Chapter 12
Marceline awoke with a jolt and instinctively snarled as she sprang up off the floor. Her keen eyes snapped from left to right as she quickly took in her surroundings. It was immediately clear to her that she was no longer in the holding room with her slumbering friends. She was now in a very small and cramped room with a very low ceiling.
The walls were only at least six feet high, and the room was easily only twelve feet in length. There was a metal door on opposite end of the room. The door was locked with a turn dial lock. Lines of random numbers were scrawled across the walls and ceiling in red paint. Standing in the very center of the room was a tall object that was covered in a heavy tarp. It looked like a statue, but Marcy couldn't be certain. She had no interest in uncovering the object. She had more pressing matters at hand; like the fact that she still had the cursed collar locked firmly around her neck.
"How the flip did I get here?!" Marceline roared angrily as she flashed her fangs.
A sharp, stabbing pain suddenly shot through Marcy's mouth. She hissed and clamped her hand over her mouth.
"Ow, my mouth." She growled as the pain slowly faded. "What's wrong with my mouth?"
Marceline ran her tongue over her fangs, inciting another flash of pain to course through her mouth. Her fangs, they felt almost as if they were broken.
"My fangs, what did you do to my fangs?!" Marceline shouted angrily.
After receiving no answer from her captor, Marceline scanned the room for anything that might be of any use. Her veins ran cold as her eyes fell upon a tape recorder hanging from a wire in front of the tarp covered object. She knew immediately that the tape player was the trigger to whatever insane trap she had been placed in.
"Oh, this is so not gonna end well." Marceline groaned as she reached for the tape player.
Knowing that there was no avoiding whatever she was about to set off, Marceline hastily yanked the tape player off of the wire. With an audible clink of metal, the tape player was released from the wire.
Marceline flinched as the wire retracted back into the ceiling with a soft whirring sound that was followed by the subtle thudding of gears slowly beginning to turn. Whatever was in store for her, Marceline had just triggered it.
Marceline looked at the tape player with a frown and held it up to her ear. With a click, the tape player crackled to life and a familiar voice seeped from its tiny speakers.
"Hello Marceline. Welcome to your second test. Throughout your long life, you have made many acquaintances. Some you grew to call your friends. But immortality, as we both know, has a price. And that price is the knowledge that you will outlive all of your friends."
Marceline felt a pang of sadness ripple through her chest. The knowledge that she would outlive her friends was an ever-present dread. Usually, Marceline would keep that dread pushed far back into her mind and refused to think about it. It never got rid the horrible truth, but it made it somewhat more manageable. But the fear of knowing that her friends' days were numbered always managed to worm its way back into the front of her mind.
She would outlive Finn. She would outlive Jake. She would even outlive Princess Bubblegum.
"With this knowledge, you have hardened yourself to the world around you. You let people in, but never let them get too close. You push people away out of fear. Not out of the fear of hurting them, but out of the fear that they will hurt you. You put on a façade of carefree happiness. But your fear has locked you in a prison of your own making, much like the room you are locked in right now. Do you see the numbers scrawled across the room? The combination to the lock could be anywhere in this room. All you have to do is find it."
Marceline smirked smugly.
"That's all I have to do?" she asked, unimpressed. Marceline's heightened sense of hearing would make finding the combination to the lock a walked in the park. "What's the catch?"
As if to answer her question, the tarp that concealed the statue suddenly caught fire. With a flash, the tarp quickly burnt to ashes to reveal what it had kept hidden. Standing tall in the center of the room was a massive stone crucifix.
Marceline let out a frightened snarl and threw herself back against the wall at the sight of the ancient relic. She curled herself up into a ball and tried to hide her face. For a vampire, being in the presence of such a holy relic was akin to a human walking into a mushroom cloud and being able to feel ever single cell in their body slowly die.
The effects of the relic were compounded by her demonic heritage. She could feel the relic steadily draining her energy. She forced her eyes back upon the relic and noticed the timer attached to the deity's chest. The timer showed that she had two hours.
"T-that's the catch." She hissed bitterly as she tried to pull herself off of the floor.
With a trembling hand, Marceline held the tape player back up to her ear.
"As you can see, time is not on your side. Once the timer runs out, the door will be permanently sealed shut. Only when you break the prison walls in your heart, will you be able to free yourself and live the life you have been given. But in order to do that, you must first free yourself from the prison that you now stand in. The clock is ticking, Marceline."
The timer on the crucifix suddenly began to count down. Marceline's game had just begun.
"Live or die. Make your choice."
Marceline quickly flew over to the lock and dialed in a set of numbers.
"No luck." She spat bitterly.
She quickly flew up towards the ceiling and picked out another set of numbers. Again, she rushed back to the lock and dialed in the numbers.
"Flip!" she cursed angrily. "The combination has to be somewhere in this room!"
As the minutes began to slip by, Marceline began to feel weaker and weaker as the crucifix began to weigh down on her. Her frustration and dread only grew after several attempts to enter the combination proved fruitless.
There were so many numbers, and anyone of them could have been the combination. It was like trying to find a piece of hay in a stack of needles.
"Come on, please work." She begged as she dialed in another set of numbers.
Again, her efforts were fruitless. Marceline snarled and slammed her fist against the door.
"Which one is it?!" She screamed angrily, clenching her head with her hands in frustration.
A thick lock of hair suddenly fell before Marceline's face. Confused, she looked down at her hands. Stands of her black hair were woven between her fingers.
"Great…now my hair is falling out." She said with an empty tone.
The damaging effects of the crucifix were becoming more apparent now, and Marceline knew that it was only going to get worse the longer she stayed.
Minute after minute and combination after combination, Marceline was feeling the greater effects of the holy relic. Her vision was becoming blurry and her skin felt like it was burning. Marceline uneasily dialed in another possible combination, only for it to do nothing.
"Why isn't this working?" she whimpered as she flew across the room to the opposite wall. While desperately scanning the wall of numbers, Marceline felt her stomach lurch. She gagged and emptied her stomach on the floor. With her strength failing her, Marceline lowered herself to the floor.
"This is bad." She whimpered as she looked down at her weakening body.
With her body dying, her mind was now slowly beginning to slip. Between her thoughts, she could hear dark whispers in demonic tongues.
Feed. You need to feed. You need blood.
Marceline shook her head and covered her ears.
"Shut up." She sobbed. "Just shut up."
She opened her eyes and scanned the room. There were still so many numbers left, and anyone of them could be the combination. Her eyes fell upon the timer. It showed that she only had forty minutes left. Her dread filled eyes lingered on the crucifix, taking in the features of the deity that was nailed to it.
"What do you want from me?" she whimpered weakly. "Why are you hurting me?"
The statue of the deity remained silent, its eyes remained looking pleadingly up towards the ceiling. Marceline's eyes followed the deity's eyes and spotted something that she hadn't notices. Resting on top of the crucifix was something shimmering.
Gathering her strength, Marceline steadily forced herself to get closer towards the relic. Her skin burned and her insides writhed like angry snakes as she hovered a single foot away from the relic. With a snarl, Marceline reached out and snatched the shimmering object before hastily retreating to the corner of the room.
The shimmering object turned out to be a pair of pliers.
"Clever…very clever." Marceline hissed softy.
Jigsaw had set up the room knowing that she would actively avoid looking at the crucifix. Placing the pliers on top of it was the same as hiding it in plain sight.
A sudden wave of pain tore through Marceline mouth. Running her tongue across her fangs, Marceline felt small etchings in them. Her mind went back to what Jigsaw had told her.
"The combination to the lock could be anywhere in this room."
An idea suddenly formed.
"He said the combination was somewhere in this room." Marceline stated to herself. "He never said that the combination was on the walls, just that it was somewhere in the room."
Marceline ran her tongue over her fangs again to confirm her suspicion.
"I'm in the room." Marceline stated bluntly. "My fangs are in me. So…by that stupid logic, my fangs are in the room."
The pieces were all falling into place.
Marceline shook her head and looked down at the pliers in her hand.
"The combination is on my fangs." She stated shakily. "My fangs gotta come out…"
Marceline gripped the pliers tightly in her hands. She was so not looking forward to what she was about to do, but there was no avoiding it. She opened her mouth and extended her fangs. With shaking hands, she brought the pliers up to her mouth. She flinched as she felt the metal touch her fangs.
On three! She said to herself as she readied herself. One. Two. Three!
Marceline clamped down on her right fang with the pliers and began to pull. White hot pain ripped through her body as her fang broke away from her gums.
For a vampire, pulling out a fang was like pulling off an arm. With another tug, the root of the fang snapped.
Marceline shrieked in an unearthly manner and fell to her knees. Black ichor ran down her mouth and dripped onto the floor. Without hesitation, Marceline clamped the pliers over her remaining fang.
She screamed and pulled as hard as she could against the fang. With a sickening pop and snap, she ripped her fang out of her mouth.
Agonized, Marceline uneasily flew over towards the locked door. She looked down at her fangs and saw numbers scrimshawed into them.
"Nine, three, eighteen." She said aloud.
Marceline carefully dialed the numbers into the lock, pleading that they were correct. After dialing in the last digit of the combination, Marceline was greeted by a loud thud followed by the turning of gears. With a hiss, the door slid open, filling the room with a blinding light.
A rush of joy tore through her body as Marceline scrambled out the door and into the light.
She had done it again!
She had survived!
Marceline's weakened body fell to the floor with a loud smack. Her ears were ringing and her vision was clouded. Her mouth felt as though she was being jabbed with a hot iron. She knew that her fangs would grow back quickly, but her mind was elsewhere.
Her mind was stuck in a primal mode of survival. She needed to heal. She needed to feed. She needed blood.
A familiar metallic scent wafted into her nose. It was the smell of blood. She began to sniff madly for it, crawling on the floor like a beast. She stopped and licked up a few droplets off the floor. She followed the droplet trail, licking up any that she came across.
So sweet! Marceline thought madly as she desperately licked the floor. I need more!
She felt a sudden stabbing pain as her new fangs burst out from her gums. She snarled stretched her jaws.
"Marcy?"
Marceline's head snapped towards the source of the voice. Her eyesight was still clouded and her mind was still muddled. She sniffed the air and growled hungrily.
She had found her next meal.
Finn slowly backed away as Marceline crawled closer with a mad, hungry look in her eyes.
"Marcy, it's me, Finn. Your friend, remember?" he asked as he took a cautious step backwards.
His voice fell on deaf ears as the mad vampire queen continued to creep closer, like a hungry wolf corning its prey.
"Marcy…don't do anything nuts." Finn begged as he pressed himself against the wall.
He had nowhere to run or hide, just where the starved vampire wanted him.
Marceline let out a bone shaking shriek before lunging at Finn. Finn yelled and raised his robotic arm. With a loud clang, Marceline's jaws snapped tightly over Finn's metal arm. She thrashed and struggled fiercely as Finn tried to push her back with his other arm.
"Marcy, you gotta snap out of it!" Finn shouted as he struggled to keep Marceline at bay.
Marceline snarled and pinned Finn's arms to the floor. She licked her drawling maw and growled.
"Marcy, it's me, Finn!" he screamed desperately. "Your jam-buddy!"
Finn's heart sank as his words did nothing. Marceline opened her jaws and reared back like a snake about to strike.
"Please, Marcy…" Finn whimpered as he shut his eyes tightly.
Marceline hissed and snapped towards Finn's neck. But before her jaws could reach him, a metallic arm snapped tightly around Marceline's neck. With a startled yelp, Marceline was pulled off of Finn and thrown to the floor. Finn looked up to see one of the pig masked goons standing between him and the crazed Marceline.
The masked figure looked back to Finn before returning their attention to Marceline. Finn recognized the figure. They were the one that stapled his wounds shut. Why were they there? Where they saving him?
Marceline sprang off the floor and faced the attacker. The masked figure's metallic arm clicked and whirred as they flexed their fingers in a challenging manner. Marceline shrieked and leaped forward with her claws and fangs bared. Despite her faster movements, the masked figure managed to side step the attack and punch Marceline hard in the stomach. Marceline gagged and fell to her knees. The figure grabbed her by her hair and held her up off the floor. From within their robe, they withdrew a blood bag.
The masked figure jammed the blood bag into Marceline's mouth and held it firmly in place. With a loud pop, the blood bag began to drain into Marceline's mouth.
As the blood ran out of the bag and into Marceline's stomach, her clouded mind began to clear. She blinked as her vision returned to her and the ringing in her ears faded. Her eyes darted from Finn, to the pig masked figure, to the blood bag. Once the blood bag was empty, the figure let go of her hair and let her drop to the floor.
"Marcy!" Finn exclaimed as he rushed over to her huddled form.
The masked figure shook their head in disappointment. A door out of the room slid open, their work was done for now. Without another word, the figure turned and exited the room.
Finn carefully held Marceline's head off of the floor and gently shook her.
"Marcy, talk to me!"
Marceline suddenly pushed Finn away and covered her face.
"Stay away from me Finn!" she shouted as tears rolled down her cheeks.
Taken aback, Finn slowly inched closer towards Marceline.
"You can't get rid of your jam-buddy that easily, Marcy." Finn stated firmly.
"Finn, I just tried to kill you and drink your blood!" Marceline shouted angrily. "Take the hint, and get away while you can!"
"I'm not gonna leave you, Marcy." Finn stated firmly as he took her hand in his. "What kind of friend would that make me?"
"A smart one." Marceline muttered bitterly.
"Good thing I'm not smart." Finn responded with a smile.
Marceline couldn't help but smile. Even in this kind of mathed up situation, Finn still went out of his way to cheer up his friends.
"You're a punk, you know that?" Marceline asked as she smiled sadly with tears swelling in her eyes.
"I learned from the best." Finn said with a smile.
Finn opened his arms up to Marceline. She closed her eyes and hugged the young adventurer. Marceline erupted into a fit of sobbing as Finn held her.
Everyone had a breaking point, and Marceline had reached hers that day. All the pain, the guilt, it all came pouring out of her.
"I'm so sorry Finn!" she cried loudly. "I'm so, so, sorry! Please don't hate me!"
"Marcy, I could never hate you." Finn said calmly. "So, you got hungry and a little grumpy, big deal. You should Jake before he eats breakfast. He's way scarier than you."
Marceline whimpered and rubbed her eyes. In that moment, she realized that the purpose of her last test wasn't to break her body, it was to break her mind. Jigsaw had pushed her so close to the edge. But Finn was there to pull her back.
"Ow, watch my back, Marcy." Finn stated with a wince.
Marceline looked down and saw all of the wounds that covered Finn's back. She could see on his arms where he had treated his wounds, but figured that he couldn't reach the gashes on his back.
"Turn around and hold still." Marceline instructed. "We gotta do something about those wounds on your back. Bonnie would never let me hear the end of it if you got an infection on my watch."
Finn complied and turned his back towards Marceline. He flinched as he felt her left up the tattered remains of his shirt.
Marceline couldn't believe how many cuts and gashes Finn had on his back. It was like he had gone toe to toe with a weed-whacker. For him not to be in a crippling amount of pain was impressive. Several of the deeper gashes were still bleeding. She licked her lips nervously. She couldn't believe what she was about to do.
"This might sting a bit." She warned.
Finn gasped as he felt Marceline's tongue gently run up his back.
"Marcy, w-what are you doing?" he stammered.
Marceline's tongue coiled back into her mouth as she looked up at him.
"I'm coating your wounds with an enzyme that stops blood flow." She explained she stuck the tip of her tongue up at him. "Stop being a baby and let me finish."
Finn swallowed the lump in his throat and turned back around. He wasn't about to argue with Marceline about enzymes or whatever. As long as his wounds got treated, he was happy. Finn shuttered as Marceline ran her tongue across his open wounds. The enzyme stung his back, but left it feeling numb. Not pleasantly numb, but numb.
Marceline shuttered as she licked Finns wounds. His blood was so sweet, and pungent. She felt ashamed for what she was doing. But Finn's wounds needed to be treated before he got an infection. As she licked Finn's back clean, Marceline couldn't help but notice how muscular his back was. Finn wasn't obviously muscular, but he was toned. The young adventurer had grown up so much since she had met him.
He wasn't the little kid that he was when they first met. Before she knew it, he would be man with all the princess across Ooo pining after him. A dreadful though flashed into her mind. Before she knew it, Finn would be old and frail. Then, he would be dead and gone forever.
Marceline shook that image out of her head as fast as she could.
I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. She told herself. Right now, Finn needs my help.
With one final lick, Finn's back was cleaned and his wounds treated. Marceline sighed and placed a gentle kiss on the back of Finn's neck before resting her head against him.
"Uhhh…Marcy, are you okay?" Finn asked, caught off guard by the kiss.
Finn got his answer from a loud snore that Marceline let out. She was so exhausted that she had passed out.
"Sleep tight, Marcy." Finn said with a smile. "I'll keep you safe."
The figure smiled as they looked over the observation cameras. They had seen everything the vampire queen had been through. They ran their finger along the tip of their pig mask's tusk. The hiss of the door opening met their keen ears and brought a smile to their face. The familiar form of the metal armed figure walked through the opened door.
"Are you hurt?" the tusked figure asked with a calm velvety voice.
"You know the answer to that already." The metal armed figure responded curtly. "So why ask?"
The tusked figure smiled and chuckled softly.
"Old habits die hard, love." They stated as they turned from the observation screen. "Vampires can be very unpredictable when starved and beaten."
"You would know, wouldn't you?" the metal armed figure retorted, inciting another chuckle from the tusked figure.
"Anyway, are we going to make the jump soon?" the tusked figure asked.
"Within the next few minutes." The metal armed figure answered.
"Oh, good." The tusked figure chuckled happily. "That will make finding us even more challenging."
"Just be ready. Jigsaw doesn't except failure."
With that, the metal armed figure exited the room, leaving the tusked figure in the dark. They smiled and propped their feet up onto the desk and withdrew a red acoustic guitar. They began to gently strum the guitar as they watched over the security cameras.
"These games are proving to be much more interesting than I had hoped."
A low rumble reverberated out from the cloud of black smog as it moved across Ooo. Ancient machinery began to churn and move as forgotten magics began to ripple through the air.
Orange and red sparks of lightning began to erupt out of the cloud. The terrible sound of massive saw blades split through the air as spirals of energy began to tear into the space before them.
With a deafening boom that could be heard for miles, the ancient infernal machine vanished in a blinding flash of light.
For those with a sweet tooth, you'll love the next chapter.
