Alone Together • JJ Maybank

Fifteen.

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The small glow of our flashlights barely lit the path ahead of us as we walked between the eerie trees and tombstones in complete darkness. John B was explaining why he brought us to a graveyard at this time of night, but my heart rate was racing so fast that it was drowning him out from my thoughts.

"I did not sign up for this." I whispered under my breath as Kiara and I both anxiously trailed a little behind the boys.

I briefly looked at the girl as she grabbed my hand, noticing how she continued to watch John B. "I swear to God, if he gets us killed..." she said as if to herself.

"Is everything, er, ok with you two now?" I kept my voice low, not wanting the boys to hear. She glanced sideways at me, before looking forward again.

"Er, yeah, yeah. It was nothing." She stuttered out awkwardly, and I swear if it wasn't so dark I would be able to see the blush creeping onto her cheeks.

"Kie, I don't think it was just nothing." I carried on, feeling her tense up a little as we continued to hold hands walking through the darkness. "I thought that, maybe, you know..." I trailed off, not wanting to make her too uncomfortable with my prying.

"Hey, come on." John B called out when he realized we were trailing a little too far behind, and instantly ending the conversation.

"We're coming! This place is scary." Kie whisper-shouted back to him.

John B aimed a shut up at us as he continued to explain. "You know how you're trying to remember a song and you can't remember who sings it?" Kie muttered a yeah, urging him to carry on. "So, Redfield. This whole time I thought it was a place, right? But it's not a place."

I shone my flashlight forward as John B came to a stop, holding his lantern higher to inspect the mausoleum in front of us. The old stone structure was overgrown with vines that somehow managed to look even creepier as each of the others began to shine their flashlights upwards. Examining the wall in front of me, I slowly looked up, seeing the word Redfield carved in stone at the top.

"It's a person."

"Voi-effing-la." JJ reacted to the revelation as I exhaled deeply, processing the information.

"See, my great-great-grandmother Olivia Redfield." John B looked back to all of us before stopping on me. "That was her maiden name." I nodded, finally understanding what he had seen earlier in the bonfire. "Look, help me with the door. Come on."

"Wait, you want to go in there?" I couldn't help but cringe at the idea of entering a mausoleum in the middle of the night. JJ's headlight shone in my direction as he looked at me, the smirk on his lips just barely visible in the moonlight.

"You scared?" He teased.

"Yes, obviously, how are you not?" I replied honestly. Pope stepped forward from beside me to help John B, but I hovered back, watching as the two struggled to get any kind of movement on the door. JJ chuckled at my obvious discomfort one more time before stepping forward to join them.