A bloody compass. I can't believe it, Samantha thought to herself. She spat the remaining toothpaste out, urged by her brother who was insistently knocking at the door. "C'mon! You're taking an eternity".

      "If you don't stop, I swear I'm gonna stay in this bathroom for the next two hours" she said out loud, trying to overwhelm Caleb's complaints.

       The pressing knocks stopped, and a loud snort came from the other side of the door. Samantha stifled a winning chuckle, leaning towards the mirror and looking at her herself.

       The rings under her eyes had gotten worse as she passed another sleepless night, with gunshots ringing in her ears every time she closed her eyes. She signed and tried to fixe her black hair, tidying up some unruly locks.

       When she unlocked the door with a click and opened it, she faced her brother. He was taller than her, so she had to lift her gaze slightly. "Finished" she said, with a teasing smirk. She loved getting on the nerves of her  big brother; it was a sort of revenge for her little-child traumas.

       Caleb replied with an annoyed grunt, then he entered the bathroom and slammed the door.
"Rude" Samantha rolled her eyes, although she knew she had occupied the bathroom for a very long time.

       From the moment she returned home the evening before, her thoughts whirled around the events of that day. If she could go back, she surely wouldn't have risked her life for that compass, John B's father's or not. But, if her friend was right, what link could there be between his father and that whole situation? And why were those men ready to kill a bunch of kids in cold blood just to take it?

       "I'm going out!" she shouted, even though she knew that Caleb, in the shower, probably wouldn't hear her.
She turned the handle of the front door and when it opened, letting the hot air of the outside in, she let out a little shriek, jumping up for the surprise.

"Morning, Sammy" JJ's smile greeted her.

       "Geez" she gasped, "knocking is outmoded?". He was standing in front of the door, his hands sunk in his pockets, his eyes darting around beyond her. Doubt creeped inside her. "How long have you been here?" she frowned.

      "A little, actually" JJ rocked on his feet, his eyes still focused inside the house. "I was waitin' for you, but I would've knocked in a little while".

      The truth hit Samantha. She let out a chuckle, while leaning against the doorframe with crossed arms and her eyebrow raised. "You were afraid that my brother would've opened the door".

       "What?" he scoffed, as if he had heard the greatest absurdity of all the times. "I wasn't".

       "Yes, you were," Samantha replied, arching her eyebrow even more, chuckles shaking her chest. "It's for that that you are inspecting my house, JJ. You're scared that he's going to show up".

      JJ snorted, rolling his eyes. "Okay Sherlock, you're right" he spread his arms in surrender, "I'm not fond of him. But saying that he scares me is overstating".

      Samantha bursted in laughter. "I knew it!" she put a hand on her belly, as it started to hurt from laughing too much. "You're totally afraid of him".

       Long story short, JJ's fear of Samantha's brother started in third grade. It was lunch break, and Samantha and her friends - JJ, John B and a pair of girls she used to speak to - were eating their meal. A little squabble arose between Samantha and JJ, about something she couldn't even remember why.

       It happened that JJ pulled her hair, making her shriek and cry, gaining the attention of the entire cafeteria. Suddenly, a fifth-grade Caleb appeared, towering over JJ, and hit him straight in the face, making his noise bleed.

Caleb gained his first and last punishment, but he didn't care at all, as the irritating smirk of JJ Maybank has disappeared from his face.

       It wasn't a secret that from that moment on Caleb looked at him askance, and the trouble-maker reputation JJ gained during the years didn't make Caleb change his attitude towards him. JJ avoided his friend's brother, but Samantha would never have thought that he was still afraid of him.

       She moved away from the doorway and closed it, as her laughter became a soft chuckle. "The reckless and impudent JJ Maybank fears the bookworm Caleb Spencer".

JJ snorted, following her down the porch steps. "You're very annoying, you know?".

"Temper your words, if you don't want to be beaten up by my brother, again".

• • •

       "It was like a movie, bang, bang, bang" JJ hopped around Samantha, pretending to shoot with an imaginary rifle in his hands.

"Yes, shame about the part that it was not a film" Samantha rolled her eyes, thinking at them risking their lives not even a day before, "and that they were actual bullets of actual rifles, belonging to actual killers".

The chateau appeared in front of them, surrounded by flat quiet. "I think he's still sleeping" Samantha stated.
JJ rushed towards the window overlooking the living, or what had the appearances of it, as John B surely wasn't the best at keeping the order in his own house.

"Sammy, come here" he whispered-shouted. Samantha reached him and crouched down next to him, looking at a sleeping John B.

"DCS! I know you're in there!" JJ yelled, knocking violently the glass of the window. John B instantly sat up, opening his eyes wide, fear and shock in them. They darted around the room, until they landed on Samantha and JJ, already shaking from uncontrollably laughs.

"You should have seen your face".

"You assholes," John B muttered in a yawn, rubbing his eyes.

• • •

       Samantha beat JJ at rock-paper-scissors, so now she was sitting in the passenger seat next to John B. She was enjoying the wind coming from the window open, which ruffled her hair but was refreshing.

"Really, I don't understand why you don't at least try with Kiara. She clearly likes you" JJ's face was popping out between the two front seats. "She's like Oh, John B" he moaned.

"Your imitations are getting worse" Samantha scoffed with a grimace.

JJ ignored her, turning his head to John B.  "She's sketching about you diving and then she kissed you".

"She kissed me on the cheek" John B replied. "It's not like we were mackin' out".

"Low-hanging fruit, bro. Don't pretend you don't notice. I see it in your eyes, you're like "I kinda like that" and you start blushing".

"I blush? Really?"

"Yeah, really".

"Do you agree with him, Sam?".

"I'm neutral," Samantha shrugged, even though she wasn't. She knew Kie had a thing for John B lately, and it was obvious he had it too. But she told her best friend many times that in her opinion John B wasn't the right person for her, regardless of the no-pogue-on-pogue-mackin' rule.

Letting the topic on a fall, JJ leaned in towards the dashboard, but he almost fell on Samantha due to a pothole. She snorted loudly, pushing him away.

"Don't worry, I'm gonna cling on you in a more private location" he winked, sitting back in his place.

"Hey, don't-" John B stretched his arm behind him, trying to grab the compass JJ took, causing the van to zig-zag a little bit.

"Chill down, I'm just looking at it" JJ justified himself, fidgeting with the item in his hands. "I gotta admit, your father's compass in Scooter's boat, that's freaky".

"That's why we're going to talk to Ms. Lana, to figure this whole thing out" John B replied.

"I'm sure she would just love to talk to us" Samantha scoffed, faking excitement. "It's not like her husband just drowned or anything".

When put to words I could've even make a sound, and I see you sometimes- Samantha interrupted humming the words of the song played by the radio as soon as they arrived at their destination.

She opened the door of the van and got off, the sound of calling seagulls echoing in the sky.

"Know what this house looks like?" John B asked, approaching Lana's colorful house. Samantha followed him, her eyes scanning the green surroundings.

"Whoever lives here smokes too much weed"
JJ finished the sentence, as John B mimed to blow a blunt.

But the weirdness of the house and its owner was the last of their problems, and they realized it when muffled sounds of clattering and smashing glass came from the inside.

Samantha exchanged confused and fearful looks with the others. "I don't think Ms. Lana's ready for a visit" she muttered, her voice instinctively lowering.

"Maybe we should come back," JJ echoed her.

"Shut up" John B hushed them, cautiously walking towards the house. Samantha and JJ looked at each other, both reluctant to follow John B, while indistinct shouts and noises erupted from the house.

"You're hurting me!" Lana screamed, pure fear and terror in her voice. Samantha followed John B and instantly lowered down, reaching the wall of the house and flattening against it, to avoid being seen through the windows.

JJ sat next to her, his jaw clenched as even his breath was as low as possible. "Where the fuck is it, you bitch?" the man who was assaulting Lana yelled.

"Please! I didn't-" Lana sobbed. Many whimpers came from the woman, as she tried to convince the man to let her go.

"Still think we should stay?" JJ hissed at John B.

He didn't reply, listening carefully to the screams. "The compass wasn't in the boat! Where is it, Lana?!".

The ferocity of the man's words and the desperation of Lana's screams were beyond any limit, and Samantha squinted her eyes shut, praying in her mind for the woman. She let out slight hiccups and whimpers, her body wincing as if she had returned on the HMS Pogue followed by the killers.

"Don't listen" JJ whispered, making her open her eyes. He wasn't looking at her or at John B, but his gaze was lowered down, his mind somewhere else, far from Lana's house.
Those words were his shield, and he was protecting himself like he already did many times.

She felt the ground until she found his hand, and she squeezed it. He glanced towards her, panting and shaking, his eyes wide opened. She hung her mouth slightly open, stopped in an attempt to say something useful, as something fell on them.

"Is that paint?" she asked, taking one piece of it in her hand.

"Yes, it's paint" John B replied, as he and JJ shuffled their hair to get the pieces of it off.

"Let's get the hell outta here" one of the men inside the house said.

"We should just go. He's got smuggler written all over him" JJ hissed at John B, remaining still while John B was crawling along the wall.

"Shut up" John B whispered, keeping advancing towards the end of the wall. Samantha took a breath, leaving JJ's hand. "They're going away" she said, her voice still low, trying to reassure both JJ and herself.

They crouched on the corner of the wall, remaining partially uncovered. Two men left the house, and with quick paces they reached their moored boat.

At that sight, Samantha's heart dropped. "Those were the men that shot at us".

• • •