Mari (Soul Eater)

Part Twenty-Three

Mari: MY DAD SAID I'M GROUNDED IF I DONT UP MY READS BY THE WEEKEND!!!! HEEELLLLPPPPP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

Love you guys!!!

Mari was in a dark place, her bare feet on the freezing ground. There were shackles on her wrists and her fingers were numb with cold. She moved her lips and they cracked and began to bleed a little in the darkness, dripping down her face.

She sat down, her legs tired for some reason. "How long have I been here?" she asked herself.

"A long time." A little girl's voice said in her mind.

Mari jerked. She knew the voice but couldn't place it. "Who are you?" She asked the girl.

Mari could almost hear the smile in the girl's words. "I'm you, Mari." She said.

Mari doubled over as fire burned in her head. "Get out of me!" She screamed and suddenly there was a bright light and her black eyes squeezed shut.

"Mari?" a warped voice asked with concern. The person stepped into the room and shut the door, the darkness enveloping Mari again. The person walked farther into the room and went up next to Mari.

Mari flinched and attempted to pull away from the person, the chains preventing her to do so. "Get away!" She cried as the person put a hand on her shoulder. She stopped moving. She knew the hand, but just like the little girl, she couldn't remember. "Who are you?" She asked.

The person sat in front of Mari. "It's... It's Kidd."

Mari reached out a hand, it stopping because of the chains. "How long have I...?" her dark vision flashed and she screamed as she remembered the beam flashing into her and Kidd's voice screaming for help, and the room... the blood...

Kidd grabbed her and pulled her into a hug. "Mari..." he said as she went silent.

Mari took in a breath. She bit her lip as tears fell from her eyes. "Kidd... go..."

He became still. "No."

She pulled away from him, crawling into the darkness. "I don't... want to..." Her words were halting and she could barely get them out. "Hurt... you..."

"No." he said, reaching out to find her, brushing her arm.

Mari closed her eyes. "I don't want to... hurt you..." she said, her black eyes opening. Her mind writhed with madness and her heart ached because she knew she had to do this. Let him go. She just didn't want to hurt him more when she went completely crazy. And she knew it was coming.

"Go." She said. Holding herself with both her hands to her chest.

He moved to her, pulling her to him. "No. I don't want to let you go. I want to be with you forever. I never... I don't..." his voice cracked. He knew it too.

"Go." She said. She found his face and pulled herself up to his lips, kissing him. He leaned into her and kissed her back. She put her hands on his chest and pulled him closer to her, trying to remember the way he smelled and how soft he felt under her hands before she let him go. She put his hands on his back and pressed herself to him... just one last memory. "I love you." She said, pulling herself away from him.

He stood and she broke inside when she felt one of his tears fall onto her. The light returned and she squinted to see him one last time. He was gone and the door shut.

Mari looked out into the darkness, searching for him, but her body could feel that he was gone. Her hands reached out, trying to find him, met by nothing but air. "Kidd..." She said, and covered her mouth before she broke.

She pulled at her chains, feeling them on her more than before. 'Out.' He mind screamed. She stood and began to pull at the chains. She started crying when the metal dug into her hands.

Maybe two minutes, or hours later, the chains snapped and she fell over, the cold metal still on her wrists, but she was free. She sat up, cradling her hands in her lap, bloody and raw. She stood and stumbled to where she remembered the door being. She silently ran he hands along the edge of the door, trying to find the hinges. Her fingertips brushed what felt like hinges and she began to claw at them.

* * *

Her fingers were bruised and broken and her face was streaked with her blood by the time all three hinges lay on the floor. She wiped her face, smearing more blood on it and stood. She lifted one bare foot and kicked the door, it falling forward with a whoosh of air. The light hit her and she cringed, her black eyes burning. She stepped out into a long hallway and looked down at her bedraggled state. Her long hair caked with blood and knotted, only a short hospital gown covering her body, and her hands in their bloody state, broken and bruised.

She looked down the hallway and saw no one so she started walking in the direction she felt the exit was in. She passed one guard and she kicked him in the gut before he saw her. She let him fall to the ground.

She found a bathroom and a spare set of hospital clothing. She had tried to clean up and had just settled with washing the red out of her hair and off her hands and face, holding the shirt in her mouth so she wouldn't scream. She had found that someone had tied her EAT mask to her leg and it was now dangling loosely around her ankle. She pulled it off her leg and tied it over her face. She stepped out of the bathroom, her eyes wet with pain and gasping. She looked around, her head clearer than before.

It seemed she was in some sort of mental hospital and she wanted out. She found the entrance and opened one of the doors with her shoulder. She looked up at the bright sunset that met her and she smiled. One sight of beauty that didn't hate her.

Her body shook as she thought about what she was going to do. She took in a breath and shook her feet a little. She started running toward a forest she could see and winced with every step. She paced over a hill before she started hearing alarms coming from the mental hospital.

"They're coming." She said to herself and kept running, the tree's maybe fifty feet from her. She glanced around her at the green hills that met the forest. She looked back to the trees and saw she was almost there. She heard a shout from behind her and she jumped into the trees.

She wove her way through the tangled branches and winced every time one caught her hands. She kept running until she tripped over a root and twisted her ankle. She fell against a tree and her head slammed on the bark. Her vision flashed for a second and she felt light like air. She gasped and pulled herself up. Her ankle was bent at an odd angle and it hurt as bad as her hands.

She shivered, thinking about what she planned on doing.

She was going to call Medusa.

She cupped her broken hands over her mouth and opened it to shout. "Medusa!" She yelled.