It was dark. So dark that the air felt thick with it.
"Hello?" Fionna called. What had happened? The last thing she remembered was… blowing her crumpets and then she was dropped down to the floor of the cave. Why did Marshall fly away without her? He must have been super grossed out by her. Fionna held herself in her arms. She was supposed to keep her eyes shut, she remembered, but it was so dark she couldn't even tell if they were closed or not. She reached her hands up to her face to feel for them and screamed into the echoless cavern.
Her eyes were gone.
Panic set through her. Sending shivers of heat and ice through her veins. Where was Marshall Lee? What direction had he gone? Tentatively she took a step.
"I'm right here, Fionna." Came Marshall's voice from behind her. She turned to see the strange shapes form themselves in the darkness, and Marshall was created before her. It was the Monster Marshall, but she couldn't shut her eyes.
"Go away!" She screamed at it.
"Fionna, its me. Let's get out of this cave together. Let's hold hands." Monster Marshall held out his hand to her and she saw its intentions through the hollowness of its eyes.
"No!" She cried, taking off running in the opposite direction.
"Fionna!" Called another voice. An empty eyed Cake appeared in the distance. "Fionna, come baby let's go home. This place is giving me the creeps!"
Fionna skirted to a stop, breathing in the heavy air.
"Why are you running?" Came Marshall's voice from right behind her. Softly she felt hands grab her sides, and the Cake impersonation made its way forward.
"Hunny, we're just trying to help." It implored.
"After all, you're one of us now…" Whispered the Monster Marshall. Fionna's hands went back to her face as she felt the spaces where her eyes should be. It was strange, needing to cry but having no eyes.
"No… I'm a human…"
"You're dead." Said Marshall, and suddenly, the Monster's hand thrust itself through Fionna's guts and out the other side.
"Agh!" She screamed. It was extremely painful, but as it subsided, Fionna was left with no injury. She felt her tum to see it completely fixed.
Cake's arms stretched to snake around Fionna.
"Relax, Little Sister. Nothing can actually happen to you…" She soothed. "We could tear you limb from limb, and you would be just fine." Her limbs clenched over Fionna's arms and legs.
"We could devour your insides, over and over only have them fill back up…" Monster Marshall whispered darkly. Fionna felt pressure in her joints as the Monster Cake began to pull the limbs from her body, and Fionna began to scream.
Her eyes flew open, pulse racing. She saw the decorated lollipop door of the candy hospital, and then felt the blankets sticking to her skin. It was… all a dream? A nightmare more like. Thank glob there had been no sign of the Cosmic Owl! Fionna laid back down in the bed and closed her eyes, but the moment she did, the swirls of shapes would come back. Glob, what had happened to her? Then, horribly she heard the whispering 'Go into the water…' in the back of her mind. She held her ears and began to panic.
"Whoa, Fionna. It's alright…" Came Gumball's voice. She felt a hand pat her on the back. "You're safe. Marshall brought you here after you ingested viscous darkness. It made you hallucinate mad crazy, but I felt you would rather ride it out unconsciously than consciously. How are you feeling?" He asked, wasting no time to take her pulse, temperature, and stare into her dilated pupils.
"Still… seeing things. Hearing things…" She said, weakly.
"I see…" He said scribbling things down on his notes. Fionna looked around the room. "He's not here." Gumball said knowingly.
"What- Who's not…"
"Marshall left this morning, although he was very upset and I'm sure he would like to know that you're awake." Gumball wrote a note on a paper and folded it into a paper plane.
"We had a fight…" She said pulling her knees to her chest, and watching PG toss the paper plane into the air. Her stomach still felt really wonky, but the more she focused on the real world, the less she heard the whispering in the back of her mind.
"You look like you could use some hot choc and marshmallows." PG said winking. "Come on, let's get something in your gut, and you can tell me about your crazy hallucinations."
"Oh glob, anything but that…" The thought of reliving it made her sick in the brain. Gumball laughed.
"Alright, well then I'll tell you about how I plan to use freaky hallucinations to boost the critical thinking of the candy folk. You've just upped the IQ of the Candy Kingdom by like 20 points." He pulled her by the arm off of the bed, and they walked slowly out the room. Fionna's legs were all wobbly for some reason, as if they really had been detached and reattached.
It was nearly night time, and PG had a little table set up outside under some string lights to have mid supper snacks on. Gumball chatted to her about his experiments while she stuffed sandwiches in her mouth, her stomach finally settling. It was so nice to be with Prince Gumball, conversation was so easy, mostly because he was the one speaking all the time, but Fionna found him fascinating, so she didn't mind.
When the sun set, he showed her his new invention of farting fireworks and they laughed away the dark memories of the hallucinations Fionna had experienced in the cave.
Marshall watched PG and Fionna from afar, crinkling up the paper airplane that had bonked him in the head earlier that evening. A strange feeling overtook him; jealousy? Guilt? He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it caused him to float towards them with his hands deep in the pockets of his jeans.
"Hey Fionna." He said, "Glad to see you've woken up." She turned around to face him, a drawn-out farting rainbow illuminating the background.
"Marshall!" She said excitedly. Marshall's demeanor relaxed at Fionna's enthusiastic greeting, and he smiled.
"I uh, I'm gonna go get some more fartiworks." PG said, winking knowingly at Marshall. Marshall glowered at Gumball.
"So… how are you feeling?" Marshall said, taking the seat next to Fionna.
"I'm feeling alright." She said shrugging. The ordeal was not fully forgotten.
"Did you… I heard that stuff gives you weird dreams."
"It was awful." She said with a small smile. "But fart sounds help."
"Fionna, I am so sorry." Marshall said, staring at a gumdrop bug on his shoes. "For everything." Fionna placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"It's not your fault that I fell into that cave, Marshall. In fact I wouldn't have gotten out if-" She was suddenly wracked with the memory of her dream and it made her physically recoil. "You actually saved my butt, Marshall, thanks."
"You're welcome…" He said unsure. "But I'm not sorry about that, although I do feel bad that you went through that. The way I acted before… I'm a turd."
"Ah forget it. I was acting… crazy too." She said, playing with a strand of hair. Marshall watched her and his mouth went dry. PG's words rang through his head. He only had so much time with her.
"I uh… Let me make it up to you." He said. "When you're ready."
"I'd like that." Fionna said with a smile. Marshall saw the darkness under her eyes and knew that what she had gone through would not be forgotten so easily, but he wanted to take that pain away.
"Would it be cool… if I kissed you?" He asked tentatively. Fionna looked at him in small surprise.
"Oh…" She said, and took him by surprise, too by saying; "Yes."
But as he leaned towards her, something felt all together not right, so Marshall dodged and kissed her on the cheek.
"Let me know when you want to hang. I owe you a one for a totally bummer night." Marshall said, as he gave her a quaint 'rock on' sign, and floated away home.
Fionna sat back in her chair perplexed. Why had she said yes to being kissed by Marshall, and more importantly, why had she been put out when he hadn't done it?
Flatulent explosions filled the skies, and Fionna occupied her thoughts with Marshall Lee. She knew what she wanted from him now, even if it wasn't much. Fionna wanted a kiss.