CHAPTER TWELVE ;
"  heist gone wrong "

"   stop feeling invisible
    and start feeling invincible   "
✧   INVINCIBLE
                 aminé!

And finally, FINALLY the big day full of crime, espionage, theft, fancy ants, betrayal, super-suits, and a real good time arrives. The Heist Team are all in position throughout the depths of Pym Tech; Laurie working undercover with Hope, Gordo having left his own car to sit in the very dirty van with the two wombats, Luis sneaking in, Pym pulling up, and Scott in the sewers. They're all set and ready to go to rob some rando rich villain dude.

What could possibly go wrong?

"Alright, ladies and gents," Gordo so proudly announces over their party line, squinting at the video feed on Fran (his beloved laptop), "Ant-Man is in the building!"

"How ya doin', nimrod?" Laurie presses into her comm link like she sees everybody do in the movies, her heels clicking on the tile floor after Hope's, "Nervous yet?"

"Nah, I'm cool, I'm totally cool with this, yeah." Gordo's voice crackles in her ear, sounding just like the big ball of nerves he always is, "I am so calm right now!"

He is, in fact, not calm.

But Gordo continues, "But you know, I should be comfortable with this. After all, I grew up on the streets, so-,"

"Dude." Laurie makes a face, "You grew up in your mom's house?"

"Which overlooked a street!"

Laurie snorts and shakes her head, continuing following after a very determined Hope.

"Got a Crown Vic right outside there." Dave speaks up from beside Gordo, his eyes narrowed on a car across the street.

Kurt cocks his head to the side, "This is problem?"

Dave sighs as he squints at him, "Considering the Crown Vic's the most commonly used car for undercover cops, man, yes, this is problem."

"I'm deploying the bullet ants!" A miniature Scott announces from his spot in the rafters, "Papanera Claire de Merna Merna... I don't remember what it's called, but I feel bad for this guy!"

And down below, a disguise-wearing - and whistling - Luis stops in front of the server room from where he just took some poor guy out. The man nonchalantly clears his throat as he moves to stand beside another security guard.

"What's up, man?" Luis tries to blend in, giving a chill nod of the head.

The guard nods casually back, only to feel something kind of funny land on his shoulder. He brushes off his concern, thinking, 'hey, how could this go wrong'? Well, he is about to find out. Because suddenly them cute little biters start munching on his neck and then his hand and then he starts screaming. And Luis quickly shuts him up with one hard punch to his face. The guy collapses in a heap and Luis cheers and bounces, all giddy and excited that their plan (unlike most of them) actually worked.

"See?! That's what I'm talking 'bout-,"

Luis immediately stutters and draws back at having been caught by Hope and Laurie who are just walking up, "I-I mean, that's what I call an un-unfortunate casualty in a very serious operation-,"

Hope just ignores him with a quiet annoyed sigh, walking into the server room with the signal decoy in hand and letting the door swing closed behind her. But Laurie is much more supportive of the guy.

"Ay, my man, looking good." Laurie gives her dad's pal a wink and a fistbump, nodding proudly down at the knocked out bro on the hard marble ground.

Luis fistbumps her in return, "Feeling good, mmhm."

"Signal decoy in place." Kurt speaks up from his spot back in the van, "Mean, pretty lady did good, Scott."

"Looks like Pym's getting arrested."

"Yikes." Gordo winces at the sight across the street.

He means, sure, the guy has never been able to remember Gordo's name even after nearly a month of knowing each other but Hank did hold the door open for him once so all in all, Pym really isn't that bad of a guy. He really would rather him not to get arrested, if he had a choice of course.

"Scott, we have problem."

"Problem?" Scott stills from running across the rafters with the ants, talking through the comm link, "What's the problem?"

Dave narrows his eyes and makes the very brave and heroic decision to sacrifice himself for the sake of the collective. Or well, sacrifice himself and Gordo.

He grabs the teenager's arm and hops out of the van, "Gordo, it's time to beat feet!"

"Wait, wait, what are we doing?!" The teenage boy cries as he's dragged from the ugly brown van and yanked after Dave towards the cop car that they're apparently about to steal.

"Dave!" Kurt watches the two sneak-sprint across the street, "Gordon, that's not part of plan!"

Kurt watches with intent eyes while the two hop into the cops' car, much to Gordo's obvious distress at robbing the po-po. But Dave pays no mind as he slams down on the gas and screeches away, creating the perfect diversion. The two cops whirl around in great annoyance, sprinting after the car and giving Old Man Pym enough time to slip inside the building unbothered.

Kurt just puckers his lips and shrugs, "Problem solved."

"Hey, so." Laurie awkwardly scratches at her forehead, tapping her foot and fidgeting with her black leather binder that has a big 'Pym Tech' label on it, "Um, like, uh, do you think this is going to, like, work?"

With her hair-do all situated and suit skirt still straight, Hope pauses as she leads their way out of the server room.

Her pink lips frown while she turns back to look at the teen, hand still on the door handle, "Are you worried we won't?"

"Uh, well... I don't know a lot about these kinds of 'things'." She does those little quote thingies with her fingers and breathes out a big breath with puffed out cheeks, "Contrary to popular belief, I'm actually not like, a super bad kid? I mean, I'm only a semi-bad kid. The only crimes I ever committed was egg Paxton's police station, illegally download some Glee covers, and I once stole a pack of Juicy Fruit from a Walmart when I was four but I felt so bad about it, I actually threw up."

Hope just stares at her, pointing out flatly, "Well, you did rob my father, Laurie."

"Well yeah, but then I got arrested! So, that doesn't count as successful."

Hope gives a small reassuring smile to the kid who she's actually sorta kinda of warmed up to a lot. It's weird. Like, when she first met the bratty spunky fifteen year, she thought this girl was going to drive her insane. And sure, the girl still does drive her insane, but in a good way. In a way that makes her care about her. The two Langs have a habit of doing that.

Still smiling a little, Hope rests a hand on her arm, "It's gonna be alright, Laurie. We're going to finish this."

Laurie stares at her for a long second and then she nods, believing her, "'Kay."

"Alright, let's go do it, then." Putting back on her cool exterior, Hope clears her throat and yanks the door open for both of them.

The two are just turning back to go down the hall when they skid to the stop at the sight of Darren Cross standing across from the, watching them suspiciously. Laurie is kind of a horrible liar so it's really hard for her not to look guilty as Hope awkwardly shifts under his scrutinizing gaze.

"Well..." His face suddenly morphs to express his concern, "How do I look, ladies?"

Gordo rasps for air as he throws himself back into the van Laurie and him decided to name "Hercules". His heart pounds and he's sweating and he's pretty sure it's not because he just ran a long way. His body is all hyped up because he's on the lamb from the coppers. The only plus in this situation is that Laurie is gonna be really impressed when he finds out he totally jacked up Paxton's cop car. Dave is practically bouncing with glee as he hops back into the driver's side.

His hands happily pound on the steering wheel as he yells, "Did you see that, Kurt?!"

He's having a great ol' time until he realizes that pounding on the steering wheel actually hits the car horn and that groovy little tune starts playing.

Paxton and Gale who have been distraughtly leaning over their crunched car slowly turns to look over at the now panicked guys sitting inside that ugly brown van.

As Hank uncomfortably joins the group to enter the vault and Scott gets into position, Laurie awkwardly teeters back and forth on her way too high-heels in the big steel room. Her eyes find the Yellow Jacket suit chilling in a big glass case in the middle of the room and she smirks a little bit. She can't help but wonder what that feels like, to have her body shrink and stretch. Does it hurt?

She's distracted when a new group of people joins them and she cannot control her face when she realizes it's that creep-o nimrod Mitchell Carson with a gang of cronies behind him. Nasty.

"Hello, Dr. Cross." Mitchell smoothly walks up to him, talking like the slippery snake he is, "My associates have agreed to your terms."

"Wonderful." He turns to Hank who does not look at all thrilled, "Mr. Carson introduced me to these fine gentlemen here. They're representatives of Hydra." Cross squints his eyes and scrunches his nose, quickly trying to reassure himself, "They're not what they were."

"Uh, ya mean Nazis?" Laurie supplies disgustedly.

Cross just happily ignores her, "They're doing some interesting work. And I'm enjoying myself." His happy demeanor suddenly shifts and darkens, "You tried to hide your technology from me. And now... it's gonna blow up in your face."

With flaming eyes, Hank suddenly punches Cross right across the face.

"Ooo!" Laurie jumps off to the side.

"Wow." Cross cradles what Laurie imagines to be a really painful jaw, "Wow! I mean, I saw that punch coming a mile away, but I just figured it'd be all pathetic and weak."

"Well, you figured wrong." Hank replies with a huff, fixing his suit coat over his chest.

Laurie just smirks around the room and rocks back on her heels, pleased that the Nazis and their buds are getting socked.

The cops slowly begin to surround Gordo, Dave, Kurt, and the van of bad luck.

"I know this van." Frowning suspiciously, Jim Paxton loudly bangs on the metal back door, "Anybody home?"

"Uh guys?" Gordo speaks slowly, peering out the one-way window with wide freaked eyes, "My best friend's mom's fiance who is a cop is outside."

Dave pulls him back from the window, hissing, "Shh."

Gordo looks offended, "You shh."

"Shh!" Kurt hushes.

"Shh!" Dave shushes right back.

"All right, guys. I'm here. I'm setting the charges." Scott interrupts the children, "How we looking on that laser grid?"

"Almost." Kurt lays on his stomach, staring at the slowly loading bar on his computer.

"No, you're not." Dave replies, unimpressed.

"I'm getting close!" Kurt tries to argue.

"No, you're not." Dave still shuts him down.

"San Francisco P.D.!" Paxton bangs harder on the back door, "Out of the van! I know you're in there!"

Gordo swivels around to look at the Russian-esque guy, "Bro, you have got to make it go faster!"

But Kurt is on his last nerve, "Dudes, seriously!"

"Ready to jump." Scott's voice fills the line as he stands at the edge of the tunnel, "Do you read, Kurt?"

Gordo is on the brink of a massive panic attack.

"So close."

And then suddenly the back doors of the van are flying open, guns are pointed at them, and Gordo's hands are instinctively in the air before they even yell, "Freeze!"

"Okay, hold up! Wait a minute!" Dave points at them quickly, "There was a black guy and scrawny kid-,"

"Hey!" Gordo yells.

But Dave keeps going, "-that looked exactly like us who attacked us and put us in the back of this disgusting van!"

"Get out of the van!" Paxton just rolls his eyes and the two cops start dragging them out of the van.

"Go now!" Kurt yells back to Scott before realizing that he's not actually hit the initiate button and he cries out, "Wait!"

"What?!" Scott cries as he's already started plummeting towards the red laser lights below, "What do you mean, 'Wait'?!"

In a panic that his best friend's dad is literally about to be toast, Gordo lunges forward out of Paxton's grasp and slaps his hand on the spacebar. With a huge sigh of relief, the kid initiates the sequence, the lasers turn off, and he saves Scott from becoming Burnt Man (not his best nickname, but it'll do). With a scowl, Paxton grabs onto the boy once more and throws him onto the pavement, ready to handcuff and book 'im.

"Hold on-," the cop frowns down at the kid, "Don't I know you?"

His two other criminal buds look at him worriedly.

Gordo sweats, "Erm..."

Scott flies through the now disabled lasers, his hands reaching out for the miniaturized Yellow Jacket suit only for it to suddenly get pulled out of his grip and the lasers to turn back out. He yells as his thin rope snaps and he falls down hard onto the hard metal ground, now completely trapped by the glass tube all around him.

"What?" Tiny Scott spins in a confused circle only to freeze when he sees a man - the man - staring at him.

"Hey, little guy!" Cross laughs, tapping the glass like the miniature man inside is a little insect.

Laurie hurriedly swallows a gasp and then quickly has to stop herself from coughing because of that, but what she can't even try to hide is her big blue eyes dancing around the room panickedly.

They're screwed!

Oh, they are so screwed!

"I always suspected you had a suit stored away somewhere." Cross happily turns back around to face Hank who is now shifting worriedly, "Which begs the question, who is the new Ant-Man? Who is the man that my beloved mentor trusted even more than me?"

"Ooooooooo farfegnugen." Laurie whispers, her voice suddenly seeming so raspy and loud in her mind.

And then her father's mugshot fills the screen behind the glass case, and all the air in Laurie's lungs dissipates. Her expression crumbles and something that burns fills her eyes at the sight of her father in the place where she lost him the first time.

"Scott Lang! A martyr... who took on the system and paid the price, losing his family and his two daughters in the process." The man's bald head slowly and eerily swivels around to settle a dark glare on the teenage intern in the room, "Isn't that right... Miss Lang?"

The tall brunette goes utterly pale and her mouth strangely dry. Her eyes panickedly dart to the glass and Scott's fists pound against glass but he can't do anything to help his daughter now.

A couple of security guards suddenly step forward and then they're grabbing onto Laurie's arms and throwing her down to the ground when she starts to struggle. Laurie grunts as her stomach hits the cold tile hard, actual fear digging a well where her spunk and gumption usually is. Scott punches hard at the glass again, worriedly gritting his teeth at the sight.

"Exactly your kind of guy, Hank!" Cross gives a big vicious smirk, pacing around the room like he's some kind of big shot, "He escapes his jail cell without leaving any clue as to how. And then he disappears magically, despite having no money to his name. And now he brings me the Ant-Man suit. The only thing that can rival my creation."

"Darren, don't do this." Hank tries to reason with him, his eyes looking from Laurie to Scott to the HYDRA dudes all around them, "If you sell to these men, it's gonna be chaos."

"I already have. And for twice the price, thanks to you. It's not easy to successfully infiltrate an Avengers facility. Thankfully, word travels fast. I'll sell them the Yellowjacket, but I'm keeping the particle to myself." Cross hands a small vial over to the Mitchell, completely a business deal with, like, the worst people on the planet, "They don't run on diesel. If you want the fuel, you'll have to come to me." He swivels back around to Hank with his hands behind his back, "What do you call the only man who can arm the most powerful weapon in the world?"

Hank just looks disgusted, "The most powerful man in the world."

"You proud of me yet?" Cross mockingly raises his eyebrows.

"You can stop this, Darren. It's not too late."

"It's been too late for a long time now."

And then suddenly the guards all around them are drawing their weapons and pointing them directly at Old Man Pym and then down to Laurie.

"Oh, come on!" The girl hisses in irritation and kind of a lot of fear, blowing some hair out of her big eyes.

"Leave her alone!" Scott's fists continue pounding on the glass, panic dancing in his chest at the sight of a gun on his daughter.

"Darren!" Hope's eyes look ready to pop out of her face as she looks around at the sudden scene around her, "What are you doing?"

"He wasn't any more capable of caring for you than he was for me."

"This is not who you are. It's the particles altering your brain chemistry."

Cross' eyes flicker with realization and fear for the briefest of seconds. And then the man jolts forward, reaching out for the guns like he's got this big change of heart, "Wait! Wait, wait, wait, wait. You're right!" Hope and Laurie together heave sighs of relief but then Cross turns back around with the gun planted safely within his hand, "I have to be the one to do it."

Baring her teeth, Hope suddenly takes out a nearby guard and then wrenches his gun free to point right back at Cross in one swift graceful and kick-butt movement.

"That was an 11." Laurie quietly rates Hope's takedown, her arms still painfully pinned behind her back and her cheek still shoved into the cold concrete ground.

With a slow deep breath, the girl closes her eyes and thinks back to all those gym meets she just couldn't help but be competitive at. With a stiff nod, the girl suddenly thrusts her legs back into the guard's crotch. Arms free, she braces herself for a backflip and then kicks the man once more in the face. As the guard stumbles back from her, Laurie dizzily shakes her head and then eagerly yanks the gun from his grip. In one foul swoop, the girl has somehow managed to take down a man twice her size and now hold his gun in her hand.

"Whoa!" Scott quietly comments, his eyes wide in surprise.

With everybody still staring at her, she's gotta admit, she's honestly just as surprised as they are.

She is, as the kids says, s h o o k e t h.

"Well then." Laurie shrugs and then cocks the gun, redirecting it towards an approaching guard, "I wouldn't mess with me, punk! I may not know exactly how to use a gun but I'm pretty sure point and shoot will work just fine to blow your noggin off."

Scott flinches at his daughter's words and Laurie herself scrunches her nose but then she quickly shrugs and shakes it off.

"Got so graphic up in here, but sometimes it gotta be like dat." The fifteen year old raises her eyebrows and dips her chin at the man, "Right? Now back up."

"Here we go." Mitchell just rolls his eyes, getting real tired of this hero crap.

"Drop your gun." Hope grits out, eyes trained solely on Cross.

"You know, I came to the house the other night to kill him..." His eyes flicker to her in betrayal, "But you were there!"

"You're sick and I can help you." Hope breathes back, knowing that he really was her friend once upon a time, "Just put the gun down."

"I wasn't ready to kill you then, but I think I am now!"

Laurie grits her teeth and bounces uncomfortably, getting real tired of the bald villain speech.

"Drop your gun now!"

Cross glares at her, "You picked the wrong side, Hope!"

And then suddenly the glass tube beside them is exploding and Scott bursts out from within it.

Laurie shrieks and ducks under the flying glass, watching as her dad starts taking out all the men around her. And in all the chaos, bullets start flying and then all the sudden blood is spurting up on Laurie's face and Hank is collapsing right down next to her.

The girl shrieks and jerks away from the man as Hope cries out, "Dad!"

Laurie panickedly rushes over to the old dude, terrified out of her pretty little mind. She's never seen someone get shot before, especially never someone she knew and sorta-kinda cared about. Laurie's hands are numb as she hurriedly presses them into the gaping hole in his shoulder before letting Hope take over to stop the bleeding. Laurie's eyes are wide and her mouth gapes open as she stares down at the blood on her hands, suddenly understanding... the price that heroes have to pay.

"Hank, no. No, Hank. Hank?" Her dad drops to his knees beside her, "Listen, you're gonna be okay. All right? You're gonna be just fine-,"

But then Laurie's shoulder is suddenly being dug into and she cries out in denial as she's roughly yanked to her feet and a cold barrel of a gun is painfully shoved into her temple.

Oh wooow, this got bad real fast.

Cross holds the teenager tightly to his chest, keeping the gun to her head as he hisses out, "Take the suit off, or I swear I'm gonna blow your daughter's brains out!"

Scott slowly looks up at them with eyes that speak on all levels of horror, and Laurie's cold heart breaks because she starts to see that he actually does care if she gets a bullet hole in her skull. Aw.

"Gosh dang it!" Breathing shakily, Laurie angrily grits her teeth and squeezes her eyes shut, "I'm sorry, Dad."

"It's okay, Laurie, it's okay." Scott breathes carefully, slowly backing away from Hank and turning to face Cross, "Let her go."

"Give me the suit!" Cross roars, yanking on Laurie's long hair to drive the barrel further into her temple.

Hope begins to tremble from the rage building up inside of her, her hand slowly lifting the comm to ear and then ants begin to crawl up Cross' gun, his legs, his back, and his arms until they stab their mandibles into the dude's flesh.

With a cry, Cross throws Laurie hard onto the ground, making her smack her head painfully on the wall. Scott panickedly tries to catch her as Cross shakes his stinging hand and hurriedly sprints for the door with the Yellow Jacket suit in hand. Laurie groans as she shoves her body away from the hard metal wall, pressing a hand into her aching head.

"Oh God, Laurie," Scott quickly takes her face in his hands, looking over her now bleeding forehead, "hey, hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm cool, Dad, I'm cool." Laurie hisses at the split skin, wrapping her fingers around his wrist and nodding quickly, "Just maybe bleeding out but I'm so cool."

"Are you sure?" When Laurie dizzily nods again, Scott lets out a tight breath and quickly looks back down at the still bleeding Hank, "We need to get him out of here-,"

Hope silences him with a single deadly look, "Go get that suit."

Scott's jaw tightens in resolution before he gives a very astute nod, pecks a kiss on Laurie's head, and then he's gone.

Laurie watches after him with scared icy eyes, swallowing hard and grinding down on her bottom teeth. She just really hopes that isn't the last time she ever sees her dad again.

Angrily rubbing blood across her forehead, Laurie stiffly nods and turns back to her mentors, "Alrighty-o, come on, let's get gone."

"Laurie." Hope grasps onto her hand, looking her straight in the eye, "Get out of here."

"Hope..."

And as Laurie's eyes fill with fear, the woman who has a heart after all just gives the younger girl a look, "I'm sorry, who are you again?"

The dealio.

The deal she made to be a part of this: run and forget.

Laurie slowly sits back on her heels, her eyes slowly widening in understanding, "Right, sorry, um, we don't know each other."

Her icy blues dart to Hank's and the man gives a pained nod of reassurance, gently (and unexpectedly) patting her hand.

So, with a hissing sigh, the girl stiffly nods and mumbles, "This sucks butt."

Laurie pushes herself up, throws her dumb high heels off her feet, and then, with one last look at the daughter and bleeding out father, she makes a barefoot break for the exit.

"Okay, well, see ya on the other side, folks!"

Laurie soon joins the crowd of running civilians, blending in and hurriedly hiding her face from Paxton and his cop partner as they rush to handle the chaos. She trips down the concrete staircase up to Pym Tech, holding a hand to her still bleeding head. Does she have a concussion? She's not sure. Is she supposed to be seeing stars? How about the ringing in her ears? Is that normal? How about that rather intense need to puke her guts out right here on the concrete?

Nah, a concussion couldn't be it.

"Laurie!" Her name being shouted draws her attention to Gordo screeching up in his car and leaning over to throw his door open, "Hop in!"

Without a second thought, the girl dizzily dives in and before she can even buckle her seatbelt, he's cruising off again. Laurie grabs onto the dashboard and covers her mouth with her hand in a desperate attempt to keep her cookies.

"How ya doing, Gordo?" Laurie mumbles through her hand, head spinning, "You doing good?"

"I laughed, I cried, we ran from the fuzz, it's all a blur!" Gordo yells over the sound of the rushing wind, "How about you?! Are you okay?!"

Ignoring him from the moment, Laurie dizzily jerks back in her seat, looking over her shoulder to watch as Pym Tech grows smaller and smaller in the distance.

"We held our part of the bargain, we got out! It's up to them now." Gordo does his best to reassure her, "They're gonna be okay, Laurie, it's over now!"

"Yeah!" Laurie shakily yells back, trying to sound like she believes him, trying really hard to believe him, "Yeah, you're right. It's over."

She slowly leans back in her seat, a strange feeling creeping up in her belly that she's about 86% certain is not from the concussion she doesn't have. This isn't over. She doesn't know how she knows. She just does.

This is far from over.

♢ ♢ ♢

It all happened so fast.

Scott left Laurie and the others in the vault, he followed Cross into the helicopter, Ant-thony was killed, Cross put on the Yellow Jacket suit, and then it was an all out fight. They were small and battling in a briefcase, he thinks. A briefcase full of breath mints and blasting the Cure? They landed in a pool or something, and Scott was able to stop him for now. Why does a ping pong paddle come to mind? Doesn't matter.

All that matters is that it isn't over yet.

It's far from over.

The police showed up and... uh, he thinks Paxton (?) tased him and then he must have passed out. And now he's here in his suit and in the back of a... cop car? Scott blinks slowly, trying to clear the blurriness from his mind before he suddenly sits up straight.

"Paxton! You have to listen to me!" Scott blurts out before his brain is even fully working again, "Paxton, turn around! Take me back!"

"I am taking you back." Paxton snaps from the front seat, grumpily driving his crunched car, "To prison."

Scott hurriedly sighs in frustration, still trying to complete the job, "There's something in that backyard that needs to be destroyed!" His voice grows more panicked, "In the bug zapper! There-,"

Paxton whirls around to yell, "You need to desist right now! Your delusions are out of hand! If I find out Laurie's been involved in this-,"

"All units," A raspy voice suddenly blasts from the dispatch radio, "we have a 2-36 in progress at 840 Winter Street."

Scott's eyes widen in fear, "The girls!"

"That's my house!" Paxton yells, yanking hard on the steering wheel.

♢ ♢ ♢

"Don't be scared." Cross' voice slowly coos, cocking his screwed up head to the side.

Laurie heaves in a shaky breath and she can't deny that there are actual tears in her eyes as she protectively holds Cassie behind her in the middle of the little girl's room. This wasn't the plan. This wasn't part of the plan! She was just supposed to run and forget and that would be the end of it.

But she's in too deep.

What's worse is that now, she's pulled her little sister down with her.

Cassie grips one of her small hands onto Laurie's t-shirt while her other holds her demon bunny close to her pj-covered chest. The two sisters stand before the monster in the Yellow Jacket suit, Cassie peeking around Laurie's side who tries to look as strong and as tall as she possibly can before him.

But who is Laurie fooling anymore?

Her stupid facade means literally, like, zilch at this point.

But that won't stop her.

Her pale hands tremble around her old wooden bat while she holds it defensively in front of her and her baby sister, "You step the cuss back, Cross!"

The man with the yellow eyes squints in mockery, "You think a little baseball bat is going to scare me?"

Cassie worriedly tightens her grip on Laurie's shirt and Laurie slowly tries to pry her sister's hands off of her.

"First of all, it's a softball bat, moron. And B.," Laurie just slowly and tiredly smirks, "uh, yeah, I sure hope it does!"

With a yell, the girl swings the bat as hard as she can towards the Yellow Jacket's head. But the man easily catches the wooden thing before it can even make contact, and in an instant, he's twisting it away from her grasp and then swiftly slamming the bat into the fifteen year old's knee.

A sickening crunch and an explosion of pain bursts through her leg, forcing a long and pained scream from Laurie's mouth as her bones are cracked from underneath her and throw her down to the carpet.

Eyes wide with horror, lil' Cassie releases a shriek and drops down beside her big sister. Letting out a collection of whimpers, Laurie gags at the odd direction her leg is twisted, struggling to pull her little sister behind her once more.

Her vision fades in and out, and Laurie can feel the agony making her slip consciousness.

But she can't leave Cassie alone.

She'd never leave Cassie alone.

Tears slip down the seven year old's face as she slowly looks back up at Cross, "Are you a monster?"

"Do I look like a monster?" Cross sounds almost... like surprised.

"Agh, just shut... up!" Laurie whimpers back, her head dropping into the carpet to hide the pain on her face from her little sister.

"I want my daddy!" Cassie suddenly screams, her little nose scrunching and her arms trying to cradle her big sister's shoulders.

And Cross just smirks, "I want your daddy, too."

ahhhh the tension!! agh the dumb humor that might only be funny to me! but okay so wow. that was like, an essay in which took forever to write and took forever to post but hey i did it! also it felt a bit choppy here and there and i hopped around so much but there was so much we needed to cover within this one chapter and so i hoped it didn't bother you - in fact, i hope you loved it! what are your thoughts?

now, there are only three short chapters left in PART I which is, whew, crazy to me! i got a big hopefully interesting twist to throw at you coming soon so i hope you like that!

but anyway, this note from your author is mostly just to say a big thank you for sticking with me throughout this book and thank you for the 3k mark that i've just hit! i'm so thankful and i love you all so much! thank you all, you're all beauties that should be loved and treasured like you deserve.

now, it's a big update day for me so be sure to look on my profile and see what other works i'm updating! hope to see ya around!

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