I'm here // JJ Maybank

22

The next morning Amelia woke up with her legs entangled with JJs and her head on his chest. He was still sleeping soundly, so she sat there for a little just taking in the moment. JJ stirred slightly, also waking up. Amelia lacked blackout curtains in her room, so once the sun came up it was extremely bright. He rolled over slightly so that his face fell into the crook of her neck. She combed through his hair, earning a sigh of content from him.
"Good morning" she says softly
"Morning" He mumbles into her neck. He lifts his body up slightly so that now he is looking at her.
"We have to check on JB" Amelia says softly, pushing out the stands of hair that have fallen in front of the boys face.
"He can wait" He says, still slightly hovering over the girl. There's a brief knock on the door, followed by Connor barging in.
"When the fuck did this happen?" He says motioning to JJ who is still hovered over his sister.
"What do you want?" Amelia groans while JJ stands up awkwardly.
"Pope is in the living room. I'm telling him what I saw." Connor says and closes the door.
"Why does Connor like Pope than me?" Amelia asks JJ
"Because Pope is pope." JJ says putting his cargo shorts back on. Amelia quickly changes and the pair meets Pope out into the living room.
"Spill it" Pope says once they come into view.
"There's nothing to spill" amelia says, grabbing her bag and readying herself to leave.
"Connor told me. And Kie said you guys were acting weird." Pope pushes.
"Connor is a prick and Kie is mad at the universe. Let's go." Amelia says, she heads out the front door leaving the two behind.
"Ill fill you in later" JJ whispers to pope so that amelia can't hear. Popes jaw drops at whatever there is to need filling in on. Once in the van pope tells them that they have to meet john B and Kie at the wreck, so that's where they go.
—
"I'm sorry. You're staying where?" Kie asks John B who is alive and well, but now has a cast.
"Tannyhill" John B says nonchalantly.
"So you're living with Sarah Cameron." Kie confirms.
"Okay, look, the only reason I'm living there is because her dad bailed me out, right? And its way better than foster care, which, by the way, is where I was about to go if ward didn't-" John B starts to defend himself. Amelia felt a little uneasy about the whole situation.
"Hey, so do you have a membership to the clubs now?" Pope asks.
"Valid question" Amelia adds.
"I don't know pope." John B says, clearly not entertained.
"What about those gold carts they drive around? You get one of those?" JJ also asks.
"Does it come with a sweater-vest, or do you have to buy one on your own?" Amelia chimes in.
"Look you promised. You said you weren't with her." Kie says getting back to the issue at hand.
"Bro just own it. She got you." JJ said. He is not one to speak right now.
"Look, if you wanna hang out with her, that's fine. But I'm letting you know now that I'm not doing anything with Sarah." Kie says
"Yeah me too" Amelia says backing kie up.
"Do you guys see her here? No right. Okauy. A little focus would be fantastic." John B says
"Thats a lot of attitude coming from a liar" amelia raises her eyebrows at John B.
"We got the map right?" John B goes on.
"It's out of whack cause the guy was ganja'd when he drew it." JJ comments and Amelia shakes her head.
"It's cause the coast has changed J" Amelia says putting a hand on his shoulder.
"So we just have to look for landmarks that haven't changed." Pope says.
"What about the old forts?" John B suggests.
"Battery Jasper" Kie says, and with that the group is up and on their way.
-
They all stood on the top of battery jasper and looked over the land. Pope laid out the map and tried to figure out where the treasure would be.
"We're battery jasper, right here. So if this is parcel nine, then it's somewhere northeast of here." He said pointing in a direction. Amelia was directionally challenged, so she was not going to be much help on this part.
"Somewhere over there." Kie pointed.
"Right." Pope confirmed.
"Over there? Guys, that's not tannyhill, that's subdivision." JJ added in, amelia just kept staring into the distance as if she was thinking something, but really her mind was blank.
"Tannyhill plantation was the entire island. It got sold into smaller pieces over time." John B said and amelia nodded along.
"So we're just looking for an old stone wall." Pope said. Great really narrows it down. But of course a lightbulb went off in popes head and the group was back in the van being lead by pope.
"Okay, so the road should split up here." Pope lead John B as he drove.
"Okay."
"All right. You're gonna take a left." So John b did.
"That looks like a stone wall to me." JJ said as they pulled up to a creepy area in the middle of no where.
"This is it." Pope said looking at the big house. Amelia looked out the window and saw none other than the Crain house. There were many stories about this place and the woman who lived here, all of which were unsettling.
"Not the crain house." John B said getting out of the van.
"There has to be a different stone wall." Amelia said, not wanting to go into this property. They all got out and made their way to the stone wall.
"Are you kidding me?" Kie said, also dreading this.
"Worse case scenario" JJ said going next to the girl.
"Why'd it have to be here.. of all places?"
"I heard that mrs. Crain buried her husband's head on the property." JJ said looking at Amelia.
"Of course you did" she groaned. They all hopped the wall and started to wander around the property that was extremely overgrown.
"Look, you guys know who's house this is, right?" Kie said looking back at everyone.
"Oh,yeah. No, I do." JJ confirmed
"Honestly, I don't really believe the stories of this place." John B said. Amelia turned and looked at him dumbfounded. John B used to be terrified of even the thought of this place.
"Shh" Pope hushed
"What?"
"Which stories did you hear?" JJ asked kie
"The one where she killed her husband with an axe and that she's been holed up ever since. On certain nights, when the moon is full... you can see her in the window!" Kie said wiggling her fingers in JJs face. Amelia hung back with John B, trying to keep a good line ahead of her in case a murder popped out of nowhere.
"No, its not funny, cause its all true. I swear to god guys, this is all real. I knew Hollis" JJ said and when he turned back forward he got jump scared of a statue, making Amelia laugh.
"Shut up JJ" she laughed.
"Wait you knew Hollis Crain?" Pope asked, feeding into JJs story.
"Yeah dude." JJ said
"Dude, how do you know Hollis Crain?" Pope asked, now everyone stopped and listened.
"She was my babysitter, man. She told me all about it. Told me the truth.. about her mother and what happened in this house." He said. They all stared at JJ.
"So as a kid, she heard all the stories that her mother killed her father, and... she was a murder and all. Hollis didn't believe it. Until that night."
"What night?" Amelia asked, starting to get very anxious.
"It all came back to her. When Hollis was six years old, she heard her parents arguing downstairs. So she goes downstairs to see her mom washing her hands in the sink... full of blood. Her mother just says that she cut her finger. The next morning, she says her father and her split up. But then Hollis noticed something. Her mother going into the parlor constantly. In and out in and out with plastic bags. Weeks pass and Hollis decided to use the outhouse and as she's using it, she looks down, and there, in the outhouse is her fathers head, looking straight at her." Amelia has heard this story from JJ before, and she still can't decide if its true or not.
"god, you are so full of shit." John B says to JJ
"Dude, i swear to god, man."
"Did she call the police?" Pope asks, now fully invested in the story.
"She didn't have time" JJ says and John B pushes past to keep looking.
"Wait! Dude" JJ goes after him
"We can't do this - " Pope says. Amelia hangs back with Kie as the rest figure out what's going on.
"What?" John B says annoyed as JJ stops him.
"You sure you wanna do this? She's an axe murderer. You got a cast on." JJ says, pointing out valid things.
"I don't give a shit if she's an axe murder, okay? I got nothin to lose right? You coming or what?" John B says. JJ looks at Amelia who just shrugs and follows after John B. After all they got nothing to lose. Except Amelia always hated that saying, there's always something to lose.
"Come on" Kie says to the two boys who were still standing behind. They all quietly move through the yard, trying their best to stay hidden.
"So here's the plan. We need to look for wheat near the water like it said in Denmark's letter."
"Okay, like, what kind of water, like pond water?" Pope asks.
"Bong water?" JJ asks too excited.
"No JJ" amelia stops him.
"No it— it just said look for water, okay?"
"Thats the shittiest secret message ever" Kie said and kept walking
"You wanna complain a little more, kie? Nobody said it was gonna be easy. John B says following her. Pope turned to JJ and Amelia and said,
"Ill search the northeast quadrant, you guys search the northwest. No funny business got it?" And patted JJs shoulder.
"The decapitation quadrant!" JJ exclaimed.
"I don't know where that is." Amelia shamefully admitted. JJ looked at her and shook his head.
"Cmon baby" he said, grabbing her hand and leading them in the direction. They walked around for a little, finding literally nothing.
"There's nothing here." Amelia pointed out the obvious.
"Yeah nada." JJ sighed. They did a little loop and made there way back to where John B and Kie were looking.
"Hey, psst! Hey, come on. It's the only place we haven't looked" john b said, leading them into a small opening under the house.
"Oh hell no" Amelia said, but JJ just pushed her slightly forward, forcing her to crawl in.
"Down came mrs. Crain and cut off all our heads" JJ sang
"Up came the sun and dried up all the blood" amelia sang along.
"Can you two stop?" Pope turned around and looked at the pair.
"Sorry" amelia said
Once they were fully inside they were met with a standard basement filled with random crap. Except this stuff was slightly more creepy because it belonged to a murderer.
"Another dead end?" Kie said with a tinge of sass.
"There's not even water on the pipes." JJ said running his hand along them.
"There's no water here" Pope confirmed
"Not a dropamino"
"Know why we didn't find it? Bad karma" kie said and Amelia nodded her head along.
"Oh god. Here we go"
"You know, we had a good thing going. And then you decided to rope in barbie, and now the trails gone dry, coincidence? Probably not." Amelia decided to keep looking while those two bickered.
"This is exactly why I didn't wanna tell you about Sarah."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. What the hells the deal with you two?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing? Is it because I kissed you? Is that the problem?" Amelia's attention was immediately caught and was now staring at the two. Kie slapped John B across the face, earning oohs from the other three.
"That echoed dude!"
"Stop treating me like I'm some girl that's obsessed with you instead of your best friend who's actually trying to look out for you." (What a slay kie)
"You tell him" Amelia egged on
"Did you, uh.. hit me?" John B asked still take aback.
"Skeeter" kie said holding up her hand.
"Skeeter?" John B asked and then slapped her back. Amelias jaw dropped
"Ooh hey-" JJ said
"Oh I know he didn't just do that" Amelia said ready to beat him up.
"Where's your proof?" Kie said recovering from that like the queen she is. John B held up his hand to show her.
"Yeah there was probably one right there." Kie said slapping John B again. Their slaps started to become playful, so amelia went back to the task on hand.
"Why is there so many mosquitos?" Amelia wondered out loud.
"Dude i know, seriously. Tiny vampire bats, just leave me alone." Amelia saw pope shinning his flashlight at something, so she went to him and looked at what it was.
"Okay can we leave? Cause I'm already itchin to leave." JJ said but amelia and pope were too focused on the wood panels covering something. Pope stood on it and stomped, causing a hollow noise to sound. He looked at Amelia with wide eyes and stepped down. She grabbed a pebble off the ground and dropped it between a crack. Water slashed at the bottom and they both looked at each other in shock.
"Oh my god Mel" pope said and scurried off of it so that they could move the planks. Everyone started to gather around due to their eagerness and loudness.
"Help us move this" Amelia said to JJ. They all worked to move the wood and revealed a deep well.
"Well well well" pope said
"That was a good dad joke" John B said.
"They built this part of the house right over it" Amelia said looking down into the well.
"This is where she hid the bodies" JJ said and they all looked at him annoyed.
"Dude"
"Stop"
"No, I'm dead serious." He said
"It was never an outhouse"
"She probably doesn't even know its here" kie said trying to get JJ to shut up.
"So.. we found water" pope said looking at John B.
"We're gonna need a really big rope"