I wake up suddenly, sitting up in a cold sweat from my nightmare to the emptiness that is my hospital room. "Marshall?" I call into the early morning darkness; half hoping he did decide to slip back in. But there is no response or even a kind, invisible touch.
I flop back onto the pillows, trying to relax my heavy breathing. I feel like I had just ran to the Candy Kingdom and back, the weight on my chest refusing to let up. A frantic beeping begins to sound from one of the screens next to me, indicating my vitals. My heartbeat and breathing trackers in the red. 'Great,' I think to myself, 'I get to explain to whoever comes in here that I’m fine and was just having a nightmare, embarrassing.' I attempt again to force myself to calm down, counting my breaths and trying to control my heartbeat; but all seems to be in vain. I even feel a little push from the baby, who seems to know something's wrong.
"It's okay," I whisper to him/her, "we're okay." I assure, closing my eyes, still attempting to clam myself. 'It was just a dream.' I say to myself over and over again, which usually works, but doesn’t seem to this time.
I snap my eyes open when I hear a pop and a fizzle sound from next to me. I look over and see the screen that had been beeping is now cracked and broken.
I know it’s time.
"Alright, come on out, then!" I say angrily into the darkness.
There's a deep, menacing laugh before the Lich emerges from the darkness. She coos, "Ah, the great Fionna, rendered to nothing but a vessel for her spawn. Pitiful."
I sit up, "Leave my child out of this!" I demand, noticing a green fog beginning to surround us, "I know why you're here. Just please let my baby live and you may have me." I play out as planned, hoping she plays along too.
"Whyyy would I allow this? The soul of a human may be just what I need to return back to full power, just like in the old days, why wait?" she questions, her bony hand tapping on the broken machinery.
I swallow hard, "I'll be at my weakest once my child is born, I won’t be able to put up a fight, my death could be played off as complications from childbirth." I say from the script I have had memorized for months now.
She seems to ponder this, looking me over. "Fine. I will have your soul once your cretin is born, and no later." Her green eyes glowing with satisfaction, "In fact, let me help speed along the process," her hand reaches towards my chest and phases into it. My body turns cold immediately, my body stiffening as her translucent hand caresses my insides.
With a giant thump, my heart practically jumps out of my chest, leaving me gasping and with the feeling of warm, wetness, pooling on the bed. She slowly removes her hand from my chest, "Don't worry, I’ll be here for every step along the way." she promises. She sweeps her torn cloak around her, taking the fog with her.
Nurses rush suddenly into the room, obviously oblivious to what just happened. They hook me up to a new monitor and start talking me through what’s going to happen. One leaves to call Marshall; this lifts my spirits a little.
He arrives within 5 minutes. He takes my hands, "Fi, oh my glob, this is happening, are you okay?"
I smile, but I feel it turn weary, "I’m fine, just scared" I admit.
He leans in and kisses my forehead, "You're going to be great." By now the room had settled to just a few personnel taking notes and monitoring me.
DP joins us within the hour. "Well, this was a bit sooner than I expected; I estimated you had a few more days before you went into labor." he remarks. After looking over some of the notes he says "Well everything seems to be in order, your baby is fine and your heath is stable, we just have to wait for nature to take its course." He sets the notes down, "Everything should go smoothly."
"How long is this going to take?" I ask, wondering how much time I have.
DP's eyes look down, "Well, we aren’t entirely sure. Because you are a human, we don’t have any solid information on the process specifically for you."
My heart skips a beat. 'This never really had occurred to me, Of course they've never seen a human birth, I’m the only human they're ever seen, period'. This thought causes me to worry more, on top of dying when this is all over.
"Do not fret, we have learned much over your entire pregnancy and we are set to help you in most any way." DP assures me, "Nothing to worry about."
"Not if I have something to do with it." the Lich's voice hisses in my ear.
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((QUESTION OF THE WEEK: How are ya? im just wondering who you special people are who have read almost 90 chapters of this story and are still here. i thank and congratulate you. im sure some of you have been here since the beginning: you brought this story off the ground. If you recently joined and binge read or whatever, you are equally important, suppoting the story and everything. How about we do another chapter question section where i answer your questions again, i find them fun. so comment a question you have for me beloww and i'll try my best to answer them. P.S. im not giving out spoilers, its not that sort of thing.
ttyns!!!