Hey rats! So I started finalizing the plot more and I have calculated about how many chapters there will be left and I have estimated about 40 - 50 more chapters so probably totaling this story to be around
70 - 80ish chapters.

IKKK THATS A LOT LESS THAN THE FIRST, BUTTT THERE WILL BE LOTS OF STUFF THAT GOES DOWN SO I PROMISE IT'S WORTH IT!!!

ANYWAYS, UNTO THE CHAPTER!!

Marella's P.O.V

Stowy barked and jumped up happily beside Marella as she unpacked her bags in the new hotel they were at.

After the whole showdown with that Neverseen member in the previous hotel and getting fooled that there was a bomb, the group had left there as fast as they could.

They tried to be as cautious and undercover as they could but somehow this guy kept finding them.

"We need to figure out some kind of game plan," Marella announced, stating the obvious.

"Working on that," Dex replied, clicking away on his laptop.

"What I want to know is how that cheeky rat keeps finding us!" Grady spat, crossing his arms. "I swear, I think I was cursed at that market place!"

"Uh, this is the Neverseen we are talking about," Wylie replied.

"Right but doesn't it seem like they are finding us way too easily this time?" Marella cut in.

"That's true. I called Mr. Forkle's group last night and they are barely getting any attacks— well except for the one that has Mr. Forkle currently injured," Edaline added.

"Hmm...could this mean we are closer to the Neverseen?" Marella guessed.

"Maybe," Dex said, looking around. His eyes then locked on Stowy, causing him to narrow his eyes. "Hold on a second."

He then sat up, being careful with his prosthetic leg as he hopped over to where Stowy was at and picked him up. He then sat back down with him and started to looked through Stowy's light fur.

"Oh no..." Dex mumbled.

"What?!" Everyone exclaimed.

"Just as I suspected," Dex whispered, focused at whatever he was looking at in Stowy's fur.

"Please tell us what you're talking about!" Marella begged.

"Did it ever occur to you how suspicious it was for Stowy to just randomly appear right before we left on the trip?" Dex asked.

"Well..." Marella mumbled, but then stopped as she thought about it.

Huh...it never really occurred to her—

"Wait— THERE'S A TRACKER ON HIM?!" Marella exclaimed.

Dex nodded and handed over Stowy so she could see for herself.

"Wait— can't the thing hear what we're saying?!" Wylie mouthed.

"No, it's only a locational tracker," Dex replied, grabbing Stowy back to take another look at him.

"Well what do we do now?" Marella asked, feeling dumb and sad that the reason they were getting found all this time was because of a cute little puppy.

"BURN THE RAT!" Grady yelled out, backing away from Stowy.

Edaline gasped. "GRADY! HOW DARE YOU?!"

Grady narrowed his eyes at Stowy. "I never liked that thing, if you need to get rid of it, I'll just toss it in the trash myself!"

Marella gasped and snatched Stowy from Dex so she could cradle him in her arms. "Grady, you're getting nowhere near Stowy!"

"Don't worry, he's kidding," Edaline assured, pinching Grady and giving him a glare that said, "don't you dare say a peep!"

"So what do we do?" Wylie asked, slowly backing away from Grady.

"I think I can get it out myself with some tools, just give me some time," Dex said, grabbing Stowy again.

"Okay, please don't hurt him," Marella begged, feeling sorry for the poor puppy.

"Don't worry. I'll just be in one of the rooms over there," Dex assured, getting up and taking Stowy with him.

Once Dex walked away, Edaline cleared her throat. "Alright, it's getting late. Grady and I will go out to find something to bring back to eat. Meanwhile, the rest of you can just finish unpacking your things or whatever you need to do."

With that, Edaline and Grady left the room soon after. Wylie went to go take a shower while Dex continued to work to remove the tracker on Stowy which left Marella all by herself in the couch area.

She settled to watch TV for now, holding off on unpacking. As she tried to tune in, she heard lots of buzzing.

Confused, she sat up and looked around to see Dex had left his phone on a nearby table and it was vibrating a lot.

Marella left it, trying to continue to watch her show but the phone wouldn't stop so she got up to check what was up.

She looked at Dex's notifications to see there were several texts from Linda. Marella narrowed her eyes. She almost forgot about that girl.

While she looked, she couldn't help but feel the temptation to unlock Dex's phone and to see what was up with this annoying girl.

Marella, don't do it. You're supposed to trust him, he's your boyfriend.

She tried to place the phone back down, thinking about how this was wrong.

But the other side of her convinced, but Marella! What's the harm in just checking if everything's alright? That's what good girlfriends do, right?

Marella sat there, debating with herself but before she could change her mind, she quickly unlocked his phone and went through his texts with Linda.

She scrolled to the top and saw that the oldest one was only from today which meant Dex had been deleting his conversations with Linda.

Hmmm...interesting...

Was he trying to hide something?

Marella then looked through the several messages she kept spamming Dex with and read them. Her eye brows rose at the messages Linda had sent.

Almost...flirtatious?

The first one said: I MISS YOU SO MUCH DEXYYY! YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY COME VISIT ME! My grandparents are so close to you and I would loveeee for you to meet them!! :)))))

Marella cringed. This girl seemed so clingy and annoying and it was getting on her nerves.

The rest of the messages were just repeats with other creepy emojis and smiley faces that were very questionable.

Marella felt herself fill with rage.

This girl was trying to steal her man!

Before Marella could look anymore, she heard footsteps coming towards her way. She quickly shut off his phone and hopped back on the couch and pretended to watch the TV, acting like nothing had happened.

A few seconds later, Dex poked his head out with Stowy in his hands and exclaimed, "I got it off! I just need to figure out what to do with the tracker."

Dex then handed Stowy over. "Are you okay?" He asked a second later, gesturing at her face.

"Huh— uh yeah! Totally fine," Marella assured, putting up a fake smile. She couldn't help but feel a little guilty.

Dex stared at her with a suspicious look for a second before he looked away and then changed the topic. He started going on about if he should destroy the tracker or use it to place it somewhere to fool the Neverseen into thinking they were somewhere else.

Marella zoned him out, just nodding along. She couldn't help but think about what she saw earlier.

She hugged Stowy tight and started to worry.

Could this Linda girl be a real threat?

Marella kept reassuring to herself that she had nothing to worry about but she found herself second guessing it.

Should she talk to Dex about it?

Nah, he would shrug it off and tell her it's nothing.

Marella realized that she was probably being silly. After all, they were on a mission to find Sophie, not to be worrying about some girl that could be a threat to Marella and Dex's relationship.

But the warnings of the betrayals that fortune teller had foreseen kept ringing in her head.

Was if it's Dex?