The Wake

One Week

The Outer Banks: paradise on Earth. That is until the Camerons decided they wanted to play a game of who shot the sheriff. Now it's like a ghost of what it once was, at least for us Pogues. Life has already returned to normal for most people, but most people didn't lose two of their best friends in one day. And the Camerons, who lost a daughter, are too busy trying to make themselves look innocent to care.

It's been a week since John B and Sarah Cameron disappeared. Everyone seemed to think they were dead, and let's be honest, they probably were, but I was forcing a part of myself to hold on to the tiniest bit of hope. So, the morning after the storm, it was almost as though nothing had happened. There was no point in having the state police in town to chase after a dead guy. The only thing that was different is that Ward was in custody, under questioning thanks to John B's accusations. And of course, he got his way and went free. With Ward maintaining his innocence and the lack of evidence, there wasn't much that could be done. So the police were forced to let him go.

As for Pope, JJ, and I, you're probably wondering how we're not all in jail for helping a wanted fugitive to escape. Well, we got really lucky and we were just written off as "dumb kids who were blinded by friendship." Personally, I think they just didn't want to throw a bunch of grieving kids who were just going to cause noise about John B's innocence and Ward's lack there of into jail. It also probably helped that my parents paid off the damages done by Pope's weed-induced terrible get-away driving. It was one of the few times I was happy to be a Kook, which I was, as much as I hated to admit it.

So, where does that leave us if we're not in jail? Well, Pope's dad Heyward gave him about two days to process everything that had happened. And then, furious about Pope losing his chance for his scholarship and having someone else pay off damages that Pope caused, Heyward put him to work. Said he was going to have to earn the money to pay my parents back as well as the money he would need to pay for college. Luckily, we're only 16, so Pope's got some time to work on that. But still, Heyward had him working almost nonstop, so I hadn't seen much of him in the past week, but at least I knew what he was up to.

JJ was a different story. I'm assuming he had gone home the night of the storm, but when I went to go check in on him, he wasn't there. So then I stopped by the Chateau, but he wasn't there either. With everything that had gone on with his dad, I was already worried about him, and since I haven't seen or spoken to him in a week, I was more so now than ever. Where ever he is, I hope he's okay, because I'm definitely not.

It's hard, losing people you care about. Especially when one of them, you were just getting used to having back in your life. But what was even harder was having to deal with it on your own. With JJ MIA and Pope working all the time, I have no one to share my grief with. Of course, my parents are trying their best to comfort me, but they just don't get it. They keep tip-toeing around me as if I'm a sleeping dog that they're scared to wake, and it's honestly annoying. I'm just sad. It's not like I'm going to murder someone if they make me upset. I'll probably just cry, which is also annoying. Although it's hard not to when your whole entire life gets turned upside down.

And just to top things off, we didn't even get the gold. After over a hundred years of people searching for it, John B had worked so hard to finish what his father had started, and actually found the gold. Just to have Ward Cameron take it away. Just like he took John B's life away by accusing him of murder. As far as we know, the gold is somewhere in Nassau, and we have no way of getting to it. If John B were here.... No. I've got to stop that. He's not here. But man, did I wish he was. I just wish that things were normal again.

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Hello all and welcome to The Wake. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. I know it wasn't the longest, but I hope it did it's job of giving you an idea of what is going on in the world of the Pogues after John B and Sarah's disappearance. If you hadn't picked up on it, Kie is the narrator of this story. If you have any feedback, just leave a comment.

- Maren