MARLI WIPES HER TEARS QUICKLY – there's no time to lose. She's flummoxed EJ enough to have him leave the door unlocked, and judging by the sound of his footfall, he should've been gone by now. Here's her chance. It's now or never.
She takes a deep breath and does an awkward shimmy-roll onto the next mattress. Ha. Getting to the door should be easy enough. Not very graceful, but hey, it works.
She bumps into the trailer wall, crawling along it, dragging on her elbow and patting blindly around until her hand fumbles upon the latch. Gotcha. The metal door begrudging yields under her force, and the girl tumbles outside with a muffled yelp.
The door swings back on its hinges, and with swimming vision Marli can just make out the words painted on it in fancy cursive:
The Amazin' Mattress Company, Ltd
Her head is spinning, her knees badly scratched from the fall, but she couldn't believe it - Marli made it outside. Was it really that easy?
"Ah!"
Marli jolts, snapping around. Fifty feet away, illuminated by stark fluorescent lights, two figures loom - a ratty brunet boy in yellow safety goggles and a suit-wearing androgynous redhead whose ponytail reaches their lower back.
Marli was about to cry for help when she sees the third figure, tied up, squirming beneath their feet.
The man is wearing a uniform jacket. It reads, "The Amazin' Mattress Company, Ltd".
"Fuck!" Marli thinks, and the redhead says it out loud. They take one step forward. She scoots two back.
The redhead open their mouth. "Wait, miss! You don't understan-"
"Get away from me!" Marli yells hoarsely, scooting under the shadow of the semi. Her heart is drumming up her throat again, her skin sticky from cold sweat, and her head aches something vicious. Her entire system is hyperventilating.
Outside the truck bed, gravel crunches tentatively. The stranger crouches down in a swoop, their long, gaunt face half-eaten by shadows, bright yellow eyes glinting in the dark—
Marli flings a fistful of hard gravel at their face.
"Ow!!!"
The redhead stranger staggers backward, clutching their eyes. In the distance, their partner yells, conking on his hard plastic goggles, "I told you Wendy, always protect the eyes!"
"Not the time, Teddy! Holy mother of Jesus that hurts-"
The redhead let go of their face, a single red droplet trickles down their scratched, bloodshot eyeball."Fuck! What'd you do that for?"
"Stay back!" Marli warns, brandishing a metal pipe she found underneath the truck. Her voice is dry and cracking, like eggshells. Within the span of eight hours, Marli's been kidnapped, dug a tracking device out of a dead guy's flesh, fell out of a window, fell out of a truck, and now she's about to get front row seat to a possible axe murder. It's like playing slasher bingo. "Stay back or I'll fuck you up! Both of you!"
"What'd I do?" The axe-swinging guy yells from afar.
The redhead groans, and to Marli's surprise, plops down to sit cross-legged at the edge of the truck. When they speak, their voice is assuring but serious.
"Okay. We clearly got off on the wrong foot here, Marli. Allow me to start this over."
They take a deep breath, and begin. "Right. My name is Wendy, she/her pronouns, and that there," she gestures defeatedly at the brunette boy, who waves his fire axe in response, "is my partner, Teddy. He and I are tasked with bringing you into S—into our protection."
YOU ARE READING
hospice || e.j.
Fanfiction"For a girl who spent most of her life in a hospital you sure are lively." "Says the dead guy who's just thrown himself out the 19th-floor window." || 2018, svmmerborn
