Downfallers: Marcia Skirvin's Melancholy

Chapter Three: Fireflies

My sudden appearance startled her, and she turned around quickly, her eyebrows raised and her mouth wide open.

''Sara! What are you doing here?''

''I was checking on you and realized that you were mental! What is that thing? A spear? Why are you talking to yourself? Why are you waving it in the air? Why are you snapping your fingers?'' I asked, slowly raising my voice until it was nothing but a squeaky noise.

''It would be too long to explain!''

She slashed the air in front of her and backed-up.

''Can you please just get out of here? I'll explain after I promise!''

''Whatever you're... doing... it can surely wait!''

''I'm not insane!'' She looked back at me. ''Just—Ah!''

She fell on her back and crawled away. She got back up and slashed the air with her spear-thingy, but she yelled again and clutched her stomach. She managed to turn around and what I saw horrified me. She was bleeding from her forehead and her stomach. Her face was tensed, so it didn't look like fake pain. Plus, it couldn't be from her weapon since it had no sign of blood on it.

''What the —''

''Get behind me! Now!''

I ran behind her and stayed there, looking at the emptiness of the sky and searching for something that would tell me what was going on. She continued to slash the air. At one point, I thought that she had hit something since her weapon stopped and bounced off nothing. Was I going insane? I put my hands over my eyes and face, pinched myself, screamed, did whatever I could do to wake up from a dream, but when I opened my eyes, she was still there, swinging her spear in the air. She finally planted her spear in the ground and fell onto her knees. She panted heavily and wiped the blood from her forehead. She looked at me and attempted to smile.

''This is going to be a bit weird, ok? Please just listen without interrupting.''

I nodded, still terrified, and waited. She inhaled and exhaled deeply.

''I fight things that are invisible to normal humans.''

She looked around and took some leaves in her hand.

''They're called 'fireflies' because they kind of look like them. Well, most of them. I'm the one that's responsible for protecting the population of this island from those creatures. I hid weapons everywhere to make sure I have one in the area when a firefly comes to attack humans. I saw one in the park earlier, and I led it away from the kids and you.''

She rubbed the leaves on her stomach and winced. She looked away and sighed.

''It's fine if you don't believe me. It's hard to understand. And either way, nothing would change.''

She got up and walked to the place where she had hidden her weapon. She kicked the air in front of her foot, where she planted her spear. She didn't look back. She shoved the stick in the ground and tried to roll the big rock back on its spot. For a moment, I thought about running away from that freak. But after seeing her like this, I couldn't just go. I walked to her and helped her roll the big rock. She looked at me surprised.

''I thought you would run. I sound like an asylum fugitive.''

''Your physical state doesn't lie, and there's no blood on your weapon. Overthinking about it makes my brain cry so I won't, and I'll just believe you instead.''

She smiled, and I sighed. She pointed at a turf of grass.

''Do you want to touch it?''

I opened my eyes wide and gasped.

''Touch what?''

''The Firefly. I said it was invisible, not immaterial.''

She nudged the invisible creature with her foot. She grinned at me and invited me over with a movement of her hand. I slowly walked to the grass and closed my eyes. If there were nothing there, I would run as fast as I could from Marcia. If I touched something... Well, I would probably have a heart attack.

''Go on. I killed it.''

I kneeled and extended my arm over it. I slowly lowered it, then the tip of my fingers touched something. No doubt about it, there was something physical there. Suddenly all my superstition about Marcia faded away, and a sense of gratitude overwhelmed me. How long did Marcia fight these things and why her? Then I screamed as loud as I could. My brain didn't understand what the hell was going on. There was nothing in front of me, but my sense of touch couldn't be clearer. The 'Firefly' felt like a beetle with a smooth crystal-like 'butt' part. I screamed again and crawled away from the creature. The other girl laughed hard, clutching her stomach and coughing. She managed to help me get up and put her hands on my shoulders.

''I'll explain when we get out of here. Can you help me?''

She put her arm over my shoulders, and we walked out of the clearing, me still shaking from the strange adventure.

We walked back to her house. When we passed in front of the park, the children were there with their parents. They freaked out when they saw Marcia and came to ask her what happened. She just smiled and said that she tripped on a branch and that the wound was superficial. To prove it, she walked alone until they were out of our view.

''What were you thinking? You can't walk in your state!''

She grinned at me and put her arms behind her head.

''It's not that bad. It is a superficial wound. I just wanted to make sure that you would believe me.''

She stuck out her tongue and winked. I opened my mouth wide, shocked.

''You tricked me! I was worried, you know!''

''At least now you know about the fireflies and if you see me swinging a knife around you won't think that I'm a freak!''

''But... but...''

I didn't have anything to say. She was right. Even though she could have done it another way!

''Don't be mad! You played that trick once too!''

I stopped walking. How did she know? I was sure that I didn't tell her that! Nevertheless, she was right. I guess her 'assumption' was founded.

0***0

The moment I touched the monster, I didn't know everything would turn out to be like that. But she knew. Oh, Marcia knew it well. She didn't do anything. What could she have done? She only did what she thought was best to hurt me. All the other ways had failed.