Mark. Ch. 1: A Clue
I picked at my red axe with my fingers before letting out a sigh and placing it down on the ground again. I rolled over again to her pillow, taking in the slowly fading scent that was left by her. Fionna had been missing for a month now, and Anabelle, Aiden, and I still had no leads to where the Man had taken her. Even after Gumball had been reappointed as Mayor, and the cells had been disbanded, the girls returned to their families, and the old council members put into jail for their crimes, it still felt cold whenever I entered town. Perhaps it was because when I passed by the pool, or Gumball's house or even town hall, my heart filled with sadness and longing. I knew I missed Fionna, but I also know that everyone's doing all they can to find her.
"Marshall." A soft knock sounded from the door.
I let out a sigh and pulled on a dark grey tank top before dragging myself from the bed and moving over to open the door. In the entrance was Anabelle, her long black hair was now short and only reached halfway down her neck, being able to now expose her vampire marks, she wore them with pride. She was wearing a large blue sweater with black leggings, I sighed, knowing that whenever she wears blue now if because she wants to feel closer to Fionna.
"What is it Ana?" I let out a sigh as I leaned against the door frame.
"I just came to check on you, I heard you talking and yelling a bit in your sleep last night. What was the nightmare about this time?" She asked soothingly.
"Oh, you really heard then..?" Anabelle only nodded. "Well, they're always about Fionna, this one was no different."
"What was going on?"
"She was strapped to a large white bed, she was crying." I looked down. "And there was someone smiling with a knife in their hand. She was bleeding." I bit back tears.
"Last time she was on the white bed surrounded by vials right? Kinda like potions?" Anabelle crossed her arms while she thought back.
"Yes." I avoided her eyes.
"I've had a hunch Marshall. I've been thinking a lot about all of this-your nightmares- and I think that they may be visions."
"Visions?" My gazed at her seriously.
"What if you can see where Fionna is when you're dreaming?"
"That's rediculous." I turned away from her angrily and turned heading downstairs.
"No it's not!" She shouted behind me and soon she has flew past me and was floating in front of me to stop me. "Haven't you heard of the 'Lover's View'?"
"What the hell is that supposed to be?" I looked at her.
"My mom used to tell me stories of vampires who developed a 'Lover's View', apparently it's a special thing among us non-human beings, and it's rare, but it happens." She flies back upstairs, I hear a loud shuffling, and she flies back down and pushes me over onto the couch before sitting next to me an opening an old worn brown book. "Basically, if a supernatural being fell in love with a human-and we're talking pure true love- that whenever one was in danger, when the other slept they would have nightmare-like visions of the current state of their love." Anabelle handed the book over to me and it was filled with cursive writing and pictures explaining what she was going off about. "It works both ways, so if you were in trouble, Fionna would be able to see you too. But I think because of the state she's in, you're able to catch glimpses of her whenever you sleep."
"This sounds crazy-you sound crazy. And if this really does exist then-"
"Then Fionna really is in danger, and that's what's going on with her as far as we know." Anabelle finished my sentence.
"Do you think Gumball would be able to test and see if what you're telling me is true? If I really have this 'Lover's View' or whatever?"
"There's a possibility, but I doubt Gumball's ever dealt with something like this before." Anabelle sighed.
"Well we have to try. Gumbutt's just going to have to struggle through it." I growled getting up. "Let's go."
"Go where?" Anabelle rushed up after me.
"Gumbutt's lab of course." I turned at her raising an eyebrow.
"Aiden is there already talking to him about it. After last night I mentioned my theory to him."
"I don't care, I don't want to hear Gumbutt's reply from Aiden, I want to hear it from the pink blob himself." I grabbed my red and black plaid shirt and my black sun umbrella before opening the door and turning back to face Anabelle who looked at me in bewilderment. "Are you coming or what? Get your stuff." She frowned and flew over to her large black sun hat and put it on before joining me at the door. "Good, let's go."
Anabelle and I entered town being careful to conceal our skin from the sun, we walked over to Gumball's house that was towards the center of the area and I loudly hit my fist against the door. Anabelle let out a sigh behind me and I turned around to see her rolling her eyes. "What?" I growled.
"If their still here they're bound to be in Gumball's lab downstairs, not-" She stopped when a clicking noise came from behind the door and it opened inwards to reveal Aiden.
"Oh, hey guys." He was wearing a large white lab coat over a orange t-shirt and red jeans. "Didn't expect you to come by." He smiled as Anabelle moved past me to embrace her boyfriend and give him a long loving kiss. "Haha, I missed you too hun." He smiled and she pulled away from him, going further inside of the house. Aiden turned back to me and shrugged then stepped aside to let me in. I set my umbrella down on the couch by Anabelle's hat and followed Aiden after he had locked the front door again.
Aiden moved over and picked up a book from the table before leading Anabelle and I downstairs to a large metal door. We entered through and walked into a large spotless white room filled with various equipment that was labeled and organized by purpose. I rolled my eyes looking around and saw Gumball sitting at a large metal desk, it looked like he was reading something.
"Yo Gumbutt." I called and watched as Gumball jumped in his seat and quickly turned to face me. I smirked looking at his flustered appearance and he frowned before he stood, smoothing out his coat as he came towards us.
"Aiden, you said it was just you who was coming today." The pink haired mayor turned to the redhead.
"Yeah, well that's what I thought too. They just happened to show up while I went upstairs to get your book." He held out the book to him.
"Well, what a coincidence then." Gumball's mouth was in a hard line as he accepted the dark blue book and turned his heel on us again moving back to his table. "Marshall, I'm assuming Anabelle blabbed to you about the thing Aiden and I are researching?" Anabelle turned an angry look towards Gumball but Aiden reached over and hugged her around the shoulders.
"Yeah, I know. This 'Lover's View' stuff right? Have you heard of it before?" I moved over to the other side of his desk. Gumball only merely glanced at me before continuing to write something down in his notebook.
"Yes, I have." Gumball sighed.
"And is it real?" I pressed.
"Well, I've seen two cases that seemed like it. Heard stories of others. So it's highly likely that it's a real thing."
"Then if I have these visions or whatever they are, then it's of use to us right?"
"Well, that is, if you see anything useful."
"Well, it's normally a lot of the same thing." I looked down.
Anabelle shifted uncomfortably and I looked at her and noticed she was biting back saying something. I turned towards her and she looked up at me. She avoided my eyes and then Gumball had turned his attention to her. "Anabelle" he started, "is there something you want to say?" He crossed his arms and she looked up at him and then glanced nervously at me before looking back at Gumball.
"Well, I was thinking..." Anabelle trailed off. "That y'know, Marshall has these dreams-visions- nearly every night. And, it's not doing any use to just have them and ignore them if this is the case. So I was thinking..." She glanced at me again before turning back to Gumball. "That Marshall could stay here for awhile-"
"What!?" I turned on her.
"I just mean so that Gumball can like have dream sessions with you!"
"Like therapy!"
"No-no! Not like that! But like, you'd just tell him about the visions and then he can start putting pieces of the puzzle together." She panicked.
"No way! I'm not staying here with Gumbu-"
"Don't you want to save Fionna?" She yelled.
"Of course I do." My anger dropped and turned into longing.
"Then we should try whatever we can. While Aiden and I continue searching, you can help Gumball here."
"It won't be the same without her scent." I mumbled so only she could hear.
"Marshall..." Anabelle looked at me as if I was a scared child. She took in a breath. "Aiden and I will bring the mattress and her pillows here. We're also bring over your clothes that she always wore." She gave me a small smile. "Don't worry about it."
"I..." I sighed then ran my hands through my hair sitting down on the floor not looking at them.
"Marshall, you're taking this harder than any of us." Gumball walked over to me and placed his hand on my shoulder. "We know you want Fionna back as soon as possible, and this is our only lead right now. I think what Anabelle's suggesting is a good idea."
"I just want her back." I looked down at my hands fighting back tears. "And if this is all real, what I'm seeing, then that means that she's really on that white bed, with that man with the knife." I cursed under my breath when two tears fell. "That was her bleeding!" I cried. There was a silence and I stared down at the ground. Through my blurry vision I made out a figure in blue kneeling down and embracing me. Anabelle rubbed my back saying nothing, but I felt a wet spot start to grow on my shoulder. Then I watched her pull away, and I looked up to see her start breaking down. I looked at her with pity, and watched as Aiden embracing her and trying to comfort her.
I used my flannel to wipe away the tears from my face and stood up before turning to face Gumball. "I'll do it."