EDEN received her s'more fifteen minutes later.

After returning back to the Chateau, JJ started a fire and the group gathered around it. S'mores and other snacks were passed around the four, creating a much more calm and collected version of the bonfire—if she's honest, Eden liked it better that way; just the five of them.

Eden sat quietly on the bench beside John B., fiddling around with her s'more stick. By her feet, there was a half drunken water bottle that she was nursing at—Kiara had ultimately convinced her to drink it. Between that and the food, she was starting to ever so slightly sober up.

"I've had more black eyes in the past month than I've ever had." Pope states, causing a giggle to fall from Kiara's lips. The Carrera girl takes a seat in the set up chair in between Eden and Pope, a snack in hand.

"That was building up for years. Rumble in the jungle." JJ comments, turning to the conversation back to the bonfire fight as he sat down beside Pope, plate of pizza in hand. He shifts the plate, feeling the burn of the food against his skin with a small exclaim, "Ah!"

John B. turns his head to look at the two girls beside him, quietly asking, "Hey, did you really stick up for Sarah?"

"Of course I did." Kie shrugs casually. Sarah Cameron was her friend when it all came down to it, Kook or not. "She's not a real Kook."

"Right."

Eden tilts her head to the side, "I was literally about to beat that girl's ass—who the hell just shoves someone off a ledge? 'You belong with us' my ass." She shakes her head thinking about the Pogue John B. had been interested in. "Acted like I was gonna choose her over Sarah because she was a real Pogue."

Pope comments, "Yeah, tell that to Topper."

"I mean, he's not wrong." Eden leans down to take the marshmallow off her stick, ignoring the warmth of the item. She grabs a graham cracker and a piece of chocolate and begins to construct her s'more as she speaks, "Topper acts like he owns her. Probably tracks her on Life 360 or some shit."

John B. looks down as see's the girl constructing the s'more, diving his hands down towards it the second she finishes. "I just want one bite—"

"John B—no!" Eden abruptly yells as she realizes that the boy's trying to steal her s'more. Her late reaction allows for the boy to snake a hand around her s'more holding on, bringing it up to his mouth so he could take a bite of the food. "Make your own, bitch!"

"Too poor." the Routledge boy shrugs, managing to steal a bite of it. At the same time, Eden tries to yank it back, resulting in the item falling out of both of their grasps and into into the dirt. A whine of disappointment falls from his lips, muffled by the food in his mouth. "Eden!"

Eden smacks the boy on the shoulder, "I fucking hate you."

"My bad." John B. stands up, crossing over towards the ground to retrieve the s'more. "I thought you were gonna share."

"You're not having any of mine." JJ stands up as well.

"Bracelet purposes are gone for that." the Bexley declares, crossing her arms over her body as she watches the boy pick the s'more up out of the dirt.

Pope sarcastically sides with Eden, "I believe that's a....not even fair trade."

"No, it's not,Pope. What's even worse is he's still going to eat it, too." Eden huffs, watching as John B. examines the s'more, almost debating whether or not he's going to claim it. "I hope you realize you're an actual rat."

"Why are you so mean?"

"You ate my s'more." Eden defends her case, grabbing John B.'s s'more stick from where it was rested. Holding it over the fire, she states, "Have fun getting a disease from that, I'm stealing your marshmallow."

"Hey, hey." John B. quietly speaks up from his crouched position, hands lightly brushing against the small of Eden's back. The girl looks over to him, as does the rest of the group, and the Routledge shushes his friends, eyes hooked on the chicken coop. "Somebody's here."

Based on what had happened the previous night—in which Rafe and Barry showed up—none of the Pogues seemed to think the Routledge boy was kidding. Eden is quick to put the s'more stick down, begin to grow anxious; she didn't want to get shot again.

Thinking to the fight earlier, Kiara trailed off, "You don't think Topper would...."

"I wouldn't put it past him." JJ states.

"I mean, I agree with you, J, but what would Sarah say?" Eden stands up cautiously. She wouldn't be surprised if Topper jumped them, or came to finish what he started, but he clearly had Sarah wrapped around his finger. She wouldn't be so keen if he was to do anything to her friends, or even John B.

Kiara looks over at the blonde, "Do you have your gun?"

"Oh, now she wants the gun?" The Maybank scoffs, thinking back to the thousands of times he'd been reprimanded for bringing the weapon.

"Oh, now you don't have the gun?"

"No—"

"Isn't that your 'secret' weapon?" Kiara huffs, "Jesus Christ—"

"Shut up." John B. hushes, beginning to tread quietly towards the chicken coop. The other four teens follow after him, readying themselves to see whoever was trying to sneak onto the premise.

"Goddamn, now she wants the gun." JJ mutters under his breath.

"Leave it." Eden whispers, sending a pointed expression towards the blonde.

Firmly, the Routledge calls out, "Hey, who's out there!"

Kiara follows after, yelling in warning, "You Kooks better not try anything!"

JJ holds up one of the s'more sticks he'd brought like a weapon, "Who's there?"

After a moment of silence, none other than Limbrey's lackey—Renfield, Eden recalls—steps out of the darkness, hands raised in a sign of peace as he gruffly greets, "How ya'll doing?"

Eden's shoulder un-tense ever so slightly, but she doesn't drop her cautiousness yet—Renfield wouldn't show up to make peace; he had a task from Limbrey. And after what they pulled with the key....

Under his breath, Pope mutters, "It's this piece of shit."

"You got to be kidding me." JJ agrees, tightening his hold on the s'more stick in case the man tried anything.

"Lovely evening we're having." Renfield continues to walk towards the Pogues, hands still raised.

"Stop with the bullshit." Eden crosses—she knows she doesn't look very threatening, but she hopes the man remembers the way she tased him the last time he tried to attack. "We know Limbrey sent you. What do you want?"

"Look, I, uh....I don't hold a grudge with any of ya'll, alright? But this can go hard—" The man spins around with his jacket lifted to show that he wasn't carrying any weapons, "—or this can go easy. You know what I'm here for." All the Pogues share a glance, "Let me give you a little demonstration. You see that swing right there?" He points to the rope swing behind the group, "I got the best bow hunters in the Army Rangers with me."

JJ seems unconvinced, loosening his posture with a hum, "Yeah? Mhm."

"Hidden."

Renfield then let's out a whistle and an arrow comes flying right past the Maybank's face, piercing a tree with acute accuracy. The sound causes Eden to flinch lightly, anxiety only growing when she realizes that the man was serious—he had back-up, and they certainly wouldn't miss if it came down to it.

Noticing their faces of growing concern and nerves, Renfield continues, "Now, they're out there. They'll stick you just as soon as I say so." He comes closer to Pope, which causes JJ to step closer to him in protectiveness.

However, as JJ does so, the man whistles again and another arrow comes flying through the yard, piercing the crowd right in in front of the Maybank's boot.

"Uh, uh, uh." Renfield ticks, looking back at JJ, the blonde clenching his jaw as he looked down at the arrow that barely missed his foot. "We clear?"

Slowly, as to not alarm Renfield to whistle, Eden raises a hand and gently places it against JJ's tense bicep, trying to get him to lower his weapon before the arrows didn't miss. The boy looks around at his friends, eyes wide, doing so.

Once he knew the teens understood what would happen if they tried to interfere, Renfield adds, "Now, I'm not gonna give you a countdown or any bullshit like that. I'm just gonna whistle."

Pope looked around at each of his friends, noticing their fearful expressions; each teen was awaiting his response with held breaths—they were outnumbered, but was he really going to give up the key? His key?

His hand traveled slowly to his pocket, and the seconds it took for him to pull the real key from his pocket felt like forever.

The Heyward clutches the item in his hand, and Renfield readies himself to take the item before Pope shakily utters, "No."

Renfield huffs, "Oh."

"This key belongs to my family." Pope tightens his grip around the key, voice soft yet full of ferocity as he spoke.

Renfield looks back at the others, an almost sardonic 'I'm done playing nice' chuckle surpassing his lips as he turns back to the Heyward, fingers raising to his lips to whistle, "I'm losing my patience with you, Pope."

Pope looks down at the key in his hands before hesitantly handing it over to Renfield. It pained him to do so—to hand over the key to some greedy woman who didn't deserve it, to let down generations of his blood —but he wasn't about to put his friends in danger over this.

The key and cross might be his blood, but the Pogues were his family. They meant more to him than any of this ever would.

So, Pope finally let's go of the item, feeling a piece of himself go with it.

"Did the right thing, kid." Renfield says once the key is in his grasp, amused that he'd managed to get the item—pleased that Pope knew when to pick and choose his battles. "Knowing when you don't have a choice is an underappreciated talent."

"You have what you want." Eden crosses her arms, trying to sound as serious as possible, "Now, get out."

Renfield looked back at the Bexley, glare pointed, before finishing up with everything. "You be safe." He points the key almost mockingly at the Heyward before turning to JJ, speaking to the boy as if he were a dog. "Easy there." The man then lets his gaze linger over the Bexley, the shorter girl keeping a firm glare at him as he comments, "Your mouth is gonna get you somewhere one day, Bexley."

Eden repeats herself without losing her composure, "Get out."

"Ya'll have a good night." Limbrey's lackey gives them a final glance before treading off, whistling to let his crew know it was time to clear out. His figure disappears into the shadows, leaving the Pogues alone and slightly more empty than before.

The five stand in tense silence, nothing but Pope's labored breaths filling the air. Eden, Kie, JJ, and John B. all stared at the Heyward boy, waiting to see what he needed from them—some space, a hug; would he simply walk away?

This wasn't the first time Pope had given up his everything for the Pogues. Eden recalls when he'd run out of his scholarship interview—his chance to do something big; what he'd focused his all on for months—because he'd thought of something that could help John B. and his gold hunt.

Back then, the scholarship had been all he had to lose, but now, he'd just lost his past. Something that could help them all solve a mystery, help Pope discover the Heyward name and what it used to be.

Eden had seen the excitement that filled Pope's eyes when he discussed the key or the cross, the way he'd been in disbelief when he discovered that he was related to all of this; that the key was his. The curiosity that flooded his mind with all of it.

And now it was gone, and none of the Pogues really knew what to make of it.

Pope swallowed thickly, practically holding back tears as he breathless stated, "I am so sick of this shit."

The Heyward storms off, leaving the rest of the teens standing still, wondering what they could do to make this better.

The next morning, Eden was woken up by her phone.

She can feel the vibration coming from her back pocket, and lightly groans as the feeling alerts her brain enough to wake her—could she not just sleep? For the past few days, she feels as if she always has something to do that keeps her from lazily staying on the couch for more than a few hours.

Eyes still closed, the Bexley debates on leaving it— if it was her mother, who cared. If they knew Eden Bexley well enough, they'd realize that she had better things to be doing at nine o'clock than answering some unimportant phone call.

However, the vibrating seems to awaken some of the other Pogues in the room, too.

"Eden, turn that off or answer it before I throw a pillow at you." Kiara's voice comes through, thick with sleep and muffled by the way her face was pressed against the couch arm—her legs were draped over the Bexley's lap, and she could feel the phone's vibration tingling her skin.

From the couch he was slouched in, John B. mumbles, "Agreed."

With a reluctant sigh, Eden finally opens her eyes—halfway. If it was unimportant, she was surely closing them again. Moving her hand back, she pulls her phone from her jeans' pocket, gaze scanning over the caller ID blocking her lock screen of her and the Pogues.

Caller ID—Dad; Outer Banks, North Carolina.

"My hand is reaching for the pillow—" the Carrera girl reaches her arm down to the floor, a pillow being laid against the couch.

"I'm answering." Eden huffs, pushing Kiara's legs off of her figure so she could stand. The curly haired girl moves her arm back up to her body and the Bexley repeats herself, "I'm answering."

Kiara hums lightly, "Thank you."

She quietly moves past her half-asleep friends—Pope had a blanket pulled up to his chin in a chair, JJ was sitting against John B.'s chair with his hands draped over his knees, the Routledge was leaned back with sunglasses covering his gaze and Kiara was relaxing once more on the couch, beanie covering her eyes—heading inside to keep from interrupting them anymore.

Rubbing a hand over her face, Eden answers the call from her father.

"Hey, Dad." the Bexley greets, moving further into the Chateau's living room, careful not to step on anything. Her voice is rather tired sounding, but she tries her best to sound awake. "What's up?"

"What the hell happened last night?" Tom Bexley's voice comes through the phone, clear and firm.

She was drunk. There were a few fights. She punched a girl. ".....Nothing?"

"Can you explain to me why I was shown a video of you punching some girl at a bonfire last night, then?"

Shit. Eden forgot about all the phones that had been out during the entire scene, capturing both John B. punching Kelce and fighting Topper, as well as her getting slapped and punching that Pogue girl in return—videos that were clearly being posted and shown everywhere, because who didn't want to see Eden Bexley punch someone?

"Who showed you?" Eden asked, bringing her free hand up to toy around with the bracelets around her wrist.

"Not relevant." Tom huffs, trying to get through to his daughter. "Eden, our family is already under a lot of pressure right now after what Ward did. Your mother is currently trying to stay out of any allegations still being thrown at her. The last thing we need is you doing things like this."

"I'm sorry? I mean, she deserved it, Dad." the Bexley states—she wasn't really sorry for punching the girl; she had it coming.

"I expect better from you, Angel—the entire OBX does." the man replies firmly, "I'm not like your mother; I don't care that you're hanging around with those Pogues. But I expect the better of you if you're gonna do it."

Eden rolls her eyes—who doesn't expect better of her? "Yeah, I know. I've been told that since the day I was born."

"I know you have." Tom sighs, before bringing up a new topic, "How long are you going to be gone? Believe it or not, I would like to see you under different circumstances than Ward's farewell video."

The Bexley taps her foot, "That depends. Is Isla back in the house?"

"I....let her back in, but she's been gone for the past few days helping out Rose."

"Dad—"

"Eden, one day you're going to have to come home and face her. Whether or not you want too." Tom states firmly, and Eden knows he's telling the truth—sooner than later she was going to have to talk it everything out with her mother. "She's your mother—"

"She's also a liar who chose Ward Cameron over you and me." the Bexley states. She doesn't care about whatever bullshit Isla was currently going through, or about how bad she feels about everything. She had the choice and she chose Ward. Eden wouldn't just let that go. "I don't know how you got over that and let her back in, but I don't want to see her, Dad."

"Angel—"

"No." Eden finalizes. Call her stubborn, but her mind had been in a whirlwind of emotions of her mother the past few days, and right now, she was in a position where she wanted to avoid Isla Bexley at all costs; even if that meant not seeing her dad, either. "If you want to see me, it's not gonna be at the house."

From the porch, John B.'s voice calls out, "Eden! JJ just broke the couch!"

Eden rolls her eyes at the scene outside and says into her phone, "I have to go, Dad. I promise I won't punch anyone else."

"Okay." Tom replies, "I'll text you later. I love you."

Eden hangs up the phone with a small, "Mhm."

She doesn't get how her dad simply forgave Isla—how he just let her back into the house, how he was sleeping next to her at night. She'd lied to Eden, but she'd kept the same amount of secrets from Tom, too. The one man who was supposed to be with her for life, who was supposed to share everything with her, had been just as lied to as Eden.

Yet, somehow, she was back to living at home.

"Another broken couch."

"You gotta sleep there tonight."

"I always sleep there."

Eden shoves her phone back into her back pocket and retreats towards the patio once more, "I'm gone for five minutes and we're already breaking shit?" She looks between the boys, "What did you guys do?"

"JJ just broke another couch, I think?" Kiara replies. She's still lying on the couch with her beanie over her eyes, but she seems to be generally awake and aware. "Hey, who was calling you so early?"

Eden opens her mouth to reply, but her eyes suddenly catch hold of a familiar blonde girl walking through the porch doors. "Sarah?"

All of the Pogues turn in the direction of the door to see none other than Sarah Cameron walking into the porch. The atmosphere is quick to grow tense, John B. pulling up his sunglasses to send her a tense look.

"Well, hello, princess." JJ greets casually.

Kiara pulls her beanie up, gruffly asking, "What's up?"

"Shouldn't you be on Figure Eight with your, uh, little group of polo players?" John B. comments, looking up at his ex-girlfriend with a mocking expression. His face quickly scrunches up mockingly, "Or did you break-up with Topper?"

Sarah offers a fake smile, "We're just friends."

"He's just a friend." John B. repeats, offering her a similar smile. Images of Sarah and Topper dancing at the bonfire replay in his mind; just friends, his ass. "You have a lot of friends, Sarah Cameron."

Sarah whips around to retort, "Yeah, and it seems like you've got some of your own, too."

"If you two can't get to the point without arguing, I'll ask—what do you need, Sarah?" Eden perks up, already growing tired of all the jabs and backhanded comments that the exes were throwing out.

"Yeah, what do you want?" the Routledge sits up in the rocking chair.

"I'm here for Pope." Sarah admits, causing the Heyward boy to send her a curious glance. The boy sits up straighter in his chair and the rest of the group raises a brow—Sarah was here for Pope? Everyone stays quiet as the Cameron admits, "I think I found the Island Room."

Eden's eyes widen. This mystery was far from over; it was just beginning. 

mara's misc

this chapter was actually supposed to connect with the bonfire but i was just like hell no. 9000 words is actually for psychopaths.

as of now, i've pre-written six chapters ahead and i'm currently writing for the finale (god help me). not only am i shocked with how much i've managed to write bc i suck at pre-writing but like WDYM WE'RE ON THE S2 FINALE. i started this season in october and it's taken me only 6ish months to finish, which compared to the 10 months it took for me to finish act one is so fast??

like istg i was writing chapter 29 yesterday.

anyways, you guys wish you had mvybanksss as your online friend bc i literally get kitten face times weekly where she calls me and faces it towards the kittens for literally 20 minutes and we just comment on what they're doing 

it's a literal soap opera with these barn cats between eden and jj sucking face, jj abusing john b and acting like the victim and each kitten getting trampled and sat on by each other or their mom. like each call is smth new. (kensie has screenshots of me reacting which will be in a future dress chapter of her's). 

i love these kittens with my entire life and we are hundreds of miles away ya'll don't get it. 

anyways, yap session aside, i have nothing else to stay.

hope you enjoyed <3 see you back with chapter 53!!