𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡, obx . discontinued

𝟐𝟑 ;; 𝐀 𝐉𝐔𝐃𝐆𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐌.

After finding out that the only thing underneath the tree was a dead body, the Pogues were rather stumped. The map told them that the treasure was at the foot of the angel. The only thing there was a corpse, which brought up Nalani's breakfast.

"I just don't get it!" Pope exclaimed, his voice full of misery as he tried to reason with himself. "I mean, you guys saw the map. He hides his gold so no one finds it for a hundred and seventy years, and then he sends a message to his son Robert to come to his mother's grave. But the message never gets to him, and Denmark wanted him to find the cross. I know we are in the right spot, it just feels like-"

"Like we missed somethin'?" JJ interrupted, pushing off the Twinkie and looking up towards the sky. "C'mere," He started climbing.

Nalani walked over, furrowing her brows as she watched what JJ was doing. He stood up, pointing at a hole in the tree. "See."

"That's from the island room." Kiara's mouth hung slightly agape before she turned to look down at the rest of them.

Oscar straightened his head. "Put your arm in." He said, extremely confidently.

JJ paused for a moment, then shrugged. "Worth a shot, right?" He then glanced down at everyone else, seeing who would do it. His eyes ended up on Nalani. "You are the smallest."

"No." She replied almost instantly. "I went in the storm drain."

Oscar cocked his head to the side quickly. "She did, to be fair."

After a minute of bickering and JJ nearly backing out, he finally slid his arm into the hole. He patted around the hollow insides for a moment before knitting his brows. "There's something in here. Wait-" He interrupted his sentence with a loud shriek, getting closer to the tree as if something was grabbing him.

All at once, they scrambled onto the roof of the van, reaching for JJ. From the ground, Nalani boosted Oscar up, doing what she could as he grabbed his brother and hauled him backwards. Then, JJ started laughing.

For a full second, her brain refused to compute. Relief crashed over Nalani so quickly that it made her dizzy-her shoulders sagging as if a large weight had just been lifted off of her.

"Oh, I got all of you on that one," He joked loudly in between his laughs, the rest of them not finding it particularly funny. "No, but seriously, there is something in here."

Nalani didn't believe him. Not until he pulled out a golden tube, holding it in his hands like it was a newborn.

Pope reached his hand out straight away, "Let me see it." He wiped the dust away as they all crowded around him. "HMS. Royal Merchant."

JJ snatched it out of Pope's hands, stretching it out. "Give it to the captain. Hey, look, there's a spyglass."

Nalani got up on her tiptoes, pointing over John B's shoulder, "Look, there's something on the end. Writing or something."

"Inscription." Oscar corrected.

"You've come this far, do not falter, the cross is on the Freedman's altar." Pope read out, making each one of them let out a sigh of relief.

It was at the church, the church that was only thirty minutes away-the cross that they were going to find.

They drove through the route they had come in, until they reached the part they had gotten stuck in before. The tide had risen, and the water was too high for them to try to drive through. They could walk, but it would take them hours before they got to the church, and there was no way John B would just leave the Twinkie.

"Tide rose a little bit faster than I thought it would," JJ said matter-of-factly.

"No shit, sherlock." Oscar snapped.