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꧁ － － － － － － ✧ － － － － － － ꧂
𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐲-𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 — 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑑
"LEILS? LEILS, WAKE up." JJ caught Leilani as she fell, holding her on the ground. He gently hit her cheeks and John B held Scout back.
When Leilani opened her eyes a minute later, her pupils were dilated and her breathing was unnaturally slow. "Wha...what hap—happened?" Leilani asked with slurred, confused speech. Her friends knew she wasn't talking like that because she was under the influence of weed and alcohol. This was different, and it was much more serious.
"You passed out. Do you remember?" John B asked, concerned.
Leilani tried to shake her head to signify that she didn't remember, but she winced at the sharp pain coming from the muscles in her neck. Her entire body ached with pain, and Leilani could've sworn she felt pins in her legs. "I need to..." she tried to stand up, but JJ stopped her quickly.
"Hey, hey, wait a second." JJ and John B each took one of Leilani's arms and slowly helped her into the house, Sarah opening all of the doors, Scout guarding Leilani from behind.
The boys laid Leilani down on the couch and Sarah placed a damp rag on her forehead. JJ sat with her, her legs on his lap to give them some elevation. "Yell if you need us." Sarah said, her and John B deciding to give Leilani and JJ some space.
JJ nodded, hands running down Leilani's legs. "Do you need anything?" he asked tenderly, watching as Leilani's eyes trained on a blank spot at the wall, staring at it so her dizziness would subside.
Saying nothing, Leilani breathed slowly. She couldn't formulate thoughts to create a sentence, so she stayed quiet. There was too much racing around her mind. Why was this happening? Why her? Why then? Leilani couldn't take any more trauma, not after her dad was killed. She was reaching her breaking point, and one more thing would push her over the edge.
Leilani barely slept that night, and Scout spent the time sitting below the couch to keep an eye on his owner. When Pope and Kie finally came back in the morning, JJ helped Leilani on and off the boat, and John B did the same with Sarah. They all set up shop near the marsh. Sarah then decided to go talk to Ward, leaving the five original Pogues sitting in the clearing.
While she should've been resting, Leilani was researching. Poisons that act as drugs in autopsies and tests. After what Shoupe revealed from Kai's autopsy, Leilani was convinced that someone had been hurting her father. He didn't do drugs, and she knew it. There was one poison in particular that kept catching Leilani's eye. If she had just looked at the symptoms, if she just searched a little more, maybe Leilani could have saved herself.
Sarah came back a little while later. While everyone talked about how to get Sarah and John B off the island, Leilani noticed the police boats. "Guys, it's too late. They're here." it was the first time she had spoken all day, and she pointed to what she saw coming at them with her casted wrist.
"They followed you here?" John B asked Sarah as the police boats turned their sirens on. "Must've been your father."
"We have to find another way out." Pope said. Leilani lurched forward and grabbed Scout's collar to stop him from going after the police.
"Stay on the beach with your hands in the air!" an officer yelled through a megaphone, and the group immediately started running away.
John B helped Sarah swim through the water and JJ held Leilani, knowing how weak and lethargic her body was. They all rushed each other, screaming to run so they could get away and get away quickly. Scout took the lead, navigating through the trees the way Leilani had trained him. It was hard for Sarah to run, and Leilani's muscles were started to seize and spasm, causing her to cry out in pain, but continue to run. She wouldn't give up, not when they were so close.
There was a deep body of water to swim through, and Pope helped Leilani through as JJ assisted both Sarah and Leilani. No Pogue left behind. The officers continued to chase after them, ordering them to stop, which they didn't, of course. John B instructed them to hide behind a large tree, but then police cars sped towards them. There was no getting out of the mess they were in.
"There's no getting out of this. We gotta make a stand." Leilani snapped her head over to JJ at his words from where she knelt on the ground, holding Scout and breathing heavily.
JJ started wiping off his gun. John B stepped over to him before Leilani could do anything. The brunette knew what he had to do. John B promised his best friend that it would all be okay, and he dropped the gun in the dirt, JJ covering it up. John B raised his hands as they were surrounded. "John B! Step out into the clearing! Get down. Do not move!" Shoupe yelled, gun drawn.
"I'm surrendering!" John B shouted, stepping away from the tree.
"Don't move!" yelled an officer.
"Hands up, John B!"
"The rest of you stay right where tou are. Keep your hands where we can see them." Shoupe instructed the five friends, and they all stood up, raising their hands high to show they didn't have any weapons. Leilani held Scout's body still between her knees so he wouldn't attack anybody.
"Hey, listen, Shoupe, I wanna testify." John B said, willing himself to be strong.
"It's about time. Get down. Do not move a muscle. Everybody else, don't move." Shoupe walked over to John B, gun armed and at the ready.
John B sunk to his knees and put his hands on his head. An officer walked over to him and shoved him to his feet in a headlock, slamming him to the ground. Leilani, Sarah, JJ, Pope and Kie erupted into loud and angry shouts, in disbelief that no one was stopping what was happening. The officer continued kicking John B in the stomach and ribs, while another officer pointed her gun at Leilani and JJ. Leilani winced at seeing all of the weapons pointed at her. The weapon that took her father's life.
The officer shoved Shoupe away from him and picked up John B. "This is for Peterkin and Kai Malehona." his fist knocked John B to the ground, unconscious while his friends screamed.
