"Marcie-darcie, big fat parcie!" Children jumped around in a circle while a little girl cried in the middle. Every time she tried to stand back up, one of them would push her down. The look in her eyes grew increasingly frustrated. "Stop it!" She shouted, but it only egged the children on more. BAM! WHAP! One of the boys fell over stunned by whatever mysterious force knocked him over.
WHAP WHAP!! Another boy fell, as the rest turned, they realized there was a very short boy that sported a chocolatey brown skin and nappy hair expertly fastened into corn rows stood behind the two fallen lads. "Don't pick on girls!" He shouted.
With the moment of distraction, the little girl took the opportunity to lunge up from the ground and yanked one of the boys' heads backwards. The moment he fell to the ground, she started to kick him repeatedly until the boy mustered his strength to get up and run.
With newfound courage and a new ally at her side, the two retaliated against the bullies until they saw the triumph they fought for. When the sun lowered enough to begin its shy peeking through the tree-line, the two began their trek homeward. "Name's Gregory! But you can just call me Rory!" the boy held out his hand and the girl took it gratefully. "I'm Marcie…" The boy's eyes lit up as he shone a beautifully white toothy grin. "You like pizza loaf? My mum makes a mean pizza loaf!"
Why now of all times do old memories have to cloud her thoughts. They seem to like to do that whenever there is something extremely important happening. Perhaps it was her brain's attempt at softening and distracting her from the fact that her nerves were beginning to wake up in response to the serum's effects dissipating.
Marcie's body gradually became pale with the exception of her face that had flushed hues of red and purple. Her breathing had become significantly more labored while sweat rolled down from her hairline. Her groans of pain and discomfort were turning into wails of unearthly distress.
While the doctors had a decent grip on the main body of the creature, its pale fibrous flesh began to contract and push against their instruments. From its pores gushed a thick mucus in an attempt to wrestle itself free and the tendrils that had been pulled from Marcie's body reached back to the incision to try to grab hold even more.
The creature had regained its consciousness and sense of feeling.
Antonio leaned towards Marcie's back to try to focus his healing mana along her spinal cord, stubbornly trying to keep it out of the creature's grasp and Richard's expression shifted into a deeply oppressed panic as he tried to restabilize Marcie.
Some of the nurses jumped in to assist the doctors directly, grabbing at parts of the creature with suctioned clamps as a small group of people were now wrestling with the entity. Just as Marcie's wails of discomfort graduated into blood curdling screams, blood spurted from every orifice on her face. Her grip on the bed and on Richards scrubs tightened and seized as she felt the enigma pulling at her body in its desperate ploy to hang on.
Another part of the creature gave way, revealing a limb of nightmare-inducing features. A mouth-like structure, round and resembling a horrifically mutated lamprey. As its head jeered backwards, it left out a high-pitched whistling screech.
The team shouted back and forth as the situation turned more chaotic by the second. Richard and Antonio's sole focus was on Marcie herself however as the rest of the team tried their best to wrangle their nemesis.
Antonio shifted to support Marcie as Richard steadied her head. "Marcie!! Marcie fight! Stay with us darlin!" Marcie forced herself to mute her screaming in favor of taking labored breaths. Her gaze, terrified and crazed in painful sensations, found their focus in Richards, if only barely.
Marcie forced a deep breath and let out another, deeper scream. As if to follow the force of her voice, a sphere made of pearlescent hexagons exploded from the center of her body pushing everyone away, including forcing the creature completely out of her body.
The entire team tumbled onto the ground away from the table and Marcie herself fell to her side. Though slightly dazed, the team had recovered remarkably fast. The extraction team jumped to scoop up the creature and wrestle it into a capsule whilst Richard and Antonio rushed back to their friend.
Marcie lost consciousness as she flopped over; Her body convulsed in a violent seizure. In their panic, Antonio splashed her incision with a healing potion and poured all the mana he could muster into her to accelerate the healing effects.
Richard scooped her up into his arms, keeping her back exposed for Antonio and trying his best to re-stabilize her. Tears swelled in both men's eyes as her body stiffened in its convulsions. Just when it seemed like her seizure began to subside, a morbid sound hit their ears. The heart monitor flat-lined.
Richard gasped and pushed his mana towards her heart in pulses, attempting to jump start it. "Dammit!" He shouted as he continued to resuscitate her, tears falling more openly down his face. Antonio tried to force her to drink a high grade healing potion, but all it did was drain from the side of her mouth.
Richard trembled as he held her tighter, still grasping at a chance that Marcie could have survived. All those who were watching felt their hearts sink.
Moments felt like an eternity and to Richard, it was like his very soul was shattering into pieces. He lowered his head and wept into Marcie's shoulder, still holding her fervently. Antonio sat backwards processing their apparent failure and loss, running rapidly through his mind what they could have done differently to save her, and yet nothing he thought could have been considered logical or complete thoughts.
Through Richards anguish, the tiniest thump reverberated off his mana. As though a delayed reaction, the heart monitor blipped the fainted sign of hope. One tiny blip turned into many rhythmic ones.
As if to signal her, Marcie opened her eyes and arched her back, taking in a breath so deep you think she was trying to suck in all the air out of the room.
"Marcie!" The entire room shouted in unison and rushed to her side. Her gaze rolled around as to regain some semblance of orientation. Richard shakily caressed the side of her face with his free hand to give her reassurance, a sense of security and comfort. The incision on her back had been completely sealed shut now and the first healing potion was slowly mending her spine.
"R-rich…" Marcie whispered, her voice was quietly trembling. Richard nodded and wiped his tears away. Antonio let out an exacerbated sigh of relief and took a towel to dab away the blood. "Is it over?" She managed to ask.
Richard nodded, more tears falling to pull a grateful chuckle. "It's over, Marc. It's gone…" He reassured his companion. Marcie cried tears of joy along with her comrades, but perhaps for different reasons.