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14

"Okay, I guess I'll be the first to ask, what's going on?"

The whole time we had been driving, the four of us remained in a stunned, tearful, silence as we waited for Pluto to say something, but he remained equally as quiet. Instead he focused on speeding down the quiet backroad he had taken twenty minutes ago, with no destination seemingly in mind.

"That's not important right now Toby. I have to get you guys somewhere safe, I don't have time to explain anything," Pluto said, sounding incredibly tense.

"Well you better make the time, because the instant you stop this car, I'm calling the cops!" Toby snapped as he lowered the bloody sleeve of the jacket he had been pressing against his cheek.

"You can't call the cops Toby, this doesn't involve them!" Pluto insisted, only making Toby angrier.

"There were psychopathic, metallic people shooting up our house! I think that involves the cops!" Toby shouted.

"I'm sorry Toby, it's not that simple. Now please let me focus!" Pluto pleaded, briefly looking back at us through his rearview mirror. This time instead of responding, Toby punched the back of the passenger seat, making all of us jump except Pluto.

"Toby stop it." Naomi whimpered softly.

"No, no I won't stop! I demand to know what's going on! Where's our parents? Why were those things trying to kill us? What the hell just happened back there? I have my sisters back here with me!" He basically screamed as he banged his fists on the seat.

Realizing that Toby was reacting out of fear, not anger, I twisted around and reached over Gemma to grab his wrist as hard as I could. "Toby cut it out! If you care about what happens to us, then you'll calm down! Pluto said he's taking us somewhere safe, so let's get there first before we get into an accident!" I shouted at him and Toby took a ragged breath before falling back in his seat. "Okay. Okay. I'm sorry." He wheezed, pulling away from me and fisting his eyes. He always did that when he was trying not to cry.

For a long moment then the only sound in the car was our heavy breathing, before Pluto exhaled slowly. "I promise, I am going to keep you four safe. Nothing is going to happen to any of you. When we get to where we're going, I swear I'm going to explain everything. Until then, try to calm down," He said calmly, and Toby nodded from behind his hands.

"Its okay Toby, we're okay and I'm sure mom and dad are okay." Gemma reassured as she wrapped her arms around him and with a defeated sigh he leaned into her embrace.

"That thing...it almost got Abby and...it almost got me." He whispered, making Naomi grab my arm hard.

"I know, I know Toby, but it didn't," Gemma said as she looked over at me with glassy eyes. Unlike earlier, she was trying to be brave for us now, but I could see it in her face she was petrified.

"Is Jupiter going to meet us at the place we're going?" Naomi then asked, making the images of the bullets bouncing off Jupiter flash through my head, but I knew that just because he was bullet proof or something like it didn't mean he was immortal.

"Not now Naomi." I whispered, swallowing thickly as I grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. Taking a shaky breath, she gripped my hand in return. After that the car became quiet once more as we exited the backroads and made our way towards the entrance to the highway. Maybe we did know where we were going after all.

"C-Can you at least tell us where we're going?" Gemma asked quietly, still holding Toby tight.

"I can't, just in case their listening," Pluto said softly as he glanced back at her in the mirror. "But it's somewhere I'm sure you've been before," He said before looking back to the road. When he did Naomi turned towards us.

"How do we know we can trust him? What if what happened was his fault?" She whispered.

"I don't know, we're going to have to just stay alert." Toby whispered back and I found myself holding Naomi closer.

What if she was right?

What if Pluto wasn't someone to be trusted?

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Hi guys! Oh my goodness, I had to print out 50 pages of sheet music for my theater school and it cost me twelve bucks because I don't have a printer :( ahhh well...at least got sheet music lol. Sorry this chapter is kind of short, I wanted to kinda let things build, not rush into it all at once!

-Mari.