No Strings Attached (Sequel to Puppets)

Bianca

Bianca frowned. "I'm confused. Who are you?" She drawled in her southern accent.

One of the figures whipped off their hood and their mask. Laurel. She smirked, staring Bianca down. "We could be asking you the same thing."

Bianca tugged on a strand of her wig hair. "I'm Angelica. You know that."

"Angelica Banido doesn't exist. We checked all the student files. Do you really think we wouldn't notice?" Laurel looked satisfied.

"Alright, alright, you got me." Bianca sighed, hands up in a surrendering position. She dropped the accent and switched to a voice slightly higher pitched and faster paced than her own. "I'm Lacy's cousin. She asked me to keep an eye on you lot, before, you know, you brutally murdered her." Bianca spat.

"And what's your name?" Laurel asked sweetly.

"Danielle Lovell." Bianca lied on the spot. "But don't bother checking the records. I'm not a student here."

"Funny thing is, Lacy doesn't have a cousin." Laurel smiled. "You see, we do our research."

"Funny thing is, I must be going." Bianca grinned, slipping towards the door.

"Not so fast," someone spoke, grabbing her arm. Bianca froze. She recognized that voice distantly, but couldn't exactly place it.

"I know you," Bianca said, looking at the person.

"No, you don't." The tone of the speaker's voice was somewhat sinister.

"Oh, that's cool!" Bianca smiled. "Bye!" She moved to dash out the door but the grip on her arm was too tight. Sighing, she grasped at the speaker's other arm and latched on, before jumping up and kicking at her stomach. Bianca landed unsteadily on her feet as the speaker fell.

She turned tail and opened the window within seconds, something very useful that Lacy had taught her. She crawled out the window quickly before sprinting into the distance. She didn't sprint to the forest at first- she moved towards the back of the school, than to the edge of the lake, and then around the lake and into the forest to her cabin. When she arrived inside and panting, she shed her disguise, realizing she had lost her wig in the process.

She grabbed a pen and a piece of paper, starting to make notes and draw sketches. Everyone on the L Team seemed to be around average height and average build- there were two people who were much taller than the others. The speaker was one of those. The speaker was male, and Bianca recognized his voice distantly- but not from school, no. Somewhere else.

She shook it off, sketching the body shapes of the people she saw. The only issue was the black hoodies and gloves- most were baggy, sadly. She paused, mid-sketch. Wait. Why would Laurel willingly reveal herself if the girls weren't sure if she was on the L Team? Why throw herself into danger and expose herself?

Bianca hesitated, dropping her pen. There was something seriously off. Although Laurel was the distraction, she wouldn't just do that. That was... that was not right. It didn't add up.

She stopped drawing, dropping her pen. She had the perfect plan, but for it to work, she would need the help of someone she would never want to put in danger.

Hazel.

Bianca froze. Did she really want to do this? Put Hazel in a massive amount of danger? Make her friends believe she was betraying them?

More importantly, was this what would have to happen for everyone to live through this?

She rose and started pacing. Was this okay? Did it work? Already anxious and thinking about Hazel, she recalled the night when Hazel was already at danger, because she had "killed" Bianca.

Bianca stood in the darkness, waiting silently for the archery initiation to officially start. She was so excited to have a chance to be a part of something so cool, although the dark was kind of scary. Of course, being in the archery club would mean less time with Nico. As much as she loved him, he was somewhat of a burden. Ever since their mother died, she was a replacement mom.

Zoë Nightshade began explaining, and Bianca eagerly snapped to rapt attention. Ten seconds later, she was hit in the arm with a twig. A leaf was shoved into Zoë's face. Celyn got a twig snapped over her head and Phoebe received a leaf down the back of her shirt. Branches and leaves were being thrown into every direction. "Okay, seriously?" Zoë asked, pissed off.

Bianca felt a hand tighten around her braid and she was yanked off backwards. Someone covered her mouth before she could scream. Panicked, she flailed and thrashed, kicking out against her kidnapper. It was too dark for anyone to have seen her- all the archers would've assumed she was with the crowd, being assaulted by nature. Fear filled her as she continued fighting back, not wanting to give up. Who was this? What were they going to do to her?

The moonlight showed that she was now at the lake- she bet her assailants thought she couldn't see them, that they hadn't considered that. Wild eyed, she fought back as someone taped her mouth, and then taped her whole body to some kind of raft. Wait- was that Hazel taping her? Was her half sister really trying to kill her?

She was outraged, but tried not to let it show, just continued kicking out and pretending she didn't know it was Hazel. She could hear their voices- Rachel and Drew, but they weren't the only ones. But she was only on one side of the raft- there was someone else balancing it. Bianca shifted her eyes to her left to find Zoë Nightshade, staring right at her. She tried to send some kind of message with her eyes, but she didn't know what, or how. She turned her attention back to Rachel, Hazel, and their crew. A lone tear slipped out of her right eye, slowly dripping onto the raft.

The girls pushed the duct-taped duo and their raft out to the middle, but it was wobbly. Their weight wasn't balanced exactly. She saw the girls turn tail and ditch, but she was more focused on not tipping. Zoë was a bit of a bigger girl- not in fat, in muscle. She outweighed Bianca's small, skinny frame by a lot. Bianca wondered worriedly if that was done intentionally, or if they had meant to grab someone else.

She exchanged a panicked look with Zoë, who attempted unsuccessfully to shift towards Bianca. With an not-so glorious splash, the two tipped over until hey were underwater.

Bianca struggled against her thick layers of duct tape. She was going to drown, and so was Zoë. She started to panic, thrashing around in an attempt to turn the raft back over, she could see Zoë doing the same thing. But Bianca was running out of air, and so was Zoë. The older girl's face paled and her limbs went limp. Based on the small bits of first aid training Bianca had, she could hope that Zoë was unconscious, not dead.

Even with the dead weight, Bianca still tried to surface. She was finding it more difficult to hold her breath. Her vision was swimming- no pun intended. She felt weak. She couldn't last this long. She slowly faded into unconsciousness. The last thing she heard was the light sound of a paddle dipping into the water.

Bianca snapped back to reality. Hazel had to follow through with Bianca's plan... or more people would die.

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question time! if you are on mobile PLEASE inline comment! if not, it's chill.

1. Who do you want to have a POV in TMG?

2. Who do you think my three mystery POVs are? (one will be revealed probably next chapter, another will be revealed at the third part of the epilogue, and the third will be revealed in the TMG description!)

happy easter baes!! love u!!!