❝I LOVED THAT ROOSTER.❞

third person

sage got about an hour of sleep before jj jumped on top of her, sage gasping and sitting up, running a hand through her hair as jj looked up at her with a grin, sage grimacing as she shoved him off the bed.

"you're getting dandruff in my sheets." she complained, jj quickly shaking his head.

"that's paint." he elaborated, sage wrinkling her eyebrows as she swept what she now realized was white flakes of paint off her bed.

"why the hell do you have paint in your hair?" she asked, jj's eyes widened.

"dude, it was the wildest thing." he started, sage leaning back against her headboard and raising her eyebrows was it smirk. "so, we went to lana grubbs' house, right-"

"the lady who's husband just died?" sage cut him off, jj holding his arms up in surrender.

"that's what i said, don't put this on me, your brother did this." he explained, sage shrugging.

"sounds like him, continue."

"and we get there, and i just hear, bam! bam! knocking the paint off the walls, from inside!" jj continued, sage nodding, sitting further up and leaning against the headboard. "so at this point, i'm like... we're doomed." he breathed, sage shrugging.

"well you weren't." sage breathes, and jj nods quickly, john b slamming the bedroom door open.

"sage, holy shit, you won't believe what happened-"

"already heard." the blonde cuts him off quickly.

"i hate you both." the younger routledge deadpans. "anywho, come check this shit out."

sage and jj climb out of her bed, sage pushing herself up and following the boys down the hallway towards her father's office, everyone bent over the table or searching the bookshelves.

"morning, sunshine." morgan said with a warm smile, sage returning the gesture and standing next to the shorter redhead.

"what am i looking at exactly?" the blonde asked, john b holding big john's compass out to her, sage's face falling as she hesitated.

"sage, come on." john b tried, but sage shook her head quickly.

"i don't want anything to do with him." she breathed. "you can show me, but i'm not touching that compass."

john b sighed heavily, unscrewing the backing on the compass, holding it out of sage to look at. 'redfield' was carved into the back of the compass.

"is that-"

"it's dad's handwriting, he had the weird 'r' thing, remember?" john b said, screwing the back of the compass on, sage nodding her head.

"so what's redfield?" she asked.

"that's what we're trying to figure out. pope thinks it could be an anagram."

"okay, yeah, anagram, morgan, come help me." sage said, grabbing a piece of paper and a pen, leaning over it, morgan right next to her.

"fielder?" morgan suggested.

"no, there's a second 'd' in there somewhere." sage explained, feeling something cool around her waist. looking down, she realized morgan's had was resting on her side, the girls arm around her waist as she pressed the side of her head against sage's arm to get a better look at the paper.

"guys." john b spoke suddenly. "someones here." sage quickly stood upright, walking towards her brother and standing next to him at the window, jj and pope soon following. a black truck was parked outside, two men climbing out.

"nope, i quit, i'm done, resigned, putting in my two weeks." sage rambled.

"is that them?" kiara asked anxiously.

"who?" morgan asked in the same tone.

as jj murmured something under his breath, john b clamped his hand over the boys mouth, pushing him against the wall.

"where's the gun?" john b whispered.

"gun- i, uh-" jj stuttered kiara looking taken aback.

"now you don't have the gun, the one time we need the gun?" she asked, sage stepping towards the door.

"sage- sage, what the hell?" john b whisper-shouted.

"is it in your backpack?" sage asked jj, who quickly nodded, sage turning back to john b. "then it's in my room."

"okay, hurry up!" pope whispered, sage starting down the hall, hardly making it to the kitchen before the screen door on the porch was slammed off its hinge.

"john routledge!" a deep voice boomed,  sage skidding to a stop and running back to the office, shutting the door and locking it quickly.

"where's the gun?" jj asked, sage putting her hand over his mouth and looking around the room.

"they're on the porch." she whispered, however the crashing and banging outside the door was louder now, hinting that the men were now inside the house.

"shit, shit, what do we do?" pope asked, sage grabbing the chair behind big john's desk and putting it under the doorknob.

"guys." kiara sobbed, the banging closer to the door than ever, morgan looking at sage with terror on her face.

"get the window open, hurry." sage whispered, jj and pope beginning to pry at the window as john b leaned against the door.

"what's taking so long?" morgan whispered, jj turning to her annoyedly.

"it's painted shut, okay?" he snapped, sage grabbing a letter opener off the desk and shoving the blonde aside, beginning to slice at the paint.

a loud bang behind her made sage flinch, she turned to see part of the doorframe fall to the floor before slicing through the rest of the paint, immediately pushing the window up.

"get out, get out, go!" she whispered, jj, morgan, kiara, and pope all leaving without hesitation, john b, however waited for sage to get out before crawling through the window himself.

"where do we go?" pope asked, sage motioning for the group to follow her to the chicken coop, where she opened the roof and allowed the others to climb in before her, all of them settling into the cramped, humid plywood box.

not long after, the screen door could be heard opening and shutting repeatedly, sage glancing out the small wired window next to her head. glancing out, she saw the men toting out her dad's belongings in what appeared to be milk crates, which sage knew her dad had used to keep books stacked in.

however, the rooster in the house was beginning to peck at the teens, unimpressed with the group intruding on his home. he went for pope first, who did his best to swat it away.

"do something, pope- shut him up!" jj muttered angrily.

"what do you want me to do?" pope snapped.

"pet it, or talk to it, do something!" kiara replied tearfully.

"move." jj muttered to sage, who slid out of the way, allowing jj a clear shot at the rooster. he grabbed the bird, shoving it's body to the ground, a snap of bones followed my silence told the group the rooster was dead.

morgan let out a stifled sob next to sage, who put an arm around the redhead, allowing her to lay her head on her shoulder.

"ratter! what're you doing, let's go!" a voice spoke from outside the coop, sage turning back to her window to see a man retreating from the coop towards the truck, the two men speeding away.

"are they gone?" john b asked after a few minutes of silence, sage nodding and unlatching the roof of the coop.

"i loved that rooster." the blonde muttered, looking down at the limp bird on the floor of the chicken coop. "on the bright side, i'm sure he'll be delicious." she added, picking up the rooster as she stood up from the floor of the coop, glancing down at morgan.

"you alright?" sage asked, morgan nodding slowly.

"i don't know how much i like hanging out with you." she whispered with a smile, which sage returned as morgan crawled to the now open roof and climbed out with sage to join the others.

"jj, you killed my rooster." john b said, pretending to be offended.

"your rooster almost killed me, we'll call it even." jj defended.

"rest in peace to colonel, i'll put him in the instapot tonight." sage added, carrying the rooster to the house.

kens speaks 🪐

what's the word hummingbird

i've missed sage sm