TWENTY STILLWATER

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     "So, here's the plan," John B began to explain before they got too close to the Crain house and split up to look for what they needed. Splitting up couldn't be a good idea, it never was, but this was a big property and they only had so much time before someone realized they were there, "We need to look for the wheat near the water like it said in Denmark's letter."

"Okay, like what kind of water? Like, pond water?" asked Pope, clearly confused by the concept. To be fair, looking for water on the property of a murderous old lady sounded much harder than anything they had done so far in this search. Including all of the fights... and stealing the drone was pretty tough, too.

"Bong water?" JJ contributed which led to Alisha smacking him on the arm.

"Be serious, dumbass," she scolded, rolling her eyes at the boy. Norman chuckled slightly, but a glare from Alisha shut him up right away. "God, men can't take anything seriously."

"I hear ya," Kie muttered.

John B shook his head, getting frustrated, "No, it- it just said look for water, okay?"

Kie sighed, "That's the shittiest secret message ever."

"You wanna complain a little bit more, Kie?" the boy said with a sigh as they began walking once again, "Nobody said this was gonna be easy. Here let's split up, Norman, come with me. We'll take the Southeast quadrant. Alisha, go with Kie."

Facing the house seemed a little less terrifying with John B by his side, but rumors aside he was still afraid. Something about breaking and entering didn't sit right with him -- even if at the moment they were just traipsing around the yard. A chill went down his spine as he looked up at the old, daunting structure. A bird squawked nearby, causing Norman to jump ever so slightly. As he did, John B reached over and wrapped his fingers around his wrist ever so gently.

"I didn't peg you for a scaredy cat," the boy teased, but Norman just scoffed and pulled his wrist away so he could cross his arms.

"I'm not, sheesh. Just keep going," Norman tried his best to play it off, but he had a feeling the boy could see right through him. He didn't care though, he was always good at pretending. The boy rolled his eyes but stepped forward to observe something. "What'd you find?"

"Look, it's some sort of door," he looked at the latch on a small wooden door before turning to call to the others, "Hey, psst! Hey, come on, it's the only place we haven't looked! All right, here we go."

John B turned on his flashlight as he pulled away the wooden the doors, climbing through with a courage Norman had no idea how to have. He was practically shaking as he followed the boy through the doors. Yet still, he followed him always. Maybe he was an idiot. Scratch that, he was certainly an idiot. The flashlight shined on what looked to be a basement that was looked like its main purpose was storage and nothing else. It certainly wasn't as haunting and scary as the house was made out to be, but then again, they hadn't been there very long.

Breaking the stern silence, JJ began to sing, "Down came Mrs. Crain and cut off all our heads, up came the sun and dried up all the blood."

"Can you stop?" Pope asked with an affirmative tone. Being in the dark basement of a supposedly homicidal old lady put a bit of a dampener on any of JJ's attempts at jokes. The floorboards creaked under all their footsteps, interrupting the silence in its own haunting way.

With a sigh, John B looked around and asked, "See any water?"

"Nope," was Norman's answer as he used his phone's flashlight to view his surroundings. It really wasn't that scary, but a chill in the air made it seem much worse than it actually was. Alisha smacked a mosquito that landed on her arm with a grimace, causing Norman to laugh at her. Of course, her only response was to flip him off.

"Another dead end?" the hopeless question left Kie's mouth with a resigned sigh.

JJ ran his hand along age-old pipes, his hand coming up dry as he groaned, "There's not even water on the pipes, dude."

Pope nodded, "There's no water here at all."

"Not a dropamino," added JJ.

"Know why we didn't find it?" Kie asked, the question clearly rhetorical, "Bad karma."

John B sighed, "Oh, God, here we go."

"You know, we had a good thing going," Kie began what seemed like was going to become a rant, "And then you decide to rope in Barbie, and now the trail's gone dry. Coincidence? I don't think so."

"You had no problem bringing Norman and Alisha along, sorry, guys," John B argued, clearly only using them to make a point, "This is why I didn't wanna tell you about Sarah. God, it's not like we're even a thing."

"Oh, yeah?" the girl challenged.

"Yeah. What the hell is the deal with you two?"

"Ugh, here we go," Norman muttered, "Why can't we ever just do something without fighting about it?"

Alisha scoffed, "Dude, you start half of the fights."

"No, I do not!"

However, besides them, Kiara and John B were still arguing as Kie exclaimed, "Nothing!"

"Nothing? Is it because I kissed you? Is that the problem?" That seemed to be a running problem in John B's friendships, Norman noticed as he recalled many arguments the two boys had in the past.

Before the boy could even finish his sentence, Kiara slapped him, exclaiming, "Not everything is about you! Sarah and I dated during my Kook year, you asshole!"

"Oh!" Pope exclaimed at the same time JJ yelled multiple curses.

With a cutthroat expression, Kie shot back, "Stop treating me like some girl that's obsessed with you instead of your friend who's actually trying to look out for you. The world doesn't revolve around you, John B. If that were the case, I should hate Rocky, too, right? I don't because he's not a stuck up asshole who has no idea how to care about people. You know what? He cares about you for some reason and you're such a fucking idiot that you don't even realize that."

"Hey, hey, can we just calm down and not bring me into this?" Norman exclaimed, but he had a feeling it was too late. The words had already left her mouth and there was no stopping that tangent.

John B, however, didn't seem too focused on her words as he asked, "Did you... hit me?"

With a deadpan expression, all Kie said was, "Skeeter."

"Oh, really? Did the skeeter make you yell at me, too?"

"No, that was just for fun."

Before the girl could say anything else, John B hit her back.

"Why is there so much drama with these people?" Alisha whispered, but Norman's only valid response was a shrug.

"Where's your proof?"

John B raised his hand where there was in fact a smashed bug on it, "Skeeter."

Of course, it had to escalate from there. The two began to push and shove each other always claiming it was because of a mosquito. At first it seemed genuinely malicious, but then a smile began to form on both of their faces as it became more teasing than anything. Thankfully, the mood seemed to rise just a little bit.

After a moment, Pope asked the question none of them had really thought about, "Why are there so many mosquitos in a basement?"

"Aren't they attracted to standing water?" Norman asked with a furrowed brow as he began to make the connection Pope was likely gearing toward.

"Which is exactly what we're looking for?" added Alisha with a pang of curiosity in her voice.

Pope's eyes seemed to lock on something as he looked towards the wood paneling on the ground, stepping on each panel to see if any of them came loose. Noticing this, Norman began to do the same in an attempt to narrow down the search.

"I just found Mrs. Crain's voodoo doll, guys," JJ, who was still just messing around, announced to the group as he lifted up an incredibly creepy doll that Norman grimaced at.

"Ew."

After a moment of not being able to tear up the paneling, Pope found a panel and dropped it through the cracks. To everyone's surprise, they head a splash echoing. Water.

"Hey, guys," Pope tried to get everyone's attention as he handed his flashlight over to JJ and asked, "Hey, help me move this."

They all began to clear off the floor where Pope was standing, doing their best to stay as quiet as possible. For a moment, Norman had almost forgotten they were standing in the basement of a homicidal maniac which was not a fun thing to remember. Slowly, they began to grip the edges of the paneling and move the wood, revealing what looked to be a stone well that had been covered up.

"Holy shit," Norman muttered as he shined his flashlight on it. They had found water.

"Well, well, well," Pope mumbled as they all looked down into the dark chasm.

"That was a good dad joke," John B observed, sounding almost in shock at the discovery.

Looking around the stone walls of the well, Kie noted, "They built this part of the house right over it."

"This is where she hides the bodies," contributed JJ, which caused Alisha to smack him upside the head for the umpteenth time that day, "Dude, what do you have against me?"

"I'm still mad about the gun thing," Alisha said with a shrug, "Also, you're annoying."

"Hey!"

"Lish, be nice," Norman scoffed, sending a small smile his friend's way as she glared at him.

Looking down, Pope sighed, "She probably doesn't even know it's here. So... we found water."

With a smile on his face, John B said, "We're gonna need a really big rope."

I know this is is super short but this is the last part of the first Crain house scene so it felt weird to keep it going along the lines of the show since the next scene is like drama with the sheriff as per usual so there's a gap in between this and the next scene with the kids so i just ended it there i hope y'all don't mind!! there likely won't be an update tomorrow because imma be celebrating my birthday!!