AN OUTER BANKS FANFIC**
Briana Rutledge always lived a small, simple life. She lived alone with her mother and no knowledge of any other family. That is, until her mom told her of a brother she'd never heard of. Brie runs away to find her brother, b...
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"How could that be related to the code, JJ? Please, enlighten us."
We have yet to find a clue to crack the code for the safe, but it's been on all of our minds. John B and JJ are arguing over another dumb thing the blonde said, which just makes the rest of us laugh. "What if this lady was, like, a psycho murderer with an AK, right?"
"No, no," John B interrupts the boy. "JJ, just.. Just shut up. Please." JJ holds his hands up, returning to his seat next to me. "Alright, fine," he mumbles, relaxing his arm around me. "Not my problem if you don't know a brilliant idea when you hear one." I can't help but laugh.
"Think," Kie tells us. "What could we have missed?" Was there anything we found that we didn't pay enough attention to? That's when it hit me. "The tally marks," I whisper. "Guys, the tally marks!"
"Yes," Kiara points at me as she hops out of her seat. "Pope, pull up the picture." Pope reaches for his phone, opening the photo of the Hathoway wall for all of us to see. The five of us lean over Pope, searching for some kind of clue as to what the code to the safe could be. After moments of looking, JJ leans back. "Guys, this is pointless! We're not gonna find anything in a picture."
Then, I notice something I hadn't noticed before. "Wait," I say, shutting my impatient boyfriend up. I shift closer to Pope, zooming in on the picture. In the corner, there is the number three scratched into the wall. "Has anyone noticed that," I ask the group. Everyone shakes their heads no. "These markings are unusually far apart to be tallys," John B points out.
"I think they might be letters," Pope suggests. "Look, that's twenty. What's the twentieth letter in the alphabet?"
"T," Kie answers. "Okay, what would the next letter be?"
We count and look through the tallys, which takes about an hour. At the end, I've written an entire sentence. "To begin, the first digit, as well as a clue," Pope reads. "So three is the first digit to the code. What's the clue?"
"He who seeks must be fair," I read. "For the next digit is in the air.' What is this, a riddle?" We all sit and think. "What's high in the air in OBX," Sarah asks. John B and Kiara snap their fingers. "The lighthouse," they answer in unison.
"Okay, it's getting late, though," Pope reminds us. "We can go tomorrow."
"Can't," I say blankly, receiving dirty looks. "I'm sorry, I have work."
"So do I," Kie tells us. Pope groans. "Look, Pope, not all of us are waiting around for you to be free."
