My Prince Charming *Completed*

Chapter Nine: Cleo

"How's everything been going since you started using the 'father' and 'dad' words?" Gabriel asked while pulling into the empty parking lot.

Pushing my hair behind my ears, I yawned while looking up at the large creepy building in front of us. "Pretty good, they truly feel like my parents."

Gabriel's face lit up with a smile as we got out of his car. "I'm really glad to hear that Cleo, I can tell that they love you so much."

After walking into the front door, we walked up to the front door and up to the desk. "Hi," I quietly said while giving the person at the front desk a smile. "We're here to see Pete. Is it okay if we just go up?"

"Oh I'm sorry," the lady said while pushing her glasses up her long nose. "But he's not upstairs anymore."

"What?" Gabriel asked while walking up to the desk. "Where is he?"

The lady glanced down at a stack of papers in front of her before saying, "He's being moved to a psychiatric hospital, one where they can observe him better."

"What?" I whispered while feeling Gabriel's body tensing next to mine.

"No. He is not leaving." With that Gabriel suddenly sprinted down the hallway. Running after him, I glanced over my shoulder to see if the front desk lady was running after us. She was still sitting where we left her, reading the paper. What kind of place is this?

Following Gabriel down a long hallway, we ended up in a small room with no one except Pete. He was sitting in a dark corner, his hand handcuffed to the chair he was sitting in. "Oh god," Gabriel said as he ran over and kneeled in front of Pete. "Pete? Are you okay?"

I watched as Gabriel softly put his hand onto Pete's cheek, who instantly flinched away from him. "Why are you in here alone, handcuffed to a chair?" I asked while looking around for some kind of adult.

"They said I'm not making any progress. They're sending me away." I suddenly noticed that Pete was holding the Dracula book that Gabriel bought him for his birthday. This whole scene was literally breaking my heart.

"You're not going anywhere okay?"

I watched as Gabriel suddenly helped Pete stand up, only to break the chair. "What if we get in trouble? They might really take Pete away."

"No, Pete's coming with us."

The next thing I knew we were running out of the room, running right past the front desk. "Have a nice day," the woman boredly said while continuing to read her paper. Before I knew it we were back at Gabriel's car. Pete was in the backseat, his handcuff still on his hand with a part of the chair.

"What are we going to do about the handcuff? We don't have the key," I worriedly said.

"I saw them on the front desk as we were running by," Gabriel said while taking the keys out of his front pocket before carefully unlocking the handcuff.

Pete then slowly looked up, his big brown eyes staring at them as his black hair fell in his face. He remained silent as he looked down at the book in his hands, a small tear running down his cheek.

"What are we going to do?" I asked, worried about the quiet man in front of us.

"I... I don't know," Gabriel said while running his hands over his face. "I'm going to take Pete home with me and I'll talk to my mom. No one was treating you right Pete, you deserve better."