout and two for action," Pope used his hands and fingers as diagrams.

"I'll just stay in the van," I shrugged, not really caring all that much.

John B looked at me, realized I was serious, and then rolled his eyes and looked away.

"You're making this complicated, Pope," Kiara rolled her eyes too, annoyed.

"Yeah dude, just relax," Jj said calmly, as he used a hand to pet the side of Pope's face.

"I just don't feel safe travelling around with someone I barely know," Pope claimed.

"Then tell us about yourself, Charlie," Kiara looked to me as I turned around in my seat.

"What do you wanna know?" I asked, sort of uncomfortably.

"What are your hobbies," she started, genuinely seeming interested in what my answer was going to be.

"Uh, I don't know," I thought for a second, "I like to read? I used to play the piano,"

"I like the piano," Jj smirked.

"That's really cool," Kiara smiled brightly, "I have a ukulele."

"I love the ukulele," I smiled back. "Always wanted to learn how to play," I surprised myself with how comfortably I was speaking in front of all of them.

"Sick," she nodded her head, "I could teach you,"

Pope and Jj shifted their eyes between the two of us.

I felt a smile trickle up to my lips, as I nodded and turned away. John B was looking at me, from the corner of my eyes, a grin on his lips. The rest of the car ride, we were all silent, just staring out at the starry sky and keeping to ourselves. While we were driving, a certain feeling started to swarm inside my stomach, but it wasn't a bad feeling. It felt, sort of, like I was breaking a rule. But I felt good. The night was young, anyways.

"Alright," John B stopped the van on the side of the road. "We're here."

Everyone looked out the window, as we pulled up to a stone fence covered in vines. Immediately, the good feeling in my stomach disappeared and replaced with nerves.

"Are we at the frickin' cemetery?" Kiara's eyebrows were sharply narrowed out of confusion.

"John B, I was just kidding," My voice was quiet as I looked to him with disbelief, referring to my joke about going to 'hell'. "No seriously, I was kiddi—"

"Come on guys," he ignored me and pushed open his door, stepping out into the cold air. He had a flashlight in his hand, its light shining down in front of him.

"You've got to be shitting me," Pope sighed out defeatedly, not wanting to go.

I didn't want to get out of the van. I had never been to a cemetery in all my life, but I'd watched far too many movies to know that sneaking into one, in the middle of the night, never ended well for anyone. It was basically a death wish. I closed my eyes in a hard blink, nearly seeing colours for a moment, as the van doors slid open and out jumped the teenagers behind me. They all pulled out flashlights.

"This is some Scooby-Doo shit," I mumbled, louder than anticipated, while kicking open the heavy door.

John B was already making his way towards the entrance of the graveyard, and so were his friends. I gripped the sleeves on the sweater draped over my body, the length of it just reaching my knees, and ran as fast as I could to catch up with them.

"Come on, hey," John B looked back at me approaching them, his facial expression stern. "Come on, Charlie," he jerked his arm to motion for me to stand beside him.

"I cant believe I'm doing this," I felt a wave of fear spill over my body, as I slowed my walking down, beside him. "This isn't even funny— what time is it?"

"I'll hold your hand if you get scared," he shined the flashlight right onto my face, a cheeky smile plastered over his lips.

"Shut the fuck up," I hit his stomach with the back of my hand, sending him a few steps back. He laughed, trying to keep it quiet, and returned to shining the light forward. "This is illegal, right?" I voiced.

I looked forward, at all the tombs placed in rows. My stomach was aching with fear, and it was eerily quiet all around us, the only audible sound being our feet crunching on the ground, and our voices talking lowly. It felt like I was in a movie again.

"This place is scary," Kiara whispered from behind us. "John B, what are we doing."

"Bruh, we should be on that ghost-hunting show," Jj exclaimed loudly. "Or like, ghostbusters!"

Everyone collectively decided to ignore Jj's comments.

"You know how, like, sometimes when you're trying to remember a song, but you can't remember who sings it?" John B answered Kiara.

"Yeah," I nodded, eyebrows narrowed.

"Well this whole time I thought RedField was a place," he said, then stopped walking, shining his light on a large stone mount. "But it's a person."

I felt his eyes on me, and I only kept eye contact for a second, before looking up at the stone mount with the word 'RedField" written on its top in big letters. I remembered the lady on the pin board.

"Holy shit," I mumbled, with a low volume.

"Voi-effing-là." Jj joked.

"See, my great-great-grandmother Olivia RedField," He said, "That woman you pointed out on the pin board back in my dad's office," he looked at me. "That was her maiden name."

No one spoke for a second as we all stared up at the stone wall, all of their flashlights shining on it.

"Come on, help me with the door," John B looked to his friends.

"You're seriously going in there?" I looked at him dumbly, as he placed his flashlight on the ground.

No one heard me as Pope stepped forward and placed his hands flat on the 'door', while John B did the same. They pushed with all their strength, grunting and groaning loudly, meanwhile Kiara and I stood beside each other and watched with confusion.

"This thing is like seven-hundred pounds, man, it's not gonna budge," Pope groaned.

"We didn't come this far, to get this far, all right?" Jj snapped at him slightly, while also using all of his energy to try and push the door.

Then, we heard a hiss.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Pope jumped back from the door as a snake crawled out from the vines.

My hand flew over my mouth to try and hold in a loud scream, as I jumped back. John B reeled away from the stone door.

"That's a moccasin, alright!" Jj claimed, breathing heavy. "Ye olde Dr. Cottonmouth, death in tall grass." Jj said with an accent, as the snake slithered towards the leaves.

Jj then began barking at the snake aggressively, his head lamp shining down on it.

"Jj! Shut up, shut up!" Kiara and Pope warned him strongly.

"Oh my lord," I rubbed my hands over my head stressfully. "The skeletons are turning in their fuckin' graves,"

Pope shoved Jj away from the grass with his hand, "You're gonna wake the frickin' dead man!"

"Relax, dude, they're afraid of dogs," Jj defended himself, breathing loudly, and not seeing the problem, "Everyone knows that, man."

"You just warned every spirit that we're here," I rolled my eyes, glaring at him angrily.

"Wait— wait," Jj realized something, stepping towards the stone wall and looking around. "If there's one, there's probably dozens. All around."

"Can you stop! You're scaring us," Kiara shouted, referring to me and her.

Jj began to bark again.

"Stop barking at the snakes." John B seethed angrily.

"Look— John." Pope shoved Jj away from the stone mount. "We're not gonna get in there, alright? It's not budging. We should just go."

"Good call," I widened my eyes at the statement, and began to turn away,

Kiara lightly grabbed my arm, spinning me back, "Can you fit through that," she glanced to me before shining her light on a hole in the top corner of the stone door.

"....What?" I breathed out, looking between the space and her.

"Charlie can get through," Kiara pulled me over to where the boys were standing.

"Huh," Jj looked at me with sharply narrowed brows.

"No, no, no, no," John B shined his flashlight on my face, "You think you're gonna fit through that hole? That hole?"

"Look, this is about your dad." Kiara said seriously. "And honestly I really don't believe in it, but you deserve to know the truth."

"I agree," I nodded firmly, staring at him. "But I'm not going in."

"You should both go together," John B claimed.

"Yeah, I'll go with you," Kiara nodded and turned to me, a small smile on her lips.

"Yeah! Yeah— so like, if one of you gets possessed, someone will still be alive to save you," Jj commented agreeing. "Get the jeebies out, you know?"

"Fuck off," Pope hit his arm.

"I guess so," I didn't nod, but agreed slowly.

John B was looking at me, almost surprised, but almost proud. I didn't look at him as I followed Kiara up to the door. My hands were shaking with nerves from just being in the cemetery, I didn't want to go inside the stone area.

"Can you help me with this," Kiara scolded the boys, trying to push the vines away from the hole.

I was standing behind her, as they pushed and pulled the vines and dry sticks away from the small hole, which made it easier to crawl in.

Jj leaned against the wall in a sitting position, cupping his hands together as Kiara placed her sneaker in the crest of his palms.

"Remind me what we'll be looking for," Kiara spoke to John B quietly.

"You'll know it when you see it." He responded, equally as low.

"Alright, so just put your foot there," Jj instructed Kiara, but she was already using his hands as a step.

He boosted her up, and she climbed into the hole, forgetting about the count to three. As she slid herself through, Jj looked to me standing there like an idiot, and motioned for me to approach.

"I swear, if I get possessed by a fucking spirit in there, I'm never talking to any of you ever again." I said with an annoyed tone, placing my foot on Jj's hand. "And I mean that."

"You'll be fine, Charlie," John B tried to reassure me, but I wasn't listening.

"Okay, I'm in!" Kiara said, her voice echoing. "Flashlight, flashlight!" She ordered, a fear in her voice, and Pope slipped the flashlight into the hole.

My hands placed themselves on Jj's shoulders, and after counting to three, he boosted me up and I gripped onto the stone above. I couldn't quite make it all the way into the space as easily as Kiara did, since she was much taller, and my arms struggled to wrap around inside. That's when I felt two hands grip my waist, and I just knew it was John B by the way they felt, pushing me up into the hole.

His hands them trailed down to my bottom, in order to push me in securely without falling back. "Please don't touch me there." I said, sarcastically making it sound casual.

"Dude," I heard Jj laugh quietly.

But John B wasn't trying to be funny, he was really trying to push me in all the way. And he did, alright, when I clasp landed onto the ground knee-first. I instantly felt a chill shiver down my body when I looked around the darkness.

"Take the flashlight," I heard Pope say from the other side, and then a streak of light entered the musty room.

I turned around and gripped my hand on the plastic flashlight, shining it over to where Kiara was. It was quiet as she glanced to me, and we looked around with scared gazes.

"Are you guys alive— you got like a, like a heartbeat and everything?" John B called from outside, sounding worried.

"No." I stated.

"So far," Kiara replied, her voice only slightly shaking.

John B shined his flashlight through the hole. I felt like I couldn't speak any more, even breathe, as I stared around the space with wide eyes. There was a long and eery silence, as I shined my light onto a wall we didn't check, something catching my attention.

"Kiara," I didn't even look at her, just kept my eyes on what seemed to be a plastic envelope.

She looked at me warily, followed my gaze, and slowly approached the item in silence.

"Did you find something?" Jj asked. "Is there gold?"

She looked to me, and I didn't know what to do, so I simply stared back at her. She swallowed, before stepping forward and reaching her hand behind one of the walls, grabbing and pulling out the plastic envelope. After shining her light on it and reading its writing, she quickly walked back over to the hole and gave it to John B.

"That's not gold," Pope groaned with annoyance as John B took the envelope.

"I'm getting out," I whisked past her and threw my flashlight out the hole, jumping up to try and scramble my arms around the edge. "Help me, someone!" I groaned impatiently, and soon felt Kiara boost me up from behind.

She pushed me out the hole, and I didn't even care about getting a soft landing, I practically threw myself out onto the ground. Half of my body had landed on Jj's head, and he grunted out of pain from the rough contact, as I fell to the floor at his feet, breathing heavily.

"Jeez, Charlie," he complained, "You almost made me drop the blunt!"

"Holy shit." John B breathed out unsteadily. "This is from my dad."

When I rose to my feet, Jj was lighting his blunt and blowing out a puff of smoke. Kiara and Pope were crowded around John B, their looks worried at what he'd said.

"Don't ever make me do something like that again," I said, beyond frustrated, to everyone. "I could've gotten—"

Suddenly, Jj began to shout. "Code red. Code red. Square groupers! Square groupers!" he yelled, loud over everyone.

"Go!" Kiara urged everyone, and pulled me with her aggressively as she ran somewhere.

"It's those guys who robbed your house," Jj shouted.

Then, before I knew it, my heart was beating out of my chest again, and we were leaning against the back wall of the stone room. It was all happening too fast. I got a sense of déjà-vu when I was squeezed between Kiara and John B, everyone scrambling to turn their lights off.

"Do you think it's them?" Kiara whisper-shouted to Jj as he poked his head around the corner.

"Homie's got a gun," Jj replied with an uneven tone, laced with fear.

"We need to run." I said.

"She's right," Kiara turned her flashlight back on, "screw this."

Then suddenly, we were all running together, our flashlights on, towards the exit fence. I was scared out of my mind, but somehow— I don't know how— I was laughing. Small giggles were falling from my mouth as I hopped over the fence after Kiara, John B helping me down. Our hands found themselves laced together, intertwined, as we ran away from the fence, my hair blowing everywhere behind me and the cold wind brushing over our faces.

"I'm stuck! I'm stuck!" We heard Pope yell. Kiara ran back to him and pulled on his shirt. "You're gonna rip me— you're gonna rip me!" He shouted, as his shorts stretched from behind caught on the top of the fence.

He fell from the fence, his shorts ripping from his body and staying hooked on top. Kiara let out a loud laugh when he stood up in his underwear, his hands quickly covering over.

"Ah nice!" Jj exclaimed loudly, as he pulled open the van door, "little tootsie roll!"

I couldn't stop laughing as John B let go of my hand and ran for the drivers seat. I did the same, hands clutching my stomach as I charged for the passenger door, jumping in quickly.

Soon, everyone was in. The van's doors were slid closed, John B pressed on the gas, and we drove away quick, in fits of uncaged laughter.

༄

𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬!

𝘪 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴

𝘢𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 🥺

𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 !!