Chasing Sunshine | JJ Maybank

29 // Parcel Nine

"Okay, so the road should split up here," Pope directed, glancing between the map in front of him and the road, "You're gonna take a left."

I braced against the side of the van while John B swung the wheel hard to bring us screeching around the corner. JJ crossed over to glance through the window above my head and I sat up on my knees to join him. He nodded his chin outside. "That looks like a stone wall to me."

John B slowed us to a stop and shifted the van into park while we all stared out the windows at our surroundings. Pope made one more reference to the map then replied with a sigh, "This is it."

The doors to Volkswagen slammed shut and our shoes crunched in the gravel as we all gathered to stand in front of an aging, vine-covered wall. I looked up at the crumbling mansion standing tall and imposing over us and a small seed of doubt planted firmly in my mind. John B muttered exactly what we all were thinking, "Not the Crain house."

"Are you kidding me?" Kie exclaimed, her mouth dropping open once she recognized the most notorius house in the Outer Banks. She looked down the line towards the rest of us with a concerned expression.

"Worst-case scenario," JJ replied, equally as uncomfortable.

"Why'd it have to be here..." Pope lamented, "of all places." I shook my head, pulling at a few of my fingers and trying not to let my imagination run wild.

"I heard that Mrs. Crain buried her husband's head on the property," JJ said, looking at each of us seriously.

"Okay, come on guys, we're not seven year-old trick-or-treaters anymore," I stated, sounding more confident than I felt, "We don't believe in ghost stories." I was the first to step forward and I placed one foot on the wall, pushing upwards and using that momentum to swing the rest of my body over. I looked behind me to where the rest of them were still staring at the house and gestured for them all to follow me. "Let's go."

One by one, they all joined me and together we explored quietly through the thick overgrown brush infiltrating the front yard. I led the way, not really sure what we were looking for, and I heard Kie talking to the rest of them behind me.

"Look, you guys know whose house this is, right?"

"Oh, yeah. No I do," JJ replied knowingly.

"Honestly, I don't really believe the stories of this place," John B admitted and I stopped to let the rest of them catch up.

"Thank you!" I responded but Pope just shushed the both of us with a finger to his lips and we all kept walking.

JJ stepped forward a couple paces so that he was even with Kie and I and whispered to her with wide eyes, "Which stories did you hear?"

"The one were she killed her husband with an axe and that she's been holed up ever since," Kie responded ominously. I snorted, pushing tree branches from my face. She kept on her story-telling anyway, turning to wiggle her fingers in JJ's face. "On certain nights, when the moon is full...you can see her in the window!"

"No Kie, it's not funny, 'cause it's all true!" he complained and I giggled as she continued to make spooky motions with her hands. "I swear to god guys, this is all real!"

"JJ, come on," I sighed but he was quick to defend himself.

"No you don't get it! I knew Hollis-jeez!" He jumped about a foot when the faint outline of one of the garden statues startled him from the corner of his eye and I raised an amused eyebrow at his raised fists.

"Wait, you knew Hollis Crain?" Pope asked.

"Yeah dude."

Pope pushed on the other boy's chest to halt his movements, and once again, we all stopped in a semi-circle around JJ. "Dude, how do you know Hollis Crain?"