Ep 5: The Boy with the Soft Heart

                                    

                                          
As Marcie minded her business, trailing her fingers across the engravings of the branch, She felt Luci's hand tightly grip her shoulder.
"Do not move." His voice shook as he whispered.
Marcie could feel his hand shaking as well as his whole body. She felt a malicious presence behind the two. She sensed it. Each time she attempted to look behind her, Luci's fingers only heated up; Warning her not to move a muscle. The two sat in eerie silence until an unfamiliar disembodied voice broke the ice.
"Wow, Ignis. Didn't know you'd get a girlfriend so soon. Considering the things you've done." Malevolentia teased.
"She's just a friend. And I don't know what you're talking about." Luci said.
"Oh really? Remember that girl you stalked back when you were breathing?" 
"How would I have stalked ANYBODY if I was kept in a basement my whole life?" 
Marcie kept still, absorbing all the information being exchanged between the two.
Malevolentia laughed before looking at Marcie again, This time with eyes of malice. Marcie felt a chill up her spine as she sensed his presence get closer. She stopped breathing as if it were going to do her any good. Mal walked past her, only to stand directly in front of her. Luci pulled Marcie back towards him by the waist, Marcie's back completely touching his chest.
"What did I just say? You two are lovebirds." Malevolentia said, only before telepathically raising Marcie off the branch and violently throwing her onto the core of the tree. Marcie released a bloodcurdling scream as the solid bark shattered her spine. She couldn't move. An invisible force held her towards the tree's bark, forcing her to watch Malevolentia detain Luci as he tried to help her.
"LET GO OF ME, LET GO!" He cried, his body visibly steaming from how hot he purposefully made himself. Mal, however, kept his body weight on top of the younger boy, restraining him as if he were a criminal. 
"My heat resistance is like nobody else's in this realm. Nobody can handle your bullshit as long as I can, do you understand, Ignis?" Malevolentia said in a husky voice. He adjusted himself to grip Luci's hand behind his back like handcuffs, allowing another invisible force to restrain Luci for him. The force acted as duct tape on his mouth, as well. 
"It would be embarrassing to have people watching. Better kill this bitch off quick." Malevolentia said, quickly aiming with his bare fingers to point at Marcie's throat and shooting an invisible bullet. The bullet seemingly had no effect, however. Marcie attempted to call Vitae for help.
 It was unsuccessful.
Marcie began to feel a sting in the middle of her throat, right where Malevolentia had been aiming at. A brown recluse had taken a bite and scurried off of Marcie's paralyzed body, dissipating into nothingness as if it only had been an illusion. The mark it left, however, wasn't.
She started coughing up blood, and two streams of the red bodily liquid exited from the corners of her mouth. She looked around her, it was as if she had taken a fat dose of salvia and was now under its vibrant and vivid trip. Her hearing became worse, she only heard the faint and muffled cries of Luci begging her to be okay. She closed her eyes as everything became too overwhelming to think about. Marcie wouldn't open her eyes again anytime soon. 
The invisible force finally let her go and her unconscious body collapsed face-first onto the branch.
"MARCIA!!" Luci screamed. Not one person heard him besides Malevolentia as the willow's drooping leaves soundproofed the entire tree. He repeated her name helplessly until Mal took him back to his pocket dimension, abandoning Marcie's body on the thick branch. 
"Something feels off," Vitae said to the group, putting down her cup of tea and teleporting to the branch where she'd left Marcie. The moment she stepped foot onto the branch, She saw the caved-in mark on the tree's bark and Marcie's body laying beneath it. My word! Vitae thought,  immediately sprinting to take Marcie in her arms and teleporting the two of them to her pocket dimension.
3 Hours passed and Marcie would open her eyes again, finding herself put up against several pillows, and a floral blanket was thrown on her. She couldn't speak at all and she had bandages all over her. Where am I? She thought as she examined the room she had resided in. She felt her throat and was greeted with excruciating pain. Even after 5 minutes passed, the aching would resist calming down. Vitae walked through the doorway holding a cold towel.
"Ah, You're awake. That's a great sign." She said, taking off the towel already placed on Marcie's forehead. Vitae placed the back of her hand on her forehead to check her temperature.
"You're burning up. I'm estimating about 107 degrees." Vitae took her hand off and placed the new chilly towel on Marcie's forehead. 
"Here, this should help with the pain." She said, hovering her pale hand on top of the enormous bruise-like bite. A green light was emitted from her palm, slowly but steadily erasing the dark spots the bite left. She took her hand away after the healing was complete and left the room, leaving Marcie to rest.
"I'm so confused. Why am I not back home yet? Is this not a dream?" Marcie said to herself, pinching her arm to ensure she wasn't asleep. Fuck. This isn't good. Where are her parents? Are they looking for her? Marcie was beginning to have a panic attack, whimpering each time she went to feel something and it had not dissolved in her sweaty hands. She'd already staggered off of the queen-sized bed, stumbling towards the middle of the room.
"I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't be here." She repeated mindlessly, looking around the room to find something that could somehow help her. Marcie failed to find anything. She collapsed on the ground and cried, Banging her fist on the wooden floor in anger.
"I SHOULDN'T BE HERE!" She shouted into the floor, unaware that her surroundings would change completely. 
Marcie picked her head up only to find herself in a dark bedroom, a bedroom that looks nothing like Vitae's. It had a feeling of dread in it, She could tell not one happy moment occurred in the room she was in. Hearing voices from the outside, Marcie crawled under the risen mattress that stood high above her kneeled body, silently praying she was let back into Vitae's dimension.
"You didn't need her, Cut the sappy shit. You're her superior and she was nothing but a mere human." A familiar disembodied voice said, aggressively pushing a smaller being through the wooden door, onto the bed. It was Malevolentia. He walked through the doorway and the room was met with a distressing atmosphere. 
Marcie could feel it in her gut that something terrible was about to happen.