Tʜᴇ Lᴜᴄᴋʏ Cᴏᴍᴘᴀss (2)
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After everything calmed down, John B had convinced the teens to come along with him. He thought he had a clue as to what his dad was trying to tell him. So, they all sat in the twinkie, John B's van, as he took them on the road.
"A family heirloom. What better place to hide a message?" John B says, "He had to know it was gonna get back to me, right?"
"Yeah. It's possible." Kie says from the passengers seat
"It could also be possible that you're concocting wild theories to help, you know, deal with your sad feels." Pope says
"Pope?"
"Bro, you know how I process my sad feels?" JJ says from behind John B, "Dank nugs and the stickiest of ickies, that's how I do it."
"I'm not concocting, okay? My dad's trying to give me a message."
"If it helps you believe, John B." Estrella sighs from beside Pope
"Look, I-I don't need a therapy session, okay? I'm not trippin' out."
"It's okay to trip, bro, but-" JJ is cut off
"Look, my... my dad is missing, okay? Missing. 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."
Estrella looks up as Kie looks back at her. JJ looks toward Pope.
"It's been almost a year." Kie says as John B turns to her before turning back to the road
"Hey, he could have been kidnapped. That's definitely a possibility." JJ tries
"Yeah, could be in a Soviet sub getting interrogated by the KGB somewhere."
"Absolutely. Uh... or Atlantis."
"JJ. Look, what do you think the message is?" Kie asks
"Redfield. Redfield Lighthouse. That's my dad's favorite place." John B says
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The doors open as they all pile out of the van. Looking out toward the lighthouse.
"Here's what's gonna happen. You're gonna post up and look out for bogeys, okay?" John B says
"Wait... Why me?" JJ says
"Because you're not coming." Pope says
"Why?"
"Look, JJ. There are independent and dependent variables. You're independent. We don't know what you'll do.
"Shut up, Pope. Just shut up!"
"Oh my god." Estrella exclaims as they quiet down
"Listen to me for a second." John B says, "Pope, you stand look out with JJ. Okay? Estrella make sure they don't kill each other. If we get split up, we meet back at JJ's house."
"Great." Kie says before she and John B walk off toward the light house. Estrella sighs as she walks to the van and sits in the back with her feet hanging out.
"I'm gonna work on my merit scholarship essay. I'm trying to keep felonies to a minimum." Pope says
"All right, would you just shut up already?" JJ says playing with a pine cone
Estrella takes her hair tie and pulls her hair up into a ponytail. Pope walks over and leans on the door next to her.
"You okay?"
"Yeah." She sighs
"You sure? You're quiet."
Estrella's eyes stay on JJ who uses his foot to bounce a pine cone up into the air.
"If someone were keeping something from me, and you found out about it," She says looking up at him. He raises his brows, "Would you tell me?"
"Yeah, of course." He says, "Why? Did something happen?"
"I don't know. Kie was saying something earlier, but I couldn't figure out what she meant."
"Oh." He shrugs, "Well, I don't know anything, but if I did, I would tell you. Especially if it was about you."
Estrella smiles as she nods. Pope smiles back before sitting next to her to work on his essay.
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It had been about 15 minutes since John B and Kie had left. Estrella was now laid back on the floor of the van. JJ and Pope were tossing a pine cone back and forth. They stop as they hear sirens. Estrella sitting up as she looks at them.
"Oh, shit." Pope says as he and JJ immediately run toward the van. Estrella closes the back door as JJ gets in the drivers seat and Pope in the passenger immediately taking off without a second thought.
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John B and Kie got caught by the cops. Kie telling Estrella as soon as her dad brought her home. She invited her to hang around for her shift at her family's restaurant which Estrella agreed to. She was hoping to figure out what Kie meant by what she said earlier.
Ultimately, she kind of figured out that Kie was either pretending she forgot about the conversation or just brushing her off to avoid the whole thing.
Estrella sat at the table as Kie moved around the restaurant taking orders. The door rings as someone walks in.
"Estrella." Pope says
"Hey, Pope." She smiles
"John B has another idea. You wanna come?"
She sighs, "I have nothing better to do."
Pope smiles before turning to look around for Kie. He walks over to tell her about John B. Estrella stands up as she takes her last sips of her drink. Pope sighing as he walks back over.
"No?"
"Nope." He sighs. He opens the door to let her out first, "She says she's not comin'."
"Why not?" JJ says as they come down the steps, "What'd you do to her, John B?"
"Shit." John B says as he gets out of the van, "Hang on. I'll deal with it."
He rushes into the restaurant as Pope opens the door and gets in. As Estrella passes the passenger side, JJ reaches out and grabs her arm. She steps back as she raises in brows in question.
"Hey."
"Hi." She says. He rests his arms on the window.
"What's going on? We haven't talked all day."
"Nothing's going on. We've been running around all day." She chuckles
"You sure?"
"Yeah." She says quietly
"You sure you're not mad at me?"
"If I were mad at you, you'd know." She says before she gets in the back. He smiles to himself as he sits back against the seat.
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It was dark out now as all 5 teens were on the road again. John B had somehow convinced Kiara to come with them. Estrella had no idea where they were going, but there was no turning back now.
"You mind if I just relax on this one? It's been a long day, and a lot of weird stuff's gone down." JJ says from the back seat. Pope and Estrella sat in the seat in front of him, "I'm just gonna lay low. Oh, did you want a hit of this?"
"I keep the signal clear." Pope says
"Dude, okay. Do you understand that your problem is that you don't get creative? If you got creative, then-"
"Look, I- I know I was wrong about the lighthouse, all right? And pretty much wrong about everything else going on." John B says. Estrella raising her brows at his understatement, "But I... I was right about one thing. Okay? My dad is trying to tell me something."
A couple of minutes later, the teens were now walking through a graveyard. Estrella was really wishing she would've turned back now.
"Come on, hey. Hey, come on."
"I'm coming. This place is scary." Kie says, "John B, what are we doing?"
"Shut up. You know how you're trying to remember a song and can't remember who sings it?"
"Yeah."
"So, Redfield. This whole time, I thought it was a place, right? But it's not a place." He says as they stop in front of a huge head stone, "It's a person."
"Voi-effing-là." JJ says as they look up Estrella shining her flash light as she looked all around the head stone
"See, my great-great-grandmother Olivia Redfield. That was her maiden name. Help me with the door. Come on."
"All right." Pope says
"One, two, three..."
The boys grunting as they struggle to move the door even an inch.
"Are you pushing?" Pope says
"Yeah, I'm pushing."
"Come on."
"Hold on. I got it." JJ says as he helps them push
"This door is like 700 pounds. It's not gonna budge." Pope groans
"We didn't come this far to get this far, all right? We got this."
They all jump back as a snake comes out.
"Oh fuck." Estrella exclaims as she and Kie step back
"Whoa!"
"A snake!" JJ exclaims
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"
"That's a moccasin, all right. Ye olde Dr. Cottonmouth. Death in tall grass." JJ starts barking as the snake moves around on the ground.
"JJ, shut up." Kie says
"JJ!" Estrella yells
"What?"
"Shut up!" She and Pope say
"You're gonna wake the dead, man." Pope says
"They're afraid of dogs. Everyone knows that, man." He stops as John B approaches the door again, "Wait, hold on."
"What?"
"If there's one, there's probably dozens."
"What?"
"All around."
"Stop. You're scaring me." Kie says as JJ starts barking again
"Stop barking at the snakes." John B says
"Look, John-"
"Just making sure it's clear."
"Shut up." Pope says to JJ, "John, look."
"It's a snake." JJ mutters as Estrella shines the light at the ground to take careful steps
"We're not gonna get in there, all right? It's not budging. We should probably just go."
"I'll go." Estrella sighs
"What?" John B looks to her, "No, no, no, no. You think you're gonna fit through the hole? That hole?"
"Look, this is about your dad, okay? I'd rather be literally anywhere else right now, but you deserve to know the truth. If it were me, I'd wanna know. I'll do it." She shrugs as she shines her light at the hole.
"You sure?" Kie says
"I'm the smallest. No one else is going to." She says before walking up to the head stone, "Come on."
"I'll get those." John B says as he and Pope move the vines
"Come on."
"I got it." JJ says helping them. Pope and John B push the vines to the side as Estrella hands her light to Kie.
"You got it?" She says
"Yeah. Yeah, we got it."
"Give her a boost." John B says
"I'm gonna boost you, all right." JJ says pushing his hair back as he squats down against the stone, "I've seen it in the movies several times. Ready?"
"Remind me what we're looking for."
"You'll know when you see it." John B says
Estrella tilts her head, "That doesn't help."
"All right, so put your hands right there." JJ says
"Yep."
"Your foot. All right, on three."
"All right." She sighs
"One, two, three." JJ says as he pushes her up. Estrella pushes herself up and through the hole. She groans as she lands on her feet.
"Okay, flashlight?" She says
"Yeah, here." Kie says. Estrella reaches up and takes the light.
"You alive? You got, like, a... a heartbeat and everything?" John B asks
"So far. Definitely not for long." She says shining the light around
"That's good. That's good."
"Yep. Uh... I need some more light."
"Yeah, yeah, here. Yeah, I gotcha." He says shining his light in. Estrella looks around and stops as something catches her eye.
"Did you find something?" JJ asks, "Is there gold?"
"Holy shit." She breathes
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