GLITCH.
041 | struck gold

RENEE WAS GOING TO DIE. at least that was what it felt like — if not at the end of Crain's axe than either the stress she was being put under through this entire situation or the rapid beat of her heart was going to give her a heart attack.

She had smushed herself against the wall — using one of her hands to cover her mouth to muffle the heaviness of her breath as she heard Crain get closer. She hadn't dared to look at either Kiara or Sarah although they were practically huddled into the corner.

" it's late Leon." the old lady called out to seemingly no one, " too late."

Renee could feel beads of sweat emerge from the pores on her body — gripping her free hand onto Kiara's who was always using her other one to muffle the sounds of her erratic breathing just like her.

The steps got closer, and as the steps got closer the breathing of all three of them got heavier , the tighter their hands held the others. Watching as she emerged into their view , although Renee was more stuck on her choice of weapon — a fire poker.

she could feel her heart rattle against her rib cage, watching in tedious agony as the lady walked past them using her weapon as walking stick to aid her.

" I can hear you Leon." she called out, only making the three girls squirm more — praying that the lady would walk away without the slightest idea that they were hiding there.

" I've been waiting all night!" Mrs Crain called, turning to face them at the exact point Sarah turned her flashlight on, the girls practically screamed as they sprinted in the opposite direction of the her and towards the way that they had broken in a few minutes ago.

" go, go, go!" Renee repeated, now turning on her own flashlight as they entered a hallway with three separate doors.

All of them split up — having decided to go at it lone wolf style as Renee continued her fast pace into one of the other rooms, slamming the door shut behind her as she did so. Through the constant screams from the elderly lady who was waiting upon her husband who John B had found the remains of at the bottom of the well — Renee's luck managed to dim even more, the only exit out covered with barriers in the form of wooden plants — probably because of the heavy wind the storm had produced earlier on in the summer.

Using one of her hands to tug on the stuck pieces of material, restlessly attempting to find an escape out of there.

" please, please!" she continued to plead to whoever was listening. Now rattling with the chain which locked the door — Renee's attempts of opening the door failing and her growing more desperate with each passing moment the realisation was hitting her.

" Leon!" Renee turned, her eyes not so pleasantly graced by the vision of Mrs Crain. Her fire poker no longer being used as a walking aid but now being held as if she were wielding a bat.

It only took a few seconds for Renee to start dodging her with the fire poker that was swinging down in her direction — trying to battle her way out this fight without anything more than a scratch or a new fear of firepokers or elderly women.

The next swing was caught in the hands of Kiara, who had managed to hear the commotion from the other room. Sarah was the last one to enter and realise what was happening. Kiara managed to peel the weapon out of her hands and throw it to the floor.

Sarah meanwhile grabbed both of the girls' hands as she began to pick up her pace from the room but more specifically Mrs Crain.

" Kie , Ren come on,come on this way!" she must have found an exit from the current situation — Renee more than willingly followed.

As soon as the last foot exited the room, Sarah slammed it shut — using their combined to lock the elderly lady and more specifically her fire poker in the room.

It was almost expected that as soon as the teeniest amount of hope that they were safe sparked in their minds, the fire poker ripped through the wood of the door, luckily missing each of the girls who once again took off for some sort of sanctuary.

" come on this way, it goes underneath the house!" Sarah ushered the girls to follow her into the room she wandered into when they split ways.

Meeting stairs that led to the basement, Renee was the last one to begin her decent down the staircase — Kiara rushing Sarah who didn't take it to heart given the severity of the situation.

" Guys! Guys!" all three of them called out to JJ and Pope who turned their heads, noticing the three sweaty girls emerge with their flashlight pointing downwards.

" woah, woah what's going on?" Pope asked, diverging his eyes from the well of darkness that John B was currently stuck in.

"one of you dumbasses woke up crazy Crain and now she's trying to kill us with a fire poker!" Renee exclaimed whilst trying to regain her breath, " crazy old bat."

" basically we need to get the fuck out of here!" Kiara finished earning a nod from both Sarah and Renee who agreed.

" we locked her in the parlour but we gotta go!" Sarah was breathless, still hunched over as she tried to regain some fresh breath in her lungs.

" yeah no thats code red!" JJ too became agitated looking at Pope who held the rope.

" hey John B, get back on man!" JJ called out, soon organising everyone in the position to pull him up, knowing with more strength to pull him up the easier and quicker it would be.

Standing in a line, all five of them got ready to pull listening to the count jj gave and tugged heavily, expecting JohnB's weight to be piled on top of them instead their strength mixed with the lack of weight  in them forced them in all toppling over like human adaptation of dominos.

In the midst of the grunts and confusion on why they were now lying in the floor — the realisation that John B wasn't on the pulley, and specifically that they didn't know where he was at all.

" where the hell is he!" Pope called out, the other soon grovelling toward the well, all calling out for him despite Kiara's constant reminders to be quiet.

" I found the gold!" John B cried out in a mix of disbelief and pure euphoria from the little cubby hidden in the rocks.

Although it didn't translate through the echo of the well, instead they could only hear his calls for his friends — instantly thinking the worse.

" yo, he's drowning we gotta pull him out!" Renee told the boys who scurried towards the rope as well as the girls.

" John B, get back on the rope," Pope instructed, hoping John B could hear him " we're gonna pull you back up okay buddy?"

The wheezes of the elderly lady slowly became more loud — meaning she was headed straight their way and Renee didn't not fancy another meeting with the pointed end of her fire poker.

" okay everybody help!" JJ called out, repeating the same actions they did last time — everyone lined up their fingers curled over the rope ready at any second to start pulling John B back up.

Starting to pull , everyone started grunting which managed to cancel out the old ladies wheezes making it almost impossible for anybody to hear her getting close to them. Or notice the rattling of the gun in her hand.

Renee could feel the muscles in her arms burn as she continued to pull — her teeth gritting and grinding against one another as she continued.

" come on!" Pope encouraged " pull!"

The eruption of the gun, send waves of terror through each and everyone of the teenagers — now realising the live threatening danger they were now in.

Leaving John B hanging on the pulley in the well, each of them took cover — JJ reaching out to grab Renee and pull her over to where he and Pope were hiding out.

" fuck, she's got a gun." Renee began shaking, the fear of the object distilling itself in her as JJ continued to hold her hand and attempted to quieten her with reassurance and his affection.

" she can't aim for shit." Kiara whispered from the hiding place her and Sarah had taken — Sarah looked more intently at the older lady noticing the lack of colour in her eyes that had been covered by grey.

" she's blind." Sarah concluded, although her small amount of relief didn't last long as the ringing of gunshots blared in their eardrums again.

Kiara and Sarah took this as their opportunity to run through the cellar doors — now leaving JohnB who was pulling himself out of the cellar and Pope, JJ and Renee who were huddled together in a corner.

Letting another gunshot rifle through the air before Renee had enough, barely being able to hear anything that didn't seem miles away she picked herself up and began to sprint as fast as her legs would take her. Soon followed by JJ and Pope who equally wanted to get the hell out of there as quick as humanly possible.

Renee didn't slow down her speed even a little bit until the van was in sight — noticing Kiara and Sarah jump into the back and JJ head towards the drivers seat, Renee opened the passenger side door and get in.

Although it wasn't over yet — Renee turned her head noticing John B was yet to enter the getaway vehicle. Concern and panic were carved into her expression as she felt the car begin to move at a slow pace.

" where is he!" Kiara questioned the rest of them, Renee didn't answer she physically couldn't speak as she waited impatiently for her best friend to emerge from the small gap in the wall.

" why are we always getting shot at!" Pope exclaimed in frustration as Renee felt hope as she noticed his mop of hair emerge into her eyesight.

" John B come on!" she hollered out, soon everyone else catching glances of the brunette and calling out for him too.

Her heart went down to a normal rate as she felt him clamber into the back, turning to face him noticing him covered in sewage and smelt worse than anything she could have imagined.

" is everyone okay? Anyone been shot?" Renee asked, watching as all her friends began to pat parts of themselves in search for wounds.

" I think I'd know if I was shot right?" Kiara asked genuinely in fear, earning a snort of laughter from Renee.

" you look disgusting." Pope told John B, noticing the everyone's eyes looking at him as he caught his breath just like everyone else.

" god you smell like ass." Kiara spoke in repulse at her best friend.

Renee smiled brightly at the pure adrenaline clearly coursing through everyone's veins currently,

" what the hell just happened?" Sarah grunted, tilting her head back as she exhaled heavily.

JJ ran a hand through his sweat covered hair, " All-Time pogue hall of fame, baby!" he announced

" that bitch is possessed." Kiara told them, earning another dose of laughter from Renee who was amused by this entire situation.

" that bitch can't aim!" Sarah contributed, now making an entire discussion discussing the crazy old lady.

" how does she move that fast?" Pope questioned looking up at the girls, Renee finally able to speak began to join.

" she's a demon, purely evil and well...demonic." Renee told them, moving her hand to rest on JJ's that sat on the clutch.

" and since when was she blind?" Renee furrowed her eyebrows as she asked the question, JJ grinned as he too spoke, " she's like master yoda." Renee let out a snort of laughter, letting the conversation continue as John B caught Kiara's attention with the golden colour  from the bar in his hand.

" what is that?" Kiara asked, earning the attention of everyone who sat in shock with wide eyes and open mouths.

" no you fucking didn't!" Renee squirmed, placing her hands over mouth as she shrieked,

" I did it!" John B announced in the form of a chant, Renee watched as JJ flickered his eyes from the deserted road to catch a look at the gold.

Noise soon erupted in the van, everyone cheering and screaming at the fact that they had actually struck gold (quite literally).

" wait you guys," Kiara said " we're going to be rich." The idea of money in the pockets of most of them fuelled even more serotonin in their bodies as they all begin to chant 'full kook' in the midst of screaming and cheering.

With Kiara's phrase of the night now going to be 'holy shit' and Pope doing one of his weird dances — everything finally seemed to be coming together for the pogues.

But it wasn't. Finding the gold was only the start of it all falling apart.

AUTHORS NOTE
2 updates in a single day? writers block doesn't exist to me right now

did I write this in like 2 hours? Yes, yes I did
finally onto the last three episodes, thank you guys for reading it honestly means the world
love you all <3