──────────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────────────

𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻: 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗱𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀

──────────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────────────

After finding out that the compass had been Big John's compass, Cassie had been dropped off by Kiara in the Twinkie back to her house on Figure Eight. That's when she realized she finally had Internet on her phone and she praised the Lord.

After almost getting killed, she needed some time to doom scroll to take her mind off of it.

She went inside her house as she scrolled on her Instagram feed before she looked up, seeing her mother and...Ward? They seemed to be conversing pretty close together in the kitchen before Ward noticed Cassie in the hallway, clearing his throat and taking a step back from Savannah.

"Cassandra," Ward greeted happily and Savannah looked over, noticing her daughter for the first name.

"Cassandra," Savannah said the same thing but in a surprised tone, her eyes slightly wide. "Ward and I were just discussing...Midsummers. Yes, Midsummers. It's gonna be a good one this year."

Ward nodded at that before he sent Cassie a little wave. "Haven't seen you in a while. How are ya, kid?"

Cassie slowly put her phone back in her pocket, not sure what she had just walked in on. But she didn't want to think too much of it since she knew her mother and Ward had been close ever since her father's death. He had been helping them after all.

"Oh, I'm good. Glad the Internet is back up," she replied to the man and he laughed, causing her mother to force out a laugh as well.

Ward then looked between the two women before he clapped his hands together. "Well, I should be going. It's getting late and Rose probably has dinner ready," Ward told them and Savannah turned back to him.

"Oh, yes, Rose. Tell her I said hi," Savannah said to the man with a hint of disdain in her voice, which made Cassie furrow her brows a bit. Her mother had been closer with Ward than with Rose, but she always assumed the two were friends. Maybe something had happened, which was why Ward was here.

Ward grinned. "I will." He then looked back over at Cassie. "It was nice seeing you, Cassie. Have you talked to Sarah at all recently?"

Cassie sucked in a breath at that. She wasn't sure if Sarah had told her father the full extent of their falling out like she hadn't really told her mother. "Oh, a little," Cassie said briefly.

Ward hummed before he walked past the kitchen island, heading to the front door. "How about Rafe? You know, I was thinking, he should take you to Midsummers."

"Ward," Savannah warned.

Ward waved the woman off, looking at Cassie expectantly. The blonde began to laugh awkwardly, not knowing what to say in response to that after what went down with her and the Cameron boy. "Um...I don't know. I'll see," was all she said.

Ward licked his lips, nodding slowly. "Well, if you make a decision, just let your mother know. I can have things arranged," he told her and she swallowed hard. "Anyway, I'll see you later. Bye, Sav...Savannah." And with that, he turned around and walked out the door.

"Bye, Ward," Savannah muttered after he was gone before turned to her daughter. "Hi, honey. How was your day?" She smiled.

"Uh...good. I'm really tired, though, so I'm just gonna go upstairs," she told her mother.

"Oh, okay. Sleep well," Savannah told her as she watched her daughter walk upstairs, narrowing her eyes ever so slightly.

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

"And then we were right outside like this," JJ demonstrated what happened to him and John B that morning, leaning his back up against the brick chimney on John B's porch. "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 him, like — Wait, first off, look at this shit. Look at it." JJ went over and started ruffling his hair to show the white specks that were falling off of it.

"The hell?" Pope recoiled.

"That's dandruff, disgusting," Kiara pointed out.

"Don't tell me you use three-in-one," Cassie voiced, her nose scrunching.

"What's wrong with three-in-one?" John B asked from behind her and she looked her shoulder, her braid whipping around as she arched a brow disgustedly at him.

"Okay, thank you," Pope pushed JJ away because he had enough.

"Look at all that! All right? That's paint," JJ told them, sending Pope a look.

"What's so important about the paint?" Cassie questioned him, not knowing why he kept mentioning it.

"Because at that point, I was just, like...I'm waiting for death," JJ panted as he stared off into the distance.

"Dramatic," Cassie mumbled and Kiara nudged her with her elbow.

"Okay, okay, okay, so you saw the guys that shot at us, right?" Pope asked and JJ confirmed it. "Um, did you-did you get a good description of them? What'd they look like?"

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

"Anything we can bring to, like, a police report maybe?" Pope queried.

"Yeah."

JJ stared out the screen window, shaking his head. "Burly," was what he came up with.

"Burly?" Pope repeated.

"Yeah. You know, like—"

"That's not very helpful," Kiara uttered.

"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," JJ reminded them.

"Yeah. Yes. No, we know."

"I didn't know that," Cassie spoke up, tilting her head at JJ.

He blinked at her. "Well, now you do," he replied mockingly and she rolled her eyes. "And I can tell you with full confidence, guys...These boys, these killers..." JJ leaned back against the wall pulled out his vape, blowing out smoke nervously, "...they're square groupers."

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

JJ blew out some more smoke, nodding, "Yeah, man."

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

"Okay, so what does this square grouper look like specifically—"

"You weren't there!"

"—because apparently you don't know what to look for!" Pope finished, his voice raising at JJ.

"Dude! I wasn't taking little mental Polaroids the entire time, man. I was under duress, okay?" JJ told him, his voice cracking. Cassie had never seen the boy look so stressed out before, so she had a feeling that this whole situation was going to turn out a lot worse for them. "But I can tell you...I can tell you by the way that Ms. Lana was screaming...that these guys are serious, serious hombres, man."

Cassie glanced over her shoulder at John B once she heard him click open the compass, looking down at it with a longing look. His eyes then traveled up to hers and she gave him a lopsided frown, trying to communicate that she knew how he felt. John B nodded slowly before he looked back down at the compass.

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

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

"That thing's a piece of shit. You couldn't pawn it off for five bucks if you wanted to," Pope shook his head.

"Pope," Cassie warned quietly, her eyes widening as she glanced at John B.

Pope looked at John B, realizing his mistake. "No offense, John B. I know it's, like, in your family—"

"The office," John B spoke up.

"What?"

"My dad. My dad's office," John B repeated as he began walking over to the door, putting the compass back in his pocket. "He always kept the office locked because he was worried about his competitors stealing his Royal Merchant research. We used to laugh at him all the time about like he actually was gonna find it. But now that he's gone, I've just kinda...I just left it as he kept it."

The Pogues all followed him to the door to his dad's office, watching as he pulled out the key to unlock it. "Yeah, for when he gets back," Kiara added as the others shared a glance with each other at her statement. Kiara widened her eyes at them, pursing her lips behind John B as he unlocked the door.

He then pushed the door open, revealing the cluttered office with hundreds of books and papers all over the place. "Wow, I've slept over like 600 times, and I've never seen this door open," Pope spoke and Kiara hummed as they all stepped inside.

John B grabbed a bulletin board with notes attached to it, placing it down on the table. "Here, look. This is the original owner, right here."

"Okay. Robert Q. Routledge, 1880 to 1920," Kiara read off the paper before she pointed at the picture of him. "There's the lucky compass, right there," she grinned.

"Actually, um...he was shot after he bought it," John B revealed, making Kiara's grin fall.

"Is that why those men shot at us when you nabbed the compass from the wreck?" Cassie realized, her mouth parting. "Oh my God, are we cursed?"

"No, no, blondie, there's no such thing as curses," JJ told her, using the nickname she gave him the other day to refer to her as dumb like she had. She crossed her arms with a glare before JJ's eyes darted to John B. "Wait, is there?"

John B sucked in a breath. "Well...the compass was then 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 supposed.

"S-Sort of. Uh, a-actually, he was killed by a banana truck. In-in country," John B told them and Cassie released a short sigh, shutting her eyes. "Anyways, after that, Stephen passed the compass down to him, my dad."

"Hm, okay, so maybe Cassie was right," JJ admitted. "Sounds like there's a reoccurring theme here."

Her eyes widened as she turned to face the boy. "Did you just admit I was right?" Cassie questioned in shock.

"Don't push it," JJ held a finger up to her face and she scoffed, pushing it away.

"Yeah, John B, you have a death compass," Pope told the boy, getting back on track.

"No, I do not have a death com—"

"You have a death compass," Pope repeated more forcefully.

"Seriously, dude. Get rid of it. It's cursed, and made its way back to you," JJ told the Routledge, using Cassie's word of 'cursed' by accident.

"See, that's exactly what I said," Cassie said, holding her hands up.

"Look, my dad used to talk about this compartment in here." John B ignored them as he sat down, beginning to unscrew the top in the compass. "Soldiers used to hide secret notes." Once he took it off, he shook the compass down until something fell off to reveal a word written on it.

"What's that?" Kiara pointed to it.

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

"How can you know that?" Pope shook his head, not believing it.

"Because he does these weird Rs with the — See it?" John B held the compass up to Pope, showing up.

"Can I see it?" JJ asked, so John B turned the compass to him. "Red — Rout — No, I think that's an A."

"It says Redfield," Kiara told him and Cassie snorted.

"Right," JJ said as he backed away.

"Okay, well, what's Redfield?" Kiara inquired.

"Besides the most common name in the county," Pope pointed out.

"Oh, maybe-maybe it's a clue. Maybe it's a clue to where he's hiding, you know?" John B came up with.

"A clue? Come on, that's..." Pope trailed off once Kiara shook her head at him as JJ cleared his throat. "But if it is a clue, maybe it's an anagram?"

"Yes. Perfect. Anagram. You need paper," John B said quickly as he got up and grabbed some paper and a pencil, placing them down on the table. "Here we go."

"Don't smoke inside, JJ," Cassie chastised as she watched him blow out smoke from his mouth.

"I'm sorry, this shit is stressing me out!" JJ told her, but he pocketed his vape anyway before he looked over Pope's shoulder, who began to write on the paper.

A rooster then crowed in the coop next to the house. "How can you concentrate with that thing constantly crowing at you?" Pope questioned the Routledge boy.

"JJ loves the rooster," John B told him.

"I love the rooster," Kiara added. Cassie, Pope, JJ, and Kiara then started off listing words that could possibly be inside the anagram, trying to come up with anything that could work.

"Defile? Does that mean anything to anyone?" Pope asked no in particular.

"I would like to defile JJ's face," Cassie deadpanned.

"Whoa, did I just get sexually harassed?" JJ questioned, taking a step back from her dramatically.

"Ew, no, what?" Cassie said in confusion, also backing away from him.

"JJ, what the hell do you think defile means?" Kiara asked him, crossing her arms.

"I don't know. Like-like make out in like a-a dirty way or something," he guessed, shaking his head.

"Bro, there's literally no way you just said that," Pope voiced, on the verge of laughing.

"Guys," John B said, but everyone ignored him as they all stared at JJ in disbelief.

"And why the hell would you even think that if I was the one saying it you?" Cassie pointed out as Kiara let out a snort and Pope covered his laughter with the back of his hand.

"I don't know, okay?! I'm not good at words!" He exclaimed as he took out his vape again, placing it in between his lips for comfort.

"Clearly!" Cassie replied back, sharing a look with Kiara as she just shook her head with wide eyes, not believing how he could be so stupid.

"Guys! Somebody's here!" John B told them urgently, making them all look towards the window to see two burly looking guys walk out of their car. Just like JJ had described before.

"Guys, guys, is that them?" Kiara questioned worriedly.

"No," JJ whispered, not wanting to believe it.

"Is that them?" Kiara asked again, her voice growing higher.

"This is suboptimal," Pope muttered under his breath.

"Okay, so we're dead. Okay, great," Cassie immediately assumed, grabbing onto her braided ponytail for comfort.

"John B, I told you, man. Why does it always—"

"JJ! Hey, look at me," John B whisper-shouted as he pushed JJ against the wall, placing a finger up to the blonde's lips to shut him up. "Where's the gun?" He asked.

"Gun? I, uh, I can't—"

"Now you don't have the gun, the one time we need the gun?" Kiara spoke as her voice cracked, fear etched on her face as she brought her hands up to her face. Cassie's face blanched, continuing to grasp her braid.

"It was in my backpack—"

"Backpack—"

"And then I—"

"On the porch," John B realized for JJ.

"It's on the porch," JJ repeated in a whisper. The blonde Pogue quickly pushed off against the wall and made his way outside to room to go get his backpack with the gun.

"Fuck," Cassie whispered under her breath, remembering how these men had almost shot her before JJ pulled her out of the way.

"JOHN ROUTLEDGE!" One of the men bellowed from outside, causing JJ to fall to the floor as he ran back inside the room.

"Guys," Kiara cried quietly as JJ carefully shut the door behind him so it didn't make a noise. Cassie reached for Kiara's hand and held onto it, squeezing it tightly in fear.

"Come on out now!"

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

"They're on the front porch, guys," JJ told them quietly.

"So no gun?" Cassie asked him and he quickly shook his head, making her curse again.

"Routledge!" The man yelled as he knocked over items outside the room, searching for him. "Where you at, boy?!"

"We gotta leave!" Kiara whispered-shouted, releasing Cassie's hand to go over to the window. "Guys, window. Window," she directed and they all rushed over to the window. Pope and JJ tried to get it open, but it wouldn't even budge. "What's-what's happening? Why is it taking so long?" Kiara questioned.

"It's painted shut, okay?" JJ told her, trying once again to get it open with Pope. Cassie cursed under her breath as she looked around frantically, seeing that John B had just been leaning against the door with the hands behind his head.

Kiara quickly went over to one of the drawers as the men continued to ransack the place. She then pulled out one of those card openers. "Okay, guys. Guys. Here, I got it," she said as she went over to the window, and started to try to cut the paint away so that they could open the window.

"Come on, come on, come on," JJ urged.

"I'm going as fast as I can," Kiara replied quietly as she continued to try to break away the paint.

"Don't rush her!" Cassie scolded him before John B and Pope shushed her as they leaned against the door, hearing the man walk closer to the room.

The man then tried to open the door, but it was locked. "You better not be in there!" He yelled. The man twisted the doorknob aggressively before he gave up, kicking the door instead. Pope and John B rushed away from the door and went towards the window where Kiara almost had it open.

"There," Kiara quickly said as she moved out of the way so that JJ could pull it open. One of the wooden pieces fell down from the door just as JJ pulled the window open. Kiara went through it first followed by Cassie. The boys then followed just as a gun shot was heard in the house, making Cassie gasp quietly.

"Where do we go?" Cassie asked eagerly once she landed on the grass, looking around. John B pointed to the chicken coop, thinking that hiding would be better than to run since they would most definitely see them.

They all ran over to it, opening the door and climbing inside to hide from the two men. They waited in there as John B kept an eye on the house, waiting to see when they would leave.

Cassie had found Kiara's hand again, holding onto it tightly as she tried to sooth both Kiara and herself. Her other hand was still on her braid, her thumb rubbing circles around the curves of her hair which helped calmed her down.

"They're coming out," John B whispered after what felt like an eternity, watching as they carried out boxes from his father's office.

The rooster then crowed. "Do something, Pope. Shut him up," JJ told him through clenched teeth.

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

"Pet it, or something, or talk to it. I don't know," Kiara told him as she continued to cry. Cassie gripped her best friend's hand even tighter, swallowing hard.

The rooster continued to crow, making one of the guys look over at the coop. John B quickly moved away from the opening, pressing his back against the wall.

The rooster began jumping around the coop, continuing to cluck loudly. "You do something!" Pope whisper-shouted to JJ.

JJ got up on his knees and went over to the rooster, grabbing it and placing it on the ground. It still continued to crow, so JJ grabbed it harder, accidentally snapping its neck.

Kiara let out a quiet sob before she placed her head in the crook of Cassie's neck, who had been trying not to cry for Kiara's sake. She then watched as John B took Kiara's other hand gently, meeting eyes with the Routledge boy as she nodded in thanks to him.

"Ratter! What the hell are you doin'? Let's go!" One of the men called out before he started the car and began to drive away from the house.

Kiara finally let out her sobs since the guys were gone and Cassie wrapped her arms around the girl, rubbing circles on her back since John B had let go of her hand to watch the men drive off.

authors note!
tysm for 1k on this book already
guys, that's crazy!!! i hope yall
r enjoying it so far bc im having a lot
of fun writing it hehe also as i
rewatch s1, why r kie and john b
lowkey kinda cute together in the
beginning...i dont ship them at all bc
jarah on top but like they did lowk
have chemistry before kie rejected him
LMAO