➸

"–And we were right outside like this–and all we hear is just, 'Bam! Bam! Bam!' Knocking paint off the wall from the inside, and I'm just looking at him–wait first off–"

After John B, JJ and Claire left Lana Grubbs' house, they picked up Pope and Kiara then headed back to the Chateau for a mandatory Pogue meeting to explain what just happened.
Claire had been staring at the ground since she sat down, trying to collect her thoughts while she listened halfheartedly to JJ's dramatic explanation.

JJ walked over to Kie and Pope and started brushing at his hair to show them the remnants of paint.

"–That's dandruff. Disgusting." Kie cringed.

"Okay, thank you." Pope said.

"Look at all that. Alright? That's paint." JJ insisted. "At that point, I was just like...I'm waiting for death."

"Oh, okay, so you saw the guys that shot at us, right?" Pope asked.

"Yeah."

"Did you get a good description of them? What did they look like?"

"Yeah, anything helpful..."

"Anything we can bring to a police report?"

JJ paused for a while to think before replying, "Burly."

"Burly?" Pope asked.

"Yeah. You know, like–"

"–Thats not very helpful." Kiara cut in.

"Okay, well, no, like the type of guy at my dad's garage. I mean, you guys know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers."

"Yes. Yeah, no, we know."

"I can tell you with full confidence, guys. These boys...these killers..." JJ pauses, grabbing the JUUL from his pocket and taking a drag before exhaling. "They're square groupers."

"They're square groupers, like narco square grouper?" Pope asked. "Like Pablo Escobar square grouper?"

"Yeah, man." JJ nodded, exhaling more smoke.

"You guys, not everything is a kingpin movie." Kiara said.

Claire rested her elbows on her knees and rubbed her hands over her face in frustration.

This current conversation was making her growing headache worse.

"Okay so what does this square grouper look like specifically?" Pope asked.

"You weren't there, bro." JJ protested.

"You don't know what to look for!"

"Dude!" JJ exclaimed, but Claire cut both boys off before they could continue.

She stood up and yelled, "Can you guys please just stop fucking arguing?!"

The others stopped and stared at her in shock. Claire looked between JJ and Pope; Pope was glaring at her in the least offensive way possible, while JJ looked taken aback at the sudden outburst.

"You're both giving me a massive headache and frankly there's more important things for us to worry about right now than whether or not we got a good look at the damn square groupers." She continued, sitting back down and releasing a shaky breath.

"Claire, you good?" John B asked.

She glanced up at him, "Fine," then glanced at Pope and Kie, "you guys didn't hear the way Ms. Lana was screaming, okay? These square groupers, no matter what they look like, are bad news."

Out the corner of her eye, she saw John B examining his fathers compass, then watched as he slowly started pacing back and forth with his usual thinking face on.

"It's a heavy vibe right now, okay?" JJ said. "I'm not liking this very much."

"Okay, why would they want the compass?" Kiara asked.

"That thing's a piece of shit." Pope interjected. "You couldn't pawn it off for five bucks if you wanted to. No offence, John B, I know it's in your family–"

"–The office." John B said suddenly. The rest of them looked at him in confusion.

"What?"

"My dad. My dad's office." He repeated, making his way inside the Chateau, and the others followed.

"He always kept the office locked because he was worried about his competitors stealing his Royal Merchant research. We used to laugh at him about it all the time like he was actually gonna find it, but now that he's gone, I've just kinda...I just left it as he kept it."

He fumbled with the keys, as Kiara said, "Yeah, for when he gets back."

The others looked at her. Claire always admired Kiara's optimism and usually agreed with her, but JJ and Pope were a bit reserved to agree, so they simply nodded in response.

"Yeah." John B said, unlocking the door and walking inside. The others filed in slowly after him.

"I've slept over here like six hundred times, and I've never seen this door opened." Pope said.

Claire wandered around the room, looking at all the maps and charts, blueprints and other loose papers of Big John's research, while the others gathered around the big desk in the centre of the room.

"Here, look. This is the original owner, right here." John B said, laying a bulletin board on the desk. Claire stopped looking around and joined them, standing beside JJ.

"Okay, Robert Q. Routledge, 1880 to 1920. There's the lucky compass, right there." Kie said.

"Actually, um...he was shot after he bought it." John B informed them. "Then the compass was shipped back to Henry. Henry was killed in a crop-dusting accident when he had the compass. After he died, the compass was given to Stephen. Stephen had the compass with him when he died in Vietnam."

"Let me guess, he died in action, right?" JJ asked.

"Sort of. Uh, actually he was killed by a banana truck. In country." John replied. "Anyways, after that, Stephen passed the compass down to him, my dad."

"Sounds like there's a reoccurring theme here."

"Yeah, you're probably gonna be killed by the rooster outside." Claire said, attempting to lighten the mood.

Pope, JJ and Kiara looked at their friend blankly while John B didn't show any sign of hearing her. If he did, he ignored her.

"You have a death compass." Pope said, changing the subject.

"No, I do not."

"Seriously dude, get rid of it." JJ insisted. "It's cursed and it's made it's way back to you."

"Look, my dad used to talk about this compartment in here. Soldiers used to hide secret notes."John said, flicking the lid of the compass open.

"What's that?" Kie asked, pointing to the name scratched on the inside of the lid.

"That wasn't there before. This is my dad's handwriting." John B said.

"How can you know that?" Pope asked.

"Because he does these weird R's with the–See it?"

"Can I see it?" JJ asked, Claire having a look also. John B showed them,"Red...Rout...no I think that's an A..."

"It says Redfield." Claire interrupted.

JJ looked up at her and pursed his lips. "Right." He said.

"Okay, well, what's Redfield?" Kie asked.

"Besides the most common name in the county."

"Oh, maybe–maybe it's a clue. Alright? Maybe it's a clue to where he's hiding."

"A clue? Come on that's–" Pope started, but Kie gave him a warning look and he shut up. The rooster outside then started crowing loudly.

"But if it is a clue, maybe it's an anagram?"

"Yes. Perfect. Anagram. You need paper."

"How can you concentrate with that thing constantly crowing at you?" Pope asked, as the rooster's cawing grew even louder.

"JJ loves the rooster." John B replied.

"I love the rooster." Kie corrected.

"I think it overheard me say it was gonna kill John B for the compass." Claire said.

While Kie, JJ and Pope started figuring out if Redfield was actually an anagram, John B wandered over to the desk by the far window and started writing stuff down too. Claire figured they didn't need her help much so she continued looking around the office.

It reminded her in many ways of her dad's office, and even though he never had the same amount of stuff – just maps of the island where good places to go fishing were marked – Claire was still admired by Big John's work. But as she looked through the papers, she noticed a picture buried underneath. She picked it up and saw it was of Big John and her father. It didn't look like the picture was very old, so she turned it over to the back to see if there was a date, but strangely there was nothing.

"Guys..." John B said. Claire stopped examining the photo and looked at him. The others didn't hear him until he repeated himself. "Guys! Somebody's here."

They all wandered over to the far window, and there were indeed people here. In fact, it was the square groupers.

"Guys, guys, is that them?" Kie asked.

"How did they find out where you live?" Claire asked anxiously.

"John B, I told you man–"

"JJ, JJ!" John B pushed his best friend against the cabinet to calm him down, and asked, "where's the gun?"

"Gun? I-I, uh..."

"Now you don't have the gun the one time we need the gun?!" Kiara asked frantically.

"It was in my backpack, and then–"

"Your backpack. On the porch."

"It's on the porch."

"JJ!" Claire whisper-shouted as he ran out of the office.

"JOHN ROUTLEDGE!" One of the men shouted. Claire recognised his voice as the one who had been shouting at Ms Lana. "Come on out now!"

JJ tripped, scrambling to his feet and ran back into the office, closing the door quietly.

"Where's the gun?" John B whispered.

"They're on the front porch, guys." JJ replied, his tone panicked.

"Oh god..." Claire muttered, exhaling heavily and running a hand through her hair.

"Get out here!" The other man yelled, a bunch of smashing of John's things following.

"Routledge!"

More things smashed and clattered.

"Where you at, boy?"

"We gotta leave!" Kie whispered. "Guys, window. Window!"

More glass smashed, and while JJ and Pope tried to get the window open, Claire rushed over to the pile of papers she was looking at before, folded the photo and shoved it in her pocket. She knew she probably shouldn't take it, but figured that if they somehow made it out alive after this, she could ask her mother whether she knew anything about it or not.

"What's happening? Why's it taking so long?" Kie asked.

"It's painted shut, okay?" JJ snapped. He didn't mean to say it like that, but his fear of the situation was clouding his mind.

There was more smashing and yelling as both girls searched frantically for something to help the boys get the window open faster. Eventually, Kie found a sharp, collectable knife while Claire found a letter opener and both of them rushed over to the window.

"Guys, we got it, we got it." Kie said as they started working fast on chipping away at the paint.

"Come on..." JJ pressed.

"We're going as fast as we can." Claire said, narrowing her eyes at the blonde haired boy.

Suddenly the door to the office thumped loudly. "Oh you better not be in there!" The man yelled.

The girls succeeded in chipping away most of the paint but there was still a bit there, so JJ took the knife off of Kie and finished the job for them.

"Got it!" He whispered after a few moments.

Claire and Kie helped him push the window up as the man started to kick the door down, causing John B and Pope to step away from it. Kiara went out first, followed by Pope and John B, then JJ and Claire were last out. Just as JJ closed the window, a gunshot went off, startling the five of them.

Claire flinched, feeling tears sting her eyes. "Where do we hide?" She asked.

"Chicken coop!" Pope said.

The five friends crouched and ran quickly to hide in the coop, and waited in silence. Kiara quietly sobbed in the corner while the chickens clucked noisily. Claire knelt beside John B and watched as the two men came out of the Chateau carrying crates of stuff from Big John's office and putting them in the back of their truck. The two friends shared an anxious look.

"Do something to shut it up!" JJ whispered, referring to the rooster who was making far too much noise for them to be absolutely safe.

"What do you want me to do?" Pope asked.

"Pet it, or talk to it, I don't know." Kie cried.

Claire turned on her the balls of her feet and moved to the back of the coop to sit across from Kie, hugging her knees close to her body. John B moved from his position to sit beside Kiara as the rooster started flying around restlessly. They all watched as JJ grabbed it and broke its neck, Claire looking away instantly and started to cry. JJ let go of the rooster and sat beside her, resting his head against the wood with his eyes closed. He hated himself for doing that to the rooster, but cared more for his friends safety in that moment rather than the chickens'.

"Ratter! What the hell are you doin? Let's go."

The only sound other than tires scratching the dirt as the truck drove off, was Kiara's sobs as the group sat there, still in shock.

➸

"I mean, it's obvious, right? A family heirloom. What better place to hide a message? He had to know it was gonna get back to me right?"

The group had (only slightly) recovered from their hundredth near-death encounter and were now headed to Redfield Lighthouse; John B was convinced there were clues from his father there but none of the others were as convinced.

"Yeah. It's possible." Kiara agreed meekly.

"It could also be possible that you're concocting wild theories to help, you know, deal with your sad feels." Pope said.

"Bro, you know how I process my sad feels? Dank nugs and the stickiest of ickies, that's how I do it." JJ said.

"I'm not concocting, okay? My dads trying to give me a message."

"If it helps you believe, John B."

"Look, I-I don't need a therapy session, okay? I'm not trippin' out."

"It's okay to trip, bro, but–"

"Look, my–my dad is missing, okay? Missing." John B says. "You don't know what it's like to have the person closest to you vanish, and then have no idea what happened. Just wake up every morning, wondering."

Claire scoffed and looked at John B indignantly as he said this, feeling slightly pissed off that he could even say that when she was the only other person out of the group who did know what it felt like to lose someone. John however didn't seem to notice her reaction, but JJ did. He watched her silently glare daggers into the back of his best friends head.

"It's been almost a year." Kiara said quietly.

"He could've been kidnapped. That's definitely a possibility." JJ added, taking his eyes off the girl across from him.

"Yeah, could be in a Soviet sub getting interrogated by the KGB somewhere." Pope said.

"Absolutely. Uh...or Atlantis."

Claire tore her eyes away from the back of John B's head and looked at JJ, "Seriously? Atlantis?"

He turned to her, "What? It's a possibility."

She rolled her eyes and muttered, "yeah, maybe in a Disney movie."

"Look," Kiara started, cutting off Claire's bickering with JJ, "what do you think the message is?" She asked John B.

"Redfield." He replied. "Redfield Lighthouse. That's my dad's favourite place."

Claire looked out the window as they passed the dirty, rusty old Redfield Lighthouse sign, which had a 'CLOSED DUE TO HURRICANE' sign stuck on it. They arrived at the lighthouse and got out of the van, then gathered around to look at it from afar.

"Right, here's what's gonna happen. You are gonna post up and look for bogeys, okay?" John B instructed JJ.

"Wait, why?" JJ asked.

"Because you're not coming." Pope replied.

"Why?"

"Look, JJ, there are independent and dependant variables. You are an independent variable–"

"That's such bullshit!"

"We don't know what you'll do–"

"–Shut up!" JJ yelled.

"Listen to me for a second!" John B interrupted. "Just listen. Pope, you stand look out with JJ. Claire, you stay with and watch them–"

"Why do I always get put on babysitting duty?" Claire asked.

John B sighed. "You're not babysitting. Just keep an eye out with them? Okay? And if we get split up, we meet back at JJ's house."

"Great." Kie agreed.

"Whatever." Claire said, then walked back over to the van and opened the side door. She sat down and watched JJ pull the hacky-sack out of his pocket and start kicking it around with his foot.

"I'm gonna work on my merit scholarship essay," Pope said, sitting under a tree, "and I'm trying to keep felonies down to a minimum."

"Alright, will you just shut up already?" JJ asked frustratedly.

After about five minutes of watching JJ toss around the hacky-sack, Claire decided to get up and join him.

"You know, I heard hacky-sacks are more fun to play with with friends." She said.

JJ chuckled. "Is that so?"

"Mhm."

He kicked the sack to her and she kicked it upwards, switching between each foot a couple of times, and doing a few tricks like it was a soccer ball.

"Alright, this isn't the FIFA World Cup." JJ said. "Pass it over."

Claire smirked and kicked it back to JJ. They did this silently for a few more minutes before Claire spoke up again.

"Do you think he'll find anything?" She asked, throwing the hacky-sack.

"I don't know." JJ said, catching it.

"I'm all for being optimistic but he's gonna get us all killed."

He sighed. "It may not look like it, but JB knows what he's doing. I've known him my whole life so I know when he gets an idea in his head, he sticks to it."

She chuckled. "You and him have that in common then."

He stifled a laugh, then threw her the sack. "Yeah, I guess so."

Claire caught it and sighed. "I just hope we actually find something before my mother forces me on a plane with her back to Sydney."

JJ furrowed his eyebrows at the girl across from him. "What?"

Claire looked at him and swallowed the lump in her throat. She hadn't meant to say anything about moving, but it was already out before she could stop herself. This wasn't how she wanted to break the news, and she wasn't even totally sure of what was happening with the whole moving back to Australia thing, but she definitely couldn't avoid talking about it now.

But before Claire got a chance to explain, a siren in the distance caught their attention. Three blue and white Kildare County police cars appeared shortly after.

"Oh shit!" JJ exclaimed.

"That's not good." Claire said.

The three teenagers ran to the van; Claire pulled open the passenger door and hopped in, while JJ rushed around to the drivers side and Pope threw open the side door and jumped in, slamming it shut. She felt bad for leaving John B and Kiara there, but she couldn't afford to get arrested. They were already on bad terms and Claire knew if her mother found out about half the shit they'd done in the last few days, she'd be grounded for life.

JJ drove at a speed much faster for Claire or Pope's liking until they'd successfully ditched the lighthouse.

"Hey, can you drop me off at my place?" Claire asked. "I think I should probably get home before my mum freaks out more than usual."

"Sure." He nodded, giving her a small smile.

He was still curious about what she said earlier but made a mental note to ask her about it another time.

JJ pulled up outside her house a few minutes later and she hopped out of the van, closing the door behind her.

"You gonna be okay?" JJ asked.

Claire nodded. "Yeah, it's not like I haven't dealt with her being mad at me before." She said. "Come get me if you hear from John B and Kie, okay?"

He nodded. "Always."

She smiled and stepped back, waving as they drove off. Sighing, she made her way inside the house and saw her mum sitting at the table with her back facing her. Jackie turned around when the door closed and released a heavy sigh.

"Where have you been all day?" She asked, walking over to Claire with her arms folded crossly.

"With my friends."

"You should've told me where you were going before you decided to storm out of the house."

"I stormed out because I was angry. You already decided to pack up our lives and didn't even bother to ask me if I was alright with that." Claire defended. "I get that your life is back in Sydney, Mum, but my life is here. I don't want to move back to Australia and act like everything can go back to normal."

Jackie sighed, rubbing her face with her hands tiredly. "Look, just go to your room. We'll talk about this later."

Claire scoffed and walked to her room, closing the door behind her. She laid down and stared at the roof, thinking about everything she and her friends had been through in the last twenty-four hours. From finding the Grady-White, the cash and gun at the motel, to the kegger incident, Ms. Lana and the square groupers...all of it. So much had happened to them, and all because of a stupid compass.
She tried to rack her brain around what the hell Redfield could mean, in the instance that it wasn't anything to do with the lighthouse, but her efforts were useless seeing as she was still fairly new to the island.

Claire didn't know as much as she thought she did about this place, and she certainly didn't know her dad as well as she thought. She knew he was friends with Big John from a long time ago, and knew they reconnected when they moved to Kildare Island. Claire remembered how both she and John B were surprised that they still seemed close. However, she didn't know that they spent so much time together before Big John went missing and Mark died.

Claire sat up as she realised she still had the picture of Big John and Mark in her pocket, so she reached inside and pulled it out. She unfolded it and examined it a little bit more closely. Her eyes widened as she noticed something she hadn't before; only a small detail, but she couldn't believe how she'd missed it.

Not only was this picture recent, but her father was wearing Big John's compass around his neck.

"What the hell?" Claire muttered.

She stood up and dropped the photo on her bed. She paced her room back and forth, trying to think of scenarios in which her's and John B's father met to do the research and have the picture taken. Claire sat down on the end of her bed for a moment and closed her eyes as a nauseous feeling entered the pit of her stomach.

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