fade away youth// rafe cameron

35-Into bed, like it's all just a game

We wait for them to leave. They don't even have the decency to put the casket back. Pope starts to head for the tree.

"Pope. Pope, wait. Wait!" JJ tells him. "Shit."

We all follow after him. Pope comes to a stop at the casket.

"Wait, wait," I tell everyone.

Pope kneels down next to the casket. "Cecilia Tanny, Denmark's wife. He wasn't talking about the cross." He stands up and looks at the oak. He buried her at the foot of the angel."

"The true treasure," Kie says.

"His wife," John B states.

We all kneel down around the casket like Pope.

"Denmark was hung for burying his wife, and now they defiled her grave." Pope sniffles as he picks up a medallion from the casket.

Sarah picks up Cecelia's ring. "This must have been from Denmark. Her wedding ring."

"We can't leave her like this," Pope states.

"We won't," John B assures him.

John B and JJ put the lid back on the casket and hammer it in place. Pope gets flowers and lays them on top. John B and JJ put the casket back in the grave it was buried and replace the dirt on top of it.

"I... I just don't get it. I mean, you guys saw the map. He hides his gold, so no one finds it for 170 years. And then he sends a message to his son Robert to come here to his mother's grave, but the message never gets to him. Denmark wanted him to find the cross. I know we're in the right spot," Pope insists. "It just feels like..."

"Like we missed something?" JJ asks. "Guys. Come here." JJ climbs on top of the van.

"There he goes," John B remarks.

I follow JJ up onto the van.

JJ points to a hole in the tree. "That looks like..."

"The painting in the island room," I state.

"It's worth a shot, right?" JJ says.

"Yeah," I tell him.

"Let's do it," John B says.

"Go for it," JJ tells me.

"Not a chance," I tell him.

"You do it!" Sarah tells JJ.

"Sorry. I... I went in the storm drain so..." I tell him.

"She did go in the storm drain," Kie agrees.

"And in the crypt," I remind him.

"That's fair," Pope says.

"Yeah. No, I'm gonna do it. It's just..." JJ trails off.

"He's scared," I tease.

"I'm not scared, Addie," JJ insists.

"You seem scared," I tell him.

JJ sticks his hand into the hole. "There's something in here." JJ laughs. "Wait." JJ starts to scream.

I try to grab him and pull his arm out of the hole. "Come here!"

JJ stops screaming and starts to laugh.

"Oh, you asshole," Pope tells him.

"Oh, man! I got all of you on that one," JJ states.

"Oh, yeah, real original," Pope says.

"Wait, but seriously, there's something in here," JJ tells us. JJ pulls out something in the shape of a cylinder.