Part 22

151 1 0
                                    

I let out a sigh as I get the boat into the water

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.




I let out a sigh as I get the boat into the water. I throw over a ladder when dad steps in front of me
"No! No! You get the hell away from me! I'm not doing this shit anymore! I'm not going anywhere with you!" I tell him
"I know. I get it. I mean it took a while cause I didn't wanna believe but... I finally understand what everybody was trying to tell me. You're not one of us. Right?" He asks me in a calm voice
"Not anymore. And you never will be. You're one of them" he says and I shake my head yes
"But now the problem is this... what do I do now?" He says
"You let me go." I say trying to hold back tears
"Let you go? Let you go back and tell everybody that I'm alive and tell them where we are and tell them what we've done?" Dad says stepping closer to me.
"Baby come on now. You know I can't do that." He says putting his hands on my face.
"Dad. You're scaring me. Don't. No." I tell him
"I don't know what to do with you!" Dad yells
"What do I do Stella?" He asks me
"No. No. No. No. No." I shake my head knowing what was coming
He wraps his hands around my throat starting to choke me
"What do I do? What do I do?" He asks as I claw at his hands trying to get him to let go but it was getting harder to breathe
"Dad" I cry
"Don't call me that! You don't mean it!" Dad yells
My eyes start to roll back as I see flashbacks on my biological mom choking me
"Mom?" I breathe out on accident, but I feel the grip on my that loosen some helping me gain some focus again to see it's still dad
"Dad" I breathe out again as I look into his eyes to see guilt pain and regret. I could feel my eyes closing again until I hear someone yell
"Get off her!" They say and dads pulled off of me. I fall to the ground gasping for air. I look up to see John B punching my dad in the face causing him to fall back
"Star! Stella. Hey. Hey. Hey. Look at me. Look at me. I got you okay? Hi. Hi." He says kneeling next to me
"JB." I ask putting my hand on his face
"I told you I wasn't gonna leave you right? I got you. I got you. It's okay." John b says but my dad grabs John b from behind wrapping his arms around his neck
"No! No! Stop! Stop it!" I yell at dad
"It's your fault!" Dad yells at him dragging him to the edge of the boat.
"Your fault!" He yells then John B elbows him and dad throws him into the wall
"No!" I yell trying to gain my strength to stand up

My dad grabs John b by the shirt and John b starts to punch him
"Come on Ward" John B says
He punches Dad three times back to back causing dad to fall backwards hitting his head on the edge of the ship. He puts his hand to the back from his head pulling it forward to see its covered in blood.
"Is this how you did it huh? Is this how you killed my father? You just threw him in the ocean?" John b asks kneeling next to him
"I never got to say goodbye. Because of you. This is all your fault." John b tells him. He sits there for a second then he gets up and runs over to me
"Hey we gotta go okay? I got you. Come on.
We gotta pick up the others." John B says helping me to my feet
"All right." He says as we stand on the edge of the ship.
"Ready?" He asks as we grab hands
"One two three." He says and we jump

I gasp as I resurface above the water
"Come on Stella. I hope they got the cross." He tells me
We start to drive around the ship and we see Pope, Sarah, and Cleo in the water
"Pope!" John B yells
"Hey! We're over here" Pope yells
"We're over here!" Cleo yells
We start to get them into the boat
"Give me your hand" I tell Sarah
"Pope!" John B yells
John b helps pope up and I start to help cleo in
"Oh my God" I mumble
"Cleo. Holy shit." I say looking at her
"Long time no see girl" Cleo smiles
"What are you doing here?" I ask her
"Where's J and kie?" John B asks them
"I thought they were with you" Pope says
"No." I shake my head
"Shit" Pope says
"We gotta find them all right?" John B tells us
"Last time I saw them was on the other side of the ship" Pope says
We start to make our around the ship as I hear someone yell
"John B! Help!" They yell
"That's kie" I tell John b
"Where are they?" Pope asks
I see kie and JJ in the water and it looks like kie is holding him up.
"There they are. Hey!" Cleo yells
"JJ! Kie!" I yell
"No! No! No! No! No!" John B yells as he drives over to them
"Come on. Come on" Pope mumbles
"I got you" John B says as we pull up to them
"Grab him" kie says.
John B and I pulls JJ into the lifeboat as pope and cleo help kie. John b starts to drive off again but the engine sputters.
"No. No. No. Hey" John B mumbles
"What's going on?" I ask him looking up from JJ
"What's happening?" Pope asks
"John B" I say
"We're stalling out" John B answers us
"You serious? We're sitting ducks" Pope says
"We gotta go!" Sarah yells
"Come on!" Kie yells
"I'm trying. Forward or backward? If everyone just tries to relax." John b says
"He's pointing at us. Hurry!" Pope tells us
"We gotta go" Kie begs
"I'm trying okay?" John B says
I look at JJ who still hasn't woken up
"Please wake up" kie begs JJ
Then I look up at rafe who has a gun pointed at us. I keep eye contact with him until our engine starts back up.
"We gotta get moving. Yeah! Go!" Pope yells

"JJ wake up! JJ! Please! Please!" Kie begs him
"Wake up." John b says shaking JJ
"Please get up!" I beg JJ
"You gotta wake up" John B says
"Please JJ I can't lose you" I cry
"Get up!" Kie yells just as JJ starts to cough opening his eyes
"There you go. Yeah yeah. Cough it out. Cough it out baby" John B says
"Hey buddy there you go. Hey. Hey buddy. Welcome to the land of the living dude." Pope tells him
"No CPR needed huh?" John B laugh
JJ looks up at kie and she smiles.
"Hi." Kie says
''Sup?" JJ says but it comes out more of a question making everyone laugh
"Dude!" Pope laughs
Kie gives JJ a tight hug
"Just always looking for attention" John B laughs.
"Whatever it takes right?" JJ laughs
"You better not ever do that again" I tell him
"What the hell happened?" JJ asks
"The blunt end of a machete" kie answers
"Machete?" JJ asks her
"The blunt end" kie says
"Next time duck" Cleo says
"I'll try to remember that next time. Thanks" JJ tells her
"This shit ain't over" Pope saus
"No it ain't." John b shakes his head as we drive off finding an island.

The boys pull the boat onto the beach
"Good job guys" kie says
"Good job" sarah and I say at the same time.
"Whoa" JJ mumbles
"Woah woah. You okay?" I ask him
"JJ you all right there buddy?" John B asks him
"Yeah. Still a little dizzy. Okay anybody know where we're at?" JJ asks
"Deserted beach. Unknown island" Pope says
"All right I'll take that as a no. Plan A huh Pope? That went well." JJ tells him
"This is the lowest we can go. We literally have nothing else to lose. The cross gone" Pope says
"The gold gone" JJ adds
"My sanity gone" I add as well
"Seriously if we had a nickel for every time we got beat up I'd say we're at a dollar fifty" JJ tells us
"That's more than I got on me" Kie laughs
"Somehow that doesn't make me feel better"
Sarah says
"Yeah you're right. But I mean we've... We've had some good stuff happen right?" John b says
"Name something" Pope tells him
"Um.....Uh the boiler room. What? I mean if the boiler didn't explode I wouldn't have gotten away from Rafe. I couldn't have gotten the Zodiac and gotten us out of here." John b says
"That wasn't luck. That thing was gonna blow the second I stopped feeding it." Cleo tells him
"Stealing my thunder Cleo." John B says.
"Sorry" Cleo laughs
"Okay. Pope you're related to Denmark Tanny.
That's crazy" John B says
"And I lost all his inheritance" Pope tells him
"You know what? Guys this is it. This is the Pogue life. We are in the Caribbean. It's our own little slice of paradise. With my best friends with my family. I don't know. I wouldn't wanna do it with anyone else. Look and while you guys were complaining about every little thing... JJ? Stella?" John b says
"Hmm?" JJ and I both say
"I was looking at those burly lefts" John B tells us
"There's some slabs out there" JJ smiles
"Just a few" I smile
"Kie see that? I know you wanna get out." John b tells her
"No boards" Kie says
"Well we can bodysurf till we make some boards" John B suggests
"Lame" Kie says
"Pope? Come on man" John B says
"They do look pretty tasty" Pope says
"Oh yes they do" John B tells him
"There's nobody around. We could squad here for a bit. Kind of belongs to us now huh?" Pope says
"You got a point" John B says
"Seven-way split?" Pope asks us
"Poguelandia." JJ says with a accent
"Oh boy." Sarah laughs
"I claim thee Poguelandia. I like the ring of it. I'm gonna make a flag." JJ tells us
"Oooo put a chicken on it" I tell him
"With a coconut bra smoking a J. In crocs" JJ says
"Oh hell yeah!" I cheer smiling as JJ and I do the handshake
"Don't cheer that on" sarah tells me
"I could use a J" Kie says
"Can we vote on this?" Sarah asks laughing
"Agreed" kie says
"Shall we get to work?" Pope asks us
"Let's get to work. Let's start working on provisions. Set up shop." John B says walking over to me
"Star. Till death do us part?" John b asks me
"Till death do us part JB" I smile looking up at him.
He helps me up as he says
"Welcome to the Pogue life" John b says
"Full Pogue" I say
"Full Pogue. Ooh" John B says
Pope helps cleo up from where she was sitting
"Welcome to the Pogues." Pope tells cleo
"Thanks" Cleo smiles
"Going full Pogue" Kie says
"What is a Pogue anyway? What is that handshake you do?" Cleo asks us
"Here" pope says
"Slap slap. Hey!" Pope cheers showing her the handshake

We all sit by the fire and I lean my head on John b
"My dad had this quote from Euripides. The ocean washes away all the evil men do. But I'm not sure that's true. I don't think the ocean washes away anything. If anything the ocean makes you remember." He tells me
"We have nothing left." I nod my head
"We have the crew. And we have each other." He tells me
"Is that enough?" I ask him
"I think it is." He nods
"I can never go home again. My dad tried to kill me after my brother tried to kill me twice." I tell him
"You never have to go home" John B says
"The crew is your family. We've got your back." John b tells me
"I know. It's just.. I've always had my family. And now I lost my sister, brother, mom and dad" I tell him
"I get it. I only ever had my dad and then...Then I had you. And you have me. Us against the world right?" John b asks
"Us against the world" I repeat
"I love you Stella Cameron" John B says
"I love you too JB" I smile as we both lean in for a kiss.

✯ North Star ✯Where stories live. Discover now