When something is up you know it, no matter how hard you try to deny it, and at first you will. You will pretend for as long as you can that it's all a bunch of coincidences and misunderstandings that you should ignore, before finally being able to acknowledge the existence of the issue. My official wakeup call was seeing myself in the photo with Pluto and Jupiter.
Then, once you acknowledge it, that's when you sort of lose your mind.
After I went up into my room and shut my door, I pulled out a magnifying class and tried to find even the tiniest shred of proof the photo was photoshopped or fake. While I did, I tried to ignore my buzzing phone from Mac texting and calling me. I didn't want to talk to him until I was positive, he wasn't playing games with me. I think, deep down though, I knew he probably did legitimately stumble onto something. First there was the nightmares, then Jupiter and Pluto appearing, my dad's gasoline incident, the car incident, the metal thing peeking through ours windows, and my mom's odd behavior. Also, I noticed I was locked out of every single one of my social media accounts. When I tried to change the password, it said they didn't exist, which was driving me crazy. I also couldn't log onto my school website.
Following this terrifying realization, I decided to google the image Mac had given me, and sure enough the article, the photo and everything else Mac said showed up on my screen. There wasn't much information about the experiment though, just the name and when I googled the scientist Kingsley nothing came up except that he was deceased.
Badly, I wanted to run to my parents and show them the photo and demand an explanation, but Mac's warning rang in my ear like the blaring siren of a fire alarm. "Don't say anything," He said and the more I thought about the more I started to think he might be right. In my entire life, I never had a reason not to trust my parents, but due to the circumstances and their odd behavior I had to assume they were untrustworthy. So instead of running to Naomi or Gemma or Toby instead, I decided to write everything down first and get my head clear so I could decide what to do. With that in mind, I grabbed the nearest notebook and began to write paragraph after paragraph even though I had only intended on writing a bullet point list.
At first, I started with a short, sweet paragraph about everything going on but then that paragraph extended over half the notebook as I wrote down my theories, clues, anything that came to mind. Still though, no matter how much I wrote, or didn't I kept coming to the same conclusion, I knew nothing except something was wrong and Mac was probably the only person I could talk to about it.
Sighing heavily, I put down the notebook and slid off my bed. Maybe instead of trying to figure this out alone, I should let Mac in on it. At this point, after hours upon hours of breaking it apart, I truly believed he wasn't playing me for a fool. 'Hey, sneak out to your front yard, we need to talk.' I texted him before grabbing my camouflage jacket and sneaking out of the room so I wouldn't wake up Naomi. She was out cold, something I wish I was. Half way down the hallway, I peeked into Gemma's room and saw she was sound asleep as well.
Quietly shutting her door, I shuffled down to Pluto and Jupiter's room and glanced inside to see if they were up. Immediately then, I frowned because they weren't in bed. In fact, their beds were still made from earlier and looked like that hadn't been touched all day. I could've sworn they were in here. Come to think of it, I don't think I had seen or heard either of them since I got home from school. It is possible though they knew I was in a mood and were avoiding me. "Pluto? Jupiter?" I called out softly as I turned on their light, but the light just confirmed what I already knew, they weren't there. "Hmmm...Weird." I mumbled as I glanced at the bathroom just down the hall.
Deciding that them not being in their room was worth investigating, I made my way down to the end of the hall just to check my parent's room to see if they were up.
Just like Pluto and Jupiter though, they weren't there.
Starting to feel my stomach sink a little, I shut my parent's door and headed downstairs. I could tell from the top of the stairs that a light was on, so maybe they were all talking in the living room about Pluto and Jupiter's mom or something? Or maybe my parents had noticed Jupiter and Pluto missing before I did and were out looking for them? In that case, wouldn't they have woken up Gemma or Toby to let them know? Either way, I was sure my parents were downstairs.
Instead of seeing any of them though, I was met with an empty living room.
"Mom...Dad...Pluto...Jupiter?" I called out cautiously, starting to feel really on edge as I made my way into the kitchen. When I did, I stopped dead in my tracks and gripped my phone so tight I was positive it was going to break.
There were two empty gallons of gasoline, and a third tilted over on the counter and spilling over on the kitchen floor. Then, leading away from the puddle was a mess of foot prints that led out of the kitchen, down the front hall and to the front door that was swinging open. Feeling my heart race impossibly fast, I took deep breaths in and out as I followed the foot prints outside. I had a bad feeling about this, a bad feeling that burrowed down so deep inside me I could feel it going from my chest to the tip of my bare toes.
"Guys? I don't know what you all are up to, but this isn't funny!" I called out, pulling my jacket tighter around myself. If I was a smart girl, I would have gotten Toby out of his room before heading outside but I wasn't smart. I acted upon the moment, not what was logical. However, I did decide calling the police was a good idea. When I dialed 911 though, the only thing I got was a dial tone followed by, "I'm sorry, this number isn't in service." Feeling my heart stop in my throat, I lowered the phone down from my ear and continued walking across the porch until I was out on the yard
Once I had fully emerged outside, I looked back and forth down the street. I didn't see anyone outside on the brightly lit sidewalks, and the foot prints faded in the grass so there was no way to tell where they had gone. After a moment of looking around anxiously, I dialed Mac's number, but he didn't answer. I dialed it again but still no answer and I didn't see him anywhere in his yard. Taking a shaky breath, I pocketed my phone and decided that now was a good time to go wake up Toby.
So, with a pounding heart, I turned around and began to head back inside, when I heard the loud explosion of a gun shot from Mac's house across the street go off, repetitively, and was followed by shouting and screaming as every light on the block turned on.
Whipping around quickly, I saw the dark windows of his house light up with gunfire and when they lit up I saw my dad's face clearly in the window. Only I knew it wasn't my dad. Upon realizing that, I immediately felt my heart drop into my stomach and an icy terror I've never felt before crawl through my blood stream. Mac. Mac was in there. They were going to kill Mac, it didn't take an idiot to figure that out. "Oh my gosh.... oh my gosh...Mac! Mac!" I found myself screaming as I charged stupidly across the street and across Mac's front lawn while I tried to dial 911 again and again but I got the same dial tone. Before I could heroically run through his front door though, Jupiter and Pluto appeared behind me and Pluto grabbed me hard, making me drop my phone.
"Abigail no! Don't go in there! You can't go in there!" Jupiter yelled at me.
"We have to get back to the house Abigail! Now!" Pluto yelled as well. Ignoring them, I struggled against their tight grips as they dragged me back across the street and back onto my front lawn where I managed to finally get free.
"Let me go! I need to get Mac! Mac is in there! My dad is hurting him! Let me go! Please!" I screeched at them. Before I could scream again though about how I knew they were somehow involved in whatever was going on, Jupiter covered my mouth.
"Quiet! Be quiet Abigail, it's too late. Now, I need you to stop screaming, if you don't they'll hear you..." He pleaded as I tried to pry his hand off. He had a grip of steel though and I couldn't seem to break free from it.
"Letmego! Letmego!" I cried out from behind his hand, but I could barely get the words out as they both dragged me to the front door.
"Abigail, I need you to calm down please. We can't get you and the others out of here alive if you don't calm down." Pluto begged as he let me go so, he could make sure we were the only ones who reentered my house. "Jupiter let her go. Your scaring her," Pluto finally said, to which Jupiter responding by pulling his hand away.
"Gunshots...I heard gunshots...there were gunshots Jupiter! The cops aren't answering! My dad is in there, and Mac! I think my dad is trying to hurt him!" I shouted at him, feeling all sorts of panic choke me up.
"Abigail we can't call the cops...we can't call them. They won't come. So, I need you to listen to me," Jupiter said as Pluto slammed the front door shut and locked it.
"Listen to you...listen to you about what...someone is going to die...over there..." I gasped, feeling like I couldn't breathe.
"Don't worry about that right now Abigail! We need to get you and the others out of here. They found you like I knew they would, and if we don't all leave right now it'll be too late," Jupiter said firmly as he gripped my shoulders. "Take a deep breath Abigail and try to calm down please. It's okay, it's going to be okay. Please trust me." He pleaded, which encouraged me to take a moment to catch my breath even though a million thoughts of what was happening to Mac and his family across the street were strangling me.
"Trust you about what? What are you guys shouting about? And w-what's all the noise outside?" I then heard Naomi ask in a shaky voice from the middle of the stairs and we all looked over at her.
"Naomi, I need you to go upstairs and wake up Gemma." I managed to choke out.
"Why? What's wrong? Is that guns shots out there? Where's mom and dad?" Naomi asked frantically as she came to the bottom of the stairs.
"Naomi don't come down-" Pluto began to say but he was cut off by vicious banging on the door.
"Let us in Abigail! It's okay! We're your parents, we won't hurt you!" My mom called out from the outside of the door. Even though it sounded like her, I knew by the looks on Pluto and Jupiter's faces it wasn't. Looking over at us in a panic Pluto then pointed at the stairs and quietly whispered,
"Run."
_______________________________________________________________________
Hey guys! I am so insanely happy I had enough time to update today, didn't think I would and now that the story is about to get exciting I'm hoping I'll have more time because I'm excited! I've always had a love for action and adventure and I can't wait to play around with those elements in this story. I'm stepping out of my comfort zone a little and I hope I do a good job of it when it really comes down to it.
Sooooo...does anyone watch Gotham?
-Mari.