The Sadian Chronicles: Book 2: From Mercury To Venus

Last Thread: Part 2

For the next month Marianna didn't do much of anything. Although she was eating more, she refused to not only leave her room, but she refused to get out of bed as well. Her pregnancy began to show but only slightly. The only noise coming from her was late at night when she sang her unborn child to sleep.

One morning Carla received a shock when she went into Marianna's room to wake her, and she found her room empty. Marianna had played these disappearing acts before, but this had somehow been different. She ran to Ty's room, the loft attic room Marianna had fixed up for him when he first came to live with them two and half years ago.

"Ty," she said, popping her head into the doorway of the loft. "Strange," she said when she found his room empty as well. "Ty never goes out this time of the morning."

She thought perhaps that they were together. Ty and Marianna would often go on excursions without her, worrying her death and would offer no explanation to where they had gone or why.

She left the cottage in search of her missing friends. The woods had been a taboo subject for Marianna, even though she often went there for solitude. Carla would often ask her about it, but Marianna remained comfortable in her silence.

Carla entered the woods and looked towards the ground for footprints, but there was none. There was no sign of human inhabitants for quite some time. Ty rarely left the grounds for fear of being seen, and since Marianna's return she had been too ill for outings.

Carla next tried the lake. It was Marianna's favorite place, but it was even more deserted than the woods. Carla became frustrated in her failed attempts at tracking them down, so she went back to the cottage and did what every mother did when her child was missing. Worry.

*Meanwhile, two travelers set up a small camp along the northern hills. A dark beauty of few words accompanied a deformed husky build of a man.

"Marianna, why are we here?" he asked with him standing next to her as she knelt down into the dirt.

"You're here because you followed me," she said while forming some kind of scribble in the dirt.

"What is that?" he asked, kneeling down next to her.

"Infinity," she said. "The true father of my child, and he lives because of it."

"There you go not making any sense again," he said, rising up in the pretense of leaving her.

"You're not going anywhere, Ty." He turned to see the glare in her eye. She rose up still having to strain to see his rough and furry face. His eyes held a gentleness she found so dear. "You wouldn't leave me here... not after saving me as I once saved you."

"How to do know for sure that I wouldn't leave?" he asked, but she was right. He wouldn't leave her to fend for herself, especially with that delicate life growing inside of her. "Look what happened with Marcus."

"This is different," she said and ran her fingers through the dirt. "With him I had something to lose, but with you I don't. It wouldn't be a betrayal for you to walk away. I loved Marcus, or I thought I did. He betrayed that love. He used it as a weapon against me. The man I loved didn't exist. For that, the killer must pay."

She then pounded her fist into the picture she drew in the dirt. It came down on only one stick figure. She picked up the dirt spot she had just pounded and threw it into the air away from her and let the wind carry it.

"Let the anger go, Marianna," he said, his voice pleading with her. "It will only hurt you as well as the child."

"I have no anger," she said in a melancholy voice. She rose to her feet to better meet him face to face. "Can't you tell that I'm completely calm, and my child is strong and getting stronger every day? Even though I survived as did my child, Marcus will pay for his cruelty. That is my promise to the life growing inside of me."

"Will it be you who punishes him or someone or something else?" He asked the question, but in truth he didn't want to know the answer. He knew Marianna had a dark side, although it never lashed out at him, and he had never really witnessed it. She was fierce, yes, and she had a heart and conscious.

"It doesn't matter," she said, playing in the dirt once more. "Yes, I wish to be vindicated, but the child's survival is more important. I never thought I could want anything so much. It's not Marcus I love but the child. This is my child and not his. He gave up his right to love this baby the moment he threw me off that cliff."

"You survived, so leave him alone and let the authorities handle him," he said swatting down to meet her level.

"They won't find him, and if they do, he will manipulate them the same way he manipulated me," Marianna said which left Ty confused. "He's one of us, Ty. He can control the psyche, but one day his power will turn on him."

"What about yours or mine? Are we safe... even from ourselves?" he asked and there was fear in his eyes.

"We have each other, and Marcus has only his own hate," she said and he knew it made sense. "I look at you, and I see none. Even after all that's happened to you in this hateful world, you still care about it. I can't say the same, but things will be different for my child."

"I hope so." Ty held out his hand for Marianna to take. "Fanta," he said, calling her by her newest alter ego. "It's time to go home."

Home, she thought. Was this truly her home, a life of isolation in the wilderness? She wanted to be among the populace, but she remembered what happened each time she tried.