begin again || OBX

05

"Alright,"Vicky stood up from the log on the ground and faced everyone sitting around the bonfire.

"Me and JJ would like to make a teeny tiny announcement,"she said.

"Announcement?"Kiara frowned.

JJ stood up and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

"We are... together."

"What?"Kiara gasped.

"Well, we aren't together together but-"

John frowned and turned to Pope.

"Hold on.. Why are you not surprised?"he questioned.

"I... caught them before this,"Pope answered.

"And you didn't tell me?"

"Wait... When we had the movie night..."

Everyone bickered back and forth, pointing fingers about secrets being hidden.

"This was not what the meeting was supposed to be about,"JJ said.

"Then what is so mandatory about this meeting?"Kiara turned to JJ.

"John B?"

John stood up and heaved out a sigh.

"The gold never really went down with the Royal Merchant,"he said.

"Here we go again with this,"Pope rolled his eyes.

"Look, just hear him out, okay?"Vicky said.

"It's been here the whole time,"John smiled.

"It's on the island."

"Are you serious?"Kiara gasped.

"I'd like to voice my skepticism,"Pope said.

"I'm sure you would, Pope,"Vicky patted his back.

"Let me present to you my evidence first,"John B grabbed his bag.

"In my backpack, I have a letter from Denmark Tanny. Denmark Tanny was a slave that survived the Royal Merchant wreck,"he explained and unfolded a piece of paper.

"Check this out,"he handed it to Kiara.

"Slaves weren't mentioned as crew members on the ship, but my dad? He found the complete manifest."

"That was his big discovery.. So Tanny used the gold from the Merchant to buy his freedom."

Kiara passed the letter on to Vicky who read it together with Pope, sitting down beside him.

"After that, he bought his farm. And that farm is... Tannyhill Plantation."

"Tannyhill?"Kiara gasped again.

"Yeah, and so after that, he used his money to free even more slaves and then he sold a shit-ton of rice, which pisses off all the white planters and then... They decided to lynch him."