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chapter fifty five
THE ISLAND ROOM
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After looking around the room for a few more moments, Sarah and Athena went outside to grab their bikes. Athena managed to convince Sarah to join her in going to the Chateau to tell the rest of the pogues of their discovery. The twins got there, hearing John B, Pope and JJ in the distance. Sarah hesitated when she heard John B's voice.
"Hey don't bail on me now." Athena told her.
"I'm not." Sarah shook her head, grabbing Athena's hand and walking towards the door. Sarah pulled the door open, catching everyone's attention.
"Well, hello, Princess." JJ greeted. "Cinderella."
"What's up?" Kie asked.
"Shouldn't you be on Figure Eight with your little group of polo players?" John B questioned sarcastically. "Or did you break up with Topper?"
"I being her back and he screw it up." Athena muttered making Kie laugh quietly as she sat down, placing the curly haired girl's legs on her lap. "Remind me to never even try to get involved inn their relationship."
"We're just friends." Sarah stated, walking further onto the front porch.
"You have a lot of friends, Sarah Cameron." John B told her.
"Yeah, and it seems like you've got some of your own too." Sarah retorted.
"All right, what are you doing here?" John B sat up.
"I'm here for Pope." Sarah spoke, turning to the boy, who stared at her confused, before gesturing between her and Athena. "I think we found the island room."
"Guys, listen to this." Pope gathered everyone's attention as they sat in the Twinkie. "The diary says the cross holds the most holy relic in all of Christendom, the Garment of the Saviour."
"So wait, he saying there's a holy garment inside the cross?" Kie asked.
"Yeah." Pope nodded. "It says the garment is capable of healing the sick from any malady."
"Mmm, yeah. 'If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well.'" JJ recited, everyone turning to him confused. "What? I went to Sunday school."
"Sure."
"Well, that explains why Limbrey would want to cross so bad. She thinks it can heal her." Pope explained.
"What else does it say?" Athena asked, leaning on JJ.
"'May feel that we have sinned to steal such a sacred thing, and God will strike His vengeance on us.'" Pope read.
"Thing is, God did have His vengeance." Kiara stated.
"He sent a hurricane to sink the ship." Pope nodded. "Only Denmark survived."
Sarah and Athena guided the group towards what they hoped was the island room when the group got to Tannyhill.
"Whoo!" JJ exclaimed.
"This place still freaks me out." John B shuddered as they walked down the hallway.
"Yeah, same." JJ agreed, Athena turning to face them.
"You literally lived here." Athena told John B before looking towards JJ. "And you used to come here like every other day."
"I spent every other day in your bedroom, the rest of your house still freaks me out." JJ shrugged.
"Pope, look." Sarah gestured to the room as they all entered it.
"Whoa! You've got to be kidding me." Pope breathed out in shock.
"Yeah." Sarah agreed. "I know, right?? It's the island room."
"Yeah it is bitch." Athena smiled.
"Incredible."
"It's been here this entire time." Sarah explained. "We've lived here our entire lives and we've never seen this."
"And I thought JJ was oblivious." Athena commented.
"No freaking way."
"This definitely means something." The group dispersed around the room.
"Yo, this is a map of the whole island." John B looked around.
"Yeah, John B, I think you're right because this is Rixon's cove right here." JJ pointed out, getting closer to the left wall, glancing out the window. "Then there's the lighthouse."
"Guys look, parcel 9 and the well." Kie ran her hand over the painting.
"So if that's parcel 9, and then if that's Rixon's then that's gotta be the surf break at Mase." John B circled the room, pointing to the back wall as Jj followed him over.
"Right. And look." JJ held up the paper from Denmark. "Pope, come here. This is Denmark's handwriting for sure."
"The drawings." Pope pointed out as he looked from the wall to the paper, "They match up."
"Holy shit."
"Denmark you genius." Pope breathed. "These are all his drawings. He... he painted this entire room."
"Yeah, question is why. What's he trying to tell us?" Kie was next to ask, running her hand across a ship painting, her silver ring on display.
"It's gotta have something to do with the key, right? Right?" JJ spoke up again.
"Yeah, but what?" Athena spun to him.
"How did you two know to uncover this?" John B questioned towards the twins.
"We didn't." Sarah shook her head looking up at the higher paintings. "It was like this when we got home."
"What?" JJ looked her way.
"Yeah, I bumped into Sarah at the front door and we found it like this." Athena shrugged.
"Okay so who did it?" Kie asked them.
"I don't know." Sarah answered.
"Maybe Rafe did it?" Athena suggested.
"The freaks." A new voice came from behind them, making the group gasp and turn towards the person.
"Wheeze!" Sarah greeted.
"Wheezie." Athena placed an arm over her shoulder.
"What freaks are we talking about, Wheeze?" JJ spoke up towards the younger teen.
"Uh, sick lady and her attack dog." Wheezie shrugged. "They showed up last night, and they wanted to talk to Rafe."
"I knew it." Athena mumbled.
"Pale blonde lady?" JJ hummed her way.
"She had crutched?" Kie went along with him.
Wheezie nodded in agreement.
"It's gotta be Limbrey." Pope confirmed.
"Well most likely as I don't know of any other pale blonde sick ladies on crutches with a human form of an attack dog." Athena spoke sarcastically.
"What happened?" John B jumped in, focusing back on Wheezie, ignoring Athena's comment.
"First, they searched the whole looking for something, and then Rafe told me to go upstairs but I didn't wanna miss out so I took Athena's advice and listened through the grate." Wheezie nodded her head, falling into a story.
"You told her to do that?" JJ looked at Athena, his eyebrows raised.
"I literally told you I followed kooks and blackmailed them and you're surprised about this." Athena furrowed her own eyebrows.
"True."
"Then they came in here and were freaking out, tearing all the wallpaper saying how they found it." Wheezie recalled her memory with a wave of her hands. "And they were talking about getting across the sand flamingo."
"That's code." JJ confided.
"The cross." Athena stated.
"The cross of Santo Domingo?" Pope spoke up towards Wheezie in questioning.
"Yeah that's it." Wheezie agreed before her eyes widened behind her glasses. "Oh, they were talking about angels!"
"Angels?" John B gave her an odd look.
"There was a lot of angel talk." Wheezie shrugged.
"Guys, Denmark's famous last words." Pope looked around with wide eyes, "He buried the real treasure at the foot of the angel!"
"It's gotta be around here then." Athena nodded quickly, "They clearly already found it."
The group quickly spread out across the room.
"There's a church over here."
"Yeah, check the church."
"Could this be an angel?"
"Maybe?"
"What- What's going on? Are you guys gonna tell me?"
"The lighthouse maybe?"
"A graveyard maybe?"
"Graveyard is smart!"
"Hey, yo! Guys, I think I found something!" JJ cut in quickly, earning all of their attentions as they turned his way. "Come here. This humongous tree is still on Goat island. And you know what it's called?"
"Angel Oak." Pope confirmed with mesmerized eyes.
"Look there. There's a keyhole." JJ pointed to the middle of the tree, that indeed had a key hole.
"That means the cross is buried at the foot of the angel." Pope smiled. "That must be where he put it."
"That must be where they are." Pope then exclaimed.
"So what the hell are we doing standing around! Let's go!" Athena announced, Pope agreeing with wide eyes as they chaotically made their way towards the door again, Athena stopping to hug Wheezie. "I'll be back soon."
"I think I'm Sherlock Holmes, all right? You're all welcome by the way." JJ spoke up as they all ran out of the room.
"Yeah, hurry up Sherlock." John B hurried him along.
"Well done JJ, proud of you." Athena praised the boy, grabbing his hand.
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𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗕𝗘𝗟 𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗦
this was such a boring chapter and i hate it but 🤷♀️