Vera was raised at the Chateau.

Even before her mom cheated and tore their family apart, Vera was spending more time at John B's home than her own. Her parents had more jobs than she could count, away for weird hours, and Vera would often come home only long enough to change and bike back over to John B's. JJ was the same way, often beating her to the Chateau, and the three of them would huddle up on John B's twin bed most nights. Kie wasn't in the picture back then, and Pope has a good family, so aside from the occasional sleepover he stayed at his own place.

This started in kindergarten, the year that JJ, John B, Pope and Vera were placed in the same class. They had been fast friends, wanting to do everything together, and Big John never once protested suddenly having three more kids to entertain.

Big John was everything that JJ and Vera's own fathers weren't. He was cool. He would help them hunt for buried treasure in the backyard and at the beach, he taught JJ how to fish and then how to prep and cook said fish—that was something Lonnie had already taught Vera—and he knew when to join in with their fun and when to leave them alone.

Her favorite memory of him will always be him teaching her how to surf. Her parents had turned down her plea's to learn, insisting that it was "too dangerous" and "a man's sport." She'd been 5 years old at the time, and she'd gone crying to John B about how she wasn't a baby. John B had taken the issue very seriously, agreeing that she wasn't a baby despite the tears flowing down her flushed cheeks, and he'd taken her straight inside where Big John was listening to JJ talk about their kindergarten adventures.

They'd both looked up from the couch when they heard her sniffling, and JJ ran over to her, tripping on a spare blanket but not letting that slow his pace. As soon as he'd reached her, he grabbed her hand and pulled her away from John B, frowning at his best friend.

"What'd you do?" He'd asked, frowning wider when Vera sniffed again from next to him.

"Nothin'!" John B protested, frowning and reaching out for Vera again. "She was cryin' when she got here!"

"Did you check if she was hurt?" JJ asked in a 'duh' tone, although all of the animosity had left his voice. He turned to Vera, his eyes widening when he saw her tears again, panicking as he started wiping them away with his fingers, only for new ones to quickly replace them. "Dude, she won't stop!"

"S—sorry." Vera stuttered, feeling embarrassed now. She could feel her lips wobbling, even as she tried to stop crying, pulling away from JJ to wipe at her eyes and getting angry when the tears still wouldn't stop.

"Her parents said she couldn't surf 'cause she's a girl." John B explained for her, crossing his arms over his chest.

"That's fuckin' stupid." JJ huffed, the swear sounding funny in his little voice, although it succeeded in making Vera giggle. She peeked out at him through her fingers, glad that he agreed with her. She was worried that he would agree with her mom and dad and wouldn't want her to surf with him and John B. They'd only just started learning, and she'd been so excited to join them, only to be told no.

"It is fucking stupid." Big John agreed, finally standing up from the couch and walking over to them. "Wipe them tears, girl. We'll teach you to surf."

"Really?" Vera perked up, beaming up at him when he nodded.

"Can we go now?" John B asked, grinning when his dad nodded. He rushed out to his room, coming back with a bathing suit that she'd left after her last sleepover. "Go change! Go, go, go!"

Vera giggled as she walked back to the bathroom, quickly slipping into the one piece bathing suit. It was her favorite one, a shiny purple pattern that reminded her of a mermaid's tail.

The boys were outside, loading up Big John's beige Volkswagen van, and Vera hurried to jump into the back with JJ, who immediately started giving her surfing lessons. She listened to his every word very seriously, taking it as gospel, despite JJ having only gone out surfing a few times. In her five year old self's mind, he was the coolest person ever, and she was happy to learn from him.

When they got to the beach, Big John pulled out a boogie board for her and spoke up before she could start pouting.

"Look, I wanna see how well you can handle these waves before I put you on a board." He told her, turning to look at his son. "Bird, grab her a vest."

John B grabbed one from the back, helping buckle her into it, and then they were out on the water on the boogie boards. They had fun playing with each other, coming up with games like mermaids and water freeze tag.

"This would be funner with Pope." JJ sighed at some point.

"We could play chicken." Vera pouted, agreeing that this would be better with a fourth person. Pope was funny, and nice, and super smart. He was always excited to talk about books with Vera, and he never minded reading out loud to JJ, who had a hard time sitting down long enough to read himself. He'd probably create a cool game if he was with them, but he had to spend a lot of time at home. That always made Vera sad, because she felt bad for anyone who had to be home a lot, even though Pope always talked happily about his mom and pops.

They stayed out for a while until Big John decided that she was a good enough swimmer, and then he grabbed a longboard. She was instantly terrified by the size of the board, but JJ and John B both held her hands while she got on, standing at the front of it while Big John sat on the back.

The three of them cheered her on the entire time, and Big John took her out that entire summer until she was at the same level as JJ and John B. She adored the sport, taking every chance to be out on the water, and she owed it all to Big John.

It only made it especially cruel that he ended up dying at sea.

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"And then we were right outside like this." JJ animatedly explains his and John B's adventure at Lana Grubbs's house. Vera, Pope, and Kie all listen from their spots outside, curious about the story. Pope and Kie had gone home, and Vera had been at work when they decided to get answers from Lana. "And all we hear is just, 'Bam! Bam! Bam!' Knocking paint off the wall, G! From the inside. Alright? And I'm just looking at him, like–wait, first off, look at this shit."

He ambles over to the couch that Pope and Vera have claimed, bending down and ruffling his hair so that white pieces fly off of it. Vera hopes that it's the paint he's talking about as some of it lands on her tank top.

"That's dandruff." Kie notes dryly, giving Vera a sympathetic look.

"Okay, thank you." Pope pushes him away, shaking his head.

"Look at all that! Alright? That's paint."

"Yeah, we see it." Vera notes, flicking it off of her clothes. "I'm now covered in it, thank you, Jayj."

"At that point, I was just, like . . . I'm waiting for death." JJ continues very dramatically, looking off into the distance.

"Oh, okay, so you saw the guys that shot at us, right?" Pope tries to get him back on track, his head in his hands.

"Yeah."

"Um, did–did you get a good description of them? What'd they look like?"

"Yeah! Anything's helpful." Kie adds, liking where this is going.

"Anything we can bring to a police report, maybe?" Pope continues, speaking over Kie.

"Uh, fuck no to bringing the police in." Vera scoffs, rolling her eyes. "They're useless as shit, bro. Do I need to send you my ACAB essay again?"

"No thanks."

"Burly." JJ answers.

"Burly?" Pope repeats slowly, clearly looking for more information than that.

"Yeah. You know, like–"

"That's not very helpful." Kie mumbles.

"Okay, well, no, like the kind of guy at my dad's garage." JJ defends himself. "I mean, you guys know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers."

"Yeah. Yes. No, we know." Kie agrees.

"So, I can tell you with full confidence, guys." JJ moves to lean back against a brick wall. "These boys, these killers . . ." He stops to take a hit of his weed pen, which Vera quickly steals for herself, ignoring the look Pope sends them. "They're square groupers."

"They're square groupers, like narco square groupers?" Pope checks, sounding a second away from leaving the group for good. "Like Pablo Escobar square grouper?"

JJ nods along, snatching the pen back and taking another hit. "Yeah, man."

"You guys, not everything is a kingpin movie." Kie sighs.

"Okay, so what do these square groupers look like, exactly?" Pope questions, bringing them back around to their original question. "Specifically. If we're throwing it out there that–"

"You weren't there, bro!"

""Cause apparently you don't know what to look for!" Pope shouts over him, his voice pitching higher in his frustration.

"Dude! I wasn't takin' little mental polaroids the entire time, man, I was under duress, okay?" JJ cries back, panting immediately after. "But I can tell you . . ." He stops to breathe, while Kie shakes her head, and Vera wonders if she should steal that pen from him permanently if he's already struggling this much to get a sentence out. "I can tell you by the way Ms. Lana was screaming . . . that these guys are serious, serious hombres, man. It's a heavy vibe right now, okay? I'm not liking this very much."

"Why would they want the compass?" Kie asks what they've all been wondering, while John B walks behind her, flipping said compass open and shut repeatedly.

"That thing's a piece of shit." Pope points out. "You couldn't pawn it off for five bucks if you wanted to. No offense, John B, I know it's like in your family–"

"The office." John B cuts Pope off.

"What?"

"My dad. My dad's office." John B walks away from them, toward the door. "He always kept his office locked because he was worried about his competitors stealing his Royal Merchant research. We used to laugh at him, like he'd find it."

JJ and Vera share a look, having been the ones to make those jokes the most often.

"But now that he's gone, I've just kinda . . . I just kinda left it as he kept it." John B stops in front of the locked door, the rest of them trailing behind him in the hallway, with Kie right behind him.

"Yeah, for when he gets back." Kie chips in, glaring at the three of them when they exchange looks at that. They all think Big John is dead, although they don't say so to John B, not wanting to hurt him. But the odds aren't in his favor. The old man was resourceful but to survive out at sea for nine months . . . Vera doesn't have that much faith.

"Yeah." John B nods, making quick work of the lock before pushing the door open.

"Woah. I've slept over here like 600 times, and I've never seen this door opened." Pope notes as they all trail in after John B, looking around the cluttered room.

"I honestly forgot that this room existed." Vera notes, because after years of never being allowed in it, it had no meaning to her. It was just the room that Big John would lock himself in for hours or days at a time while they ran around the house like it was theirs.

The room is covered in books, both opened and shut, journals, and maps. There are multiple globes, and one of them has sections marked off with a sharpie.

"Here, look." John B grabs down a corkboard with names written on it, a small family tree. "This is the original owner, right here."

"Okay. Robert Q Routledge." Kie reads off, all of them tilting their heads to read at that angle. "1880 to 1920. There's the lucky compass, right there." She points at a picture of Robert.

"Actually, um, he was shot after he bought it." John B admits quietly, and Vera shares an alarmed look with Pope and JJ. Outside, a rooster crows. "Then the compass was shipped back to Henry. Henry was killed in a crop-dusting accident when he had the compass."

"Of course he was." Vera mumbles, trying to remember if she's ever touched the compass. She doesn't think so, and she has no intentions of doing so now. Does holding the duffel bag count? Is she cursed for pulling it out of the wreck? She really hopes not.

"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?" JJ asks.

"Sort of." John B grimaces. "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." John B points to a picture of him and his dad, while Vera focuses on the writing above the picture, particularly the 1967– part. She has the rather sick thought that there should be a death year with it.

"Hmm. Sounds like there's a recurring theme here." JJ points out sarcastically.

"Yeah, um, you have a death compass." Pope adds on, while Vera nods.

"Yeah, dude, I'm sorry but this all feels very Kennedy Curse to me." She admits. "I vote that we toss the compass back into the ocean. You have other family heirlooms that don't have a death note to them, so. . ."

"We are not doing that, because I do not have a death compass." John B protests.

"You do."

"Is this the curse talking?" Vera asks him, shaking her head.

"Seriously, dude? Get rid of it." JJ advises. "It's cursed, and it's made its way back to you."

"Um, is anyone else worried that we could be cursed as well?" Vera wonders. "Is it, like, only in the Routledge DNA like with the Kennedy's, or is it, like, we can be cursed by proxy?"

"I really hope it's a Routledge thing." Pope says before pausing and looking guiltily at John B. "Also that it skips a generation."

"Look, my dad used to talk about this hidden compartment in here." John B ignores all of them, sitting down and messing with the compass. "Soldiers used to hide secret notes."

"Oh, good." Vera groans, shaking her head. "Let's find some notes from cursed dead people. Just how I wanted to spend my day."

He unscrews the compass, revealing a word engraved on it.

"This is my dad's handwriting."

"How can you know that?" Pope asks, getting a strange look from Vera.

"Uh, 'cause it's his dad? Look around, we're surrounded by it." She points out, nodding to a journal next to them.

"Also, he does these weird R's with the–see it?" John B waves the compass at them.

"Can I see?" JJ leans over and looks over John B's shoulder. "Red–Rout–No, I think that's an A."

"It says Redfield." Kie says before he can continue.

"Right." JJ pulls back, shrugging at a laughing Vera.

"Okay, well, what's Redfield?"

"Besides the most common name in the county?" Pope asks Kie, while the rooster crows again.

"Oh, maybe–maybe it's a clue." John B suggests. "Right? Maybe it's a clue to where he's hiding."

"A clue?" Pope scoffs. "Come on. That's–" Kie clears her throat pointedly, glaring at him from over John B's shoulder. "But if it is a clue, maybe it's an anagram."

"Yes!" John B jumps for the suggestion. "Perfect. An anagram. You need paper." He grabs a piece and shoves it on the table. "Okay. Here you go."

"How can you concentrate with that thing crowing at you?" Pope points out while the rooster crows again. The thing hasn't shut up in at least a minute.

"JJ loves the rooster."

"I love the rooster." Kie adds.

JJ leans in over Pope's shoulder. "Oh, that's what an anagram is!"

"Okay, let me think. Um, Dedfiel. Colors–that's stupid."

"Dreidel? Fiddler?" Kie suggests.

"Let's stick with what we're–"

"Defiler?" Vera suggests, pursing her lips as she tries to think.

"That's a good one." Pope tells her. "Does that mean anything to anyone?"

"No, it's missing a letter." Kie points out, and Vera frowns.

"Damn, I thought I had it." She sighs, while JJ pats her on the shoulder mockingly.

"Guys!" John B grabs their attention. "Somebody's here!"

They all gather at the window, watching two men walk to the porch.

"Guys, guys, is that them?" Kie asks frantically, while Vera turns to look at JJ, who'd gotten an actual look at them just earlier that day. The look on his face confirms it, and Vera feels like her stomach has bottomed out.

"This is suboptimal." Pope grimaces, while JJ turns away, repeating the word no over and over again.

"John B, I told you. Why does it always–?"

"Hey, look at me." John B jumps on him, pushing him up against the wall. JJ glares up at him, his chest heaving, and Vera has the really inappropriate thought that JJ looks hot like that. She doesn't love that he looks scared, but the chest heaving, glaring part . . . yeah, she can admit that that does something to her. "Where's the gun?"

"Gun? I, uh, I–I can't–"

"Now you don't have the gun?" Kie panics, her hands coming up to her face. "The one time we need the gun."

JJ and John B both realize that it was in his backpack at the same time, and that it would be on the porch.

"Go, go." John B urges him, but Vera shakes her head, yanking him back.

"Hell no. They're on the porch, idiots." She hisses at them, keeping a tight grip on JJ's shirt. "We're not splitting up."

"Good point." JJ whispers, shutting the door and slipping his hand into hers. "Okay, what do we do? 'Cause I'm really not trying to end up like Ms. Lana."

"John Routledge!" One of the men bellows from the porch, causing Kie to whimper. "Come on out now! Where's the compass?"

The front door slams open, the men coming inside, and Vera suddenly regrets the way that they never lock doors behind them. They start breaking things, the noises making JJ jump and Vera squeeze his hand tighter.

"Grab the window." Vera whispers, pointing to it as she puts her back to the door. They only have so long before the men discover this room. The boys rush over, trying to lift the windows, which don't budge.

"What–what's happening? Why is it taking so long?" Kie whispers, her voice breaking.

"It's painted shut, okay?" JJ hisses at her.

"I'll check the kitchen." One of the men calls out over the sound of glass breaking. John B moves over to Vera, leaning against the door with her.

"John B, do you still have a pocket knife?" She whispers, frowning when he shakes his head, but Kie rushes over to the desk at her words. When she comes back, she's holding a letter opener, starting to chip away at the paint.

"Kie, hurry up!"

"Check the back room!" One of the men screams, and Vera pushes back with all her strength.

"Shh!" Vera and John B hold their hands up to their lips, silencing JJ and Kie right as someone tries the door handle. They try it a few times, pushing from the other side, and Vera sends a terrified look to JJ who grits his teeth and turns back to the window, yanking it even harder than before.

"You better not be in there!"

The man starts kicking at the door, the force causing them to abandon their position in front of it. The door shakes with each kick, the doorframe starting to break apart, and they all focus back on the window. Kie gasps when the man shoots at the door handle, just in time for JJ to slide the window open.

Kie goes out first, then Pope, and then JJ is forcing Vera through, following after her. John B is the last one out, and they carefully slide the window shut to hopefully buy them some time. JJ is the one who leads them to the rooster coop, ducked down low so that they won't be spotted. Waiting there is torture, especially when the men start leaving the house with boxes of Big John's belongings, all taken from the office.

"Do something, Pope. Shut him up." JJ growls, referring to the rooster still crowing away from next to Pope. The chickens are clucking, and every noise has Vera flinching, worried that the men will decide to come check it out.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Pet it, or talk to it. I don't know." Kie whispers back, tears streaming down her face.

The truck door slams shut just as the rooster crows again, catching one of the men's attention. Vera shuts her eyes, unable to watch him walk towards them and really wishing that they had that gun. She has no desire to ever murder someone, but she wants her and her friends to be murdered even less.

She isn't expecting JJ to move over and snap its neck, feeling a little bit like she could throw up at the noises it makes. Kie sobs, while JJ looks sick at his own actions, but it does get the man to stop being suspicious of the noises.

"Ratter! What the hell are you doing? Let's go!" The other man calls out, and Vera mouths the name to herself while the truck engine starts up. None of them move for a while after the men leave, too scared to move from their positions.

Or, in John B's case, too angry.

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"I mean, it's obvious, right?" John B asks while driving the Twinkie. "A family heirloom? What better place to hide a message? He had to know it was gonna get back to me, right?"

"Yeah. It's possible." Kie agrees, although her face shows that she doesn't believe it.

"It could also be possible that you're concocting wild theories to help, you know, deal with your sad feels." Pope pipes up. Kie turns to give him an annoyed look from the passenger seat.

"Bro, you know how I process my sad feels." JJ says. "Dank nugs and the stickiest of ickies, that's how I do it."

"I want to take your brain out and study it." Vera laughs, meaning it as a compliment. The way he words things is fascinating to her.

"I'm not concocting, okay?" John B snaps, bringing the mood down. "My dad's trying to give me a message."

"If it helps you believe, John B." Kie says quietly.

"Look, I–I don't need a therapy session, okay? I'm not trippin' out."

"It's okay to trip, bro, but–" JJ tries, all of them not wanting John B to get his hopes up too high about his dad.

"Look, my–my dad is missing, okay?" John B shouts, turning to face JJ for a moment before turning back to the road. "Missing. You don't know what it's like to have the person closest to you vanish and then have no idea what happened. Just wake up every morning wondering."

Vera shoots a look at Pope and JJ, silently telling them to drop it. They can pick the subject back up another time, but right after some guys ransacked his house and stole his dad's belongings isn't the best time.

"It's been almost a year." Kie tells John B, ignoring the way Vera kicks the back of her seat.

"Hey, he could've been kidnapped. That's a possibility." JJ interjects before John B can snap at Kie next.

"Yeah, could be in a Soviet sub being interrogated by the KGB somewhere." Pope speculates.

"Absolutely. Uh . . . or Atlantis." JJ continues, and Vera snorts.

"Narnia."

"Guys." Kid stops them from continuing, shooting them dirty looks for joking around right now. "Look, what do you think the message is?"

"Redfield." John B states, conveniently right as they arrive at their destination: Redfield Lighthouse, a state park currently closed due to the hurricane. "Redfield Lighthouse. That's my dad's favorite place."

"He's secretly been hiding out here this whole time." Vera whispers to JJ, who snorts. Nothing about Big John dying is funny, but they have to make jokes when they can. It's helping her feel sane even though she's picked multiple chicken feathers out of her hair in the last hour. She can't believe that her summer has derailed so quickly, and that they're acting as if it's normal to be on the run from gun wielding lunatics.

Joking helps, and luckily for her, her best friend is a damn comedian.

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They all hop out when John B parks, taking a second to look at the lighthouse. It's gorgeous, truly, and thankfully not damaged from the storm.

"Alright, here's what's gonna happen. You're gonna post up and look out for bogeys, okay?" John B tells JJ, who looks around at them.

"Wait . . . why me?"

"Because you're not coming." Pope states the obvious.

"Why?"

"Look, JJ, there are independent and dependent variables. And you're an independent variable. We don't know what you're gonna do!" Pope explains, before turning to Vera. "You too. Half of his dumb ideas you've cosigned."

"Yeah, fair enough." Vera shrugs, accepting that. "Someone's gotta keep you on your toes."

"I'd like to be off of them for one day." He responds dryly, shaking his head at the two of them while they make kissing noises at him.

"Speaking of." John B speaks up. "Pope, you stand look out with them, okay? Make sure they don't do anything stupid."

"Want me to move any major rivers while I'm at it?" Pope asks.

"If we get split up, we meet at Vera's house."

"I'm gonna work on my merit scholarship essay, and I'm trying to keep felonies down to a minimum." Pope tells them, watching Kie and John B head out to the lighthouse.

"You're clearly not trying that hard." Vera laughs, gesturing around them. "How many have we broken this week alone?"

"He just can't resist our charm." JJ smirks, pulling a hacky sack out of his pocket and starting to kick it between the three of them. They lose themselves to it, competing to see who can kick it the highest, and for a little bit they're just kids hanging out.

That changes when they hear sirens coming close, the police having been called, and then they're booking it to the Twinkie and taking off.

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"She says she's not coming." Pope tells them, having been the one to go into The Wreck to get Kie a few hours later.

"Why not?" JJ questions, turning to John B next to him in the driver's seat. "What'd you do to her, John B?"

"Shit." John B complains, tapping the steering wheel. "Hold on. I'll deal with it."

"Ten bucks says he kissed her." Vera bets as Pope gets in the back seat with her, shaking his and JJ's hands as they agree to it.

"No way he had the balls." JJ scoffs. "I've been trying to get him to make a move, and he's been insisting that it's nothing."

"Why else would she not be coming out?" Vera shoots back. "Unless her parents are stopping her, but she would've just said that."

"I mean, Mike did pay John B's bail." Pope points out. John B hurt the worker at the lighthouse, who pressed assault charges, and John B hadn't taken Peterkin's offer of dropping them in exchange for the compass. Of course, because John B has horrendous luck, Peterkin had then stopped him from getting taken by those two square groupers, taking the compass from him then. And he'd gotten fired from the Cameron's, likely having been snitched on by Sarah.

An insane streak of bad luck within a few hours, all while Pope, JJ and Vera hung out at Vera's house, playing monopoly.

The sun is setting when they take off again, this time with Kie in the car with them.

"You mind if I just relax on this one?" JJ asks, smoking a J that he's been passing back and forth with Vera. "It's been a long day, and a lot of weird stuff's gone down. I'm just gonna lay low. Oh, did you want a hit of this?"

"I keep the signal clear." Pope protests, sighing when Vera takes it, shutting her eyes as she takes another hit, breathing in deep and feeling the stress of the day melt away.

"Dude, okay. Do you understand that your problem is that you don't get creative?" JJ starts, grabbing the joint back from Vera. "If you got creative, then–"

"Look, I–I know I was wrong about the lighthouse." John B speaks over JJ, and they all shut up to listen to him. "And–and pretty much wrong about everything else going on. But I–I was right about one thing. Okay? My dad is trying to tell me something."

Maybe it's the weed, or maybe it's the passion in John B's voice, but she finds herself believing him for the first time.

"Okay." She says, and John B smiles, looking back at her.

"Yeah? You believe me?"

"Yeah, I do. I mean, this is all, like, straight out of Scooby Doo or some shit, but I believe you." She agrees, deciding to just let herself be optimistic, even if it'll hurt later on if it turns out that Big John is truly dead. Them believing John B now will help him more than if they keep insisting that his dad is dead when he has no tangible proof of that.

They end up at a cemetery.

"This place is scary." Kie says while they walk through it, their flashlights lighting the way.

"Really? I think it's cool." Vera admits, getting weird looks in return. She knows that graveyards freak other people out, but she thinks it's a nice gesture of remembrance, and she likes looking through the names on the graves.

"John B, what are we doing?" Kie asks, getting shushed by him.

"Okay, so, you know how you're trying to remember a song and you can't remember who sings it?"

"Yeah."

"So, Redfield. This whole time, I thought it was a place, right? But it's not a place." John B explains as he leads the way to a mausoleum. JJ stumbles over a root in the ground, and Vera shares an amused look with Pope as he helps him stay on his feet. "It's a person."

John B holds up his lantern so that they can see the name Redfield engraved at the top of the mausoleum.

"Voi–effing–là." JJ gasps.

"See, my great-great-grandmother, Olivia Redfield. That was her maiden name." They all stare at the giant tomb, vines hanging from the top and covering the door. "Help me with the door. Come on."

"Alright." Pope moves forward, while Vera and Kie share a look, silently agreeing that this thing isn't going to budge. "One, two, three."

Despite all five of their best attempts, they don't manage to pry open the door. JJ keeps insisting that he can get it, only to fail with the rest of them.

"Come on, this door's like 700 pounds, man. It's not gonna budge." Pope grunts.

"We didn't come this far to get this far, alright?" JJ shoots back.

"Okay, Shakespeare. Let's see you do it." Vera snaps, taking a step back from the door only to scream when a snake comes out of a hole, hissing at them. "Oh my god, oh my god, get it away!"

"That's a moccasin, alright!" JJ tells them, although Vera could care less what breed it is. "Ye olde Dr. Cottonmouth. Death in tall grass."

He starts barking at it as it slithers away.

"JJ, shut up!"

"Shut up, oh my god!"

Vera moves forward, slapping a hand over his mouth before he can continue barking or making other loud noises.

"You're gonna wake the freakin' dead, man!" Pope protests, and Vera laughs as she pulls her hand away from JJ's mouth right before he can lick it, seeing the way he glares at her over the lost opportunity.

"Hold on. If there's one, there's probably dozens." JJ tells them, and Vera shivers, taking a step closer to him.

"Stop. You're scaring me." Kie huffs, while Vera keeps herself right next to JJ as he takes a step forward, not wanting to get caught alone by a snake.

JJ starts barking again, starting the protests back up.

"Stop barking at the snakes!" John B snaps, while Vera frowns.

"I mean, if it gets them to leave us alone, I'm okay with it." She tells them, not wanting to risk getting bit. Snakes freak her out.

"John!" Pope finally gets in between the boys, shaking his head and changing the subject back to why they're here. "Look. We're not gonna get in there, alright? It's not budging. We should probably just go."

"I can get through." Kie states, confusing them.

"Uh, through where?" Vera asks, turning to look at the girl, who is aiming her flashlight at the hole in the door.

"What?" John B asks. "No, no, no, no. You think you're gonna fit through the hole? That hole?"

"That's what she said." Vera whispers, and JJ high fives her, before they turn back to Kie.

"Look, this is about your dad." She says, sharing a long look with John B, who looks surprised at her for wanting to be so involved after days of protesting. "And honestly, I really don't believe in it, but you deserve to know the truth. I'll do it. Come on."

They move forward, moving aside the vines and branches covering the hole, and Vera shivers at the thought of crawling inside of there.

"Give her a boost."

JJ bends down with his back to the building, planting his feet. "I'm gonna boost you. I've seen it in the movies several times. Ready?"

"Remind me what we're looking for." Kie sighs.

"You'll know when you see it." John B tells her, and Vera hopes for all of their sakes that that's true.

"Hold my flashlight." Kie orders, and Vera grabs it from her while she puts her foot in JJ's hands, pushing herself up with his assistance. She grunts when she lands on the other side, calling out for the flashlight, which Vera passes over.

"You alive?" John B asks after about five seconds of silence. "You got, like, a–a heartbeat and everything?"

"No, she died instantly without making a single noise." Vera deadpans, shaking her head at her friend.

"Shut up."

"So far!" Kie calls out to them.

"That's good. That's good."

"I need some more light." Kie decides, and Vera bites her lips before thinking screw it.

"I'm going in." She tells them all, hating every second that Kie is in there by herself while they wait around for her. The boys can't fit through that hole, but she can. "Kie, I'm coming in!"

"Bring the flashlights with you!" Kie calls back, and Vera is quick to stash one in her back pocket and another in her mouth as she grabs JJ's shoulder, putting her foot in his hands just like Kie had previously done. She gets instant flashbacks to helping Sarah sneak back into her house a while back, which she shoves away, not wanting to think about a Kook at the moment.

"Three, two, one!" JJ pushes her up at the countdown, and she's quick to grab a hold of the door and pull herself up and through, wincing when she feels her hands being cut up by the stone. She ignores it, dropping into the room where Kie is waiting for her, and pulling out the flashlights.

"Here." John B's voice sounds before he passes down his lantern, which makes it a hundred times easier to see in there. She shoves the flashlights back in her pocket. Thankfully, she doesn't see any snakes, although there's a freaky cobweb in the far corner that she makes a note to avoid. They look around them, only to freeze when they find something.

"Did you find something?" JJ calls out to them, his voice echoing strangely. "Is it gold?"

"Oh my god." Is all Kie responds with, a shocked smile lighting up both of their faces as they stare at the Fedex package hiding inside a pocket of one of the walls.

'For Bird' is written on it, in Big John's handwriting, proving John B right.

"Holy shit. Remind me to never doubt John B." Vera says in disbelief, watching as Kie passes the envelope out to Pope, who hands it to John B.

"Holy shit. This is from my dad." John B states, looking overwhelmed. It's clear that he'd gotten his hopes up, but that he didn't fully expect himself to be right about Big John leaving him a message. It has been nine months, after all.

Kie and Vera help each other out of the hole, dusting each other off.

"Code red. Code red." JJ suddenly says, facing the other direction as their look out. "Square groupers! Square groupers!"

They all rush behind the mausoleum, and Vera can't help her annoyance. How do those two lunatics keep finding them?

"Light!" Kie points out, turning hers off as Vera does the same. John B fumbles for the lantern, trying to turn it off, while Pope reaches out and turns JJ's headlamp off.

"I see something!" A man calls out, and Vera flinches back, desperately hoping that it isn't the guys that have now terrorized them on two different occasions. Her heart can't take much more of this.

"Do you think it's them?" Kie whispers, and JJ takes a quick look over the side of the wall.

"Homie's got a gun."

"Of fucking course they do." Vera groans.

"Screw this." Kie decides, taking off running. They all follow behind her, none of them wanting to get caught by these guys again.

"I'm gonna be able to run a damn marathon easily by the time this week is up." Vera gripes as they sprint across the grass, her heart racing. "This is bullshit! The only exercise I planned for this summer was the surfing kind!"

"Well, at least you'll stay fit." JJ tells her, and she shoves him to the side, snorting when he almost falls over.

They reach the gate in no time, climbing it and swinging down. Pope is the last one over, hanging down as his pants get stuck. Vera can hear them tearing as she hops in place, wanting to take off but refusing to leave him behind.

"Just drop!" She whisper-shouts. "We got you, just let go!"

"Pope, come on, man!" JJ calls out, and Vera turns just in time to see him pull his gun out, having gotten it back from John B's porch at the earliest opportunity.

"Jay! Don't point the fucking gun at him!" She hisses, wanting to scream. How does he always have the best intentions but the worst plans?

"Pope, don't move, okay?" He calls out, although thankfully John B jumps over and shoves the gun down before he can pull the trigger.

Kie and Vera tug him down, ignoring his complaints about them ripping his pants, and he falls to the ground with a loud groan. They all laugh as he ends up in just his underwear, his shorts hanging to the gate.

"It's a little Tootsie Roll!" JJ calls out with a smirk, all of them starting to run again.

Vera takes pity on him when they get into the van, tossing him a flannel and watching with amusement as he ties it around his waist.

"Aw, you're matching Kie now." She teases, winking at Kie. "That's so cute. Pose!"

She's never been more thankful that she keeps a handful of disposable cameras in the Twinkie. Pope tackles her, trying to throw the camera out of the window, and she cackles as she tosses it to JJ in the front seat. He protects it for her, shoving it out of Pope's reach, and Pope retaliates by starting a proper wrestling match while the others place bets on the winner, all of them laughing loudly.

This is the summer Vera wanted.

𓆉⋆｡˚⋆❀ 🐚🫧𓇼 ˖°

Inside the Chateau, JJ makes the most disgusting sandwich Vera has ever seen in her life, considering the giant spots of mold on the bread.

"That bread had mold on it three days ago." Pope points out, grimacing with disgust at JJ, who looks up from spreading peanut butter on it.

"Yeah, I'll just pull off the bad parts. Plus, mold is good for you. It's just a natural organism."

"I'm not holding your hair back when you start yackin' all over the place." Vera informs him, shoving a handful of Marshmallow Matey's in her mouth. She'll always insist that they taste better than Lucky Charms, which they can never defend paying the extra few dollars for.

"JJ!"

"Yup, yup!" JJ jogs into the living room, where John B is sitting with the envelope in front of him, a candle lit on the table. "Hot damn! Let's do it!" JJ takes a bite of the sandwich, instantly gagging and spitting it back out while Pope smirks.

John B ignores him in favor of tearing the envelope open.

He pulls out a folded map, carefully but quickly pulling it open and smoothing it out on the table. There are drawings from Big John on it, calculations that Vera doesn't understand, and a set of coordinates.

"X marks the spot." Pope points out a spot on the map labeled with a X.

"Longitude, latitude." John B runs his fingers along the map, before frowning and grabbing the abandoned envelope underneath the map after feeling a bump. "Wait, there's something else in there."

He pulls out a tape recorder, and Vera swallows thickly, suddenly feeling like she's intruding on a moment meant only for John B.

John B runs his fingers over it, looking overwhelmed by what this could mean for him, and for his dad.

"What's that?" JJ asks.

"It's a tape recorder, dumbass." Kie tells him, exchanging a 'can you believe this idiot?' look with Vera.

John B hits the play button, Big John's voice filling the suddenly silent room.

"Dear Bird, I hate to say 'I told you so,' but, I told you so. And you doubted your old man. I suspect at this moment, you're filled with guilt and self-loathing over our last fight, but don't kill yourself just yet, kid."

Vera can't help but smile. She's missed Big John and his strange, dark sense of humor.

"I didn't expect to find the Merchant either."

No fucking way.

"You were probably right to call me out. Wasn't exactly Father of the Decade. What can I say, kid? I could smell the barn. And, hopefully we're listening to this in our brand new sugar-shack down in Costa Rica, livin' off passive investments and pulling on permits. If not, and you find this for less than optimal reasons, well, that's what the map is for. There she is, the wreck of the Merchant. If somethin' happens to me, finish what I started. Go for the gold, kid. I love you, Bird, even if I didn't always act like it. I'll see you on the other side."

Static crackles as the audio ends, and Vera's heart breaks at the look on John B's face: the mingled wonder at hearing his dad's voice, at the wonderful thing he found for them, and grief over what this message could mean. John B pushes away from the table, falling into the doorway as he starts sobbing. Months of repressed grief, anger, fear, all of it escaping him in this moment.

"Holy shit, he did it!" JJ celebrates. "Big John–he found the Merchant–"

"Can you . . . can you please?" Kie starts, tears in her own eyes.

"Sorry." JJ sobers instantly, frowning when John B's sobbing fills the room. "Shit, I'm sorry."

Kie moves to hug him from behind while the rest of them stay at the table, trying to come to terms with everything that's happened in the last 24 hours alone. Vera looks at JJ and Pope, the three of them lost about what to do. Part of her still wants to believe that Big John is alive, after he'd had such a huge impact on her life growing up, but the other part of her wants to be practical about his odds of survival being low.

They all find themselves out on the dock as soon as John B feels a bit better, where Kie strums her ukulele as they all drink in silence.

"Four hundred mil." Pope tells them, and Vera shakes her head in complete shock. She can't imagine what they could do with that much money.

"Alright, let's talk the split." JJ continues. "Now, before we say 'evenly,' may I remind you that I am the only one that can properly defend us from those groupers who were after us."

"Properly is insane." Vera snorts. "I'm sorry, when have you fought back this entire time?"

"I didn't have the gun then." JJ defends himself, and Vera waves that off.

"It doesn't matter. It's an even split or nothing at all." She tells them, meaning it. "We're not doing this Kook bullshit of who deserves what."

"What are you gonna do with your 80 mil, Vee?" Kie asks her, and she tilts her head as she considers it.

"Well, we are making a turtle sanctuary, don't forget." She reminds her, delighted when Kie lights up at the thought. "But, I don't know . . . I think I'd want to do something related to the water. Like, design cute and comfortable rash guards, and have a shop by the beach. Oh, travel the world. Fill up an entire passport with stamps, and buy ugly shirts at every stop, and surf until I nail my handstand trick. Have a beachside house that all of us camp out in and continue making bucket lists every summer. Nothing crazy. Pope?"

"Pay for college in advance." Pope decides, and Vera smiles at the predictable answer. "Also textbooks. Those are expensive."

"What about you, Kie?" JJ asks.

"Yeah, what does a socialist do when she's rich?" Pope asks.

Kie chuckles. "I just wanna make a double album. About OBX, the Pogues."

"Well, I want royalties." Vera winks at her, although the idea warms her up. "And front row concert tickets. And backstage passes. Oh, you have to sign things for me, like, all the time so that I can sell them online and make all my traveling money back."

"You've got it, babe." Kie kisses her cheek. "I'll record it at Marley Studio, Peter Tosh producing."

"Peter Tosh is dead."

"Peter Tosh is dead, I know." Kie speaks at the same time as Pope, and Vera laughs into her PBR. "Spirit of Peter Tosh will never die."

"Actually, I know what I'm gonna do." JJ chimes in. "I'm gonna get a big ass house on Figure Eight and go full Kook."

"You're gonna go full Kook?" Pope laughs at the idea along with the rest of them. JJ is as Pogue as it gets.

"Yup. I'm gonna get a marble statue of myself, and then I'm gonna get a koi pond. Put a bunch of those fish–"

"I'm never visiting." Kie laughs.

"Um, can I have the guest room?" Vera asks, meaning it. "I want to see this koi pond."

"We'll be married and throw giant Kook parties. Like, grander than Midsummer's." JJ smirks at her, and she laughs, delighted at the game they're playing. "You'll have your shop next door, and we'll go on vacation whenever we're supposed to get a storm, and build a pool with a water slide in it. Pope can visit on his school breaks, and move in when he ends up with no job, 'cause being a coroner is weird as fuck."

"Are you going to have a job?" Vera asks him. "Or are you going the Sugar Baby route?"

"I thought you'd never ask." JJ beams at her. "I'd love to be your Sugar Baby. What about you, Pope? You want that?"

"A wasted college education, and freeloading on a rich chick? That's the American Dream." Pope agrees, nodding very seriously.

"Well, sounds like we've got it all figured out." Vera giggles, secretly thinking that that would actually be perfect. "What about you, JB?"

John B looks around at them from his spot on the floor, cradling a beer. He's been silent this whole time, and none of them have pressed him to talk, knowing that he's grieving.

"To going full Kook." He says, a small smile on his face.

"To going full Kook." They all cheer, thrilled that their luck is turning around.