𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐎𝐆𝐔𝐄𝐒
and the Kooks
have no other choice than
living together, sharing
the same island. But this summer,
rivalries reached a peak, and
there's no going back.
In which Margot Maybank tries to fix her brother's mistakes, but not everyt...
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Outer Banks, Maybank's house July 24th, 2020 10:06am
My pouding head was what woke me up that morning, maybe because of the punches my dad had thrown at me hours earlier, or maybe because I didn't get enough sleep. I sighed and got up, before going to the bathroom where I freshened up a little and got dressed for the day. The sky was grey but since I wasn't working all day, it wouldn't be enough to dissuade me from surfing.
I joined JJ in the living-room where he was sitting on the couch, and after throwing a quick glance, I realized we were alone. I was so relieved to see him, finally, after a whole day of wondering if he was okay. He didn't seem hurt, which was reassuring and meant he didn't cross our father's path yet, but as his eyes landed on me and on the marks on my arms, he looked sorry.
"Dad?" he asked, making me nod. "I swear, if he hit you because of me-"
"No, he was just drunk," I lied, since I couldn't tell my brother that our father had not appreciated seeing me in Rafe Cameron's car.
JJ nodded. "These assholes kept me for hours in a cell before interrogating me," he sighed, referring to the past day he had spent at the police station.
"Did they tell you something?" I asked.
"Yeah," he replied.
Instead of telling me what was the verdict, he just handed me a paper on which I could read the judge's ruling. It didn't take long for my eyes to land on the amount of money my brother would have to find to repay Topper's car. My eyes went wide and I could see JJ's embarrassment as I looked up at him and crossed his eyes.
"3 thousand dollars?!" I yelled in surprise.
"I got this okay? I'll take care of my shit," JJ tried to reassure me.
I frowned. "Oh yeah? How exactly? You don't even have a job," I reminded him.
"Jeez! Chill out, I got this," he said again.
I nodded, showing him that he had to handle this alone and find a way to get this money quickly enough, on his own. I then offered him to come surfing with me in the afternoon but he declined and tried to make me stay at home because there was too much wind in his opinion, but I missed surfing way too much to miss the opportunity of going back in the waves.
I arrived at the beach a few minutes later, and ran to the waves, the fresh breeze running down my spine, growing goosebumps all over my body. I spent a long time surfing, letting the huge waves tire my body, rain pouring without me noticing it. The ocean's current started to get stronger and so did the waves, making me stumble and fall down quite a few times.
The thunderstorm started to get closer and its rumbling approached me, but I didn't pay attention to it at first, I kept on surfing without even noticing the thunderbolt lightening up the dark sky. I was about to ride a last wave and get back to the shore but I didn't manage to withstand the current and my surfboard rolled in the waves, dragging me along in the depths of the rollers.
I started to panic underwater and my head hit the sand a few times, before I found myself laying on the shore, struggling to breathe. I crawled away from the waves and spat out the rest of water which was stuck in my lungs. It took me a while to recover but since the storm was starting to get stronger, I realized I needed to find shelter, at least for a few minutes until it got calmer. Storms in the Outer Banks could last days, and they were always extremely dangerous, which meant that standing alone on a beach knowing I could get hit by lightning any moment wasn't really smart.
I grabbed my surfboard and ran out of the beach, but that's when I saw it. The abandoned house was probably unoccupied and it was way closer to where I was than my house, which meant I could stay there for a little while and then go back home safe. I placed my surfboard on the porch since nobody stole surfboards on this island, and hurried inside, relieved to find the door unlocked.
As I got in, I sighed in relief and locked the door behind me by placing the lock bar across the door. Inside the house, everything was extremely dark, and I could tell that no one had lived there for decades, but when I heard some noise, my heart skipped a beat. I didn't believe in all the rumours saying it was haunted, so if the noises weren't simply cause by the old wood cracking, it meant someone was in the house with me. And maybe this house wasn't so empty after all.
"Hello? Is anyone here?" I asked softly, grabbing an old chandelier from the cupboard as if it were a weapon that could protect me.
I heard footsteps coming closer but since it was almost completely dark, I stayed still and waited for a miracle to save me. As a tall figure approached me, I realized I was in an abandoned house, during a storm, at night, with a man without knowing his intentions, so I threw the chandelier at him and heard him groaning in pain.
