The Pogue Life || JJ Maybank

JJPope

"This place is scary," Kie and I say.

"I'll protect you," JJ mocks, wrapping an arm around my shoulder, "don't even worry."

"John B, what are we doing?" Kie asks.

"Okay, so you know how when you're trying to remember a song and you can't remember who sings it?"

"Yeah," Kie says hesitantly.

"So, Redfield. This whole time, I thought it was a place, right? But it's not a place. It's a person."

John B shines his flashlight on a tomb, with the name Redfield across the top in the cement. We all stop and stare at it.

"Voi- effing- la," JJ says.

"This is fucked," I whisper, glancing up at him.

"See, my great-great-grandmother Olivia. Redfield. That was her maiden name."

We all examine the tomb, shocked into silence. The cement door is grown over with weeds and branches and there's a hole up the top of it. Clearly, the Redfield family has either died out or stopped caring about their ancestor's burial sites.

"Help me with the door," John B requests.

Pope steps forward and together the pair attempt to open the door. We all watch for a minute and then JJ also steps forward to help.

"Come on, this door is like 700 pounds man. It's not gonna budge," Pope grunts.

"We didn't come this far to get this far, all right?" JJ says, "we got this."

Suddenly we hear a hissing and a large snake slithers out from a crack in the wall. All the boys jump back. I grab onto Kie's arm and the two of us stand as still as possible, praying the snake will ignore us.

"That's a moccasin, all right!" JJ says.

"Woah, that's awesome," I whisper, as the snake slithers away from us.

"Ye old Mr cottonmouth. Death in tall grass," JJ says in a southern accent before starting to bark at the snake.

"JJ, Shut up! Shut up!" Kie cries.

"You're gonna wake the freaking dead, man," Pope says.

"They're afraid of dogs. Everyone knows that man," JJ explains.

"Contrary to what your weed-induced brain believes, JJ, you are NOT a dog. Also; most snakes are deaf so you're literally not doing anything. They hear through vibrations," I say, shaking my head.

"How do you even know that?"

"I love snakes," I reply with a shrug.

"Seriously? You're afraid of a tiny spider but you're not afraid of big, venomous, scaly snakes?"

"Well, most of them aren't even venomous. Also, they usually won't attack you unless they feel threatened," I say, "and, as Kie and I just proved, if you stand still they usually don't even notice you."

"Neither will a spider!"

"Spiders have eight legs, thousands of eyes and some of them are hairy! They're creepy and gross. Snakes are badass," I defend, getting slightly loud.

JJ laughs at me while the others try to get us to shut up. Eventually, we turn our attention back to the door, stopping our debate. Not that there is anything to debate. Snakes are awesome, powerful creatures and spiders are demonic little shits that should be burned.

"Wait, wait! If there's one, there's probably dozens," JJ points out.

"Can you stop, you're scaring me," Kie requests.