005.

"𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠." Emerson said as she walked out of the bedroom to find JJ drinking a beer.

"Uh, why are you all dressed up?" JJ asks, looking at Emerson who is wearing a white bikini top, jean shorts, and one of John B's floral button ups. "I'm visiting Ms. Lana today. I told her I would come by to have some tea." she replies.

JJ just nods and tells her to be safe as she walks outside. Emerson gets on her skateboard, and starts to head to the local flower shop to pick up some flowers for Ms. Lana. She decides to get daisies, since she remembered Ms. Lana saying her favorite flowers were daisies when Emerson was younger. Emerson misses the times when she went over to Ms. Lana's colorful house to have some cookies Ms. Lana often made for her.

"Hi Ms. Lana!" Emerson said as the door opens to Ms. Lana's house. "Hi Emery, sweetie, come in."

"I got these flowers for you." Emerson said, handing the white daisies over to Ms. Lana. "You remembered my favorite kind of flowers?" she asked. "Of course, how could I forget?"

Ms. Lana smiles at Emerson, surprised she still remembered after all these years. Ms. Lana brewed some tea for Emerson, and they sat down to talk about what has happened over the past year. They haven't really talked much since Emerson's parents disappeared.

All of a sudden, Emerson sees a white boat and two burly looking men walking up towards the house.

"Ms. Lana? Who are they?" Emerson asked as she pointed out the window. When she looks over at her, her eyes widen as she begins shoving Emerson out the back door.

"Ms. Lana?"

"There's no time sweetie. You need to get out of here, I promise I'll explain everything another time." Ms. Lana urges as she pushed Emerson out the back door.

Emerson was really confused and worried for Ms. Lana, so she sat below the window on the side of the house. All of a sudden, she heard the men screaming at Ms. Lana and breaking a bunch of stuff.

"Where is it Lana?" one of the men yelled.

"I don't know!" Ms. Lana screamed. Emerson really wanted to go in there and help her, but she didn't want to make things worse. Emerson silently cried and covered her mouth to stiffle her sobs.

"Bullshit!"

"I'll sink you in the fucking-"

"Emerson?" a voice called out. She opened her eyes and saw John B and JJ running up to her. "Shh. Shut up!" Emerson whisper-shouted.

John B and JJ sat either side of Emerson and held her hand. As JJ kept encouraging the three of them to leave, John B immediately told him off and told him to shut up. Emerson was worried for Ms. Lana until she heard the two men say they were leaving.

"Dude those were the guys that shot at us!" JJ whispered, as they watched the two men drive away from the house. Emerson immediately stood up and ran inside the house to find a sobbing Ms. Lana.

"Ms. Lana are you okay?" Emerson asked her, as Ms. Lana flinched from her touch. "Emery, I told you to get out of here." Ms. Lana sobbed. "There was no way I was leaving you with those two men."

"Hey Ms. Lana. Do you need a doctor? Hey, let's call the sheriff's department."

"No, no, no, no, no cops, please." Ms. Lana begged. Emerson was confused as to why Ms. Lana didn't want to tell the cops.

"Mmm, that's not good. Let's go." JJ said.

"You shouldn't be here." Ms. Lana said to Emerson and John B. "That's enough for me, come on."  JJ said, trying to pull the two away from the crying woman. "What do you know about these guys?" John B asked.

"They were looking for something." Ms. Lana tells him. John B shoves his hand into his pocket and takes out the compass that the Pogues found yesterday in Scooter's boat. When Ms. Lana saw it, a look of panic came across her face. "Do you know anything about this? This was our parents', and Scooter had it. Why?" John B tried to pry.

"Scooter didn't have it, okay? Don't tell anyone that you have that! They can't know that you have that! You gotta get out of here!" Ms. Lana begins to shout as John B and Emerson looked at each other, confused. Emerson didn't want to leave the poor woman though, she had just been beaten up by two men.

"Emery, you too. JJ get her out of here!" Ms. Lana screams as JJ wraps his arm around Emerson to pull her away. "Let me go, JJ. Get off! Wait, Ms. Lana!" Emerson continued to yell as JJ carried her out of the house. John B ended up following them, and they began to drive away from the colorful house.

"Can you drop me off at my house, I have something to do really quickly." Emerson asks, and John B nods.

···

As Emerson enters her house, she goes straight into her parents' office. They had an office that had a bunch of research papers, just like Big John did. She looked to see if there was anything she could find out about the compass. The compass was mainly Big John's, since the compass had been passed down for generations in his family. Since Big John and Emerson's parents were so close, Big John said it was also Elizabeth's and Michael's since they considered each other like siblings.

Emerson was brought out of her thoughts when she heard a bunch of glass being knocked over. She looked out of the office door to see the two burly men from earlier. She didn't know what to do and froze. The two men noticed her and started beating her up.

"Where is the compass, Kennedy?" one of the men shouted. "I don't know!" Emerson screamed. They punched her over and over again, and kept kicking her in the stomach. 𝘖𝘩 𝘣𝘰𝘺, 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘴𝘰 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴.

After about 10 minutes of being beaten up and the men looking through the house, they eventually gave up and left to go to the Chateau.

"If you tell any cops about us being here and what we did to you, we'll find you and your friends and blow your head off." one of the men shouted, pointing his gun at Emerson. She nodded and they drove away.

As they drove away, Emerson couldn't do anything but sob. Her whole body ached, even if she moved a millimeter. She was sitting against the office door frame, and looked down at her stomach to see many bruises. Her arms and legs were a deep shade of purple, and everything just hurt. She looked around her house from where she was sitting to find the house absolutely trashed.

She silently sobbed there for a couple minutes, until she heard a car pull up in her driveway. 𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮.

She sighed of relief when she could hear the Pogues calling for her. When the Pogues found her, they all gasped from how badly the men have hurt her.

"Are you okay?" John B asked, kneeling next her to her. He tried to hug her, but she winced from the pain all around her body. "Was it those Pablo Escobar square groupers?" JJ asked. "JJ, stop with the kingpin movie references." Kie smacks him on the head.

Emerson couldn't talk though. She didn't know if it was from the shock or pain. Probably both.

"Look Em, we figured something out, but right now we need to get going. Can you walk?" he asked her, trying to get her to stand up. As Emerson stood up, she sucked in a harsh breath from the amount of pain that she felt. As she tried to walk, her legs eventually gave out and she collapsed.

"Maybe we should call the cops and tell them what happened." Pope suggested. "No." Emerson whispered, barely audible. Emerson spoke for the first time since the Pogues found her. She said it right as he finished that sentence, so the Pogues were starting to grow really worried. "Why not?" JJ asks confused. "I said no." she snapped.

Everyone gave her confused looks, but John B wanted to get on what he was originially planning on doing. He picked her up bridal style, and carried her to the van. Although everyone knows her spot is shotgun, he put her in the back so that she could lay down. As the van started to head to wherever they were headed, she immediately blacked out.

···

"Hey, wake up." someone shook Emerson awake. Emerson groaned and tried to sit up, but immediately regretted it as she felt the pain from all the bruises. "Where are we?" she groaned.

"Our favorite place." John B said, as he helped Emerson sit up. "Redfield Lighthouse?" she asked as she looked up to see the lighthouse in front of her. "Yep."

"What're we doing here?" she asked. "Well, there was a secret compartment in the compass, and in it said 𝘙𝘦𝘥𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘭𝘥. So Redfield Lighthouse. Our favorite place, and our parents' favorite place." John B responded. "So, who's going up there?" Emerson asked.

"I'm gonna go up with him. You stay with the boys. If we get separated, we meet at JJ's." Kie said from behind John B. "Great, I gotta babysit. This will be so fun." Emerson sarcastically says and rolls her eyes.

"Okay, you stay here and make sure they don't do anything stupid, alright?" John B said as he walks away towards the lighthouse. "Okay, stay safe Bird." Emerson shouts as she lays back down on the van's floor.

She had always loved the lighthouse since she was young. She remembered when she was 3, when Big John had taken her and John B to the lighthouse to look at the stars. Ever since that day, every year for her birthday, the Routledge's and the Kennedy's have always went up there to stargaze. That's also where she and John B had shared their first kiss, so this place was very special to her.

A couple minutes of just thinking about all the memories at the lighthouse, she heard police sirens in the distance.

"Oh shit!"

"Go!" She heard Pope and JJ say as they jumped into the car and started the engine.

"What about Kie and John B?" Emerson panicked. She didn't want to leave them behind. "They'll be fine, trust me." JJ said as they drove away from lighthouse.

···

author's note: [words count: 1746]

this is so bad. this is so bad. this is so bad. sorry.