melancholia. [ ALTERNATE SPIN-OFF ] [ BILLY HARGROVE ]

xi. CHAPTER NINE

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warning: mature language

     Billy nearly fell off the bed, rushing to Mary quickly. He wrapped his arms around her as tight as he could, eyes shut as he was taking in the feeling. 

     "God, I've missed you so much," Mary spoke. He slowly pulled away from her, Mary reaching up to his face and wiping his tears.

     "W-Why did you do it?" Billy asked, gasping through the tears.

     "Billy, baby, breathe," Mary told him with a light smile.

     "I've been suffocating without you for two years, w-what's a f-few more s-seconds?" he asked, trying not to laugh at his own words. Mary just nodded, wiping another tear from his cheek.

     "I was protecting you," Mary told him in a quiet voice. "I couldn't let you die, and I'm sorry, I know it's selfish, but I loved you too much to-" Mary paused, taking a second to gather her own thoughts. "I know what you're thinking, and you're wrong."

     "What am I thinking?" Billy asked.

     "That this isn't real," Mary responded. "That I'm not real." She looked up at him to see that his facial expression gave her the answer. "But it is, Billy, trust me. It's me, okay?" 

     "Tell me something that only Mary would know," Billy mumbled, but was loud enough for Mary to hear. It took her a minute to think before the words finally formed in her head. 

     "Seven feet," she stated. Billy looked up at her, eyes wide and heart beating rapidly, more than it was before. "You told me the wave was seven feet." Billy sobbed a bit upon her words, leaning down and kissing her softly. Mary wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling herself closer to him. Once they finally parted, Billy looked down at her. 

     "Mary," he whispered, a hand reaching up to wipe her tears from her face. She just nodded, smiling at him happily. Billy hugged her again, shutting his eyes as it felt exactly the same. After two years, he could still remember what it felt like to be secure in her arms. He opened his eyes to see Jackson and Olivia were watching them from the door to his room. "Oh." Mary pulled back at his small word, then turned to see where he was looking. 

     "Oh," she repeated. "I guess you're all looking for an explanation here." The two at the door nodded quickly, Billy nodding along with them. "You might want to sit down." 

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     The three college students on the couch had shocked looks on their faces, and they couldn't decide how to react to the story. Obviously, Mary left out some details because of Jackson and Olivia being there, but she mainly told them that someone had kidnapped her, taken her to Russia, brought her back to health, and held her captive until she woke up six months ago. 

     "Let me get this straight, you died, someone stole your body from the morgue, gave you enough blood to bring you back to life after a year and a half, and then held you captive for six months?" Jackson asked, raising an eyebrow at Mary.

     "Yes," she nodded. 

    "Yeah, just making sure," he nodded. 

     "How'd you get out?" Olivia asked.

     "Uh, a lot of planning," Mary told her, trying to be discreet. "I'll save you the gory details. But I wasn't alone, I had help." 

     "You did?" Billy asked, almost sounding jealous. 

     "Yes," Mary said, looking to him. "His name was Dmitri, I don't know what happened to him." 

     "He didn't get out?" Olivia asked, almost shocked.