𝐀 𝐌𝐀𝐘𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐊, 𝗃𝗈𝗁𝗇 𝖻 𝗋𝗈𝗎𝗍𝗅𝖾𝖽𝗀𝖾

10: 𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚜𝚎

The five teenagers found themselves sitting back in the campervan, John B driving like always. Y/n fiddled with the compass in her hand as she sits in the passengers seat beside John B.

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

"Yeah. It's possible." Y/n replies with a shrug.

"It could also be possible that you're concocting wild theories to help, you know, deal with your sad feels." Pope suggests.

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

"I'm not concocting, okay?" John B states. "My dad's trying to give me a message."

"If it helps you believe, John B." Kie speaks up.

"Look, I don't need a therapy session, okay?" John B fires back. "I'm not tripping out."

"It's okay to trip, bro, but-" JJ starts.

"Look, my dad is missing, okay? Missing." John B interrupts. "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."

"It's been almost a year." Kie reminds.

"Hey, he could have been kidnapped." JJ states, trying to lighten the mood. "That's definitely a possibility."

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

JJ nods. "Absolutely. Or Atlantis."

"JJ. Look, what do you think the message is?" Y/n questions.

"Redfield." John B replies. "Redfield Lighthouse. That's my dad's favorite place."

***

Eventually, John B stopped the campervan in front of an old lighthouse, cracks laying on the side of it. The teenagers hop out of the car, staring up at the tall lighthouse before John B turns to the group, more specifically, JJ.

"Right, here's what's gonna happen." John B starts. "You're gonna post up and look out for bogeys, okay?"

"Wait... Why me?" JJ asks.

"Because you're not coming." Pope responds.

"Why?" JJ questions.

"Look, JJ. There are independent and dependent variables. You're an independent variable. We don't know what you're gonna do." Pope explains.

"Shut up!" JJ raises his voice, repeating over the boy talking.

"Listen to me for a second." John B instructs. "Pope and Kie, you two stand look out with JJ. Okay? If we get split up, we meet back at JJ and Y/n's house."

Y/n nods. "Sounds good."

With that, Y/n and John B both climb over the fence, the boy helping the girl before making their way to the lighthouse, leaving their three friends behind. Eventually, they make it to the lighthouse, stepping inside, gazes instantly going upwards.

"Remind me what we're looking for again." Y/n says.

"We'll know it when we see it." John B replies.

Y/n nods before he grabs her hand, pulling her up with him as they start to walk up the stairs. Y/n keeps her gaze upwards, trying not to look down at how far they are. Soon enough, they make it to the top, stopping in front of the door. Sharing a look with the girl, John B knocks on the door, getting no answer.

"Nobody home." John B states before the door suddenly opens, revealing a man on the other side. "We're here for the lighthouse."

"The lighthouse is closed." The man responds.

Next thing the teenagers knew, he closed the door before they could get anything else out. John B and Y/n share a small glance, sighing.

"Actually, we aren't here about the lighthouse." John B announces. "We're here about the... the Royal Merchant."

The man opens the door again, glancing between them. "Then you came to the right place."

Opening the door more, he leads them upwards on the lighthouse, opening up a door to the outside, revealing how high up they were. John B glances over his shoulder at Y/n, seeing her hesitantly taking a step out.

"I know more about the Royal Merchant than anyone else in Kildare County." The man informs. "Now, the Merchant disappeared in the graveyard of the Atlantic in 1829."

"With four hundred million." John B states.

The man nods. "Correct. You're a bit of a Merchanteer yourself, huh?"

John B shrugs. "Something like that."

"Well, follow me. I wanna show you something." The man chuckles before walking off, the teens following. "I've been working thirty years up here. The view's never changed till two days ago. The Point's almost gone. One more storm like that, it'll take the lighthouse. I'll go with her. Now, the trick to knowing where the Merchant is... is knowing whether she was on the north end or the south end of the eye of the storm. Now, most experts believe that she was on the south end. Now, she's on the south end, the bands from the hurricane would have pushed her back out to sea. But I don't believe that. I think she was on the north end of the eye. Which means the bands would have pushed her..."

"Closer to shore." John B finishes.

"That's right." The man agrees. "Now, by my calculations, the Royal Merchant..." The man points out in the distance. "...is about ten miles thataway."

John B glances over at the Maybank girl, both of them sharing a small look before the man gestures for them to follow him again. They obey, following him inside the lighthouse.

The man points at a map. "Right here is where the Point used to be. My calculations say the Merchant's right about there, down about a thousand feet."

"That's what my dad used to say." John B informs, the man humming in reply. "Yeah, I know this is weird, alright? Do you know anything about this?" John B brings out his father's compass. "Look, it says Redfield in the back, in my dad's handwriting. I don't know why I'm here, but I feel like I'm supposed to be here. Do you have anything to give to me, or to..."

The boy doesn't get to finish his question as the man goes up some stairs, John B quickly following him, wanting to know more, Y/n being the last one to follow. The man continues to ignore John B's words and pleas.

"Sir, you won't believe what he's been through in the past twenty-four hours." Y/n intervenes. "I mean, threatened, shot at, home invaded."

"Home invaded?" The man repeats in question.

"Look, man, my dad wanted me to talk to you, okay? If there's anything you could think of that would help us, please, just tell us, okay? Look, man, please!" John B pleads, raising his voice.

The man holds a radio up to his face. "Wanda, I got two kids on drugs up here at the lighthouse. Call the police."

Quietly protesting, John B grabs the man's arm to stop him from doing anything. However, it only leads to the boy banging the man's arm against the glass window, cracking it while also injuring the man.

"What are you doing?" Y/n asks with wide eyes.

"It was an accident, okay?" John B replies.

"John B, we have to go." Y/n quickly says before frantically walking down the stairs, John B following after apologizing to the man.

The two frantically ran down the stairs, hoping to get out of there before the police made it there. Once they were outside, the teenagers looked over to the campervan, only to see the vehicle driving off, leaving them behind.

John B quickly grabbed Y/n's hand, running the other way upon hearing the police sirens. Hopping over the fence, he turned back around, grabbing the Maybank girl by the waist, helping her the rest of the way over before grabbing her hand again, the two continuing to run off.