(Chpt. 18 summary, skip if needed:
After Cleodare went to check up on Gwenevieve, she disappeared for a few days. Now Marine is very obviously worried and has once again, gone into the forest to look for the vampire base to find her.
Important note, she's also gone through Cleo's bag and found suspicious powder that may or may not be cocaine, and bags of blood with people's names on them😋.
A/N, apologies if you had to skip chapter 18 due to sensitive topics. Don't worry i always got your back, buster. This one...might be a little emotional, lol, read at your own risk.
Have fun!
TW: this chapter handles harm and sensitive subjects regarding minors)
Although the sun was beaming through the branches of the thick wood, the aura was cold and freaky. I didn't care, though, I was going to find her.
If anything, my progressively worsening anxiety would force me to find her.
The last time I'd done this, Gwenevieve had gotten to me before Cleo had, as long as I didn't end up dead, it would be fine.
The sun was ever so slowly setting as time passed, and I couldn't find any openings to a secret base, which is probably why they called it a secret.
"God, Cleo, why do you make me go through these things?" I mumbled to myself.
My feet began to ache as I ventured on, but I couldn't stop. I had to get there when the sun was still up.
By golden hour, I was slowly giving up, I could tell I was passing by the same trees and stomping over the same cracked branches.
"Can Jesus seriously come help me this time?" I groaned, peering up towards the sky.
I'd been getting more frustrated lately, realizing not everything was rainbows all the time, Cleo was rubbing off on me.
Seriously rubbing off too, because it seemed like she kept disappearing without telling me. And maybe she didn't want to, or intend it to hurt, but that didn't mean it didn't beat me down, it did hurt.
The moon would make its appearance anytime, and if I didn't find her before then, or at least the base, I would quickly become a meal, and something told me it wouldn't be easy for anybody to save me in that situation.
Suddenly, my leg got caught in a hole, as I held back a large scream from being forced to do the splits, my other leg slipped into the hole and I was tumbling down again, like I had been when Gwenevieve had almost broken my neck from the last fall.
But I couldn't help but smile as I fell near to my demise.
The blood stained light brick walls confronted me again as I pried my eyes open after the fall. Once more, my whole body hurt, a bit less than the last time, maybe I'd already created some sort of endurance.
How had I found it?
Sitting up, I gently rubbed my inner thigh and sighed, this didn't seem to be a good start.
It hadn't been too long since I'd been to Cleo's room, I remembered the general direction of where it was at.
I wandered over there, hoping not to be confronted with any hungry vampires, or vampires in general. Mercy wasn't something they were known for, and I was sure if Gwenevieve or Opius knew I was still alive they'd have known something was up.
It took me longer than expected to journey to where I'd remembered her room to be. I exhaled a shaky breath and slowly rattled the doorknob. I wasn't surprised it didn't open, locked.
I scavenged around Cleo's bag, hoping to find a loose needle or something similar. Luckily, I felt a bobby-pin at the very bottom of a pocket, it was clear it had been forgotten.
It had been a long time since I'd picked a lock, but I was confident in my ability to do it. The last time had been when I was little, I was babysitting a very sick Marionette while my parents were out on a dinner date. I had fumbled with a paperclip to get the lock on the medicine cupboard open.
Right then, though, I had probably been too confident.
Finally, after a few minutes, I heard a small click and I quickly sighed and tried the door again. It slowly creaked open and I inhaled, bracing myself for what was inside.
The aroma of the room was immediately recognizable, I knew it was Cleo's. My exhale was slow as I took in the scent. I quickly looked around, but she wasn't there.
"Shit."
Where else would she be?
I closed the door behind me and quickly walked over to her desk. I put her bag down, slipped my phone into my pocket, and opened the drawer, less than pleased to find it completely unorganized. Sifting through some of the things, there was nothing interesting.
I didn't even know what I was looking for, anyway.
If I waited she'd eventually come back, so that was it, I waited.
When I awoke on her bed and checked my phone, three hours had passed, the sun had gone down, and there was shuffling and voices outside of her room. Then there was a scream.
It wasn't a normal scream you would expect to come out of a vampire lair either, it was a tortured scream, something about it seemed off.
There was no way I was going back to sleep after that, and it was clear Cleo wasn't coming around anytime soon.
I got up and rubbed my tired eyes, walking over to the door and pressing my ear against it. I knew the risks, they could smell me, but I slowly heard their voices fade off into the distance, until they were all gone.
With a small confused hum, I quietly opened the door and walked over to the room where I was sure I had heard the scream. When I tried the handle, the door wouldn't open, seemingly from a jam, but with a little force I quickly barged in.
What I saw made me melt into nothing but a gooey puddle of emotion. It wasn't what I'd been expecting or what I'd wanted when I'd gone to investigate the scream. I wanted to stab myself right there, tears erupting down my cheeks.
"Marionette," I whispered, bitter tears drowning out my words.
A tall, pale woman was holding onto Marionette by both her shoulders, she was sobbing, facing down at the ground as her waterworks hit the cold floor.
"Kill him, Marionette. It's been two fucking years, you're not a baby anymore."
Two years ago she'd died. They'd had her for two years. They'd had her while I had screamed into my pillow and cried myself to sleep. My parents had blamed it on a car crash.
What had really happened that week? The one thing I thought I'd had figured out, the one thing I'd started to get over. I'd just started to heal from grieving, and now...my brain couldn't comprehend anything.
It felt like a dream, like everything before it had been fake, I was waking up now. My endless streams of tears didn't get close to fully conveying the despair I was in.
Just in that moment, I wanted everyone to disappear, I wanted her all for myself. I hadn't realized how much I had really missed her until I saw her again.
Dirty blond hair that formed a waterfall down her back and dripped across the front of her shoulders, a pink t-shirt with little black hearts on it I could tell she'd definitely picked out herself.
This strange woman was holding onto my little sister.
That's when I realized the man on the floor, he was a human, a terrified look in his eyes. Marionette stood in front of him, an equally terrified look in her eyes. His eyes glimmered, on the brink of releasing pools of tears.
My legs wouldn't move. My brain could barely function to think of words.
"Marionette," my voice was low and barely above a whisper.
Her head whipped back to look at me. An immediate look of shock plastered across her whole face, but it quickly lit up with something I couldn't fully identify, mostly recognized as hope.
"MARINE!" She used her whole body to try and tear away from the woman, but was unable, and it was torturous to watch.
Tears imploded down her cheeks. "SISSY!"
I quickly ran over to her, my heart palpitating faster than I'd ever felt it. Out of adrenaline, I yanked her away from the woman, who also looked shocked.
The terrified man quickly got up and ran, and the woman went to run after him.
"Marine!" Marionette exclaimed into my chest as I held her close. My arms wrapped so tightly around her I was surprised I hadn't squeezed her to death.
There was no way to describe the feeling I had. But something in my heart loomed with despair. A type of despair not even holding your undead little sister could heal.
"I'm scared," she whispered, "get me out of here."
"I will. I will, I promise." I answered, my voice shaking.
"Let's get one thing straight," the woman had come back, and she did not look happy.
"I don't know where you came from or how you got in here, little human girl, but you're not welcome,"
"she is not your friend." She grumbled.
"She's my fucking sister. You stole her, you MONSTERS!" I howled.
My heart skipped a beat on the word "monster."
"I was planning to kill off that little twat soon anyway. I'm glad you'll be here to see it."
Marionette whimpered and hugged me tighter. "Don't let her get me."
She'd have to kill me before she would put a finger on her. Marionette wasn't going to slip through my fingers ever again. I didn't even know how she had the first time.
"Don't be afraid, Marionette," the woman said calmly.
"I-I'm not!" She raised her voice, her head shoved deeper into my chest.
Then all hell broke loose.
With a quick move, the woman suddenly tore me away from her, I screamed and struggled in her grasp, she slapped a hand over my mouth.
The last image I would see of Marionette ever again were tears pouring down her cheeks, her icy hand grabbing a silver knife, the blade millimeters away from her neck. I couldn't even imagine how much despair she'd been through in the past two years, torn away from her family and converted to lifelong bloodsucking.
I let it happen again. I was a failure again. I'd let her slip through my fingers again, and for the last time.
Had my parents sent her off to a bunch of vampires? Did she get lost on the trip and recruited into the undead? What had happened and why had I been such a fool to ever have believed my abusive parents?
The hideous woman plunged something sharp into my neck, the chemical was quick to invade my bloodstream, and even quicker to make me pass out, before I could watch my little sister kill herself.
Deep, deep down, I knew it was for the best.
The best was that I'd never seen her again, the best was that she wasn't suffering, and had committed suicide at nine years old. Sadly, that was the best, and I would've done the same thing.
I woke up with Cleodare holding me steady, biting into my neck and smearing blood all over my body. My vision was blurred.
"Cleo?..." I groaned, I was limp in her arms.
"Shut the fuck up and act dead."
I already felt drowsy enough to be dead, so that was easy. I shut my eyes and when I opened them she had carried me back to my house, we were sitting in my bed. She grabbed wipes from my bathroom and began to scrub off all the blood.
I looked at her with hopelessness in my eyes, sorrow curved my eyebrows.
"Again? You came after me again?"
"You left me!"
"More to the story than that, Marine."
"No, Cleo, stop it. You're avoiding this, I know you are. You have been this whole time, because you never fucking tell me everything!"
"What the fuck are you talking about? I saved your life again,"
"You didn't feel the need to tell me my little sister was alive? I knew you knew! I had the suspicion the second you'd asked me her name! I saw the look in your eyes!" I wailed, hot tears pouring.
She stopped and put the wipe off to the side. "Just...don't get irrational, Marine. I can explain..."
"Yeah, Cleodare! You have TONS of shit to fucking explain!" I screamed, "You've lied to me since the beginning! You lied that you even loved me in the first place,"
She was quick to yell back. "I thought we had talked about this!"
"You never fucking had a real family, Cleodare! That's where you don't GET IT!"
Her face dropped from anger to utter sadness, I could see her trying to hide it with fury, but the look in her eyes was defeat.
"You told me yourself! You've never understood it! You don't even understand what it's like to have it ripped away from you!"
"I can't believe you," she muttered, angrily staring down at the ground.
"NO! I can't believe YOU, Cleodare! You never tell me shit!"
"I had good intentions, Marine," her voice shook as she spoke. I could do nothing but glare at her as I submitted to tears.
"Because I fucking know you! I know you better than you think I do, because I love you! If you were opening up to me about her death it meant you were getting over it. Your pain of grieving was over,"
"Clearly you don't know shit about me." I growled.
"Let me fucking talk," Cleo snapped, her hand involuntarily formed into a fist.
"I wasn't going to fucking tell you she was undead. That would kill you and you'd probably still be mad at me anyway! It wouldn't be easy to accept,"
"So do you feel good now?" I fumed.
"Do you think I take joy in watching you suffer through emotional distress, Marine?"
"Actually, yes, I do,"
"because you do it to everyone else, you murder people on the daily! I watch you fucking laugh about it! You're not just a sadist in bed, you're a sadist outside and you're scary!" I yelled.
The look in her eyes when she looked up at me was nothing but pain. Her face seemed dark, her bangs hung shadows over her eyes.
I let out a shaky sigh. Had I really just said all of that? Was that me? Was it what I was internalizing or was it irrational screaming?
"I'm... I'm sorry," I whispered, "I didn't mean to be such a bitch... I just..." I was having trouble forming a sentence after my screaming session.
"I let my emotions control me..."
"If you think I'm going to forgive you so quickly after that you're fucking insane," she muttered. "Let me think. Give me some fucking space, Marine."
She was going to leave me.
I held tightly onto her hand and let out a soft whine. I desperately needed her to stay, I wanted her comfort.
"I'll see you later, Marine,"
I could barely hear her breaking voice.
"And don't come after me, you'll regret it."
I sat wallowing in self pity, as I broke down into more tears watching her leave down the stairs. Cleo didn't stop to look back, she just yanked her sweatshirt off her waist and put it on, preparing for the rain outside.
I had fucked up bad.
(A/N,
i'm adding "shut the fuck up and act dead," to my list of favorite cleo lines, yes i have a list for everything.
anyway, what are we thinking marine will do with this emotional burden? 😵💫also, i understand if you hate me <3 relatable.)