─☼☼☼─
𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙍𝙇𝙊𝙏𝙏𝙀 𝙒𝙊𝙆𝙀 𝙐𝙋 the next day with a headache. She wasn't entirely sure if it was from the copious amounts of alcohol she had consumed the night before, or from the general malaise she seemed to be feeling since she had returned home.
Whichever it was, she knew she felt like shit.
She had spent half the day in bed. By two o'clock she had managed to drag her tired body into the shower and by four o'clock she had started unpacking her various suitcases that had been left untouched from the day before.
At six o'clock, Kie called her and filled her in on the current status of the mystery solving. Apparently they were going diving for the wreck.
Charlotte had excluded herself from this act ─ not at all feeling up to leaving the house let alone searching for treasure.
In her nineteen years of life, Charlotte Carrera had never once felt so aimless.
She wanted to do something ─ but she also didn't want to do anything.
So she settled for sitting on the end of her bed, clothes strewn around her as she attempted to get her life together.
As she folded up one of her shirts, her eyes scanned her once neat room. Every aspect of it was put together. From the perfume bottles on her dresser, to the pictures perfectly lined up on the walls.
Honestly, she kind of hated it.
Standing up, Charlotte discarded the folded shirt as she moved toward the dresser. With a small sigh, she opened the drawer and pulled out the photograph she had shoved in there the day before ─ the one of her and Rafe.
She stared at it for a long moment, recalling everything they had gone through in the last four years.
Truly, Rafe Cameron had been the love of her life.
Their relationship hadn't always been perfect ─ far from it most of the time ─ but that was partly the reason it worked so well. She made Rafe better and he made her ─ well, he made her feel right.
But like most things, it had fallen apart. Rafe had changed so drastically in the year that college started, she could barely stand to have a single conversation with him. Half the time they spoke, he was either drunk or high out of his mind.
Sometimes Charlotte wondered if he even remembered her breaking up with him. She was pretty sure he had been high when that had happened, too.
"Fuck you, Rafe." She whispered, flinging the picture frame at her wall.
It shattered and in doing so broke the silence that had settled across the Carrera house. Charlotte had no idea where her parents were, she hadn't left her room long enough to find out.
With a new dent in her wall and one in her heart, Charlotte flopped down on her bed with an exasperated scream.
For two months she had tried to pretend that breaking up with Rafe was for the best. She had put on a nonchalant smile when people asked her how she was doing, brushed it off when she heard stories of Rafe with other girls.
But she couldn't pretend forever. She couldn't pretend that her heart hadn't broken in half that day she ended things.
The two of them hadn't spoke since. Not a single word. Maybe that was for the best.
The front door opening and closing caused Charlotte to lift her head slightly. Looking over to the broken picture frame, she contemplated picking it up, but ultimately decided she simply didn't want to.
"Char!" Kiara called, bolting up the stairs and into her older sister's room without so much as a pause. "Char, get up."
Charlotte rolled onto her back, glancing at her sister. "What do you want, Kie? I'm busy."
Kiara regarded Charlotte's room with a skeptical look. "Well, whatever the hell it is that you are doing can wait. I have something to tell you."
This piqued the eldest Carrera girl's interest. "You guys found something at the wreck?"
"Yeah." Kiara answered with an eager nod. "A compass."
"A compass?" Charlotte echoed, her eyes narrowing slightly.
"It was John B's dad's." Kiara further explained. "He thinks it's some kind of clue. And, and─" She rushed out before Charlotte could cut her off. "There were these two guys, and they chased after us. They freaking shot at us, Char!"
Charlotte sat up, her face falling. "Kiara, what the hell?"
"I know." Her sister responded, pacing back and forth. "I seriously thought we were going to die."
"Jesus." Charlotte muttered. "What could they possibly want from you guys?"
Kiara shook her head. "I don't know. But I have a feeling us digging around in the wreck had something to do with it."
"So what's next?" Charlotte wondered. "You have Big John's compass...is that the mystery solved?"
"No." Kiara answered as she finally stopped pacing. "Not even close. John B won't give it up that easily."
"I don't blame him." Charlotte mumbled, her heart hearting for John B and everything he had gone through.
Kiara looked down at the broken picture frame for a moment, but neglected to say anything about it. "We're figuring this out tomorrow. And you're coming this time."
"Fine." Charlotte agreed, knowing she needed to get out of the house and a mystery needing solved was a good way to keep herself preoccupied.
"Kie?" She wondered, looking around at her mess of a room. "Wanna have a sleepover tonight?" She cracked a small grin, remembering the tradition the two sisters used to share.
Kiara nodded as a matching grin covered her face. "Yeah. I do."
Charlotte took another look at her disaster of a room. "We should probably do it in your room."
"Yeah. I think that's probably a good idea."
─☼☼☼─
By lunch the next day, Charlotte was seated on the porch of the Chateau as JJ recounted the rather eventful morning that he and John B had just endured at Lana Grubbs' place.
"And then we were right outside like this ─" JJ paused for a moment to press himself against the brick of the chimney. "─ And then 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," He broke off again, hurrying toward his audience to ruffle his hair.
Charlotte shied away as pieces of something began to fall from his head. "What is that?" She mumbled, scrunching up her face.
"That's dandruff." Kie muttered. "That's disgusting."
Pope shoved JJ away from him. "Okay. Thank you."
"Look at all that. All right?" JJ pointed to the ground. "That's paint. At that point, I was just like... I'm waiting for death."
Pope dropped his head into his hands, pushing the butt of his palm into his eyes. "Okay. Okay. So you saw the guys who shot at us, right?"
"Yeah."
"Did you ─ did you get a good description of them. What did they look like? Anything we can bring to a police report."
JJ stared out of the screen for a minute before looking back to them. "Burly."
Charlotte bit the inside of her lip as she rose her brows. "Burly...?"
"Yeah. You know?"
Kie dropped her head. "That's not very helpful."
"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. We know." Kie assured.
"Well then, I can tell you with full confidence, these boys, these killers..." He took a draw of his vape. "They're square groupers."
"They're square groupers?" Pope repeated. "Like Narcos square grouper? Like Pablo Escobar square grouper?"
JJ nodded as if this was the most nonchalant occurrence. "Yeah, man."
"You guys," Kiara interrupted. "Not everything is a Kingpin movie."
"Okay, hold on." Charlotte interrupted, looking between the four younger teens. "So you guys are sure that these two were after you yesterday? The same guys that just attacked Miss. Lana were after you?"
JJ gave her an exasperated look. "They were literally shooting at us, Charley. Kind of hard to miss."
She held her hands up in surrender as Pope leaned forward, his eyes focused on JJ. "I just need to know what these square groupers looked like. Because apparently you don't know."
JJ took another hit. "Alright, I wasn't taking little mental polaroids the whole time, okay? I was under duress! But, I can tell you that by the way Miss. Lana was screaming, that these guys are serious, serious hombres, man."
Charlotte leaned further back into the couch. "Guys, I've got to be honest, this shit is getting a bit too intense for me. I was under the impression that this was going to be a harmless mystery. Not a suicide mission."
"Join the club." Pope muttered, letting out a deep sigh.
"Okay, it's a heavy vibe right now." JJ agreed. "I'm not liking this very much."
With eyes lingering toward the compass in John B's hand, Charlotte shook her head. "What could they want with the compass?"
"It's a piece of shit." Pope added. "You couldn't pawn that thing off for five bucks if you wanted to." He then turned to John B with an apologetic look. "No offence, John B. I know it's like in your family."
But John B didn't seem to hear a word of what Pope said, because the gears were turning inside his head. "The office." He announced, pausing the pacing that he had been partaking in. "My dad's ─my dad's office. He always kept it locked because he was worried about his competitors stealing his Royal Merchant research."
The remaining members of the group stood, following after him as he disappeared into the house.
"I mean, we used to laugh at him all the time, like as if he was going to find it. But, now that he's gone, I've just kinda....kept it as he left it."
Kiara nodded, a small smile on her face. "Yeah. For when he gets back."
JJ, Charlotte and Pope shared a quick look to which Kiara shot them a warning glare. It was no secret that most everyone assumed that Big John was never coming back, but John B still believed he would. So maybe the rest of them should have, too.
As he unlocked the door, the others followed him inside the one room in the Chateau that Charlotte had never once seen.
"I've slept over here, like, six hundred times and I've never seen this door opened." Pope awed as he looked around at the numerous stacks of books, papers and drawings.
John B set a corkboard down in front of them. "Here, look. This was the original owner." He explained, painting to a black and white photo.
"Robert Q. Routledge. 1880 to 1920. There's the lucky compass right there." Kie mumbled, reading the name written on a small piece of picture below the photo.
"Actually, um, he was shot right after her bought it."
Everyone looked over at John B, regarding his sheepish expression. He ignored their looks, continuing down the line. "Then the compass was shipped back to Henry. He was killed in a crop-dusting accident when he had the compass. After he died, the compass went to Stephen. Stephen had the compass with him when he died in Vietnam."
"Let me guess," JJ began. "He died in action, right?"
"Sort of. Uh-uh actually he was killed by a banana truck. In─in country. Anyway, after that, Stephen passed it down to my dad."
JJ tilted his head. "Hm. Sounds like there's a reoccurring theme here."
"Yeah, you have a death compass." Pope concluded.
Charlotte looked up from the pictures. "I'm with Pope." She agreed. "That thing is cursed."
John B threw his hands up. "No it is not cursed."
"Seriously, dude. Get rid of it." JJ ordered.
"Look." John B pleaded as he sat down. "My dad used to talk about this compartment where soldiers used to hide secret letters."
As he popped it open, no secret letters fell out ─however, there was something inscribed on the top.
"What's that?" Kie wondered, pointing toward it.
"That wasn't there before." John B breathed. "But this is my dad's handwriting."
Pope didn't look convinced. "How can you know that?"
John B held the compass up. "Because he does these weird Rs with the ─ look at that."
"Can I see it?" JJ wondered, looking over John B's shoulder. He then attempted ─ and failed ─ to read the writing.
"It says Redfield." Charlotte announced, arms crossed as she stood over the two boys.
Kiara looked around at the others. "Okay. Well what's Redfield?"
"Aside from the most common name on the island?" Pope wondered.
John B let out a deep sigh. "Maybe it's a clue, okay? Maybe it's a clue to where he's hiding."
Pope scoffed. "A clue? Okay, come on that's..." One look from Kiara caused him to think about what he wanted to say next. "Okay. Well if it is a clue, maybe it's an anagram."
John B's eyes lit up. "Yes. Perfect. An anagram." He reached over to the desk next to him. "You'll need paper."
Pope bent down over the paper, Charlotte arriving next to him.
"How can you concentrate with that thing crowing at you?" He questioned, the loud crowing of the rooster rampant from outside.
"JJ loves the Rooster." John B reminded.
Kie nodded as she stopped next to her sister. "I love the rooster."
"Guys, focus." Charlotte instructed as she wrote out the word Redfield across the paper.
She began writing out possibilities as JJ let out a small noise. "Ah, that's what an anagram is."
Casting a small glance in his direction, Charlotte continued writing. "Defile." Pope muttered. "Does that mean anything to anyone?"
"Guys?" John B said from where he stood in front of the window. They all ignored him─ too caught up in what they were doing.
"Guys!" He snapped again. "Somebody's here!"
─☼☼☼─