WARNINGS: mentions of murder, detention, non consensual drug use, unhappy childhoods and...corpses, i guess. Yeah, that too.
Chapter Soundtrack: watch?v=c7IOLOk7zaE
3 (III).
"Hey".
Lurking into a van parked in front of MeriTech Prosthetics' facility, a teenage boy opens a duffel bag and fishes out of it the upper half of a mannequin, putting it to sit between himself and the passenger's seat.
"Sorry you were in there for so long, Delores" he says caressing her head and not expecting an answer. Except it comes.
"You've been drinking again, haven't you? Any chance you've taken a drop too much?".
"No, I'm not drunk. 'm working" the boy throws her a distracted glance, and then does a double take. Seated beside him, Delores mysteriously smiles with her purplish lips and evanescent dried-out eyes, irises and pupils devoid of light, purple-streaked skin in stark contrast to the tousled and dusty hair now flowing from her no longer bald head.
"All right, smarty-pants. Are we here to investigate on that fake eye you stole from a corpse?".
"Yes, it's about the eye thing! This is the place it was made…" the teen replies, both piqued and condescending, to then become dubious. "Or…will be made. We just have to wait".
"As you see fit. It's not like I could go take a stroll, anyway". Delores shrugs and her only hand chases away the flies that insistently keep on landing onto her vitreous eyes, the neat and rosy scar splitting her left, shriveled cheek like a grotesque dimple that makes her smiles too lopsided.
.oO°Oo.
The suits can be seen from outside, through the window, even with the two Uruks who wear them showing their backs to the street.
Diana thinks of turning on her heels and leaving quickly, but then she comes up with an idea - a highly reckless one that could in turn give her and the Girls an amazing advantage. So, looking forward to the satisfaction of calling her boyfriend and tell him she's a hero, she hurriedly slips on the face mask she just stuffed into her scrubs' pocket, ties up her hair as messily as she can and goes to get some answers.
She enters the shop with slumped shoulders, dragging her feet, adopting a gait that doesn't belong to her, and feigning to be in the middle of such a severe coughing fit that barely allows her to wheeze a pitiful 'good bor'i'g'; then, halfway to the counter, she pretends to stumble on her own feet and turns to throw a quick but attentive glance to the Uruks. The trick works like magic: the bulky guy and the irritated-looking woman with impeccably styled hair - both not being exactly subtle as they probably like to think they are - stare back at her with mild annoyance and even repulsion, the woman waving a hand to let the newcomer know she's being urged to hurry up and get lost along with all her germs.
The nurse mentally pats herself on the back and springs ahead.
"Hi Bette…sorry if I tell you, but you don't look well" Agnes greets her, always invested. Marben says the lady has been a waitress at Griddy's for more than sixteen years, so it's a bit difficult to say whether her interest is genuine or only professional habit. Diana likes to think it's the former.
"I fear my grandma gave me bronchitis" the nurse effortlessly lies, faking a stuffy nose and trying to pass for someone who has roots in the city, in case the Uruks were eavesdropping. "I need to take my medicines on a full stomach, so…can I have a wild berries jelly donut, please?".
"Of course, dear, of course! Right away!".
"Thanks, Agnes. Seems quiet, today…" Diana offers, trying to sound casual as she eyes the Uruks reflected on a napkin holder on the counter. She needs to get a good look of them, otherwise her rush of recklessness will be meaningless. Agnes, on her part, answers jovially as she skitters back and forth arranging the takeaway order, like she has not a single care in the world and the walls between which she works everyday weren't riddled with bullet holes.
"Well, you know, kids aren't out of school yet. It's late for lunch break, early for an afternoon snack…".
"So no queue. Just perfect, I was already afraid of infecting who knows how many people…".
Agnes tuts.
"It's not your fault, dear, you hospital workers are always so exposed…". The lady's gaze lights up with enthusiasm as she deposits the wrapped doughnut onto the counter. "You know what? I'll give you some extra takeaway coffee, to keep you warm on your way back!".
Diana is so dumbfounded she almost forgets to keep up her act when she reaches out to fruitlessly stop the waitress.
"Oh, Agnes, I can't-".
"On the house!" the lady sing-songs from the other side of the counter, already intent on pouring hot coffee into a Styrofoam cup.
The nurse feels awful as she keeps up faking a few coughs and even goes as far as blowing her nose for good measure: she didn't mean to trick kind, oblivious Agnes as well as the Uruks. The good news is they obviously didn't recognize her, or else she would be dead already. Thankfully, they look like they're even not all that interested in her, just anxious for her to leave so as to take her place in front of the counter.
Diana can only hope the two shady guys have no intention of hurting the waitress, because - albeit reluctantly - she needs to get out of the shop as fast as possible without looking suspicious. She has already pushed her luck enough.
So she pays, profusely thanks Agnes when she gives her the promised free coffee ('Get well soon, Bette dear!'), leaves a generous tip into the jar near the register and walks away, undisturbed.
After informing the Girls about the new intel she gathered, Diana spends the rest of her shift keeping the nurses station's radio on to check it doesn't spread the news of a new robbery at the donut shop.
.oO°Oo.
"All right, let's talk" says Myery as she drops the basket full of wet laundry on top of the upright piano. Marben abruptly stops playing and gives her a quick, miffed once-over.
"About?".
"You having been nauseous for two days straight, now. Got something to tell me?".
"I'm not pregnant" the blond woman evenly says, immediately guessing what the other is implying but refusing to be triggered into any kind of reaction: she just shrugs a shoulder and starts gathering the music sheets displayed above the keyboard.
"You sure?".
"Don't be silly. Where would I ever find the time to meet anyone?".
"As if it had ever been a problem, before! For the last twenty years every time I lost sight of you for a minute you were gone getting yourself a boyfriend".
Seated at the dining table, at the other end of the foyer, a brown-haired little head turns to look at them.
"Have you got a boyfriend, Mommy?" Grace asks in her adorable preschooler's voice, and detecting a trace of excitement, Marben turns to give her a fond smile.
"No, angel, I don't. Remember to mind the lines".
The little girl jolts, stares down at her drawings, picks up a yellow marker and resumes coloring.
"It's weird, when you call her angel" Myery mumbles, looking unsettled. Marben shakes her head.
"Only for you. Nobody else feels like that".
Myery huffs and pokes her cousin in the ribs.
"Well? Are you sure or not?".
"Sure as day, I'm not pregnant!" the blond woman whisper-shouts, swatting the other's hand.
'And you'll find out soon enough. Just wait until you'll desperately need a tampon'.
Myery keeps looking skeptical as she unceremoniously dumps the dry laundry into her lap and nods to the piano, before turning and resuming her duty at the drying rack.
"So, what is it? I'm starting to get worried, you're even playing again".
"The brown acid".
"Oh yes, yours, Diana's and Lear's LSD trip gone wrong" the red-haired woman sighs, suddenly sounding and looking tired as she reaches out for a clothespin, "Though I'm not too sure I understand what you're hinting at, I didn't take part in that adventure…".
"What I saw that day can't truly have happened. It doesn't make sense!" Marben grits out, now visibly distressed as she incessantly runs her hands over her face. She's pale, and she looks on the verge of a meltdown, so Myery tries to coax her into reasoning with the most reassuring voice she can muster.
"According to what you told me, hadn't that nonsense happened you three wouldn't have managed an escape. Therefore, since you're all alive and well, we must assume it happened, for real".
"But we were drugged, My...so friggin' much that we survived by miracle…" blows the blond in a thin, scared voice.
"No, Marben, you Girls were ultimately saved by the Gravedigger. I wouldn't call his doing a miracle at all" Myery scoffs, and the blond forgets her anxiety for a moment, in favor of turning a hard stare onto her.
"Could you please be serious? And stop saying 'the Gravedigger', it doesn't suit him!" she hisses.
"Too soon?" Myery quips, but there's something that sounds very much like sorrow in her tone of voice to believe her comment was truly contemptuous. Marben chooses not to bear a grudge over it, but keeps giving the other woman the evil eye even as Myery goes back to the main topic. "Come on, stop wondering if whoever broke you Girls out told the Uruks anything important about us, in the past nine years. Relax!".
"Why are you so dismissive of the idea? If that was the case, we would have come here thinking of repaying a debt…to walk right into a trap, instead".
As a response, Myery stops fiddling with the laundry once again and turns around with her most rational and unfazed attitude.
"Had someone close sold us to the enemy, you think we would be here, right now, talking about it?".
For a moment, Marben looks flabbergasted, as if she had never really thought of an explanation as simple as that. Her gaze swipes across the foyer, grazing upon David's small, sleeping shape bundled up onto the sofa along with Diana's feline foundling, and Grace, still drawing at the table.
"Yeah…you're right. Sorry, I panicked" she yields. "It's just that…being back here isn't exactly helping. You know, with Diego popping out from here, Klaus from there, Ben always in my way, Allison around the corners…after everything that happened, they get on my nerves".
"So much for not having the time to see anyone, miss!" the red-haired woman good-naturedly retorts.
"Myery, I swear, I'm being haunted!" Marben heatedly blurts out, grabbing hold of her cousin's elbow to give her a tug. Myery wobbles and then yanks herself free, bending to retrieve David's onesie that she intended to hang out but fell from her hand. "Said the one who chats with ghosts since the cradle. Seriously, could this conversation ever get any weirder?".
"Listen to me! Wherever I go, there's at least one Hargreeves already waiting for me to show up, they're driving me crazy!".
"Ignore them, then! Pretend you didn't see anything and keep walking!".
"I can't!".
"Oh, right, because your blasted momma brain must be wreaking havoc once again. So what, you're feeling compelled to adopt those special kids too, like-".
As Myery stops and immediately regrets what just blurted out of her mouth, Marben grits her teeth and squares her shoulders, waiting for Grace's voice to make itself be heard. Surprisingly enough, though, the little girl has nothing to ask, she only wants to clarify one thing.
"I like it when Mommy wants to adopt. That's how I got a home and a family".
Myery's face curls up into a guilty mask, then; Marben just mouthes 'I'm so killing you' before stepping away, to go crouching beside the table, where her daughter hasn't ceased scribbling with her marker for a single moment.
"Auntie Myery remembers, lovebird, but she was joking. I'm not adopting anyone" she sweetly says, caressing soothing circles onto the little girl's back. Grace doesn't say anything, but her little mouth's corners turn slightly downwards. "Does this make you sad?".
"I…I think all the children in the world should have a Mommy who loves them, and dogs who lick their noses, and a baby brother to kiss, and aunties who help them steal the coo-".
"Grace" Marben admonishes, as the child suddenly lets the marker fall onto the table to cover her mouth with her small, guilty hands. The blond woman figures she now knows what happened to the leftovers Oreo cookies she forbade Lear to give the kids, and thinks she would have liked a whole lot better to remain blissfully ignorant on how Grace eventually got to ate them and Lear to cover her. "It's very sweet of you to wish something like that for every kid out there, angel, but…Mommy can't adopt everyone. And after all, the people Auntie Myery was talking about are grown-ups, they can fend for themselves".
"Are they going to be all right?" little, sweet Grace who's always so concerned about others asks, looking at her Mommy with sad brown eyes. The woman gives her what she direly hopes is a reassuring smile.
"Of course, baby. And the world's full of Mommies and Daddies, I'm sure they'll take care of the other kids in need of a home, a family…and dogs with loooooong, pink tongues that can't wait to lick someone's little nose!".
Saying so, Marben takes on pinching Grace's nose, cheeks, ears and sides with gentle fingers, and in just the span of a moment the child is squealing in delight, laughing out loud, all traces of her previous melancholy gone. Marben laughs with her, relishing the moment, and when her daughter messily tumbles in her arms, she plunges her nose into Grace's soft hair, holding her tight. She realizes only in that moment that her children cannot provide her with solution to her problems, but they surely are a formidable antidote for when she feels strength and determination abandon her.
"I love you, Mommy".
"I love you too, ladybird. That's why I took you with me" Marben softly says, so that her daughter can never think she wanted her for any other reason. "Now, why don't you show Auntie how good you were at coloring within the lines all by yourself?".
Grace enthusiastically nods and climbs back onto the chair, already chit-chatting about how she drew Mommy's, Auntie Di's and Auntie Lee's hair in yellow, as well as Sunny's fur, because it was the closest thing to blond she could come up with; Myery puts on a smile that still looks contrite, but before she can catch up to the child, Marben grabs her firmly by an arm.
"You'd better come out to your cousin-niece as the biggest jackass ever, or I'll have your head pinned above the fireplace!" she hisses at her cousin, before leaving Myery and Grace alone to go take some fresh air.
The view from their rooftop leaves a lot to be desired. Too much smog, too many flats with too many floors each, too much traffic noise coming from the early evening gridlocks in the street. In fact it's ridiculous that the Girls would refer to going up there with the expression 'get some air', but in the end is as good a name as any other.
Marben, however, doesn't have much time to think about all that: just a couple of minutes after she sits down on the roof, a slight ringing reverberates into her ears, announcing company.
The ghost - whoever they may be - seems to hesitate in attempting an approach. Marben is so accustomed to her own nature that she has learned to sense something from shy ghosts' silences and reticence. And if this time too she's not mistaken…
"Hey".
"Hello".
"Can I sit?".
"Of course".
A dark silhouette silently crouches onto the ledge beside her and then settles with its legs and feet dangling in the void.
"So, you still want to have me around, even if you've seen me kill a man for trivial reasons?".
"I never doubted you. Just...it pains me to see you kill. I wanted a better life, for you, since you can have it" Ben confesses in an even tone.
"Well, get in line, you're not the only one to…" Marben huffs, then abruptly stops, realizing she has just ventured into unsteady water; one sideways glance at Ben, in fact, and it's obvious that he knows where she was headed. "…to think this about a dear one's life".
"You'll have to see my brother, eventually…".
"I know, but when it'll be inevitable and not a moment sooner" Marben grants, in a conciliatory but assertive tone, and then changes the subject. "Cutting to the chase, wanna let out what you came here for? I promise I won't break…again".
"I'm sorry for what Klaus said-".
"I know, and I'm sure he's sorry as well. There's no need to repeat all this every time someone from your family screws things up. Thanks for doing this, but save your breath".
"It was totally uncalled for".
"Yeah, but-".
"No 'but'" Ben cuts her off in a tone that brooks no arguments. Marben finally turns to look at him. "I told you already, stop considering yourself responsible for what happened to everyone you lost. Me above all".
"It still hurts to think about what you had to face, though…".
"Then don't add unnecessary blame for things you didn't have any control over. No more 'what if I never asked you to help me?' or 'why didn't I get suspicious?', it was never your job to keep me safe. You asked for my help and I willingly chose to grant it. Everything else is my Father's fault".
Dejectedly going back to stare at the skyline, Marben nods.
"You still sure about wanting to keep the truth from your siblings?".
"Yes" he states with no trace of uncertainty; then, he gets fretful and turns to give his friend a worried glance. "You changed your mind?".
Marben shrugs and lets out a sigh.
"There is no way to deal with this and come out of it completely clean. I constantly sway between feeling like owing them the truth and the wish to shield them from it…only then I remember you're the one to have the final say in it, and you deemed they already grew up traumatized enough, even without knowing your father had you murdered".
"It's for the best" Ben claims, sounding torn as well, but also determined.
"Yeah, I guess…".
"I hate to see you cry, as well".
Marben lets out a sad chuckle and gropes for his hand.
"It has to happen, every now and then" she says when their eyes lock. "It's good for the kids, you know, to see me vulnerable. Since they've got no Dad and I get to do all the work, they need to see adults - parents - being emotional, or they'll grow up thinking feelings are something to be ashamed of…like you Umbrella Kids used to, back when we met".
Something cold and awfully looking like shame crosses Ben's face, who says nothing but stiffens and looks at Marben, bewildered; she sadly smiles at him and reaches out to caress his cheek.
"Alright, if it's for the kids' sake we stan it" the ghost acquiesces then, timidly leaning into the touch. "Just…don't cry for me anymore, okay? And I'll make Klaus apologize!".
Marben bursts into a heartily laugh, the first real one in days.
"Oh, leave him alone, he doesn't own a truly evil bone in his whole body! If I know him even just a little, I'm gonna find him groveling on my doormat in less than twelve hours".
"Yeah, well…it's the least he can do" Ben laughs as well, and then he rests his head on top of Marben's when she puts hers on his shoulder.
They stay like that for a while, exchanging a few words from time to time as the sunset approaches; then Marben has to excuse herself and go get ready for the night shift.
Downstairs, David has woken up from his unscheduled nap and Grace has joined him on the couch for a short cartoon marathon. Myery's at the sink, washing and chopping vegetables; one look at the setting of her shoulders, and Marben knows she as well has been on the roof.
"How long have you been there for?". Myery stops chopping and sheepishly turns.
"Almost all of it, I guess. Sorry". She truly appears to be, so Marben nods and then takes off her T-shirt as she makes for the door which leads to the bedrooms.
"Looks like you and Ben keep being as thick as thieves…" Myery half-yells at her from a whole hallway of distance.
"Of course we are, he's been following his disaster of a brother for the past sixteen and a half years! He needs someone reliable to give him strength, from time to time, he can't be the sane one forever!".
"'Don't wanna adopt them' my ass! Ghost Boy's basically your firstborn!" it's what Myery has to say about it, but this time she makes thoroughly sure to mumble it under her breath. A tickling sensation on her calves makes her look down, where Diana's cat is making little gurgling sounds halfway between meowing and purring, while drawing infinity symbols around her ankles.
"I don't know about you" she tells him "But I have a feeling that our stay here is gonna be a royal pile of shit, Mr Puddles".
The cat simply runs after the string bean she's thrown toward the door.
A faint, rhythmic sound draws the woman's attention, making her turn her head to the right: a solitary marker keeps coloring the same point on the sheet since who knows when, without anyone holding it. Myery's dark eyes veer on the two little, oblivious heads in front of the TV.
.oO°Oo.
"We're just wasting precious time, smarty-pants".
"You know, you don't have to tell me that. I know there are only six days left" the boy outside MeriTech Prosthetics blurts out at the mannequin. He's getting impatient.
"This whole fake eye business is a dead end".
"Yeah, you got a better idea?". He gives her a once-over, then does a double take and she's gone back to being a bald, mute mannequin with plastic skin and a painted smile. The boy irritatedly scoffs, and then looks out of the window again.
"Okay, then".
A/N: Sorry for the three-days delay, people! I hope you liked the new chapter! :)
Thank you so much for your attention! I hope you are all well.
Love you all.