XX.   just two kids, you and me

The legend of the Crain House was a story that everyone in Kildare heard of. Almost everybody thought it was bullshit that Mrs. Crain killed her husband. Others believed it to be true and it scared them to go anywhere near the home. Dylan was one of the people that believed the story and it excited her to actually be on the property. She tried to contain the excitement.

"Look, you guys know whose house this is, right?" Kiara questioned her friends.

"Of course I do." Dylan replied with a scoff.

JJ nodded his head. "Oh, yeah. No, I do."

"Look honestly, I don't really believe the stories of this place," John B admitted. Pope quickly shushed him. "What?"

"How could you not?" Dylan asked, looking at him over her shoulder. "It's, like, the most famous crime story of all time."

Pope shook his head. "I don't think it is, DJ."

You know what I mean."

"What stories did you hear?" JJ asked Kiara.

"The one where she killed her husband with an axe and that's she's been holed up ever since," she answered. "On certain nights, when the moon is full. . . You can see her in the window."

She started to laugh. "No, it's not funny, Kie, cause it's all true," JJ told her. "I swear to God, guys, it's all real. I knew Hollis. Jeez!"

Dylan gasped loudly and grabbed his arm. "Wait, you knew Hollis Crain?" She said with bug eyes.

He nodded quickly. "Yeah. She was my babysitter. She told me all about it."

Her eyes lit up with excitement while the others stared at the blonde like he was crazy.

"She told me the truth. . . about her mother and what happened in this house. So as a kid, she heard all the stories that her mother killed her father, and. . . she was a murderer and all. Hollis didn't believe it. Until that night."

"What night?" John B asked.

JJ looked at him mysteriously. "It all came back to her."

Dylan shared a look with Pope and she smiled widely while he looked creeped out.

"When Hollis was six years old, she heard her parents arguing downstairs. So she goes downstairs to see her mom washing her hands in the sink. . . full of blood. Her mother just says that she cut her finger. The next morning, she says her father and her split up. But then, Hollis noticed something. Her mother going into the parlor constantly, in and out and in and out with plastic bags. Weeks pass, and Hollis decides to use the outhouse. And as she's using it, she looks down, and there, in the outhouse, is her father's head looking straight back at her."

"You are literally about to give DJ a heart attack." Kiara commented after seeing the amount of shock and interest on Dylan's face.

But John B wasn't buying it. "God, you are so full of shit."

"Dude, I swear to God, man," JJ swore to him.

"Did she call the police?" Pope spoke. He tried not to pay attention to the way Dylan's nails were digging into his arm.

"She didn't have time—Wait! Dude!" He chased after John B.

John B stopped and turned to him. "What?"

"You sure you wanna do this? She's an axe murderer. You got a cast on."

"I don't give a shit if she's an axe murderer, okay?"

Pope gave him a wide eyed look.

"I got nothing to lose, right? You coming or what?" John B asked them.

They began to follow him through the yard. Everyone paused when they heard Dylan gasp loudly. "What? What?" JJ asked and frantically looked around for any sign of danger.

"I forgot my gloves." She said with a deep frown.

The group exhaled loudly. "Jesus Christ, Dyl." John B sighed and went back to walking.

Kiara walked up to her and grabbed her hand, pulling her away with them. "Okay. Come on, honey."

The group crouched down when they got a better view of the house and bent down behind one of the bushes. John B urged them to come closer. "So, here's the plan. We need to look for the wheat near the water like it said in Denmark's letter," he began to explain.

"Okay, like, what kind of water? Like, pond water?" Pope questioned.

JJ let out a chuckle. "Bong water?"

They looked at him oddly. "No. It—it just said look for water, okay?" John B asked out of annoyance.

"That's the shittiest secret message ever." Kiara muttered.

Dylan followed behind her through the tall grass. "You wanna complain a little more, Kie? Nobody said it was gonna be easy." John B snapped.

She rolled her eyes at his attitude and grabbed Kiara's arm. She looked at the house again with a giddy smile. "I've had dreams like this."

Kiara gave her the side eye.

"Down came Mrs. Crain and cut off all our heads.  And up came the sun and dried up all the blood."

Pope shined his flashlight in JJ's face. "Can you stop?" He hissed quietly.

"I feel like I'm in that one Criminal Minds episode where those three girls get locked in a cellar and they have to choose which one of them dies." Dylan commented while looking around.

Kiara gave her a crazed look. "DJ."

"Sorry."

The basement was filled with dust junk covered in fist and cobwebs. Particles flew around them, visible from the lights of the flashlights. Dylan felt dirty just standing in the room.

"See any water?" Asked Kiara.

"I see a lot of dust," Dylan replied and then cringed. "I feel wrong without my gloves."

"There's not even water on the pipes." Said JJ while running his hand on the pipe.

"There's no water here." Pope stated.

"Not a dropamino."

"You one why we didn't find it?" Kiara asked with sarcasm in her voice. "Bad karma."

John B groaned. "Oh, God. Here we go again."

"You know, we had a good thing going. And then you decide to rope in Barbie, and now the trail's gone dry. Coincidence? Probably not," she argued with him.

Dylan leaned closer to Pope, seeing as he was the closest to her. "If I had a dollar for every time they fought about Sarah, I could afford both of our college tuitions."

He chuckled.

"This is exactly why I didn't wanna tell you about Sarah."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah? What the hell's the deal with you two?" Asked John B.

"Nothing." Kiara denied.

"Nothing?" He repeated. He hinted a taunting smirk. "It is because I kissed you? Is that it?"

None of them were prepared for her to slap him across the face. Dylan flinched and gasped out loud.

"Oh!"

"Oh, shit!"

"That echoed, man."

"Guys, stop!" Dylan warned them but she was ignored.

"Stop treating me like I'm some girl that's obsessed with you instead of your best friend who's actually trying to look out for you." Kiara snapped at him, finally having enough.

John B blinked in shock. "Did you, uh. . . hit me?"

She held up the palm of her hand and showed him the dead insect on her palm. "Skeeter."

"Skeeter?"

John B slapped Kiara in the face and the rest of them immediately objected. "Whoa, okay—"

"Alright, no—"

"Jonathan Booker Routledge!"

JJ's eyes went wide. "Uh oh, she whipped out the government name."

"Where's your proof?" Kiara asked, hastily.

John B raised his hand and shined his light, showing the dead mosquito. "Skeeter." He said with a smile.

"There's probably one right there." Kiara said and hit his arm.

"Yeah? One right there."

They started hitting each other but it turned into lighthearted teasing. Dylan felt a pinch on her neck and slapped her hand on it, looking at the mosquito. "Oh shit, that's gross."

Pope swung his arms around. "These things are a freakin swarm!"

Dylan slapped her bare skin and looked forward at JJ, seeing two mosquitoes land on his neck. She slapped her palm on his neck.

JJ jumped and spun around in her direction, holding the back of his neck. "Ow! Dylan!"

"I'm sorry!" She immediately said and started laughing.

He hit her on the arm and she hit him back, starting a slap war. "Ow, stop!"

"You stop!"

"Why are there so many mosquitoes in a basement?" Pope whispered to himself and he looked around.

Dylan stopped hitting the JJ and walked up to him,  waving her hands in front of his face. "Cause they are out for your blood." She spoke in a really bad Dracula voice.

Pope narrowed his eyes. "That was really bad."

"Blah, blah, blah." She continued with the accent through fits of laughter.

He shook his head with a smile and pushed the laughing girl's face away. He shined the flashlight onto the wooden floor.

"Oh, my gosh! Okay, can we leave? Cause I'm already itchin to leave." JJ complained.

"Itching to leave?" Dylan joked.

He slapped a mosquito away from his face. "You are so hilarious, DJ."

Everyone stopped what they were doing when Pope started to move the wooden boards out of the way. "Pope, what's up?" Dylan asked after she stopped laughing.

"Hey, Pope!" JJ scolded him for being too loud.

"Help me move this." Pope demanded, looking at his friends.

"Okay. . . just quiet." John B hissed and they started helping Pope move everything off the floor.

"She's probably right up stairs." Kiara whispered.

Dylan's eyes widened. "She's probably waiting with a knife in her hand." She said in a spaced out voice.

"Shut up, Dylan." Said John B.

They finished helping Pope pull up the boards and they pointed their flashlights down to reveal a well.  "Oh shit, now I feel like I'm in IT." She whispered in shock.

"Well,  well, well." Pope joked with a smile.

"That was a good dad joke." John B muttered.

Dylan giggled and hit him on the arm, making him smile.

"That built this part of the house right over it." Kiara mumbled when she came to a realization.

"This is where she hid the bodies." JJ declared.

Pope scolded him. "Oh, dude. Come on."

"Bro, think about all the skeletons that are probably down there." Dylan said with a gasp. JJ gasping after her.

"Dylan." Kiara complained.

"It was never an outhouse."

"She probably doesn't even know it's here."

"So. . . we found water." Pope proclaimed.

"We're gonna need a really big rope." John B stated with a grin.

Dylan laid sprawled out on her couch while her mom was cleaning the kitchen. She scrolled on her phone out of boredom. She clicked on the photos app and started looking through all her photos. She stopped on one that was of her and Pope. They were on the HMS Pogue and Dylan was on his lap with her arms wrapped loosely around his neck. She was wearing his lucky black cap. Kiara had taken that picture. She always teased her about it. Dylan smiled at the screen.

She had so many memories with the Pogues but the ones that always stuck out to her, were with Pope. A lot of the time, Dylan and Pope were in their own little world with their conversations. They talked about things that the others didn't understand but they understood each other completely. As they got older, Dylan grew more and more excited to be around him. 

Ainsley saw her daughter staring at her phone and walked into the leaving room, wiping her hands with a dish towel. "Is everything okay, Dyl?"

Dylan put her phone down quickly and smiled. "Yeah.  Yeah, I'm okay,"

Ainsley walked around the couch and sat down on the other side by her feet. Her eyes scanned the fading bruises on her face. "How are you doing? Are you okay since. . ." She paused and pointed to her face.

Dylan frowned and twisted on the couch so she was on her back. "I'm not sure how I'm doing. I mean, I act like everything'a fine, but. . ."

Her mother frowned as well. "It still hurts?"

She sat up and crossed her legs. Dylan kept thinking about the attack and every time, it pained her more. She was completely terrified. "Why me, mom? Why me and Pope?" Her voice shook. Pope was the best person she'd ever known. He didn't deserve what happened to him. Nobody deserves it.

Her mom moved closer to her and grabbed her hands. "It's not your fault, baby. Or Pope's. What those boys did is on them."

She suddenly felt very emotional. Her dark eyes glossed with tears. "I was just trying to help Pope."

Hearing the crack in her voice, Ainsley pulled her disgusted into her. Dylan started to cry. "I-I'm so scared, mom. I'm scared to ever see them again."

"I'm sorry, honey. I'm so sorry that happened to you.  Pope is so lucky to have you."

She closed her eyes and let the tears fall down her face. She thought she was getting over it. She thought she was able to move past it. Dylan wasn't the type of person to hold grudges. But she was terrified to go anywhere near Rafe and Topper. She never believed anything like this would ever happen to her, but who was she fooling? Boys like Rafe and Topper only have one goal in life and that was to ruin the lives of others.  Dylan wouldn't let them ruin her.