The teens sat In the van as pope gave John B directions from the map.
They slowed down as JJ pointed it out.
"That looks like a stone wall to me!"
"This is it" pope confirmed.
The group jumped out of the van as Riley face palmed, realising their location.
"Not the Crain house" John B spoke what Riley was thinking.
"Are you kidding me" kie said looking between the group.
"Worse case scenario" JJ said, staring up at the building in front of him.
"Why'd it have to be here if all places" pope sighed.
"I heard mrs Crain buried her husbands head on the property" JJ informed the group.
"JJ?" Riley spoke to the boy for the first time in days, he looked down at her, surprised but happy.
"Yeah?" He asked her smiling
"Shut up"
"Yeah okay"
"Honestly I don't really believe the stories of this place" John B told the group, as they climbed through the wilderness
"watch your step ry" he told Riley as he helped her over a fallen wall. JJ looked at the two, and felt jealousy, why was he even getting jealous about that? He sighed and carried on walking.
"Which stories did you all hear?" Riley asked the group, she couldn't help but feel fearful about where they were.
"The one where she killed her husband with an axe" kie told her, making Riley's fears worse.
"On certain nights when the moon is full you can see her in the window" kie said beginning to laugh at the fear on JJ and popes faces, until she saw Riley's face.
"I'm only joking Lee" she smiled at the girl, feeling a bit guilty.
"It's not funny guys cus it's all true" JJ began telling the group.
"JJ-" John B hinted at him to shut Up
"No seriously I knew Hollis" JJ told the group.
"Wait you knew Hollis Crain?" Pope asked him
"Yeah dude. She was my babysitter. She told me all about it. Told me the truth, about her mother" he told the group who were now invested in his story.
"So as a kid, she heard all the stories about her mother killing her father, and she was a murder and all, but Hollis didn't believe it. Until that night"
"What night?" John B asked
"It all came back to her. When Hollis was six years old, she heard her parents arguing downstairs. So she goes downstairs to see her mom washing her hands in the sink, full of blood. Her mother just said that she cut her finger. The next morning she said her father and her were split up. But then Hollis noticed something, her mother going into the parlor constantly, in and out and in and out with plastic bags. Weeks pass and Hollis decides to use the outhouse. And as she's using it, she looks down, and there, in the outhouse, is her fathers head looking straight back at her."
Riley felt herself grow even more fearful at JJs story, John B noticed her body tense and wrapped an arm round the girl.
"God you're so full of shit" John B told the boy
"Dude I swear to god man!" JJ told John B, before noticing his arm round Riley, and Riley's fearful expression
"Wait hold on hold on" he said as the group moved closer to the house.
"You sure you wanna do this? She's an axe murderer man and you've got a cast on!" JJ told the boy.
"I don't give a shit if she's an axe murderer okay! I got nothing to lose! Right? So are you coming or not?" John B snapped at JJ, before looking down to Riley.
"But ry, you don't have to come if you don't want to" he told the girl.
"No it's okay. Like you say, nothing to lose" she smiled nervously up at John B who smiled sympathetically back down at the girl. JJ noticed the interaction and felt his whole body tense with jealousy.
He thought him and Riley were finally making progress, he thought since the kiss they would be more, but all that had happened was Riley had almost blanked him completely.
JJ didn't know what came over him but he grabbed Riley's hand and pulled her to his side instead of John Bs. if anything happened in here, he needed to protect her. She looked up at him surprised, but didn't take her hand out of his. The rest of the group noticed, but decided not to speak on it.
"Okay here's the plan" John B told the group as they gathered near the house, all crouching and hiding. "We need to find the wheat near the water, like the letter said"
"Ok like what kind of water, like pond water?" Pope asked John B
"Bong water?" JJ asked immaturely, to which he received a poke in the ribs from Riley.
"It just said look for water okay?" John B told the group.
"That's the shittiest secret message ever" kie stated, to which Riley agreed.
"You wanna complain a little more kie! No one said it was gonna be easy" John B snapped at the girl.
"I'll search the northeast quadrant, you search the northwest quadrant" pope told JJ.
"The decapitation quadrant!?" JJ shouted at pope but he had already walked off.
They carried on searching through the overgrown bushes until John B found a cellar door.
"Hey guys come on, it's the only place we haven't looked" John B whispered to the group who headed over to where he was, Riley's hand still placed in JJs.
The group headed into the cellar, which was dark and gloomy. The floorboards creaked under their feet, as they tried their best to stay quiet.
"Down came mrs Crain, and cut off all our heads. Up came the sun and dried up all the blood" JJ sang.
"JJ I swear to god I'm gonna kill you" Riley whispered to JJ.
"Even if it was a death threat I'm glad you're speaking to me again" JJ whispered back to the girl who rolled her eyes but couldn't help but smile, luckily it was dark so no one could see.
"See any water?" Kie asked the group but no one responded.
"Hey let's split up and look around?" Pope suggested to which the group nodded.
JJ and Riley headed off to one part of the cellar whilst the other three stayed in the first section.
"Hey riles, can we talk" he said to the girl.
"Yeah go ahead" Riley said whilst not really listening and still looking around
"No I mean like properly talk" he said grabbing the girl and holding her still in front of him whilst Riley avoided eye contact.
"What's up?" She asked him.
"Why've you been avoiding me?" He asked the girl.
"I havnt been avoiding you" she answered, still avoiding his eyeline
"Riley" he said, grabbing her chin and making her look at him "why have you been avoiding me?" He asked again, looking her head in the eye.
"We kissed JJ! We kissed and things were great! We held hands, and the second anyone questioned what we were you bailed! I actually thought-" but then she stopped herself.
"You thought what?" JJ asked the girl.
"I thought you liked me JJ! We kissed for gods sake!" She shouted and JJ shushed her.
She stared at him, tears begging to form in her eyes.
"Forget I said anything" she said, and began to walk off, before JJ grabbed her arm and pulled her back into him, into a hug. She stayed in his arms and sobbed gently.
"I don't like you Riley," he began and she pulled away from him and looked him dead in the eyes.
"I love you. I'm in love with you. I don't know why I bailed on you that day, I panicked and I'm sorry. But I'm so in love with you Riley. Anytime a boy even looks at you, I get jealous, I get so fucking jealous, I love you" he said again, suddenly catching his breathe again.
Riley stared up at the boy in disbelief, and then smiled.
"Im in love with you too" she whispered and smiled at the boy. She leaned in slowly and they kissed.
They kissed passionately and slowly, and then pulled away to smile at each other.
"Look, I don't think we should tell the others. Not because I'm ashamed of you, I would scream from the rooftops how in love with you I am, but the rule you know? Nows not the time to mess up the group" JJ told the girl "but if you want to tell them, we can" he smiled at her.
"No I agree, it's the right thing" she smiled at the boy.
They may not be together, but Riley had the confirmation she needed. He did love her.
"Another dead end?" Kie came into Where JJ and Riley were, looking between them to see if they found anything.
"Nothing" Riley said to kie.
The three headed back into the main section of the cellar.
"There's not even water on the pipes" JJ told the group as he felt along the pipes on the ceiling.
"There's no water here" pope stated disappointed.
"Not a dropamino" JJ confirmed
"You know why we didn't find any?" Kie asked the group "bad karma" she said, now looking at John B directly in the eyes.
"Oh god here we go" John B sighed.
"You know we had a good thing going. And then you decided to rope in barbie, and now the trails gone dry" kie said to John B.
Riley couldn't help but giggle at the nickname she gave Sarah, and JJ squeezed her hand, he found it funny too but nows not the time.
"This is exactly why I didn't want to tell you about Sarah" John B sighed "What the hells the deal? What is going on between you two?" John B asked kie.
Truth was, Riley knew what happened between kie and Sarah, and knew how much it hurt kie, but she also felt bad for John B, he was catching feelings for a girl and felt like he couldn't tell his best friends about it.
"Nothing!" Kie snapped back.
"Nothing? Is it because I kissed you? Is that why?" John b asked the girl.
Kie quickly lifted her hand and slapped the boy round the face. Riley didn't blame her. Yeah she felt bad for John but that was a low blow.
"Oh shit!" JJ said
"Stop treating me like some girl that's obsessed with you, instead of your best friend, who's actually looking out for you" kie told John B.
Riley smiled proudly at the girl for sticking up for herself.
"Did you uh, hit me?" John B asked the girl.
"Skeeter" kie smiled sarcastically,
holding up her hand to show the dead bug
John B quickly slapped the girl round the face.
"Hey no!" JJ shouted at the boy
"John B!" Riley shouted at him, making her way towards him to give him another slap, but JJ pulled her back.
"Where's your proof?" Kie asked the boy, John B lifted his hand to show a dead mosquito.
"Skeeter" he smiled at the girl sarcastically
"Yeah there was probably one there" kie said hitting the boy on the arm. Before they knew it, they were both hitting each other and laughing, and chasing each other round the room.
JJ suddenly hit Riley on the top of her arm, she turned to look at him with 'really?' Plastered on her face
"Skeeter" he smiled at the girl showing his hand.
JJ turned around and Riley slapped him on the arse.
He turned to look at her
"Skeeter" she smiled cheekily.
"Show me your proof?" He smiled at the girl
Riley just giggled in response and before she knew it JJ was chasing the girl round the cellar, eventually grabbing her from behind and lifting her up, and tickling her
"I want proof Riley" he said whilst tickling her and Riley just laughed hysterically.
"Why is there so many mosquitos in a basement?" Riley heard pope ask as JJ finally put her back down on the floor and she finished laughing.
She suddenly began to think about it, when she landed in the floor and the floorboards under her creaked.
"Wait pope!" She said getting excited.
Pope ran over to the girl , and she grabbed a stone and held it up to show pope, and dropped it through the floor boards, where it took a while to fall and eventually the sound of it hitting water. It hit water. Pope and Riley looked at each other excitedly and smiled whilst kie JJ and John B messed around behind them.
"Guys help us move this!" Riley told the others as her and pope started lifting up the floorboards.
"What are you guys doing?" John B asked them.
"Water" was all Riley said smiling, and the other suddenly rushed over to help.
The group moved all the floorboards and underneath was a well.
They leaned over and looked into the depth, not even being able to see the bottom it was that deep.
"Well well well" pope said to the group.
"That was a good dad joke" John B told the group and Riley burst out laughing at the joke making the whole group turned to look at her.
"Sorry. It was funny" she shrugged, JJ looked at the girl and smiled at how cute she was.
"They built this part of the house right over" kie told the group
"This is where she hid the bodies" JJ whispered.
"Dude stop" kie told JJ.
"No no I'm dead serious" JJ told her
"So was mr Crain. Well. Dead at least" Riley said.
JJ snorted and poked her in the rib, making Riley look at him and laugh.
"So we found water" pope let out of a sigh of relief.
"We're gonna need a really big rope"
John B smiled looking at the rest of the group.