Chapter #7: "What's Next?"

"Now, where's that cemetery you mentioned?" She released him into the air and flipped herself upside down. Her hair looked incredibly stupid along with her goofy grin. "You too scared to go there?"

It felt kind of weird being able to bounce back to her normal state so quickly… In her mind, questions where racing through her head. Most of them she probably wouldn't get an answer to, though… That, she wasn't okay with.

"…Hey, do you know if that party's still going on…?" She asked, flipping herself upright and smoothing her messy hair. "No medallion though… Please don't use the medallion…"

The medallion… Marshall's eyes widened as he thought about it. He knew the small object so well that he didn't even need to see it to picture it absolutely perfectly. So, whatever had happened was related to that. No wonder he had snapped. He shuddered and pushed the thoughts away. Best not to dwell on the what ifs.

As he glanced at Cake's r etreating figure, he smirked and turned his attention back to Rue. "I picked the last adventure," he said with a grin, "and by the rules of Marshall bets, you are going to have to decide what we are going to do next."

As he stared into Rue's eyes, flipping upside down in order to view her differently, with a smirk… He found himself wishing these days could last forever. The almost loss of these moments had forced him to start thinking about how short-lived they were going to be, and he really didn't want to waste a minute of them. After all, this version of him ought to have as good a life as possible before it vanished.

"I want you to know something," Marshall said as he reached out and took Rue's hand between both of his own. "No matter what happens in the next day, week, month, year, lifetime… I am glad I got the chance to meet you today."

"Awwww…" Rue tipped her head to the side, smiling sweetly at Marshall, "So you're going to be all sweet with me, hmm~?… Well I love you, too." She pulled herself closer to Marshall and made it feel as if she were about to kiss him. "…But it does feel like we've known each other for a lot longer…" With one light movement, she quickly booped her nose with his, then released his hands from hers and folded her wings against her body.

Chuckling, she fell backwards and quickly caught herself in the middle of it, then flew back up and tugged on the leg of Marshall's pants, trying to get him upright. "Okay… So we've had enough scaring others for the night…" Rue tapped her chin, "…Can we go back to your place for some food, then hit the cemetery?"

Because she hadn't eaten in around 12 hours, she was famished. However, it was a routine of hers to go for long periods of time without anything to eat or drink… Mostly because she forced herself not to, though…

"Whaddaya say, pretty boy?" Noticing he was enjoying his state of being upside down, she joined him once more and nudged him. "I'm so hungry… You can cook, right…?" The demoness whined, "Please tell me you can cook, Marshaaaaaallll…"

Marshall blinked, looking completely lost again. Not exactly how she had been responding the last few times he'd said things like that. Man… Having a friendship with somebody was hard when you were unable to remember critical moments within it. He nodded his head at her comment as he continued to dwell on the whole medallion thing. Scaring probably wasn't a good idea if he had just done something whack with the medallion that day.

He couldn't really figure out why they would be going to the cemetery if they were not planning on scaring anyone, but didn't really feel like voicing his confusion at the moment, as he was already seriously lost. Plus, that might be a good place to take whatever punishment was awaiting him.

"Cook?" He blinked at the taunt and thought about it for a couple of seconds. "I have cooked before, but not since…" He stopped instantly. NO! He couldn't try and think back like that. Whatever that memory was, it was sealed with a door that must not be opened - one that had a black symbol on it. Was of the memories he must NEVER remember.

Instead, he replied, "I'm a vampire, Rue. I don't eat like you. I drink the color red. There hasn't even been any food at my house for hundreds of years."

"Wait a second… How the heck do you drink the color red?" She knit her eyebrows, clutching the red fabric she was wearing. "…I have vampirific fangs…" Slowly, she lifted her shirt to her mouth and sunk her fangs into it, then immediately spit it out. "It tastes like cotton! How do you DRINK a color?! How do the laws of physics even emit that?!" Disgusted, Rue pulled a long thread from her mouth. "…This is your fault…" She muttered and threw it down.

"But what can I eeeeaaaaaattt?" Rue resumed with her whining, swatting at Marshall's arm. "I'm so hungryyyyyy! And I can't eat your foooooood! And… And I feel so weak…" She joked just to try to capture Marshall's full attention. She made her body go limp and she fell a good 20 feet below the surface of the clouds, then reemerged.

"Can we please get some food before something like that happens for real? Because if it does, I'm not coming back up…" The demoness crossed her arms over her chest. "Maaaarrshaaaallll… Feeeeed meeeeee…"

She intended her whining to make her sound like a little kid. Plus, if she didn't get her way, she would throw a tantrum until she found something somewhat amusing.

Marshall looked at her with a smirk. "You do it the same way you would typically drink blood. You just stick your teeth in and drain. I wouldn't expect a non vampire to even understand." He chuckled. He glanced around and frowned. "Now that I think about it, there isn't anything red anywhere around here." He pondered for a second before saying. "I know! Let's head over to the Candy Kingdom. I'm sure there is a lot to eat there… And NO I do not mean the peasants." He chuckled.

More than that, though, he felt something had happened to Fionna that nobody was telling him, as he was going to be seriously nervous about her until he saw with his own eyes that she was ok. Surveying the surroundings, he nodded his head and started flying back towards the Candy Kingdom, glancing behind him to ensure that Rue was following.

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A blinking light, red. Craziness. A gloved hand reaches out and touches it. "Could it be? This is too early! Unexpected. Which means… Something unexpected may be happening." A grin. Sharp, carnivorous teeth. Eyes sparkling, red as flames barely visible in the dark. "I must investigate. This time, Demon King of Nightmares, you won't escape from me."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Baring her fangs, Rue hissed at Marshall, then growled, "You really do not understand that I do tend to drink blood from time to time… I've stopped with a lot of it, though…" She left out the part about how many thousands of people she'd already killed by drinking blood… At least she was over it, but the thought still made her shudder.

"Wait nonononono!" Rue dove down and grasped Marshall's wrists from behind him. "Cake said for me to keep you away from the Candy Kingdom!" It probably had to do with the torturous things they had just done to the citizens… "I-I can't let you go back there, who knows what could happen!"

"Okay… Is there anywhere else we could go?" Rue pulled out the scarlet cloth from her pocket, the one some of Marshall's blood had gotten on, and handed it over to him. "This should tie you over, I guess… I can dye it again anyways…"

Rue narrowed her eyes at Marshall. Something was wrong… She could sense it… "…Do… Do you… Feel like we're being watched…?"

Marshall raised his eyebrows as he looked at Rue. "Drinking blood is really disgusting. Tried it once, nearly threw up, never tried it again… even during my totally crazy years." He didn't elaborate any deeper, though whether it was because he didn't want to, or because he couldn't remember anymore, remained unclear. "So I just drink the color red instead."

Then he blinked and stopped, his face contorting nervously. Cake didn't want him in the Candy Kingdom? Seriously? Had whatever he had done been that bad… or was Fionna actually seriously hurt after all? His heart started to pound as he considered whether or not he should make a bolt for the Candy Kingdom anyways.

He was, however, distracted by Rue's question. Anybody around? He glanced around at the empty fields in all directions. Sure it was dark, but he could actually see better in a dark area than he could in a light one. "There is absolutely nobody anywhere. I guarantee you, not even a butterfly could possibly be watching us right now."

"Oh… Kaaaayyyy…" Rue muttered something under her breath, then fell back just to amuse herself. "Can we find out what we're going to do now? Because I can't decide!" She began humming a song as she circled around Marshall, gradually growing from singing softly to making her voice loud enough to be heard properly. She sang as if she were one of those princesses little children were always told about…

As she progressed with the melodic song, the key changed. The song became a minor key, and the lyrics became darker. All of a sudden, there was a pause. Rue broke the silence with a loud growl and a scream. Not like screaming as in a little kid trying to sing loudly, screaming as in the kind of music that is associated with the devil. Her body fell again, cutting through the still air and making a whoosh that was easily hidden under the sound of Rue's cackles.

Marshall quite enjoyed Rue's singing. He found it helped to relax him as he stared out at the distant Candy Kingdom. There, Cake was speaking with Fionna, who was hopefully ok. He both hated and liked that nobody had really told him what had happened... but it left him seriously concerned about Fionna's health. If only she had been there too, he wouldn't have to worry now. Listening to Rue, however, he could feel himself calming down.

Then... it changed, as drastically as a forest's music changed when a fire suddenly appeared. Marshall grimaced and turned to look at Rue with unease. What the heck was she even up to? And then she was falling... again... just as he had predicted before. And although he knew she was immortal, and thus it couldn't really kill her... He paused for a second. How the heck did he... NO TIME! He shoved the question from his head and dove down in a swoop to catch Rue once more in his arms before she hit the ground.

Rue half expected Marshall to come to the rescue and half expected him to know that she was just joking around and could save herself. However, when he caught her, she chimed jokingly, "My hero… I suppose you expect a reward for your noble deed of saving me?"

She swooned in Marshall's arms, "Oh my beautiful Vampire King! How could I ever repay you for saving me from the clutches of… Myself?" Flinging her arms around Marshall's neck dramatically, she gasped up at the sky. "Oh my king! It's almost midnight! Quickly! Kiss me before my magical magic wears out!" Rue resumed to giggling madly about her stupid phrases. She paused to gaze back into his eyes; first as a joke, but then found herself completely mesmerized. Her brain was telling her to pull away due to the embarrassment this might 'cause her, but her heart wanted her to stay lost.

Marshall relaxed immediately after catching her, as her reply made it clear she wasn't in whatever crazy mood she had been in the last time she did this. Though, it did beg the uncomfortable question of what would have happened to her had he not moved quite fast enough. He smirked wickedly at being called a hero, and his look itself made it clear that wasn't a very accurate description.

"Kiss you?"Marshall thought, his eyebrows rising at the statement, as he chuckling wondered what exactly would happen if he DID indeed kiss her. No! Bad idea - that was taking flirting, and even joking, just a little bit too far. As she looked into his eyes, he found himself swallowing. What the heck was going on with him right now? He barely knew this girl... knew her less even than she knew him. Gah! He forced his eyes to look away from hers. Though he attempted to do it in a "cool" manner, he wasn't at all sure how successful he had been.

Rue's face flushed as he tore his gaze away from her as she did the same. Her awkward chuckles filled the silence; she was still unsure of whether to slip out of his arms or remain there. Marshall was oddly comforting, but she had a feeling something was wrong now…

Her hunger pains subsided [and highly likely to return later], she took off to the skies once again, pulling him up with her. Rue resumed singing the first part of the song in its happy major key, and no, not like an actual spawn of Satan. She grabbed one of Marshall's hands and made him spin around before letting go.

She was still unsure what they should do… They had around five hours until the sun rose, and Rue would have to go back to Fionna's place, extremely exhausted. Rue stopped singing to ask Marshall, "Hey, can you just choose what to do next? We've wasted enough time with… Nothing, actually… What do you want to do?"

Floating, flying, spinning... Marshall took it all in one flow, only afterwards pausing to realize that he kinda missed holding the girl in his arms. Well, chance was gone. Drat. He shrugged his shoulders and relaxed again as he listened to Rue sing. She was really good. His eyes widened at this realization, and another thought quickly entered his head.

"We could head over to my place," he suggested with a smile. "I can't help but admire your lovely voice." He winked. "I myself happen to be a musician. So if you come to my house, I can pull out a couple of my choice pieces and we can put together some form of music." He'd done it plenty of times with Fionna, who played the keyboard.

He nodded his head with a smile, and started flying in the direction of his cave, which happened to be just on the other side of... Shoot. He frowned as he looked at the mountain in front of him. If there was one thing he didn't want to do, it was mess with the Ice Queen. Though, with any luck, the Ice Queen would be very, very asleep already,

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