"and then we were right outside like this." jj demonstrated how he was against the wall at lana's house.

after they had left, they picked up kiara and pope and everyone went back to the château. jj being jj had to re-enact the entire situation.

"and all we hear is just 'bam! bam! bam!" he continued. "knocking paint off the wall, g! from the inside. all right and i'm just looking at blair and john b, like-"

"wait. you brought blair with you?" pope asked in shock.

"yeah, anyway, look at this shit." jj walked over to the four and combed his fingers through his hair. "from the house."

"that's dandruff, disgusting." kiara told him, making blair let out a laugh from beside the girl.

"okay, thank you." pope spoke, rolling his eyes.

"look at all that. all right?" jj pointed to the ground. "that's paint. at that point, i was just, like... i'm waiting for death."

"oh, okay, so you saw the guys that shot at us." pope then pointed to blair. "and who shot blair, right?" he asked.

"yeah." jj replied.

"did you get a good description of them?" pope questioned again. "what did they look like?"

"yeah, anything." kiara spoke. "anything's helpful."

"well, these two wouldn't let me see." blair muttered.

"anything we can bring to a police report." pope added on.

jj looked out at the water. "burly." he simply said.

pope looked at him dumbfounded. "burly?"

jj nodded. "yeah. you know like-"

"jj, that's not very helpful." blair told him kindly.

"okay, well, no, like the type of guy at my dad's garage." jj paused for a moment. "i mean, you guys know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers."

kiara nodded. "yeah. yes. no, we know."

"i can tell you with full confidence, these boys, these killers..." jj pulled out his vape and took a drag, blowing out the smoke. "they're square groupers."

"they're square groupers, like narco square grouper?" pope asked, his hands running across his face. "like pablo escobar square grouper?"

jj took another drag from his vape. "yeah, man." he then passed the vape to blair with a smile.

"you guys, not everything is a kingpin movie." kiara told the two boys.

blair looked up at john b, who was standing behind her, giving him a soft smile. he had been quiet since the three had left ms lana's house. the boy gave her a small smile back, reaching to give her shoulder a soft squeeze.

"okay, so what does this square grouper look like?" pope asked turning his body to face jj. "specifically-"

"you weren't there, bro!" jj argued.

"because apparently, you don't know what to look for." he said as jj spoke.

"dude! i wasn't taking little mental polaroids the entire time, man. i was under duress, okay?" jj wouldn't stop moving around, waving his hands all over the place.

pope sat back into the couch, his arms crossed against his chest.

"but i can tell you." jj paused catching his breath. "i can tell by the way ms lana was screaming... that these guys are serious, serious hombres, man."

there was silence throughout the group, blair just looked at jj as she took drags on his vape.

"i'm not liking this very much." jj spoke again.

"why do they even want the compass?" blair asked, leaning forward in the chair.

"it's a piece of shit." pope spoke up. "you couldn't pawn it off for five bucks if you wanted to." he quickly pointed at john b. "no offence i know it's in  your family-"

"the office." john b finally spoke.

"huh?" blair looked at him in confusion.

"what?" pope asked.

"my dad. my dad's office." john b spoke again, heading inside his home. "he always kept the office locked because he was worried about his competitors stealing his royal merchant research."

the pogues stood up following after him, blair passed jj his vape back to him, their touch lingering for a few moments, making blair slightly blush.

"we used to laugh at him like he was gonna find it." john b continued as he headed towards his father's office. "but now that he's gone, i've just kinda... i just left it as he kept it." he pulled out the keys for the door.

"yeah, for when he gets back." kiara told john b.

blair and jj glanced at each other knowingly.

john b paused for a moment when he found the key. "yeah." he put the key into the padlock and opened the office door.

the pogues stepped into the office, it was a mess.

"i've slept over her like six hundred times, and i've never seen this door opened." pope told the group.

kiara just hummed, looking around the room, as did blair. john b placed a board onto a stack of books. "yeah, here, look. this is the original owner, right here."

the group crowded around the board john b was showing them.

"okay. robert q. routledge, eighteen-eighty to nineteen-twenty." kiara spoke.

"that's the lucky compass, right there." blair smiled pointing to a photo of the man with the compass.

"actually, um... he was shot after he bought it." john b said quietly, blair opened her mouth slightly. "then the compass was shipped back to henry." john b continued, pointing to another name with a photo below it. "he was killed in a crop-dusting accident when he had the compass."

"okay... this thing sounds cursed." blair spoke in worry.

john b gave blair a soft playful nudge. "after he died, the compass was given to stephen. stephen had the compass with him when he died in vietnam." he continued pointing to another picture where the compass was shown.

"let me guess, he died in action, right?" jj asked.

"sort of." john b stuttered for a moment. "uh, a-actually, he was killed by a banana truck. in- in country."

blair's lips thinned, nodding her head. "definitely cursed."

"anyways, after that, stephen passed the compass down to him, my dad." john b pointed to a photo of him and his dad. the date said nineteen-sixty-seven, but there was no number after it.

"hm. sounds like there's a reoccurring theme here." jj spoke up.

"yeah, you have a death compass." pope added on.

"or a cursed one." blair shrugged.

"i do not have a death or cursed compass." john b told them.

"you have a death compass." pope nodded.

"harsh truths." blair said as their voices overlapped each other's

"get rid of it." jj told him. "it's cursed, and made its way back to you."

"look, my dad used to talk about this compartment in here." he pulled out the compass and began trying to take it apart. "soldiers used to hide secret notes." he unscrewed part of the compass and shook it trying to open the compartment.

"what's that?" kiara pointed out to a word etched into the metal.

"that wasn't there before." john b said with confusion, he looked at the pogues. "this is my dad's handwriting."

"how can you know that?" pope asked with disbelief.

"because he does these weird rs with the-" he showed pope and blair the compass. "see it?"

"can i see it?" jj asked, john b passed him the compass. "red-" he tried saying the word etched into it. "rout-"

"no, i think that's an a, jj." blair said as she looked over his shoulder, also struggling to make out what it said.

"it says redfield." kiara told them.

"really?" blair pulled a face. "i don't-"

"b, it says redfield." john b patted her shoulder.

the girl hummed with a shrug.

"okay, well, what's redfield?" kiara asked.

"besides the most common name in the country?" pope spoke up.

"oh, maybe- maybe it's a clue, right? maybe it's a clue to where he's hiding?" john b questioned.

"okay..." jj dragged out.

pope shook his head. "a clue? come on, that's-" kiara cleared her throat. "but if it is a clue, maybe it's an anagram?"

john b shot up. "yes. perfect. anagram. you need paper." he looked for some paper and put it down on the desk. "here you go."

pope pulled a face. "how can you concentrate with that thing crowing at you?" pope asked referring to the rooster, who was also driving blair crazy.

"jj loves the rooster." john b told pope.

"i love the rooster." kiara added.

blair walked over to the window, looking out of it. she was absentmindedly holding onto her arm where she was shot. she had to change the bandage before it caused any issues, jj came and stood behind her, he placed a hand on her shoulder.

blair looked behind her, sending a warm smile to jj. she placed her hand on top of jj's giving it a small squeeze. the boy headed back to pope and john b came to stand next to the girl trying to solve the possible anagram.

the two looked up to see an suv pull up to the château. they looked at each other in worry.

"hey, guys?" john b spoke.

"guys! somebody's here." blair said loudly.

jj, pope and kiara walked up to the window, the group saw two men head towards the porch.

"guys, guys, is that them?" kiara asked in worry.

"is that them?"

"oh, fuck." blair whispered.

jj backed away. "john b, i told you. why does it always-"

john b interrupted jj, grabbing him by his collar. "jj! hey, look at me." john b pushed him back into a wall. "where's the gun?" he asked.

"gun? i, uh, i can't-" jj tried to speak.

"now you don't have the gun the one time we need the gun?" kiara asked in disbelief, slightly panicking.

"it was in my backpack, and then i-"

"backpack- on the porch." john b told him.

"it's on the porch."

blair groaned, looking out the window again. she hesitated for a moment before running out of the room towards the porch.

"blair!" she heard jj hiss.

"john routledge!" a man yelled.

"fuck." blair whispered, sprinting back to the office.

"come on out now! fuck-"

she entered the room and shut the door, shaking her head.

"what were you thinking!" pope whispered to the girl loudly.

"where's the gun?" john b asked.

"we left it too late. they're already on the porch." blair snapped, pressing the palms of her hands into her eyes.

"get out here!" one of the men yelled.

"routledge!" the other shouted.

there was the sound of things being thrown about, making blair squeeze her eyes shut.

"we gotta leave!" kiara whispered.

blair stood with her back still to the door.

"guys, window. window." jj rushed towards the window trying to open it.

there was more shouting from the other side of the door and blair felt like she was in a haze, her eyesight was blurry. she was trying to calm her breathing but she couldn't, the girl clutched her hand to her chest, sliding down the door.

"stop yelling, blair and james are gonna hear." blair's father spoke to his wife.

"i don't give a fuck, noah!" she shouted drunkenly.

blair stood in the living room a few meters away from the kitchen where her parents were arguing. her breathing was unsteady as the ten-year-old girl walked closer to the yelling.

there was the sound of glass smashing making blair let out a small yelp. there was silence for a few moments until she heard heels clicking against the kitchen tiles.

"what are you doing here?!" blair's mom yelled, kneeling to the child's level, grabbing blair by her t-shirt.

her bottom lip quivered as she tried not to start crying.

"cristina, take your hands off of her right now." noah spoke firmly, but he didn't yell, not like blair's mom did.

tears began to fall down blair's cheeks. "i'm sorry, mommy."

"stop crying!" the woman shouted.

"cristina." noah warned. "get off her now."

young blair looked behind her mother and towards her dad, her hero every time this would happen.

"you need to keep out of this, you little bitch!" cristina snarled, shaking her daughter, making her cry even more.

"mommy, stop, please!" blair cried out.

noah quickly moved to pick blair up into his arms. he held her tightly and took her to her room, ignoring cristina's yells.

he placed blair into her bed and wiped away her tears. "it's gonna be okay, my little superstar." her dad smiled at her. "we are gonna be okay, mommy's just angry right now, but she'll make you some pancakes in the morning. you like pancakes, don't you?" he moved her hair out of her face as she nodded. "get some sleep, i love you."

"i love you too, daddy." blair sniffled as she watched her dad leave her room, softly closing the door behind him.

the next thing blair knew she was in the rooster's coop, jj holding onto her face softly. she had no idea how she even got there.

"b, you gotta stay quiet, okay?" jj said softly, making the girl just nod.

she held tightly onto one of jj's hands, the rooster was crowing loudly, making the pogues panic.

"do something, pope. shut him up." jj whispered to the boy.

"what do you want me to do?" pope questioned.

"pet it, or talk to it. i don't know." kiara spoke quietly, she looked like she was about to cry.

jj turned back to blair, wiping away the tears that had fallen down her cheeks. john b moved back from the wire he was looking through. the clucking continued.

"you do something." pope spoke in a hushed whisper.

jj grabbed the rooster and held it against the ground, he pushed down and broke its neck. kiara let out a quiet sob.

there was silence until one of the men spoke. "ratter! what the hell are you doin'? let's go."

kiara let out another sob once she heard the car move away from the château.