Mari: Year One [Completed]

Chapter Twenty: Normalcy

"We must not speak of this." Danilo told her as they stepped out of the congressman's mansion.

"Of course not, but if you try to attack me one of these days, I'll tell the world you cannibalized god flesh." Mari said with a smile.

"What about Congressman Elizer?" Danilo asked her now, as she stepped into the street.

"Tempting, but maybe another time." She said with a grin, Danilo returned it grimly.

"It was quite the honor to fight alongside an..." he hovered for a bit, stopping himself before he could say 'aswang', "ally."

"Yeah, I feel the same." Mari answered honestly, "Couldn't have made it out there if you didn't allow yourself to be ragdolled for three minutes."

Danilo grinned, "It was five minutes you imbecile."

"Oh, well, tomato, tomahto. If you need help with anything, Mister Supernatural hunter, feel free to call on me. You can find my scent with your weird relics, right?"

"Indeed, maybe I shall call upon you one of these days." Danilo said, looking forward to more of their misadventures.

"Sure, as you can see, I won't be dining on human flesh any time soon." Mari said, pointing at the sack she 'borrowed' from Danilo who blanched.

"Oh, well, that's great I guess. If you do feel the need to feed on human flesh, there are a few people I can point you at.." he said trailing off.

"Oh? This is going to be interesting."

"Yes, but these are evil people, pedophiles, rapists you know the like."

"So, I'm like your janitor fish or something?"

"Do you want a free meal or not?"

"Fine, fine, just not in the nex fewt weeks or so."

"Agreed. Safe tidings, Mari the Godslayer."

"Farewell, Danilo Godeater."

"Please don't."

—

She walked down the familiar gates of her apartment building with a foreboding feeling, it was a rare moment of fear.

"Damn, well, here we go." Mari muttered, as she stepped inside. Miss Matulin was waiting for her as usual.

"Where have you been, you bruja?" she asked angrily.

"Uh...somewhere?" Mari answered blandly.

"You've been gone for 2 months! No word, no say, no goodbye!" Miss Matulin muttered.

"What, 2 months?!" she asked shocked, it was barely three days by her estimate, then she realized: the sack in her hand. Time may be different in Moussamo's realm.

"Yes, you idiot bruja!" Miss Matulin said, swatting her in the shoulder, "It's good to know you are safe. Now go to your unit and get cleaned up, idiot!"

"Yes, Miss Matulin, sorry about that." Mari said somberly.

"Don't bother paying your last two months rent, Jessamine already paid for it." Miss Matulin told her, and a spark of hope lit in her heart.

She hurried to her apartment, realizing that she left the keys when she abandoned everyone and everything.

She scanned her surroundings, it had changed vastly in two months but she immediately found it, a potted plant with aloe in it. She raised it up and grabbed the spare key underneath.

"I'm home!" Mari announced, expecting to see Jessamine there, but no one was.

Her face fell, filled with disappointment and acceptance. She was gone for that long anyway, it's possible that everything has changed.

It's fine, the voice in her mind told her.

"Stop it, be hostile. You're creeping me out." Mari thought, annoyed as she put the pieces of godflesh into her fridge.

"Well, what did I expect?" Mari muttered as she sat on the bed.

Her feelings were muted, her power and everything else dampened.

"Maybe some Jollibee then..." she muttered to herself, slipping into the bathroom for a bath before heading out again.

She stepped out an hour later, brooding and enjoying her bath, after getting dressed she walked out of her unit somberly. No smiles, no excitement, nothing. Just a seeming disconnect to everything, after all that she fought, after 'saving' the world, this is what she gets in return.

"Well, I'll always have unhealthy fast food chains." Mari murmured to herself, willing a joke to come, but there wasn't any humor, everything felt dull.

She pulled up the hood of her jacket and walked down the hallway, inadvertently bumping into someone.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" a woman's voice cried out.

"Sorry.." Mari mumbled, as continued walking.

She suddenly felt someone grab her by the shoulder and turn her around, the instinct to attack or to resist wasn't there, she simply allowed it to happen.

"So you're finally home, you fucking dumbass?!"

Mari looked up and saw her, tears in the woman's eyes, unable to decide whether to kiss her, hug her, punch her or anything.

"You stupid idiot!" Jessamine shouted.

"Jessa..." Mari said confused, "You're here?"

"Of course I'm here, I clean your apartment every few days!"

"Why...?"

"What the fuck do you care, you fucking idiot, you left me!"

"I'm sorry, it was... something complicated."

"I don't care, you can be whatever you want, you are who you are, you didn't choose that, but you chose to be with me and you also chose to leave me! I told you, I would be there for you no matter what! Guess what? You left anyway, because you're such a fucking idiot!" Jessamine shouted, punching her in the chest before ultimately sobbing in Mari's arms.

"Sorry, Jessa.." Mari murmured, trying to comfort her.

"Two fucking months, I waited, I waited, I waited, my other friends tell me you're gone, but I waited, and I waited anyway like a stupid piece of shit! Miss Matulin was nice enough to give me keys to your apartment so I could clean it! I sleep there when I feel like dying at home, but your apartment made it worse, because that's where we first made love!" Jessamine babbled on, as Mari continued to hold her in her arms.

"I'm sorry, Jessamine. I really am, it was very wrong of me to do that." Mari said now.

"What, no sarcastic quip? No flirtatious comeback? No distracting superpowers or whatever? Just an apology? Shut the fuck up!" Jessamine said, still pressing herself to Mari's chest. "Just shut the fuck up and love me."

"I do love you, so much so that leaving you hurt me, because I was afraid that I would hurt you." Mari said, they were still in the hallway.

"And I love you too!" Jessamine shouted at her again, "But you didn't want to hear it, no, you had to do your whole transforming thing and this sad emotional damage bullshit that you tried to pull. I DON'T CARE, MARI. I DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT ANY OF THAT. I LOVE YOU FOR WHO YOU ARE TO ME!"

"You're right, you're right." Mari said, patting her back, and kissing her forehead.

"Of course I'm right, I'm always right! See, I told them you'd come back and you did!" Jessamine announced, "Who's laughing now huh?!"

"Not me." Mari said calmly, "How about we get some food, it seems like you've got a lot on your mind."

"Oh no, no, no, my dear Mari, you owe me two lifetimes of food!" Jessamine told her.

"Fine, two lifetimes. Let's go." She pulled Jessamine who resisted.

"What's wrong?" She asked, and Jessamine looked longingly at her apartment door.

"I am pretty hungry... it's been two months you see.." she said trailing off, while Mari shook her head and let Jessamine lead her back into the apartment for a bit of 'catching up'.