𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗬𝗗𝗔𝗬, 𝟮𝟰/𝟳

Chapter 1

"Oh for fucks sake," I grumbled, turning the golf cady into the currently-renovating houses's driveway.

"Let's get 'em!" Gary ran to the house, waving his security baton.

I heard the sounds of whooping, feet running around, and the house shook as the kids ran down the stairs.

Great. The Pogues were here.

I ran after Gary, trying to catch the trespassing Pogues. We both knew we'd never catch them, never had and never could. But it was our job as OBX's security, to patrol the Kooks area for run down kids like the Pogues.

The four of them ran past me, dove into their beloved 'Twinkie' (a piece of a hundred year old junk) and started down the road.

I ran after them, waving my stupid security badge, "Get back here!"

JJ, the most annoying out of all the Pogues leaned his head out the open door, "Hey! Catch!"

He threw a can of beer at me, and it bounced off my forehead.

JJ laughed, and the Twinkie zipped around the corner and zoomed out of sight.

"Asshole," I muttered, picked up the can of beer, popped it open, and took a sip.

↬——✾——↫

News of Hurricane Agatha approached, so Garry let me off my shift quickly. During the summer, I usually picked up a few more shifts as patrol security. It wasn't the same as shadowing a Sheriff, but it was good extra training.

I met Dad at Kildare's Sheriff Department, and we both got in his personal cop car and were allowed to head home early. Being Sheriff Shoupe's daughter had its perks.

"Mercedes, did you 'bout Agatha?" Dad asked casually as we drove home to our villa in Figure Eight.

"We're going to have a lot of complaints tomorrow," I predicted.

"You're ready," Dad nodded.

A little bit about me and Dad.

It was always just me and him. My mom had died a few hours after I'd been born, so I never knew her. I don't think Dad liked to talk about her a lot, and I was fine with that. We weren't the emotional bunch, and he wasn't by far the perfect Dad—he could barely cook cereal. But we trusted each other. Told each other everything, and we were close.

Dad and I had always worked together. He was known as Sheriff Shoupe, and I was known as the 'apprentice daughter'. I came down to Kildare's Sheriff Kountey every day, took my own shifts, and though I was a little young to be qualified as a 'working officer', I think people just called it 'tagging along'. Yeah, I wasn't getting paid to help out, but I always came in to take a shift with Dad. We'd always done it that way.

I had everything planned out. After I finished school at the Kook Academy, I'd stay here to apply for the real training to be a Deputy in the Outer Banks. And once I graduated, I would work alongside Dad, like we'd always planned it to be.

Everything would work out.

↬——✾——↫

The next day, instead of having to deal with Kooks complaining about their houses being broken, or having zero electricity, or literally anything else, Dad was assigned to check out this sketchy motel.

Of course, as his daughter, I was invited to come along. And what sane person wouldn't?

It was hot out, and I mean sweating buckets with misquotes hot. The motel was sketchy, and added to the fact that Agatha had wiped the entire place out—trees everywhere—the place was a hot mess with a hangover.