A Cold Reception

[VoltTurtle]

A lonely void filled the sky, stretching on to eternity.

Everything was still, except for Marceline. She floated there, in this vast emptiness, taking it all in. The enormity of it, the peacefulness of it.

She didn't know how long she spent, floating there. Seconds? Minutes? Hours? Days? Years?

Either way, she could not say.

Until, suddenly, an interruption. A new shape was on the horizon. Filled with unbidden curiosity about the object invading her perfectly empty space, she began to approach it. She floated at an indeterminable speed, for an indeterminable amount of time, towards this intruder.

Closer and closer, faster and faster, she approached it, only to stop dead in her tracks when she gazed upon its true form.

A river of flesh, a river of bone, a river of blood, stretched out before her, continuing on into the distance. Faces, hair, eyes, teeth, and arms, all combined into one horrific, snaking creature that slowly seemed to flow in one direction. The teeth gnashed, voices screamed and cried, and arms struck out, gouging eyes and tearing skin. Blood dripped down every part of the river, coating it in the evidence of its violence towards itself. Some faces had stopped moving, some arms had stopped flailing. All as the river at large flowed towards its destination.

Marceline gazed upon this disturbing spectacle with confusion. Why was this creature, this river, harming itself? As horrific as its existence may be, there was no reason to do this to itself, no reason to create violence in a world that did not normally have it.

Then, as she gazed up and down the centipede-like abomination, she noticed a large row of human-like teeth interrupting the void, forming what looked to be an open mouth, out of which sprung a desolate oblivion that made even the void look empty by comparison. The river, the fleshy creature, was trailing into this, faces and arms flowing towards it, their very existence disappearing into the maw, dozens of voices snuffed out every minute.

It was at this point that Marceline noticed that she had been slowly getting closer to the fleshy river. Realizing this, she began to float away, to continue her observation, only to see that she was still getting ever closer. Fighting with everything she had, she tried to pull herself away, only for her feet to finally touch the creature, and very suddenly she was violently pulled in.

It didn't take long for her body to melt away, everything becoming just another part of this horrible being. She did not know where her body ended and the rest of this monstrosity began, all she knew is that she could now feel the agony of the entire creature. Every punch, every gouge, every scratch, every tear. She screamed, her face being the only distinct part of her left, and tried to use what remained of her arms to fight, to pull herself free. She grabbed, she pushed, she tore. Feeling the pain of everything she did, she tried and tried to pull herself free, to separate herself from this mass of misery.

Her flesh joined the rest of the river, flowing towards the dark maw, the final destination. Fear overwhelmed her, she did not want to be swallowed, she did not want to be consumed and become one with nothing. She fought ever harder, attacking the faces around her, trying to see if they were the ones keeping her locked in, keeping her from escaping. Maybe if she got rid of them, she might be able to free herself, and avoid this wretched fate.

Try as she might, the maw got ever closer, the teeth opening ever wider as she finally crossed the gap, a scream escaping her lips, only to be suddenly silenced, as she joined the others in the abyss between oblivions.

--

Marceline jarred awake, her breathing heavy, her heart pounding. She clutched her face with one hand, while gently running her fingers through her hair to straighten it.

She had woken up in some kind of house's living room, surrounded by mundane furniture and bleakly colored walls. Dust was clearly visible in the air, floating through a sunbeam coming in from a nearby window. The air smelled musty, and old. Everything was quiet, save for the eternal ringing in her ears, and the sound of her own breathing and heartbeat. Her mouth felt dry, as if she had been denied water for an extended period of time.

She sat up, her breathing slowing, as she got a good look around. There was a duffel bag next to her, with the insignia "G009" emblazoned on it, alongside some kind of... sword? Spear? A sword-spear? She didn't know what to make of it, it wasn't a weapon she had ever seen before.

Seeing the duffel bag and weapon cemented it in her head. This really was it, she really was in Survival of the Fittest. She closed her eyes, taking that in. She wasn't about to start thinking about how horrible everything was, about how it was so unfair that she wound up in a situation like this, how she was going to die and everything she had done up to this point had been pointless. None of that nonsense was going to change her material conditions, so focusing on it wasn't going to help her.

Besides, there was someone far more important that she had to worry about.

She yanked her duffel bag towards her, unzipping it and going through its contents, seeing the food, the extra clothes she had packed for the trip, the water bottles, and most importantly, the map and compass. Ripping the map open, she studied it, her eyes scanning it up and down it, back and forth. She figured that she must be in the village that was marked on the map, given the fact that she was in some random house, and that there didn't seem to be any other good locations for a house like the one she had found herself in.

Staring at the map, she looked at each location and their respective names, with only one thought ever in her mind. Where would Dolly have gone first?

She knew her girlfriend well, or at least, she thought she did. There were a few locations that stood out as somewhere Dolly would go, either for strategic or aesthetic purposes, and eventually she settled on a best bet.

Marceline placed the map back down temporarily, opening up one of the water bottles she had been given and gulping down a large amount of it in no time flat. Sighing with relief, her thirst finally quenched, she proceeded to stuff all the items she had pulled out, save her map and compass, back into the duffel bag. Hooking the duffel bag's strap over her body, tucking the map and compass into her pocket, and taking her new folding blade in hand, she kicked open the front door to the house and set out.

She had one, and only one goal in mind, one that overwhelmed all other concerns, all other worries, all other interests.

Find Dolly.

((Marceline Carlson continued in Two Hearts))