The Adventures of Marcy Cutler

The Point of No Return

 "I'm sorry?" Emmaeus asked, his face creased in confusion.
"I'll do it," Marcy said, with a confidence she didn't feel. Relief washed over the man's face.
"Thank you, Marceline. Thank you so much." Tears stung at his eyes.
"Um, no... problem?" The man smiled.
"Now go, Marceline! Go out in the world to preserve my legacy and give me peace!" Emmaeus began to fade away, as Marcy felt herself being pulled upwards, out of the room. She found herself underwater, struggling towards the surface. Her eyes and mouth stung, but she was still being propelled slowly upwards. When she reached the surface, Marcy gasped for air and woke up.

She awoke to the sound of the front door slamming, and her aunt calling down the stairs.
"Marcy? Are you there?"
"Yeah, I am, Aunt Erin," she yelled back groggily, heading up the stairs. Erin Oldman was Marcy's father's younger sister, though she didn't look much like either of them. She was in her early thirties and fairly tall, with straight blond hair that hung slightly below her shoulders, which served as a sharp contrast to Marcy's short, dark hair. Erin reached out awkwardly for a hug.
"How was your day, Marcy?" Marcy shrugged.
"It was alright, I guess. How was yours?" Her aunt smiled widely, but not entirely convincingly.
"My day was just wonderful, Marcy!" Erin continued on about all the things she'd done and people she'd seen volunteering for some cause or another. Marcy had learned to ignore her when she was like this. She regained her nieces' attention, however, when the topic changed to Marcy's uncle. "Stephen will be working late tonight. An open heart surgery." She looked nervous. When isn't he working late? Stephen Oldman was a few years younger than his wife, and a highly accomplished surgeon. He'd turned down multiple offers to leave the simple local hospital for a larger practice.
"Will he be back before the morning?" asked Marcy. Erin pursed her lips.
"No," she shook her head. "No, I don't think so."
"That's a shame," Marcy mumbled staring at the ground awkwardly. The two women stood in silence for a moment. "Are we, um, are we having stir fry again tonight? For dinner?" Marcy asked, trying to change the subject. Her aunt seemed to relax, nodding curtly.
"Well," she said, with a shallow smile, "I'll be in the kitchen if you need anything." Marcy nodded vaguely and headed back downstairs.

The next day was a Friday. When Marcy woke up, her aunt had already left for work, and she saw her uncle sleeping on the couch. He was not a large man, fine-boned, with skin the colour of milky coffee and thick, dark hair. Marcy grabbed her textbooks off of the counter in front of him and shoved them into her battered black bag. She took some money for lunch and had already stepped out the door into the pouring rain before she remembered her phone, sitting in silence on a table. Marcy darted back inside and grabbed her phone. She ran out again, arriving at her bus stop just as her bus turned a corner and started towards her. Marcy glanced at her newly recovered phone and was astonished by what she saw. Jesus Christ. 38 missed calls from Lauren. 23 from Christian. A handful from unknown numbers. She was so engrossed and surprised that it took her several minutes to notice that her bus was waiting. As she stepped on, she saw that, presumably because of the rain, the bus was even more full than it had been yesterday. As Marcy looked around, Calvin Singer caught her eye. He was sitting next to a smaller blond boy in an anime tee shirt. He waved her over. Marcy perched with some difficulty on the stretch of seat on Calvin's side. Noticing her discomfort, he turned to the blond boy, who was playing a bizarre eight-bit game on his phone.
"Jack, can you move over a bit?" Jack glanced up, and, seeing Marcy looked surprised. The boy slid over towards the bus window, giving Marcy a little extra space. He looked at Marcy quizzically. Calvin smiled at her.
"Hey."
"Hi, Calvin." She looked to Jack. "I'm Marcy."
"Jack Bishop," he mumbled awkwardly. "I'm Christian's brother."
"Really? Does he take this bus?"
"Nah. Normally we're only with our dad on weekends, but he had to pick me up from detention." He paused, looking nervous. "You two are friends, right? He was talking about you." Marcy shrugged.
"Yeah. I'd say we are." Calvin perked up.
"Really? That's great! Me and Christian have been friends since we were kids." Marcy nodded, absentmindedly. The bus had almost arrived at their school, St. Kevin's Academy. The three of them all stepped off of the bus, walking towards the doors of the school. A tall, black-haired girl with blonde roots waved to Calvin. He turned to Jack and Marcy. "I have to go. I'll see you guys later, I guess." He darted off as Marcy and Jack stepped inside.
"Do you know who that was?" Marcy asked.
"That's Kayla, Calvin's girlfriend," Jack mumbled at his feet. Marcy nodded vaguely and headed to her homeroom. On her way, however, she was intercepted by an implacably angry Lauren. The shorter girl tried unsuccessfully to shove Marcy against a wall, then decided to simply yank her out of the crowd of the hallway and into an empty classroom.Lauren slammed the door and turned to Marcy.
"What the fuck is wrong with you!?" she whispered furiously.
"Lauren - Lauren, calm down! What happened?"
"What happened? I've had to hide a goddamn illegal gun for the entire fucking day! That's what happened, dumbass! You could have at least answered my calls!" Having gotten this off her chest, Lauren visibly relaxed, although she continued to glare at her friend. All of a sudden, Marcy remembered the gun Lauren had taken from Grace.
"Oh god, Lauren. I'm sorry, I forgot. And anyway, I had a lot to deal with." She took her friend by the arm. "But Lauren, it turns out-" Lauren cut her off, as the anger drained from her face. She now stared at Marcy with a look of terrible tiredness.
"If this is about all that vampire shit, please don't tell me any of it. I don't want to be involved, and I figure the less I know about it the better. I can't risk my life for this kind of thing, and I don't think you should either." Lauren stopped, staring at the ground. "I'm sorry, Marcy."
"I-I understand, Lauren," Marcy said miserably. Her friend smiled mirthlessly.
"I have to go to class now. I'll see you."
"Yeah," Marcy mumbled as Lauren left the no longer empty classroom. "See you." For the first time since this had all begun, she really felt all of her pent-up stress and anguish. And so she sat, silent and unmoving, until the bell broke her out of her haze. Wordlessly, she walked slowly into her homeroom.