JJS FLASHBACK: 13 years old.
April 22nd,
2017.
John b, Pope and I sat at Heywards.
"I'm worried." John b said, tapping his finger on the table.
"Dude, we all are." I say.
Heyward walked in. We asked him to call Darlas mom on his phone because we can't afford our own phones.
"Anything?" Pope sits up straight.
"Nothin'.. but, why don't y'all go check Josey and Darlas house, see if you can find anyone there." He shrugged.
"Yeah! Yeah. Let's go!" I jump up.
We run over to our bikes. We all have names for our bikes.
Mines called 'The poguie'
Popes is called 'Scholar'
and John bs is called 'Twinkie'
Darlas is called 'The bogeycatcher 3000' but, the 'Bogey' for short.
We cycle off down the winding roads of the cut, until we stop at the drive of Darlas house.
"What the.." I peek down the driveway to see 5 police cars surrounding her house.
"We have to get outta here," Pope trembles.
"No! Dude, Darlas in there!" I tell him. "We gotta go get Darla."
We all drop our bikes and run down the driveway.
We see Sheriff Peterkin crossing her arms outside the house, talking with someone.
"Hey, isn't that Darlas neighbour?" John b suggests.
I look over. "Oh, yeah.."
Suddenly, someone stops us.
"Hey, no entry kids. Run along home." He says.
I look at his badge. "Listen, Officer Shoupe, our friends in there. And she's probably pissed off with all the police cars surrounding her. So we're here to take her."
"Run along home I said, Darla is leaving very soon." He shakes his head.
"Leaving, leaving... What's that supposed to mean?" John b asks.
"Well it means what it means, shes staying some place else for a few nights until we look deeper into this situation." He crosses his arms.
"What situation?" Pope asks.
"The situation that's none of your business, go home."
"Fine, we were just leaving." I scoff.
"That's right." He nods, turning around and walking in.
"Psst, follow me." I whisper, running behind one of the cop SUVs.
We peek out behind the car, trying to find a moment to run for the back door, where Darla's room is.
Finally, when coast is clear, we run for the house and quietly open the door and sneak into the utility room.
We hear some cops talking inside, so we run over to behind the door entering the kitchen.
"Darla, you said you hear a door opening at what time?" I hear an officer say.
"Stop asking me stupid freaking questions and go find my mom!" I hear Darla sob.
"That's her." Pope whispers.
"What about her mom?" John b whispers.
"We need you to cooperate with us. There is a search party out there looking for your mother, okay?"
"I heard the door open at like, 2 hours after I got home." I hear her quietly say.
"Wait, what time did she get home last night?" I whisper.
"We all got home at around 12 midnight." John b whispers back.
"Okay, Darla. Thank you. We will be back in with you in 10 minutes. Just stay put." The officers tell her, and we hear them walk outside of the house, closing the door behind them.
We start to hear little sobs in the living room.
"Darla!" I whisper.
Pope grabs my face.
"Get-get off!" I grumble.
"Shut up! There's probably still cops in there, bro." Pope whispers.
"Jj? Pope?" We hear Darla say.
I rush out from behind the door.
"Darla- dude!" I say, running over to her.
I give her the hugest, tightest hug ever.
She backs away from my arms, I see her face gone red from crying.
"What- what's going on, why are the cops here?" John b asks, running over.
"My mom, shes just gone." She sobs.
"Gone? What do you mean gone, like she left?" Pope asks.
"Them fuckers don't know anything about her disappearance, They're not doing their fucking job properly." She cries.
"Did she leave a note, anything?" I ask.
"No, nothing. All her clothes are still here. She's literally gone without a trace. None of her DNA on the doorknob.. nothing. Everything's as it was." She says, calming herself down.
"The cops said you're leaving, where are you going?" Pope asks.
"Leaving? I'm not leaving. I'm not going anywhere without my mom back here." Darla shakes her head.
"That Shoupe guy said you're leaving, though." John b shrugged.
Suddenly, the social workers come in the door again.
"Hey! You three! Where'd you come from!" They yell.
Our eyes widen as they run towards us, grabbing us.
"Hey! Stop- they're my friends, stop it!" I hear Darla yell.
They look behind at Darla. "Will you cooperate if we let them stay?"
She sighs. "Fine! Just- just put them down!"
They let go of us, and walk over to Darla.
"Okay, we're going to need you to get some clothes. You're going to be staying somewhere else until we have your mom back here." The workers tell her.
"What? No! I'm not leaving the OBX, you can't just do that!" She screams.
"You're not leaving the Outer Banks, don't worry. You just won't be staying here. We have no one to care for you here. And you're thirteen, you can't live on your own."
"I'm well capable of living on my own, arent I?" She turns for us to back her up.
"Very responsible."
"Yep, mature for her age."
"I sometimes mistaken her for 18."
She turns back around. "See? And one of them is 14. He even said I'm responsible."
The social workers shake their heads. "That's not how it works, I'm afraid. You're not staying here."
"Then where!" She yells.
The workers looked at eachother, hesitating what they're about to say.
I walk over. "Where are you putting her! Into fucking foster care?"
"No- not with a random family. It's temporary." They shake their head.
"You cant just take me away!" She cries.
I clench my jaw, looking to the others.
They're sighing.
"WHO! WHO ARE YOU SENDING ME TO?" She screams.
"Your father." One of them says.
I look at her, I see her face drop. "My dad. You're sending me to my dad."
"Your father is your only available guardian at the moment."
I shake my head. "Anyone but him."
"Anyone but him." She repeats.
"He's already here." They sigh.
She looks up at me.
The cops walk in the door, and over to the boys, grabbing their arms.
"No! No- get off!"
"Let us go!"
I see one walking over to me.
I look over at Darl.
She looks at me, tears welling in her eyes.
I look back over at the cop as he runs toward me.
I try to dodge him, but he grabs onto my arms.
"Let go!" Darla runs up at hits him, but the social workers pull her away.
"Darla you said you'd cooperate!"
"No- No! I'm not going with him!" She kicks.
They hold her back as she sobs for the cops to let us go.
The cops drag us out the door, and let us go outside.
"You can't just throw her away like trash!" John b yells.
"Get your bikes and go home." The cops spat.
We looked at eachother.
"Guys, I need to go home." Pope sighs.
John b looks at me.
I don't know what to do.
against these cops and workers, we're useless. And I don't want to admit that because my dad always told me never to trust or obey the cops.
But Darlas mom told her to do the exact opposite. To "Just do what they say and you'll get out of the situation sooner." I'll trust Josey
since she's the only mom i've ever had.
We see a man get out of a car, looking fierce and bulky.
"It's her dad." I say.
"That's her dad? Nah- guys we can't let him take her." Pope says.
I sigh. "What can we do?"
______________________________
present day:
JJS POV
And that's the last time we saw Darla until she was 14, nearly 15. She was gone for 1 year and 45 days.
I always think of that day, the day her mom just.. vanished.
The day she left.
And while she was gone I felt like there was a piece missing in me.
Like an unfinished puzzle.
We didn't know where she lived, whether she was on the island.. or whether she was in a different country.
I look out onto the marsh, we're all on the dock outside the chateau, except for Pope. He has his scholarship interview.
"Sure he got everything?" Kie asks John b, lying down on the floorboards.
"Every bar, the whole enchilada." John b sighs.
I aggressively throw a rock into the river.
John b grunts as he pulls his cast off. "It's not like I expected a happy ending or some shit." He throws the cast away.
"John b.." Darla sighs.
"What, Darl?" John b asks, annoyed. "It's a hairline fracture, who cares?"
I turn around to look at the cast on the floor as I puff the blunt in my other hand.
"You should care, your arms gonna be messed up for life." Darla shrugs.
"It's fine, see?" He wiggles his fingers.
Darla huffs and looks out onto the marsh.
Suddenly we hear footsteps approaching.
"Guys, Guys!" An exhausted Pope sprints up the dock.
"Oh! Oh! Oh, god. I ran all the way here. He pants.
"You all right?" John b asks.
"How was the interview, Pope?" I ask him.
"Don't ask." Pope shakes his head.
"Awesome."
"JB. Look, I'm sorry, dude. About everything." Pope says, still out of breath.
"That's okay." John b groans.
"But— but I don't have a-lot of time, and— and I have information that is tactically relevant." He stutters.
We all wait for him to continue.
"So.. before I had my interview my dad said he was going down to the private airstrip to cut palms for Cameron's big plane. Because it was too heavy, and needed a longer landing strip to take off. So, I'm there sitting in my interview, thinking to myself, Hm. Why would the Cameron need a longer airstrip to take off?"
I turn around fully, realising what's happening.
John b sits up, also in realisation.
"What could be so heavy to weight it down?" Pope asks.
"Gold." I say.
"That's right." John b nods.
Pope starts doing this weird shit with his hands. "Exactly!"
"Guys, this is our chance. But it leaves tonight, and we have to go." he explains.
"We can't give up now." Kie says with a smile.
"So what's the plan, big man?" I ask John b.
"We're gonna steal that shit back." John b sighs.
"Yeah we are!" Darla laughs.
We all laugh and run down the dock to the twinkie.
_______________________________
DARLAS POV:
"We go in there, guns-a-blazin', male Ward Cameron beg for mercy, abscond with as much gold as possible and vámonos, get the hell out of there." jj explains, loading up a gun in the back of the twinkie.
I smile at him, and then looking at the others. This might be it, we might get the gold back.
"Send that shit right down the coastal," John b smiles.
"Wait for the weather." I add.
"Exit to Cuba." Pope blurts.
jj and I look at him. "Cuba?"
"No, man, Xcalak, Jewel of the Yucatan." Jj laughs, then looks at me.
It's been our dream to run off to Yucatan together everytime our parents were at barry's doing drugs. We plotted that the next time they did that, we'd get the Phantom, jjs dads boat, and travel to Yucatan.
"Lobsters so thick, mangoes, and no word for money." I describe.
"Let's do this shit." John b nods and keeps driving down the road.
"What are we going to do when it gets to Yucatan, it will just have a load of gold in the back of the plane." Kie asks.
We go silent.
"Uh, yeah, didn't think about that." I say, gritting my teeth.
"Well, that's for later. Right now, we need to focus on hijacking that shit." jj says, loading his gun.
"You two never have a fully made plan." Pope chuckles.
"We just love surprises." I shrug, then look at jj. "Right j?"
"Sure do."
"All right shut up, and focus." John b says, pulling up to a fence outside the airstrip.
We all get out of the car and run over to the fence.
"What's the plan? Broad strokes." Kie asks, stopping at the fence.
"I don't think we got that far." John b bites his gum.
Pope takes out his huge ass binoculars and puts them against the fence. "They're loading up the gold."
John b takes them. "There's Ward."
"Let me see- ow!" John b hits my hand that was trying to take a luck.
He keeps looking, then pulls them down, a little shock on his face.
"What?" Kie asks him.
"What!" I yell at him when he doesn't answer.
"It's Sarah." He says, still in shock.
"The fuck?" I say, grabbing the binoculars.
I look into them and see Sarah and Ward.
"She's with him?" Jj asks.
"Yeah. But she looks confused." I say.
I give them back to John b.
"You don't think she'd betray us like that, do you?" I ask Kie.
She doesn't answer, she's scared it happened again.
John b looks into the binoculars. "Wait a minute."
I try to look closer.
"He's hurting her." John b says.
"Wait what?" I say.
"What?" Jj asks.
"They're fighting."
Kie try's to look through the binoculars.
"Shit." John b says, running to the twinkie.
"Wait so- she- what?" Jj says.
"I don't know.." I say, as kie try's to look.
Suddenly the twinkies engine starts up.
"John b? Wait-man what are you doing?" I ask.
We all turn around as he starts to accelerate towards the fence.
"Hey! Hey!" We all yell.
He zooms past us and straight into the fence, crashing through.
"What are you doing!" Jj screams.
The twinkie zooms towards the airstrip as we all stand helplessly at the broken fence.
"Dammit!" I yell.
In the distance I see the twinkie disappear off down the runway.
"Shit." Jj takes his hat off.
Pope and Kie hug randomly.
I look over at them in confusion, but then we hear sirens approaching.
"Guys, I cant get arrested." Pope said quickly.
"I'm on probation." Jj sighs.
"We- no we can't just leave him!" I say.
"Darla, we have to." Kie shakes her head. "My dad will kill me, your dad will kill you."
I cross my arms. "I've given up caring, and since when did you care about the cops?" I ask jj.
"Im going." Pope sighs.
Kie and Pope run off.
I stand there, looking at jj. "He needs us, dude."
"Darl, he'll be okay on his own, come on."
I shake my head. "Nah, I cant. I cant leave him.." I start to run in the direction of the airstrip.
"Darla! What the fuck!" Jj shouts.
"Just leave her." I hear Kiara say.
"We can't just- we can't!" I hear jj cry, making me choke on tears. But John b and Sarah need me.
I sprint towards the strip, not looking back.
_______________________________
I finally get to the airplane, there's a cop car there.
I feel faint from all of the running I just did.
I see John b and Sarah standing beside the twinkie, and Ward in front of them, but I see one extra car.
a cop SUV.
I stumble over.
"Darla- what are you doing here?" Sarah asks.
"I couldn't just leave John b." I say.
"You gotta get out of here. Both of you." she said as the cop SUV pulls to a stop.
"Oh, thank god you're here." Ward laughs.
I look at him with pure anger.
Peterkin steps out of the car.
"Susan, I told you, he lost his mind." Ward laughs.
"Put your hands on your head." She says.
I look over at her, she seems to be looking at Ward.
"I'd do what she said, kid." He laughs.
I watch as Peterkin takes out a gun and clicks the safety off, pointing it at Peterkin.
"She's taking to you, Ward." John b says.
He turns around and sees the gun facing him.
"You're under arrest for the murder of Big John Routledge." Peterkin says, straight-faced.
I open my mouth in shock, so does Sarah.
Sarah gasps and falls back into John bs arms.
I can only feel one emotion in this very moment. Anger. Pure fucking anger.
"Put your hands on your head." Peterkin snarls.
"Are you kidding me, Sue?" Ward yells in disbelief.
"Put your hands on your head!" She shouts him down.
He does so.
"Turn around." She orders, he does so.
I look him straight in the eye as he turns.
"Drop to your knees!" She orders.
He drops down.
Sarah sobs as she takes out her handcuffs.
She cuffs him. "I've waited a long time for this."
I look down at him, a filthy smirk of relief.
Ward tries to fight her off, put she pushes him down, only one of his hands cuffed.
She takes her gun back out, and we hear one gunshot fire.
I bring my hand up to my mouth, gasping.
Did she just shoot him.
Peterkins breath becomes raggedy and hard.
I bring my hand down, realising Ward isn't hurt. But when I look up at Peterkins shoulder, I see red pierce through her uniform.
Tears well up in my eyes when all of a sudden Rafe reveals himself from behind the plane, holding a hand gun that still has steam from being fired.
my breath shortens as Peterkin drops to the floor, Rafe gripping his gun.
"Rafe- no." John b whispers.
Sarah whimpers in shock.
"Rafe, What did you do?" Ward whimpers, looking at a helpless Peterkin.
Her fingertips stain red as she holds the gaping wound, in denial she's been shot. She sighs and falls flat onto her side.
I shake my head. "Rafe.. no."
He looks at me, in awe that I was here to see it. But a sense of psychotic power takes over his eyes.
"I saved you, dad." He laughs, proud of himself.
I cant believe he's proud of himself in this moment.
"I saved you." He repeats, now pointing the gun towards us.
I back away a little while Sarah hugs onto John b desperately.
He points the gun toward us, getting ready to fire.
______________________________
END OF CHAPTER 16
Well this was a lot-
the murderer in question: