Once the men had driven away on their boat John B lead the way into the Grubbs' house hoping to find Lana.
"Miss Lana!" He called out as he oped the door with chipping paint. The inside of the house was a mess. Smashed pottery on the floor and furniture thrown across the room. The three kept treading lightly as they walked through the house until they saw a frightened Lana cowering in the corner of her bathroom.
"Hey, " Stevie said softly under her breather as she rushed to comfort the older woman
"It's okay," John B said in a low tone matching Stevie as he came to sit next to Lana and his sister. JJ stood at a distance, still apprehensive about the whole situation.
"Dude, she's tweaking" JJ warned the Routledge siblings but they brushed him off still wanting to help Miss Lana.
"Do you need a doctor?" Stevie asked the sobbing woman softly. Stevie had an incredible way of changing her tone and demeanour depending on the situation. She could be slagging JJ off and bullying him one second then helping a crying child the next.
"Call the sheriff's department," John B tapped JJ asking him to help.
"No, no, no. No cops. Please," Lana seemed adamant, worrying the teens
"Mm," JJ looked concerned, "that's not good. Come on guys we should go"
"You shouldn't be here!" Lana sobbed into Stevie's arms, she couldn't leave her like this. Her eyebrows scrunched and she looked up to her brother and JJ for help.
"That's enough for me," JJ found the whole situation too similar and triggering, "Come on"
"Wait wait," John B was still desperate to know about the compass. The three gave off very different reactions: JJ wanted nothing to do with it, John B worried about the compass and Stevie worried about the poor sobbing woman. "What do you know about these guys?"
"They were looking for something," Lana said still with tears in her voice. John B's face sunk in the information as he ruffled his pockets trying to find the compass.
"Does it have anything to do with this?" John B asked
"John don't," Stevie didn't want to bombard the woman with questions.
Lana's face distorted when she saw the compass in John B's hand. She seemed relaxed for a second then felt an overwhelming crushing panic. "Do you know anything about this?" John B continued asking, much to Stevie's dismay, "this is our father's, and Scooter had it why?"
"Scooter didn't have it, okay?" Lana spoke through her sobs, "Don't tell anyone you have that"
"Come on," JJ sighed, still completely uncomfortable.
"Why?" John B ignored JJ and was still focused on Lana whilst Stevie was trying to comfort the yelling and distressed woman.
"You've got to get out of here!" Lana yelled at the Routledge boy whilst pushing Stevie away.
"What do you know about the compass?" John continued to push for an explanation, but it was futile. Lana was hysterical and she wanted to protect the teens.
"Come on," JJ said again as he gently pulled John B up, " Stevie," he held his rough hand out to help her up after being pushed away by Lana.
"GO! Get out!" Lana continued to yell at the trio whilst JJ tried to organise everyone so they could get out.
The journey back to the chateau was stale. No one wanted to speak or accept what had happened. Lana had never behaved like that. The trees blurred into one sea of green as Stevie looked out the window with a lump in her throat. Her eyes were close to tears but she pushed them down. JJ sat in the front, next to John B, in the passenger seat trying to forget what he saw. Every time he remembered the people yelling at Lana he could hear his dad's voice as well. The trashed house looked identical to how his house looked when he would come home from school. And Lana cowering in the corner of a smashed-up bathroom was a familiar sight, except when they saw Lana he saw his mum.
The three waited until Pope and Kiara arrived at the Chateau to unload everything that happened. And when they did, JJ exploded into a panic.
"And then we were right outside like this," JJ moved so his back was facing the wall of the house, mimicking the position that the three were in outside Lana's house. "And then all we hear is just. Bam! Bam! Bam!" He made punching motions with his hands. "Knocking paint off the wall from inside G!"
John B and Stevie were yet to speak about the incident, both of them replaying it and thinking about it in their heads
"Look at this," JJ rambled on. He moved over to Pope and shook his head letting the white paint fall from his hair.
"That's dandruff, that's disgusting," Kie said whilst Pope pushed JJ's head away from his lap.
"Look at all that. It's paint," JJ seemed out of breath. "At that point, I was like... I'm waiting for death"
"So you saw the guys that shot at us," Pope looked at Stevie and John B hoping they'd be less manic.
"Yeah," Stevie replied as JJ took a seat, still panting from his explanation of the events.
"Did you get a good look at them, a description? Anything we could bring to a police report?" Pope asked as Kiara joined in asking them if they saw anything.
"I don't know," Stevie was still flustered from the whole ordeal. Although she recognised them she kind of blurred them out of her memory as her head was occupied with Lana and whatever the issue is with their dad's compass. "Burly," was the best she could think of.
"Burly?" Pope respond with a fed-up and pissed tone.
"Yeah," JJ seconded Stevie's description.
"that's not very helpful," Kie scolded the two.
"Okay, well, you know, like the type of guy at my dad's garage," JJ's description still wasn't very helpful. "You know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers"
"Yes, we know," Kie and Pope nodded whilst JJ continued talking.
"I can tell you with full confidence, these boys, these killers," JJ paused to take some of his Juul. "they're square groupers"
"Square groupers?" Stevie looked over at Pope and her brother confused.
"They're square groupers. Like narco square groupers?" Pope had his head in his hands with little confidence on JJ. "like Pablo Escobar square grouper?"
"Yeah man," JJ stayed with full belief.
"You guys, not everything is a kingpin movie," Kie dismissed the elaborate theory.
"Kie it wasn't normal" Stevie explained, "it was some crazy shit"
"What does this square grouper look like," Pope pressed further about the appearance of the men. Both JJ and Pope started talking over each other at the same time yet John B was still in complete silence. Stevie noticed he hadn't chipped in, not to help with the description or anything.
"You weren't there, man,"
"Apparently you don't know what to look for!" JJ and Pope said at the same time whilst JJ was smoking more and more of his Juul.
"Dude! I wasn't taking little mental Ploardoids the entire time. Man, I was under duress okay," he said in one long panicked breath.
"He is right," Stevie oddly agreed with JJ again, "you guys weren't there, these men are more than just some bad people from the mainland. Miss Lana was seriously screaming," Stevie explained to the others.
"I can tell you from the way Miss Lana was screaming that these guys are serious, serious hombres, man" JJ added. Stevie could help but be distracted though by john B playing about with the compass. The rest kept talking slowly starting to accept the story more but Stevie wasn't listening. She watched as her brother's face changed as he realised.
"The office" he mumbled.
a/n: I'm back, I know its been awhile so sorry I hope you enjoyed it. if there is any mistakes please let me know
please vote and comment it really helps and I hope you read on