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Chapter Seven ✯¸.•'*¨'*•✿✿•*'¨*'•.¸✯
The gun remained in the drain.
"No, I get it. I get it. You guys are scared" Kie teased the two boys. Avery chuckled, throwing the last trash bag full of plastic onto the pile they had created. "It's kinda cute"
Cutting JJ and Pope's lame attempts to defend themselves short, the blonde spoke up, "I'll do it"
"Okay, just be careful" Pope accepted her volunteering. He wouldn't openly admit that he was glad Kie didn't step up to the challenge first, his feelings for her clouding his thoughts. His dark eyes flickered over to JJ, noting the look on his face.
"Be so careful" Kie mocked, receiving a look from Pope. Avery giggled at the memory. The Carrera girl turned to her, raising her eyebrows, "no but really, be careful"
The smell immediately hit her as soon as she crouched down. She grimaced, lowering herself onto her hands and knees. JJ watched her slowing crawling closer through the entrance of the tunnel, pursing his lips. He could think of a hundred of things to say at that moment, things he wanted to say desperately, but he bit his tongue and didn't say anything. And he doubted she would listen anyways. He didn't want to ruin her focus and put her at more risk. Silently, he hoped that she would get out safely, even if that meant not retrieving the gun.
"Just, uh, holler if you need anything," JJ finally spoke up, leaning against the tunnel. He refused to look away, even when her figure started to fade into the darkness. "We'll, uh, we'll holler back"
"Appreciate it" Avery's voice echoed back.
Through the darkness, Avery was getting stuck in cobwebs and weeds. She could hear Pope and Kie's voice constantly checking in, hardly getting an answer back as she was too focused on the task at hand to respond. Squatting another cobweb from her face, Avery haltered in her movements, pushing her hair out her face before continuing. A squeal left her lips as she reached the end of the catch basin, not expecting the ground to lower. She awkwardly crawled into a deep pool of reeking water.
"Save the turtles," Avery muttered to herself. She tossed the squashed soda can to the side. The feeling of soggy pieces of trash swimming past her hands as she blindly searched for anything that felt relatively like a gun made her gag. "Why did I volunteer myself? Oh, God"
A scream rippling through the tunnel cut the Pogue's awkward chat short. The trio huddled around the entrance, calling down to Avery. JJ pushed Pope to the side to get a better listen. Her voice called through, "there's something dead in here! Something really dead in here!"
"Avery, are you okay?" JJ shouted, feeling agitated as he didn't get a reply seconds after he spoke. "Don't touch it! Are you all right?"
"Aves, do you see the gun? Is it the gun?" Kie frantically asked. "Do you see anything?"
Pope yelled over her, hyper-focused on the mentioning of death, "like a person?"
"You guys owe me for this shit!" Avery screamed back at them. The sound of water gurgling made her freeze. She twirled around, her eyes widening at the sight of water flowing through the tunnel she had just came from. "Guys! The water! The water!"
"Avery! Get out of there now!" Pope's voice echoed, just about heard over the sewers gurgling.
"I don't have time!" She yelled back, her eyes burning with tears. Avery pushed herself up against the ladder, gripping it tightly. She kept her head titled up, feeling thick droplets smack against her face. Her chest heaved, struggling to regulate her breathing as panic started buzzing through her.
"Avery! Aves!" JJ screamed. The trio was hit by a gust of water. He was quick to tell them to find the manhole, the thought of Avery being in danger made his legs move a little faster.
Climbing the ladder, Avery managed to wedge her fingers between the gaps of the manhole cover. She mustered up as much strength she had left to push upwards, hoping the cover would budge. A scream erupted from her mouth as it didn't move. The water was rapidly raising, now crashing against her waist, even as she stood on the top of the ladder. The feeling of a hand touching her fingers made her head snap up. Through the gaps she could just about make out her friends. They appeared above and straight away began to pull at the manhole cover together.
"Hurry!" Avery cried, her tears escaping her eyes. The water now at her neck, she helplessly smacked the cover. "Please, hurry! JJ, please. JJ!"
"We are going to get you out of there, we promise!" Pope tried his best to reassure her, not bothering to mask his own panic.
Water spraying out from the manhole made JJ pull harder, putting all his strength into removing the cover. His heart was thumping in his chest. The last thing he wanted was to lose her, not like this. Not when he knew he shouldn't have let her do it. The lid finally started to rise slowly. The trio didn't give up, not until the cover was completely up and Avery was out safely. The sight of her fingers disappeared into the water, her grip releasing, made them scream louder.
The first breath of air felt heavenly to Avery. Her body bounced up from the hole and she gasped for more air, dripping wet. She managed to manoeuvre her body up and into a better position to drag herself out. The Pogue's took a moment, letting their adrenaline die down and to catch their breaths. Pope jumped to hug Avery, full of relief. Kie followed suit.
"You all right?" Kie asked. It was a dumb question but she wanted reassurance that she was okay.
"Fantastic" Avery coughed, sticking her thumbs up sarcastically. She sat up on her knees and reached behind her back, pulling out the gun, "this is what we were looking for, right?"
•✿•✿•
"So, y'all telling me this is the firearm Rafe Cameron killed Peterkin with?" Shoupe bluntly asked, staring at the gun the Pogue's had just put on his desk.
"That's exactly what we are telling you" JJ replied.
"And the exact same firearm that Ward used to kill Gavin" Pope added.
Shoupe stuttered, unsure what to say. "And where's that corpse again?"
"Didn't you look?" Kie sat wide eyed next to Avery.
"I checked the hospital. I went by his house. He was out" Shoupe blatantly replied.
"That's because he is dead. It makes sense!" Avery raised her voice, frowning at the man.
"Just because he's not in his damn home does not mean he was a victim of a homicide" Shoupe argued, making the kids talk over each other as they tried to prove their point.
"Are you at least going to send it in for ballistics and shit, or are you just gonna sit on your ass?" Kie questioned, hoping that he would but deep down, she knew he wasn't going to do anything.
"He'll sit there and wax that moustache. Is that even real?" JJ snapped, stepping a line as Shoupe sprung up from his seat.
"Shut up, J" Avery scoffed, rolling her eyes at him.
"This is not fair!" Kie continued to argue.
"Oh, sorry. Did I hurt his feelings?" JJ added, making Avery snap at him again. Even Pope backed her up, also telling him to shut up.
Shoupe strolled over to the office door and opened it widely, "get out. I've got work to do"
•✿•✿•✿•✿• Author's note! Testing Avery and JJ's feelings is quite fun to do. Other than that, I don't have a lot to say this update. Hope you enjoyed!
