The Night (Marcanne)

The lady and the general

We ran towards them, smiling, but I was still scared. Something really bad had happened to Marcy. Worse than death. 

"Oh, uh, hello," Olivia said, looking flustered in answer to what we had seen earlier. It was none of my business, so I wasn't going to ask.

We sat down next to them, Sasha next to Yunan, and me next to Olivia.

No one knew where to begin.

"Wait, sorry- I forgot your name... who are you again?" Sasha said to Yunan, winking at me.

"General Yunan."

Mine and Sasha's jaws dropped open in surprise to the short answer.

"Some things get old eventually," Olivia muttered, rolling her eyes.

I swung my legs and took some deep breaths.

"Sasha said you might know what happened to Marcy," I said.

The lady and the general side-eyed each other before looking back at me.

"It's- complicated," Yunan said.

"We have all the time in the world," smiled Sasha.

"Okay... but it's a pretty harsh story."

3 months before

The light faded away as the portal closed, swallowing Anne and the Plantars whole.

"No," King Andrias began, "She managed to open the portal... well, no matter."

He clicked and two of his frog-robots jumped down from the ceiling.

"I still have the box," He said, grabbing it and slamming it shut.

"So..." He began as Olivia and Yunan attempted to quietly run past him, clasping each other's hands, "What about you two, are you with me?"

They snapped back into order and smiled huge, phoney, grins.

"We're with you!" The lady said, curtseying. 

"Definitely with you!" The general saluted. 

They sweated profusely and glanced at each other from the corner of their eyes.

"Good," A breath of relief echoed from the two of them. "Get her to a rejuvenation tank and make it snappy! She's fading fast..."

They ran over and picked Marcy up by the arms and legs. She felt limp yet so heavy in their hands. Yunan could feel Olivia shaking, so she smiled weakly at her.

She didn't feel like smiling.

The lady and the general hurried Marcy out of the room before the King could do anything else.

"What did he say? A rejuvenation tank? Do we have one of those?" Yunan asked.

"I- it's the thing we used to call a pickle jar," Olivia nervously laughed.

If they weren't carrying a body, this would be an enjoyable conversation reflecting on their past.

They spotted the tank and ran as fast as they could with Marcy.

It was filled to the brim with green liquid and had some type of face-mask in it.

"Do we just... put her in?"

"I guess so," Yunan nodded, as she hoisted the girl up into the air and into the tank with Olivia's help.

As the liquid lapped up onto Marcy, her skin flashed pitch black before returning to normal. 

Olivia pulled the mask over her face, and wires and tubes attached to her skin.

They jumped backwards, not expecting this. 

"Is this supposed to... revive her? Or what?" Yunan stated.

"I don't know. I don't want to find out."

3 months after

"So that's it?" I murmured, digging my finger nails into my thighs. "You..." I began to get louder, "You don't know what happened to Marcy?!?"

"Anne calm down!" Sasha panicked, jumping up and running over to me.

"Well... we..."

Sasha reached out for my hand but I slapped it away.

"No, Sasha! You were the one who told me they could help!"

"They can! We know Marcy isn't dead!"

"She's not dead, but she isn't okay!" I yelled breathlessly. Heads whipped around to see the scene unfolding before them.

"Girls, people are starting to stare. Now let's just all take some deep breaths and think rationally," Olivia whispered harshly, her accent thick like honey.

"Fine." I sat down again and so did Sasha.

"Now, I regret not doing anything but the King has too much power! There was nothing we could do!" Olivia said solemnly. 

I winced. I felt really bad for lashing out. 

"That's-" Sasha began before looking up at me, and I nodded, "That's okay. But we need your help to save her. To save Marcy."

"We couldn't do anything before, but we can now. I promise we will get Marcy back safe," Yunan said reassuringly. 

Everything is going to be fine.

I really really hope it will.