The Apocalypse of Plants

Laina

I pick up a piece of wood and all of a sudden, I'm flying up into the air. There's a scream. Then I realize that it was me.

Tally hollers at me to make sure I'm okay. I try to assess the damage as well as I can.

I have all my limbs, which is always a good sign. Nothing's bleeding as far as I can tell. I'm just crammed into a ball inside a net made of vines. Not the most comfortable of places and I sure as hell hate vines after what happened to Spencer.

"I swear, this better not be one of Morgan's snares," I snarl and imagine the ways I'll murder him if it is. The net suddenly drops a few feet and I shriek.

I hear laughing from down below and there's a murmur of voices.

"Laina, chill out!" Tally shouts. I'm trying to reach the swiss army knife that I have in my pant pocket when the net descends a few more feet. My heart skips a beat.

"I'm trying!" I yelp as I keep coming toward the ground.

When the net finally touches the forest floor, I push the vines off me and stand up. Tally's trying not to laugh and standing next to a boy and two girls that I've never seen before.

I try not to glare at them because I'm guessing they're the ones who set up the trap.

"Um, sorry about that," the girl with the maroon hair and brown eyes says.

"That trap was partly meant for animals," the boy with black hair and green eyes adds.

"I figured," I say. "But why put wood as bait? Why not berries or some other type of food?"

"We were trying to-she's got a point. Why aren't we using food?" the maroon haired girl asks the boy.

"I don't know, Marley. All I know is that you were in charge of this snare," the boy says. The maroon haired girl-Marley-scoffs.

"Shut up, Cullen," Marley growls. "Nina was with me, too. So it's as much her fault as it is mine," she says, referring to the girl with olive colored hair and almond brown eyes. She bears a striking resemblance to Preston, which shocks me to my bones. There's no way that she could be related to him, is there?

Nina sighs. "Please don't bring me into this."

Tally must notice the resemblance too because she grips my arm and digs her nails into my skin. Even though I have long-sleeves on, it still hurts.

"Please take your talons out of my arms before I start bleeding," I whisper to her. She looks down surprised and removes her hand.

"Sorry," she mutters.

"You noticed it too?"

"Yup. You think there's any way they're related?"

I shrug. "Only one way to find out." Before Tally can protest, I turn to Nina. "Do you know anyone named Preston?" Nina's eyes widen.

"Do you know him? Is he okay?" Tally and I look at each other uneasily. "What? What is it?"

"Hekindoflosthismemories," I say quickly, forgetting to pause in between words.

She stares at me. "Run that by me again."

Marley and Cullen have stopped their argument and are now looking at me expectantly.

"Um, well, okay. There was this Venus Flytrap octopus thing that shot this ball thing at him, and it grew legs and sucked his memories out of him and we can't get it off so he doesn't remember anything and he's insisting on going by James." Instead of looking worried, Nina laughs.