season one ; episode three { The Forbidden Zone }
chapter fifteen
[ ⚠️𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 - 𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 𝐎𝐅
𝐒𝐄𝐗𝐔𝐀𝐋 𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐔𝐋𝐓 ]
BROOKLYN ARRIVED BACK AT THE CHÂTEAU, her brother was walking back into the house after he had a conversation with Kiara. She tried to search around the house for anything that would cover up the marks that stained her face.
"Bee!" She heard her brother yell which made her jump up. "What the hell happened to your face?" He rushed over to her, grabbing a wet paper towel.
"Shit, John B, I'm fine." He fought around with her, trying to hold the towel up to her face but she continued to fight him.
"What happened? Tell me."
She let out a deep sigh. "Topper and Rafe jumped me and Pope."
John B touched the hand marks around her neck. "Brooklyn, what the hell happened?" He asked, lifting her head up to take a closer look.
"Topper tried to choke me." Her breathing was shaky as she pressed a the mark around her neck, a wince leaving her lips. "Before Rafe hit Pope with a golf club, I jumped in and he hit me. I'm okay."
"Shit, Bee. I wish I was there. I would've knocked his fucking teeth out." He pushed the hair away from her face, seeing tears fill her eyes. "Come here."
She stepped forward and buried her head into John B's chest, her arms wrapping around his waist as she let out a few sobs. Her nails dug into the material of his shirt, pulling on the soft material.
"JB, there's something else." She whimpered.
"What?"
"Last year when I went to a Kook party with Kie, I got really wasted and Topper tried to touch me-." She attempted to stop herself from crying. "Rafe tried to do the same thing a few months ago and I'm-."
"Shush." John B rubbed his sister's head softly, his fingers running through her hair. "I'm gonna get JJ to shoot them, I can tell you that now."
She pulled away, wiping her tears away with the wet towel. "I'm gonna be okay. Please, don't mention it again. I don't want to think about it ever again."
John B nodded, placing a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay, I won't mention it but I will hurt them."
"I love you." She chuckled through her tears.
"I love you too, loser." He ruffled her brown hair, pushing her face away from him. "Come on, we're gonna surf to pass time."
"Okay." She laughed.
"Wipe those tears and get out there."
And she did just that. She wiped her tears, slipped out of her clothes and grabbed her surf board and joined the others outside.
"Come on, darling. Let's see who can ride the biggest wave." JJ punched the girl's shoulder playfully and headed out across the water.
She had been surfing since she was a child. She used to come out and ride huge waves with her brother while their father sat fishing on the dock. Once her and John B became friends with JJ, the three of them surfed and joked around in the water but out of everyone in their crew, JJ was by far the best surfer but Brooklyn thought she was pretty good.
She rode up the highest wave she's ever done, a higher wave than JJ but twirling around on her surf board caused her to almost slip and fall into the water but below her was where Pope picked her back up to her feet.
"Shit, thanks dude!" She laughed, riding up another wave. "Fuck."
"Oh, come on, Ave!" JJ yelled, signalling her to come over to him. She made her way back over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, her legs straddled his waist as he pulled her in from the water.
JJ started to press his head into her chest, shaking his head but before he could get any closer, the girl shoved him away. "No! Not yet." She smirked.
"Oh, damn. When?" He teased, his leg riding up her thigh which made her body tremble.
"All in good time, baby. All in good time." She pressed a tender kiss to his cheek and rushed off and back into the waters.
Brooklyn swam towards Kiara who was smiling goofily at her. "What's going on with you and JJ?"
"What? Nothing." She scoffed. "We're just friends."
"You two are not just friends. Do you see the way he looks at you? He fucking loves you."
"Last night he told me he liked me, I said I liked him but nothing can happen. It's against the rules." She sighed, wishing she could be with him but everyone would be against them.
"Oh, fuck the rules, Brooke. Your brother broke the rule by kissing me so go ahead and do whatever you want with him." Kiara chuckled, placing a hand on Brooklyn's shoulder.
"Damn, I'd rather hook up with you."
"Oh, same, baby." She smirked, pulling herself closer to the girl, their boards touching.
"Hey, why did you turn my brother down? You seemed really into him. It's just a little strange..." She questioned, leaning closer to Kiara.
"I don't know. I think I'm into someone else."
"Ooo, who?"
Kiara gulped, her eyes gazing into Brooklyn's brown orbs. Kiara knew that she had feelings for Brooklyn but she knew that she was madly in love with JJ and didn't feel the same way for Kiara.
"I don't know." She lied. "Hey, John B told me what happened with your face, I'm so sorry."
"It's fine." She smiled.
The Pogues sat around outside in the cold, brisk air of the starry night. Brooklyn was laid out on a hammock, her head resting on JJ's chest with Kiara at their feet. Pope and John B rested on another hammock, all five of them close to each other.
"You guys really think it's out there? Like, no bullshit?" Pope asked the twins.
"Our father thought it was."
"But do you two?"
"After heading his voice on that tape... I think I do."
"Yeah, I do to." Brooklyn had convinced herself that the gold was truly out there somewhere.
"Only one way to find out." The boys did the signature Pogue handshake.
"Look, we're gonna find it, you know? Even JJ believes."
"Oh, my God, JJ, do you really believe?" Brooklyn chuckled, sitting up from his chest.
"Totally." He nodded. "Wait. Are we talking about four mil?"
"Four hundred mil." Pope and Kie said together. "Jinx." She chuckled.
"I'm gonna dream about shipwrecks." JJ lay back, his arm cradling Brooklyn. "Goodnight, Bird!"
"Goodnight, bird shit!" JJ flipped him off, his eyes slowly shutting like the others.
And so with that, they went out the very next morning and travelled to the exact coordinates. Kiara would take care of lowering the drone while Pope and John B stood on lookout with the camera. JJ and Brooklyn would be taking care of the wheel and making sure the boat didn't spin and twist around in the water.
"All right, guys. Pin it here." John B told them, grabbing the drone.
"Roger that! X marks the spot." The drone went underneath the water and Brooklyn kept an eye on the wheel with JJ.
"All right, JJ, we're right over it. Ten seconds northwest." John B told him, looking at the pad he was holding for where the wreck was.
"Got it! Ten seconds northwest."
"One hundred feet!"
Pope gasped, making everyone's head turn but he got scared of some underwater creature instead.
"Four hundred feet!"
JJ and Brooklyn continued to keep the boat steady while the others messed around outside.
"The tide's turning!"
"Hey, guys? Ten seconds easy. South-southeast."
"Copy that!" JJ turned the wheel, Brooklyn stumbling over ever so slightly.
"JJ, twenty seconds mid-speed, all right? South."
"Copy that! Aye, aye."
The weather began to pick up and the boat started to rock which would make it harder for the drone that was now at seven hundred feet.
"JB, is that good?" Brooklyn yelled.
"Yeah, that's perfect."
The thunder crashed and tumbled as the rain started to pick up. JJ and Brooklyn fell to one side as the waves took control of the boat. "Okay..." Brooklyn looked out across the ocean and gulped at how unsteady the waves were.
"JJ, hold it steady!"
"Okay, nine hundred."
"JJ, we'll turtle in this storm."
"Nine twenty."
"Crank it north by northwest! Ten seconds!" John B yelled to the two who took a sharp turn to get the boat steady.
"John B, there's too much current! We're gonna lose it!" Kiara yelled, tugging on the rope.
"South, southwest. JJ, hard!" Another sharp turn which sent Brooklyn falling. "Half speed. Steady at this bearing, JJ!"
"Nine sixty! Nine seventy! Nine eighty!"
"Okay, steady here, JJ!" The two rested the boat above the spot where the Royal Merchant supposedly was. "Steady here. Quarter speed."
"Wait, wait." Everyone fell silent and Brooklyn rushed out to see the camera.
"It's the Royal Merchant."
She grabbed her brother's shoulder, a huge smile wiped across her face upon seeing the sunken wreck.
There is a moment in every kids life when you feel like anything's possible. When you feel like you've got the total mojo. You could, god knows, free-climb El Capitan, land on Mars, or, uh... get elected President. The whole world's there for the taking if you've got the sack to go for it. And then, when you least expect it, some Kook shows up and tells you there's no eternal mystery. And then all that talk about free-climbing and Mars and the president... bullshit. Magic gets cancer and dies.
"It's not there- just pull the drone up." John B sighed after they searched around only to be disappointed.
No gold.
"Look, we can do another pass. Recharge the battery. We can- we can go back down."
"We've done it three times. There's nothing there."
"Shut up!"
"What? It's true."
Brooklyn leaned her head on John B's shoulder and let out a loud sigh. "Shit."
"The gold could be buried. We don't know."
"If it was there, it would've been found on the metal detector, okay?" John B snapped, turning his head to face the others. "Somebody beat us to it."
"Or it was never there."