Rogue | outer banks

008 - Redfield Lighthouse

"I mean, it's obvious, right?" John B asked as the five of us sat in the Twinkie trying to calm down after the commotion that went down at The Château. "A family heirloom. What better place to hide a message? He had to know it was gonna get back to me, right?'

Kiara nodded, hesitantly. "Yeah, it's possible."

"It could also be possible that you're concocting wild theories to help, you know, deal with your sad feels," Pope stated.

"Don't think that's helping, Pope," I mumbled.

"Bro, you know how I process my sad feels," JJ cut in. "Dank nugs and the stickiest of ickies, that's how I do it."

"I'm not concocting, okay?" John B said a bit too loud as he looked at Pope through the rearview mirror. "My dad's trying to give me a message."

I released a heavy sigh, momentarily setting aside my skepticism to embrace a fleeting moment of compassion. "If it helps you believe," I acquiesced, recognizing the potential solace my compliance could offer him.

Yet, John B's defensive tone emerged, shrouding his words with resistance. "Look, I don't need a therapy session, okay? I'm not trippin' out."

"It's okay to trip, bro, but-"

"Look, my dad is missing, okay? Missing. You don't know what it's like to have the person closest to you vanish and then have no idea what happened." He sighed as he looked out the window. "Just wake up every morning wondering."

I looked at the boy beside me as I saw the tears in his eyes, threatening to spill. I knew how hard it was for John B, how he became an orphan in the blink of an eye, with no one looking out for him. Yeah, I didn't have my parents either, but I had Topper, and I was a Kook. I had all the resources I needed to lead a decent life, with or without parents.

"It's been almost a year," Kiara reasoned.

"Hey, he could have been kidnapped. That's definitely a possibility," JJ ventured, his imagination taking flight.

"Yeah, could be in a Soviet sub getting interrogated by the KGB somewhere," Pope chimed in.

"Absolutely. Uh... or Atlantis."

"JJ," Kiara said in the tone of voice that said shut up. "Look, what do you think the message is?"

"Redfield. Redfield Lighthouse," John B informed them as they turned down the road that led to the complex. "That's my dad's favorite place."

Even though the lighthouse was closed, John B still pulled up right outside and he got out of the Twinkie. "Right, you're gonna post up and look out for bogeys, okay?"

JJ quickly turned his head to look at John B. "Wait... why me?"

"Because you're not coming," Pope had bit the bullet again and spoke without a filter.

"That's not how I would've put it," John B mumbled as he scratched his neck awkwardly while Pope and JJ began to argue.

"Why?"

"There are independent and dependent variables. You're an independent variable. We don't know what you'll do—"

"Shut up, Pope!"

I sighed, my arms crossed as I leaned against the Twinkie.

"Okay, listen to me for a second," John B said as he gazed over at me. "Pope, you stand lookout with JJ. Got that? And if we get split up, we meet back at JJ's house."

"I'm gonna work on my merit scholarship essay, and I'm trying to keep felonies to a minimum," Pope told JJ while Kiara had already started to make her way over to the lighthouse.