──────────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────────────

𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴

──────────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────────────

꒰  𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸 :)  ꒱

Cassie watched as JJ climbed back down the statue as she urged him to go faster, unsure if the Corsairs had gotten to Rafe and if they were next.

He finally dropped back down the ground as he panted heavily from the over exertion of his body. Cassie immediately stepped forward and asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm good. I'm good. I'm better, actually. I'm great. 'Cause look!" He spoke enthusiastically as he rushed over to her, showing her the Blue Crown.

"Holy shit! No fucking way!" Cassie gaped as she looked between the crown and her boyfriend, a wide smile forming on her face.

JJ started to cheer again and Cassie joined in. "I-I got it!" JJ laughed in shock as they both grinned from ear to ear.

"Do you know what this means?" She inquired.

"Oh, yeah, I do. We're getting it back, baby. We're getting back our home!" JJ answered as he allowed Cassie to reach out and touch the fabled Blue Crown.

But now it definitely wasn't a fable anymore.

As they relished in the fact that were going to be able to save their home, JJ had looked past her and spotted Dalia aiming a gun right at him. "Wait, wait, hey! Go, go, go!"

They ran out of her line of sight just as she took a shot, the bullet whizzing right past them. "Run, run, run!" JJ yelled as they tried to make their way down the mountain as fast as they could. "Come on, Cass! We gotta find the others!"

Cassie grimaced as her abdomen throbbed tremendously, but she tried not to pay any mind to it since they had to find the others and get the hell out of Agapenta. And Morocco in general.

They made it back down the mountain and weaved in and out of different huts and rooms of the desolate town. JJ decided to take his goggles off since the sand had scratched them up, which ended up with him getting sand in his eyes. "That way, that way," JJ pointed as he tried to get the sand out of his eyes.

"No, I-I think it's this way!" Cassie said as she pointed to the other side and continued to run, not knowing that JJ had stopped behind her to rub his eyes. Cassie panted heavily, slowing down a bit as she rushed down some steps and clutched her side.

She turned around as she slowed, seeing that JJ wasn't behind her. She furrowed her brows and lifted up her goggles to try to see better since the sandstorm hadn't been that bad where she stood at the moment.

"Jay?" She called out before a pair of hands wrapped around her, one hand squeezing her abdomen and the other hand holding a knife up to her throat.

Cassie let out a loud groan in pain from the feeling of the person's hand sinking into her wound, making it feel a thousand times worse than it already did.

"Shh! Quiet, quiet!" The man shushed her as she kept grunting in pain, trying to writhe out of his grasp but she couldn't. When she leaned her body back to try to escape, that's when she realized it had been Groff.

"Oh, fuck you!" Cassie spat, which only made Groff shush her again and hold her tighter, making tears start to well in her eyes from the pain. "Jay!" She managed to yell out, letting out a whimper.

"Cass!" JJ replied from the other side of the wall as he ran into the area where Cassie and Groff were, closing the door behind him with his eyes shut from the sand.

He hadn't noticed Groff until Cassie shouted again, "Jay!"

"Yeah?" JJ whipped his body around, his stomach immediately dropping at the sight of Groff holding onto Cassie with a knife up to her throat.

"JJ!" Groff greeted manically.

JJ immediately ran up to them with the crown in his hands. "You let her go!" He demanded furiously.

"Ah, ah, ah," Groff tutted, holding the knife closer to her face as she whimpered again, making JJ stop just a foot or two away from them. "Stop it right there. Don't move. Shh. You know what I want." Groff held his hand out as Cassie cried in his grasp. "Give it to me."

JJ looked between his girlfriend and the crown, an irate expression on his face as he breathed out, "Just let her go."

"You could've stuck with me, JJ. Think what you could've had." Groff chuckled as he breathed heavily in Cassie's ear while she continued to cry out in pain, making JJ's jaw clench. "You chose your stupid, little girlfriend here over your own blood. So now, you...you're going to get nothing. Nothing."

JJ stared down at the crown with his lips pursed and his nostrils flared. Memories that he and Cassie shared entered his mind at a fast rate, making his heart ache and for his anger to only rise at the fact that Groff was holding a knife to her face.

He thought about when he saved her from a bullet, when she saved him from a bullet, when they almost kissed for the first time, when they did kiss for the first time, when they decided to be exclusive, secret partners, and finally...when they decided to be boyfriend and girlfriend.

There was no reality in which JJ was going to pick some crown over the girl he had loved so desperately that he didn't want to imagine a life without her.

"No." He tore his eyes away from the Blue Crown in his hand as he made eye contact with Cassie, some of his blonde hair falling into his eyes. "I already have everything. I have everything I've ever wanted. Things that you'll never have." Groff blinked slowly with tears his eyes, his lips parted before he pursed them. "You want the crown? Sure, take it. Take it. I don't want it. Just...let her go. Okay?"

"Hold it out," Groff directed, taking his arm away from Cassie's abdomen that allowed her get some sort of relief.

Groff slowly started to inch forward with Cassie still in his grip as he reached toward the crown in JJ's hand. "Easy," the blonde boy warned.

"Hold it out. Come on."

"Easy!" JJ repeated before Groff grabbed the crown at the same time he let Cassie free from his grip. JJ immediately grabbed her body and spun her around, away from Groff. "I got you," he assured her as he set her down, blue meeting blue as they looked at one another.

Cassie let out a pained, shaky breath as JJ pulled her into a relieved hug. Cassie cried in his arms, from both the discomfort and the fact that JJ was holding her in his arms. JJ's hands found the same place on her back that they had usually found, pulling her in tighter.

"It's okay," JJ whispered to her reassuringly.

"Thank you," she breathed out as she shut her eyes, a few tears slipping down her face. "I love you s-so much."

"JJ," Groff quietly piped up behind him, stepping closer to the embracing couple. JJ pursed his lips together as he slowly let go of Cassie so he could face his father. "It's...it's a shame. You and me."

Cassie looked down past JJ, noticing the knife that Groff had suddenly pulled out as he brought it toward JJ. "No!" Cassie shrieked as she grabbed JJ's shoulders and shoved him away with all her might.

JJ had been unwillingly pushed to the side against the wall just as Groff brought his knife up, stabbing Cassie in the same spot she had already been wounded in instead of JJ.

Cassie let out a pained groan, looking down at the knife in her body before looking back up at Groff. "I should've...done that...from the start," he expressed before he twisted the knife, causing her to whimper from the excruciating pain.

"Hey, no!" JJ sprang up just as Groff pulled the knife out and ran away from the scene. However, JJ couldn't chase after him. He had to help his girl.

"Cass, Cass, Cass, hey, hey, hey," he spoke quickly as he grabbed the girl before she could collapse to the ground. He slowly lowered her to the ground, placing her back against a wooden beam so she could sit up-right.

"JJ, it-it hurts," Cassie cried as tears began to spill down her face and she groaned again, leaning her head back against the beam as she clamped her eyes shut.

"No, no, no, it's okay. You're okay, baby. You're okay. Just-just look at me, Cass. Please. Look at me," he told her as he brought his hand up to bring it behind her neck, his thumb on her cheek. She forced her eyes open to look at him as her wound throbbed tremendously and her body felt like it was about to explode. "It's okay. You're gonna be okay. Just let me see it."

JJ looked down at her stomach, seeing the blood that had been seeping through her shirt. JJ's whole body trembled at the sight of the blood as Cassie continued to writhe in pain, coughing and groaning.

JJ tore his gaze away from the scarlet blood, his eyes becoming glossy as he saw the way Cassie's face had been contorted to one of extreme agony.

"Don't move, don't move," he said barely above a whisper, his voice shaking.

"I-I don't wanna die," Cassie forced out as she slowly shook her head. "JJ, I don't wanna die."

Years ago, Cassie felt like she would be better off dying. She felt like things would be so much easier for herself and everyone else around her if she had been dead.

But now that she had found something to live for — being with JJ and the Pogues — she didn't want to die. She was afraid to die.

JJ swallowed thickly as she rapidly shook his head. "No, no, you're not gonna die, baby. You're not. It's okay. It's gonna be okay. Cass, please, it has to be." Cassie coughed in a pain again as JJ's lip trembled, the tears starting to fall from his eyes. "Baby, please. You weren't s-supposed to protect me. I was trying to protect you."

He had given away the crown in order to save the love of his life, but now...had he just done it for nothing? Either way...would Groff had killed her? He didn't want to imagine that yet. He couldn't.

Cassie's own tears fell from her eyes and dripped down her cheeks, washing away the dirt that had accumulated on her skin from the sandstorm earlier. As she sat there, the blood continuing to pour out of her wound, she thought about her life.

She thought about her life before she moved to the Outer Banks. How normal it had been, how she never suspected anything to be wrong with her parents because there really hadn't been anything wrong yet.

She thought about her life after she moved to the Outer Banks. How she had befriended Sarah Cameron and how her father had died, only for Sarah to drop her and become friends with Kiara Carrera instead.

And then Cassie became friends with Kiara after Sarah dropped her and she met all the Pogues: John B Routledge, Pope Heyward, and...JJ Maybank.

Oh, how much she hated him. She hated the way he didn't accept her as Pogue from the start although she never really wanted to be one. He saw right through her and that's why she couldn't stand it.

He saw right through her so much to the point where...he knew how to love her. He knew her boundaries and he knew how hard it was for her to truly be herself in front of him and all of their friends.

He just knew her. And that was all she ever wanted.

To feel seen.

As she thought about the short life she had lived with JJ — how they had saved each other's lives too many times to count, how they had shared their first kiss in the hot tub that was as mind-blowing as kisses could be, how they became exclusive, secret partners, how they became boyfriend and girlfriend, how they built Poguelandia 2.0 together, and all the way them in this moment — she felt her everything below her neck start to become numb.

Suddenly, the pain had stopped and everything had seemed to somehow become brighter around her. She looked at JJ as he kept uttering words to make her feel better. Or maybe it was to make himself feel better. Cassie wasn't too sure.

She met his ocean eyes. Oh, those gorgeous ocean eyes she wished she could leap into and let them take her to paradise. They had taken her to paradise before and she could only hope by looking into them one last time, they would be able to do it again.

"JJ, J-Jay," she managed to get out as she looked at her boy.

"Cass, baby, it's okay. Just-just hold on until the others find us, okay? I'm not leaving you," JJ told her, his voice cracking with each word.

"C-can you make sure m-my wish comes true?" Cassie asked of him, forcing a smile onto her face. Although she was fearing for what was about to come, she didn't want JJ's last memory to be of her in pain. She didn't want him to remember her in this way.

"What?" JJ furrowed his brows before he quickly shook his head. "Cass, no, no, no, you're gonna be here to see it come true yourself. You have to be."

"Make it come true f-for me. Save Poguelandia for me," Cassie continued. "Do it for me, o-okay?"

"Cass, no. You're gonna be there to do it with me, okay, baby? Cassie, you have to be there with me," JJ demanded as he couldn't help himself from letting out a sob.

"T-take care of the others. Let them h-have a home. Let y-yourself have a home," she told him as she found herself struggling to keep her eyes open as her vision blurred. "I love you, JJ."

"I love you, too. I love you," he cried before Cassie's eyes fluttered to a shut as her body slumped over against the beam. "Please, no. No, no, no, no." He shook her body, but she wasn't moving in response to it. "Please, no. Cass, please!" He pleaded as the tears poured down his face. "Kiara! Pope! JOHN B!" He wailed, unsure if they would even be able to hear him but he had to try. "No..." His head bowed down as he grabbed onto Cassie's shirt, crying into her chest where...

He didn't feel the rhythmic beating of her heart.

JJ continued to sob into her as Pope and Cleo came running toward them, swiftly followed by John B, Sarah, Kiara, and Emery.

"Cece? Cece, no!" Kiara screamed as she ran toward her best friend and JJ, falling to her knees harshly beside JJ. "Cece? Please, God, no, no, no!"

Emery stared at her motionless cousin in utter and complete shock before she felt herself start to stumble backward, only to be caught by Sarah, who was equally as stunned as her.

Cleo sat behind Cassie, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder as Pope and John B went down beside JJ and Kiara, tears forming in their eyes once they realized why she hadn't been getting up. John B reached forward, placing his hands to her face to try to shake her awake before he checked her pulse.

There was nothing there.

Rafe rushed into the room before he paused and looked down, seeing the way Cassie's body had been slumped over as her friends cried over her. He blinked rapidly, his eyes darting around once he began to register that she wasn't waking up.

JJ looked at John B next to him as he continued to cry his eyes out, grasping onto Cassie's shirt as if it would make her magically wake up again.

But she wasn't going to.

She was dead.

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

Rafe dug a large hole in the Moroccan sand as the Pogues stood around him, unable to look at Cassie's dead body on the ground as they waited for Rafe to finish digging so they could lay her to rest.

Once he had finished digging, Rafe, along with the help of John B, had gently placed her body in the grave he had formed. JJ had been in no state to do it. He had been broken, as were their promises they had made to each other to be careful.

Once Rafe was done putting the sand back over Cassie's body and the sun had fallen, they had started a bonfire to keep themselves warm in the cold sand.

Rafe had been busy putting some new bandages on his wounded palm.

John B and Sarah stared into the flames, their eyes glossed over with frowns on their faces.

Kiara had also been staring into the fire, her bottom lip trembling every few minutes or so as she thought back to the life she had with her best friend.

Emery had been sitting down in the sand, her head placed in her hands even though she hadn't been crying. It was weird. She hadn't cried yet. She was still in complete shock.

Pope sat in the truck brooding as he stared up at the night sky while Cleo tossed pieces of wood into the flames to keep it going.

And JJ...He played with Cassie's shark tooth necklace he had taken off of her body along with the ring he had stolen from the jewelry store back in the Outer Banks.

He kept thinking of their life over and over again in his head. He wished he would have just smacked himself from the start and wised up to realize that he should have been in love with this girl the whole time instead of hating her from the start.

Because if he had loved her from the beginning, he would have had more time with her.

Once Rafe was done bandaging his hand, he walked over to them. "Groff said he was going to Lisbon," he piped up. "I don't know. If it was my friend, I'd probably go after the guy that just killed her. Yeah?" He suggested.

Although him and Cassie had their...history, he never wanted her to die. If he had wanted her to die, he would have killed her long ago. But there was just something about her that made it feel wrong of him to even attempt to try that. But it didn't matter now, she was gone.

And although Rafe had his own vendetta against Groff for scamming him of thousands of dollars, him killing Cassie only made Rafe want to go after the man even more to make him pay for it.

"Shut up, Rafe," Pope seethed as his eyes continued to stay planted on the night sky. Cassie had been there for him through his times of need and he had been there for her. What was he supposed to do without the girl he could philosophize to?

"He's not wrong," Kiara agreed. "You think Cassie would sit here...if it were one of us? You think she'd do nothing?" She questioned before she got up, poking a large stick into the crackling fire.

Cassie had been Kiara's friend first out of everyone here, besides Sarah. But Cassie and Kiara shared a special bond that none of the others had. Although they had their ups and downs, they pushed through it and made it out alive.

It was always Kiki and Cece.

But now...

It was just Kiki.

"We all know what Cassie would do. She'd break something," John B stated darkly. John B once told Cassie she would be the first person to call to go after the guy who had tried to kill him in jail that one time. He knew she would do anything for her friends, and she would seek whoever harmed them out and break that person.

So he wasn't going to sit here and allow Groff to get away with this.

None of them were.

"I told Cassie that if something were to ever happen to her," JJ spoke up as he stared down at the necklace and ring in his hands, "that I would get even. Get revenge." He slowly stood up, standing next to Kiara, who had looked over at him with a look of vengeance plastered on her face.

"I was gonna marry her," JJ confessed as his voice cracked a bit, which only made all of their hearts break even more. "I was gonna marry her and live the rest of my life with her, but...Groff took that away from me. Groff took my whole life away from me."

JJ sucked in a breath before he looked up at the stars, spotting the constellation of Queen Cassiopeia. His bottom lip shook as he recalled the time he and Cassie had pointed out the constellation and how the name reminded him of her own name.

Queen Cassiopeia.

Queen Cass.

That's what he had called her before he retrieved the Blue Crown.

He was supposed to just get the crown and bring it back to the Outer Banks with his queen by his side. But now she was no longer with him. She was buried in the desert, cold and...alone.

Her biggest fear.

A bubbling anger built up inside him as he tore his gaze away from the constellation and back down to the fire in front of him, the orange glow bouncing off of his face.

He had tried to protect the girl, only for her to take the blade for him. They were always constantly saving each other and now...Cassie was no longer here to be saved.

Groff was going to pay for what he had done to his girl. For what he had done to all of the Pogues' hearts as soon as Cassie's heart had stopped beating.

JJ was going to get even. Get revenge.

"I'm gonna break him for it. I'm gonna kill him for it."

authors note!
haha so like i was in a sad mood and
felt like writing this so...sorry for that!
this was the other ending i had in mind
for the book but honestly, i thought it was
too sad and i honestly couldn't let it be the
real ending. ik i kept foreshadowing to cassie's
death a lot prior to the end of this book
and that was for a reason, but i ultimately
ended up going the route in which she died
for a sec but then came back to life. i also
thought the other ending just had better
symbolism and made more sense. but yeah,
i felt sad and wanted to write this so sorry again
lmao!!! also i may be publishing a new jj fic
soon so be on the lookout for that!