**Trigger Warning**
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"You'll only put her in more danger."
- John Booker Routledge
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[present day]
"And then we were right outside like this...and all we hear is just 'Bam! Bam! Bam!'..." JJ explains, leaning against the brick fireplace on the screen porch.
JJ was a ticking time bomb of anxiety, and he was currently filling the other Pogues in on their encounter with Miss Lana and the thugs that chased them through the marsh. Kiara was sitting in a wicker chair, John B standing silently behind her, too busy staring at the compass to pay attention to the conversation. Pope was sitting on the green couch, watching JJ's reenactment.
"Knocking paint off the wall, G! From the inside, alright! And I'm just looking at him like - wait, first off, look at this shit. Look at it." JJ says, walking over to the three teens sitting around the porch. He bends over, running his hands through his hair, white flakes fall out onto the floor. Kiara scrunch up her face.
"The hell?" Pope says.
"That's dandruff." Kiara says. "Disgusting."
"Okay, thank you." Pope says, as JJ finally stands up straight again.
"Look at all that, alright." JJ says, gesturing to the pile of white flakes now on the floor. "That's paint. At that point, I was just, like...I'm waiting for death."
"Oh, okay, so you saw the guys that shot at us, right?" Pope asks, leaning forward in his seat on the couch.
"Yeah."
"Um, did you get a good description of them? What'd they look like?" Pope asks.
"Yeah, anything. Anythings helpful." Kiara adds.
"Anything we could bring to like a police report, maybe?" Pope continues.
"Yeah."
"Burly..." JJ says, turning away from the window, where he was looking.
"Burly?" He asks, confused.
"Yeah...you know like-"
"That's not very helpful." Kiara mumbles under her breath, but JJ still hears her.
"Okay, well, no, like the type of guy at my dads garage. I mean, you guys know, he made cargo hides for drug smugglers." The blonde explains.
"Yeah, yes. No, we know." Kiara tries to assure him.
YOU ARE READING
In the Dark ~ j.m¹
RomanceAfter being abandoned by his mother at a young age, left to deal with his abusive father, JJ Maybank feels like he was stranded out at sea during a terrible storm, fighting to make it through each day. Even though he meets the Pogues at a young age...
