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11

While I had calmed down by the time I got home, Pluto seemed to be on the defense. Something about his composure had changed and I couldn't quite place what it was. It was noticeable though and when we got home, he jumped out of the car right as we pulled up before I even had a chance to finish pulling in the driveway.

''Pluto! Don't do that, you could get hurt!" I shouted after him as I parked in the driveway and got out of the car. Ignoring me, he dashed around to the back of the house.

Rolling my eyes at him, I locked my car before starting to head inside but I stopped at the front door when I noticed Mac sitting on the porch waiting for me. "Mac? What are you doing here? School isn't over for another couple of hours," I said in confusion as I made my way over to him.

"When Naomi told me they were suspending you, I figured you weren't going to be at the darkroom today and I really need to show you something. I was trying to at lunch, but you were distracted," He said as he pulled an envelope out of his backpack and stood up.

Feeling bad about lowkey blowing him off, I took the envelope without hesitation. "I know I'm sorry. Everything should be okay now though." As I opened it, I took a seat on the porch and Mac sat back down next to me. "You know something really strange happened today. On the way home, we drove by my mom's car wrecked on the road, completely abandoned. She's okay but the whole situation was very odd," I said.

"How so?" Mac asked as I started looking through the pictures.

"She just left the car, didn't wait for a tow truck and she sounded almost happy about the accident." I informed before frowning at the photos. "Are these pictures of my front yard?" I asked and Mac nodded as he pointed to the corner of the picture.

"Remember that weird metal robot thing I saw outside of school? It was in your front yard this morning and the morning before and..." He paused to pulled out a night vision photo. "Last night there were three of them. That's not all though." He then pulled out the next photo from behind it. "Your dad was with them," He said, showing me a clear photo of my dad in the center of the three weird metal robot things and it almost looked like he was talking to them.

"What the hell." I whispered, grabbing the picture from him to take a long look at it.

"Something really weird is going on Abigail. I didn't start seeing those things, until Jupiter and Pluto appeared. Didn't you say they looked kind of like the guys in your dream?" He asked, making my blood run cold.

"What are you suggesting?" I asked and Mac inhaled deeply.

"I did some research and I found something I think you should see." He then leaned over to pull out a stack of papers. "I started researching Jupiter and Pluto and weird tiny metal robot things and I found this." He handed me a printed-out photo from google images. "This was linked to a science website. I couldn't find any information about the picture, just that it was from an undocumented experiment called the Kingsley experiment. Apparently, all information regarding the study though was lost."

Feeling my lungs tighten, I slowly lifted the photo to look at it and nearly lost my lunch. In the photo there were two tall girls and three tall boys all dressed in grey, standing around seven-year-old me. "H-How...how was the information lost?" I asked.

"In a gasoline fire," Mac said slowly, making me gasp as I bunched up the photo and through it at him.

"This isn't a funny joke Mac! Stop trying to scare me. I trust you with these personal things because you're my friend, not so you can use them to prank me!" I shouted at him as I stood up.

Standing up as well Mac shoved the paper back in my hand. "This isn't a joke Abigail! Even I'm not smart enough to come up with something like this! I think something really weird is going on here and I'm scared for your safety!" He shouted back.

Before I had a chance to retaliate though, my mom emerged in the front door. "You better leave Mac, your upsetting Abigail," She said coldly, catching us both by surprise. For a moment then, Mac looked between her and I before grabbing his backpack.

"Don't say anything," He said before walking across the street to his house.

"What was that about dear?" My mom asked as I stuffed the paper inside my pocket and walked past her into the house.

"It was nothing, just a disagreement over photography stuff," I said, making my way into the kitchen to get a snack. "So, you hit a deer earlier?" I asked and she looked at me confused as she followed me.

"A deer?" She asked.

"When you crashed your car, you said you hit a deer or did or something," I said. Shaking her head, she then smiled.

"Oh yeah! I almost forgot, I have bad memory sometimes." She then gave me a smile. A big eerie smile, that looked unfamiliar. "What would you like for dinner?" She asked, as I stepped away a little. I didn't like how she was acting, she was acting weird, just like my dad, and it was odd she'd say she had bad memory because she didn't. Also, my dad usually cooked dinner because she wasn't the best cook.

"Whatever is convenient, I'm not really all that hungry right now," I said and before she could ask why, I grabbed my backpack and ran upstairs.

When I got to the top of the stairs, I glanced behind me and saw her standing at the bottom of the stairs watching me. If Mac wasn't playing a joke on me, it might be in my best interest to get to the bottom of this soon. 

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Hey guys! Sorry for not updating in a little while, you would not believe the horrible week I've been having. Fortunately though, I had some time unwind tonight and update. Now I have to practice my songs from my show,

Hope you all enjoyed today's chapter :)
-Mari.