it's a no brainer

pogulogue

Kie's ears ring as thunder rumbles from the tropical storm. Water splashes her face as she grabs ahold of the railing to keep her from falling off the Phantom. Wait why am I on the Phantom?

"You killed my father, and you framed me for a murder I didn't commit..."

Wait...is that John B's voice? She tries to follow the voice but the waves keep crashing against the boat and she can barely see anything from the rain.

"...I will come back one day and take what's mine. So, you listen to me, all right? I'm comin' for you. I'm coming for you."

Kie hears a scream just as another wave floods the cockpit. Lighting flashes and she sees two silhouettes outlined behind it. She can only assume are John B and Sarah. Another wave...well more like a tsunami since it's about as big as a kook house starts to tip over the Phantom.

"Grab onto something!" John B screams. "Kie! Kiara! Are you okay? Kie can you hear me? Kie-"

"John B" Kie screams as she wakes up drenched in sweat. JJ is sitting next to her with an expression of concern something she hasn't seen from him since John B...

"Kie are you okay?" he asks as he hands her a glass of water, room temperature just how she likes it. She sits up in the bed and takes the water gingerly as she wipes off her forehead with her hand with sweat as she thanks him.

"Yeah. Or at least I'm trying to be. I hate this." Kie says as she struggles to keep in the tears threatening to escape her eyes.

"Hey..." JJ says looking down at John B's bedsheets as he fidgets spinning the ring on his pinky finger. "I get them too y'know...I-I think we all do."

Kie grabs his hand. "We're gonna get through this." She says voice breaking even though she barely believes what she's saying.

It's been a month since John B and Sarah have been pronounced dead. No bodies were found which gives them the smallest sliver of hope. But hope of what? That their friends somehow survived that deadly storm? That their bodies are still floating around somewhere in the Pacific? There is no hope anymore.

John B, their best friend, is dead. There's nothing more to it. He's dead and so is Sarah. Coming to terms with this has been one of the hardest things Kie has had to do. No scratch that. It's the single most heartbreaking thing any of the pogues have had to deal with.

Sure JJ has had his dad's 'tough love' throughout the years but at the end of the day, he still comes home. His mom has been MIA for the last eight years.

The last memory he has with her is when she dropped him off at school the first day of third grade giving him the tightest hug which at the time he thought was too tight. "Ow momma you're hurting me," he recalls telling her. The last words he ever told his mom before she apologized and kissed his cheek telling him to have a good day at school and to be a good boy to his father. He watched her as she got into her old, beat-up white Toyota and driving away.

Little did eight-year-old JJ Maybank know that that would be the last time he'd ever see his mother. The last time he'd ever speak to her and he told her how she was hurting him? Well, if he knew that he'd been predicting the next eight years of his life he would've tried to become a psychic or something.

They hear the front door open to the château they immediately let go of each other's hand as the footsteps come closer to John B's room.

"There you two are. I went to the Wreck as we planned but y'all never showed. I was starting to get worried." Pope says walking into the room before noticing how red and tired Kie's eyes look.