Mary in Time {Michael Jackson Fan Fiction (maybe...??)}

Mary in Time - Part 3 (Final)

Mary in Time - Part 3

What happens then is almost lost in the fog of his injured mind.

With no more than two quick steps the men seem to cover the distance from the door. One grabs her by the arm and pulls her away from him.

"What's happening here?"

"Remember my words!" she says. Then she lets go of him.

"Are you alright?"

He sways unsteadily when she loses contact with him, then feels the strong hands of the second guard as they close around his upper arms from behind and steady him.

"Michael, are you alright?"

He nods as his overwhelmed and frightened brain tries to cope with the knowledge of disaster waiting in the wings of his life. For a moment the curtain has been blown aside, and he has seen it, already crouched down and ready to spring. So close, it's almost here already. It is here already. It is hidden again, now, but he still knows it's here.

The woman is quickly and - to the great surprise of the guards - quietly removed from his rooms. There is no good-bye, no 'I love you', no screaming his name. She is looking back at him in silence until the door closes on her.

When she tells him, all she says makes perfect sense to him. All the words line up nicely to a precious chain like pearls on a necklace.

But when she's gone something happens. The thread that holds the pearls withers and disintegrates between his fingers. His hands cannot hold the pearls in their order. They pool in his palms, then slip through his fingers and fall to the ground around his feet, jumping in this direction and that direction, so that it's hard to keep an eye on any single one of them, until he can make neither head nor tail of them. The feeling is somewhat like waking from a dream that at first is still vivid and clear, and then falls away and can't be remembered. But it's stranger. The process in disconcerting, frightening even, like a fever dream where something huge and important is sensed but cannot be pinpointed.

For a moment Michael Jackson feels the urge to go to the door and call her back. But the sensation passes. Finally he concludes that it's her that's frightening him. Trying to shake it all off helps. And so he disposes of the remaining memory quickly and walks from the room as the final word-pearls roll away never to be remembered.

..................

Outside in the long, empty corridor, John, the guard, walks her briskly. There would be no need to be so rough, as she is obedient to all his moves. But he is in the right, and she is in the wrong, and he wants to show her.

Suddenly she groans. Or maybe it's more of a sigh. He isn't sure, but she sways as if her knees are to give in after all. With his free hand he tries to steady her, never loosening the grip on her arm. There is a small, long-legged side table with a vase of flowers by the wall next to a floor-lamp. She leans on it for support. Her face is oddly ashen as if she's in pain.

"What's wrong?"

Bent over the little table she gives him a tired smile. "I'm sorry," she says.

Then she's making a tiny movement, and in doing so she slips from his grasp. It's not like he hasn't expected her to try and free herself, but not like this. He is prepared for a quick and forceful tug or some wild tearing. But this is like a magician's stage trick where one just focuses on all the wrong things. Then it is as if she is stepping to the side, stepping behind the lamp next to the table, and then he can't see her anymore. The guard follows her, but there's nothing behind the lamp just the white, clean wall. The longer he stares the less he believes what has just happened. The corridor is long and empty and not offering many places to hide. It's slightly curved so he can't see down the length of it, but... There aren't even many doors. Where has she gone? He finds himself even checking under the little table, but of course there is no-one there. He listens hard but there's no sound at all. The silence is unnerving. He runs down one way, then down the other. Nothing. He's lost her. Lost her in an empty hotel corridor and has no idea how.