Pretty Little Poison II Jordan Li

CHAPTER TWELVE: ONLY HUMAN

"Holy shit, where'd she go?" Andre asked but everyone was too overwhelmed to make a sarcastic comment about how they knew as much as he did.

"Um guys..." They heard Dusty say behind them.

They all look towards where Dusty was pointing at the door that seemed to be missing, the bricks around it disappearing as well. "What the fuck?" Los says in response. "What's happening?"

"Maybe Cate's more powerful than we thought." Marie offers a suggestion.

"Whatever, I'm done with this shit." Andre walks out the missing door to what looked like a forest.

Marie follows behind him, "Andre, wait." Los, Lexi, Jordan, and Dusty follow them out as Andre was obviously not stopping. "We don't even know where we are, or what she did to us..."

"Caleb!" A voice interrupts Marie causing all of them to duck behind one of the bushes in the forest. "Caleb!" She was crying. "Come back, please."

"I'm sorry ma'am." An officer told her. "But, we've been looking for three days."

"Please." She pleads to him. "He's only six. You have to keep looking."

She goes back to calling the kids' names. "That's Cate's brother's name." Andre says, connecting the pieces.

"The one she sent away?" Marie asks, but Andre doesn't get a chance to answer as a little girl ran in their eye lines.

"Mommy? Mommy!" She shouts, trying to find her.

"Cate, wait! Just... wait there." The woman who now appeared to be Cate's mom tells her. "I don't feel safe with her." She whispers to the police officer.

"Holy shit. This is a memory." Marie realizes finally catching up with the rest of them. "We're in Cate's head."

Lexi glances over at her. "It took you this long to figure that out, princesa?"

"Mommy it was an accident. Why did Caleb listen to me? He never does." Cate tries to explain to her mother but her mother doesn't see Cate's side on this.

"I don't feel safe with her." She repeats to the officer.

The officer nods, doing his job. "Why don't you come with me, Cate?" The officer asks, walking over to her. "We'll sort this out, all right?"

"Mommy, I didn't mean to." Cate tries one more time to reach out to her mother, but she doesn't respond.

The cop starts to walk away, signaling Cate to follow him. "Hey, do you like dogs? We got a K9 unit over here, they'll let you pet one." Cate spares one last look at her mother before following the cop, scaring him a little with their close distance. "Just give me a little distance, would you?"

"Hey!" They all turn around quickly to see Soldier Boy. "What are you greasy sack of fuck nuts doing in here?"

"What the fuck? Soldier Boy? What are you doing here?" Marie asks a lot of questions.

"I'm Cate's imaginary friend from when she was a kid. Boyfriend, really." He tells them. "I taught her how to jerk off. Diddle that skittle, Flick the bean. How to find that man in the canoe. She came like a faucet. She'd crank up the Jonas Brothers and she'd hump a Soldier Boy pillow. She'd raw dog that pillow till she saw God."

"Gross." Lexi chimes in.

"It was pretty romantic." Soldier Boy responds.

Dusty, seeing this as an accomplishment, puts up his hand for a high-five. "Hell yeah, brother."

"Shut the fuck up." Soldier Boy responds making Dusty's hand drop.

"Fuck you." Andre tells him, not liking the way he was talking about Cate, because yes, Andre was intimidated by an imaginary guy. "She.. She just didn't like the Jonas brothers, was all."