"AND WE WERE . . . Right outside like this. And all we hear is just, "BAM! BAM! BAM!" Knocking paint of the wall, G! From the inside. All right? And i'm just looking at him, like—"
JJ walked towards them, "Wait, first off, look at this shit." Running his hands through his hair as paint dots fall out of it. "That's dandruff disgusting." Maxine told him looking away.
The rest of them made a face, "Okay, thank you." Pope smacking his head away. "Look at all that. All right? That's paint. At that point, I was just, like.. I'm waiting for death."
Maxine picked black polish of her nails, "Okay, JJ. You are overwhelmed, but your probably twisting the story right now."
Pope's head fell back in his hands, "Oh, okay, so you saw the guys that shot at us, right?"
"Yeah." He breathed out.
"Did you get a good description of them? What did they look like?" Pope asked, Maxine nodded, "Yeah. Anything that could help."
"Anything we can bring to a police report, maybe?" Pope questioned, Dahlia and Kiara agreed. "Yeah."
"Burly." JJ blurted out.
Pope repeated it, looking confused by his choice of words. "Burly?" JJ nodded, "Yeah, you know, like—"
"That's not very helpful." Kiara mumbled.
JJ sighed, "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."
"Yeah. Yes. No, we know." Dahlia said. "I can tell you with full confidence, these boys, these killers.. they're square groupers." Taking a blow of his joint.
Pope leaned on his palm, facing the blonde boy. "They're square groupers, like Marci square grouper? Like Pablo Escobar, square grouper?"
JJ nodded, "Yeah man." Kiara rolled her eyes. "You guys, not everything is a kingpin movie."
Pope straightened himself on the couch focusing his attention back on JJ. "What does this square grouper look like? Specifically? Because apparently you don't know what to look for."
JJ cut him off, "Dude, you weren't there. Dude!" He yelled. "I wasn't taking little mental polaroids the entire time. I was under duress, okay? But I can tell you..."
Maxine lifted herself from the couch, "J, breath. We understand your situation." He exhaled calming himself down. "I can tell you. The way that Ms. Lana was screaming. That these guys are serious, serious hombres, man."
"You guys we're all high in our emotions right now. Multiple shocking things happened these past days." Dahlia told them.
"It's a heavy vibe, to be honest." Maxine sighed, "Yeah, I'm not liking this very much." JJ mumbled.
"Okay, but why would they want the compass?" Kie asked, it was just a compass. What was so important about it? "It's a piece of shit. You couldn't pawn it off for five bucks if you wanted to. No offence, John b. I know it's in your family—"
John b interrupted his friend. "The office. My dad. My dad's office. He always kept the office locked because he was worried about his competitions stealing his Royal Merchant research. As used to laugh at him like he was gonna find it. But now that he's gone, I've just kinda. I just left it as he kept it." John b ranted.
"Yeah, for when he gets back." Dahlia said.
The brunette boy, opened the door. "I've slept over here like 600 times, and I've never seen this door opened." Maxine hummed.
"This looks like a freaking murder mystery room." The black haired girl said as she gazed around the room.
John b placed a board down. "Here look. This is the original owner, right here." Pointing to the name on the paper.
Kiara read it out loud, "Okay. Robert Q. Routledge. 1880 to 1920. There's the lucky compass, right there." Pointing down on the picture.
"Actually, uhm. He was shot after he bought it." John b added, "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 dies in Vietnam."
"Let me guess, he died in action, right?" John conceded. "Sort of.. uh, a—actually he was killed by a banana truck. In— in country. Anyways, after that, Stephen passed the compass down to him, my dad."
Maxine gazed at the picture of Big John, her eyes trailing towards JJ. "Hm. Sounds like there's a reoccurring theme here."
"Yeah, you have a death compass." Pope agreed, "I do not." John b denied.
"You have a death compass," Pope argued, "Get rid of it." The blonde boy suggested. "Seriously, dude. It's cursed and made it's way back to you." The rest of them nodded.
"John b, just think about. Robert got the compass, he died. So did Steven, and Henry, it can't just be a coincidence." Maxine stated.
John b sat down on the couch, "Look, my dad used to talk about this compartment in here. Soldiers used to hide secret notes." As he rolled open the compass, shaking it to get something out of it, nothing.
"What's that?" Max pointed to a something sketched on the inside. "That wasn't there before." John b remarked.
He looked around his friends. "This is my dad's handwriting." Pope chuckled in disbelief, "How can you know that?"
The Routledge waved one part of the compass in his face, "Because he does these weird Rs with the— See it?"
"Can I see it?" JJ asked as he squinted his eyes at the word. "Red— Rout— No, I think that's an A." JJ guessed.
Dahlia leaned to the side, sneaking a peek. "It says Redfield." She interjected.
"Right." JJ mumbled.
"Okay, well, what's Redfield?" Kiara asked.
"Besides the most common name in the country." Sarcasm filling Pope's tone.
John b tilted his head back, "Oh. Maybe— Maybe it's a clue. Maybe it's a clue to where he's hiding."
Pope scoffed, disagreeing fully. "A clue? Come on, that's—" getting cut of by Dahlia clearing her throat widening her eyes to stop him from hurting their friend's feelings. "But if it is a clue, maybe it's an anagram?"
John b pointing in his direction, "Yes. Perfect. Anagram. You need paper." Pulling out a paper as he hurriedly placed it on the table.
"How can you concentrate with that thing crowing at you?" Pope complained.
John b shrugged, "JJ loves the rooster." A soft smile spread across Max her face as she glanced at JJ. "You do?"
"I do." He smiled down at her, his dimples popping up. Ah, those dimples. Maxine has began to love them. Their eyes locked, softness in both of them. As the whole world fell away the moment their gazes collide.
Pope broke them out of their trance, "Okay, let me think, uhm." He murmured. Max cleared her throat focusing back on the anagram in the making. "Seriously, think." Trying to get him to hurry up.
As he started rambling nonsense that would make sense. But it didn't he was right now, just rambling things that crossed his mind.
A car arrived on the front, "Guys." John b acknowledging that someone was there. "Guys! Someone's here." He yelled.
They all leaned in, peeking through the window. "Guys, guys, is that them? Is that them?" Dahlia repeated, starting to panick.
"No." JJ breathed out in disbelief.
"This is suboptimal." Pope said watching the car closely. JJ rushed away from the window, "John b, I told you." He agonised. "Why does it always—" clenching his fists to stop his hands from trembling.
"JJ! Hey, look at me." Shoving him against the wall. "Where's the gun?" John b whispered.
"Gun? I, uh, I can't—" JJ stammered.
"Now you don't have the gun, the one time we need the gun?" Kiara bawled out. "It was in my backpack, and then I—"
John b cut him off, "Back pack, on the porch."
"It's on the porch." The Maybank repeated to himself. "It's—" he rushed towards the door opening it. Maxine was quick to follow no way he was going out there alone.
A loud voice beamed through the house, "John Routledge." Maxine's eyes widened fear overtaking her, as JJ spinned so fast on his heel taking her with him as they rushed back towards Big John's office.
As he closed the door, "Guys." Maxine cried out, as she started to panick. Dahlia tried to calm Kiara down as she held her hand to her mouth covering her whimpers.
Their voices kept on shouting, "Where's the gun?" John b whispered. "They're on the front porch, guys." JJ told him.
"We gotta leave!" Maxine recoiled.
Dahlia rushed towards the window, "Guys, window. Window!" She whispered shouted.
Pope and JJ tried to pull open the window, Kiara rambled. "What— what's happening? Why is it taking so long?"
Maxine nibbled on her bottom lip, as she paled frozen in her spot. Dahlia reached her, wrapping her hand around her wrist. Rushing her already towards the window.
"It's painted shut, okay?" JJ muttered. John b holding the door shut, closing his eyes in agony. Kiara looked around the office, "Okay, guys here. I got it." holding out a nail fastener.
Pope helped John b keeping the door closed as they signed for them to keep still. "Be quiet." Dahlia hissed at JJ and Kie.
"You better not be in there!" Another voice yelled, pushing against the door. As they rushed away from the door as one of the smugglers tried to kick the door in.
✩✩✩
Al's note,
Ahhh, death compass.
Rooster, rooster, rooster!!
We love the rooster.