EDEN sat on the roof of the Twinkie, John B.'s leg tensely sat on her knee.

After evacuating the waters and struggling to get the Routledge boy up to the roof, Eden was finally able to conclude that he was bleeding—there was a huge tear in his jeans, showing off a decent cut the gator had left.

Knowing the most about injury, Eden was sitting with the Routledge's foot against her knee, leg leaned towards her so she could get a good look at what the animal had left. Pope sat behind the boy, supporting him, while Sarah sat beside the Bexley, ready to help if she needed too.

"Alright, be careful." Pope voices as Eden's fingers graze over the bloody wound, "I'm pretty sure that thing'll get infected."

John B. tries to let out a sarcastic reply, but it falls out as more of a pained gasp as Eden shifts his leg, "Yeah!"  

"No shit, Pope. A literal alligator bit him." Eden states the sarcastic reply, finding an infection to the wound a no-brainer—clearly it would. However, at her friends gasp, she looses her sarcasm and mutters a light, "Sorry."

Leaning over to look at the wound, Sarah states, "Yeah, you're lucky it didn't cut into muscle too much."

"Lucky I got bit by an alligator and my car is underwater?" John B. seethes, words coming through in light pants as he tried to bite back at the Cameron. 

"Enough with the couples quarrel, do you have something to wrap it with?" Eden rolls her eyes before looking at the Routledge boy, hoping that he did indeed have something. "I'd really like to stop the bleeding."

John B. makes eye contact with his ex girlfriend as he places a shaky hand into his pocket, pulling it out again to reveal his tied and torn bandanna—the same thing he'd pulled a piece off of to give to Sarah when they got married. 

Eden looks between the two teens, noticing Sarah's expression, before taking hold of the cloth.

"Oh, and speak of the frickin' devil." Pope's voice causes the Bexley to pause for a moment. Her eyes scanned the distance, and she's quick to purse her lips when she spots Mike Carrera's backing into the swamp.

Eden let out a light scoff, beginning to tie the bandanna around John B's wound, "Right on time." 

The truck honks its horn, which brings no excitement or amusement to any of the teens. 

Pope specifically showcases his annoyance, "Look who it is, the tortoise and the tortoise. Just a couple hours late." The car doors open and he forcefully calls out, "Where the hell were you guys?!"

Kiara points towards the Maybank as she exits the truck. "Paternal complications."

JJ informs the four on the Twinkie as he pulls out the winch, "Luke was at the Chateau."

Eden finishes wrapping the bandanna around John B.'s ankle, frowning at the mention of Luke. Of course he had to show up and bring conflict to JJ during the worst of times. 

Pope on the other hand, seemed to care less about what happened, spitting, "Oh, great! While you were having family time with your pops, John B. got bit by a gator!"

JJ's expression falters, "Like, for real?"

Sarah gestured towards her ex with an exclaim, "Does it look like we're joking?"

Kiara's brows furrow and she walks forward, "Okay, what the hell happened?!"

"What happened?" John B. snaps, voice rising in pitch as he yelled, "I got bit by a gator!"

In unison, Pope yells, "He got bit by a gator!"

At the tone in their voices, Kiara quickly grows defensive over herself, "I don't know why I'm being yelled at because I put my ass on the line—" She gestures towards her truck, knowing she was in deep shit for stealing.

"You put your ass on the line?!" Eden scoffs, lips moving before her mind could tell her in was pointless to argue, "Me and Sarah just had to fight a fucking alligator with a shoe and he—" She gestures towards the boy beside her, "—just about died!" 

Her words seem to spark Kiara even more and pretty soon, all the Pogues except JJ are screaming at one enough, yelling about how 'it took three hours' or how 'we got here as soon as we could'. Their voices overlap, protests and backhanded comments being recklessly tossed. The swamp was quick to become tense.

"You're being yelled at because you guys had twenty minutes—"

"—we got here as fast as we could!"

"Hours, Kie!" Eden hollers, exasperated, "We were waiting on you for fucking hours!"

"—and it took forever!"

The Bexley feels as if she's this close to fully losing it. The one thing she hated about her friends was how pissy they grew towards one another after being together for days on end. Slowly but surely, the smallest things started to tick the other off—Sarah and John B. being broken up, as well as Kie and Pope's unresolved relationship problems certainly didn't help—until they ultimately ended up letting all their pent up anger out on one another, like now.

The past month had really been a test on that. How long could the Pogues stand one another before they grew annoyed?

"Shut up!"

The entire group falls silent at JJ Maybank's holler.

His voice seems to reason to the group, each Pogue dropping their hands and loosening up their tight expressions as they fall quiet. The swamp is dead silent for a few moments.

JJ stands to the side, dropping his hands from his hair—which he'd been running through to try and calm the stress their yelling had caused his body. He was so sick of all the yelling and arguments; especially now, when he'd just had to do one of the hardest things he'd ever had to do, only to return to his friends pointless bickering.

"Seriously, guys. I can't take it anymore, alright?" JJ cuts through the silence, turning away from the group. He let's out a humorless chuckle as he leans against a nearby tree and drops his head, "Everybody just cut it out for a second."

Eden lightly frowns, noticing the hurt within the boys' words. She suddenly feels sorry for even opening her mouth towards Kie—their bickering had been pointless, merely anger thrown at anger. All the while JJ sat conflicted with his own emotions, wanting it to stop.

"Look, I just helped my dad leave this island....for good." the Maybank boy admits, looking at each of his friends, "Like, he's not ever coming back. He's straight up like the Spanish— just bon voyage." 

Kiara's brows furrow and she sends JJ a questioning look, Eden tilting her head to the side with a similar expression.

Sarah whispers, "That's not the right language."

"It's French." Pope utters in agreement under his breath.

Eden merely shrugs, "Point still stands."

"All we got...." JJ took in a sharp inhale before correcting his words, "And I know for a fact all I got is you guys, okay? You're it." Each teen solemnly listened, knowing he spoke with the truth. Without the Pogues, JJ Maybank had nothing. They were all he had to lose. "And I've come too close to losing you, all of you." 

 Eden's brain wracked for all the ways each teen had been threatened or almost died in the past few months as the boy begins to list them.

"I mean, shit, like you almost drowned." JJ points beside him to Kiara, gesturing to each Pogue as he spoke their name, "Pope, you were kidnapped. Sarah, you've been shot." He glances towards Eden with a light chuckle, noticing how she checked each of the boxes, "Ed' you've been through all freaking three. Badass on your part, by the way." He finishes with the Routledge, "And John B, you were almost dinner for a freaking gator, bro."

The rest of the group all stared at the boy sympathetically, hearing his point. JJ rarely showed his vulnerable side to the Pogues like this. 

"So, this blaming each other is some Kook-ass bullshit, alright?" JJ firmly finishes, "We don't do that, okay? We're Pogues." The atmosphere grows quiet as he stops talking, and he almost snaps out of the firm voice of reason he'd become, "Sorry....that was a lot right now. I didn't mean to—"

The boy is cut off as Sarah, Eden, Pope, Kie, and John B. all make eye contact, simply nodding their heads before beginning in a round of applause for the Maybank's words. Smiles of amusement play on their lips as they stare at the boy, genuinely proud of his words.

"Yeah, alright." JJ rolls his eyes. 

Pope hums, "Well done."

"I'm touched, JJ." the Bexley dramatically sets a hand over her heart, "Touched."

"I gotta be honest, that was the best freaking speech you have ever given." John B. admits before teasing him on his language slip-up, "Also, you should think about, like, a Rosetta Stone because your, uh, Spanish and French are flip-flopped."

Eden teasingly smiles, "I think we should bon voyage out of here."

"We should bon voyage out of here." Sarah hums in agreement, a mimicking smirk on her face as she too used the words. 

JJ raises both his middle fingers, earning one in return from Eden, before taking her words into consideration. "Alright, let's get this damn Twinkie out of here."

"She's been waiting." Eden caresses the roof of the van before grabbing her wet Converse and returning it to her foot so she could help her friends haul the van out of the water. 

Eden walked up the stairs to Freedman's church, almost waiting for the old wood to collapse under her weight. 

After successfully pulling the Twinkie out of the swamp, the group returned on their mission for the Cross of Santo Domingo, driving the relatively quick drive to Freedman's church within a few minutes.

Now, the Bexley knew the building was old—Denmark had built it, after all—but she can't lie and say she was less than impressed as the group pulled up on it. The exterior paint job was shabby, picked away with age, and the roof seemed in need of an update. It was simply old; no where to hide a wanted gold cross....though, Eden supposes Denmark was smart for hiding it here, then. 

Who would expect the Cross of Santo Domingo to be hidden in a shabby old church? Certainly not Limbrey.

 As JJ and Pope opened the doors to the church—which echoed in a loud creak—Eden is quick to see that the inside is no better; worse, even. The wood is chipped and eaten away with age, any sort of paint job stripped away. Small bits of wildlife inhabit the empty building, overgrown plants and cobwebs decorating the arched window, and it seems to be holding on to nothing but the rickety timbers it was built on for support. The building itself was less of a worship place and more so a deteriorated shack.

There's a fluttering of wings, and Eden watches as a few birds evacuate the premise among the Pogues' arrival. The smell of rotting wood also manages to catch her nose, and the Bexley can't help but mutter a sarcastic, "Cute." 

"Very." John B. hums in agreement, slightly grunting as he uses Eden as a human crutch to support himself up the stairs.

"You can't talk, it looks better than the Chat." the Bexley replies, earning a harder push on her shoulder from the Routledge. At the pressure, she adds, "Okay, make me shorter while you're at it."

John B. shrugs, "Maybe then you'll be gator food, instead—"

"Hey, Mr. and Mrs. Talkative, enough." Pope whips around to look at the two brunettes. 

Eden raises her hands in defense, "Sorry."

"Okay," JJ also seems rather weary of the old building, eyes scanning the perimeter, "You're telling me Denmark Tanny decided to hide the cross here?" 

Pope hums, "Mhm."

Kiara instructed, "Everybody, just spread out."

"Okay, well, if I was a cross and wanted to be hidden in an old church, where would I hide?" John B. limped forward on his bad leg, words trying to slightly lighten the mood. 

Eden looks up at the ceiling, sighing, "I already suck at hide and seek as I am, let alone as a seven-foot cross." She wasn't sure where the item would be. It was gold, giant, and bedazzled—it should be obvious.

"Are you sure Denmark hid the cross here, Pope?" JJ shoves his hands in his pockets, still skeptically examining the church. There weren't many places a seven-foot cross could be held in the small worship area, "Like, are we at the right church?"

From the alter, Pope states, "It's gotta be here somewhere, guys."

JJ treads towards the piano sitting to the side, eyes widening as his brain began to come up with creative hiding spots, "What if we have to push, like, a secret button or, like a....like  a—a certain chord  and then, all of a sudden, the ground beneath us reveals the catacombs or something on which we stand?"

Furrowed brows and expressions of confusion mirror throughout the group, each Pogue staring at JJ rather puzzled by his words. 

Eden slightly tilts her head—catacombs her ass. "What the hell are you on right now?"

"How about we try to find obvious clues?" John B. offers, closing down the Maybank's idea.

Kiara rolls her eyes, "It's not an escape room."

"And how about we don't touch random shit in here?" the Bexley proceeds. Everything in the church was rather old, and she wouldn't be surprised if there was a disease waiting to be picked up by JJ's careless touching. 

"Sorry—I'm sorry." JJ quickly whispered, stepping away from the old piano and returning to scouring the room instead.

"It's gotta be in here." Pope rushes off the alter, running towards one of the windowsills. He begins to pat down against the wood, almost hoping to find a button that revealed a hidden room—as if that was logical. "Come on."

The Routledge boy comments, "Look, I can't see where they would hide a giant cross in here."

"Yeah," Eden hums lightly. Though she hated to think that they'd come so far for it not to be in the church, she doesn't know where else it would be—there was nowhere for it to truly hide. "I feel like if we were going to find a seven-foot, gold, and bedazzled cross, we would have spotted it by now." 

 "No, no." the Heyward shakes his head. The cross had to be in here. "There's no way—there's no way he would set us up on a freaking goose chase that would lead us to a church that was nothing in it!"

"I—I get it. I know." John B. raises his hands in defense, noticing the panicked and angry voice the Heyward had just used, "Okay. Yes, I get it. I don't know what to tell you, man." 

"Maybe we just missed a clue, Pope." Eden offers, trying her best not to sound too confident in the hopes of keeping Pope Heyward more calm than crazy. "I mean, who said there wasn't another clue other than the spyglass? Maybe it's not in here, exactly—"

"The clues led us here." Pope paces right past the Bexley, denying her words. He sits himself down in one of the old pews, frustrated at the entire situation. "The cross is in this church." 

 "Pope, it'll be alright." John B. huffs, "We've had setbacks in the past, and we figured it out. We're gonna find it."

Kiara, who'd taken a seat beside the Heyward for comfort, turns to look at him. "He's right."

"Look, we've just gotta think about this logically, alright?" John B. spiels, Pope enlarging the spyglass look through the eyepiece. "Where else would you hide a seven-foot-tall cross made of gold?"

Eden opens her mouth to reply, but her eyes quickly get caught on the Heyward positioning the spyglass towards the ceiling, eyes widening ever so slightly. She furrows her brows at the boy, "Pope?"

The boy doesn't answer, eyes still locked on the ceiling as he slowly lowers the spyglass from his gaze. 

JJ blankly asks, "What?"

The Heyward rises to his feet, too in shock and amazement to even answer his confused friends. His eyes stay trained on three wooden crosses attached to the ceiling designing above. Where else would Denmark hide the Cross of Santo Domingo within the church if it wasn't in one of the structures?

"Oh my God." Kiara looks upwards, taking into notice the structures, "Look at that."

Eden finally looks up, eyes slightly widening as she notices them too. Of course. After putting anyone who'd ever tried to find the cross on such a journey, Denmark wouldn't hide it out in the open. It truly was hidden. 

As the Pogues gape up at the ceiling, Pope quickly moves over towards a wall. He barely even hesitates before sticking his feet into the eaten away parts of the wall, hands gripping to the worn away areas as he begins to scale the church.

Sarah's eyes snap towards him, "Pope—"

JJ's brows raise, and he raises a hand to snap his fingers at the boy as if he were a dog,  "Hey, no!"

"Pope, what the fuck?" Eden exclaims, watching as the boy proceeded to climb the wall without a single care to what his friends were saying, "Get your ass down here before you get hurt. You're not frickin' Miles Morales."

John B. deadpans, "Now Pope's climbing the wall."

"You're not Spiderman! Get down, seriously!" the Bexley yells, growing worried over the boy. If he fell, it wouldn't end well—they couldn't afford another injury right now, nor did anyone want to see it.

Normally, Pope was the sensible one, taking his friends out of dangerous reasonably. However, now the Pogues were having to do it to him—the cross was certainly bringing his reckless side out.

The group begins to walk over to below the boy, exclaims and warnings still falling from their lips.

"Wait, Pope. Wait." Sarah seemed surprised, "This is crazy."

Kiara states, "Pope, this church is old—"

"I'm just gonna—" JJ walks over to below the boy, arms out in front of him as if he'd do anything to save the boy if he happened to fall.

"—like really old." the Carrera finishes, face twisted in concern, "This isn't safe."

The wood cracks as Pope scaffolds up the wall, and the group collectively cringes even more. 

"Yo! This church gots to be at least two hundred years old!" JJ yells.

"He's right, Pope." John B. calls, "It's too dangerous."

The boy tries to riskily shift over towards one of the cross structures, Eden's heart skipping a beat as he did so. "Oh my God, Pope! You're gonna fall! " She sputters, "I—I really don't feel like caring for your cracked open skull again!"

"Yo! Let me just be real!" JJ calls upwards, watching as the boy heaved himself up to the structure, "You're not the most coordinated person on planet Earth! You hear me? What are you doing?"

"Pope?" Kiara hollers as the boy knocks his fist against the structure he was clinging too, "Pope!"

"Alright, this one's solid wood." Pope takes his fist away from the cross, still not listening to his friends as he began to shuffle towards the next one, "I'm gonna try the other beam."

As the boy maneuvers over, the Maybank warns, "Pope, that's rotten as shit right there, okay?"

The Heyward wraps his fist against the next cross, Kiara calling, "Hey, easy!"

"Pope, I hate to break it to you, but that's wood."

"No, no," Pope hits his hand against the wood—it had to be in one of these. He rises to his feet, leaning up against the structure, beginning to circle around the item towards the final cross upon the ceiling, "It has to be here. I know it."

JJ shakes his head, eyeing up the small nest that sat angled above the third cross, "Bro, just look out for that giant wasp nest right above your head."

"Okay, you know what—" Eden huffs, keeping her eyes locked on Pope's figure as she moved over towards the pews. She grabs a dusty cushion from one of them, quickly heading back to her friends to throw it right below where the boy was standing. "If you're going to fall, try to aim at least your head, for this pillow." 

John B. looks at her at the statement, "God, you really are a Mom." 

"What? I'd rather be proactive than have to clean blood of these shoes." Eden shrugs, watching as the Heyward continues to shift towards the next cross, eyes locked on the wasp next above. "Besides you guys are clearly a bunch of unsupervised children. Except for Pope, who's clearly Spiderman—"

The Heyward takes another step, kicking a piece of unsteady wood off the plank and towards his friends on the ground.

"Woah, hey! Yo!" JJ darts out of the way. John B. grabs Eden's shoulders, yanking her backwards before she can even process the falling debris. "Just about took Eden out with that, Pope!"

Sarah exclaims, "God!"

"Look!" Pope breathlessly exclaims from where he was standing, eyes widening at the hollow hole where he'd stepped and kicked off the wood. "It's hollow. Go get me a crowbar!"

Sarah immediately goes to fulfill his request, heading out of the church, "I'll be right back."

"What are you gonna do, Pope?" JJ asked, generally concerned for his own safety despite not being the one scaling a rickety church ceiling, "I don't want this entire church to collapse on top of us. That's all I'm saying."

Pope crouches down, beginning to pick at the hollow wood with his hands, clearly not caring about splinters. However, he quickly spots the blonde girl returning with his crowbar, "Sarah!"

"Hey, Pope." Sarah pants.

"Throw it."

"Okay."

Kiara raises her brows, taking a step back, "Oh, for real?"

"Everybody watch your heads, alright?" John B. warned, unsure on Sarah's aim as well as Pope's catching skills.

Sarah chucks the crowbar up towards the boy with the best aim as possible, Pope catching it first try, chiming an excited, "Got it!"

The blonde smiles victoriously at her aim, turning back to look at her friends who endure in a moment of light applause. 

Kiara hums in approval, "Not bad."

"Hey, Pope—Pope, there's the wasp nest right up there, okay?" the Routledge boy reminds, pointing upwards towards the nest as he spoke, "Just move slow, alright?"

Pope nodded, "Got it."

The Heyward begins hammering into the wood with the crowbar. The group flinches backwards with slightly disgusted faces as dust and timbres of rotten wood begin to fall to the ground, Pope's grunts echoing through the church.

"What is that?" Sarah mumbles after a moment.

John B. points towards the small hole that had been made in the battered wood, "Do you guys see that?"

Eden looks upwards, mouth falling agape as she takes notice of what everyone else was seeing. Peeking through the crack Pope had made, sunlight reflecting off of it's shiny exterior, was nothing other than a gold and jewel covered cross staring back at them—the Cross of Santo Domingo. 

"Holy shit." Kiara gaped.

Sarah's hands clasped near her chest, a giddy smile on her face. "It's here. Oh my God..."

Pope continued to chip away the wooden exterior, revealing the full cross to his friends. Eden takes in the timeless beauty of the object, as well as the fact that they'd done it—they beat Limbrey. They got the cross. 

JJ almost chokes on his words, "You did it, buddy."

"That's the fucking cross!" Eden puts her hands together, pressing them against her face in shock. "We did it!"

"Holy shit," Kiara grapples, giddy smile working its way to her face, "Holy shit! Holy..."

"Oh my God!" Sarah's lost in happiness, "Oh!"

The Carrera grabs a hold of one of the Cameron's hands, to which the blonde grabs a hold of the Bexley's. Eden allows herself to be pulled into the huddle, the three girls squealing in unison, shaking their grasped hands and jumping together in utter excitement traveling through their veins. 

To the side, John B. and JJ throw their arms around each other, screaming out in excitement, "We did it!"

Pope hollers from the ceiling at the top of his lungs, more excited than the rest of the group at finally discovering his family's ancient relic.

The Pogues are enraptured in delight, jumping and excitedly moving as they yelled out for the Heyward to continue peeling off wood. Eden's reminded of the night they found the gold within Mrs. Crain's well—adrenaline from being shot at rushing through their veins, excitement as John B. revealed the gold he'd pulled up covered in mud; their bodies buzzing and bouncing as they drove off knowing they'd done it. 

"I thought you were crazy!" Kie squeals.

"We did it! We did it!" Pope hollers, clamping the crow bar in his grasp as he looked down at the golden cross he'd just uncovered—suddenly everything they'd done was worth it. However, suddenly, the wasps above start to buzz more furiously in his face, the Heyward swatting around, "Okay, they're stinging now! Ow!"

The boy drops the crowbar from his grasp, the entire group lurching down as it clattered, barely missing JJ's head. The Maybank shouts, "Take it easy—take it easy!"

The swatting causes the boy to lose focus on his footing, and Pope is quick to slide off of the beam he'd been sitting on. He barely manages to hang on to the wood, white-knuckled fingers grappling onto the surface as his entire body hung loosely in the air, threatening to fall onto the wood.

Eden gasps as the boy hangs, adrenaline turning into straight anxiety, "Pope!"

"Guess you weren't wrong about the cushions!" John B. spares the Bexley a glance before scrambling towards a pew, "Cushions! Grab cushions!"

"Move the pews!" Sarah instructed, rushing, "Pope, hold on!"

Eden rushes towards where the Heyward was dangling, the Pogues all moving pews and stealing their cushions, tossing them to the Bexley. The girl throws them where she threw her original cushion down, a poof of dust flying into the air she tries to position the items so they'd catch Pope when he fell. 

Sound of pain left the Heyward's lift as the wasps stung his already exerted hands until ultimately he yelled, "I can't hold!" One of his hands slides off of the wood, the Pogues all gasping as the boy dangles by one hand

Variations of 'keep holding on' and 'don't let go' are shout amongst the Pogues, who scramble to lay out the cushions so no matter how Pope managed to fall, he collided with a soft object to take in the blow rather than the harsh wooden floor.

"I'm slipping, guys!"

Without any warning other than a panicked yell, Pope Heyward's body plummeted to the floor.

 Eden's hand rushed over her mouth as he landed against the cushions, a heavy thud echoing through the church as a ploom of dust floated above the group from impact. 

The group didn't give him a second to breath before the crowded down towards him, beginning to bombard him with questions.

"Pope, are you okay!?" Eden is the first to scramble towards him, kneeling down amongst the mound of cushions behind his head. She knows better than to move his head—he could have a concussion or neck injury—and instead gently places her fingers upon his skin, holding his head in place as she examines for blood. "Don't move your head."

Sarah wearily asks, "Hey, are you good?"

"Are you okay?" Kiara's voice is rough with panic. 

"Anything broken?" JJ spares a glance at the Bexley, wanting her to confirm that nothing looked broken.

"Uh, I don't see any awkwardly angled limbs, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had a concussion." Eden confirms, scanning the boy's limb position for any awkward or out of place bending. Her words fall out in a slight ramble, "He fell on these cushions, but I wouldn't move his head yet in case shit is wrong."

Kiara adds, "Do you feel good?"

John B. sets a hand on the boys stomach, "You okay?"

"You did not tuck and roll, that's for sure." the Maybank chimes.

Pope finally opens his eyes, and the group collectively let their shoulders sag as the boy finally begins to come to it again. 

However, instead of answering any of their questions, his eyes widened in absolute fear as the Cross of Santo Domingo comes hurtling down towards them, just as he had moments before.

mara's misc

dun dun dun

no bc why does the episode end so dramatically like this it actually makes me giggle.

anyways don't mind me getting more and more creative with these chapter names. i usually to name chapters bc it's hard to sum up 4000+ words of writing into a mere few words, but with this book it's been oddly easy. i just come up with the goofiest shit, as "pope becomes spider-man for the day" expresses. some of my other favs include, "total pennywise shit", "across the sand flamingo" and "dude we're getting the band back together"

this weekend i found out the heart shattering news that eden the kitten died. she was one of me and kensie's kittens aka my children, and the one that i threatened to kill eden bexley off with if she died, so uh...

anyways, she was a legend and spent her little life serving cunt and making out with her brother jj (down below is the photographic evidence of her doing so)

also as most of ya'll have seen on my mb, i got my braces off!!! i had a real ugly gap in between my two front teeth and it is so weird to see them all straight??? like this isn't mara??

hope you enjoyed <3 see you back with chapter 56!!