Chapter 4 Till Death Do Us Part
After his failed attempt at a good first impression with Marceline, Eli made his way over to Finn.
"So Finn, how much can you tell me about Marceline?" Finn scratched his head in thought.
"Marceline is a radical dame who loves to play games. You probably heard her when she said she was the Queen of Vampires, and I also know that she's not looking for a relationship right now." Eli tilted his head back and let out a small laugh.
"Well I'm sure I can change that in good time."
Finn looked out the window and saw the sun peeking over the mountains of the Ice kingdom. His mind wandered to the dream he had just moments ago. About the creature that attacked him and the voice that saved him.
"Hey Finn." Michal's voice put Finn's head back on his shoulders. He turned his head toward the Captain. "Would you mind if I ask you a question?"
"Sure but I would wait 'til…" A girlish scream came from upstairs and everyone looked up at the ceiling. "…Oh, Jake's up." Finn said amusingly. Jake came running down the stairs, tripping on the last step. Marceline followed behind the dog, laughing.
"It's just too easy and too fun to scare you Jake." She stopped laughing when she saw a beam of sunlight hit the wall. "I'll be in the attic if you guys need me." After she said that, Marceline gave Eli the evil expression she was known too well for and hovered back upstairs. Eli's eyebrows were raised, 'play games huh' he thought to himself. Jake got up when was sure that the vampire monarch was gone.
"Vampires still kinda' creep me out." Michal and Eli faces gave yet another surprised look.
"Cool, a talking dog." Eli blurted out.
"Why would you say that, your dad completely flipped out when he saw Cinnamon Bun."
Eli smiled and said, "Most of my childhood was based around talking dogs like, Scooby Doo."
Desperate to change the subject to something else Finn went back to the Captain. "So Michal, what was that question you had?" Michal stood up from the couch.
"This is probably a dumb question, but do you have any coffee?" Jake walked past Michal towards the kitchen.
"We got all kinds of flavors, so whatya' want." Michal was dumbfounded as he watched the dog stretch his body from where he stood across the room on his hind legs.
"Anything but decaff." He said walking behind Jake.
Finn had waited for his brother to be out of earshot before asking Eli something. "I told you about Marceline, now can you tell me about Anna?" Eli sucked air in through his teeth.
"I would, but that would break the pact that me and my sister made."
"Pact?"
"Yeah, me and Anna both agreed a long time ago that if one sibling found a 'person of interest' the other will not say or do anything to ruin their chances with said 'person of interest' and vice versa." Finn looked at Eli with confusion.
"Uh okay then, tell me what Ooo was like before the Mushroom war?"
"Well first of all…" he went to sit where his father was on the couch. "This place was called Earth not Ooo. Home of almost eight billion humans." Eli told Finn everything about the world he once knew. His eyebrows rising every now and then.
Michal and Jake reentered the room after several minutes with cups of coffee in hand by the time Eli had finished telling Finn about social media. Jake sat next to Eli on the couch while Michal just stood.
"Hey Dad, why don't tell Finn about the marines." Finn put his hand on Eli's shoulder.
"Actually, I'd like to know two things. One, what did you do to the Ice King?" A halfhearted smile crept on to the Captains face.
"I might have broken his arms a bit." Michal brought the cup to his lips and lightly took a sip.
"And that leads to my next question, why are you so protective of Anna?" Michal lowered the coffee cup and a look of sorrow fell on to his face.
"Do you really want to know?" Finn nodded as Michal took a leather wallet out of his pocket, he unfolded it and handed the wallet to the young adventurer. Inside the wallet was a small picture of Michal, who had his arm wrapped around what looked like an older version of Anna. "Her name was Lindsey, she was and still is the love of my life."
"She's beautiful."
"I know, I was married to her for four years before she died." Finn looked up from the wallet.
"Oh I'm sorry, how-how did she die?" Michal sighed as he forced up his next words.
"A drunk driver hit her when she was driving home. Anna was actually in the car with her when it happened." Finn had no idea what a car was, but he kept listening anyway. "By the time the police had arrived, Lindsey had already bled to death and the driver was long gone. Two days later they arrested him in an office that he worked in and told him what he had done. The very next day, he killed himself."
"What!" Finn said sounding surprised. "The police guessed that the thought that he killed a mother of a girl not a year old was just too much grief. But that bastard was lucky I was overseas at the time." Finn returned the wallet to the Captain.
"I'm a little scared to ask why he was lucky." Eli answered before his father could. "Because my dad would have hunted him down like an animal, and make suicide look like a cake walk."
The steady flapping of wings could be heard from outside. Finn opened the door to see Princess Bubblegum and Anna on top of the princess' giant swan. As the bird landed, Finn greeted them both. Anna jumped off the swan and made her way toward the tree fort.
"After one night with her I could tell she would the most fun here, plus I got a ton of royal junk to do." As the princess and her swan took off into the sky Eli came up behind Finn and asked.
"How many giant birds does she have?"
Anna looked around the home of Finn and Jake looking a little bothered but only Michal noticed it.
"Is something wrong, Anna?" She forced a smiled at her father.
"Yeah, it's just that this whole thing is still a little weird." Eli walked past Anna and stood in the doorway of the kitchen.
"Well look on the bright side, sis." Anna crossed her arms.
"What exactly would the bright side be?" Eli stood in a position like he was ready to run.
"You and Finn get to repopulate the earth." Both Finn's and Anna's faces turned bright red, Anna with more anger than embarrassment. Eli's comment made Anna mad enough to grab the closest thing she could, which just happen to be Jake, and hurled it at her brother. Eli easily dodged the screaming dog and ran, proud of what he had just done. Once some of the blush had escaped Anna's face she turned to Finn.
"You'll have to excuse my brother, he's kind of an idiot."
"No it's fine." Finn walked over to his brother who was holding his head in pain. "He's not as bad as Marceline." Finn knelt down and whispered in his ear. "Because I got a lot on my mind right now, I'm going to count that as your ass kicking, okay." Jake nodded and hoped Finn would keep his word.
(Yeah I know this chapter was short, but I've got writer's block at the moment. And if anyone wants to hold their breath for chapter 5, don't. I'm going to be gone for over a month in the mountains.
