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Kiara and Pope cheered as Eli walked onto the veranda of the Chateau. 

“Woww, we unlocked a new hair colour,” Kie announced with a low whistle, nodding in approval. 

“It looks great, Eli,” Pope added as Eli beamed, doing a little twirl to show off her look. 

“Thank you, guys,” Eli responded with a grin, fingers running through her newly dyed hair. “I'm surprised it took me this long to go blue.”

“What colours have you done so far then?” Kie questioned, holding out her hands to count. “There's the oreo look, cherry red, pink, uhh,” she trailed off.

“the black with green streaks,” Pope added. “Didn't you do that red and yellow hair from that anime?”

“Yeah, the Rengoku hair,” Eli nodded as she sat down on the couch. “I miss that sometimes.” 

“Guys!” a familiar voice called out, causing the trio to turn their heads. “You will not-”

JJ suddenly stopped walking and dropped his jaw in shock, causing John B to curse as he walked into the blonde's back.

“Oh wow,” John B let out as his eyes fell on Eli's hair. “I see we've unlocked a new colour.” 

“That's what I said,” Kie spoke up, whilst Eli twirled her hair around her fingers. 

“How does it look?” Eli questioned as she eyed the two boys, noticing how JJ still had his jaw dropped. 

“It looks real good,” JJ finally responded as he walked over to the girl, reaching to touch her hair. “I knew it would.”

“What were you guys gonna say?” Pope questioned. “It sounded pretty urgent.” 

“Oh, right,” John B remembered. “We went to Scooter's house to try and get some answers. When we got close to the house, we realised there were people yelling inside.”

“And we were right outside like this,” JJ continued, demonstrating how the two boys hid behind the home of Lana Grubbs. “And all we hear is just, ‘Bam! Bam! Bam!’” the boy started yelling. “Knocking paint off the wall, G! From the inside. Alright? And I'm just looking at him, like- wait,” JJ suddenly cut off as he leaned closer to the group, ruffling his hair as he spoke. “First off, look at this shit.”

“That's.. dandruff,” Kie trailed off in disgust.

“Okay, thank you,” Pope sarcastically responded, as Eli shoved JJ’s head away with her hand. 

“Look at all that, alright!” JJ continued. “That's paint.”

“If you say so, J,” Eli stated as she looked up at the boy, who was lost in his own world as he carried on with his story, pacing back and forth on the veranda. 

“At that point, I was just like… I'm waiting for death.”

“Okay, so you saw the guys that shot at us, right?” Pope queried.

“Yeah-”

“Did you get a good description of them? What they looked like?”

“Yeah, anything?” Kie added.

“Anything we can bring to a police report?”

JJ looked off into the distance for a moment, before turning around to face the group. “Burly.”

Pope stared at the blonde for a second, whilst Eli struggled to not laugh out loud.

“Burly?” Pope repeated in disbelief.

“That's not very helpful,” Kie shot down.

“Okay, well, no, like the type of guy at my dad's garage,” JJ tried to explain, clearly getting worked up as he started to pace again. “I mean, you guys know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers.” 

“Yeah,” Kie sighed. “We know.”

“I can tell you with full confidence, guys.. these boys, these killers…” he trailed off for dramatic effect, whilst taking a puff of his cigarette. “They're square groupers.”

Pope held his head in his hands as he stared at JJ. “They're square groupers, like narco square groupers? Like.. Pablo Escobar square grouper?” 

“Yeah, man.”

Eli and Kie shared a look of complete and utter bewilderment. Even John B was staring at the blonde.

“You guys, not everything is like a kingpin movie.”

Eli couldn't help but snort at Kie's statement. 

“Okay, so what does this square grouper look like?” Pope questioned again. “Like specifically.”

“You weren't there, bro-”

“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?” JJ exclaimed as he wildly threw out his arms, his voice slightly cracking. 

“Calm down, J, it's okay,” Eli softly called out as she reached out to grab his hand, gently pulling him down to sit down next to her but keeping a hold on his hand.

“But, I can tell you,” JJ began again, a bit more relaxed now than he was five seconds ago. “I can tell you by the way that Ms Lana was screaming.. that these guys are serious, serious hombres, man.”

John B flicked the compass open with a click, suddenly looking lost in thought. 

“It's a heavy vibe right now, okay?” JJ continued. “I'm not liking this very much.”

“Why would they want the compass?” Kie questioned, to which Eli nodded in agreement. 

“How did they even know about it?” Eli added with furrowed brows. “It's so bizarre that a compass that belonged to Big John is suddenly being sought after, even going as far as trying to kill people for it.”

“It's a piece of shit,” Pope grumbled. “You couldn't pawn it off for five bucks if you wanted to.” Pope suddenly turned to John B. “No offense. I know it's in your family-”

“The office,” John B cut off. “My dad. My dad's office. The boy began to walk  into the Chateau, the rest of the group scrambling to follow after him. “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. But now that he's gone, I've just kinda.. I just left it as he kept it.”

Everyone curiously watched as John B opened the office door.

“Yeah, for when he gets back,” Kie spoke up. 

One by one the pogues flooded into the room with wide eyes, taking in the vast amount of books and maps and taking up the room.

“I've slept over here like six hundred times,  and I've never seen this door opened.”

“Woah..” Eli let out as she slowly spun on her feet, eyes fixed on all the maps and diagrams taking up every inch of the walls surrounding them. “This is crazy.”

“Here, look,” John B called out as he placed a corkboard on the messy table. “This is the original owner, right here,” he revealed as he pointed to a handwritten note. 

“Robert Q . Routledge, 1880 to 1920,” Kie read out. “There's the lucky compass, right there,” she pointed out in the photo next to the name.

“Actually, um…” John B awkwardly began. “He was shot after he bought it. Then the compass was shipped back to Henry. He was killed in a crop-dusting accident when he had the compass.”  

JJ, Eli, and Pope stared at each other blankly. The girl looked down at the compass that was still in John B's hand, and awkwardly took a few steps away. Doesn't hurt to be safe, right? 

“After he died, the compass was given to Stephen,” John B continued, pointing out a different man. “Stephen had the compass with him when he died in Vietnam.”

“Let me guess,” JJ cut off. “He died in action, right?” 

John B looked up at the blonde. “Sort of. Uh, actually, he was killed by a banana truck. In.. in country.” JJ and Pope followed Eli’s example and slowly shifted away from the boy. “Anyways, after that, Stephen passed the compass down to him, my dad.”

“And then he goes missing with the compass,” Eli added, “and then somehow Scooter Grubbs ends up with the compass and surprise surprise he also dies with it.” 

“Hm. Sounds like there's a reoccurring theme here,” JJ sarcastically stated. 

“Yeah, you have a death compass,” Pope tacked on. 

“Permission to launch this thing out the window, JB?” Eli queried, getting into a pitcher's stance. 

“I do not have a death compass,” John B defended. 

“You have a death compass,” Pope repeated. 

“Seriously dude, get rid of it,” JJ tried to convince. “It's cursed, and made its way back to you.” 

“Look, my dad used to talk about this compartment in here,” John B spoke as he sat down and started to fiddle with the compass, ignoring the comments around him. “Soldiers used to hide secret notes.”

Everyone watched as the boy unscrewed the compartment open, curiosity getting the better of them. 

“What's that?” Kie questioned as she pointed at the lid, causing John B to stare at it in shock.

“That wasn't there before,” he breathed out, eyes widening. “This is my dad's handwriting.” 

“How can you know that?” Pope queried with an incredulous look. 

“Because he does these weird Rs with the-” He held it up for Pope to inspect. “See it?” 

“Can I see it?” JJ asked, to which John B complied. “Red- Rout-” he attempted, eyes squinting as he tried to read the writing. Eli peered over his shoulders in interest, similarly trying to read the clue.”

“I think that's an A-”

“It says Redfield.”

JJ and Eli's heads turned towards Kie in synchronisation, shocked by how quickly she got it. 

“Right.”

“Okay, well, what's Redfield?” 

Eli glanced towards the window at the sound of the rooster suddenly filling the air. 

“Besides the most common name in the county?” 

“I, uh, maybe it's a clue,” John B theorised with a shrug, bringing back Eli's attention. “Maybe it's a clue to where he's hiding.” 

“A clue?” Pope repeated in disbelief. “Come on, that's-” Kie threw a look towards Pope, ultimately silencing him. “But if it is a clue,” he backtracked, “maybe it's an anagram?” 

The rooster cawed again, much to Eli's annoyance.

“Yes!” John B exclaimed. “Perfect. Anagram. You need paper.” He immediately reached to grab some paper and a pencil, shoving it towards Pope with hope in his eyes.

“How can you concentrate with that thing crowing at you?” Pope questioned as the rooster continued to caw. 

“Honestly,” Eli agreed. “It's getting on my nerves.”

“JJ loves the rooster.” 

“I love the rooster,” Kie also revealed. 

Eli sighed as she watched the group get to work. Crosswords and anagrams were never really her thing. Her eyes continued to roam around the room, when movement outside of the window caught her eyes. 

“Uh, guys?” She began as she straightened up, eyeing the unfamiliar truck parking up outside the Chateau. “Guys!” she exclaimed when nobody reacted, finally grabbing their attention.

“Somebody is here.”

~°• ☀︎︎ •°~

of course eli went blue teehee, peep that kny reference too yippee

Nova x