Marshall's mood did not improve. His lump of a heart was filled with whatever feeling it was that caused him to focus on a girl that he just couldn't get. It was so potent that it had caused him to cry. Not that he was ashamed of crying, he just hated doing it. After being alive for 1000 years, the angst of adolescence kind of gets old. Picking up his guitar, he tried to control his feelings.
The way Cake had treated him; it was as if he was a monster. It made him feel sick inside.
"I am a monster." He started in a sing song tone. "Don't get close, I will devour you."
He moped about the house most of the time, not daring to venture out into the world and resisted, even in drinking the red from stuff. He was tired, so tired of being a monster. One morning, he stepped fully into the sunshine to test how long he could stand in the burning heat before he gave it up.
Half of his vampire tricks he didn't even understand. The mind controlling thing was still something he struggled to comprehend. Sometimes he found himself controlling critters just because some part of him wanted them to do something.
He had tried to work his vampirism to his advantage with Fionna, by tricking her into kissing him but it had proven to be a big pile of plops. Perhaps PG was right, and he wasn't a real vampire. The one time a cool superpower like that could have really helped him out! Garbage dumps.
But he couldn't help agreeing with Cake on one thing; that maybe having a relationship with Fionna was not a good idea. How could he watch her wither beside him in fifty years' time? No matter how much he wanted the girl, he couldn't fight that there were certain things about being with a vampire/demon that would put her at a disadvantage.
"I am a monster…" He repeated again for the hundredth time this week.
Fionna held on to the flower, and night time became tantalizing. Every shadow that crossed her window she would imagine to be Marshall Lee, but it never was. Once it was Ice Queen, and she full on mooned her for whatever reason only to fly away cackling.
Fionna was feeling sick with heartache, and she found herself twirling the flower between her fingers in the same way she had once held on to Gumball's plop of hair.
Cake watched her with caution. Perhaps it was good that Marshall had gone off and never come back, but she couldn't help feeling a bit (okay, wholly) responsible for Marshall's absence and it hurt her to see Fionna so completely bummed about it.
"I've gotta make good with vampire dude…" Cake finally resolved, and ventured out to right her wrongs.
But when Cake knocked on his door, no one answered. And when she peeked inside the window, Cake was shocked to discover that the house was empty.
"Marshall?" She called, pressing her face against the glass of the window. There was nothing inside the house. The couch had left a discolored rectangle in the living room, and the array of guitars that usually decorated the walls were no longer there.
"Oh Glob!" She moaned. Had she really scared away the Vampire King from Aaa entirely? She felt so terribly about the way she had acted towards him the last time they spoke, but he wouldn't leave Aaa just because she called him a slimy vampire, would he?
In a rush, she made for Candy Kingdom. Gumball had to know something!
Cake burst through the parlor of PG's castle, tail in a fray. Her entrance was so sudden that PG nearly choked on his tea time biscuit.
"Cake, what are you doing here?" He said, trying to swallow his mouthful of biscuit, and coughing on the crumbs.
"Have you seen Marshall?" She asked in urgency. A look of questioned shock came over PG.
"No… not since… Not for a while. What's the matter?" He said, gulping down tea to wash down the biscuit crumbs.
"He's missing."
Gumball spit his tea straight out. Butterscotch Butler was bringing out more tea, and dropped the pot altogether when hearing the news.
"Are you sure, Cake? He's not just redecorating?" He asked shocked. Butterscotch Butler began to wipe up the tea mess, coyly keeping an ear out.
"Nuh uh," She cried. "PG, his guitars and junk were gone!" With calming demeanor, PG took another sip of tea, and calculated the situation. It wasn't unusual for Marshall to up and leave without warning, but he had been at the little lakehouse for the past 300 years, what could have prompted him to leave?
"I'll send out some banana guards…" He said unsure. Cake rolled her eyes. As if that would do any good!
Butterscotch Butler pulled on PG's sleeve to get his attention.
"If I may…" Interrupted Butterscotch Butler.
They both looked at her confused.
"Do you know something about this?" Gumball asked. BB looked smugly back at the Prince.
"As a matter of fact, I do!" She replied, reveling at the attention she had drawn onto herself.
"Well…?" Cake asked impatiently.
"I happened to have just made a very special promise with the Vampire King recently." BB enticed.
"How long ago? What promise? Where is he?" PG asked, bombarding her with questions. BB shook her finger at them.
"I can't tell you. I made a promise."
"A 'royal' promise?!" Cried Gumball.
Butterscotch Butler chuckled.
"Dear no, it was a blood pact. But I can't tell you the details straight out. You're going to have to beat me in the most ancient art to know more."
"Kunai throwing? Breakdancing? Bake-off?" Guess Cake.
"Charades." BB replied.
"He went to pick up milk…?" Cake guessed as BB made motions that Cake thought looked like milking a cow. BB shook their head, rolling their eyes in frustration, then they opened their mouth holding a fist to their mouth. Cake gasped, afraid to voice what she was thinking. Gumball, reading the potty thoughts of Cake, smacked her on the shoulder.
"She's singing into a microphone, pervert!" He teased. BB nodded fiercely.
"So he's gone to play a show?" Cake guessed. BB shook their hand in an 'almost' fashion, then pretended to punch an invisible enemy.
"A battle of the bands?!" PG guessed again. BB nodded again. Cake crossed her arms in frustration, it was the second time that PG had guessed the correct answer before her. BB held up two fingers, suggesting that this was the second clue of the charade. Cake leaned forward, determined to guess the last clue.
BB pointed down, then flared up their arms in the air, and then dramatically fell to the ground, clutching their chest.
Cake and PG stared at each other in question.
"He… ate something spicy and died?" Cake dared ask.
"Oh my Glob, is he in some kind of trouble?" PG asked in alarm. BB shook their head and held out their arms reassuringly. Then, pretended to tie a noose around their neck and pull the rope, sticking their tongue out and crossing their eyes.
"He's killed himself? Oh my Glob!" Cake cried. PG and Cake were both now seriously concerned and BB smacked her head with her little hand. They tried again, this time pretending to gallop like a horse.
"Beating a dead horse?" PG guessed wisely. BB walked around like a cowboy, and for some reason, Cake knew exactly who they were impersonating.
"It's Death!" She cried. BB nodded and clapped, waiting for them to put the pieces together.
"He went to challenge Death to a Battle of the Bands?" PG concluded in question. "But why?"
BB shrugged. There was only a handful of reasons anyone challenged Death to a Battle of the Bands, and all of those reasons usually had to do with Dark Magic, or righting some nefarious mistake.
PG and Cake looked at each other in question. What could Death have to offer that was such an interest to Marshall?
"Did he seem, you know, scronked in the dome when you made this blood pact?" PG asked.
"He seemed… determined. Like serious about something. I don't know. Anyways, I do offer entrance into the Land of the Dead for a fair price, if you're interested." She said winking. "I accept credit, debit, and shiny bribes."
"BB, you gotta give us more information than that! What's going on with Marshall?" PG demanded. BB ran her fingers across her lips in a motion that said 'my lips are sealed', then she held out her hand, implying that bribery might unseal them.
PG scoffed, and shuffled into his pocket for his wallet. Cake pretended to search for hers as well.
"Oh, PG, are you sure you're going to pay?" She said in mocked concern.
"Yes, of course, Cake. No worries." He said, pulling out a pink credit card. With relief of having done her social nicety of offering to pay, Cake sighed.
"Just as well, I left my wallet at home." She confessed. PG gave her a scolding glance, before trying to hand the card to BB.
"Swipe only, please. I don't take chip." She said, turning around and lifting her skirt to reveal her little butt crack. PG winced in disgust and quickly swiped his card between her cheeks. BB blushed, giggling at PG's reaction.
"Marshall said something about bargaining with his immortality. That's really all I know. Now, I do offer those trips to the Land of the Dead if you're interested… 20% off for the next ten minutes!"
PG swiped again, taking BB off guard.
"Okey doke!" BB exclaimed, taking on a sinister air. "One way trip to Land of the Dead, coming right up!" She before a scythe materialized itself in her little candy arms.
"What do you mean one w-" Cake began to question, but it was too late. BB sliced them both and they were sucked into a portal on their way to the underworld.