Unraveled

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Marnie banged on the door to The Badlands, his lacerated hand wrapped in a makeshift bandage. He was certain Kaede would answer the door right away, but he was met with nothing but silence. He banged again. More silence.

“Kaede? Kaede!” Marnie shouted, making his knocks harder and louder. He was getting insurmountably anxious. “It's me, Marnie! Kaede, open up!”

He tried the knob, forcefully, but to no avail. Wasn't it a business day? Why would the door be locked?! The unease caused Marnie to practically throw himself at the door. It felt like he was unraveling.

Are you that frightened?

“Stop taunting me—!” Marnie whipped around, assaulted by Chez's voice again. However, the figure behind him was none other than Kaede.

“Marnie?” The immense relief in the apothecary's eyes was tainted with alarm. “I only asked what happened…”

“O-oh. Ah, I—I broke a glass,” Marnie explained the least of Kaede's concerns, fidgeting. “Why, uh—why was the door locked? Where were you?”

“It's lunchtime, Marnie,” Kaede answered with concern. “Is everything okay? We've been worried sick about you. Why don't you come in for some tea, and—”

“A-actually, Kaede,” the daydreamer interrupted him, barely listening at all. “I only came here to get some more RabbitHole. I-I’ve been seeing things—”

“—What?—”

“—strange things, an-and hearing Shay’s voice—”

“—Shay?—”

“—I just, I need to go back, Kaede. The Other Side is calling out to me, and I need to go back and find him—”

“—Marnie, stop!” Kaede harshly grabbed his spiraling friend's shoulders to get his attention. “Take a breath. Listen, I cannot give you any more RabbitHole. You overdosed, Marnie, it's too dangerous. But please, just come inside and I can explain everything.”

“What do you mean, you can't?!” Marnie snapped in response, shoving Kaede's hands off his shoulders. Kaede looked hurt, but he didn't care. He couldn't hear anything else that the apothecary said; it all meant that he was being denied a way back to the Other Side.

“I thought we were friends,” Marnie continued venomously. “But if money's the issue, I'll give you whatever you want!”

“It's not that, Marnie. We are friends,” the apothecary pleaded. “That's why I'm cutting you off. To keep you safe!”

“FUCK YOU!”

Marnie swatted Kaede's hands away with a wild look in his eyes. He simply couldn't understand why his friend would be trying to keep him from the Other Side. Didn't Kaede want him to get better? That's what the medicine was for!

The daydreamer was so overwhelmed with emotions that he didn't know how to respond. It was frustrating. That pained, bemused look on Kaede's face was so frustrating. Everything made Marnie so sick that he couldn't take it anymore.

Pursued by Kaede's concerned pleas, Marnie fled.

As he sped down the street, he felt the eyes of passersby bore into him. Was he really acting that oddly? When he glanced at the crowds to his right he saw glimpses of his mother and father in their faces. When he glanced at the crowds on his left he saw flashes of Chez, and even Ivy, standing and watching him. The visions made his footfalls faster.

When Marnie got back to his apartment, he slammed the door behind him. Exhausted and confused, he let his body fall against the door and slid down, closing his eyes.

Always running away… When will you ever act?

Something brushed past him from the closed door. When Marnie opened his eyes he saw a sprawling forest of periwinkle trees creating a canopy of pink leaves stretched out before him. When he blinked, he saw nothing but the neglected interior of his lonely apartment.

Act… Maybe Marnie did need to take action to stop all this. But Kaede was the only supplier of RabbitHole he knew. If the apothecary wasn't willing to supply, how could Marnie possibly take it by force?

Then a memory struck him. Something far buried in the back of his mind which could, in this moment, change things forever. Something that led him to the cluttered closet where the passed-down belongings of his late parents were kept. There, Marnie shifted past stacks of boxes and rifled through the shelves until he found something resembling a shoebox, labeled Office.

Whether it be from anxiety or anticipation, Marnie practically tore off the lid. Inside was an assortment of old papers and dusty office supplies, but hidden amongst them was the glint of metal that he so desperately sought.

A pistol.

It was a snubnosed revolver, to be specific, remarkably light for the 9mm rounds it carried. At one point in time it had been pristinely polished and maintained, though years of being packed away left the piece with a delicate layer of dust.

Marnie inspected the pistol gingerly. He didn't know much about firearms, but he could tell that all of the pieces were moving and functioning properly. That was good enough — he didn't plan on actually firing it. He just needed… a little leverage…

~ • ~ • ~ • ~

As the sun began to set, Marnie stuffed the revolver into his jacket pocket. It felt heavy, despite the light weight, enough that he had to keep telling himself it was only a prop. A scare tactic to show Kaede how serious he was. Once he had his medicine, everything would be fine. He would be fine.

Naive little rabbit…

“Shut up! I'm trying!” Marnie grit his teeth, holding his head in distress upon hearing the voice again. “I'll get there… I'll get back there for you, I promise…”

Something in the back of Marnie's mind questioned what exactly he was saying. Vaguely it asked what Marnie thought he was going back for or why he needed to. But that voice was no match for the overwhelming static of his mind. Its curiosities and concerns evaporated almost as quickly as they arose.

Marnie tried to walk casually down the street, but it was an obvious struggle. The more people he saw around him, and the more visions haunted him from the Other Side, the more on edge he became. Finally, as dusk fell, he reached The Badlands. But something about the apothecary felt…off.

The interior was dark, from what he could tell through the curtains and blinds. The scent of incense no longer wafted from the cracks and crevices of the building — spaces he quickly looked away from as FEAR began to seep through them instead. Even the apothecary's aura felt completely vacant.

Marnie approached the door nervously. The sign was flipped to Closed, yet to his surprise, the door itself was completely unlocked. After jostling it a little from getting stuck in the door jam, the daydreamer took a very slow, careful step inside.

“Wait… What?!”

Marnie breathed in shock, trying to stifle a gasp. The Badlands was completely barren. Every piece of antique furniture, bizarre decor, and trinket had vanished, along with the cozy atmosphere. Feebly restraining his panic, Marnie frantically searched every cabinet and cupboard that remained — that is, only what was built into the building — only to find that even the cluttered mess of dishes and tea sets were gone. Not even so much as a potted plant remained. Kaede had taken everything and disappeared without a trace…

Including all of the medicines and herbs he cultivated.

“No… No, no, no…” Marnie's restraint was slipping. The panic soon threatened to overwhelm him. “Kaede?! KAEDE!! C'mon, where the hell are you?!”

WOOP-WOOP!

Marnie jumped. Those were definitely police sirens, and he was standing where he didn't belong, with a gun in his pocket. Shit.

As red and blue lights approached in the deepening darkness, Marnie fled in the opposite direction. He was too panicked to think about where he was going, instead letting instinct carry his feet. Before long, his lungs started to burn. It felt exactly like when he was fleeing the Leviathan in the Depths. Except…without Chez's hand in his…he felt so remarkably lonely…

Missing me, little rabbit?

“Agh! Stop it!!”

Caught off guard, Marnie lost his footing and tripped, slamming into a brick wall. It hurt. For a moment, his vision went completely black before returning in a blurry, unfocused state. Something hot and wet bloomed on the side of his head. Bad… Very bad…

It was all too much for Marnie to process, but he knew that he needed to get somewhere safe instead of continuing to run. He stumbled into an alleyway beside him, using the wall for support. When his feet got too tripped up to continue, Marnie slumped down beside an old cardboard box and a large bag of trash.

In the distance, he could still hear the chirp of police sirens investigating The Badlands, but night was falling quickly. He should be safe for a while where he was. If even just for a bit, he could rest. Against his better judgement, Marnie's weak body started to relax, and his full eyes started to flutter shut…

“Marion?”

That awful name!

Marnie abruptly jolted alert. There was a figure standing at the mouth of the alleyway, but with his blurry vision it was hard to make them out.

“Oh my God… Marion, that's you, isn't it?”

The figure began to approach him, making Marnie struggle to recoil in his debilitated state. Who was this person? They clearly knew him , but the familiar feeling their hazy visage gave wasn't particularly friendly.

“Goodness! What happened to you?!”

The clacking of high-heels approached Marnie faster. It made his head ache and his anxiety spike. As he tried harder to focus his vision, the world shifted around him. The brick walls surrounding him distorted to be the cavern walls of the Depths, only to return to brick a moment later.

A woman was rapidly getting closer, but Marnie couldn't make out her face. Something in the back of his mind recognized her, but no cognitive functions could recall why. The more he focused on the woman, the more she too shifted with the world around him. Nice clothes… Freckles…?

“S-stop! Stop! Stay back!” Marnie gasped and gripped the pistol in his pocket. He was certain he saw his mother standing before him, sneering from an unusually imperceivable face.

“What's wrong…? Marion, It's me…”

Marnie's cry made the woman pause for a moment, but then she continued to approach him at a slower pace. Only a few feet away from where Marnie slumped in the trash, she began to lean down and reach out to him.

Instead of a hand stretching out towards him, all Marnie saw was the gaping maw of the Leviathan. It threatened to consume him, ready to snare him with its finger-like feelers and devour everything he was and ever would be…

“NO! I WON'T LET YOU!”

B A N G !

The gunshot cut through the distortions with blinding clarity. The world around Marnie no longer shifted, traded for a reality that was hauntingly vivid.

In front of him, the body of June Berry collapsed, blood gushing from a gaping wound in her neck. In his hand was the smoking revolver, its recoil reverberating through his arm. The weight of Marnie's actions wasted no time in settling heavy upon his shoulders — so heavy that he dropped the pistol into the rapidly accumulating pool of blood beneath his therapist.

It was too much. It was all too much. Marnie gripped his hair, desperately trying to put distance between himself and the woman he shot, only to be denied by the amount of trash behind him. He wanted to scream, but no sound would come out, leaving the night air filled with the gurgling of June suffocating on her own blood.

The horrified look in her eyes was the same look that Ivy’s corpse wore.

The world had never felt so viscerally real as it did in that moment. It made Marnie sick to his stomach, as if purging himself of his insides would somehow make up for what he'd done.

Dear, Marnie… The burrow's closing in around you now, isn't it?

A sleek cat's tail gently settled itself around Marnie's shoulders. He could feel it — Chez was standing beside him, looking down at the dying woman with an indiscernibly solemn expression.

Marnie felt tears well up in the corners of his eyes. His body began to tremble uncomfortably as police sirens wailed in the distance, surely speeding towards his location. With great difficulty, Marnie forced his thoughts out in a strangled voice.

“Shay, I… I want to go home…”