Dreamer | Outer Banks

21 - Escape?

There's a moment in every kid's life when you feel like anything's possible. When you feel like you've got the total mojo. You could, free-climb El Capitan, land on Mars, or, get elected president. The whole world's there for the taking if you've got the sack to go for it.

And then, when you least expect it, some Kook shows up and tells you there's no eternal mystery and then all that talk about free-climbing and Mars and the president, bullshit. Magic gets cancer and dies.

"It's not there. Look, just...just pull the drone up." John B sighed.

"Look, we can do another pass. recharge the battery. We can...we can go back down." Pope suggested while thunder was still rumbling off in the distance.

"We've done it three times. There's nothing there." JJ shouted while John B stood at the other end of the boat with his head in his hands.

"Shut up!" Kie shouted back.

"What? It's true!" JJ said while he stood beside the steering wheel, clearly wanting to get out of here. Though John B and I weren't giving up so easily.

"The gold could be buried. We don't know." Kie tried defending John B but JJ didn't seem to believe any of us. It had to be here, it just had to.

"If it was there, it would've been found on the metal detector, okay?" John B sighed, not meeting any of our eyes. "Somebody beat us to it."

"Or it was never there." JJ whispered to himself just loud enough for me to hear.

"Let's just get out of here." I mumbled as I sat down and JJ began driving away.

I was not going to give up searching for the gold, John B and I's father died looking for it and the least we could do is finish what he started.

~~~

John B shut off the boat and I followed him up the docks and towards the house. After today, I'm not sure either of us were in the mood to go out. All we wanted was to find the gold but we should've known it wouldn't have been that easy.

The two of us walked through the door and John B grabbed a cereal box on his way into the kitchen before hearing someone clear their throat from the couches. "Hey guys."

I looked over to see Cheryl, the social worker, sitting down looking a bit too comfortable in our living room. "You know, Cheryl, it's kind of a bad time for a check-in."

"Not a check-in. We're here to take you." Cheryl said calmly as John B took a seat at the kitchen table while I leaned on the kitchen counter.

"Today? Really?" I sighed, not yet realizing how serious this really was.

"It's just for a few weeks until your hearing." She said which seemed to catch John B's attention.

"No, no, no. Cheryl, look, we're not going into foster care, okay?" John B groaned, running his hands through his hair. "Not gonna go be a part of your little system."

I almost jump when I hear a radio beep and a cop comes out from the hallway and stands in between John B and I. "This is Deputy Thomas."

John B stands up startled, taking the cereal box with him before grabbing me by the hand and dragging me with him over to Cheryl. "Holy shit."

"He works with juveniles for the sheriff's department." She explained as I tried moving further away from the deputy. "Look, I know Uncle T is down in Mississippi working at a casino. He hasn't been here in months.

"What?" John B scoffed before trying to take off past the table, still holding onto my arm but the deputy stopped him. "No, see, that's my nightmare right there."

"Look, we want emancipation." I stated, trying to think of something that could get us out of this mess.

"Emancipation from who? There's nobody here but you." Cheryl said.

"Uh... asylum, then." John B backed me up quickly which surprised me, normally he would just throw out nonsense.

"On what grounds?" She asked impatiently.

"On...on solid grounds. On holy grounds." I spit out without any time to think.

"Look, I feel real...real prosecuted right now by you and especially Mr. Big Head over here." John B stumbled over his words but seemed to get his confidence back.

"What are you lookin' at, bro? What're you gonna do? You gonna tase me?" He snapped at the deputy who just continued to stare at us not saying anything.

"John!" Cheryl yelled as John B suddenly tried to run past the table again but the deputy trapped him. "Oh yeah? You wanna dance, huh?" The deputy said.

John B tried to run to the other side of the table just to be stopped by the deputy again. He then thought it was a good idea to throw the cereal into the deputies face.

"Come here, you little-" The deputy lunged at John B and managed to wrap his arms around him to hold him still.

"Hey let him go! He didn't do anything!" I screamed at him.

"Cheryl, get your dog off!" John B yelled as he tried to get out of the deputies grasp until he started to wrestle John B to the ground.

"That's enough!" Cheryl shouted.

"Okay, okay, okay." John B agreed as the deputy had a strong arm around his neck, holding him down on the ground.

"Relax John." Cheryl tried to comfort him. Bullshit.

"Okay, okay. I give up." He said while the deputy continued to hold his head down, facing down to the floor as I watched in shock, not believing this is actually happening.

~~~

"See this, Cheryl? Do you know who this is?" I heard John B talking to Cheryl in the other room as I threw some of my clothes into a random backpack.

We had to find a way out but the deputy was watching John B like a hawk which left nobody looking after me.

I walked over to the other side of my bed and snuck a peak at John B's room, it was as if the three of them forgot I was even there. I knew if I moved fast enough I could get out of here without them noticing but was I really willing to leave my own brother?

"It's the law, John B." Cheryl's voice echoed through the house. Screw the law. We knew how to take care of ourselves but apparently that doesn't matter. Nothing does.

But if we could take care of ourselves, I knew John B could find a way out by himself.

"It's now or never." I whispered to myself before quietly jogging to my window.

I unlocked the hatch and slowly opened the window so they wouldn't hear me from the other room. I threw my backpack out first before climbing through the window and jumping out. It wasn't a huge fall so I managed to do it without hurting myself.

From where I was standing I could see John B arguing with Cheryl through his window. I couldn't hear what they were saying anymore but I knew I had to get out of here.

I picked up my backpack and slugged it on my shoulder before making a break for it into the trees. At this point I didn't care if they saw me, I could outrun them.

It felt like forever but after non stop sprinting as if my life depended on it, because it kinda did, I came to the one place where I knew I could get help, JJ's.

~~~

I hope you all liked the start of episode four! I'm really excited for this episode and I think this was a good way to get it started!

On a different note, I wanted to thank you all for 5K reads! I can't believe this many people read my story and it means the world!