Adventures In AAA With Fionna and Marshall Lee [original]

Unraveled

I was beside Tate in an instant, checking for any signs of breathing or a heartbeat, but was unlucky. I didn't know him for long and I couldn't say he was a good person, but even so, the loss of life is upsetting. The fact that Marshall and Tate seemed to have a lot in common only made the situation worse.

In my brain I thought of Tate as Marshall. It was Marshall who was lying dead in front of me; cold and lifeless with no signs of injury besides the stillness of his heart. I felt as though we could have been great friends, Tate and I.

On the inside it felt as though I were losing a part of myself. I was staring at another version of me- that lays cold on the ground. I didn't cry, though.

You can blame it on shock or maybe denial, or whatever else you can blame it on, but I didn't cry. I couldn't speak, much less cry. I couldn't feel anything, really. My eyes couldn't wonder away from his body-the peaceful look of it- but in the middle of all of this, I noticed something different about him.

"H-hey, w-where are hi-is rings-s?" I whispered, looking up at Peppermint Maid, who was trying to look over his body for any damages.

"Excuse me?" she asked, checking the dilation of his pupils before turning to look at me. I held up his hands, running my fingers over his own. Where an unnatural amount of rings used to lay, there was only blank flesh.

"Rings. They're g-gone."

"Hm, I don't think he ever wore rings, Fionna. You might have the wrong person." she said quickly before patting me on the back and standing up from her crouched position. My face instantly curled into a snarl but before I could tell her she was wrong, I realized I was alone in the room.

Besides Tate, of course.

I stood up, wobbling slightly, before giving Tate a wave goodbye. The next thing that came to my mind was: 'who would even want to kill Tate and why?'. I made my way out of the room, hearing the faint sound of the candy ambulance screaming their way through the halls, coming towards us.

They would be here any moment and I would just be in the way of their job. I didn't want to go back to my room just yet, though, but figured Cake and Marshall were waiting there for me. Maybe they had gone home, though.

I remembered Magic Woman, as Gumball had so idiotically decided, was rooming here in the Candy Kingdom castle. She could have something to do with this- and if not, she could possibly have information on it.

She knew a lot of things and those spells of hers could get her any information she wanted. A scary thing if used the wrong way, which is how she uses it. Nonetheless she could be useful to me. If I found out who did this, I could easily take them down.

On the other hand, that meant there was a killer here in the castle. See Gumball, this is what happens when you trap your only affective hero in a castle.

Killers are let loose. Killers everywhere.

I turned away from the sound of the approaching candy nurses and doctors, making my way down the hallway that led back to my room. Only, I wasn't going to my room. With an emotionless face I walked determined down the hallway, looking around for many servants I could ask for direction to a certain witches room.

When I neared my room, I quietly passed the closed door, hoping Marshall and Cake couldn't sense me from the other side. Once passed it, I rounded the corner, accidently bumping into a small figure.

"Sorry." I mumbled, looking down on them only to see a handful of towels they were carrying so large that it covered their face. "Uh, do you know where Magic Woman's room is by any chance?" I asked, assuming that they had to know.