CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
DRAG ME DOWN — ONE DIRECTION
All my life, you stood by me
When no one else was ever behind me
All these lights, they can't blind me
With your love, nobody can drag me down
"THEY'RE GONNA KILL us," Stella drawled, staring at the clock on the dashboard. "Like slaughter us, somehow bring us back to life, then kill us all over again."
Hours passed since they left their friends in the rising tide of the backwater swamp. The promise of twenty minutes was shattered the moment Luke Maybank showed up. Thankfully, he would no longer be a problem. As of forty minutes ago, he was on a one way trip to Yucatan. But despite the good news, Luke's disappearance wouldn't save them from the anger of the others.
JJ laughed. He was taking his father's departure surprisingly well. He'd miss him (as much as he hated to admit it), but he knew he would be better off without him. After the initial grief of abandonment, he found comfort in the fact he still had his friends. As long as he had his chosen family, he'd be okay.
"Five bucks says Pope throws a fit," the blond proposed, resting his elbow on the middle console of Mr. Carrera's truck.
Kie raised a brow. "You don't even have five dollars."
He grinned. "That's why I bet on Pope."
The backroads turned to mud and Kie slowed down, careful not to scratch the truck. She went against her better judgement stealing the truck and knew it was only a matter of time until her parents figured out it was her who took the keys. She wasn't about to get in trouble for damaging the paint too.
Pope, John B, and Sarah were perched on top of the Twinkie when they arrived, and Stella frowned as she looked at them through the side mirrors. They looked beyond pissed.
"Look who it is," Pope drawled as they exited the truck. "Mr. and Mrs. Tortoise and their pet snail. Just a couple hours late."
"Where the hell were you guys?" Sarah questioned, brows furrowed with her arms crossed.
JJ set up the winch and turned to her. "Paternal complications," he explained with a shrug. "Luke was at the Chateau."
"Oh, great!" Pope scoffed. "While you were having family time with your pops, John B got bit by a gator!"
With wide eyes, Stella stepped closer to the waterline. She didn't get too far, considering JJ grabbed her by the waist and pulled her back. He watched the water with a careful eye. "Like, for real?"
"Does it look like we're joking?"
After scanning the area for any sign of wildlife, Stella moved JJ's hands from her hip and stepped into the water with a grimace. She ignored his calls for her to come back in fear that she'd become gator food and approached the Twinkie. "Let me see it," she ordered John B. When she reached for his shirt, he smacked her hand away. Glaring, she hit him back. "Let me see the bite, John B."
He sighed and lifted his shirt.
"Okay," Kie said, bringing the attention back to her, "what the hell happened?"
John B flinched as Stella prodded his wound. "I got bit by a gator!" He snapped, triggering Sarah and Pope to jump in with, "He got bit by a gator!"
"I don't know why I'm being yelled at!" Kie shouted in response. "I put my ass on the line!"
"You're being yelled at because it was twenty minutes—"
"We got here as fast as we could!"
"Hours! You were gone for hours!"
The group continued to shout in frustration, and Stella would be lying if it didn't make her head hurt. A lack of sleep didn't mix well with loud noises.
Seeing her discomfort and feeling his own, JJ ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "Guys," he called out. When they ignored him, he rolled his eyes and tried again. "Shut up!"
His voice cut through the air and the others silenced as it echoed.
"Seriously, guys, I can't take it anymore, alright? Everyone just cut it out for a second." JJ shook his head with a humourless laugh and leaned against a nearby 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," Sarah whispered, glancing around.
"All we got... And I know for a fact all I got is you guys, okay? You're it." His eyes lingered on Stella before looking to his other friends. "And I've come too close to losing you, all of you. I mean, shit, like Kie almost drowned—same with Stel. Sarah, you've been shot—same with Stel again." She gave him a sheepish smile. "Pope, you were kidnapped. And John B, you were almost dinner for a freaking gator, bro. So, this blaming each other is some Kook-ass bullshit, alright? We don't do that. We're Pogues."
He paused, waiting for someone to add on to his point, but when nobody did, he rubbed his hands together. "Sorry, that was a lot right now. I didn't mean to..."
A round of applause rippled through the group as small grins tugged at their lips. They could all agree that JJ's passion was the most admirable thing about him, but that didn't mean they wouldn't tease him for it.
"Well-done," Pope praised, causing the blond to roll his eyes and flip everyone off. "I gotta be honest. That was the best freaking speech you have ever given. Also, you should think about, like, a Rosetta Stone because your Spanish and French are flip-flopped."
"Yeah, alright. Laugh it up."
John B snickered and rolled his shirt down. "My heart's about to burst out of my chest."
"That was touching, J." Stella gave a look of approval, although it could've doubled as borderline amusement. Her hand came over her heart as she started wading back to the shoreline. "I'm touched."
"Oh, yeah?" He smirked, raising a brow. "Where?"
A prolonged groan slipped past the lips of everyone around them. The teens were well-accustomed to JJ's shameless indiscretions, both before and after he started dating Stella. They just thought after making things official all those weeks ago that he'd learn the meaning of subtly. He didn't. He actually got worse.
"Gross."
"Seriously, dude?"
"Yeah, if you two are done making me want to vomit, can we go before my van turns into a submarine?"
Sarah shifted her weight between the palms that rested on the Twinkie's roof. "Yeah, we should bon voyage out of here."
"OKAY, YOU'RE TELLING me Denmark Tanny decided to hide the cross here?"
Freedman's Church was no more a place of worship than it was a deteriorated shack. The teens had no doubt that it was probably a beautiful place at the time of its prime two hundred years ago, but right now, they were more concerned about whatever wildlife inhabited it and the integrity of its structure.
Pope nodded, taking pride in the place his ancestor built, then pushed the front doors open.
The inside of the church looked exactly how any abandoned building looked: dusty, dark, and off-putting. The teens shared an apprehensive look before following Pope across the threshold.
"Everybody, just spread out."
Stella's hand reached for her necklace as she wandered around the room. She hadn't grown up religious, so she never experienced the sense of community belonging to church could give. But as her eyes looked over the wooden pews, she could envision families coming together, smiling and laughing in a place built for them, and for a moment, she understood. Her empathetic revelation didn't help her find the cross, but it did help her appreciate what they were doing.
"Are you sure that Denmark hid the cross here, Pope?" Kie questioned, turning her head to the boy standing on the pulpit.
He nodded insistently. "It's gotta be here somewhere, guys."
JJ walked over and stood next to Stella at the organ. "What if we have to push a secret button or, like, play a certain chord, and then, all of a sudden, the ground beneath us reveals the catacombs or something on which we stand?"
Furrowed brows made their ways across the room and John B scratched his head. "How about we try to find obvious clues? It's not an escape room."
Stella grinned at his words. "Remember when we went to that escape room for my birthday and one of the clues was a severed mannequin head hidden in the wall?" She laughed at the memory that came to mind and ignored the way JJ rolled his eyes. Turning to him, she poked his side. "I've never heard JJ scream so loud."
"You wanna hear a loud scream?" He grabbed her wrists in one hand and poked her with his free hand, knowing how ticklish she was in the middle of her waist. She squirmed in his hold, taking back every word, and was only freed when she tried to kick him in the shin.
Their friends gave them pointed stares and they stepped away from each other like children who had just been scolded. "Sorry," they muttered in unison.
Pope let out a sigh, far more displeased in their lack of findings than the couple's behaviour. "It's gotta be in here."
"I can't see where they'd hide a giant cross here," John B said gently.
"No." Pope shook his head in frustration. "There's no way he would set us up on a freaking goose chase that would lead us to a church that has nothing."
"Yeah, I get it, but I don't know what to tell you, man.
"The clues led us here. The cross is in this church."
"Hey, maybe it's hidden in the walls or under the floorboards or something," Stella offered. She'd rather tear the church apart piece by piece than witness Pope go through the heartbreak of disappointment.
John B nodded, grateful for the support. "Pope, it'll be alright. We've had setbacks in the past, and we figured it out. We're gonna find it."
"He's right," Kie added. She stepped closer to Pope as he stepped down from the pulpit.
The Heyward boy let out another sigh and tilted his head back, closing his eyes and rubbing his temples as if the pressure would snap and magically reveal something he was missing. When his hands fell to his sides, his eyes landed on the rafters above.
"We've just gotta think about this logically, alright? Where else would you hide a seven-foot-tall cross made of gold?"
Pope paid his friends no mind as the gears in his head started to turn. It couldn't be a coincidence that the beams of the roof were reinforced by middle pieces in the shape of two seven-foot wooden crosses. Without a word, he left Kie's side and approached the closest wall.
"What is it? What are you—? Great. Now, Pope's climbing the wall."
Stella watched in horror as he shimmied across the rotting beam. "Pope, get your ass back down here before you get hurt."
His foot slipped and JJ moved to stand under him. "Yo!" He snapped, fully prepared to catch him. "This church has to be at least two hundred years old, and let me be real, you're not the most coordinated person on planet Earth."
Pope just shook his head and knocked on the wood with his free hand. "Alright, this one's solid wood. I'm gonna try the other beam."
The others watched helplessly as he moved down.
"Pope, that's rotten as shit right there, okay?"
Stella stepped away from her friends and moved towards the pews. Her nose scrunched in disgust as she grabbed the dusty cushions and tossed them on the ground, a cloud of dirty rising in the air. "P, if you're gonna fall, aim for right here, alright?" Her friends gave her a look and she raised her hands in defence. "What? He's not going to stop until he proves his point. I'm being proactive."
Her boyfriend shook his head. "Bro, just look out for that giant wasp nest right above your head."
Pope flinched as a wasp stung his hand, but carried on with his goal. Knocking on the next beam, he found that, unlike the others, it was hollow. "Go get me a crowbar!"
Sarah left to fulfil his request and the blond next to Stella ran a hand through his hair in distress. "What are you gonna do, Pope? I don't want this entire church to collapse on top of us. That's all I'm saying. Pope, watch your— The wasp nest, dude!"
Sarah came back with the crowbar they stashed in the Twinkie and tossed it up to Pope. The boy started hacking away at the beam, perhaps too eager for someone standing on rotting wood.
Piece by piece the wood chipped away to reveal the smallest shimmer of gold.
"What is that? Do you guys see that?"
"Holy shit."
Pope's efforts increased until all of the wood concealing the Cross of Santo Domingo was gone. Happiness filled the air as the shock of disbelief wore off and laughter soon followed.
"Holy shit! Holy... We did it!"
"I thought you were crazy," Kie breathed in relief, "but we did it!"
It seemed that the disturbance of their nest angered the wasps above Pope's head because the more the teens celebrated, the more wasp stung.
It happened too fast. One moment, Pope was standing on the beam above them, and the next, he was falling into the mound of cushions Stella created on the floor.
"You okay, buddy?" Stella moved to help him stand. "Anything broken?"
JJ walked over and took Pope's other hand, helping his girlfriend pull him to his feet. "You did not tuck and roll, that's for sure."
An eerie creek pried its way through the silence and before Stella knew it, she and Pope were being pushed out of harm's way by JJ. A loud crash sounded and when Stella looked over her boyfriend's shoulder, she saw that the cross had fallen from the ceiling. If it weren't for JJ, she, him, and Pope would've been crushed.
"You guys okay?" Sarah questioned breathlessly, rushing over to them. After the couple nodded, she turned to Pope and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Pope, are you okay?"
His shoulders rose and fell heavily, and his answer was delayed. Kie's brows furrowed and she made her way over to him. "Hey, you good?"
"Yeah, I'm good," he assured, resting his hands on his knees and leaning forward. "Just give me, like, one second to, like, catch my breath."
Off to the side, John B was admiring the artifact that nearly killed them. "You did it, Pope."
The attention of the room shifted and JJ circled around the cross with a look of awe. "Pope, she's... she's beautiful." He ran his fingers over the jewel encrusted surface. "Detail's insane."
Stella stepped forward and placed her hands on her hips. "A little gaudy in my opinion, but it's nice."
"Gaudy is gonna make us rich, Sunbaby." JJ turned to the others. "How much do you think she's worth? Like, if we melted her old bones down, dude, I'm thinking high billions. Thoughts?"
Pope turned to them with wide eyes. "This belongs in a museum."
"What? So no one sees her?"
"In a museum where everyone sees it."
"Are you kidding?"
"Hey! It's my ancestors' cross!"
John B sighed and stepped between them. "Right, okay," he said, moving to stand between the pair. "Well... This is bigger than money, and the world's gotta know the truth."
Rolling his eyes, JJ nodded in defeat. "Alright, yeah. But if we don't get this shit outta here before Limbrey gets here, nobody's gonna know. So saddle up."
The teens shared a tired yet excited look and circled around the cross, each taking a corner. On the count of three, they lifted with dramatic grunts. Their muscles shook under the weight of the artifact. They knew it would be heavy, but they didn't expect it to be this heavy.
The bickering came quickly and the accusations followed in suit.
"Who's not lifting right now? Sarah, are you seriously—"
"I'm lifting!"
"It doesn't feel like it!"
The levelled cross tipped to one side as someone's hold gave out, and a chorus of protests sounded through the air. Pope's hand slipped and he collapsed onto a nearby bench, leaving his friends to drop the cross.
"You almost dropped it on my foot!"
"Well, maybe if you actually lifted—"
"I was lifting!"
Stella listened to her friends bicker and rubbed her temples. When her hands fell to her sides, she turned and saw Sarah approaching Pope.
The former Kook princess leaned down to look at Pope's face and furrowed her brows. "Your eye," she pointed, "it looks all puffy."
Her concern caused the others to stop their dispute and similar worry washed over them. "You good?" JJ questioned, moving Pope's face to the side to get a better look. "You don't look too good, bro."
"Stella," Kie called, "what's wrong with him?"
She studied Pope's face. "Not sure."
"I'm sorry, don't you know everything?" She pursed her lips and tilted her head in challenge. "You know, with all those research papers and articles, I just thought—"
JJ sent her a sharp glare. "Put the claws away, Kitty-Kie."
Stella searched her brain for any possible explanation for Pope's sudden decline in health. Thankfully, her friends remained silent so she could think. Her slowly travelled to the wasps nest above. "Pope, are you allergic to wasps?" When she returned her gaze to Pope, she saw that his eyes were rolling back into his head. "Pope, hey." She patted his cheek, but his head lulled to the side. Immediately, she sprung into action, putting his arm over her shoulders and lifting him up. "Okay, I think he's going into anaphylactic shock. Someone help me get him, please—"
John B rushed over and took Pope from her, already walking to the exit as the Heyward boy slipped in and out of consciousness.
"How many times did you get stung?" Kie questioned, running to get the door. She looked at Stella as the group approached her dad's truck. "We need to take him to the hospital."
The golden girl shook her head. "On the other side of the island? There's no time— Keep his legs elevated. If he's reacting this fast, his airways might swell up." She got into the back of the truck, settling in beside Pope, and turned to her boyfriend. "We need to go to Ricky's, he's closer."
Sarah raised a brow, her stare flickering between the couple. "Ricky as in JJ's weed dealing cousin?"
"Ricky as in JJ's weed dealing paramedic cousin."
Kie hopped into the backseat and tossed the keys to John B. "What about the cross?"
"JJ," John B urgently called, "try and hide it."
The blond nodded and ran back into the church. "I got it! I got the cross!"
Pope started wheezing and the teens begun to panic. "I can't breathe."
"JJ, come on!" Kie screamed. "We'll come back!"
"I don't know how I'll hide this!" He responded from inside the church.
"JJ! We gotta go!"
He came running, nearly toppling over Sarah. "I didn't hide it well enough," he said to the other blond.
"Don't worry about that," she dismissed, pushing him towards the truck. "We gotta get Pope some help."
The next ten minutes were a blur and Stella was positive that John B ran several stop signs trying to get to Ricky's. Pope, on the other hand, wasn't doing well and laid limply across the laps of the girls sitting the backseat.
Pope, JJ, Stella, and Kie were out of the truck before John B came to a complete stop outside of the house. The two girls ran up to the door, eyes wide and frantic, and knocked on the door calling for Ricky.
The older man came to the door, but once he saw the scene in front of him, he rolled his eyes. "Not today," he said, giving a pointed look to JJ as he rushed up the driveway.
"Ricky, hey," JJ panted, supporting half of Pope's weight. "I got a problem, bro!"
"Remember that time you stole my ambulance?"
"Yeah, I know. I know you're mad."
Ricky shook his head and turned away. "No," he affirmed. "Marx is with you, she can help."
On the other side of the screen door, Stella gave pleading look. "If I could, do you really think we'd be begging on your doorstep?"
Ricky faltered, knowing she was right. Stella was more than capable of responding to first aid emergencies, but she wasn't stupid. He knew the girl would get help if it was really necessary. Though, the fact that she chose to go to him instead of her mother was concerning.
"He's going into shock, Ricky. He can't breathe, and his throat's swelling up, and we couldn't go to the hospital because it's too far and we don't have time, and—"
Letting out a deep sigh, Ricky opened the door for them. "Alright, alright, fine. Who can't breathe?"
The teens ran inside the house, Kie pushing everything off the closest table so they could lay Pope down.
"You know I wouldn't come to you if it wasn't an emergency," JJ said as he passed his cousin.
Ricky followed closely behind and rolled his eyes. "It's not like your girlfriend's mom is a doctor or anything, right?" He approached Pope, patted his shoulder, then turned to Stella. "What's wrong with him?"
"Wasps!" Kie snapped, growing impatient.
"Wasps? Is he allergic to wasps?"
"Clearly!"
"'Kay, hang tight," he said, leaving the table. "I gotta get my kit."
Amongst the protests of her friends, Stella looked up. "JJ, go help him find it. It should look like a black duffel bag."
He nodded and took off after his cousin, following him to the garage. Moments later, they emerged with the bag in their hands. "Okay, I got it!" Ricky shouted, running over to the table.
"What do we do now?" JJ questioned. He bounced on the balls of his feet, utterly restless and overly eager to help.
Ricky grabbed an unopened needle and a small vial of liquid. "You don't do anything 'cause you're not a paramedic. Marx, hold this."
Stella took the vial from his hands and read the label with furrowed brows. The concentration was far too high to fix an allergic reaction. "Ricky, this is—"
"Yeah, I know," he interjected, sparing her a small glance. He took the vial from her and prepared the needle. Turning away, he leaned down next to Pope's head. "Hey, Pope. How you doing, man? You look like shit." After checking Pope's airways, he looked at the teens surrounding him. "Here's the thing. This is a pediatric dose of epinephrine."
"Is that gonna be enough?"
"He's not a kid!"
They turned to Stella for clarification, but her stressed out expression provided little comfort.
Crossing her arms, she offered a simple explanation. "It's the stuff in an epi-pen but stronger. They use it for resuscitations like in Grey's Anatomy."
Ricky nodded. "It is ten times a normal dose. So if... if it doesn't stop his heart, it'll help him. But I gotta use the whole thing, or it won't work. And I'm not going down if he dies."
A tense look was shared among the teens as they contemplated the odds. "Okay! Fine!" JJ shouted, pushing his cousin closer to his best friend. "Do it! Hit it! Push one of epi!"
Ricky wasted no time in injecting Pope, causing the Pogues to wince at the brutality.
JJ turned, his hand finding Stella's hip as he looked away. "I hate needles, man."
There was a brief moment of silence that passed before Ricky stood up. He tossed the empty needle onto the table and wiped his hands. "Okay, um, that's it," he stated, voice slightly shaky from the high stress situation.
"Now what?"
"Now we wait."
The waiting was the part that killed them. Not knowing if Pope was okay or not—if he would live or not—was enough to make a second feel like a lifetime. But the worst part of it all was the seedling of regret sprouting in their chests. No treasure hunt was worth losing a friend over.
"You killed him," Kie accused. Tears began to pool on her lash line.
Stella, who nervously bit the nail of her thumb, shook her head. She refused to believe that things wouldn't work out for them. Pope wasn't dead, so Ricky couldn't have killed him. "No, he didn't."
"Yes, he did!"
"I didn't do shit," Ricky returned.
"What did you do?"
"I did exactly what you asked me to do!"
Stella's breathing hitched. Her eyes remained locked onto Pope's unmoving figure. "Kie, give it a second."
A gasp followed by heavy breathing cut through the air and relief rolled off of their shoulders.
"Pope?"
He coughed and sat up, completely unaware of the way his friends were crying. When he recovered, he looked up, and the surprised look on his face caused a chorus of laughs to sound out around the room.
"Pope!" Kie lunged forward to hug him while JJ patted his shoulder.
"There he is! That's my boy right there!"
"Oh, God," Stella breathed, arms falling to her side. "You had me doubting here for a minute, buddy."
Pope gently pushed Kie off of him and fanned himself with his hand. "It's hot!" He exclaimed, pushing off the table and heading towards the door. As he crossed the threshold, he pulled his shirt off and let it fall to the ground. "I'm real hot, guys. I gotta get outside."
The other teens laughed at his odd behaviour because while it was weird as hell, at least he was alive. They followed him to the exit, each giving Ricky their thanks.
"Are there any side effects we should be concerned about?" Sarah questioned, stopping next to Stella in the doorway.
Ricky shrugged. "He'll have a rocket up his ass for about half an hour, then he'll be fine. Marx should be able to take care of him from here, I taught her everything she knows."
The golden girl raised a brow. "No, you didn't."
JJ approached them and as he walked out of the door, he gave his cousin a smug smile. "Also, it's Maybank," he corrected. "She's a Maybank now." He ignored Ricky's confused expression and pulled the two girls along to join the other Pogues outside.
"Let's go get that cross!" Pope screamed at the sky. "Game six! I'm Michael Jordan!"
Ricky watched in utter bewilderment as the teenagers left his property. He didn't know what cross Pope was referring to or why the group felt that he was their best chance, but he knew his cousin, and John B, and Stella. He also knew that one of those three were different than the others. "Hey, Marx?" He called out. She stopped half way down the driveway and turned to look at him. "Whatever you guys are up to... Be careful, alright? You've got a lot going for you, I'd hate to see you throw it all away."
A small and teasing smile pulled at her lips. "That's a rare show of emotion, Ricky. Better be careful or people will start to think you have a heart."
"Yeah, whatever. Get the fuck outta here."
Stella laughed and turned to join her friends in Kie's truck. And while she listened to Pope threaten them into letting him drive, Ricky's words echoed in her mind. She appreciated his concern, but he was worrying for no reason.
Right?
RAE SPEAKS !
hi i'm back! sorry for going missing these past two week, life's hard and i have three exams to study for :(
ricky after successfully avoiding a murder charge: