you ain't seen nothin' yet

༒chapter twenty-five༒

"Ben!" Mal yells as we walk down the hallways of Ben's castle.

Dude laughs. "This way!" He leads us through the hallways, tracking Ben's scent.

Mal sighs as we turn a corner. "Ben could be asleep anywhere."

"Or turned to stone," Celia adds as we stop.

"Okay," Evie says, covering Celia's mouth.

"I like the vest by the way," I say to Harry as the others stand there and look around.

"You do?" he asks, smiling and nudging my arm.

I nod and smile. "I do. Very fancy."

Uma groans and turns to us. "Would you two stop it? I don't want to turn around to see my First Mate and my sister lip locking."

Harry smirks and grabs my chin, going to lean down. Uma smacks his arm away from me. Harry grabs his wrist and look at Uma offended while pouting.

"Ben!"

"I got a scent," Dude says, sitting at the end of the hallway. "Very pungent cologne. Easy to track."

I raise my hand. "Um, I was with him when he bought it one time. It's horrendous."

Carlos looks back at me and laughs, shaking his head. "Follow me, people," Dude says.

"That's great, Dude," Gil says.

"FYI, I give great cuddles too."

"Really?" Gil asks as I grab Harry's hand and we all start walking. "I never had a pet growing up." I grab Gil's hand and drag him along before I let his hand go. "Well, except for the elk head in Dad's man cave, but that wasn't really..."

"It's kind of scary," I say.

Gil nods and points at me. "Yeah..."

"Hold up!"

We all stop and look at Uma as she drags her fingers across claw marks in the wall. "What's this?"

Carlos walks in front of Uma and looks at the map frame that's cut in half. "Uh," he points to the wall and turns, "Any chance this was already here?" Mal sighs.

"And follow me!"

Harry drags me by the hand as we all start following Dude down another hallway. "I think that girl did more than put the guy to sleep," Harry mutters, glancing back at the scratches before we keep walking.

"Ben!" Mal shouts again.

"Mal, I think he probably would have answered by now."

She glares back at me. "I'm worried about him, okay?" she snaps.

"All right. Jesus."

"Ben!" she shouts again, pushing open a set of doors. "Ben?" she asks as we all walk into the room and look around at the knights. "Ben?"

"Stay here, okay?" Evie asks Celia.

Harry runs his hook along a knight. When we get to the second one, he whistles and lets go of my hand to run his fingers along the sword. "I can feel you looking," he says as I start to walk off.

"Good," Jay says, walking off in the same direction as me. Harry rolls his eyes and grabs my wrist, pulling me back to him.

"So you can track, cuddle, and talk," Gil says, petting Dude. He turns to Carlos. "Hey, do you think his puppies would be able to talk too?"

Carlos pats Gil's shoulder. "All right, man. He's taken. You want a dog, adopt a rescue."

Dude starts laughing. "Talking puppies? That's crazy."