Jonah
noun. a person who carries a jinx, one whose presence on board brings bad luck and endangers the ship.
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After getting John B to the hospital, Lee fell into a restless sleep on the couch in her living room. She woke up, feeling urgent, at 4:18 that morning, plagued by a nightmare about the motel. She sat up quickly, her heartbeat erratic as she stared at the ground to try and calm herself.
I've gotta go to that motel.
Strengthening her resolve, Lee ran upstairs and got ready. She kicked aside her flip flops in favor of her sturdier Converse. Who knew what this motel had in store for her—she wanted to be ready to run. She checked her backpack for her belongings: cellphone (useless)—check; keys—check; water bottle—check; pepper spray—check. Grimacing, Lee shoved the pepper spray into the bottle pocket on the outside of her backpack. If it came down to it, she wanted easy access to her first line of defense. Exhaling sharply, Lee tossed her backpack over one shoulder and quietly walked downstairs, avoiding creaky steps so that she wouldn't wake her mother.
The walk to the motel wasn't too long. The Cut wasn't very big, so everything was within relative walking distance. It did make her miss her dirtbike, however. If anything went wrong and she needed a quick escape, she'd now have to rely on her feet. The front of the motel was eerily familiar as Lee approached it. It was unkempt—her mother would have thrown a fit about the landscaping. Weeds grew taller than the grass, tickling Lee's shins as she trudged through towards where she knew the vending room was. She hated the idea that bugs and other critters could be lurking in the weeds where she couldn't see them, but focused her attention on more important things—like, why on Earth was this motel so familiar?
Lee couldn't recall ever coming to this hotel outside of just days ago with the Pogues. Well, she at least couldn't remember coming here sober. Whether or not she had come here high, looking for a fix, she couldn't say. But, previously when Lee had forgotten her inebriated adventures, stirring them up again only required revisiting the scene of the crime.
The concrete sidewalk outside of the vending room door was cracked, with weeds blooming through it. The motel was in desperate need of maintenance and Lee wondered when the last time a new guest had arrived was. Surely rich tourists didn't stay here. There was a Motel 8 down the street in less disrepair, at least. Not to mention the resorts lining Figure Eight.
Lee placed a hand on the doorknob and hesitated. She took a deep breath and grabbed her pepper spray in her other hand, holding it out like a police officer in a crime show as she flung open the door. The lights flickered on at the movement of the door and Lee swung her pepper spray back and forth, clearing the room of other individuals. Deciding that she was alone, Lee strolled in.
The room was coated in dust so old that Lee imagined the Pioneers had been the first to elect not to clean it. The motion-activated lights above her flickered, casting alternating beams of LED white and fluorescent yellow on the cracked concrete floor beneath her feet. Weeds blossomed through the floor in one corner near the door, where Lee could tell water damage to the ceiling allowed them to stay hydrated. The popcorn ceiling was a musty yellow color and sagged heavily—from Asbestos or water, Lee couldn't be sure. She waved a hand in front of her nose as a foul stench reached her.
Lee stepped into the middle of the room, facing the line of vending machines on the back wall and putting the pepper spray in her back pocket. The door swung shut behind her with a loud clang. It was a typical line-up: one soda machine filled with Pepsi products, one snack machine with certainly expired crackers, and an ice machine that clearly hadn't produced anything in years. Raising an eyebrow as she noticed a bag of Cheez-Its hanging on the edge of their row, Lee kicked the snack machine. The Cheez-Its fell, the sound echoing around the room. She knelt down by the machine, warily peering inside before grabbing the snack that she'd successfully acquired. Sure enough, she found an expiration date: BEST BY 02/2015.
She grimaced, tossing the Cheez-Its into an unlined garbage can sitting on the left-most wall. Turning around, Lee faced the four laundry machines behind her. A window hung over them, sealed shut by paint and growing a colony of mystery bacteria. There were two washers and two dryers in alternating order. Grimacing, Lee cracked open one of the washers. Sure enough, inside she only found a musty smell and one holey white sock. In the dryer next to it, Lee saw nothing but a fire hazard based on the buildup in the lint trap.
"Health inspector needs to come check this place out," Lee muttered to herself, slamming the dryer closed with a reverberating bang.
She moved on to the next washer. Inside, there was a full load of laundry. It had clearly been done long before—based on the smell of mildew growing from it—but was never moved to the dryer. Lee pulled out one of the shirts on top. She frowned as she recognized the pastel pink and the whale logo on the breast pocket—Vineyard Vines.
"Why was someone with a Vineyard Vines shirt doing laundry here?" she whispered.
Lee began to pull out the rest of the laundry from the washer, ignoring the smell as it began to permeate the room. She found two country club shirts and four sets of chino shorts before striking gold. Lee held up a black shirt by its shoulders, her eyes wide with horror as her nightmares came true. OBX Pawn Shop the shirt read. On the back, written in red Comic Sans MS, it said "Get easy cash today! You find it, we buy it!" Lee threw the shirt back in the washer, quickly adding the rest of the laundry back into the load.
She would recognize that shirt anywhere. It belonged to Barry, the dealer that she had barely managed to escape when she quit using drugs. The other shirts weren't his, but it seemed plausible that they belonged to some of his clientele—teens from Figure Eight, including Rafe Cameron. Lee slammed the washer door shut and briskly walked towards the door, ready to leave, before hesitating.
Something made her want to open the final dryer. Something told her that the final dryer mattered. Turning around on one heel, Lee stared at the dryer for a long minute. Fine, she finally thought. There's probably nothing in there, but just for my peace of mind, fine.
The dryer door was a little bit sticky. Lee had to use all of her bodyweight to pull it open and ended up falling on her butt on the dusty floor when it finally cracked.
"Oof," Lee gasped. She grimaced as she stood, dusting the dirt off of her jean shorts.
Kneeling down, Lee opened the dryer the rest of the way. She didn't see anything at first but, upon sticking her head into the hole, noticed plastic bags filled with small white crystals taped to the interior of the machine.
She pulled her head out quickly, hitting it on the edge of the opening. "Fuck," she cursed under her breath, rubbing the back of her head. Then, realizing what she had just stumbled across, continued with, "Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Oh, fuck."
Lee glanced at the ground just in time to hear the main door creak open. She looked up so quickly that she thought she might have given herself whiplash.
"Lee Carter," Barry's voice echoed around the room. "Didn't think I'd see you here again. Relapsing again?"
Lee forced herself to maintain a neutral expression. Barry wanted her to break. She stood up slowly, casually placing a hand on her hip near where her pepper spray was in her back pocket. Using the toe of her sneaker, Lee kicked the dryer closed, letting the sound fill the space.
"Barry," she said coolly. "I was just... taking a stroll down memory lane."
Barry raised an eyebrow. "Memory lane, huh? And what made you want to visit the laundry room at my motel?"
Lee frowned. "Your motel?"
Barry laughed. "Were you really that fucked up every time you came here? Yes, my motel, for all intents and purposes. The owner doesn't report me for dealing out of his first floor, I don't report him for violating every health code in North Carolina."
"Good deal," Lee said sarcastically. "So, uh, how many times was I here?"
"A few," Barry shrugged, moving to lean against the ice machine. "Usually with Cameron."
Lee bit the inside of her cheek. Her hand came up to the ring resting on her sternum, fidgeting with it. "Well. If that's all, I'll just be going—"
Barry stepped in front of the door as Lee tried to exit. "You think you're just gonna leave?"
"That was the plan, yeah," Lee confirmed, nodding slowly.
Barry laughed darkly. "It's not that easy, Carter. Maybe I could forgive you for seeing this place high, but now, you're sober." He stepped forward, forcing Lee to take three stuttering steps backwards to maintain her distance. "But you know what? I know you're not a snitch and I'm feeling merciful today. You still hanging out with those Pogues?"
Lee licked her teeth. "Yeah," she said curtly. "They don't know about this, though."
"Oh, but they've been around here, haven't they?" Barry said, smirking. "The owner of the place warned me a few days ago that there were some cops here investigating Scooter Grubbs' murder. Said that there were some teenagers in Scooter's room right before the cops, but no arrests happened. The kids ran off."
Lee's eyes narrowed as Barry's grin widened. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Barry smiled, nodding slowly as if he agreed. "I don't like loose ends, Lee," Barry explained. "You've been a loose end ever since you quit. Now, though, I've got a match. If I get a whiff about you or your friends talking about my business here? Well, I'd hate to implicate you all in Scooter's murder. So let's make a deal, yeah?"
Straightening her spine, Lee nodded once. "You don't burn me, I don't burn you," she suggested.
"That's what I like to hear," Barry said, grinning devilishly like the Cheshire Cat. "You don't burn me, I don't burn you. Let's shake on it," he suggested, putting out a tan hand.
Lee bit her cheek as she reached forward hesitantly to shake Barry's hand. Her other hand reached back further, gripping her pepper spray in her back pocket. Just as her hand met Barry's, he yanked her towards him, close enough for the cigarette smoke on his breath to fan her face.
She cringed as he spoke. "You're on a tightrope, Lee," Barry muttered. "Twelve months sober now? I'd hate to see you fall."
Lee pulled harshly away from Barry, wielding her pepper spray in her other hand as a warning.
"I knew you were a smart girl, Carter." Barry grinned. "That's it. No funny business."
"Whatever," Lee grumbled. "As always, it's been a displeasure," she sneered, walking towards the door. Her pepper spray was still safely tucked into her palm as she kept Barry within her peripheral vision.
"I'll see you around, Carter," Barry said, and Lee couldn't decide if it was a promise or a threat.
As soon as the door to the vending room slammed shut behind her, Lee began walking as fast as she could away from the motel. She was tempted to run, but she didn't want Barry to know how much he had scared her. Every few seconds, she glanced over her shoulder to make sure he wasn't following her away from the motel. Once her feet reached the concrete of the street in front, Lee took off in a sprint, her backpack slapping heavily against her back with every step.
Her run lasted for about a mile, at which point she stopped for a moment, placing her hands on her knees to catch her breath. Fuck, she thought over and over again. I cannot be tangled up in this shit. Lee stood up straight, looking over her shoulder one last time before continuing on her way to the Wreck, where she'd promised to meet her friends.
Lee was a half mile out from the Wreck when John B's van pulled up next to her with a toot of its horn.
"Whadya want, Johnny Boy?" Lee asked, holding up a hand to shield her eyes from the rising sun as she looked at him through the open passenger window.
"Need a ride?" John B asked, stopping the van.
Lee was already opening the back door as she nodded. "You just saved me like five hundred steps."
"You're very welcome."
The rest of the way to Kiara's restaurant, Lee and John B joked about the different possible uses for his cast. Lee's suggestions included a weapon, a cutting board, and a sledgehammer. John B shot each of those down in favor of an inconspicuous ball-scratcher and a baseball bat. It was an intense debate, but Lee handed John B the victory, claiming that he only won because he was the person wearing the cast.
They pulled up to the Wreck, laughing as they walked in together to see their friends messing around in the back of the restaurant. Kiara was the first to notice them and she raced over, hugging John B tightly as she glanced at the tangles in Lee's hair with disdain. Sighing, Kiara led them to the table where JJ and Pope were sitting.
Kiara forced Lee to sit down, ignoring the girl's yelp of pain as she began to run her fingers through her hair.
"Kie," Lee whined, "that hurts!"
Continuing to comb through Lee's hair, Kiara responded, "It wouldn't hurt so much if you'd just brush your hair regularly."
Lee huffed but allowed Kiara to continue as John B leaned over the table, clearly ready to tell them some big news. She eyed him warily, wondering what had been so important that he hadn't told her individually on the way over.
"So, I'm staying at Tannyhill," he suddenly spluttered out, sending Kiara a nervous glance.
Kiara tightened her grip on Lee's hair and Lee winced but said nothing. "I'm sorry," Kiara growled, "you're staying where?"
"Tannyhill," John B restated, trying to seem normal.
Lee grimaced. He was an idiot if he thought that Kiara wouldn't be upset with him.
"So you're living with Sarah Cameron," Kiara confirmed, roughly beginning to French braid Lee's hair.
"Unless someone else suddenly owns Tannyhill," Lee joked, trying to lighten the mood. "Ow," she whined as Kiara tugged at a thin strand of her hair, "I get it, I'll stop."
John B sighed, resting his head in his hands. "Okay, look, the only reason I'm living there is because her dad bailed me out, right?" he argued, leaning back, frustration scrawled across his face. "And it's way better than foster care, which, by the way, is where I would go if Ward didn't—"
"Hey, so do you have a membership to the clubs now?" Pope asked playfully, shrugging.
"I don't know, Pope," John B said, exhaling as he rested his arms on the table again.
JJ leaned forward, smirking. "What about those golf carts they drive around? You get one of them?"
"Does it come with a sweater-vest, or do you have to buy one on your own?" Pope continued teasing.
Lee grinned, leaning forward despite the way that Kiara pulled at her scalp. "Are you gonna start wearing designer shoes?" she asked, fist-bumping Pope. "I've always wanted a pair of Louboutins."
"Look, you promised," Kiara said, loosening her hold on Lee's hair. Lee sighed with relief, rubbing at her scalp. "You said you weren't with her."
JJ nodded, shrugging as he looked at John B. "Bro, just own it. She got you."
"Look," Kiara began again, ignoring JJ's comment, "if you wanna hang out with her, that's fine. But I'm letting you know now that I'm not doing anything with Sarah."
Lee clenched her jaw, still frustrated with the way that Kiara was handling her grudge, but John B defended himself before she could start a fight.
"Do you guys see her here? No, right," he answered. "Okay. A little focus would be fantastic. We've got the map, right?"
"It's all out of whack 'cause the guy was ganja'd when he drew it," JJ explained as Pope opened the map on the table in front of them.
Sure enough, when Lee leaned forward to glance at the map, the coast line was completely different.
Kiara didn't hesitate to answer, "It's 'cause the coast has changed."
"So we just have to look for landmarks that haven't changed," Pope suggested.
Lee's eyes were already flickering over the map, searching for familiar locations. "Oh, the old forts," she suggested, gesturing to a few that she could spot on the map. One fort in particular looked close to parcel nine, the area where the coded message John B had found said that the gold was hidden. "Battery Jasper's still there."
Her friends slowly nodded in agreement and, as soon as Kiara had tied off the second pigtail braid in Lee's hair, they set off for the fort. Lee had only been to it a few times previously, since it was primarily a tourist attraction known for its view of the beach, but they all still knew the way. She hummed to herself in the backseat as John B drove up to the fort. Eventually, Kiara began humming along with her and, pretty soon, Pope was beatboxing as JJ pretended to play air guitar. Before Lee could suggest some potential band names, John B parked in front of the old fort.
"Here we are," he said, turning to the back seat. "Battery Jasper."
They got out of the van one-by-one, going to check out the view of the beach as Pope unfolded the map on a rock.
"We're in Battery, right here," he said, pointing at their current location on the map. "So if this is parcel nine, then it's somewhere northeast of here," he continued.
Lee scanned the horizon. She had never been very good with directions when she was far out on the water, but when she had the beach as a landmark, it was easy.
Pointing straight ahead, Lee said, "Somewhere there."
"Right," Pope said in agreement.
"Over there?" JJ said skeptically, pointing in the same direction that Lee had. "Guys, that's not Tannyhill, that's a subdivision."
John B quickly stated, "Tannyhill Plantation was the entire island."
Lee's eyebrows raised in amazement, but at John B's look she realized he was serious. Kildare might have been small as an island, but as a single plantation it would have been huge.
"It got sold into smaller pieces over time," John B explained.
Pope nodded slowly, looking back at the map. "So we're just looking for an old stone wall," he murmured.
Lee clicked her tongue. "All righty, cowboys. Let's get 'er," she said, mimicking a Texan accent.
"That accent was shit," JJ commented as they wandered back to John B's van. "You've gotta add more twang," he suggested, throwing open the back door for Lee. "More like, awl righty there, cowboys," he said in a thick Texan drawl, "let's git this 'ere plan-tay-shun."
Lee bit her lip to hold back a laugh as she settled into the backseat of the van. "How about, yer an idjut, JJ?"
"That was better," he said, shrugging.
Laughing softly, Lee looked up to see Kiara watching her with an eyebrow raised.
Remember the rule, Kiara mouthed, nodding her head at JJ.
Lee narrowed her eyes, shaking her head at her best friend. Never forgot it, she mouthed back.
Kiara shrugged playfully, making a kissy face at Lee before Pope interrupted their banter.
"Okay, so the road should split up here," he said, pointing through the windshield as he instructed John B. "All right. You're gonna take a left."
John B took Pope's instruction to heart, turning left so sharply that Lee was thrown into JJ's side. She grunted in surprise and JJ quickly wrapped his arm around her to keep her from falling off of the seat. Cursing, Lee sat up straight, scooching away from JJ slightly and ignoring the hurt look on his face.
"That looks like a stone wall to me," JJ said, pulling Lee out of her thoughts as he gestured out of the opposite window.
Lee's eyes widened as she took in the stone wall before her, recognizing it.
"Guys," she said warily. "That's Crain's house."
Her friends got out of the van immediately, leaving Lee to reluctantly follow.
"Guys, listen," she begged, jumping in front of her friends as they walked up to the wall. "We used to play tag here, okay? And I'm telling you, it's bad news."
JJ nodded in agreement. "Worst case scenario."
"Why'd it have to be here?" Pope groaned.
"I heard that Mrs. Crain buried her husband's head on the property," JJ informed them, glancing between his friends with steely blue eyes.
Lee stared up at the giant house beyond the stone wall, remembering the many times that she had been there before. A shudder ran down her spine at memories of playing tag in the front yard and getting scared witless when porch lights would flicker on. Once, Rafe swore that he saw Mrs. Crain staring at them through a window upstairs, and although they'd never proved it, Lee believed him. She knew that Mrs. Crain was lying in wait for some stupidly brave kid to come inside so that she could take their head off.
"Let's go," John B said decisively, leading his friends to the stone wall.
Lee hung back, frozen as she watched her friends climb over.
Pope was the last of them and, glancing up, he noticed Lee still standing by the van. "Lee, you coming?" he asked, curiously watching her. "If you've been here before, that could be helpful."
Lee bit her lip. Every bone in her body begged her to stay back. Nevertheless, Lee couldn't let her friends risk their lives without her. She climbed over the stone wall as Pope patted her shoulder, following JJ and Kiara's banter.
"Look, you guys know whose house this is, right?" Kiara asked her friends nervously.
"Oh, yeah," JJ said. "I do."
John B shrugged. "Look, honestly, I don't believe the stories about this place."
Lee shook her head. "You should," she stated, glancing around nervously. It was too late to turn back now, she figured. She had already crossed the property line.
Pope shushed them and Lee looked into the forest, feeling like someone was watching her. She shivered, trying to shake off the feeling. The only person who lived there was Mrs. Crain, and there was no way the old woman could see them all the way from the house.
"Which stories did you hear?" JJ asked Kiara, wandering up to her side.
Kiara frowned. "The one where she killed her husband with an axe and that she's been holed up ever since." There was a moment of silence as the wind brushed the tops of the trees. Lee glanced around nervously as Kiara continued, "On certain nights, when the moon is full, you can see her in the window!" Kiara suddenly jumped, turning around to scare Lee.
Lee stumbled back in fright as Kiara lunged towards her. "Christ, Kiara!" she exclaimed, clutching a hand over her heart as she steadied herself. "It's not funny, okay? This place is fucking creepy!"
"Yeah, it's all true," JJ confirmed, glancing between Kiara and Lee. "I swear to God, guys, this is all real. I knew Hollis," he defended.
Lee recognized the name—Hollis Crain was the daughter of the crazy woman living there.
Pope frowned in disbelief. "Wait, you knew Hollis Crain?"
"Yeah, dude."
"Dude, how do you know Hollis Crain?" Pope pressed, stepping closer to JJ.
JJ shrugged. "She was my babysitter, man. She told me all about it," he said, glancing between his friends. "Told me the truth... about her mother and what happened in this house." At his friends' intrigued looks, he explained, "So as a kid, she heard all the stories that her mother killed her father, and she was a murderer and all. Hollis didn't believe it—until that night."
"What night?" John B asked.
Lee felt her heart clench in her chest.
JJ looked at John B intensely. "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 a sink," he described, pausing for dramatic effect, "full of blood. Her mother just says that she cut her finger. The next morning, she says her father and her split up," he continued. Lee shivered slightly. "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 father's head, looking straight back at her."
Lee shook her head slowly, trying to rid her mind of the image. "That explains why you turned out so crazy," she said to JJ. "Babysitter telling you all that."
"You are so full of shit," John B murmured.
JJ shook his head, glancing between his friends for help. "Dude, I swear to God, man."
"Did she call the police?" Pope asked, a skeptical eyebrow raised.
"She didn't have time," JJ said, shrugging as if that was the obvious answer.
John B rolled his eyes and shoved between JJ and Pope.
Lee reached out to grab his arm, stopping him. "John B!" she hissed, tugging him backwards.
He looked at her expectantly and she sighed, crossing her arms.
"Look, I've been here before. Many times. And when I say bad things happened every time, I mean it, okay?" she insisted, grabbing John B's chin to force him to look into her stormy eyes. "Bad things, John B."
JJ walked up next to her. "You sure you wanna do this, man? She's an axe murderer," he stated, eyeing John B's arm. "You got a cast on."
John B pulled away from his friends, shaking his head in frustration. "I don't give a shit if she's an axe murderer, okay? I got nothin' to lose, right? You comin' or what?" he stated with finality, glancing between each of his friends as he continued onto the property.
Lee followed hesitantly, her heart racing in her chest as she glanced around, nervously waiting for something terrible to happen. Curse her selflessness, Lee thought. This was crazy stupid. They suddenly stopped walking as John B beckoned for everyone to form a circle.
"So here's the plan," he said softly. "We need to look for the wheat near the water like it said in Denmark's letter."
"Okay," Pope agreed, "like, what kind of water? Like, pond water?"
JJ chuckled. "Bong water?"
Lee shook her head, elbowing JJ in annoyance. "No, not bong water. But, listen, John. I've been here a lot, and I can tell you that there is absolutely no water on this property, okay? No ponds, no streams, no puddles. Nada."
John B sighed, his shoulders sagging. "I mean, there has to be something," he said, sending her a desperate look. "It said look for water."
"That's the shittiest secret message ever," Kiara stated as Lee thought for a moment, trying to remember anything on the property.
Lee slowly shook her head. "I mean, I don't even think there's a fountain or a birdbath, okay?"
Just as John B began to insist that they look around anyways, Lee thought of something.
"Wait," she said tentatively. "There is one place that we never went. I don't think it'll have any water, but... it's worth a shot," she explained, glancing between her friends.
Their eyes reflected her nervousness, but they all seemed to have come to the same conclusion.
"We'll try anything," John B said simply.
Lee exhaled nervously. "All right, follow me," she muttered, leading her friends through the property towards the old basement entrance. The ground beneath her feet was almost too familiar. It was uncomfortable how easily she recalled the path back to the basement. Shaking off her nerves and sense of impending doom, Lee turned to her friends as they arrived at the wooden door that led into the basement.
"Okay," Lee whispered softly. "This is the basement. We never came in here when we were kids because we thought it's where her husband was," she explained. "Listen, I'm just warning you guys, if I see anything weird, I'm leaving. I'll run all the way back to the fucking Cut without you, okay?"
Her friends nodded in affirmation and Lee bit her lip as she slowly opened the basement door.
"Here we go," John B murmured, walking in ahead of Lee with his flashlight.
She followed after him, saluting her friends as she entered the darkness before her. The basement was a thing of nightmares, with creepy dolls lying around in the dust and rusty pipes that glittered under their flashlight beams. A part of Lee wondered how Mrs. Crain could let her house get so dirty, but another part of her said that she didn't want the answer to that question. She squeaked slightly as she ran directly into a cobweb, batting at it frantically as JJ came up behind her.
"Hey, hey, hey," he whispered quickly, pulling Lee away from the cobweb. "It's just a cobweb," he explained, grabbing her shoulders. "You're good."
Shrugging his hands off of her shoulders, Lee turned away from JJ to continue exploring the basement.
She heard JJ singing quietly behind her, "Down came Mrs. Crain and cut off all our heads. Up came the sun and dried up all the blood."
Lee ignored JJ and Pope soon shushed him. The ceiling above her creaked suddenly and she gasped, looking directly up. Mrs. Crain could be right above her with an axe and she would have no idea. Maybe this was how she would die—Mrs. Crain beheading her through the basement ceiling with a rusty axe. Lee didn't think the punishment of death fit the crime of trespassing, but she didn't know that she could make that argument to an axe murderer.
She swatted at a few mosquitoes as Kiara said, "Another dead end?"
"There's not even water on the pipes," JJ observed.
It was bold of him to touch the pipes, considering they were covered with rust and, possibly, much nastier things. Lee grimaced at the thought of what else could be coating them.
Pope sighed, "There's no water here."
"Not a dropamino," JJ confirmed.
"Know why we didn't find it?" Kiara said, turning hastily to face John B. "Bad karma," she informed.
Lee sighed, not ready to listen to Kiara's spiel about karma again. The last time that she had heard it was when she had lost a boating race to an arrogant Kook boy and Kiara was sure that it was because Lee had considered cheating beforehand.
"Oh, God, here we go," John B muttered.
Kiara narrowed her eyes. "You know, we had a good thing going, and then you decide to rope in Barbie and now the trail's gone dry. Coincidence? Probably not."
Lee turned, scoffing, to continue looking around the basement as Kiara and John B argued. She was glancing at an old baby crib, covered in cobwebs, when she heard the unmistakable sound of Kiara's hand meeting John B's face.
"Oh, shit," Lee murmured.
Kiara glared at John B coldly. "Stop treating me like I'm some girl that's obsessed with you instead of your best friend who's actually trying to look out for you."
John B raised an eyebrow at Kiara. "Did you hit me?"
"Skeeter," Kiara responded, her hands coming to rest on her hips.
"Oh," John B said, slapping Kiara across the face. "Skeeter."
Lee jumped forward, ready to defend Kiara's honor, but found herself held back by Pope and JJ. She watched in growing annoyance as Kiara and John B began to hit each other, claiming a mosquito each time. Pope and JJ slowly released her arms as she rolled her eyes.
"Jesus," Pope muttered as the two bickering teens walked past them.
"Keep it down!" JJ groaned at them.
Lee sighed in irritation, swatting at the mosquitoes that buzzed around her face. "God, guys, if Mr. Crain really is down here, you're gonna wake him up from the fucking dead," she muttered, turning to scan the floor with her flashlight.
"Why are there so many mosquitoes in a basement?" Pope wondered aloud.
JJ shrugged. "Dude, I know, seriously. Tiny vampire bats, just leave me alone."
Lee rolled her eyes at JJ before looking at Pope. "Mosquitoes live in humid areas," she stated with a shrug. "It's pretty humid down here."
Pope nodded in agreement and Lee's eyes slowly widened in realization.
"There has to be water somewhere down here," she muttered, ignoring John B and Kiara's continued argument behind her.
Pope slowly walked into the middle of the basement, stomping slightly on the ground before suddenly kneeling and looking through a slat in the floor. Lee watched him curiously, stepping forward to crouch next to him. Listening as Pope dropped a pebble through a crack in the floor, she heard a soft splash from below. Glancing up, she and Pope looked at each other with wide eyes before quickly standing.
"Help me!" she hissed at JJ as she stepped into him.
He gave her a curious look but did as instructed, bending over to help move the wood away from the center of the basement. John B and Kiara slowly joined the effort, shushing Pope as he desperately flung wooden beams aside. Once the excess beams were moved away, Lee and Kiara slowly grabbed one of the slats in the floor and lifted it out of place, shifting it to the side. The boys moved a few more and soon, they were all gazing into a well.
"Well, well, well," Pope muttered.
"That was a good dad joke," John B responded, kneeling at the edge.
Kiara shook her head slowly. "They built this part of the house right over it."
"This is where she hid the bodies," JJ said nervously. "I'm dead serious," he defended as the others scoffed in disbelief. "It was never an outhouse."
"Haha, dead serious," Lee joked, elbowing JJ playfully.
"She probably doesn't even know it's here," Pope pointed out.
Lee leaned forward slowly, trying to gaze all the way to the bottom. Suddenly, JJ's hand was on her back, shoving her lightly. She gasped and turned as she felt herself falling, grabbing at JJ's arm desperately. She cursed as he wrapped an arm around her back, chuckling lightly as he stood her back on her feet.
"Falling for me, Carter?" he teased.
Ignoring his comment, Lee smacked JJ's arm and said, "Don't do that again."
"We found water," Pope stated once Lee was done cursing.
John B nodded in agreement. "We're gonna need a really big rope."
It didn't take them long to get spooked and race out of the basement. As they drove away from the Crain house, whooping victoriously at their discovery, Lee couldn't help but feel nervous. The Crain house felt haunted, like it cursed everyone who dared to come inside. She'd been so many times as a child and so many bad things had happened to her. Correlation and causation were certainly not the same, but Lee was terrified that the Crain house was correlated with bad things. Maybe it was time for her to start taking Kiara's bad karma more seriously.
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Updated 8/17/22. If you see this note and realize this book has been updating as you have been reading, I recommend going back to the beginning to reread the changes. Otherwise, please look at the pinned message on my profile for more information on updates to "The Deep End."