𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐲

eight: Lighthouse.

   

     THE boys and Kie stand together, looking out the window to see two men. "Guys, guys, is that them?" Kie asked worriedly. "No." JJ said. "Is that them?" Kie repeated her question. "This is suboptimal." Pope said softly to himself.

"John B, I told you." JJ said, he had walked off now. "Why does it always—" "JJ! Hey, look at me." John B grabbed JJ and shoved him against the wall, raising a finger to the blond's face. Kai's eyebrows raise, "where's the gun?" John B asked. "Gun? I, uh, I can't—" "Now you don't have the gun, the one time we need the gun?" Kie says.

"It was in my backpack, and then I—" "On the porch." Kai cut him off, crossing his arms. "It's on the porch." JJ looks at John B who got out of the way. "Go, go, go." John B whispered and JJ rushed over to the door but then they hear a loud voice coming from the porch.

"John Routledge!"

"Guys!" Kie said, sounding scared as Kai rushed over to the door. "Come on out now!" The man continued to yell as JJ finally ran in and Kai lets out a relieved sigh, the boy quickly closing the door to the office right behind him. "Where's the gun?" John B whispered to JJ who turns to him and Kai. "They're on the front porch, guys."

"Get out here!"

The men continued shouting and it sounded like they were inside now. "We gotta leave!" Kie whispered to the four boys. "Guys, window. Window." She pointed and Pope rushed over with Kai and JJ, the three trying to open the window. "What's... what's happening? Why is it taking so long?" Kie sounded scared.

"It's painted shut, okay?" JJ turned to her before turning away. Kie walks off and then came back over shortly, holding a tool that can help them which she then uses to try and cut the paint apart from the window. "Come on, come on." JJ whispered, standing behind Kai and Kie. "She's going as fast as she can, shut up," Kai whispers only to have Pope and John B shush them.

"You better not be in there!"

Now one of the men were right outside the door. John B and Pope run away from the door as the man now tried to kick it open. Kai groans and grabs the mail opener from Kie, and then gunshots at the door. Kai flinched but then he finally got the window open, quickly climbing out. He turns to the others, helping Kie out and then once they were all outside, they ran to hide quickly.

In the rooster coop, John B and Kai watch the men carry several boxes to their car filled with what is probably research on the Royal Merchant. "Do something, Pope. Shut him up." JJ says through gritted teeth at the boy.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Pet it, or talk to it. I don't know." Kie says, her voice shaky. The man closed the back of the truck and looked over so John B crawls away, hiding which Kai does the same, looking at Pope. "You do something." Pope whispered to JJ.

JJ grabs the rooster, pressing it down onto the ground firmly before snapping its neck. Kai frowned as he watched JJ's face of realization, slowly sitting back. Kie lets out a small sob, making Kai look over at her. John B reached out, grabbing her hand making her look over at him.

Now the group were on their way somewhere, John B driving the van with Kie in the passenger seat as Pope, Kai and JJ were in the back. "I mean, it's obvious, right? A family heirloom. What better place to hide a message?" John B asked the other four in the van. "He had to know it was gonna get back to me, right?" He added on. "Yeah, it's possible." Kie says, nodding her head.

"It could also be possible that you're concocting wild theories to help, you know," Pope said, pausing as John B says. "Pope." But Pope carried on, "deal with your sad feels." Kie looks back at him. "Bro, you know how I process my sad feels. Dank nug and the stickiest of ickies," JJ looks at Kai, before looking at Pope. "That's how I do it."

"I'm not concocting, okay?" John B quickly defends himself. "My dad's trying to give me a message." He added after, looking at the road. "If it helps you believe, John B." Kie says, sounding sympathetic when she said it. "Look, I-I don't need a therapy session, okay? Look, I'm not tripping out." John B said in a defensive tone.

"It's okay to trip, bro, but—" "my-my dad is missing, okay?" John B looked over to them and Kai frowns, glancing at JJ. "Missing." He added, turning back around to face the road. JJ looks up, looking towards Kai and Pope. "You don't know what it's like to have the person closest to you vanish and then have no idea what happened." John B said and for a moment, Kai tried to imagine that. And he looked at JJ right away, to his surprise, the boy looked back at him. Possibly thinking of the same thing that he was. "Just wake up every morning wondering." John B says and Kai looks over at the boy in the driver's seat.

"It's been almost a year, dude..." He says, playing with the black rubber band he had on his middle finger. "Hey, he could have been kidnapped. That's definitely a possibility." JJ says and Kai gave a look at the boy, confused.

"Yeah, could be in a Soviet sub getting interrogated by the KGB somewhere." Pope agrees. "Absolutely. Uh... or Atlantis." JJ says and Kie looks at John B. "JJ..." She says in disbelief before asking, "look, what do you think the message is?" Kai also looks at John B, wanting to know.

"Redfield." John B says as they then passed a sign on the way in. However it did say that it was closed due to the hurricane. "Redfield Lighthouse. That's my dad's favourite place."

  

  

  

  

authors note hi everyone <3
i've been trying my best to write for this book but it's hard because my ideas = trash and my laptop isn't working so i'm using my ipad