𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 33.

"𝐋𝐄𝐓'𝐒 𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐁𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒, shall we?" Jj hummed.

I was sitting in a dinning chair in the middle of The Wreck, around a circular table next to Pope— who studied the plat map of Tannyhill. There was no one else in the restaurant besides the five of us. Letting out a sigh, I leant the side of my head onto the open palm of my hand, which was perched up on the table, eyes staring down at the map to try and figure it out, as extra help. When Kiara slid herself into the seat next to me, I sent her a soft smile.

The night before, I almost fell asleep outside on the porch. Kiara and I sat in the soft wind for hours, her teaching me how to play the ukulele, for a long time. I got the hang of it after a lot of mistakes, multiple laughs, many attempts, but eventually learned a few simple chords after progress. I enjoyed Kiara's company, a lot. We had never really talked one-on-one or engaged in a conversation, just the two of us, but it felt good. In a certain way, she was like Sarah, with the fact that they both treated me like they've known me for years.

It was refreshing to make a new connection, especially within the group I was bound to stay with for a while. After I learned a nights-worth of ukulele, I had put it down and Kiara had asked me questions about myself, so we could really connect as better friends. I told her the basics she should know, and then she even ended up explaining the problem between her and Sarah, without me even having to ask. She explained it briefly, but I understood. I had told her that she didn't have to tell me if she didn't want to. She assumed Sarah and I were close friends, though, but she didn't mind as long as I knew myself.

As predicted, she had asked about John B and I. I had blushed and told her a few things about "us". She asked if we were dating. I had shaken my head. Then, I asked her about Jj. When running from Midsummers, I noticed how she ran into Jj's arms immediately, which sparked a curiosity in my mind, hinted at something possible between them. At her turn, her cheeks had then tinted red, and she had looked down at her feet. I gladly told her that I would be her wing-woman— even though I've only ever seen that in movies— if she ever needed me.

Later, we said goodnight, and she had gone over to the hammock to sleep, while I went inside. Even though she hadn't asked me to, I still pulled Jj aside in the living room and whispered for him to go and sleep on the other hammock, so she wouldn't be alone. A wide smile had then plastered over my lips when he grabbed his stuff, and skipped out the back door, trudging along to the hammocks where Kiara was. John B had questioned why I had been smiling so hard when I walked back into his bedroom.

Still in the clothes that Kiara had loaned me, I had instantly climbed into John B's bed and slid myself underneath the covers, resting my head on his second pillow. I would be lying if I said that butterflies didn't scatter in my stomach when he slid next to me. With my head on the pillow, and his window open only an inch, we were facing one another and talking about everything. I had mentioned Kiara and Jj. He talked about the future he would have with the gold. I had thanked him for letting me stay over. He had kissed me in return, before we both fell asleep underneath the stars.

Now, we were sitting around a table in Kiara's restaurant, at nine in the morning. The sun blazed down through the windows on every wall, cascading a glow onto my back as I stared down at the map in front of Pope— who seemed fine with me at this point. He was no longer annoyed when I was around, and I assumed it was because I had gotten us the plat map of Tannyhill, which gladly earned me a new spot in our group. John B said I was growing on him.

"So we've got the map, and now," John B said with confidence, sending me a wink, "We just have to figure it out."

"Yeah, but it's all out of whack 'cause the guy was ganja'd when he drew it," Jj commented, taking a sip from his soda cup.

"The hell does ganja mean," I grimaced, mostly speaking to myself.

"It's cause the coast has changed, idiot." Kiara rolled her eyes at Jj, speaking factually.

He gave her a dumb look.

"So then, we just have to look for landmarks that haven't changed," Pope spoke.

John B's eyes widened with a realization, "What about the old forts?" He looked to Pope.

Kiara hopped onto to what he said, pointing a strong finger down on the map, "Battery Jasper," she breathed out, quietly.

"Yes," John B pointed a finger at her, his voice excited as he suddenly stood up.

Pope stood up with him, along with Kiara, and the three of them began to skip over to the back door of the restaurant, ready to lave.

I stayed sitting, and placed my hand on the map, turning it towards me. "This thing looks like it was drawn by a child," I said with another grimace, my eyes looking down at the map.

"That's what I'm saying," Jj agreed with wide eyes, staying with me.

"Like, what's up with the shapes on this shit," I narrowed my eyebrows, while holding up the map in front of me.

John B stopped at the door. "Let's go, idiots!"

___

"Alright, so the road should split up here." Pope directed.

I leant my head against the back door of the van, my knees folded up into my chest. Pope sat in the passenger seat and held the map between his two fingers for navigation, while John B drove us down a long dirt road. Meanwhile, Jj rolled a blunt on the floor, sitting across from me on the ground, Kiara absentmindedly hummed a tune with a low volume, relaxing on the cushion to my right.

I did not know where we were going, and no one wanted to tell me yet. Despite asking a hundred questions, per usual, on the way to "Battery Jasper", everyone seemed too excited to answer me. So, I retired, and gave into wherever they were going to take me, because, if anything, I needed to be up for just about every single thing to come. When the van had slowed down at the top of a huge hill, with broken down stone pieces mounded into the grass, we had jumped out of the vehicle to face an overlook of the water.

While they talked about the island, and how it newly fit with the map, I was too busy lying in the grass and staring at the water. I was listening— sort of.

"So take a left right here," Pope ordered with a calm voice.

John B abruptly turned the wheel, sending the car into a drift on the rocky path, and causing a large cloud of brown smoke to drift up in the air behind us. Jj cussed under his breath when he lost the blunt, as it rolled off somewhere else and out of sight.

"Jesus, John B," I scolded, from the aggressive turn, "We're not in fucking Mario Kart,"

"That looks like a stone wall to me," Jj said after regaining composure, his head turned to look out the window.

Outside his window, we were pulling up to—in fact— a long and old stone wall, fencing around a tall old house with grim paint.

"This is it." Pope said with fake-enthusiasm, as the van fully stopped.

"Not the Crain house," John B let out a groan.

Jj slid the back door open and hopped out, Kiara following. I hesitantly crouched over to the door, stepping out very slowly like them.

"What is this place?" I asked everyone with narrowed eyebrows, closing the door behind me, and walking up to stand next to Kiara.

"Are you shitting me," Kiara breathed out with a tone of disbelief, looking up at the house in front of us.

"Worst case-scenario," Jj added, his hands shoved in his pockets.

"Hello, where are we," I said again, sounding oblivious, while shifting eyes between everyone's gazes.

"Why'd it have to be here," Pope let out a long sigh, "Like, of all places. Why here."

"I'm not enjoying the looks of this," I commented.

"I heard that Mrs. Crain buried her husband's head on the property." Jj said.

"Wait— come again?" My mouth immediately fell open.

"Dude, Jj," John B rubbed a hand over his forehead, "Why'd you have to say that, man." He glanced to me.

"Gotta know eventually," Jj shrugged carelessly. "If we're going in this place."

"Who the fuck is Mrs. Crain," I asked, my voice angry, "and why are we going to her house if she— if she buried her husband's head!" I put my hands out at my sides, at the insane idea.

"Shut up, Charlie!" Everyone shushed me for being too loud.

"She's an axe murderer." Jj said with a calm voice, as if it weren't a big deal.

The bottom of my jaw wouldn't go back up, and I searched for words, but none would come out. The only thing I could think of, was that it was outrageous. I didn't know much about the lady, but just looking at the house sent a strong chill down my spine.

"Stop it, Jj," John B hit Jj's arm with a hard smack, before stepping towards the stone wall.

He jumped up, climbing on top.

"Wait— wait, you're seriously going in there?" I asked him quickly, my voice scared. "She's an axe murderer."

"Duh," he looked back at us, as if we were dumb.

"You're an idiot." I said with crossed arms.

He didn't reply as he hopped over the fence, now out of sight. Pope followed after him with a slight reluctance, and then so did Jj.

"Hurry up, ladies," Jj called for us.

Kiara looked to me with wary eyes. I simply stood with my arms crossed, hoping she would stay with me and we could wait for them, but she took a step forward. With a roll of her eyes, aimed at the boys, she jumped at her turn and climbed over.

"Hey, why can't I be temporary lookout?," I shouted with a higher-pitched voice. "I thought I was good at that!"

"Come on, Charlotte." John B shouted back.

"Fucking hell." I spat under my breath, not wanting to stay out alone either.

I lunged froward and jumped as high as I could, struggling to make it over to the other side. When I finally landed on the ground, Kiara was waiting for me, as the boys trudged along through the tall grass. We caught up with them quickly, an obvious grimace on my face.

"Look— you guys know who's house this is right?" Kiara spoke to them, me walking beside her.

"Oh yeah, no I do," Jj said with a few strong nods.

"Honestly, I don't believe the stories of this place." John B commented.

Pope shushed him.

"What stories," I asked Kiara with a quiet, nervous voice.

She glanced to me, "There's one where she killed her husband with an axe, and that she's been holed up ever since," she said.

We were all listening closely.

"And on certain nights, when the moon is full... you can see her in the window," she joked deviously.

"No, Kie, it's not funny 'cause its all true!" Jj protested.

"Waah!" She wiggled her fingers in front of his face to taunt him.

"I swear to god guys, this is all real, I knew Hollis!" He continued. "She was my babysitter, man, she told me all about, told me the truth... about her mother and what happened in this house,"

"I don't like this." I shook my head.

"As a kid, she heard all the stories that her mother killed her father... and that she was a murderer and all." He looked at each one of us. "Hollis didn't believe it. Until that night."

"What night?" John B asked anxiously.

Jj went on with explaining the night that this 'Hollis Crain' girl had heard her parents arguing, then later go to into the outhouse to see her father's head on the ground, staring back at her. The way he explained the story sent another chill down my spine, this time causing my fingertips to freeze up.

"God you're so full of shit!" John B scoffed at the end of the story.

"I believe it," I said with a nervous tone. "And I'm not here for it. So, therefore, I'm going to be leaving." I turned away.

Pope stopped me, and turned me back around before I could get anywhere else.

Before I knew it, the five of us were crouching behind a sea of overgrown grass, looking at John B as he discussed the plan. I was squeezed between Pope and Jj.

"We need to look for the wheat near the water, like it says in the letter." He told.

"Like, what kind of water? Pond water?" Pope's eyebrows sharply narrowed.

Jj chuckled, "Ha, bong water?"

I slapped the side of his arm.

"Just look for water, okay?" John B demanded, seriously.

Kiara let out a groan and shoved past John B, and he followed after her.

"We'll search the northeast quadrant, and you search the northwest." Pope said to Jj.

I followed Pope when he turned away and began to walk somewhere else.

"The decapitation quadrant?" We heard Jj shout back.

After a while of useless searching, for the "water", we all ended up at the same place. Before I could even protest and claim in wasn't a good idea to enter underneath the house, they were shoving me in through the smallest wooden door I've ever seen. It smelled like old cabbage inside. John B handed out flashlights.

"Down came Mrs. Crain and cut off all our heads," Jj sang as he entered last. "Then up came the sun and dried up all the blood."

I whipped my head around to glare menacingly at him. He stopped singing when I shined my flashlight on his face.

"I don't see any water," Kiara said nervously.

While crouching through the underground part of the house, which wasn't quite like a basement, I tried my best not to look at all of the creepy dolls, beds, old blankets, and scary items around me. I was hoping that they'd figure it was another dead end, and we would be out sooner than later.

"There's not even water on the fucking pipes," Jj said in disbelief, while he trailed his hand on one of them overhead.

"There's absolutely no water here." Pope said with an annoyed tone, shining his flashlight on John B.

"Not a dropamino," I said with a disgusted look over my face.

"You know why we didn't find it?" Kiara said with a sarcastic tone, "Bad karma."

"God, here we go," John B sighed out.

"You know, we had a good thing going," she said with a tone of hatred, as John B approached her. "And then you decide to rope in Barbie, and now the trail's gone dry. Coincidence? I think not."

"For the last time, Kiara," John B seethed angrily, "Sarah is not in on this!"

"Shut up, guys," I said carefully, glancing over at them, "why don't you just run upstairs and tell the axe murderer that we're here." I said with a strong tone of sarcasm.

"Yeah, shut up," Pope hopped on, complaining.

"This place is giving me the jeebies, man," Jj spoke from somewhere else, "not a fan of it."

"She probably didn't even get you the right information," Kiara continued their argument, her arms firmly crossed, "that's why the gold isn't here."

"It is here, we just have to look in the right places." John B assured her, trying to keep in his anger.

I pretended not to listen, shining my flashlight over planks of wood scattered over the floor. Jj shuffled through boxes in a corner, and Pope was actually searching, his eyes squinted.

"Like, I still cannot believe you told her about this," she shouted, outraged, "this was a Pogue thing, and Sarah Cameron is not a Pogue! You can't trust her!"

"Do you see her here?" John B retorted with an equally as loud tone. "No, Kiara! So when are you going to get it into your thick skull that she's not apart of this!"

I stopped searching, and slowly stepped over to them, my eyebrows knitted together at his aggressive tone. "You're really arguing in the basement of a murderer's house, huh." I seethed.

"Why aren't you yelling at Charlie, yeah?" He motioned his hand at me, speaking rudely and ignoring what I said. "She came with me to Chapel Hill. What'd you tell her all about you and Sarah, is that why?"

I didn't like the way he was shouting at us. I was staring right at him with my lips parted, as suddenly, a large mosquito landed right on his cheek. Without thinking, and since he didn't notice the bug himself, I lunged forward and slapped the side of his face with a strong palm. He turned his head to the side from the impact, and the sound of the slap echoed through the hollow basement. Jj and Pope gasped from behind us.

"What the hell, Charlie," John B accused immediately, reaching up to feel where I had hit him.

Kiara was in disbelief, but looked proud as a small laugh fell from her mouth, her jaw on the floor.

"There was a mosquito on your face, moron," I said blatantly with an annoyed tone, and showed him my palm that had the dead mosquito on it. "Now shut the hell up before we get killed with an axe." I warned lowly, before turning on my heel and trotting away.

When I stepped past Jj, he had his hand up for a high-five.

"I didn't do it, she did." Kiara was saying with a chuckle, her hands up beside her head as if surrendering.

Then, everyone was swatting mosquitos away with frantic movements, cussing under our breaths at the amount of them swarming. The angry mood now calmed down, I looked to Pope who stopped searching beside me, his fingers knocking on the wood planks beneath our feet. I narrowed my eyebrows, but they furrowed even more when he dropped a pebble through one of the cracks. Then we heard a droplet, like it was falling into water. He looked up to me.

"Holy shit," I breathed out when I realized. The water.

"Oh my god," Pope seethed, dropping his flashlight as he then quickly began to kick and throw things off of the planks. I instantly joined him.

John B whisper shouted for us to stop, but his warning was returned by and order to help.

As we all then lifted items off of the floor, the planks became more outlined, making us realize that they weren't even bolted— just simply placed on top, as if used to hide or cover something. With the anticipation growing higher and higher with each piece of junk thrown, I was holding my breath. John B, Jj, and Pope picked up the thick planks, placing them to the side, and my stomach tightened.

One by one, we leaned forward to look down into a deep well. A well of water.

"Well, well, well." Pope said quietly.

"That was a good dad joke." John B barely chuckled, too struck by the drastic discovery.

"Somebody pinch me," I gasped, almost breathless.

"They built this part of the house right over it," Kiara breathed out.

"This is where she hid the bodies." Jj said.

"Dude, come on," Pope hit his shoulder.

"Yeah, stop, you're scaring me," Kiara whisper-shouted with fear in her voice.

"Dead serious," Jj blinked.

"Very punny," I added.

"Dude, we found water," Pope looked up to John B with hope in his eyes.

Standing beside John B, I bit down on my bottom lip to contain excitement, and looked at him. He smiled over at me with twinkling eyes. I wrapped my hand around his forearm, shaking it lightly.

He grinned, still in disbelief, "We're gonna need a really big rope."

✰༄✰

𝐡𝐢 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬,

𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃: i know this is upsetting to hear, but unfortunately i am experiencing a *small* writers block at the moment. so i ask you to please be patient with me, and maybe comment suggestions on how to NOT make this block worse

also, as i get more and more reads every day, (which i am so undeniably thankful for) i really want to take my time in making this book worth reading! that means i'm trying not to rush myself because in the end, each chapter truly matters, and i always want to put out something that i'm truly proud of. i hope you understand that.

my mental health is also getting a little rocky right now, so i need to take my time and not push myself too hard.

no, i am not taking a break, or losing motivation. things are just a little difficult right now for me and i don't want to feel rushed to update and write on top of that.

- 𝐣𝐮𝐥𝐢

𝐢 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 🧡

𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐭