𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐝𝐬 • 𝐣𝐨𝐡𝐧 𝐛 𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐞

𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐛𝐲𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬

dove and sarah both arrived back at the house in which john b was hiding in.

dove trekked slowly up the stairs with sarah behind her.

sarah had stopped crying halfway through their run back, but dove could not stop.

"dove? sarah?"

dove breathed hoarsely and john b grabbed ahold of her.

"hey. hey, it's okay. it's okay. i got you. i got you, it's okay." he whispered.

dove sunk to the floor, taking john b with her and sarah watched, tears filling her eyes again.

"john b, it's bad. oh, it's so bad." dove cried.

there were sirens outside and the three went up and hid below the window.

"we gotta go, okay?" john b raised his eyebrows.

the two girls nodded and john b grabbed dove's hand and dove grabbed sarah's.

the three were able to slip out the back and out to the dock.

when they got there, there were only two paddle boards.

"you two go. i can take care of things around here." sarah said.

john b looked down for a second, thoughts running through his mind.

"no. you two go. save yourselves and i'll figure something out." john b said.

"what?" sarah furrowed her eyebrows.

"you two go. now. go somewhere safe. find the others." john b repeated.

dove shook her head and cupped john b's cheek in her hand.

"no. no, john b, i'm not going anywhere without you. i'm staying with you." dove replied.

"you can't. i can't drag you into this anymore. i can't let you get hurt because of me. i can't." john b shook his head.

"i don't care. i would risk it all for you.." dove shook her head.

john b kissed her hard and she kissed back, tears rolling down their cheeks.

they then pulled away.

"okay, you two gotta go. i'm gonna handle things here. go."

john b nodded and grabbed a paddle board.

dove pulled sarah into a hug.

"thank you." she whispered.

"yeah." sarah whispered back.

dove pulled away and sarah wiped a tear from dove's cheek.

"go." sarah nodded.

"will you be okay?" dove raised her eyebrows.

sarah shook her head. "don't worry about me."

"okay. thank you again."

dove then walked over to john b and grabbed the other paddle board.

they got into the water and hopped on before paddling away from the dock.

dove waved at sarah one last time before continuing on with john b.

🕊️

"john b." dove spoke up. "you're going the wrong way."

"yeah. i know. i'm going home and you're going to the boat dock." john b said.

"what?" dove furrowed her eyebrows.