JJ and a Routledge

Charleston

The next morning we were back on the road, and I was back in JJ's lap. As we were on a huge bridge JJ said, "I wonder where John B and Sarah are right now."

"Imagine if they were here." I laugh, "Imagine."

"Yeah, they're a bunch of fancy people. They've had three governors in the family. They've run Charleston for like, 300 years." Kiara is telling us about the Limbrey family as we near King Street. 

JJ chuckles, "These kooks make our kooks look like pogues."

"What does that make us?" I question with a smirk.

"Non-existent." JJ sighs as we pull up to a house. "Are you sure this is the place, Pope?"

"Pretty sure." He mutters back. We all look up at the huge building, it looks super old, but also modern. It was all white and had too many floors for my brain to comprehend. There was a huge black gate around it, with spikes on top. 

"All right." JJ sighs, I quickly open the door, jumping off of JJ, him close behind me. "Fat city for sure." The house was huge, I mean it could have been a hotel.

"Twenty-Seven King Street," Pope mutters, checking the letter. JJ, Kie, and I were already up to the tall gate.

"Talk about home security." I sigh, looking up at the long iron bars. 

"Are those spikes to keep people out?" JJ asks as we all look up at them.

Kiara shakes her head, "No."

"The slave quarters are over there." Pope nods in a direction, "These spikes were to keep people in."

We eventually get to the front door, thanks to a door in the gate. Pope picks up the knocker and bangs it against the door three times. The knocks were super loud, they shaked the ground below us. "You think that was too much?" Pope asks us.

"It echoed the entire house, that's for sure." JJ raises his eyebrows in response. "So they definitely heard it."

Since no one has come to the door yet, Kiara says, "Maybe nobody's home."

"I mean, we did come a day late," I tell the group. Pope sighs, knocking again, on the third knock, the door opens, making Pope back away. A scruffy, grown man opens it, staring us down while leaning against the frame. His hair is fairly short, he has an untamed beard and brown eyes. He eyes each of us down and then falls on Pope, his face lightens. 

He licks his lips and points at the brains of the operation, "You must be Pope." 

Pope looks a little nervous, "Um..." He looks over at the rest of us, "Are you Mr. Limbrey?"

The man quickly answers, "Ms. Limbrey was expecting you yesterday." I knew she was a woman. 

"Oh. Um, I'm sorry my car broke down on the way up here." Didn't we go down the country to get here? 

"Carburetor blew up in the middle of Nowhereseville." JJ explains, still uptight about the situation, I could tell he didn't trust this, and neither did I. JJ gives the man a half smile when his eyes fall on the blonde, "Sorry about that." 

The man nods, "Yeah, she was real upset when you didn't show up." The man looks back at Pope. 

"We tried to call but there's no number on the invitation," Kiara explains, looking down at the invitation itself. "We got here as fast as we could." 

"She also expected you to come alone." The man bursts out, clearly upset with some of us being here. 

"I mean, these are my friends. They helped find the Royal Merchant too. I--" The man quickly interrupts Pope. 

"Yeah, well the instructions were explicit. Your friends can stay outside." The man gives Pope a fake ass smile, and my stomach felt queasy. 

"We're kind of a package deal, man," JJ tells him, I quickly nudge him. I didn't want to rile this man up, no was no, we were gonna have to take it. 

"JJ." Pope turns to look at him, "It's okay, I got this. I'll be good." He faces Kie. 

"Yeah," She smiles. 

"We'll be right here," I say, forcing a smile, and looking at the man. 

"Keep the car running," Pope tells Kie in a whisper. 

"Yep." She nods, and they hold hands for a second. 

As soon as Pope was led inside, the three of us headed back to the old truck. JJ took driver's seat, I sat next to him, and Kie was next to me. We were watching the house, to see even a glimpse of Pope, or what was going on. Suddenly he came out of the house, with the man from the door and a lady, I'm assuming is Ms. Limbrey. He looks back at us and the man pushes him along. "Does that look voluntary?" Kiara asks us. 

"That would be a negative," JJ replies. 

"Come on," Kiara tells us as she goes to open the door, I was ready to go out after her but JJ grabs my shoulder. 

"Hold on, hold on." This makes Kie stop as well. "They're going into the alley." He exclaims. 

"So, we go around back?" I guess, looking at the blonde. 

"Yeah, yeah, we'll meet them on the other side." he starts up the car. 

"Hey, be chill, be chill," Kiara tells him so he doesn't speed around the corner. 

I nod my head in agreement, "Yeah, this can't be too obvious," I explain. 

"Yeah, sure," JJ mutters. 

Once we round the corner, there is no sight of them. "Where did they go?" Kiara asks. I try to stretch my neck to look down the alley. There is absolutely no sign of them. 

"What if they went underground?" JJ suggests, not taking his eye off the road, "Because in C.H.U.D. when they took people down into the sewers, it would turn the humans into humanoids 'cause of the radiation." JJ was getting way too excited about this theory. "And then all the sudden-" 

"Focus," Kiara tells him, not taking her eyes off of the houses next to us. "That doesn't make any sense." 

"Right. Sorry, did you see him?" JJ clears his throat. 

"No." Kie and I say in unison. This doesn't look very good, I hope JJ's theory wasn't right.