Breathless | JJ Maybank

33. JOHN B AND SARAH

Outer Banks, Figure-Eight
July 22nd, 2020
7:59pm

After spending so long sitting on these chairs, my head resting on JJ's shoulder, I started to doze off. JJ's arms were still behind his back since his wrists were still handcuffed and I felt so downhearted for him. He didn't complain or yell at the cops to free him because he thought we would be ashamed of him always acting recklessly. It felt like Shoupe was hiding from us since he didn't appear even just once and we were only visited by other cops, way less powerful than him.

We had heard the policemen saying that Ward Cameron's daughter was apparently on the boat with John B, which, more than allowing us to guess she had joined him somehow, meant the cops had seen them leaving.

JJ pressed a gentle kiss on top of my head, making me re-open my eyes and look up at him. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up," he immediately apologised.

"You didn't, you're fine," I lied, taking my head off his shoulder and sending him a smile. "Are you okay? Do your arms or wrists hurt?"

He shook his head in denial. "No, I'm good, I've been through worse," he joked.

I could imagine being handcuffed wasn't the worst thing which had ever happened to him, but keeping his arms behind his back for so long must have not been very comfortable. And selfishly, I would have wanted to hold his hand the way Kiara held Pope's, when doubts filled her body up. "I'll go ask them to free you," I stated.

"No hey don't, it's fine," he laughed it off.

"I'm serious," I snapped.

We all waited a few more minutes for anyone to come, and when my eyes caught glimpse of who I had been waiting for so long, my heart filled up with excitement back again. The game wasn't over. Deputee Shoupe walked up to us and we all got up. "Hi, have you heard of John B?" Kiara immediately asked.

"Wait-Wait," I interrupted her. "Please,
can you free JJ? He won't do anything please just free him"

Since I was begging and maybe since he knew my parents a little bit, Shoupe sighed and grabbed small keys, taking JJ's handcuffs off, finally. I stared at his swollen wrists with attention but when the storm grumbled and I pictured John B and Sarah under that storm, in the ocean, it scared me and led me to draw my attention on something else than JJ's hurt wrists.

"Here kid," Shoupe got back in front of all of us.

"Did you find them?" Pope inquired.

"No," Shoupe immediately replied.

I bit my lower lip. "It's not safe for them to be out there, in the middle of the ocean. Please, go find them," my voice shook while I begged him, the others probably just as panicked as me.

"Lauren they're trying to escape us, Ward talked to them, he tried to convince John B to bring Sarah back. But hum-" Shoupe was interrupted.

"They got away?" Kiara asked.

"We hum- we lost them. I'm sorry," the cop announced, making my eyes tear up immediately.

"What-What do you mean you lost them like they're gone? What are you talking about?" Pope began to panic, while I covered my mouth with my hand.

"They took an open boat into a tropical depression Pope!" Shoupe voiced.

"So they're dead?" Kiara inquired.

Shoupe marked a pause before responding, but it was way too long for him to announce any sort of good news. My heart clenched and it felt like I was dying inside when we all stared at each other. "We don't know," he voiced.