Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
I watch as bullets tear through Luca in slow motion, and he sinks to the ground. I’m there, too. You can’t tell from the video that Declan’s speaking to meyou certainly can’t hear it on the videobut I can as clear as day in my head.
I’ll never leave you, Teagan. Close your eyes and count to thirty.
My ribs ache like I’ve been pulled apart.
And then, I watch Declan drag Luca onto the plane, the door slamming closed behind them.
“Even in the best-case scenario, if he were rushed to a hospital, survival would not be likely. And while we don’t know exactly where the plane went, we know it disappeared into Canadian airspace before it dropped off the grid completely. Without medical assistance, Luca died on that plane. He maybe could have lived another fifteen minutes.”
Tears stream down my face. I feel like I’m the one bleeding outright here in this room. My guts are spilling from my chest and onto the floor, and I’m just waiting for it to be over.
“Thank you, Dr. Sousa. We can only hope that this realization helps calm the sheer chaos and violence we’ve seen from the Gods of Tomorrow fanbase over the past two days”
Agent Morris stops the video. “You were more than just a fan, Teagan.”
“You don’t know that he’s dead,” I sob. “You can’t know that for sure.”
There’s a knock on the door before another officer enters the room. “Finish up. We’ve got to let her go,” he says. “Her lawyer calledthey have a court order. They’re having her extradited back to California for a 5150.”
“A 5150? Really?”
“Yeah, apparently, this one is batshit crazy. You won’t be able to use anything she says in here. I got the whole story on the phone. She went missing a few weeks ago; the family has been very concerned due to her mental health issues, and she’s a suicide risk. Transport will be here in an hour.”
Do you think they can fit two people in one of those white coats?
And then, I laugh. I laugh in a way that hurts until it gives way to tears and hysterics because why not? After all, I’m crazy, right?
And I don’t give a fuck. Let them take me away. I’d much rather be in a padded room in California than a cell in wherever the fuck this is.
I bet they’ll even sedate me. That sounds delicious right now.
“You can take her back now,” the agent says. “But I think it’s pretty clear you weren’t just there for the parties, Teagan. I’m sure something will come up, and I’ll know where to find you now, won’t I?”
And since being crazy is apparently the only thing that will get me out of this, I decide I might as well go big. I lunge for the agent’s coffee mug, throw it against the wall behind me, and scramble across the floor for the shards.
They should have cuffed the crazy girl to the table. But they didn’t because she’s small with a pretty face and sad eyes. And they have no idea what she’s capable of.
They’re both on me before I drag the sharp, porcelain tip through my wrist.
Afew hours later, we depart from a small municipal airport somewhere in the middle of butt fucking nowhere. I don’t know why I thought I’d be on a regular flightmaybe I would have had there been a real airport nearby. Instead, I’m on a tiny airliner with my escort, who’s manspreading all over my seat, and only two other people.
I wonder what’s wrong with them.
“Is there wifi?” I joke. “An in-flight movie?”
He scoffs. “What do you think? Might as well get used to itI don’t think they have internet access in the looney bin.”
“They might,” I say. “We’ve got some classy looney bins where I’m from.”
He pops some earbuds into his ears. “Just shut up and sit there in your shit pile.”
I snort. That’s actually kind of an accurate description of what I’m doing now, isn’t it?
The plane takes off, and I lie back in my seat with my eyes closed, the abandoned and shamed queen of the shit pile, soothing the ache in my chest with the same lies over and over again.
Declan didn’t leave me.
Luca isn’t dead.
We’ll be a family again.
I’ll never be alone again.
But everything dies. Whether in bloodstains and ruin or from slow-burning lies.
That’s what I think is happening to me.
And when the scene through the window changes to something so uniquely California, my home both so familiar and so foreign, and I know we must be close to LAX, a pilot walks down the aisle, stopping beside our row.
“Sir?” he says to my police escort.
He removes the earbuds from his ears. “It’s Boyd,” he says.
“Officer Boyd, we’ve been instructed to make you aware of the situation on the ground. Do you want to ” He gestures for the man to come to the front of the plane. Boyd looks me up and down, my cuffed hands and feet in chains.
“Sure,” he says, then adds. “Don’t fucking try anything. I’ll take you all the way out.”
I give him a thumbs up. “Got it.”
They move toward the front of the plane; Boyd stands so he can watch me, and I watch him, too. I see the concern on his face and wonder what the fuck the situation on the ground could possibly be.
“What’s going on?” I ask him when he returns to his seat. Not that I expect him to answer.
“Just don’t let it go to your head, kid,” he says.
“Folks, we are beginning our final descent into Los Angeles International Airport,” the pilot says over the speaker. “Local time is 4:33 PM, the weather on the ground is seventy-nine degrees and sunny. We should touch down in approximately twenty-two minutes. Please remain seated with your seatbelts fastened.”
I lean against the window and sigh.
Once we land, we deboard the small plane on the tarmac outside and then are escorted into the airport by two armed security guards.
And once we’re through the terminal, I’m surprised by two familiar faces.
“Mom? Dad?”
They must see the visible shock on my face. My mom replies, “Well, yeah. Who else do you think would have gotten you out of this mess?”
I guess I hadn’t really thought about itit hadn’t occurred to me that someone would have needed to put the wheels into motion in order for this to happen. But I think maybe I was hoping
I’ll make some calls.
Maybe we can share a room with nice thick padded walls.
“Oh my god, you thought it was them, didn’t you?” she laughs. “You are so delusional.”
“Well, hopefully, they make pills for that,” I say.
“I really hope so, Teagan,” she says. “Let’s keep moving. There’s a transport out front to take you to Rancho San Flores.”
“Sounds fancy,” I tell her. “How’s it going, Dad?”
“Teagan, I can’t even look at you,” he says.
“Is it as bad out there as they say?” Boyd asks.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.