𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐲

eighty-five: Found It.

     

     THE GROUP NOW get the Twinkie out as Kie drove her dad's truck and Kai sat with her in the front while JJ's in the back, giving call outs to Sarah who's controlling the wheel of the van. "The Twinkie lives! Let's go, boy!" JJ exclaimed and Kai laughs softly, looking over at Kie who's staring straight ahead as she parks the truck. "Hey, you okay?" He asked.

"Yeah... just what JJ said. About my parents killing me for taking the truck... I never once thought of the consequences. I was busy thinking about the Twinkie." She says and Kai reached out, rubbing her arm. "You always got us, no matter what..." He smiled and she glanced at him, smiling slightly back.

JJ got into the backseat and the two vehicles drove together to the church. They open up the doors to the church and the birds' wings flap loudly as they fly off. The other boys walk up the steps into the church as Kai and the girls are behind them. "Okay, you're telling me Denmark Tanny decided to hide the cross here?" JJ asked as they walk further inside.

"Mm-hmm."

"Everybody, just spread out."

"Okay, well, if I was a cross and wanted to be hisden in an old church, where would I hide?" John B says as they searched all around. "Are you sude that Denmark his the cross here, Pope? Like, are we at the right church?" JJ asked as he looks over at him.

"It's gotta be here somewhere, guys."

"What if we have to push a secret button, or, like, play, like, a certain chord, and then all of a sudden, the ground beneath us reveals the catacombs or something on which we stand?" JJ says as Kai looks over at him with a scrunched up face. "How about we try to find obvious clues?" John B asked them.

"It's not an escape room."

"It's gotta be in here."

They're still looking around as Kai sat down beside Kie. "I can't see where they'd hide a giant cross here." John B looks over at Pope who points at him. "No, no. There's no way he would set us up on a freaking goose chase that would lead us to a church that has nothing." Pope exclaimed at him. "Yes. I get it. I don't know what to tell you, man." John B says.

"The clues led us here. The cross is in this church." He said, frustrated before plopping down onto a bench. "Pope, it'll be alright. We've had setbacks in the past, and we figured it out. We're gonna find it." John B says to reassure the boy who's clearly mad.

"He's right." Kie says, looking at Pope who looks down at the spy glass in his hands. "Look, we've just gotta think about this logically, alright? Where else would you hide a seven-foot-tall cross made of gold?" John B asked as he looked all around the church.

"What?" JJ says when he notices the look on Pope's face after he looked through the spy glass pointed towards the ceiling. Pope stood up, so they all look up to see what he's looking at. The ceiling structure was in the same shape as the cross. "Oh, my God! Look at that."

Pope walked over to the wall and began climbing. "Pope!" Sarah says. "Hey, no!" JJ exclaimed. "Now Pope's climbing the wall. Great." Kai sighs. "Wait, Pope, wait, this is crazy." Sarah tells the boy climbing up the walk. "Pope, this church is old." Kie warns him but he ignores them. "Like really old. This isn't safe." He continues to ignore them, grunting as he got to the top. "Yo! This church got to be at least 200 years old." JJ exclaimed.

"He's right, Pope. It's too dangerous!" John B says but he got onto the pillars above. "Yo, let me just be real. You're not the most coordinated person on planet Earth." JJ said as Kie looks up. "Pope? Pope!" She shouts as JJ continued, "you hear me? What are you doing?"