love bites » marcelee.

7: Mysterious Dark Figure

Chapter Seven: Mysterious Dark Figure

It wasn't long until Marceline and Marshall were at each other's throats once again.

"I'll kill you!" Marceline shouted, relentlessly kicking and whacking Marshall's body with the helmet.

Marshall, who was trying to block her attacks, have finally had enough. So he tackled her to the ground.

"Ugh!"

He sat right on her thighs and she squirmed under his weight but to no avail. He chortled snidely and clutched the hair on the back of her head, pulling her face close to his. "Look at you... You think you're so tough, huh?"

She was breathing heavily, her dark green eyes flashed with fury. "Get. Off. Me." she demanded through gritted teeth.

"I don't think so, Marcy."

Suddenly, Marceline swung her arm and crashed the helmet - which she had surreptitiously taken hold in her hand - against Marshall's temple, knocking him over. She pushed him off her and rose back up to her feet, giving her the chance to run away.

« « «

Several minutes ago...

Mists of air engulfed them, its cold fingers caressing Marceline's being as the surroundings became a green blur.

"Marshall, why the heck are we in the woods? I told you to send me home!" she shouted, slapping Marshall hard on the back.

"I have other plans, sweetheart." he simply said.

Marceline's eyes widened. The thought of her possibly being raped and viciously murdered by an asshole named Marshall Lee in a forest without a single soul knowing flashed through her mind. "Let me off!"

"You're welcome to jump at any time."

And she did.

Although Marshall wasn't riding fast, it was a stupid move. But Marceline would rather risk her safety than her life. As she tumbled down to the ground, her arms were thrown out instinctively to catch her fall and she thanked Glob for the protective head covering.

She stayed on the ground for a while, trying to regroup when she heard the roar of an engine getting louder. Soon, the sight of a familiar black, red-streaked motorcycle came into view so she quickly stood up and removed her helmet.

Marshall stopped his bike and got down. Seething with anger, he approached her menacingly.

"Are you out of your globdamned mind?! You could've gotten yourself killed back there!"

"But I didn't." she retorted, mocking his words from earlier today.

He scoffed. "You're really somethin' else, aren't you? Now get on the bike before I do somethin' you don't want me to do to you."

"Since when had he never done something I didn't want him to do to me?" Marceline thought.

"Heck no!" she stood her ground.

Marshall grabbed her arm, with far too much force for her liking so she yanked it back and charged at him.

"I'll kill you!"

» » »

After reaching a distance away, Marceline stopped, panting, and looked around her. Brown pillars surrounded her, enveloping her in their shadows. She pulled out her phone to call someone but the battery's dead. A bolt of lightning tore across the dark sky and a great clap of thunder followed. Rain plummeted around her in a sudden deluge.

Great, now she's lost and cold.

Marceline resumed walking. She figured if she could find the trail which the bike had travelled on, she'd find a way out of the woods. In that process though, she realized she wasn't alone when she saw something move in the shadows. A sudden sense of unease assailed her and she picked up the pace as a shuffling gait nearby began to rustle the leaves.

"Not funny, Marshall!" she turned around and hollered only to hear nothing but the rain pelting the ground.

Then Marceline saw it.

A cold trickle of trepidation began to ooze down her spine. Lurking in the shadows was a much darker figure. She couldn't make out his face because he was hooded. As much as she didn't want to, she tried to look where his eyes were and she could feel them boring into her. The figure was the shape of a man. But he had no arms.

Marceline broke into a run. No way in Hell was she going to stay there. When she looked over her shoulder she caught a glimpse of the figure coming after her. She ran faster, the woods spread out around her in a boundless labyrinth of ancient trees.

"Leave me alone!" she screamed at the top of her voice, hearing a rumbling in the distance.

Her legs were moving slower and slower by the second, her lungs were burning with each breath, and her face was growing cold, as though her blood were seeping out of it. Fear surged inside her as she willed her legs not to give into fatigue.

Marceline tripped over the root of a tree and fell to the ground with a thud. The dark figure seemed to dash amongst the trees until it stopped a few yards away from her. Apprehensively, she stared. Then it started to move.

"Get away from me!" she screamed and backed away, still on the ground as the rumbling got louder and louder and then stopped.

But it didn't stop. It kept coming closer and closer to her.

"No!" Marceline threw her hands over her face and shrank back in fear until she felt a pair of arms vigorously shaking her shoulders.

"Hey...hey! What's wrong with you?"

Marceline opened her eyes to see Marshall bent down in front of her and she straightaway poked a finger in the direction behind him. "There's some creep chasing after me!"

He looked behind then turned to face her again. "There's no one there!"

She pushed him out of the way and looked over the trees to see that the dark figure had disappeared. "No, he was right over there!" She desperately pointed at the particular spot where she'd last seen her pursuer.

"Drop the act, Marcy!"

"I'm not lying!" Marceline bawled. "That hooded freak was right there! He was really there, I swear to Glob!"

Marshall highly doubted her words but she just kept jabbering about what she had saw and she looked like she was about to break down and cry or something equally unpleasant as that so he got down on his knees.

"Hey, look at me!" he grabbed her pale face with his hands, forcing her to meet his gaze. "Whatever you claimed you saw isn't here anymore so shut up and pull yourself together, alright?!"

Marceline's mind and heart was in such turmoil that she could not utter one coherent thought or express one coherent feeling. She was clearly tired and frightened, fanning the embers of pity in Marshall.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and she rose shakily to her feet as he pulled her up. They were both soaking wet under the downpour. She shivered and hugged her arms, deciding she was going to punch him in the face when they got back.

Marshall removed his leather jacket and draped Marceline with it. He put his arm around her shoulders and led her to his motorcycle. He had stationed it nearby when he heard her yell from afar.

Along the way, Marceline eventually regained enough composure to express her resentment.

"Marshall... I hate you." she said through chattering teeth.

It amused Marshall to think how reckless and violent she was when she jumped off his bike then attacked him earlier as compared to how scared and vulnerable she seemed now. And somehow she still managed to get on his nerves with those three words.

"I hate you too, you crazy chick."