( chapter four )
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( TW: slight violence )
Ms. Lana opened her door with a smile, "hey, doll face."
After hearing her Uncle tell her Ms. Lana came by asking for help, Ophelia Bennett didn't hesitate to change into the proper clothing for the outdoors and head over to the woman's house in the Cut. The task was simple—pull weeds and water the garden Ms. Lana had started to grow in the backyard. It was the easier option to grow her own produce than buy it from the stores when money was always tight.
"Hi, Ms. Lana," the Bennett brought the woman into a hug. The girl had known the woman for a while so she was comfortable around her enough to hug her, "how are you?"
"Oh, I'm fine, doll. Just need some help with some pesky weeds in the front yard."
"Okay," the girl nodded, "I'm gonna go wash up first."
"Take your time, Lia. Thanks for the help."
"No problem," Lia traveled to the small bathroom and started to wash her hands. Only a few moments later, she suddenly heard shouting and banging coming from the living room. After drying her hands, she cautiously opened the door and found two men hovering over Ms. Lana and shouting at her.
Outside the house, JJ and John B were against the structure of the home, listening. The boys were on a mission to see why the compass was on Scooter's boat in the first place. They heard the shouting and breaking of objects from outside the house and immediately hid against the house under one of the open windows.
"Shut up and sit down! Don't move!"
"Okay! Okay!"
They felt their hearts stop when they heard a familiar voice. Ophelia. They knew she worked for the Grubbs sometimes, but they didn't expect her to get caught up and in danger. Lia was in danger.
The Bennett sat on the couch with tears streaming down her face as she tried to block out the yells and the hits she heard. Finally having enough, she voiced, "please—just leave her alone."
"Shut up!"
Lia grunted as the force of the hit to her face knocked her on her side—hitting the couch. Her cheek stung and her vision blurred as the man walked away and continued his search.
From outside, the boys could hear the slap clear as day.
JJ clenched his jaw, swallowing his fear, "that's it. I'm going in there."
John B pushed him back, "no, no, no, no, no! JJ, stop!"
"It's not here," one of the men growled, "let's get outta here."
The other nodded before going over to Lia again. He grabbed her by her face, squishing her cheeks tightly together and graveled to her, spit darting on her face, "you tell your boy—we're coming for him."
He pushed her face away as she groaned at the pain not only forming on her cheek but now in her jaw. She took shaky breaths, trying to calm herself down. Tears ran down her cheeks as her hands shook uncontrollably.
The two boys watched as the two men sped walked to their boat.
"Dude, those are the guys that shot at us," JJ exclaimed quietly, wanting desperately to go inside.
John B suddenly pushed his friend against the wall and watched them sail away. They quietly moved their way to the door of the house—JJ immediately searching for Lia. The place was trashed. Furniture everywhere, windows smashed and pictures off of their hooks.
"Ms. Lana?"
As John B went to Ms. Lana, JJ ran to Lia, finding her on the couch in a daze, "Lia? Hey, look at me," the boy cupped her face as gently as possible, the only response being a wince with dazed eyes, "Ophelia!"
The girl shakily met the blonde's eyes as he assessed the damage. The girl was sporting a burning handprint on her cheek and noticeable fingerprints on her jaw. He clenched his own jaw as he tucked her hair behind her ear, "are you okay?"
She nodded slightly, her breath still uneven, "I-I think so."
JJ nodded back to her before calling over his shoulder, "John B, she's okay."
"Thank God."
The blonde turned back to the shaking girl, "are you okay to walk?"
"Y-Yeah, I think I a-am."
"Okay, okay," he cooed. The boy held her hands as he gently brought her up from the couch, "just lean on me, okay?"
"Mhm."
The pair walked to John B who was crouched down in front of Ms. Lana, who was crying profusely and leaning against her bedroom door.
"Dude, she's tweaking."
JJ's comment was dismissed, "do you need a doctor," when all the woman did was sob, John B turned to his friends, "let's call the Sheriff's department."
"No, no, no, no cops! Please," Ms. Lana sobbed out as she looked at Lia, who was still under JJ's arm, "oh, doll face, I'm so sorry."
"It's okay, Ms. Lana. I'm alright," Lia tried to muster the best smile she could at the woman.
"Mm. That's not good," JJ observed, "come on, dude. Let's just go. We gotta get Lia outta here."
"You shouldn't be here..."
"That's enough for me. Come on."
"Wait, wait," once he got an it's okay nod from Lia, John B continued, "what do you know about these guys?"
"They were looking for something."
John B held out the compass, "does it have anything to do with this? Do you know anything about this? This is my father's, and Scooter had it. Why?"
Ms. Lana shook her head repeatedly, "Scooter didn't have it, okay? Don't tell anyone you have that."
"Why?"
"They can't know! You've gotta get outta here!"
"What do you know about the compass?"
"Go! Get out!"
"John B," Lia called out over Ms. Lana's sobs, "let's go."
The boy nodded reluctantly. They left Ms. Lana there—sobbing to herself with a house that was destroyed.
The three best friends started to walk back to the Chateau. Lia found her strength to walk without any assistance. She was in between the boys when she spoke, breaking the silence between them.
"By the way, my Uncle says hi."
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"And we were right outside like this," JJ reenacted as he was telling Kie and Pope what happened over at Ms. Lana's house. When the trio got back to John B's, the boys noticed that their best friend was still shaking slightly. John B offered one of his sweatshirts and Lia thankfully took it, missing the look JJ gave John B. And a couple minutes later, they were joined by the rest of the Pogues. JJ continued, "and all we hear is just, 'bam! Bam! Bam!'"
Lia winced from her seat on the couch next to where JJ was standing. Kie deadpanned as she reached for Lia's hand, "seriously, JJ?"
"Oh, sorry, Lia," once she nodded as an 'okay' to his apology, he continued, "knocking paint off the wall, G! From the inside. Alright? And I'm looking at him, like—wait, first off, look at this shit."
Pope and Kie made disgusted faces as JJ ruffled his hair, causing flakes to fall, "that's dandruff," Kie muttered, "disgusting."
"Look at all that. All right? That's paint. At that point, I was just, like... I'm waiting for death. And don't even get me started when I heard Lia's voice, man."
"Oh, okay, so you say they're the guys that shot at us, right?"
"Yeah," the blonde answered Pope.
"Did you get a good description of them? What did they look like?"
"Yeah," Kie added, "anything is helpful."
"Anything we can bring to a police report?"
JJ paused and then spoke, "burly."
"... Burly?"
"Yeah. You know, like—"
"That's not very helpful," Kie deadpanned.
"Okay, well, no, like the type of guy at my dad's garage," JJ said as he paced back and forth, "I mean, you guys know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers."
"Yeah. Yes. No, we know."
"I can tell you with full confidence," JJ said over Kie pulling out a cigarette, "these boys, these killers... They're square groupers."
Lia played with the sleeves of John B's sweatshirt as she reluctantly spoke for the first time, "I remember one of them saying something to me."
The group went quiet as they looked to their friend, seeing that she was still traumatized by the whole ordeal. Lia sighed as she looked up to John B, who was leaning against the porch in front of her, "when one of them grabbed my face, he told me, 'tell your boy—we're coming for him,' and then they left."
"Did you get a good look at them?"
"Not anything too specific," she told Pope while Kie wrapped an arm around her shoulder, "uh, white, brown hair, beards, one was bigger than the other. But that's a lot of people on this island.. so..."
Kie nodded softly, "it's okay, Lia, we're just glad you're okay."
Pope nodded in agreement then turned to JJ, "so you think they're square groupers, like narco square grouper? Like Pablo Escobar square grouper?"
"Yeah, man," the blonde nodded as he took another hit of the cig.
"You guys," Kie called their attention, "not everything is a kingpin movie."
"Okay so what does a square grouper look like? Specifically?"
"You weren't there," JJ shook his head at Pope.
"'Cause apparently you don't know what to look for?"
"I wasn't taking little mental Polaroids the entire time, man! I was under duress, okay? But I can tell you... I can tell you by the way Ms. Lana was screaming," JJ then motioned toward Lia softly, "and the way Lia's face looks right now... that these guys are serious, serious hombres, man. It's a heavy vibe right now, okay?"
Lia then heard the click of the compass opening, watching as John B looked at it with curiosity, "what is it, JB?"
He didn't answer her as he turned around on the railing of the porch, looking out at the docks.
"Why would they want the compass," Kie asked.
"It's a piece of shit. You couldn't pawn it off for five bucks if you wanted to," Pope shrugged then quickly turned to John B, "no offense, John B. I know it's in your family—"
"The office."
"What?"
"My dad. My dad's office."
"Wait," Lia stood up, "the room your dad always kept locked?"
John B nodded as he started walking into the house, his friends following, "he always kept the office locked because he was worried about his competitors stealing his Royal Merchant research. We used to laugh at him like he was gonna find it."
"Yeah, he told stories about it whenever there was a storm to distract me," Lia added.
"Yeah," they all came up to the door, "but now that he's gone, I've just kinda... I just left it how he kept it."
"Yeah. For when he gets back," Kie nodded.
Lia sent her a thankful smile as John B unlocked the door, the room filled with papers and pictures in every corner.
"I've slept over here like 600 times," Pope said, "and I've never seen this door opened."
John B grabbed a board and brought over to his friends, "here, look. This is the original owner, right here," he pointed.
"Okay. Robert Q. Routledge," Lia read, "1880 to 1920. There's the lucky compass, right there," she pointed to the picture.
"Actually, um.. He was shot after he bought it," John B awkwardly told his best friend as the roosters crowed in the yard, "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 was given to Stephen. Stephen had the compass with him when he died in Vietnam."
"Let me guess, he died in action, right?"
"Sort of," he told JJ, "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."
"Hm. Sounds like there's a recurring theme here."
"Yeah, uh, you have a death compass," Pope observed after JJ.
"I do not."
"You have a death compass."
"Get rid of it," JJ offered, "it's cursed, and make its way back to you."
"Look, my dad used to talk about this compartment in here," John B showed his friends, "soldiers used to hide secret notes."
"What's that," Kie pointed to the writing inside the compass.
"That wasn't there before," the brunette boy observed, "this is my dad's handwriting."
Pope sighed, "how can you know that?"
"Because he does these weird Rs with the—see it?"
"Can I see it," JJ inspected it, "red—rout—no I think that's an A."
"It says Redfield."
"Right."
"Okay, well, what's Redfield?"
As the teens passed around the compass, Lia moved toward the window to see why the roosters were so chatty today. She peeled through the curtains as the rest of her friends continued to talk, "maybe it's a clue," John B said, "maybe it's a clue to where he's hiding."
Pope shook his head, "a clue? Come on, that's," he paused, seeing Kie's warning stare, "but if it is a clue, maybe it's an anagram?"
"Yes. Perfect. Anagram. You need paper."
The rooster was crowing even louder than before as Lia saw a black van pull up to the house, "uh, guys?"
"How can you concentrate with that thing crowing at you?"
"Lia and JJ love the rooster."
"Uh, guys...?"
"I love the rooster."
"Guys," the group turned to Lia as she pointed to the window, "somebody's here."
Everyone looked out the window as they saw two men walk to the front door.
"Guys, guys," Kie exclaimed, "is that them? Is that them?"
"This is suboptimal."
"Now's not the time for big words, Pope," Lia muttered as she scrambled to the door, seeing if they're in the house already.
JJ paced, "John B, I told you, man. Why does it always—"
John B grabbed him, "JJ! Hey, look at me. Where's the gun?"
"Gun? I, uh, I can't—"
"JJ," the two boys look to see Lia pressing herself against the door of the office, "where's the gun?"
"I-I don't—"
"Now you don't have the gun, the one time we need the gun?"
"It was in my backpack, and then I—"
"On the porch," John B finished.
The blonde nodded, "it's on the porch."
Lia nodded as she walked out the door, ignoring JJ telling her to come back. She was about to reach the front door when she heard one of the men yell, "John Routledge!"
She sprints back to the office and slams it behind her, panting, "they're on the front porch, guys," she remembered the voices clear as day, and her bruised face could attest to it.
John B pushed her towards Kie, "get away from the door, Lia."
"Get out here!"
"Routledge!"
"We gotta leave," Kie said as she looked for ways out, "guys, window. Window. Hurry."
JJ and Pope grunted as they tried to open the window, Lia walked over, "what—what's happening? Why is it taking so long?"
"It's painted shut, okay," JJ hissed.
As the men continued to yell, Lia looked around for something sharp. Once she found it, she brought it over, "okay, guys. I found it. I got it."
"Where the hell is that compass?"
"Hey! Check the back room!"
"Come on, come on."
"I'm going as fast as I can," Lia said with clenched teeth to JJ as she continued to try to screw the door open.
"Be quiet."
The two looked behind themselves to see John B, Kie and Pope all learning against the door. Suddenly the door handle began to shake.
"You better not be in here!"
The man kicked down the door as soon as the window slid open, allowing the Pogues to escape.
The group watched from inside the rooster pen and the men took all of John B's dad's research. Lia leaned her body against JJ—her back against his chest as she tried to stay quiet, but the rooster wasn't helping.
"Do something, Pope," JJ urged as he held Lia tightly, "shut him up."
"What do you want me to do?"
"Pet it, or talk to it. I don't know," Kie cried softly.
The clucking of the chickens caused one of the men to look over at the coop, making the group press against the walls, holding their breaths. Pope motioned to JJ, "you do something!"
JJ quickly passed Lia off to Kie and John B as he grabbed the rooster by the neck and quickly snapped it, killing it instantly. Lia and Kie quietly sobbed as they held hands. The teens didn't move until the black van was out of their sight. Once it was, everyone got out and sighed in relief.
edited: 4 august 2021