Outer Banks ~ JJ Maybank

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John B walked into the house a few days later, sweaty, beat up, and angry. "What happened to you." "Goddamn fucking Kooks." "What?" "Remember how I told you Sarah Cameron saw me returning the scuba shit?" "Yeah." "That little rat snitched and got my ass fired. Then she looked me dead in the eyes and said she didn't do it." "That Kook bitch." "Yeah. And while I was on my way home, those crazy guys," he said taking a deep breath. "The ones that shot us?" "Yeah. Them. They chased me around and then I jumped onto a fence and got electrocuted by a live wire." "Holy shit!" "Yeah but I'm fine. Then Peterkin showed up-" "This story has so many plot twists." "Yeah. Anyway, Peterkin shows up and tells me that we are gonna do things her way and that if I don't hand over the compass, my ass is in jail." "She said that!" "Not really. I was exaggerating. But it was something along those lines." "So did you give it to her?" "Yeah. Of course I did. I don't want to go to prison. That gives them even more reason to put you in foster care and take you away from me." "So what do we do now?" "Cleanup this place. And let go of the past." "What do you mean?" "I mean let's just start over with all of this shit." "And how do we do that?"

"Goodbye old shit from Dad's office that wasn't of much importance. Goodbye old pizza boxes, you were more useful than JJ and Pope earlier today when we were trying to make a quick get away." "About that, next time, maybe give us a second. We got to you right as you peeled out. Oh, by th way, Kie and I kissed but it was super awkward." "What! You can't spring that on me right before we do a giant trash fire." "I'll tell you about it later. Light it up." He said pouring lighter fluid on the pile of stuff. "See ya useless shit." I said throwing a lit match into the pile watching everything suddenly catch fire. We stepped back and watched it all start to burn away. John B squeezed me tightly. "You okay?" He asked. "Yeah. I am. Are you." "Yeah. I am." He said looking back into the fire. "Oh my god wait, hand me that." I said pointing to the fire poker. I grabbed it and he pulled out the Routledge family tree. "Look at that." He said pointing to a name. "Olivia Routledge." "Olivia R Routledge." "What are you trying to say?" "I thought Redfeild was a place but," "It's a person!" We said in unison. "Get flashlights a meet me at the van."

"Honestly, there was never a doubt in my mind that we were gonna end up in a graveyard at night." "God you are so right. I never thought of that before now. This summer has been so crazy. I figured we wouldn't be in a graveyard at night unless someone was dead." "My bet is JJ is the first to go." "No, he has that gun. He can protect himself." "Until he forgets to turn the safety back on and shoots himself because he was playing with it." "Oh my god, you are so right." "I know. It is both a blessing and a curse." "Who knows though, we are all gonna be here one day soon if we don't start taking better care of the Earth." "Kie, can you be quiet about the Earth and how we have to take care off it for like 5 minutes." JJ said, tripping over a tree root. "That's the part of this conversation you are choosing to have a problem with." "Guys, this is it." John B said pointing to the grave. "Fancy." I said walking over to it. It was a huge marble thing. "Now we have to get it open." John B, JJ and Pope tried to push open the entrance while Kie and I watched. "Need help?" We asked. "No, we got it." They said, straining. "Move." I said walking over and pushing it with them. It wouldn't budge. We all stepped away and watched as a huge snake slithered out and onto the ground. There are very few things that scare me in this world, and snakes are one of them. I jumped back into JJ and he held me behind him and started barking at the snake. "What the fuck is that gonna help." "You're gonna wake up the dead." "They're scared of dogs. Everyone knows that." Everyone rolled their eyes and went back to the door. 

"There is a tiny gap but I doubt that-" "I can fit in it." Kie said. "I can do it too." I said. "Are you sure you wanna go in there with all the snakes." JJ teased. "Yeah. Besides, if anything goes wrong, I'm already gonna be in a perfectly fine burial place. Honestly, I am scared for you. If I die, I'm coming back and haunting the shit out of you." I said putting down my flashlight. JJ held out his hands and boosted Kie up and in. I placed my foot in his hands. and he lifted me up. "Can someone hand me my flashlight?" Kie said from inside. "Sure." Pope said, sticking his arm in the space where I needed to be. "Take your time Pope." I said sarcastically. "Yeah, take your time Pope, I'm loving the view." John B and I both smacked the sides of his head as Pope moved. I crawled in and got my flashlight from John B. "What are we looking for?" I asked. "You'll know when you see it." "Okay." I said turning my flashlight on and beginning to look around. "Are you guys okay in there? Still alive. Heart beats and everything?" "We are fine John B." I called as we walked around. "Holy shit." Kie said, suddenly stopping in front of me. I looked up and where she was looking and felt my eyes get big. "Oh my god."