season two ; episode eight { The Cross }
chapter seventy-one
KIARA, BROOKLYN AND JJ FINALLY ARRIVED BACK TO THEIR GROUP AND NO ONE LOOKED HAPPY. Brooklyn honked the horn so they'd definitely know they were there and then climbed out of the car along with JJ and Kiara.
"Where the hell were you guys?" Pope asked immediately.
"Paternal complications," Kiara replies.
"Luke was at the Château."
"Oh, great! While you were having family time wut your pops, John B got bit by a gator," Pope told them.
Brooklyn's eyes shot up to see her brother panting, his foot was wrapped in his bandana and the blood seemed to have soaked up but it was still very obviously there. Brooklyn was almost thankful she wasn't here. She really didn't need to have her boyfriend's father be a dick to her and then watch her brother be eaten by a gator in the same day.
She would've rushed over to him but she had only just managed to dry herself up of all the water and mud all over her legs. "You okay?" She yelled.
"Okay, what the hell happened?"
"What happened? I got bit by a gator!"
"He got bit by a gator!"
"I don't know why I'm being yelled at because I put my ass on the line," Kiara tried to back herself up.
"You're being yelled at because it was twenty minutes—"
"We got here as fast as we could," Brooklyn says.
No one in the group started to make sense, it seemed that everyone was just pointlessly yelling over each other and no one was getting anywhere. The words leaving everyone's mouths didn't even make much sense and no one had a valid point to even make.
"Shut up!" JJ finally snapped, silencing everyone. "Seriously, guys, I can't take it anymore, all right? Everyone just cut it out for a second," the boy laughed, leaning himself against a tree. "Look, I just helped my dad leave this island for good. Like, he's not ever coming back. He's straight up like the Spanish. Just, bon voyage."
"That's not the right language," Brooklyn whispered.
"All we got... And I know for a fact all I got is you guys, okay? You're it," JJ says, his eyes landing on Brooklyn who stood not too far away from him. "And I've come too close to losing you, all of you," he paused to take a breather before speaking again, "I mean, shit, like you almost drowned," he says, pointing at Brooklyn. "Pope, you were kidnapped. Sarah, you've been shot. Kie, you might get sent away to boarding school. And, John B, you were almost dinner for a freaking gator, bro. So this blaming each other is some Kook-ass bullshit, all right? We don't do that. Okay, we're Pogues. Sorry, that was a lot right now."
Everyone in the group was smiling at the boy who gave the best freaking speech of his life. They all looked around at one another and began to applaud him which made him laugh. "Well done."
"I gotta be honest that was the best freaking speech you have ever given," John B says. "Also, you should think about, like, Rosetta Stone because your Spanish and French are flip-flopped."
JJ held both his middle fingers up at the boy.
"We should bon voyage out of here."
"Let's get this damn Twinkie out of here," JJ says, heading back to the car.
And so they rescued the Twinkie from being a submarine and they began to set off for the church with the Twinkie being towed behind the car.
They all traveled to the church in hope that they'd find what they had been looking for.
The Cross.
It looked like a shithole inside but it had been left and abandoned for centuries. The wood was falling from the walls, the pews were pushed away or snapped in half. The windows were dirty and the floor was so creaky that they were scared the entire thing would cave in from one footstep.
"Okay, you're telling me Denmark Tanny decided to hide the cross here?" JJ asked just in case because this place didn't seem as nice as the Angel Oak in the middle of nowhere.
"Mm-hmm."
"Everybody, just spread out."
"Okay, well if I was a cross and wanted to be hidden in an old church, where would I hide?" John B asked himself as he took a couple steps forward. Brooklyn had her arm around his shoulders to steady him, she didn't need him collapsing on her right now.
"Are you sure Denmark hid the cross here, Pope? Like are we at the right church?"
"It's gotta be somewhere, guys."
"What if we have to push a secret button or," JJ step over to the old piano. "like, okay, like a... a certain chord, and then all of a sudden the ground beneath us reveals the catacombs or something on which we stand?"
"I see your time as Sherlock has ended," Brooklyn comments.
"How about we try to find obvious clues?"
"It's not an escape room."
"Sorry. I'm sorry," JJ says softly.
"I can't see where they'd hide a giant cross in here," John B says to Pope who is frantically pacing the room in order to find anything. A clue or even just the cross would be great.
"No, no. There's no way he would set us up on a freaking goose chase that would lead us to a church that has nothing," Pope ranted.
"Yes, I get it. I don't know what to tell you, man."
"The clues led us here. The cross is in this church."
Brooklyn eyes wandered around the room before landing above at the wooden beams that held up the roof. They appeared to be in cross like shapes and there is a chance one of them is hiding the cross in but maybe that's totally crazy.
"Pope, it'll be alright. We've had setbacks in the past and we figured it out. We're gonna find it," John B assured him.
"We've just gotta think about this—"
"Guys," Brooklyn says, cutting off her brother. "Am I totally crazy or does those beams look to be in the shape of a cross?"
Pope rose to his feet quickly, looking up in the same direction as Brooklyn. "You're a freaking genius, Brooklyn."
"I've got Sherlock brain now!" She cheered, smiling up at the wooden beams.
"Look at that."
Pope stepped away from Brooklyn and over to the wall, they very unsteady wall that could break easily. "Pope," Sarah calls but he begins to climb himself up off the floor. He holds onto the holes in the wall to pull himself up, almost like he's rock climbing in a complete crazy ass way.
"Hey, no!"
"Now Pope's climbing the wall," John B says.
"Wait. Pope, wait. This is crazy."
"Pope, this church is old. Like really old. This isn't safe," Kiara told him.
Anyone could hear the crumbling of the wood from miles away but Pope continued to climb upwards. "Yo! This church gots fo be at least two hundred years old."
"He's right. It's too dangerous!"
Brooklyn didn't bother to say anything because all seemed to be going perfectly fine and Pope obviously wasn't listening to any of them.
"Yo, let me just be real. You're not the most coordinated person on planet Earth," JJ tells the boy who has pulled himself onto one of the beams.
He banged a hand on the wood. "All right, this one's solid wood," he says. "I'm gonna try the other beam."
"Pope, that's rotten as shit right there, okay?"
"Be careful, Pope!" Brooklyn yells, not wanting him to fall as he climbed from each bit of broken wood to get to the other beam.
When he arrived at the other beam he began to bang on the wood like it would just move and reveal the cross but nothing was happening. "Pope, I hate to break it to you, but that's wood," JJ tells him.
"No, no. It has to be in here," he says, almost trying to pull it apart.
"Bro, just look out for that giant wasp nest right above your head," JJ warns and Brooklyn realises that there is a huge nest not inches away from him.
"Hey, just move slow, all right? Nice and easy, all right?" Brooklyn tells him, watching as he swizzles around to get to the other beam.
He reaches one foot out and kicks a piece of rotting wood from it which caused it to fall and almost hit them. "Whoa, hey! Yo!"
"Look! It's hollow," Pope says. "Go get me a crowbar!" Sarah rushes off to get a crowbar from the van while Pope stays still in his spot.
"I don't want this entire church to collapse on top of us. That's all I'm saying."
When Sarah comes back in with a crowbar, she throws it up to the boy who begins to pick at the wood with his fingers. Pope still needed to be cautious of that wasp nest because any sudden movement could get him stung.
"Hey, Pope, Pope, there's the wasp nest right up there, okay? Just move slow, all right?" Brooklyn tells him, watching him look up at the wasps flying around above his head.
"Got it."
Pope began to hit the wood with the crowbar and it was obvious that it was hollow because the wood was breaking quite easily. The more he broke, the more something became visible to them.
As the wood fell to the ground, the most beautiful solid gold cross came into view. It looked as though it was brand new because it looked absolutely magnificent. It was engraved with patterns and jewels and it was so insanely shiny that it could so easily blind someone in the sun.
"You did it, buddy."
Everyone cheered and laughed, over the moon that they had finally found the treasure they had been searching for.
"Oh, my God!" Brooklyn cheered, grabbing onto Sarah and Kiara to bring them into a hug. The boys grabbed onto each other and cheered in excitement.
"Yeah! Keep going!"
"Yeah!" Pope yelled, ripping off the last few pieces of wood.
"Holy shit!"
"I thought you were crazy!"
"We did it! We did it!" Pope cheered. "Okay, they're stinging now. Ow!"
Pope threw the crowbar to the ground when the wasps began to pinch at his skin and do damage. Pope tried to waft them away from him but suddenly, he fell to one side and his legs dangled from the beam as he held on.
Well, that didn't go as planned.
"Hold on, Pope!"
"Cushions," John B says, signalling the group to grab the old cushions the the room to put down as protection for when he falls.
"Pope, hold on."
"I'm slipping guys!" He was now holding on with one hand and the nail in the wood was starting to pull out. "Guys!"
"Hold on!" John B yelled as they continued to stack up the cushions.
"I can't hold on!" They continued to pile the cushions on top of one another underneath Pope and thank god they did because he fell so fast that they barely had time to process it.
"Pope, are you okay?" Brooklyn raced to his side, checking to see if he was still breathing and he hadn't been too hurt from the wasps. "You good?"
"You okay?"
"Anything broken?"
"Do you feel good?"
"You did not tuck and roll, for sure."
Pope's eyes then widened and that's when everyone realised that the cross that weighed a ton was coming down towards them at full speed.
𝐓𝐁𝐇𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐒
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— a lot of people have messaged and
asked if brooklyn could get pregnant
or have a pregnancy scare...?
— i'm sorry but brooklyn won't get
pregnant in this story... it'll kind of
ruin the story and she's only
seventeen
— i think when obx is over and stuff
then i'll have a lil family thing with
brooklyn & jj <3