Bittersweet - Bubbline AU

Chapter Thirty One - How Were You To Know?

A big pool, a comfortable house, a long grassy backyard. Some of the summer days of his childhood had taken place there.

That wasn't a dream about his childhood.

He didn't want to go into the house, he knew what he would find there. He made his way to the pool just to clear up a doubt. And he was right.

There was a tray by the pool, filled with sandwiches. A jug of juice. Two cups. One of them was clean and untouched.

The other had a smudge of lip gloss and was lying on the floor, as if it had rolled a little way off the tray.

Marshall swallowed hard. He walked to the entrance of the house, sat on the step in front of the door and stayed there. He couldn't get in.

Wake up, fucker. I need to wake up. I need to wake up NOW.

But nothing happened. It was a too vivid dream. Pinching himself didn't help. Screaming didn't help. Crying didn't help. He just couldn't wake up.

So he sat there, hoping someone would wake him up. Maybe Kevin moved too much in bed. Maybe his mother would call for breakfast. Maybe Marceline came bursting into the room because she had good gossip.

And well, he heard his sister's voice. But it wasn't to wake him up. He would have preferred not to have heard.

"Help me. Help me, please."

No. Not again.

It was so strange to feel the heart beat against the rib cage like that in a dream. It was so strange to feel the tears right on his cheeks.

He entered the house.

Marceline was on the living room floor again. Naked. She sat hugging her legs. When she lifted her head, she had a trickle of blood running from her nose. Blood marks on the floor and dried blood running down between her legs.

"You weren't going to help me, right Marsh?"

He didn't answer. He knew it was no use, she would say the same things regardless of the answers.

"You needed to keep an eye on me. You were the one who asked for a sister. You chose me, Marsh."

It wasn't anger in her eyes, and that was what broke him. When Marceline was angry, she was poisonous. She pinched the wound on purpose. And it was that smirk, that sneer on her face when she knew she was in a superior position. Her eyes glowing with anger. It was scary, but it was a pose that somehow suited her. Which Marshall Lee had learned to live with.

But in those dreams, there was no sign of anger in her. She looked so small. Confused. Lost. She didn't seem to understand how this could have happened, and she was asking for answers  Answers Marshall didn't have.

"I know I did things I shouldn't have done that day, Lee. I know I should have..."

"It's not your fault. It's. Not. Your. Fault."

As much as he knew the futility of arguing in those dreams, he always interrupted that part. Hearing her blame herself was always the last straw. This time, she really went silent. She nodded a yes. Maybe it was Marshall's subconscious recognizing that she already knew that now. That she had begun to move forward.

But it wasn't a dream about her guilt.

"You always say you know me better than anyone, Marsh. More than twenty-four hours. How come you didn't think right away that I was with him? It was so… possible. Almost obvious."

He swallowed hard. He thought about it all the time. Marceline only disappeared with her friends. All he had to do was call every member of the band and he would have known that she could only be with Ash. Mayne she would be found before. Maybe soon enough to minimize the damage.