May 3rd, 2086

​

​Marianna woke to Aiden shaking her, and pulled back a punch. Without even opening her eyes, she knew who it was. "What did I tell you about waking me up?" She grumbled.

 

Aiden rolled his eyes. "We're home, derpina. Everyone else is already in the house."

 

"Meh, okay." She grabbed her bag, half asleep, and followed Aiden into he house, where she felt something start to squirm in her stomach. The increasingly uncomfortable feeling woke her up, and brought the nausea back ten fold. Corey ran out, with a glass of water in his hand.

 

"Hey, Mary, stay with me," He ordered, as she clutched her stomach.

 

She felt something squirm just below the surface of her skin under her hands, and threw up on the front porch. The thing that was squirming was a long, rope feeling thing, as it tangled throughout her stomach, creating searing pain every which way it went. When Ryan was notified of everything that was going on, he ran past Corey to Marianna, and tried helping her up, only to be pushed away so she could vomit again. The thing was starting to push towards the outside of her stomach, making an imprint of itself on the outside of her skin so everyone could see it. Eventually, after making her a near emtpy shell of a person, it made its way up her stomach, towards her throat, and out her mouth, gagging her and nearly suffocating her on its way out.

Blood squirted as it made its way out of her mouth and body. It was revealed to be a parasite with rope like texture all over its body, that dropped to the floor, and began to disintegrate on the wood porch, revealing a small plastic tube. While Ryan helped try comforting Marianna, Corey picked the tube up, and carefully opened it, finding a note that read:

 

"Sorry you had to find out this way lovies, but you have 72 hours to turn yourselves in, or let Mary die. My little friend who delivered the message to you left some of her babies in her stomach. In 24 hours, one of them will die off, leaving the other two to start burrowing throughout her body. In 48 hours, one of the remaining three will push itself out through wherever it happens to be, while the other begins to steal her body cells to create a shell of a human fetus around itself. In 72 hours, that fetus will begin to devour everything in it's path until there is nothing left of Marianna. Unless you turn yourselves in, poor Marianna will die a slow and painful death."

 

Corey ran a hand through his hair, and thought for a minute. "First and foremost, we need to bring Marianna to a bed to rest, and someone needs to stay with her until we can figure out what to do."

 

Aiden spoke up, in a self assured tone in his voice, "I knew that sluttress was up to something."

 

"Well it would've been nice if you had said something then, Aiden."

 

Rachael sighed, as Ryan helped her pick Marianna up. "We need to get her inside, and you can have your debate in there. It doesn't matter what he should or shouldn't have done, the fact of the matter is we have something we need to take care of now. Come on, Ryan. We need to get her upstairs."

 

Ryan nodded, and they carried her inside, and brought her upstairs to a bedroom. Once they got in the doorway to take a break for a moment, Rachael looked up at Ryan, and asked, "Are you sure you don't know who was chasing you?"

 

Ryan shrugged. "I told Marianna when we were in the hotel. They're friends of my dad, not that he ever introduced me to them." He paused for a moment. "We should get her to bed."

 

Rachael nodded, and they carried her to the bed, where while Rachael fixed the blankets, Ryan held Marianna up, and laid her down when the blankets were secure. As he tucked her in, he continued talking. "I barely knew my dad. The only parent in my eyes that I had, was my mum. And even she was somewhat secretive at times. She had a room she kept a secret from my dad with her books."

 

"What kind of books?"

 

"I wouldn't know, she never let me go in. The book I had to give away earlier was the only thing she ever gave me from the room."

 

"Hm...did Marianna ever explain to you why you were able to write to each other?"

 

"She did, but she was vague about it."

 

"You might want to sit down then." She waited for him to find a chair to sit in, and turn on a small lamp on the desk beside him. Rachael took a deep breath in, and let it out in a sigh.

 

"For the longest time, Wicca became a huge fad amongst high school students, that no one really took seriously. But then small groups in various high schools all over the world started experimenting with the fad, until they realized they were actually doing something. Me and my husband were among the many who were afraid of 2012, and it was convenient for us to know someone with the right materials, books, and knowledge.  So we decided to go trough with a ritual that was risking our very lives if it didn't work. And people caught wind of it, and more people started doing it, and figured if they could have the ability to be youthful forever so to speak, they could have essentially anything else they wanted. Which made this the Wicca Era, because that's what started the entire thing. And the government didn't like what was going on. They didn't like that those who were lower on the legal totem pole so to speak had more control over things than they did, so they sent out a warning to stop, and when no one listened, they started sending out groups of people to take care of things, and eventually, they outlawed all spirituality, and anyone left who had given themselves the gift of immortality, such as me and my family, would be taken to be used as hunting dogs, or killed if they didn't cooperate. Which is where your book comes in. Because we got so sick of being hunted down, we decided to make it so we could still contact those we could trust, through journals and books. Your mother made a book for you, because she knew whoever actually wrote in the journal your father gave you would be trustworthy." Rachael yawned. "You'd better get some sleep while you can. We'll be coming up with something to help Marianna..." She trailed off when she saw Corey in the doorway with a phone in his hand. "Who was that?"

 

 

"Nate. He said he only thing we can do is..." He imitated barfing. "We can help her, but we need to cut her open and fill her body with sea salt and Nemo."

 

Ryan got up, and walked over to sit next to Marianna on the bed. "Can't you just inject her with those things?"

 

"I wish it were that simple. Once Nemo and the sea salt are in her system, whatever those things in her body are, are going to flip out and die, and we're going to need to pull them out of her body. Aiden has the markings made up on the floor to keep her wounds open, otherwise she'll continue closing up and it'll be a pain in the ass. But we're going to need to be quick about it, or she could die by our hands."

 

Aiden walked in wearing gloves and holding a large tub in his hands. "Alright, I have the numbing goop." He turned to Ryan. "You might not want to be present. Things like this tend to be hard on people who aren't used to it, and we don't want you seeing Marianna any differently because of it."

 

Ryan nodded in understanding, but kept where he was. "Can I help in some way?"

 

Aiden turned to Corey and Rachael, who nooded. "Alright. But here," He handed Ryan a pair of gloves. "You get even a drop on you, and you won't be able to feel your hand for a week."

 

Ryan put the gloves on, and accepted the tub of goop. From there, he followed instructions from Aiden as to what to do, from removing her shorts and covering from her hips down in the blanket, and pulling her shirt up just enough to reveal her stomach. He graciously applied the goop all over her stomach, sides, and back where needed, and carried her down to the dining room to lay her down. For the next hour or so, they filled her stomach with sea salt and Nemo, making sure to keep her asleep throughout. Once she was packed full, they waited.

 

They waited fifteen, twenty minutes as it dissolved into her body, and eventually, there was a high pitched screeching coming from her stomach, followed by three small masses growing into the size of golf balls, piercing through her stomach. They continued growing until they were big enough to roll off of her body, where they hit the floor, and dissentegrated. As much as Aiden wanted to barf, he smudged out the markings on the floor, and watched as her body started healing itself. As it healed back over, it pushed out any toxins that managed to get inside while she was sliced open. After waiting for a short bit, Corey nudged Ryan to bring Marianna upstairs so she could actually get some rest.After bringing her upstairs and had her tucked in, he plopped down next to her on top of the covers and fell asleep. Around 10am, Aiden knocked on the door, waking Ryan up.

 

"Hey, I have breakfast for you guys. Mom wanted some alone time with dad,  so she sent me up here. You'd better be decent." He waited a few moments, and then went to open the door, only to his surprise, Ryan opened the dor for him. Marianna was still sleeping, until the smell of her mom's breakfast combo of waffles, sausage, eggs, bacon, and french toast wafted over to her. In which case, she grumbled because her stomach felt cold from all of the Nemo they put in it. "Here, take this." He pushed a cart foreward with two dishes, a mug of Chai tea, and a couple cups, one filled with milk, and the other, OJ. "And make sure she gets something warm in her. Nemo tends to have a delayed side effect of ice cubes in your body. Don't ask why, it was the only way my mom could make sure people knew it had done it's job."Ryan nodded. "Will do. Do you happen to know what time it is?"

 

Aiden thought for a minute. "Last I checked it was a little past 10."

 

"Okay. Also, thank you for your hospitality."

 

"It's not a problem, you are going to be my sister's fake husband for a few months, so it's the least we can do to make sure you don't run away." He laughed. "Anyway, if you need anything, or man time, I'll be down the hall." He turned and left the room, leaving Ryan with Marianna.

 

As she stretched, Ryan rushed over with the mug of Chai tea and plate of food, handing the mug to her before she was even done stretching. When she noticed, she stopped mid stretch, and smiled. "You didn't have to do that for me, you know," She said, her voice sounding incomprehensible and grumbly due to the fact that she spoke as she stretched. "But thanks." She accepted the mug from him, and took a sip out of it, which turned into a gulp, which transitioned into the entire glass being empty in a matter of seconds. "That's much better. And I was trying to get my mom to let me use Nemo on everything. It's the strongest toxin puller she has. But hell no. It's definitely an only in emergencies thing." She looked down at the plate of food, after putting the mug down on the night stand next to her. "My mom is the best cook I know." She looked over at the cart and saw another plate. "You should get some before it gets cold." She smiled, squished a piece of waffle with a little sausage link, an stuffed the combo in her mouth, as Ryan returned with his own plate of food. Until they were done with their food, they had conversations about random things, like they had when they were just writing with eachother. Until she remembered she needed to get to an atm and pull her money out of her  bank account. She didn't trust banks, especially with how they were over the past generation or so, always "losing" money. After putting the dishes on the cart, she plopped back on the bed, and held a contemplative look on her face.

 

"Hm...I wonder..." She muttered to herself.

 

Ryan looked mildly confused. "What?"

 

"Oh nothing, just thinking out loud."

 

"About?"

 

"I'm wondering if they'll kill me for wanting to go out for a bit."

 

"I highly doubt it."

 

"Well it's worth asking." She hopped down, but just realized she wasn't wearing her shorts. "GAHH!!!!" She ran around until she found her shorts, which she put on. "WHYYYY???? Didn't you tell me I wasn't wearing my shorts????" She plopped down on the floor, and eyed him suspiciously.

 

Ryan stumbled over trying to speak for a moment, but then realized he had no real defense. "I'm sorry, I forgot you weren't wearing them. It's not like I was staring at you thinking 'oh my god she isn't wearing pants, BONER!'"

 

Laughter came from the doorway. Rachael. "I see you guys are having fun? We're heading out for a bit to get food, furniture, clothes and such. Did you want to come along? Or did you need more time?"

 

Marianna shook her head. "Yeah, we can come along." She turned to Ryan and smiled, but then turned to Rachael. "But don't we need to change something about him? They've seen him."

 

Rachael thought for a minute. "Yes, they have. Hm." She walked over to Ryan and looked him over. "We should start by cutting his hair and facial furs, then we can deal with changing his eye and hair color." She paused.

 

"We'll need to do that before we head out, though. Hold on I'll be right back." She ran out, and came back five minutes later with Corey, whom had a black plastic bag in his hand.

 

"Come on, Ryan. As your first transformation, I'm giving you the option of choosing your hair." He handed him a book and led him into the bathroom. Almost two hours later, they came back out, and Ryan no longer had long dirty blonde hair, but shorter neon blue hair. And his facial hair was nipped down to a simple chin strap. They had chosen a pair of hazel color contacts to go over his deep brown eyes.

 

"Alrighty then, can we head out now?" Rachael asked, while Marianna stared at Ryan, mouth agape in horror but admiration at the same time.

 

"Your dad didn't really give me a choice in the matter," Ryan responded to what Marianna's eyes were saying. "But I'm sure you don't hate it too much, right?"

 

Marianna stumbled over her own words, trying to come up with something clever to say, and only wound up mumbling, "Nooo...."

 

Ryan waited for everyone to walk downstairs, and stole Marianna's hand, entwining his fingers with hers, noticing she was looking at the floor as they walked. Somehow seeing her blushing made him smile. The entire car ride to the mall, he kept her hand prisoner, and when they got out of the car. He waited until they were in a public place, and pulled her up towards him to kiss her-her first public kiss at that. Little did he know Rachael was watching them very carefully with her camera, and took a picture at the very moment the event happened. Marianna noticed Aiden rolling his eyes and flipped him off while still lip-locked, which Rachael also got a snap-shot of.

 

Rachael walked over after Aiden and Corey went their own ways, and laughed. "So where are we heading to now?"Marianna shrugged. "Not sure. I know a few places that are on the list but otherwise I'm not sure where we're going.""Well unfortunately, we need to drag Ryan here through th shopping, so you should at least try on some things for him."Marianna shrugged. "You know how I am, though. I usually just buy clothes that look right and go find you."

 

"Okay honey. I'll find you in a couple hours then?"

 

Marianna held up the OK signal with her hands, and headed off to look for clothes with Ryan. Over the next hour, they spent close to $1,000 on clothes and snacks, but by the time Rachael wanted to meet them, they had bought more than enough clothes between them to last the next six months. As they waited, Ryan kept an arm around Marianna, which despite how much time she had already spent with him, still made her stomach do flip flops and her entire body feel all warm.

 

Ryan poked Marianna to get her attention, having learned sometimes he needed to do so in order to get her attention. She turned and smiled.

 

"Yeah?"

 

"Can I ask you something and not have you get mad at me or slap me?"

 

"Depends."

 

"On?"

 

"How stupid the question is." She laughed.

 

"Well, this might be a little stupid."

 

"Go for it then." She smirked in amusement.

 

"Well, I was wondering, I know we've only known each other so long, but after I'm done being your fake husband, if..." He cut himself off when Rachael, Corey, and Aiden walked over, and leaned closer to Marianna. "I'll ask you when we get home."

 

Marianna held up the OK signal to him, and grabbed her bags. When they finally got back home, Marianna went to hanging up everything, minus an outfit picked out for herself. Not remembering Ryan was even in the room with her, she started stripping down to her bra and underwear, tossing everything back and hitting him with her clothes. When he cleared his throat to let her know he was in the room, she almost freaked out, but looked down at her finger, and did a ridiculous little dance, wiggling her butt.

 

"If I'm going to pretend to be your wife, you need to see my goofy, I'm fat dance," She joked, despite the fact that she was well aware that Ryan's mouth was agape. Moments later, he thought for a minute, and started stripping down himself, only in a less obvious manner, as he was trying to be the gentleman in the room. Marianna pulled on a black thigh-high dress with a lacy second layer, and asked, "So what did you want to ask again?"

 

Ryan found himself stumbling over words again. "I...it's kind of personal, so you should probably sit for it."

"Okay." She walked over and sat next to him. "Your question?" She waited for a minute, and then plopped fully on the bed.

​

"How about this. I have a question for you."

 

"Okay, shoot."

 

"I want to know, when did you lose your virginity?"

 

Ryan turned red. "Is there a skip option?" He laughed.

 

"No. If I tell you, will you tell me?"

 

Ryan quirked an eyebrow. "I thought you've never been in a relationship."

 

"Never ever. But I feel impressive, so I'm sharing. I lost my virginity to myself."

 

"Wish I could say that. I was all drugged up my first time, and 15."

 

Marianna laughed. "That's actually the same time I lost mine!" She paused. "But you're my first fake marriage, and also my first kiss, which I give you props for."

 

Ryan smiled. "Please don't slap me, but part of me is finding you very..."

 

"Nosy?" She laughed.

 

"No, not nosy." He moved a little closer, just enough to be within a few inches of her. "But very..."

 

As he got closer, Marianna stumbled over muttering, "You're very...tempting?" Finding it harder to breathe, she tried putting a face on. "I didn't think you'd..." She trailed off as he placed a finger over her lips.

 

"Of course, my goregous Marianna. But if I'm pushing any boundaries, please let me know and I will stop anything that's making you uncomfortable."

 

"You're fine. It's just..." She trailed off to think for a moment. Only thinking confused her more.

"I know. You're not sure whether or not what you're feeling is natural or not. Just...let your thoughts float away, and relax your heart and mind."

 

"Okay." She closed her eyes, and took in a deep breath, allowing her mind to clear itself. In that moment, everything she was feeling seemed natural to her, and she pulled him closer to her. "I hope if anything happens, that you don't think any less of me."

 

"Of course not. I just hope you don't think less of me, and that you can look at me and see the same person you're looking at now afterward-" Marianna interrupted him by kissing him, and pulling him closer. With both of their hearts already racing, the closeness made it seem as if explosions were going off in their hearts, as they nervously explored their boundaries. Eventually, a major impact was made on both of them, as an unspoken agreement was made, and Marianna pulled him inside her. For the first time, they felt complete, as they consummated an ironically,  fake marriage. As quiet as they were, no one heard or came in to ask what was going on, and when all was said and done, it was late, and they simply fell asleep in each other's arms.

And it was in that moment, that Ryan finally spoke his true feelings. "Marianna, I have a confession."

 

Marianna looked up. "Yeah?"

 

"I knew we had a certain connection the moment we started writing to one another, and that connection deepened into something more than I expected would ever happen the moment I saw you."

 

"Which time? In the picture? Or when I was picking you up off the ground?"

 

"Both, really. When I saw your picture, I was able to see the interesting, quirky woman I had been writing with, and all I was able to do, was picture you sitting on my floor, or at a desk, while we wrote. And when I saw you for the first time  two days ago, how much you cared about me to help me up when I could've had a knife in my hand, that made me realise even more how much of a connection we really had. We could've spent our entire lifes writing in books to each other, not knowing whether or not the other one was real, but we found a way to find each other, and that for one, is more than inspirational to me."

 

Marianna smiled. "And of course, you've been an inspiration to me. I'm going to be finishing my first series of comics in the next six months we're living together, and making a name for myself, and I'll have you to thank." She closed her eyes, and cuddled up to Ryan. They had put their clothes back on in case Aiden, or Rachael, or Corey decided to check up on them, and for the rest of the night, they stared up at a starified ceiling, talking about whatever came to mind, until they were both too tired to stay awake, and drifted into peaceful sleep.

Marianna woke abruptly as cold water poured on her from the shower. She immediately became confused, as the water had a slimy texture to it, and she opened her eyes to find it was blue. She went to stumble out of the shower, only found herself stumbling onto a massive, slimy tissue that caused her to slip. When she turned around to find the shower, it was no loner there. As she looked around to see what was going on or where she was, she heard a loud thud, which caused her to jump.

 

As she walked along the mass, she saw a blur of something run across in front of her, causing her to stop dead in her tracks. She eyed the area in front of her for a moment, and went to continue walking, only a large, maggot-like creature pushing its way through the mass towards her. The shock woke her up, and caused her to spring up in bed. Unaware that she was still dreaming, she caught her breath, and went to lay back down, only felt her pillow was slimy and bloody. She jumped, and felt the sensation of worms crawling inside her body, the feeling getting stronger until finally,  stringy parasitic creatures started popping through her skin and looping back in. Her natural reaction to scream was prevented by her mouth becoming flooded with the parasitic creatures.It was only then, that she finally woke up.