ᴀʟʟ ᴏᴠᴇʀ ʜᴇʀ [ᴊᴊ ᴍᴀʏʙᴀɴᴋ]

19 the truth hurts

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it was late in the day, pope and kie tested out the pull system to extract the gold from the well whilst jj drank his beer and I finished my cigarette.

"you want one j?" I teased knowing he would decline my offer instantly, even if I was joking.

discussion of my brothers whereabouts came to light as he was late to the meeting, after a few moments there he was walking with a look of anger on his face "speak of the devil" jj announced.

he stormed through the messed up chateau without saying a word leaving us all stumbled as to why he was in such a mood and not saying anything at all.

we followed him watching as he clattered through the drawers pulling the place apart with every touch "what are you looking for?" kie asked, still being left with no response.

my brother then got to the sofa pulling out the gun, I stepped back as jj approached "John b what do you need the gun for bro?"

John shoved jj onto the sofa and stormed out of the chateau loading the gun pushing pope too.

I chased after him pulling his arm "what happened, speak to me!"

he revved the engine of the bike after climbing onto it aggressively, everyone screamed at him for not talking to us whilst taking a weapon.

his silence finally broke "ward knows about the gold" he yelled not even looking at us.

John b then faced me "he killed dad"

with those words, I fell to the floor in complete and utter shock. the intense fear gripped onto my lungs causing my breathing pace to increase.

in that moment, it felt as if my heart shattered as jj dropped to the floor holding onto me as I screamed tears flooding out of my eyes, feeling as if they would never stop falling.

my dad was officially dead, John b knew it and I knew it.

ward cameron played it so well, he took us in, fed us, gave us a place to live, presented us with a fantasy to cover up the fact he murdered my dad in cold blood.

I lived with my own dads killer, without knowing it, he lied to my face.

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nightfall approached, I felt numb to the pain, I couldn't really feel anything at all anymore, just pure and utter emptiness.

I decided to focus on finding my brother, I got dressed wearing a black t-shirt and shorts and left the chateau starting the boat.

"are you sure you-" kie tried to talk before I stopped her, "look all we need to do right now is find John b, I'm not loosing my brother too"

everyone went quiet and we made our way to tannyhill, hoping we could stop John b from making the worst mistake of his life.

we turned of the engine at the dock of the cameron's estate "what now?" jj asked "do we just go up to the front door and ask, hey have you seen John b?" he adjusted his cap.

"you guys live at Tannyhill now" kiara responded "we can play dumb"

I paced around the small boat trying to think of a solution before kie continued "I've never seen John b like that, we should honestly be going to the cops!" she protested.

I scoffed "and say my brother is on his way to shoot ward cameron?" I stared blankly at the girl and she said nothing "didn't think so"

pope picked up binoculars looking through them at the house "I see ward", I quickly snatched them off him looking through myself, "doesn't look dead to me lets go home" pope said with no emotion.

I glared at him and he spoke once again "obviously mr cameron is fine, and even if John b was here, he isn't now, plus I have the biggest most important event of my life in six hours" he pleaded.

"sorry that ward killing my dad is inconvenient for you pope" I said bluntly sitting down on the boat next to jj,

he replied lowly"I haven't been home in three days my dad's probably put all my shit on the street by now" pope looked down at the boat controls.

"okay so thats it?" kiara raised her voice after watching my reaction "in a time of need, you're just gonna bail?" her anger directed towards pope "you're just gonna walk away?"

jj stressed trying to diffuse the situation telling them now was not the time but they carried on anyway arguing with one another.

"hey, I have a scholarship interview in the morning" pope reminded her for the second time before she yelled at him "what about John b?!"

pope fought back "why's it always about John b?"

she then continued to say how it could've been any of us in this situation "this is about friendship, this is about pogues for life!"

"what about forensic pathology huh?" pope mentioned, which was directly irrelevant to the conversation "stop with the moral high ground bullshit!"

jj then got involved telling him to tone it down, "no she has no room to talk, where were you when big John went missing, you weren't there for John b, charley, any of us!"

he towered over kie and she stumbled over her words "remember your kook year?" he asked menacingly "yeh, you forgot about us" he spat at her.

kiara then pushed pope and he pushed back "cut it out guys" I yelled "lets just go I've had enough"

silence echoed over the water surrounding the four of us and jj started the boat to drop pope off.

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retuning back to the chateau, the sun was starting to rise. it showed how much time we spent out arguing last night.

kie and jj tried to come back with me but I told them I really just needed to be alone to fully process everything that happened.

as I was about to enter, I noticed John b lay asleep on the dock.

I quickly ran over to him waking him up "John b, what happened?" I spoke softly as he opened his eyes widely with a panicked look.

"we need to go get the gold now" he stood up and rushed to the van, I got into the passenger seat knowing we had to be fast given that ward knew where it was.

after a fast drive, we arrived at the Crain house and hopped out the van, the for sale sign increased the tension as we jumped the stone wall.

John and I sprinted through the overgrown plants and tall grass.

"cameron development" I said letting out a sigh looking at the wheelbarrow with the logo.

his breathing intensified, as we moved towards the basement, he decided to climb to where the gold was whilst I stayed up top as a lookout.

out of no where I heard him yelling and screaming from down below.

tears flooded my eyes realising the gold wasn't there, ward stole our father from us and now stole the gold.

he made his way back up to me pulling me in for a hug.

it was all over, the weeks we had spent searching for the gold.

we missed out on so many opportunities for this, and now its all gone to waste because of some selfish murderer.

I held onto John b tightly "its going to be okay, I promise" I reassured him even tho I had no idea what was going to happen to us.

gold mission : failure

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word count - 1265