EDEN'S eyes trailed over the houses they were passing.

After a rather rude awakening from JJ, Eden found herself in the back of the Twinkie with John B. and the blonde boy, on her way to visit Lana Grubbs—aka, Scooters wife.   Eden wasn't actually too sure about the idea, actually. Scooter had just died, and Ms. Lana was in the midst of grieving, not the best time to ask about a compass that was found on the boat he died on.

But, Eden had nothing better to do today, so she decided to tag along, just to keep John B. and JJ from getting into any trouble, as they usually did. 

"I'm just saying, like, I don't understand why you don't at least try with Kiara.  She clearly likes you." JJ's voice rang through the Twinkie, "She's like, 'Oh John B.'"  He moaned, and Eden gave her usual eye roll.

John B. looked at him with amusement, "Is that she does?"

"She's sketching about you diving, and then she kissed you, bro."

"She kissed me on the cheek." John B. corrected the blonde boy, "It's not like we were makin' out or something."

Eden put her arms around the two seats, leaning in so her head was right in between the two boys. "A kiss is a kiss, John B.  No matter how small."

John B. narrowed his eyes, "Are you sure you didn't just quote a Dr. Seuss book?"

"Why would Dr. Seuss write about people making out?—"

"Low-hanging fruit, bro." JJ continued on with the main focus of the conversation, cutting off Eden. "Don't pretend that you don't notice.  I see it in your eyes.  You're like, 'I kinda like that'  and you start blushing and shit..."

John B. deadpanned, "I blush?"

"Well no shit you blush." Eden replied, "You like the attention she's giving you."

John B. was about to reply, but got cut off when JJ's hand shot up to the dashboard and grabbed the compass.  The brunette boy immediately tried to grab it back, but hesitantly allowed the blonde to look when he stated, "I was just looking at it."

"I gotta admit, your fathers compass in Scooter's boat, that's freaky."

"Yeah. That's why we're going to talk to Ms. Lana, figure this whole thing out." John B. replied, eyes darting between the blonde and the road.

"Because we're probably the first people that Ms. Lana wants to talk to after Scooter's death...." Eden trailed off, sighing as she leaned back against her seat.  She hoped that this conversation didn't end up terribly.

Pulling up to the house and beginning to walk up to it, both boys were quick to comment on the house's paint job.  John B. was first, "Know what this house looks like?"

JJ looked back at John B. "Whoever lives here smokes too much weed."

Eden walked ahead of the two boys, scoffing at their comments. "You don't get to talk, JJ.  Last time I checked—" She went silent as her ears caught hold of the sound of smashing glass and loud crashes. 

"Bullshit!"

"Maybe we should come back.  It's a little too soon—" JJ hesitantly stopped walking, worried that it wasn't the best time to walk in on Ms. Lana.

"J, shut up!" Eden hissed, getting closer to the house. "I don't think that's Ms. Lana making those sounds."

"Tell me where it is or I'll fuck you up!"

A louder crash sounded, causing all three teens to flinch back. "I'll sink you in the fucking—"

"You're hurting me!"

"I—"  the blonde boy was still hesitant, especially as the crashing got louder.

Despite the sounds echoing from the house, John B. was persistent in talking to Ms. Lana, so he continued forward. "Shut up. Come on."  Eden didn't hesitate, and followed after John B., pressing herself right under the window, in between the two boys.

"Where the fuck is it, you bitch!"  

"I don't know!"

Eden bit her lip, keeping body right against the wall as yells continued to echo from the house.  "The compass wasn't in the boat!"   Her eyebrows furrowed at the mention of a compass, and she whispered the word to herself. "Compass?"

Another crash came—this time it seemed much closer to where the three teens were—and Eden felt particles get sprinkled on top of her head.  Brushing said particles off her head, she slightly looked up to see that it was paint.

"Is that paint?" JJ whispered, brushing some of it off of his head.

"Yes, it's paint."

"Let's get the hell outta here, man."

At those words, John B. began walking towards the front of the house.  JJ, who was still quite unsure what the three of them were still doing at the house, began to whisper. "We should just go. He's got smuggler—"

"Shut up!"

"—smuggler written all over him."

Having gotten a glimpse of the attackers, John B. quickly pressed himself back against the house before slowly moving closer and closer to the front door.  Eden placed her hands on his shoulders, and peered over them, trying to get a good look at who had been hurting Miss Lana.

It was their white boat that stood out to her the most.  Eden's eyes slightly widened, "I'm telling you those are the exact same dudes who shot at us yesterday."  JJ nodded in agreement, and the three of them stood still, breathing as quiet as possible as the boat pulled away from the house.

Once it had disappeared, Eden ran into the house, both boys following after her.  Eden bit her lip when her eyes were met at the condition that Lana's house had been left in.  Chairs were up-turned, tables were flipped,  picture frames and vases were shattered on the ground, and drawers had been completely searched through—items were tossed all over the ground.  Totally ransacked.

Those two men were definetley looking for something important.  Something that Eden was very sure lied in the pocket of John B.'s shorts.

"Ms. Lana?" Eden called out, before finally spotting her.  She frowned when she noticed the appearance of the woman; curled into a ball, trembling as tears ran down her face.  How could anyone do this to a grieving woman? 

"She's tweaking, bro. Come on—"

John B. ignored his friend and knelt on the ground, placing a hand on the woman's shoulder.  She quickly flinched, looking at them with fear in her eyes, but quickly felt relief when she realized it was just the three teens. "Do you need a doctor?" When the woman only let out a sob, he lightly hit Eden on her leg, "Eden, call the sheriff's department—"

Lana's eyes widened at his words and she quickly looked at Eden, shaking her head quickly, "No, no, no, no cops, please!"

"Mm. That's not good. Come on, let's just go."

"We can't just leave her, J."  Eden looked at her friend before giving a sympathetic one towards the older woman.  She clearly wasn't stable, and needed some sort of comfort after what had just happened. "She obviously isn't okay."

"You shouldn't be here!" Lana exclaimed through a sob, eyes darting from John B., to Eden, to JJ.

"That's enough for me. Come on." JJ tugged on Eden's arm, but she shook him off.

John B. shook JJ off aswell, questions about the compass still on his mind as he asked, "What do you know about these guys?"

Lana quivered, "They were looking for something."

John B. quickly grabbed the compass from his pocket, holding it out for the woman to see. "Does it have anything to do with this?" By the way Lana's face quickly fell, Eden could tell she definitely knew what it was. "Do you know anything about this? This is my fathers, and Scooter had it.  Why?"

"Scooter didn't have it, okay?" Lana was growing more upset, and her voice quickly rose. "Don't tell anyone that you have that!"

"Why? Why?"

"They can't know that you have that!" Lana continued, practically yelling at this point. " You gotta get out of here! You gotta go!"

John B. pressed on, the urge to know growing more and more, "What do you know about the compass?"

"Go! Get out!"

Eden quickly placed a hand on John B.'s shoulder, "Stop pressing her.  She's clearly not going to say anything, now lets go!"

"And we were right outside like this—"

Eden now found herself back at the chateau, sitting on the couch as JJ retold the morning's crazy events. Of course he was being rather dramatic with it, but Eden didn't really feel like correcting him on the details.  

"—and all we hear is just, 'Bam! Bam! Bam!' Knocking paint off the wall, G!  From the inside.  All right? And I'm just looking at them, like—Wait! First off, look at this shit."  the blonde went up to Pope, running his hands through his hair so the little particles of paint flew off.

"That's dandruff." Kiara grimaced, her face scrunching up. "Disgusting."

"Okay. Thank you." Pope shoved the blonde boy away, not wanting anymore of the particles to fly into his own hair. 

"Look at that. All right? That's paint." JJ paused a moment before continuing on with his story, "At that point, I was just, like.....I'm waiting for death."  Eden rolled her eyes at how dramatic he'd made the story.

"Oh, okay, so you saw the guys that shot at us, right?" Pope asked, "Did you get a good description of them? What did they look like?"

"Yeah, anything.  Anything's helpful." Kiara added.

Pope finished, "Anything we could bring to like, a police report, maybe?"

JJ hesitated a moment before simply saying, "Burly."

Pope deadpanned, "Burly?"

"That's not very helpful." Kiara muttered.

JJ started pacing around the chateau, trying to give a better example of what the two men looked like to his friends. "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."  He continued on, "Then I can tell you with full confidence, guys.  These boys, these killers—" He pulled out his vape, taking a small drag before finishing. "—they're square groupers."

"They're square groupers, like narco square grouper? Like Pablo Escobar square grouper?" Pope tried to get more information.

"Yeah, man."

Kiara didn't seem to find any of the conversation helpful, "You guys, not everything is a kingpin movie."

"Okay, then what does a square grouper look like, specifically?" Pope asked.

"You weren't there, bro!"

Pope snapped right back, "Because apparently, you don't know what to look for!"

"I wasn't taking little mental Polaroids the entire time, man.  I was under duress, okay?" JJ exclaimed, his voice exasperated.  Pope and Kie fell silent, and he continued on. "But I can tell you—I can tell you by the way Ms. Lana was screaming, these guys are serious, serious hombres, man."

"It's a heavy vibe right now, okay? I am not liking this very much." the blonde calmed down.

Kiara popped back up, changing up the conversation. "Okay, why would they want the compass?"

"That thing's a piece of shit." Pope added on to Kie's point, "You couldn't pawn it off for five bucks if you wanted too."  Realizing how he sounded, he turned back to John B. "No offense. I know it's in your family—"

John B.'s eyes slightly lit up, "The office."

"What?"

"My dad." John B. replied, "My dad's office—"

Eden perked up, standing up from the couch she'd been sharing with Pope as she understood where John B. was going with this. "Your dad always had it closed, locked at that.  His number one rule was don't unlock the door."

"Yeah. He always kept the office locked because he was worried about his competitors stealing his Royal Merchant research." John B. pointed at Eden, nodding as he walked inside towards the office. "I mean, we used to laugh at him all the time about it 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."

"Yeah, for when he gets back." Kiara nodded, trying to lift the sorrowed mood that had just fallen over the brunette boy as he unlocked his father's office.  The door clicked open, and all five teens filed in after him.

"I live at this place more than my own house and never have I ever seen this door opened." Eden breathed, eyes trailing all over the walls.  There were piles of paper and maps stacked and tossed around everywhere—John B. clearly took after his dad when it came to organizing—but somehow, she was still rather amazed by the sight of it.

As the Pogues looked around the office as if it were a museum, John B. picked up a large board and placed it on the messy table. "Here, look. This is the original owner, right here."  He pointed at the first image on the board, and Eden read the name.

"Okay. Robert Q. Routledge." Kie read out  loud, 1880 to 1920."  She then pointed to a spot on the picture, "There's the lucky compass, right there."

"Actually um...." John B. trailed off, "He was shot, after he bought it." Watching as the group all gave him the same exact look, he kept on going. "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, trying to be sarcastic with it.

"Sort of..." John B. hesitated a moment, "Uh, actually he was killed by a banana truck.  In—In country." He continued on, "Anyway, after that, Stephen passed the compass down to him, my dad."

"Maybe this is just me, but this whole compass thing seems to have a reoccurring theme." Eden spoke up, looking at the brunette boy. "Whoever gets the compass ends up dying in some unexpected way."

"Yeah, you have a death compass." Pope confirmed.

"I do not—"

"Seriously, dude, get rid of it." JJ nodded.

Eden crossed her arms, "Deny it all you want, JB, but that thing is definitely cursed, and now it's in your hands. Yours next, bubs."

"Look, my dad used to talk about this compartment in here. Soldiers used to hide secret notes." John B. ignored his friends comments and began twisting open the back of the compass, hoping to find something helpful.  Though there no hidden note, there was a message written on the inside of the cap.

Redfield.

"That wasn't there before." John B. spoke, finally noticing the written word.  He looked around at the four of his friends, "This is my dad's handwriting."

"How can you know that?" Pope asked, unsure.

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

"Can I see it?" JJ asked, getting handed the compass cap soon afterward.  He looked at it for a minute before struggling to pronounce what was written, "Red—Rout....No I think that's an A—"

"Redfield."  Eden looked over JJ's arm, reading the quickly written letters.  She patted JJ on the shoulder, "It says Redfield, J."

"Right...."

Kiara kept the conversation going, "Okay, well, what's Redfield?"

"Besides the most common name in the county." Pope added dryly.

John B., shrugged. "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 didn't want John B. to get the idea that his dad was possibly still alive, but he stopped as he got a sharp stare from Kie, and popped right back up with a different answer. "But if it is a clue, maybe it's an anagram."

John B. jumped up, his voice rushed and quick at the possibility of a clue. "Yes. Perfect. Anagram. You need paper.  Here you go." 

"How can you concentrate with that thing constantly crowing at you?" Pope gave a side eye toward the window of the office, writing down the letters in Redfield.  Of course, he was speaking on John B.'s rooster, which had been crowing the entire time they'd been here. 

"JJ loves the rooster." John B. shrugged.

"Who doesn't love the rooster?" Eden exclaimed.  At first, Eden could admit that the rooster was the death of her, but, after spending almost her entire life here at the chateau, the rooster had just become a part of what made the house feel like a home.  It was the sound she could always count on when she came over.

Eden stood around Pope with Kie and JJ, arms crossed as the four of them bounced ideas off of one another, trying to figure out what Redfield could be standing for.   It didn't last all that long though, as John B. was soon calling for them.

"Guys! Somebody's here."

All three of them fell silent and walked up to where John B. was standing, peering outside the window at the black truck that had appeared—and the two men that were getting out of it.

Kie was the first to speak up, sounding rather fearful. "Guys, guys, is that them?"

"Them as in the square groupers?" Eden swallowed, looking at the brunette girl with the same fearful look.  She gave a small nod towards her friend, "Yep...."

"This is suboptimal."

JJ walked across the room, "John B., I told you man—"

John B. walked after the blonde boy, pushing him up against the wall, "JJ! Hey, look at me.  Where's the gun?"

JJ shut his eyes, trying to recall where he'd last placed the item, "Gun? I, uh, I can't—"

"Now you don't have the gun, the one time we need the gun?" Kiara sounded on the verge of tears as she spoke, and she backed up, hands trailing down her face.  

"Oh my god we're gonna die." Eden had backed herself into the corner, hands shaking as she clumped them in her air.  Now was definitely not the time for an attack like this, but it wasn't like she could really help it.   She tried her best to keep her breathing steady, but it was getting harder to concentrate as the urge to throw up got larger.

"Backpack!"

"It was in my backpack and then I—"

"On the porch." John B. concluded.

"It's on the porch." JJ repeated, before filing back out the door towards the porch.  But within seconds he was right back inside the room, the loud yells of one of the men causing him to fearfully return.

"John Routledge!"

"They're on the front porch, guys." JJ whispered.

Eden dry heaved, lurching forward. "I think I'm gonna throw up." 

Despite the fear that was present in her body, Kiara took matters into her own hands, becoming the leader for a minute.  "You two, window. Window."   She pointed at JJ and Pope who didn't hesitate running to the window, beginning to make an attempt at opening it.   Kie then looked at John B. and pointed at the girl in the corner, "You, Eden."

John B. was at Eden's side at once, his body covering the struggle that JJ and Pope were currently facing at the window.  She had shaky hands against her temples, and she was looking down at her feet, trying to slow her breathing down.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey." John B. put his hands over hers, trying to show that he was right here in front of her.  "Look at me, don't pay attention to any of that, alright?"  Doing as she was asked, Eden looked at her friend with scared, doe eyes.  At that moment, Eden was raw—she was just a scared, sixteen year old girl.  "We're gonna be okay, they can't hurt us."

"They have guns, John B." Eden sounded just like Lana had a few hours prior,  "They had one pointed at my head yesterday from afar and now they're in the house, there's nothing stopping them—"

"Don't even think about them right now." John B. cut her off, speaking over the three Pogues who were currently trying to open the painted shut window. "Just focus on me, alright? I want you to take a few deep breaths with me, okay?" Eden nodded and breathed in sync with him, allowing herself an attempt at calming down.

Once he managed to get her breathing steady again, he grabbed her hands. "We're gonna go stand by the door now, alright?" She nodded again and followed him to the door, pressing her back to it with him.  He wrapped his arms around her, trying to show her the least amount of comfort.

Pope was at John B.'s other side after a minute, helping to keep the door closed.  Eden stayed at John B.'s side, trying to keep her heart rate lowered.   The fact that one of the men were currently kicking at the door definitely didn't help.

"You better not be in there!"

Realizing there was no point in trying to hold the door shut, the three Pogues ran over to the window where JJ was just about done cutting through the paint.   The minute he'd broken the paint seal, all five of them crowded out the window, rushing towards the only available hiding spot; the chicken coop.

Eden wasn't even sure how long she'd been in there, but it felt like hours as they awaited the men to leave the house.  She sat right next to Kie, hugging her knees to her chest and holding on to Kiara's hand—she was also silently crying, so she definitely needed the comfort too.

Though it kept them hidden, the chicken coop was not the best place to hide.  All the chickens kept clucking obnoxiously, and for once, Eden was actually starting to get pissed with the roosters crows. 

"Can someone please shut that rooster up?" she breathed, leaning her head against the wood paneling as she wiped her face. 

JJ gestured towards Pope, "Do something, Pope.  Shut him up!"

"What do you want me to do?!"

Kiara leaned forward, her voice on the verge of breaking. "Pet it, or something, or talk to it.  I don't know!"  Pope did as he was told, but the rooster just kept on flapping its wings and  crowing louder.

After he failed, Pope looked back at JJ, "You do something."

The blonde blew up and crawled over to where the rooster was, wrapping his hands around its neck and squeezing.   Eden clamped a hand over her mouth to stop herself from letting out a small sob as she rooster went limp in JJ's arms.

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

As the truck pulled out from the driveway,  Eden let out the sob that she'd been holding in.  They'd merely escaped this time, but she was sure that whenever the men came back—because they definitely would for the compass—the Pogues wouldn't be so lucky.

mara's misc!

i actually don't like this chapter.  eden doesn't really talk a lot and she has like no role.  she does virtually nothing and i didn't like it. 

anyway, guess who wrote this in a day? 

sorry if it's a little rushed and a little sucky, but the beginning of episode two is just filled with action.  this chapter is also rather short compared to the others, but whatever.

anyway, john b. and eden will always be my favorite bond, istg.  there's nothing anyone can do to change that, they will always be in my heart.

hope you enjoyed! <333