more than gold, jj maybank

The Gold

AUTHOR'S NOTE *TW* grief, skip to the first ✵ if you are uncomfortable with this :)

The night of the storm still plagued my mind everyday. After running off and crying on the sand, I had sat against a tree contemplating on what I should do. Run away and get revenge were the two plans that I thought about most, but going back to the chateau was the thing I needed to do first.

After arriving at the house I walked up the steps onto the porch with tears in my eyes and looked around, every little thing bringing memories of my sister and best friend who were now dead. I look to the old green couch who they both had sat on, laughing about something and brain storming about the gold. I look inside to the old kitchen where John B and I had both spent many nights together, shit talking and getting drunk with the other pogues.

I didn't know what to do, calling Pope and Kie wouldn't work as their parents had probably put them on house arrest by now. JJ...

JJ

He'd be with Pope's parents by now, no doubt staying the night there as he has no where else to go.

I had no one. No one to call, no one to cry too, no one to beg to stay with me and help me mourn.

That's was how it was for the first week after the storm. Everyone was afraid to come to the Chateau knowing John B and Sarah wouldn't be there so I spent the first week after their deaths in John B's room crying and alone.

After that week alone, the pogues came back in search of me, it was good that they at least spent their time together, helping mourn the death of our best friend and my sister. It would've been nice for a text or call.

"Jade?" Pope asks as he walks into the Chateau with Kie and JJ. "Jade you here?" He asks, the group walking through the house.

I don't answer them though, I just lay in the bed staring at the wall in front of me. "Jade." Kie whispers as she walks into the room and sees me. She walks around the bed and crouches down, grabbing my hand. "Hey." She whispers, a tear falling down her cheek as my eyes fill with tears.

"I don't know what to do." I whisper, my chin wobbling as she pulls me in a tight hug, both of us now sitting up as we cry onto each other's shoulders. "I just got my sister back, Kie." I sob, "And now she's gone again."

"We're gonna be ok, Jade." Kie whispers into my ear as she grips onto my arms tighter.

I wanted to believe her, I did, but I just couldn't. My sister was dead, my brother's a murderer, my dad's a murderer and my other sister was trapped in the house they lived in. I had no idea what I was going to do.

"You're going to be ok." Kie says, more so saying it to reassure herself that I was going to be ok.

✵

My eyes fill with more tears as we watch Pope in silence as he hacks away at the tree with an old axe. He finishes the carve, the tree now carved with the shape of a heart in the middle. JJ then lights up the blow torch, holding it up to a medal rod and begins burning letters into the tree's bark.

2003                                        2020

          John B Routledge

                         P4L

"To John B." JJ says, stepping back and holding up his flask.

"And to Sarah." Kie adds, looking around at us all sadly.

At the foot of the tree we began to bury the box of stuff and memories Kie and I had put together over the past couple of days. Sure the storm was 2 weeks ago, but I don't think anyone had it in their systems to do a memorial with their deaths still fresh and plaguing our minds.