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

xxxi. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

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warnings: mature language

     Mary stood in front of Marley and Oliver, arms crossed as she was staring at them. Everyone was stood around her, and Alex was cleaning his head where Jackson hit him. Mary turned and walked out of the house, leaning against the porch railing as she was thinking of a new plan already. Steve turned and followed her, walking up next to her slowly. 

     "They know where Billy is," she said, Steve looking over at her. "They've talked to him. They took care of him." 

     "Yeah, now they're in the living room," Steve said. "Look, Mary, we know he's alive. Alright?" 

     "Jackson wouldn't just kill him. That's not their game," Mary said, looking to the ground. She took a deep breath, then looked over at Steve. "He's not going to stop until I'm dead, and I don't know why." 

     "You have something they want inside of you," Steve said, turning to face Mary. "I don't know how your power works, but they want it. And in order to get it, they took one of the only people you'd ever sacrifice your life for. You know how they know that?" Mary stared at him, tears welling in her eyes as she looked at her best friend. "Because you already did." She nodded once, quickly wiping her eyes. "It's okay to be scared, Mary." She looked at Steve again, her mouth curving into a frown. "You can't pretend around me." She nodded once, then launched her arms around him. Steve hugged her back, nodding slowly as she sobbed into his shoulder. 

     "They could kill him, Steve," she sobbed out. "They could kill him and it'll be my fault." 

     "It's okay, Mary," he told her quietly. "It'll be okay. We'll get him." She slowly let go, looking at Steve as he waited for her to calm down. 

     "Thank you," she said quietly. "For being here." 

     "Anything for my dumb ass best friend, right?" he said, making her smile widely at him. 

     "I can always count on my dumb ass jock head best friend," Mary said, hitting his arm.

     "Yeah, fuck off, you idiot," Steve told her. 

     "Eat shirt, Harrington," Mary replied easily. 

     "Suck a dick," he continued. Mary took a moment as she processed her next words, placing her hand on his shoulder. 

     "Planning on it," she replied. It only took the two a few seconds to start bursting into laughter. They both had to take a minute to stop laughing before they decided on going back inside. "Come on, everyone is probably thinking we're psychopaths." 

     "Yeah, let's get to it. We should be in there when they wake up," Steve said, opening the door for her. They both walked back inside, Mary almost stopping when she saw they were both awake. They all looked to Mary, the girl taking a deep breath. 

     "Okay," she started, "let's get into this." She grabbed a chair, sitting down in front of the two doctors. "You two work for Jackson." 

     "This is all just a big misunderstanding, Mary," Marley said, immediately begging her way out of her situation. 

     "Oh, how's that?" Mary asked. "'Cause the way I see it, you've been helping this man keep my boyfriend hostage for three months!" Mary looked between them, already knowing that the tears were coming back to her eyes. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" 

     "I was trying to help him!" Marley yelled. "If someone had taken Oliver from me and done the same thing that Jackson's doing, I would feel the same way you are right now. I was trying to help, Billy."