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𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗵𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗶𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗻: 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲

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The Pogues had sailed The Snapper to an old camp they had somewhere along March Point in order to hide out from Groff and the cops. They had set up a bonfire and taken the cooler from the charter that stored drinks and beers.

Cassie had been sitting on a log, allowing JJ to patch up her large wound on her abdomen with the medical kit that was the on the boat. It had still been bleeding a bit as he tried cleaning it, placing large bandages over it to stop the blood from flowing any longer.

She had been lifting her shirt up — well JJ's Coors shirt — that now had blood on the one side of it. It was one of her favorite shirts JJ owned which is why she decided to wear it, but now it would probably be stained with blood since she definitely wouldn't be able to clean it anytime soon.

"Sit up a bit straighter," JJ directed gently and she straightened up, wincing a bit from the stretching of the wound. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Just-just hurts," she replied with a nod.

JJ sighed quietly, never feeling more guilty in his life than in this moment. If he had just listened to what Cassie had said about not going with Groff, then this would have never happened. She could have died back there all because he was desperate to trust his real father since he never had a good one to begin with.

He focused on wrapping the bandages around her torso, having to move his arms around her so he could make sure they were tight enough on her body. He saw the blood that had already made its way through the other bandages and his heart twinged at the sight, feeling like he had to cry but he didn't.

Why should he be the one crying when he allowed this to happen to her?

Once he was done wrapping the bandages around her abdomen, Cassie dropped her shirt over it and tried to adjust to feeling of the tight bandages around her skin. Luckily, there had been some Tylenol in the medical kit that Kiara had added mostly for the girls so she swallowed two of those pills to help with the pain.

Cassie looked around at the others who were sitting at the bonfire. Cleo had been lying her head on Pope, Emery had been dissociating as she stared at the fire, and Kiara had been looking at Cassie in concern. Sarah and John B had gone out by the dock to have some alone time.

"Cece, you okay?" Kiara spoke up once she knew JJ was done helping her.

Cassie nodded slowly. "Yeah. Just gotta get used to it, I guess," she said as she turned her body a bit, feeling the soreness but it had heard a bit less with the bandages on it.

"You shouldn't have to get used to it because it should have never happened in the first place," JJ piped up, making all their eyes look at him. "I mean, I should've listened to you, Cass."

"JJ—"

"And you know what's the funniest part?" JJ interrupted his girlfriend and she closed her mouth. "Is that I actually thought he was coming back for me. But nah, he just wanted to get rid of me and I brought you down with me," he said to her and she looked down, pursing her lips to the side. JJ inhaled sharply before he released his breath, grunting a bit. "And now Pope's a fugitive. Welcome to the club, bro. And we have nothing now. We lost everything and it's all my fault." He got up from where he sat, walking away.

Cassie got up to follow him, some pain shooting to her side but she tried to ignore it. "It's not your fault," she told him, following after him as he kicked at a plant.

"Yeah, it is."

"It's not."

JJ turned around to face her. "It is, Cassie. If I had just listened to you and didn't think that he was really here to be my-my dad, then none of this would have happened. You would be okay," he said, his voice cracking at the end.

She took a step toward. "JJ, I am okay. I'm still here, aren't I?" She pointed out and he sniffled a bit, looking away. "Look, I will admit, I was frustrated with you that you weren't listening but you were just trying to have a father. How could I blame you for that? You've gone your whole life with a shit father only to find out he wasn't your father in the first place and that it was Groff. I understand why you wanted to trust him so badly."

JJ looked back at her, hearing the sincerity in her tone that only made him feel worse. "Why aren't you yelling at me? You should be yelling at me for this. For-for allowing this to happen to you."

Cassie tilted her head at him. "Why would I yell at you for just being human?" She countered.

Maybe two years ago she would have yelled at him for this. Just like how she yelled at him for almost dying when they tried stealing the Cross of Santo Domingo from the train. She had also yelled at him for betting the last of their gold recently, but this had been entirely different.

JJ had just found out his whole entire life was a lie and his real father had been Groff this whole time. It would make sense that JJ would try to trust him, especially since Groff was so convincing. It was only because Cassie was used to a conniving parent that she was able to figure out his deception before JJ could.

There was no possible reality where Cassie yelling at him for this was the best option. Sure, she had been pissed that JJ hadn't been listening her from the moment he decided to give Groff the lens when he left them in the mausoleum, but that didn't give her the right to yell at him and blame him for all of this.

It wasn't his fault Groff was a murderous liar that had pretty much fabricated everything. JJ didn't know that Groff had definitely killed Larissa, so how would he know that he was only after the Blue Crown and had no intention on getting close with JJ?

It was all Groff's fault and Cassie wasn't going to displace her anger for him onto JJ. That wouldn't be fair to either of them.

"I think you just want me to yell at you so you can feel less bad about this. That you can yell back at me and let your emotions out that way," Cassie continued on once JJ didn't answer. "But I'm not gonna do that, JJ. I just..." She trailed off, sucking in a breath. "Can you just hold me instead? Please?"

JJ's lip trembled a bit before he stepped forward, wrapping a girl in a hug. He was careful not to press too tightly into her because of her wound, but he tried to be as close as he could.

He had almost lost the girl because he had been blinded by his need to have a father. Although Cassie seemed to have forgiven him, he wasn't sure if he would ever forgive himself.

The two stood there for a while, just holding each other in their arms. The others had watched them solemnly, not saying anything to interrupt them. They knew it would just be better to let the couple do their own thing. And besides, it looked like they both really needed that hug.

Once the couple felt like it was appropriate for them to let go each other, they made their way back over to the log they had been sitting on. JJ grabbed a beer from the cooler, opening it up and taking a long sip of it.

Cassie watched him out of the corner of her eye, but she didn't say anything about it. The boy hadn't really had time to drink by being on the run for so long so one beer wouldn't hurt, right?

Sarah and John B had come back from their time alone on the dock, so now it had been all the Pogues sitting around the bonfire in a comfortable silence until Emery had decided to ask what exactly happened.

JJ explained the story, detailing how Groff left them at the family plot to steal the scroll from Kiara, only to find out from the Carrera girl herself that Groff locked her in the cooler in the surf shop.

That only infuriated JJ and Cassie even more.

He described how Groff convinced them to take the boat while they left the Twinkie at the marina and how Groff "accidentally" threw JJ's phone in the water so he couldn't contact them since Cassie's had been done.

He finished off with saying how Groff just wanted the three of them to go to Morocco, but they weren't going to let it happen. That's when Cassie confronted him about possibly killing JJ's mom and he pushed the both of them overboard.

The Pogues were horrified, to say the least. They had a feeling Groff was not to be trusted, but they didn't think he was willing to try to kill his own son and his son's girlfriend. They didn't think he could become worse than Luke.

The Pogues stared into the small flames of the bonfire, the light reflecting off of their faces that had cast an orange glow onto them. It had been the only source of light for them since the sun had gone down ages ago, but none of them could even think about falling asleep.

"Growing up, Luke would always tell me when he was drunk off his ass, 'If there's one thing I know, hell is other people,'" JJ changed the subject to Luke once he was done explaining what Groff had done. "When I was a kid, I didn't get it. It didn't make any sense to me. But then one day, I just decided to ask him. I said, 'What do you mean, hell is other people?' And he looked at me for a while, and then he just said, 'Just keep on living...and you'll find out.' Luke's been wrong about a lot of things,...but, man, was he right about that one. Went from a fake dad...to a real dad who just tried to kill my girlfriend and I. Yeah, Luke. Yeah, I found out. Hell certainly is other people."

The Pogues really didn't know what to say to that, not even Cassie. How could a person so loyal and so devoted as JJ have been given such a bad life? It was sickening because out of everyone, JJ didn't deserve this.

He may have gotten in trouble with the law at times and been in way too many fights, but that all had to do with the way he was raised. If he was just drawn some good cards in life, people would be praising his name from the rooftops with how he protected his friends and cared so deeply about everything.

Instead, the cops were yelling his name to try to arrested him.

Cassie may have been a part of the manhunt, but she knew she would be better off if she were caught compared to JJ. Despite her being a Pogue for years now, she still held that Kook power that JJ didn't have even though he was technically never supposed to be a Pogue.

She wished JJ could have had a better life. The only thing in his life right now that was making it worthwhile was herself and the Pogues. Everything else had crashed down right before their very eyes and they pretty much had nothing left unless they decided they wanted to go to Morocco and find the Blue Crown.

And that's exactly what they were planning on doing.

The sun was just beginning to rise as they sat around each other back near the small, wooden house. It had been there for years where the Pogues had made a camp at they barely used unless there was an emergency. And this was definitely an emergency situation.

"So this Berber guy that drew the map, he's Moroccan, right? Last time JJ and Cassie saw Groff, he was probably headed to Essaouira on the Moroccan coast. Seems like that's where we need to go," Pope described as he read off the map while he laid on the hammock with Cleo. Cleo turned her phone toward him, showing Morocco on the map.

"I just didn't think it got worse than Luke. But Groff? I'm sorry, we should have noticed—"

"Kie, Kie," JJ interrupted the Carrera girl before he popped the cork off a bottle of alcohol. "Your sympathy, thank you, but it doesn't do anything. This does." He held the bottle up and took a swig of it.

"Jay, she's only trying to help," Cassie defended Kiara as she watched him take a long sip of the drink. Drinking beer was one thing, but drinking hard liquor? That was another. Cassie already knew what this movie looked like because she starred in it. "You shouldn't be drinking that, JJ."

"I think I can do what I want, right?" JJ snipped back and her eyebrows raised at his tone.

"I'm just saying, I don't think it's smart if you're drunk and the cops come ambush us," Cassie spelled out for him, not wanting to get into an argument.

JJ was about to answer before he noticed a boat out on the water that had been nearing their campsite. He placed the bottle down on the cooler and ran over to a boat that was flipped over on the land, hopping on it to get a better look.

"Oh, shit. Guys."

"What?" Kiara said, standing up.

"Who's coming out here this early?" Pope questioned as they all began to make their way over to JJ.

"It's the cops," JJ told them, seeing 'Kildare County Sheriff' written on the side boat.

"See, this is exactly what I was just talking about," Cassie voiced, sending a look to JJ that he did not return.

"How did they find us?" Kiara asked.

"Guys, we gotta hide!" Emery whisper-shouted since she really didn't want to be arrested for being an accomplice to the destruction of downtown.

They shuffled their way over to some bushes, peeking through to see the boat still making its way down the water.

"So what's the plan?" Pope queried.

"Follow me," John B answered after a moment. "Let's go."

The Pogues followed John B with no questions asked since they just wanted to get out of there. Cassie looked over her shoulder since JJ was still by the bonfire. He took a can of beer and poured it on it to put it out before he grabbed the knife out of log.

"Jay!" She called him over quietly, waving her hand to get him to follow.

He made his way over to her and when Cassie turned back around, she saw her friends going underneath the dock and into the water. Cassie glanced down at her covered wound, unsure if it would be wise to go deep into the water if that's what was about to happen but she knew she had no choice. It was also tightly bandaged up, so she hoped that meant it would block out the water.

They watched as the cops docked their boat and began walking along the dock. "JJ Maybank! Cassandra Blake! We don't wanna hurt you guys! Come on out!"

John B pointed forward to tell them to start swimming underneath the dock to get to the end of it while the cops were walking above them. Cassie felt the water encapsulate her skin as they got deeper, but thankfully, there had been no burning sensation coming from her wound so she hoped that was a good sign.

"I have an arrest warrant for JJ and Cassandra in connection to the murder of Hollis Robinson!" The cop yelled out.

They all stopped swimming and Cassie and JJ, with the knife in between the latter's teeth, shared a look at the words that just came out of the cop's mouth. They thought they were being hunted down for what they did to downtown, not for a murder they didn't even commit.

"Murder?" Kiara mouthed to the both of them once they looked over their shoulders to see the cops make their way over to the campsite.

The couple made eye contact again, not knowing why they were being hunted down for murder until...the pieces clicked together in their brains at the same time.

The "thing" that Groff had to pick up back at the marina, that had to be him killing Hollis Robinson. When they left the Twinkie at the marina, he must have put whatever murder weapon he used inside of it to frame the both of them.

He was trying to get rid of them the whole entire time.

Luke Maybank was somehow right: Hell is other people.

JJ then ripped his eyes away from the Blake girl, beginning to swim again. That prompted the others to follow even though they were still trying to wrap their heads around how Cassie and JJ were being wanted for murder.

"We'll take the pontoon," John B said as they swam out to the police boat instead of The Snapper. "It's ready to go."

They climbed aboard the pontoon, being careful to be as quiet as possible. "Jesus Christ," Emery groaned as Pope helped pull her up, "I feel like we're in an action movie."

"You know, I'm actually starting to agree with you on that one," Kiara breathed out before she turned to John B, who started up the engine once everyone got on. "Go, go, go."

"Hey! Hey, stop!" The cop yelled once they noticed they were in the pontoon from the sound of the engine starting up. "Stop! John B, turn it around! Stop! Hey!"

John B, in fact, did not stop. He sped the boat up even faster so the cops wouldn't be able to catch them. The sun was rising as they made their way down the water, not wanting to slow down until they were sure they were out of reach and no one would be able to recognize them on the boat.

Cassie and JJ had been sitting next to one another, looking down at the floor on the boat. They couldn't believe that Groff had tried to kill them and now was trying to frame them for a murder they didn't even know happened until thirty minutes ago.

"I guess we're the new murderers in town, then," JJ spoke up.

"JB, is this how you felt?" Cassie asked, looking over at the Routledge boy who only pursed his lips in response. "Yeah. This fucking sucks."

JJ chuckled sardonically, "Check that off the bucket list."

"Yeah, it doesn't help that they have you on video saying, 'I will kill them all,'" Pope reminded him nonchalantly. "At least Cassie don't got that."

"Okay, no one asked, Pope. Okay?" JJ replied, getting offended by his words. Cassie shifted in her seat, trying to get more comfortable since her wound was beginning to hurt a bit by how she was sitting.

"Forget all of that. We gotta get off this island," Cleo pointed out.

"I can't go back. I mean, might as well go after that scroll, right?" Pope shrugged.

"I mean, I could be down for a little Moroccan vacay," JJ agreed.

"I do need to get more tan," Emery mumbled, although she wasn't sure if they would have time to stop and sit out while they were trying to go after this scroll.

"What do you say we get out of Dodge for a few weeks. And maybe...I could catch up with my dad," JJ continued as he looked at the knife in his hand, twisting it around.

"Oh, I'd love to catch up with your dad," Cassie enthused, already planning the revenge out in her head.

"We're gonna need a bigger boat," Cleo said.

"Okay, Chief Brody," Emery quipped.

Cleo hummed. "Hell, a ship, maybe. You know how far Morocco is? Way, way, way, out there."

Morocco may have been "way, way, way, out there," but at this point...the Pogues were desperate enough to cross the whole country just to save their home and themselves.

But, like Cleo said, they needed to find a bigger boat first.

authors note!
jj and cassie lowkey swapped lives if u
think about it...also i may or may not
have two ideas on how i want to end
this book ummmm might have to do
a real ending and an alternate ending
like i did with brutal LOLLL but i will say,
these endings are a bit diff than in brutal...