Chapter 8

She couldn't see anything but black, nor could she feel the anything but the cold pavement beneath where she sat. She had felt like she had no energy left. She couldn't fly, she couldn't morph. She couldn't do anything besides sit. It's almost as if…

… as if the abilities had been taken away.

Great. She was defenseless. And she had been knocked out for a while. But… Finn didn't drain her of her power. Then who else did?

She searched the cell with her fingers… She already knew that the concrete was different. The dripping sound that she could hear was in a different place, and the smell of iron from dried blood was now present. This was not the Candy Kingdom.

No… It was beginning to come back to her. A man in white. He had a blonde beard with a thick head of hair. He broke through the cell with ease and raised a hand, blinding her. Now, she was here in a different place.

Finn… that boy never thinks anything through.

She remembered then… something woke her up. The slamming of the cell doors! She crawled forward until she felt something warm under her fingers. A body. She was touching skin attached to muscle. She turned him over checked his nose. He's alive.

"Hey," she said as she shook him. "Hey, you awake?"

He coughed. "Agh!"

"Good," she said. "Did they hurt you?"

He opened his eyes, but saw nothing. He only heard her voice, and that was enough. "Where… am I?"

"You're guess is as good as mine, buddy," she said. "But it's not anywhere good."

"No shit," he said with a chuckle/cough. Then he just laid there in silence for a while.

"My name is Marceline," she said.

"Breaking the silence?" he said again. "My name is Jayden."

"Where are you from Jayden?"

He shrugged and kept a hand on his stomach scar, rubbing it. "I am from a lot of places. California… a Navajo Indian Reservation, and just recently, the Land of the Dead."

"What were you doing there?"

"I was dead."

"I know, smartbutt," she rolled her eyes. "What I meant was 'how did you get back?'"

He scratched his scar now. "I don't remember."

Figures, Marceline thought.

"Tell me more about you, Marceline."

She shrugged. "A thousand years old, lived through the apocalypse, married to a queen, in love with a god. That about sums me up."

He chuckled. "Oh. You're one of those people."

"Those people?" Marceline didn't know if she should take offence to his comment. Was it about being married to a queen?

"You know… bible-thumpers."

Her jaw dropped, and he could sense it even in the darkness. "Excuse me!? I don't 'thump bibles'."

"You just admitted to being in love with God."

"A god. Not God. There's a difference."

"And what's that?"

"This one is not omnipotent. It just exists."

"God's don't exist," Jayden said. "God's have so much power to do good, but they choose to ignore. I can't place any firm belief on a god who does malice, and since I can't see them, they don't exist. Tyrants exist. Not gods."

"How could you say that when you're here?" Marceline replied. "You're alive, dude."

"Phenomenon." He said. "Maybe someone found a way to revive me through some scientific shit."

"A thousand years after you died?"

He paused. This girl has to be nuts, he thought. "What are you talking about?"

"That place hasn't been called 'California' for a while. If you remember the cities, then you existed pre-Mushroom War, and therefore, you have been dead for more than a thousand years. To add on to that, you remember Navajo Reservations. You're older than me, dude."

He looked up at her in shock. So many questions. But what to ask!? "How the hell are you a thousand years old!?" Nice one.

"I'm a vampire," she said dully.

"Like… blood sucking vampire?" He asked reluctantly. "Like predator first?"

She only laughed in reply, which didn't make Jayden more comfortable. But he wasn't uncomfortable with the idea as much as others would. He remembered the horrors of what had happened to him. Monsters, like vampires, weren't so bad. He had seen monsters in human bodies.

"Are you afraid?" She asked.

"Not really," he said. "You've been stuck in a cell for quite some time it seems. You would be hungry by now."

Marceline's stomach growled.

"It seems you still are," he continued. "Also, your mouth is dry. If you really wanted my blood, you would have it… but you can't."

Marceline was surprised at how observant he was. He didn't even see what she looked like, and yet he can deduce so much about her. "I gotta admit, Jayden. That's pretty cool."

"How the heck do you un-vampire yourself?" Jayden asked. "Isn't it one of those you-can't-go-back things?"

"Well," Marceline replied. "Bonnie made a machine a while ago that draws the vampire essence from within. For the longest time, that was the only way to do it… until Pendleton…"

Jayden didn't need any extra information to know that he was the man with the blonde beard.

"I lost all of my powers," Marceline continued and her voice became shy and quiet. "I gained my powers from sucking souls of other vampires after I killed them. Now, I don't have those powers anymore. I am as useless as ever."

"You suck souls?"

"I'm a demon from birth."

"Oh…" He said and paused for a moment. "You're not useless."

She looked over at him. "Hm?"

"Think about it," he said. "You're a demon. You kill vampires. You had no powers before you started killing them. Marceline, you lived through an entire apocalypse on your own. You've seen horrors that people I knew wouldn't have ever fathomed. Many would have killed themselves. But you survived. And you hunt vampires! Something people are afraid of! Are you even listening to yourself?!"

A few people ran through Marceline's mind as he spoke. She didn't live through the apocalypse alone. Not completely anyway. She did kill many vampires, and people were afraid of them. People like Jake.

She didn't even know if Jake was alive anymore. Or Bonnie.

But Jayden was right.

"Thanks dude," she said. "You're pretty cool."

"That's right," he said with a smirk.

As he continued to feel his scars, some of which faded away with the help of Running Coyote, he felt a lump in his shoulder, by his shoulder scar. This scar was cause when Gunsling shot him in the shoulder and Joanna had to remove it. He was awake, but it didn't bother him. He still couldn't feel pain, but he knew he was weak. And now, he found his escape. It's been sitting there for a while. How bad would it taste, he wondered. Now if only he had a sharp object…

The door slammed open, startling both of them. A figure came in and reached for Marceline. "Get away!" She yelled. "I'll kill you!"

Jayden swept his foot to kick him in the shin, but it was too slow. The figure lifted his foot and kicked Jayden in the face before punching him in the jaw hard. Jayden didn't even groan, but he relaxed. Blood dripped from his lips.

The figure returned his attention to Marceline. Then he reached for her arm and grabbed it. She tried to pull away but was met with a slap. "King Pendleton wants you. The more you struggle, the worse he'll be."

"No!" She yelled before looking at Jayden through the darkness. "Jayden! Help!"

Jayden didn't move. He was out cold.

"Jayden! Jayden help!"

The cell door shut before Jayden sat up. "Marceline!"

Another door opened. This time with light shining through. It was a well lit hallway.

"JAY-"

The door cut her off.

Jayden, in a panic, felt around the walls. His feet wobbled with each step as he walked. No pain, but he could feel the weakness. He came across something that was colder than the floor. He knocked on it. Porcelain with knobs. A sink. Good. He felt above the sink and felt something cold and fragile. He knocked on it and it was the same sound as knocking on the window.

Good. A mirror. Close enough.

With the last bit of strength, he slammed the mirror with his fist. Warm blood fell from his knuckles but he didn't feel the pain at all. Then he pulled the largest shard from the mirror and held onto it. They wouldn't do anything to these freaks.

And that's just fine.

With his left hand, he slashed the lump by the scar on his shoulder. Blood oozed out as he dug silently. Then, into his hand, popped a pill.

He smirked. The pill should take effect instantly. Thanks Chi.

Jayden then sat there for the next hour or so. His eyes began to adjust to the darkness. He could almost see the bars now. The whole time, he had thought about Running Coyote. He wondered if she was alive too. If he came back to life, so could she right?

"Are you here, Ko?"

Her nickname, Ko, was the Navajo word for fire. Signified by her fire red hair.

"Are you alive?"

The gates slammed open, and Jayden saw Marceline thrown in. He could see through the darkness, her pale skin revealed through her torn and battered clothing. She was cut. She was crying.

"Bastard!" He ran to her and held her, his blood staining her clothes. "Marceline. Hey."

"Jayden..." She said through tears, barely having the words to acknowledge his wounds.

"It's alright." He said as he hugged her. "We'll get out of this..."

"He made me call his name, Jayden... While he raped me... He made me call his name... Finn..."

Finn. Somehow Jayden knew that name.

"Shhh," he whispered. "We'll make those fuckers pay..." He held his new friend in his bloody arms tighter. "I swear we'll make them pay!"

A/N: sorry it's been so long!