salt water | outer banks

8| i'm there, okay?

VENUS DISLIKED GRAVEYARDS. NOT necessarily because she was scared of being haunted by a ghost, but more so because of the fact that she had seen too many videos about weird cults assembling in them. She didn't want to end up being used as a sacrifice, so she tended to stay away from graveyards at night. However, she made an exception for her friend who was hellbent on finding his possibly dead father or any trace of him. If it helped John B's conscience and grieving, she'd do it.

"Can you walk any faster?" JJ complained behind her.

"Can you be any more annoying?" she shot back.

"All I'm saying is that we're on a bit of a time crunch, sweetheart, so I'd appreciate it if you kicked it into high gear."

"There's two people in front of me!" she yelled in a whisper tone, which still earned her a hush from John B. "Why are you shushing me? The only other people here are dead, John."

"Unless those guys from the chateau decided to show up," the brunet countered, "or the cops—again."

"If they had any common sense, they'd stay away from graveyards," she muttered, her eyes flickering across their surroundings.

John B came to the realization that the lighthouse didn't have the answers they needed, and for some reason decided that a cemetery was where they truly needed to be. So again, without many questions, his friends followed him—some a bit more reluctant than others once they found out exactly where they were headed.

Venus glanced at the time on her phone, biting the inside of her cheek when she noticed it was already seven o'clock. Rafe would be coming by her house within the next few hours, but how was she going to get out of this in time?

Ideas flitted through her mind. She could cancel and say she would meet him, but a feeling of guilt opened in her chest at the thought.

He was high, her mind argued, he might not even remember asking to pick me up.

But what if he did?

"Venus," JJ said, nudging her with his elbow. The blond's brows furrowed as he looked down at her. "Did you hear a word he just said?"

It was then that the Beck girl realized they'd stopped walking and had come to a stop in front of a large crypt-looking grave. She scrambled to try to recall whatever John B had just given them a speech about, but to no avail.

"Sorry, I got distracted by...something," she excused, waving her hand next to her head in dismissal.

"My great-great-grandmother's last name," John spoke up, nodding his head towards the top of the grave and shining his flashlight on it. "This is what my dad was trying to tell me."

"Okay, so let's crack this bad boy open." Venus cracked her knuckles and took a step closer to the grave, giving it a once over before letting a frown come to her lips. It clearly hadn't been opened in years and there was no way they'd be able to pull open a stone door that big, so she defeatedly turned on her heel back towards the group. "How exactly do we plan to crack this thing open?"

"This thing is like seven hundred pounds. It's not gonna budge," Pope sighed, setting his hands on his hips as he looked over the large object.