Mari (Soul Eater)

Part Fifteen

Mari woke up in Marie’s arms. She hadn’t realized that Marie had fallen asleep. “Ahm.” Somebody coughed from the doorway.

Marie stirred and sat up. She rubbed her eyes and glanced at a clock on the wall. “Ack! School! Get ready Mari!” She stood and glared at Stein. “Why didn’t you wake us up sooner?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “You guys were so cute. I couldn’t help it.”

Marie got up and kissed him on the cheek. “Okay! Get ready Mari!”

Marie ran out and Stein walked over to Mari. “Let me see your arms, Mari.” Mari held out her bandaged arms, her fingers twitching a little. Stein unwrapped the white gauze and his face was straight as he examined her skin. She looked away at the wall.

Her arms were blistered and scared from Medusa’s experiments. The skin was red around the points where she had inserted all the needles. Mari fidgeted in her night pants and shirt.

Stein rewrapped Mari’s arms with bandages and stood. “Can I see your stomach?”

Mari nodded and lifted her shirt up to the bottom of her ribs. Stein unwrapped the bandages and examined the stitches on her skin. The flesh around the stitches was red and the stitches were dark black like the ones on Stein’s face. Her insides still ached.

He put new bandages on her stomach and stood. “Get ready.” He said. “It’s gonna take a while to carry you up The Stairs.” Mari’s mouth opened to protest but Stein cut her off by turning and walking out the door. “I barley managed to save you. I’m not letting that go to waste by you opening all your stitches.” 

Mari was very unstable on top of Stein’s shoulders. She laughed silently, tears in her eyes as she held her stomach. Stein listed to the side again, running close to the edge to where they would plummet to their deaths and Mrs. Marie protesting the whole time.

“Stein!” She smiled as Mari wrapped her arms around Stein’s eyes and her stumbled forward, falling at the top of the stairs. Mari rolled to the side.

She gasped and sat up. They were at the top and the view was splendid.

“Mari!?” Mrs. Marie ran over and started checking her for scratches or more bruises. “Stein!” Marie scolded. “Really?!”

Stein sat up, a freshly-lit cigarette in his mouth. He clicked his screw and grinned evilly. “Sorry.”

Marie helped Mari up. Mari rubbed her stomach and took her bag from Marie. Mari started to run to the class they were all late for. She stopped and ran back, gasping. “Th… a…” She closed her eyes as images flashed before her eyes and her voice shut down. She hugged Marie, wrapping both her arms around her middle.

Marie hugged her back. “Get to class!”

Mari ran off again.

She opened the door and peeked in to see Spirit subbing for Stein who was taking his sweet time to get to class.

Mari clutched her stomach with one hand and closed the door behind her. She looked around to see all her friends and classmates. They were silent.

Mari walked up to Spirit and slipped a note onto his desk. He picked it up reading it. Its said, ‘Sorry!’ with little hearts next to each letter.

Mari shuffled her feet as he inspected the paper. “Why couldn’t you just tell me-“

Stein rolled in and everyone flinched as his chair flipped. His head hit the ground and he pulled out a random textbook. “Okay, class,” Stein said.

Spirit huffed happily and left the classroom. Mari walked up the stairs to the desk where her friends were. She held her stomach and slid into a seat next to Kidd. He looked over at her with no expression. He wrapped one arm around her waist and Mari flinched at the contact. He pulled her closer to him and when he though Stein wasn’t watching, he kissed her head.

A girl in the first row of students raised her hand and asked loudly to Stein, “Why was Mari gone again? What happened?” She had a snotty tone like she was trying to get Mari in trouble.

Mari flinched and looked down. She started noticing small things. Liz wasn’t listening to a word anybody was saying because she was painting her nails, Patty was folding a paper giraffe, Black Star and Tsubaki were playing a card game and Kidd was wearing her beanie.

“Well?” The snotty girl asked.

Stein ignored her and continued class. The girl huffed, not liking being ignored.

After class, Mari walked outside for lunch and sat down in a small place where she could see all of Death City. The Arizona heat was everywhere but she didn’t notice, she just wanted to be alone.

She heard someone walk up behind her and she turned. She stood as she saw the snotty girl from earlier with two of her blonde friends. They all had their hands on their hips and their bright red lipstick on their lips shone in the light.

“Tell me what happened.” The girl demanded.

Mari opened her mouth to say something but no words came out.

“Well!” The girl said. She stomped over and grabbed Mari by the front of her t-shirt. “Do you know who I am!” She yelled. Mari’s stomach was screaming and her skin was crawling where the girl touched her. Mari shook her head as the girl’s eyebrows raised. “I am,” The girl said as she gabbed Mari in the stomach with a finger and Mari gasped in pain. She felt a few of her stitches open. The girl shoved her away and beckoned to the two girls behind her. “I’m the best meister this school has ever seen!”

Mari fell to the ground and clutched her stomach and began coughing up blood. “Sasha… you hurt her…” One of the other girls said.

The first girl, Sasha, turned to the one who had spoken. “Just transform!”

The two girls transformed into two identical knives. Sasha ran at Mari, her footing sloppy and the way she held the two weapons was wrong. Mari was slow and only had time to raise her arms before Sasha swung at her.

She gasped as the two blades sunk past the bandages and into her arms. Sasha slid the knives down and made two long cuts on Mari, then withdrew the blades.

The two weapons were yelling at their meister, but she wasn’t listening. Mari’s arms were soaked with blood and her stomach was wet too. Her body ached and she was tired of people hurting her.

She blindly kicked out her foot and kicked Sasha in the knee. The girl screamed as Mari heard a satisfying crack. The girl fell over, still screaming. Mari stood and started kicking Sasha again and again, her weapons silent, knowing their meister deserved it. Mari sat on top of the girl’s chest and punched her face, her arms bleeding faster with each blow.

Mari heard people shouting for help after a minute, hands dragging her off the girl. She could feel more of her stitches tearing. She hadn’t realized she had been crying the whole time. She started laughing. The world was swirling around her, colors mingling and the people in front of her who were trying to get her to snap out of it’s faces started stretching and elongating.

She fell on her back when someone let go of her and laughed, crying as blood poured from her.

‘Help me!’ The little part of her who was still sane screamed. ‘I’m going mad!’ Mari stopped moving, her vision going black. ‘Or…’ she thought. ‘Or maybe it was Medusa who pushed me over the edge.’