Against the world 2

Chapter 18

We were all sitting on the porch the next morning, extremely hungover when Sarah showed up and joined us on the porch. 

"Shouldn't you be on Figure Eight with your little group of polo players? Or did you break up with Topper?" John B said while making a face at her.

"We're just friends" She smirked back.

"He's just a friend, you have a lot of friends, Sarah Cameron" 

"Yeah and it seems like you've got some of your own too"

"All right, what are you doing here?" John B sits up.

"I'm actually here for Pope" She turned to Pope "I think I found the island room"

We were all speechless, we might still be able to find this cross! We all drove together in the Twinkie back to the Cameron's house. On the drive I was sitting in the back reading Denmark Tanny's diary before getting to a part that everyone needed to hear. 

"Guys, listen. The diary says the cross holds the most holy relic in all of Christendom, the Garment of the Savior" I looked up to them who all looked confused.

"So wait, he's saying there's a holy garment inside the cross?" Kie asks me to clarify

"Yeah. It says the garment is capable of healing the sick from any malady" 

"Mmm, yeah. If only I may touch his garment, I shall be made well" JJ says from beside me, I turned to look at him with my eyebrow raised and everyone else looked at him in shock. "What? I went to Sunday school"

"When did you ever go to Sunday school" I asked my boyfriend.

"On Sundays Sav, obviously" JJ said making me sarcastically.

"Ha ha, very funny" I said pushing his arm before Pope went back to the original conversation.

"Well, that explains why Limbrey would want the cross so bad. She thinks it can heal her" Pope put his hand out for the diary and I passed it over so he could read it too. "Many feel that we have sinned to steal such a sacred thing, and God will strike his vengeance on us"

"Thing is, God did have his vengeance, he sent a hurricane to sink the ship, only Denmark survived" I said to the group as we pulled up to Sarah's house and we followed Sarah through her house, it felt weird being in here after everything that happened. John B and JJ made a comment about the house freaking them out. Sarah led us down the hallway and opened the door into a room, when we walked in we could see all the wallpaper being ripped which revealed drawings of the whole island. The island room.

We all looked around the room noticing different things. JJ spotted Rixons and the lighthouse, Kie noticed Parcel 9 and the well and John B noticed the surf break at Mase. 

"J, come here" I called over to him "Do you have that picture from the diary, this handwriting looks familiar?" I said as JJ pulled the picture out and called Pope over.

"Pope, come here. This is Denmark's handwriting for sure" JJ told Pope as he came over. This meant that Denmark Tanny painted this whole room as his own personal map. Sarah told us she found the room like this when she got home, which meant someone else found it first. 

"The freaks" Sarah's sister said walking into the room, making us all jump. JJ grabbed my arm out of habit as he jumped.

"What freaks are we talking about, Wheeze?" JJ asked

"That sick lady and her attack dog. They showed up last night and wanted to talk to Rafe" 

Wheezie confirmed she was blonde and had crutches; it was Limbrey. Wheezie told us the conversation she overheard, Renfield and Limbrey ripped off all of the wallpaper and found a church. They were talking about the cross and angels, but Wheezie didn't know what they meant. As Wheezie was talking I turned back to look at the paintings. 

"Denmark said, the real treasure is buried at the foot of the angel. Everyone spread out, find the angel" Pope yelled as everyone frantically tuned around and was yelling at each other. I was focusing on the picture in front of me, it was a large tree and something about it was telling me this was the answer. 

"What have you found?" JJ said coming beside me "Oh shit, Sav! Guys, I think Sav found something, come here"

"This humongous tree is still on Goat Island. You know what it's called?" He looked at everyone around us now and down to me and then I remembered. 

"Angel Oak" I said quietly, I knew this meant something.

"Look, there's the keyhole" JJ said, rubbing his finger on the hole in the picture. 

"That means the cross is buried at the foot of the angel, that must be where he put it. That means that must be where they are right now, we have to go" Pope yelled and everyone ran off to leave.

"My girl is Sherlock Holmes" JJ picked me up and hugged me, spinning me around. 

"Hurry up Sherlock" John B called out as JJ and I were the last ones in the room. 

We all drove straight to Goat Island, we drove past Freedman's Church which is the church Denmark built for all the salves he freed. We drove onto the island and noticed the tide was coming in which was making the road all muddy, there were already tire tracks meaning Limbrey was over there. JJ and John B were in the front seats discussing if they should drive through and if they were going to make it, I turned around and put my arms on the seats so my head was between them.

"Why are you both acting like you're not going to do it anyway? When have you ever done the safe thing?" I looked at them both, raising my eyebrow. They looked at each other and nodded.

"She's got a point. Speed is your friend here, okay?" JJ was saying to John B "Put her down in second and hammer down brother" 

John B took off through the mud, JJ was yelling at him to go faster and we could already feel the van fishtailing.

"Not to put any more pressure on you, but if you don't make it through, we'll be stuck here forever" I said poking my head between them again.

"Put your head back, okay?" John B pushed my face back as we made it through the mud. JJ got out of the front and came and opened the side door and grabbed my hand helping me out of the car. 

"All right, so word to the wise, definetly know that gators nest back here so keep your eyes peeled, okay? You don't want to step on a mama gator" JJ said to us as we all followed him and Pope. 

"Seems like a good place to park" Sarah said sarcastically.

"You don't want to be a Pat Womack, she had her calf chewed off by a gator, right? You know that right?" JJ said turning around to us

"That's not true, Pat Womack was injured in a car accident" Kie disagreed with JJ, I laughed at the two, JJ always makes up stories.

"Okay, live in ignorance. But she had her calf chewed off by a gator, I know that for a fact" JJ said again, dismissing Kie. JJ walks over to the water and knelt down before smacking the water with a stick.

"That's smart, wake them up JJ" I said, patting his back as he stood back up. I walked with him to catch up to everyone who was looking beyond the bush. We could see Limbrey, Renfield and Rafe at the tree already with machinery. It started digging before hitting something, Limbrey yelled at them to do it by hand so it doesn't get damaged. They pulled up a wooden box that looked like a casket. The second they got in their car and left Pope ran over to the tree.