CHAPTER TWO: GUNS ABLAZING
( episode two: the lucky compass )

✲*'。

Ard!" Sarah Cameron's voice rung out into the darkness.

"What do you want Saz?" Arden tiredly huffed, burying her head back into the cushion of the sofa on Ward Cameron's boat. Over an hour ago, Sarah had woken her up and forcefully led Arden to the boat under the guise of that she wanted the air con. It was a fair excuse, Arden found the heat to be suffocating but she was used to it from the nights she used to couch surf at John B's.

"Why are you still up?" Arden whispered as Sarah buried her face into Arden's neck.

"Earlier .... have they always been like that?" Sarah asked, evading Arden's question.

Arden opened her eyes, shooting Sarah an unimpressed look. "You and I both know that Topper is to blame for that."

"I know that but ... the gun, is that new?"

Arden remained quiet, not needing to answer Sarah's question. Never before had Arden ever see JJ holding a gun before, never mind the idiotic way he decided to use it so publicly. He could have done anything else—tackle Topper, hit him or punch the Kook. Seeing him holding that gun .... it broke Arden's heart. That was not the best friend and ex-boyfriend she recognised.

"Ard?"

"Yeah Saz?"

"You know your safe with me right? I'd never let Rafe come near you or little bean."

Arden shot her friend a beaming smile as she nuzzled her hairline into Sarah's forehead. "I know that Saz."

"Good. Now you probably should get some sleep since little bean usually likes to start moving soon."

Arden shot Sarah a dead pan look, causing her friend to erupt into a fit of giggles.

"I had no idea!"

✲*'。

Arden groaned in annoyance, sitting upright to straighten out her posture. She looked up in the general direction of the clock, eyes narrowing when she saw it was only five fucking am in the morning. This was great! At this rate, Arden had managed a measly three hours of sleep. She sighed softly, lugging her body back onto the couch in the opposite direction of Sarah's to get some more sleep .

Just as she was about to drift off, Arden heard the engine of another boat turn off, just before footsteps could be heard. She closed her eyes shut, not wanting to deal with the fucking possibility of Wheezie coming onto the boat to annoy the girls again.

"Wheezie shut up!" Sarah hissed, sitting up right cutting off her sentence.

"God, you're not Wheezie."

Arden blinked her eyes open to catch sight of John B. He offered her an awkward smile, eyes determinedly staying away from her exposed bump because of the sports bra and pyjama pants Arden was dressed in.

Repositioning herself, Arden willed up the anger she felt only moments before. There was no chance in hell she was going to act different now. It didn't matter that John B for some reason was stowing away on Ward's boat. The reason why, Arden could figure out that later. All she wanted to do was go back to god damn sleep.

"It's five fucking am, why are you here!" Arden hissed while Sarah continued to stare at John B.

"I'm just dropping off some scuba gear ... what are you two doing?"

"It's my boat. Ard's my friend." She stated eyeing John B suspiciously. "It's also the only place with air conditioning."

"Right ....."

"Did you top off the tanks?" Sarah questioned far too innocently. Arden blinked in surprise wondering why Sarah was questioning it. Surely John B wasn't that much of an idiot to steal scuba gear risking his job.

"Uh .... No, no," John B began and it took Arden pinching her skin to not screech at him frustration. Despite the few months of separation, Arden Kim knew John B Routledge like the back of her hand. That idiot was trying to work out an excuse.

"The powers down, so the compressors weren't working."

Arden carefully watched Sarah as she began to puzzle out why John B was delivering empty tanks of scuba gear.

"I'll make sure to tell Ward."

"Okay, good, good, cool, I'm just going to drop these here."

"Yeah, right in the middle of the rooms fine."

"Yes, this is pretty much what he told me to do."

"Great!" Sarah smiled sweetly. "Bye!"

"What exactly are you going to tell your Dad?" John B asked, his eyes quickly glancing over to Arden before focusing on Sarah again.

"Well, nothing much, just that you poached our scuba——"

"Whatever the god damn reason your here is, it won't leave this boat from either of us. Right Sarah?" Arden interrupted annoyed, shooting her friend a dark stare.

Spotting the growing annoyance on Arden's face, Sarah smirked to herself, nodding at John B.

"What Arden said."

"Thank you both..." John B trailed off, shooting Arden a grateful look to which she smiled at weakly.

"That's great now get out!" Arden shrieked, the moment gone as she laid back down on the couch beside Sarah, the other girl groaning as Arden robbed the blanket from her.

Arden smiled to herself, now she could finally go to sleep.

✲*'。

Arden Kim hated Ward and Rafe Cameron with every god damn fibre of her body. The contempt she bore for her mother was almost just as strong for the burning, pure hatred Arden felt whenever she was around the males in the Cameron family. Keeping her stare dead ahead, Arden ignored Rafe's blatant stares and Ward's miserable attempts to make 'friendly' conversation. More like monitor Arden's every fucking move.

Sarah offered Arden a pitiful smile, just as breakfast ended. It was about time, Ward and Rose left the table. Normally, it would always be Sarah and Arden left to themselves, yet for whatever reason that was today, Rafe Cameron kept following her around which was beginning to bug Arden. She well and truly didn't to be around her supposed 'baby daddy' any longer than needs be. Yet, no matter where she went, Rafe stuck to her like glue.

"What the hell do you want!" Arden hissed, finally having had enough of his consistent following.

"Can't I spend some time with my baby ma-"

"Finish that sentence and I will happily burn your dick alive."

"Temper temper, that must have been attracted that pogue trash because I can't see why else anyone would want to fuck you."

"Well at least Rafe, the people I have fucked actually wanted me. Not the girls you coerce into sleeping with you .... Tell me how much do you have to pay them?"

Arden ducked the impulsive slap sent her way, a teasing smile working it's way onto her lips. "Wouldn't want to spread any rumours about you being an abuser as well as a lousy incompetent fool now would we?"

Arden smirked to herself, knowing she had won this little spat. "I'm going for a walk, don't follow or so god help me I may actually stab you this time!"

After she finished getting dressed into a simple, halter necked black romper, Arden slipped away from Tannyhill back to her own house. She did a quick scan over of her room, packing a small bag of clothes so she wouldn't have to keep wearing Sarah's clothes that were just that bit too small for her now. As she finished packing, Arden spotted a pair of Haven's shoes in the corner. She was well overdue a visit with her friend, that much Arden was sure. She knelt down and stuffed them into her backpack. She could give them to Haven and suss out if her friend wanted to hang out.

After grabbing her bike and pedalling back to Tannyhill to drop off her bag, Arden took off towards the Cut to where she knew her friend was living now. Arden knew about the shack of a house that Melinda Murphy had moved into with her daughter. It was the house of JJ's grandparents, where his aunt and father grew up. When she was just a child, Arden could vaguely remember the friendship her father had shared with Laura Maybank and the friendship that extended to her parents- in-law ( never Luke, Arden had quickly learnt why her father hated the man so much when Laura Maybank took off, leaving her son behind). The small house vaguely matched the description had in her head.

Arden slowly hopped off her bike, grabbing Haven's sneakers from the basket. She walked to the front door, and knocked once, waiting for the door open. Seconds slowly trailed into a minute and Arden glanced around to see if anyone was home. Shrugging, she turned around planning on checking somewhere else until the door open behind her.

"Arden Kim?" She heard Melinda Murphy speaking in a confused voice. Arden winced before straightening her face into a polite smile as she turned to greet Melinda Murphy.

"Hi Mrs Murphy..." Arden began awkwardly, not too sure how to address the widowed woman she hadn't seen since her husbands funeral.

"What are you doing here?" Melinda probed a curious glint in her eyes, the blue hues sweeping down to the bump hidden beneath Arden's black romper.

"Haven left these at my house ... and I wanted to see if she was around to hang out?" Arden gently asked, rocking forward on the balls of her white converse clad feet.

"There was no need..." Melinda trailed off, gently taking the outstretched shoes. "You actually just missed her——— your friends just picked her up in their Volkswagen."

Arden blinked in surprise momentarily as she forced the polite smile onto her face. "Thanks anyway Mrs Murphy. I'll see you around!" Arden called, turning around and fully intending on getting the hell out of here.

"Arden wait!" Arden froze, slowing whirling around to face Melinda Murphy once again. The woman looked conflicted as if she wanted to ask her something before she thought better of it.

"Haven left her phone behind. Would you mind dropping it up there?" Melinda asked. Arden pinched her wrist, wracking her mind to try and find a way to reject the woman. She bit her lip before speaking, "Its on my way, I can drop it off."

Melinda Murphy graced Arden with a weak smile and handed Arden her friends phone. "See ya Mrs Murphy," Arden called, practically running from the Murphy house back to her bike.

As she pedalled away, Arden stared down at the phone wondering how on earth she got herself into these situations....

✲*'。

Arden had dumped her bike a few feet away from 'The Chateau', determinedly walking the remaining few steps as to not alert the pogues to her arrival. Arden only planned on staying here, at a maximum of five minutes to drop off her friends phone and then she'd get the hell out of there. As she approached the house, Arden cocked her head to the side, apprehension slowly overtaking her senses. She couldn't hear anything besides the god damn chickens. Usually she could hear the pogues from metres. She carefully hid behind the khaki truck, wondering what the hell was going on.

Arden ducked her head out, seeing nothing out of the ordinary ---- that was until JJ Maybank popped out fucking nowhere.

As Arden felt, lean muscular arms wrapping around her waist, she opened her mouth to scream for anyone, until a hand wrapped it's way around her lips. Immediately, Arden began to squirm around, attempting trying to bite her assailants palm, however, the grip only tightened.

"Calm the fuck down Ard! It's me!" JJ hissed into her ear, startling Arden completely to the point of being compliant.

"You need to stay quiet and follow me," JJ muttered, once he knew that Arden had temporarily had calmed down.

Arden didn't offer up any fight when JJ, hastily but gently maneuvered them into the chicken coop a few feet away. Arden didn't hesitate in fleeing into the corner, closing her eyes shut, heart beating erratically at the abrupt change in her peaceful day.

Arden felt overwhelmed. Just, what the fuck had she walked into. What was supposed to be a a calming outing to her friend had quickly escalated. Arden tried to focus on her patchy breathing, trying to slow down the rapid inhales as she desperately wanted to keep the correct flow of oxygen circulating.

When she felt a familiar hand gripping her's, Arden didn't hesitate to bury her head into JJ's chest. She didn't want to know what was going on. Arden kept her eyes closed, surprise overtaking the panic as JJ's stray hand made it's way to calm the overexcited kicks that Arden hadn't registered until this moment. In that small, tense moment, JJ softened for the briefest of seconds as his child reacted to his hands resting on her belly. Arden knew it was foolish, but she couldn't but imagine her little bean sensing it was their father who was trying to calm them down.

The moment ended the moment the rooster began to squawk too loudly to be normal. Arden forced her eyes shut as she could hear footsteps approaching them. The sickening crack of a bone was the next thing Arden registered as JJ snapped the animal's neck.

Arden clamped her palm over mouth, the urge to retch up her breakfast beginning to grow. She kept her stare dead ahead, focusing on trying to not get sick.

"There gone guys, we're safe." John B sighed, running his hands through his long mane of hair.

That was the moment Arden's breakfast dislodged itself all over her baby daddy's shoes....