breaking news: jj still hasn't gotten his shit together.

Otto's confusion convinced her to stay, she picked it up and fished the pocket knife JJ had given her out of her pocket. She walked over to the small table littered with watermarks and put down the envelope.

The smile that spread across JJ's face when he saw the pocket knife he gave her months ago was still in her possession, and not just in her possession but on her person.

She sat beside it and cut it open, tipping it upside down pieces of paper flew out.

Picking up the first one she began skimming over the writing.

They were alive.

Sarah and John B were alive.

After capsizing they were found by a boat and picked up, the boat dropped them off when they had a stop to make to refuel.

They landed in the Caribbean, it took a while for them to find their feet.

They moved around a lot for the first few months trying to find somewhere to settle down in for a while.

That was until they found a small fishing village, there were only a few hundred people and they were all welcoming to the couple. They decided to stay there indefinitely.

John B began joined a group of men who caught fish, he worked just about every day but he enjoyed the job.

He got to be in around the stunningly clear water every day, which was a win his in opinion.

And Sarah helped out at a food shop, she too loved the job. The people were nice, she also got a small discount on the food.

An elderly couple approached them soon after they arrived and offered them a place to stay, in their back garden they had a shed that they could rent cheaply. Sarah and John B jumped at the offer.

They had no clue that six months after they had escaped the Outer Banks, the police caught up with Rafe Cameron who promptly ratted out Ward.

After two more months they both plead guilty, and received a lighter sentence than they would've had they gone to trial.

Whilst moving from place to place and before they settled in the fishing town they managed to get their hands on a phone. The problem was that in the remote town there was no internet connection. The nearest place that did have connection was in a city that was two hour drive away from their village.

Every few months they'd catch a lift with someone heading into town, so they could catch up on what was happening.

They didn't reach out to their friends just in case Ward and Rafe had tapped their phones. Which they definitely weren't above. So the news that they were arrested meant they could reach out.

But just as they were typing up the message the phone died, and their charger was back at the village.

They decided they would just find the next person who was driving into the city and hopefully catch a ride with them.

But when they got back to their home they found it had been broken into.

The intruder had gone through everything, the drawers to the cupboards were all pulled out and clothes were spread everywhere. Things had been moved and tipped over. Not a single stone was left unturned.

But nothing seemed to be missing.

Sarah and John B had nothing of monetary value, that was except the phone.

Over the next few weeks while they waited to catch a lift they noticed someone was following them. At first they thought they were just paranoid, that they were stressed after the break in.

But over the weeks it became painfully apparent they someone was definitely following them.

The people following them looked out of place in the village, they wore luxurious looking clothes and drove expensive cars. So they asked around to see if anyone knew how they were. But no one did. They obviously weren't from there.

On one late night walk the couple loved taking they were attacked, two men ambushed them, trying to take them down with cloths the pair could only assume were doused with chloroform. By the skin of their teeth they managed to get away from their attackers.

Sarah and John B had to leave the town, they got back to the shed and packed up everything they could fit into their backpacks and ran.

In their haste John B dropped the phone, and when they picked it back up they realised it was completely broken. The already shattered screen was beyond repair and the screen just had strips of colour littered across it.

Their contact with the Outer Banks had just been severed.

After finding somewhere to hide they asked around, desperate to find someone going to the city. They found someone and got out of the village they loved.

The city had a post-office and the first stop the couple made was the post office.

They wrote to their friend's back at the Outer Banks.

They were alive, and they were in trouble.

Every single person, old or young, rich or poor, that was on island that summer knew about what happened the Pogue's.

After the Cameron men were arrested they all knew John B didn't murder Peterkin, and the rest of the group had no involvement with anything to do with the murder.

But they still avoided them like the plague.

They stared and they whispered.

But Otto wasn't there that summer. She was completely unaware at the events that transpired.

She knew that some of their friend's had died, that was why JJ was drinking away his sorrows the night they met. But that was the extent of her knowledge.

It seemed like a sore subject, so she didn't pry.

She hadn't the foggiest clue about the absolute insanity that occurred that summer. But she knew their friends - Sarah and John B, as she now knew they were called - wwre alive, and in trouble.

Whatever that meant.

After she opened the letter JJ called Pope and Kie, they got their in record time, running to the verandah.

They each read the note, astonished and elated at the news.

The group of friends began talking over one another. Their emotion was palpable, they each read an reread the note as if it was a trick, but they recognised John B's horrific handwriting.

Then they remembered their friend were in trouble.

When there was a second of silence Otto spoke up, "What happened?"

The trio that had gone through the gold hunt all looked at her like she had three heads, before remembering that she wasn't there that summer.

"Shit. You weren't here last summer, were you?"

Otto raised an eyebrow, "By the sounds of it I missed something extremely interesting."

Pope began explaining it, running through all the events from the group's perspective. Kie and JJ butted in occasionally, adding in unnecessary information.

By the end of it Otto too was shocked they were alive. "Of course the one summer I'm not here this happens." She mumbled.

The note didn't include any information they could use to help, there was no return address or contact information.

All it was was: We are alive. We are in trouble. - Sarah and John B.

That's when the anger set in, all of them were frustrated. It was almost worse than assuming they were dead. At least then they had a little closure.

Now that closure was ripped away and in its place was the knowledge that they may have been alive but they were in trouble. And there was Jack shit they could do about it.

But JJ flew off the handle.

It was almost like someone flipped a switch, he went from excited to furious in a split second.

He stood up and began throwing anything he could get his hands on, it was like the day she had her ultrasound and Kie called her to calm him down. The day he warned her he had to get his shit together.

This was definitely not him getting his shit together.

JJ started with the hat on his head, then the cheap plastic chair he sat on, then the crate beside him. He moved on to kicking the things he just threw, the entire time shouting obscenities.

Pope stood up and walked inside the house, not wanting to put up with JJ and his shit.

Otto stood up and walked away to, except she didn't walk inside the house she walked down the steps to the verandah and toward her car.

He wasn't getting his shit together.

It didn't even look like he was trying to get his shit together.

If she was being honest seeing his emotions flip so quickly scared her.

It reminded her of Wes, how he went from happy to angry, and what that switch meant for her.

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