Marley Marsh: Trapped on a Train

Kizu awoke with a start in the first class. Three other people were still passed out in the seats around her, but other than that the train was deserted. She knew these people, but she couldn't remember their names, nor where she met them. There was one girl, the person opposite her, and a boy next to her. The person diagonal from her was Nonbinary, that much she remembered. Kizu stood up, edged around the others as to not wake them and wandered down the carriage. There was a snack bar, but no one was working in it. She tried to open the door to the next carriage but it was stuck. "Who the hell are you?" said a voice from behind her. She spun around to see a person staring at her, a swiss army knife in hand. "I'm Kizu!" she squeaked. "Tasari Kizu.” The name felt important, but she could only remember that it was her name, not the importance surrounding it. "Tasari... that name is familiar" they said, lowering the knife. "Who are these other people?" they asked, backing away from the two. "I don't know" Kizu sighed, rubbing her head. She'd only now noticed how much it hurt. "I'm Marley. Marley Marsh" they said with a British accent, giving Kizu a small salute. "Wait... Marsh..." Kizu thought for a moment before it dawned on her. British, Marsh, this person was the child of Bradley Marsh, one of the richest people in the world and... The business partner of her mother! "Marley!" Kizu yelled, running towards them and pulling them into a hug. Marley was her best friend, how could she ever forget? Marley and their father often travelled to Japan so that Bradley could discuss things with Kizu's Mother. Meanwhile, Kizu and Marley were always left to play with each other. They didn't know what their parents discussed, but they didn't care, as long as they were together. So she knows Marley, but she doesn't know the other two? No, that couldn't be it. She must know the others too. Marley poked the boy in the face a few times. "Do ya think he's dead?" they asked, screaming when the boy opened his eyes and slapped their hand away. "I am not dead! My Father would be outraged if I were dead!" he cried. He was the most well dressed of the four, wearing a black suit and tie, without any creases. "I am Master Jiang of Yao bank and you people should feel blessed to be in my presence!" Marley and Kizu just stared at him for a while with disgusted looks on their faces. "Wait a moment..." Marley breathed. "I remember! Jiang Yao, Our parents work together!" they stood with their hands on their hips and laughed. "My mother tried to convince me to marry you in the future" Jiang stared at them for a while before gagging. "Marley Marsh! I wouldn't marry you if we were the last two people on the earth!" He looked at Kizu with the same disgusted look on his face. "You too, Tasari" The final person finally awoke, staring at the three angrily. "You three stop fighting! Haven't you noticed we are alone on this train in the middle of nowhere?" she hissed. "We aren't in the middle of nowhere dumbass!" Marley laughed. "We're in Switzerland! I recognised a town we passed when I first woke up. The question is - why are we all on a train in Switzerland?" Kizu tried the door on the other side of the Carriage. "This one won't open either..." she whispered. "Are we trapped in here?" the girl cried, pushing past Kizu to try and open the door. "Watch it!" Kizu hissed at her, trying to remember her name. Marley, on the other hand, had already raided the snack bar for food and drinks. They tossed some of the snacks to the others and started eating some chocolate themselves. "We should probably figure out why we're here" they began, "What do we all have in common?" The four thought for a moment before the last girl to wake up, gasped and shouted: "We're all from large businesses! Our parents are rich! Jiang's dad owns the largest bank in China, heck maybe even the world. Marley's family literally made a portal to another dimension, My mother is a scientist who discovered a way to cure dementia and extend the life span of a human to be over 150 years" - she sounded so smug talking about her mother - "And Kizu... Actually, I don't know what Kizu's mother does..." she shrugged and kept going. "The point is, we are all rich, famous and our parents work together!" Marley clapped squeaking with excitement. "Yes of course! Scarlett, you’re a genius! We've probably been kidnapped... Again." they sighed, sitting by the snack bar. "We can either wait for our parents to save us or try and get out ourselves, but it doesn't look like this train will be slowing down" Jiang Scoffed: "We are 18, we don't need our parents to save us!" He started banging on the windows and pulling on the doors. "But if we have been kidnapped then it might be easier to just wait it out. There's probably a ransom our parents have to pay to get us back. Kizu, Check the news, see if there's anything about us" Scarlett instructed. Kizu nodded and opened her phone, activating roaming data so she could check the news. Sure enough, they were on the front page of every news article. "Yep, we've been kidnapped. There's nothing about a ransom, though. Ugh, and they're misgendering Marley!" Kizu groaned. "I'll try calling my mother" She opened her mothers contact, but when she tried to call she got an error message in response. "That's weird..." she mumbled, trying to call her dad afterwards, but she got the same error message as before. Jiang was still hitting the windows, wincing in pain with every hit. "I am Yao Jiang! Open when I tell you to!" he screamed at the window, as if it could magically going to open on his command. "Jiang, can you stop that?! We don't want to break the window, at least not yet! Me and Scarlett are trying to think!" Marley shouted. "Can it, Marsh! You just want us to sit around and wait to be rescued!" he yelled back. The two of them started bickering even more ,but they both froze when the carriage door opened. They all went silent and stared at the shadow in the doorway. "Will four of you shut the hell up?" they hissed. "You're giving me a headache." The person walked in and reached out to grab Kizu's arm, but Marley, high on adrenaline, grabbed a glass from the snack bar and threw it at them, proceeding to hit them on the head, which made them growl in pain and turn to face Marley. "Now! Everyone, into the next carriage!" Scarlett yelled, also throwing a glass at the person. However, she missed and the glass broke on the floor in front of the person. Kizu kicked them in the back of the knee making them fall to the ground and the four passengers ran into the next carriage, while Marley was carrying as many snacks as they could. Jiang rapidly pressed the door closing button, making them close just before the person could catch up with the group. "Who the hell was that?" Kizu queried, stepping into the new carriage. Marley stepped in after her, their eyes opening with excitement. "Ahaha! Look at all this tech!" they squealed, inspecting the contents of the room. "But why is the tech from back home here? It even has our logo on it" they wondered, showing the logo to the others. Scarlett picked up a letter that was on one of the tables and read it out loud: "Dear Delilah Bloom, we at Marsh tech, have decided to give you Marley's Portal Tech in exchange for their safe return. Somehow we weren't able to locate them with our trackers. You win. From Bradley Marsh". Marely stared in horror. "What?! My father can't do that!" they whispered. "That tech isn't his to give!" To everyone's surprise, Jiang pulled Marley into a hug. "I'm sorry Marley. We will get out of here before they can give away your portal tech. I promise" he whispered. "Come on Marley, we need to keep going. If we can get to the front of the train maybe we can stop it and get out of here!" Kizu said, hoping it cheered them up. Marley nodded, grabbing some tools off of a seat and heading to the next door. "I can probably open the doors if you give me some time. I need to get through the walls first" they said, getting to work and trying to prise the wall open. Scarlett was with them, handing them tools and trying to find a way through the wall. "If I had my bag, I could make an Acid that could burn through the wall" she grumbled, but Marley shut them down. "It’s too risky! If it burned too much, it could damage the wiring." Scarlett nodded in response. "I feel so dumb around them" Jiang laughed. Kizu nodded in agreement. "Marley is the smartest person I know. If it wasn't for them, we'd still be trapped in the bitter land" she smiled thinking of her friends genius. "Don't be so hard on yourself Kizu! You helped so much!" Marley called out from the door. "Aha! I got it!" Marley grinned as the doors opened. They all hurried through. This carriage had piles of coins on every seat and table except one, where was another letter. They all looked at Jiang. He sighed, picking up the letter to read it to the group. "Dear Delilah Bloom. With this letter comes the money you asked for. There are exactly 1'000'000 Francs, no more and no less. Now return Jiang to me unharmed. Signed Yao Banks" Kizu picked up some of the coins. "One franc coins... Marely you don't think the tech in the other carriage was your portal tech, do you?" Marley shook their head. "I'd recognise that. That tech was just bits of my brother’s hoverbike. I spent hours putting it all together last year. I'd recognise it anywhere!" they laughed. "Wait. Why is my brothers bike here?" Their face fell when it dawned on them that it was their brother’s bike. The one that they had spent hours assembling. "Well at least it's not the portal…?" Scarlett mentioned in comfort. "Marley, can you open the next door? I just wanna get out of here" Jiang hissed as the train shook, knocking some of the coins onto the floor. They nodded and they got with Scarlett to work. "Kizu, have we passed any train stations? Where the hell are we going?" Jiang questioned. "I haven't seen any stations and Marley is the only one of us who's ever visited Switzerland, so only they could know where we are" Kizu replied. Suddenly, the person from before started banging on the door, making them all scream. "You’re all going to pay for this!" they yelled, their fist breaking the glass on the door. "Hurry Marely!" Jiang yelled, backing away from the door. "I'm almost there!" they squeaked, the door opening just as the person broke through. They all rushed through the connecting tunnel, closing the doors behind them. The carriage that they’ve entered was full of chemicals in test tubes. "This will be my carriage" Scarlett sighed, picking up the letter. "Dear Delilah Bloom. You have every illegal chemical I have experimented with. Now return Scarlett to me unharmed. I won't let you get away with this. Theresa Barker." Kizu picked up and looked at one of the vials. "Careful, Kizu! That was extracted from the Gympie Gympie plant, also known as the suicide plant! If that touches your skin, you'll feel a pain so intense it'll make you want to kill yourself!" Scarlett cried. Kizu grimaced and carefully placed the vial back on the table. "We need to keep going. Marley can you open the next door?" Jiang asked. Marley gave a small salute and said: "I'm on it!"

Kizu was worried that the next carriage would probably have the letter addressed to her and contain the things from her mother’s line of work. Her mother was a surgeon, and Kizu wasn't ready to see sick or dead people in the train seats. The tools her mother uses wouldn't be great either, but what could Delilah Bloom want to do with sick people and scalpels? The doors opened. "Aha! Come on, Kizu! Lets go!" Marley beamed, gesturing for her to go through. Kizu took a deep breath and walked through. The carriage was… empty? "What the..." Kizu breathed, picking up the letter to read it. "Dear Delilah Bloom. I will not sacrifice the lives of my patients for my daughter. She is not worth sacrificing a hospital full of people, including young children. I trust you will return her now, since either way you will not get what you want. Burn in hell! Love, Tasari Kaede". Kizu sighed, placing the letter back on the table. "That's my mother, all right.” Marley placed their hand on her shoulder in comfort. "Look! That's the last door! And it’s not electronic this time, it’s just a normal door!" The train shook again. "Well, let’s hurry!" Jiang hissed. "I don't want to stay any longer than we have to!" The four hurried up the stairs, Marley kicking the door open. The train driver stood up. "What the... The four of you aren't supposed to be here!" he yelled. The driver tried to punch Marley, but they blocked it and threw him over their shoulder. They ran forward but suddenly stopped. "Does anyone know how to drive a train?" they squeaked. The four of them shifted for a moment until Jiang stepped forward and looked at the controls. "I used to love trains when I was a kid, I might be able to figure this out" He scanned the controls for a moment before pulling one of the levers. The train started to slow down with a painful screech. They all left the room to get off the train only to come face to face with Delilah Bloom. "You four are a pain in the ass, but I have worked too hard to let a group of teenagers ruin my plans!" she hissed. Delilah grabbed Marley and Kizu by their T-shirts and threw them into the seats in Kizu's Carriage. She opened the door and kicked Jiang and Scarlett out of the train before closing the doors, and starting the train up again. "Wait! You can't just leave them out there!" Marely cried, but Delilah just laughed. "I can and I will." She turned to face the two 18 year olds. "Marley Marsh, don't think I didn't realise that what your Father sent me wasn't your portal tech. I want the real thing. Now" she yelled but Marley shook their head. "I'll never give it to you.” Delilah laughed and turned to look at Kizu. "Your mother decided to sacrifice you instead of giving me what I want. But you could be useful.” Her grin made Kizu feel uneasy. She grabbed Kizu by her shirt again, held onto the bar with her other hand and opened the doors. Kizu screamed as Delilah held her outside. "Marley Marsh, give me the portal or I will let your friend go!" The wind made Kizu barely hear the two talking. She tried to scream at Marley to not give Delilah anything she wanted and that she would be ok, but she knew she wouldn't. She clung to Delilah's arm for dear life. "I have a miniature portal in my pocket! Bring Kizu back into the train and I'll give it to you!" Kizu was about to scream at them again when Delilah threw her back into the train and closed the doors, Kizu’s back slamming against the wall. "Hand it over.” Marley reached into their pocket, Kizu gasped at them to stop, but Marley didn't pull out a portal. They pulled out their Swiss army knife, swiftly opening one of the blades and stabbing Delilah into the crook of her arm. She screamed as Marley pulled it out and ran to stop the train again. When they came back out, Delilah was on the ground gripping her bleeding arm. "Kizu! Are you alright?" Marley squeaked, sitting next to her. "Y-yeah" she stuttered, slowly standing up. They heard helicopters outside. Marley helped Kizu up and out of the train. "Marley!" a voice called. "Jiang! Scarlett!" they replied as one of the helicopters landed in a nearby field and Jiang and Scarlett came running out, hugging Marley and Kizu. "Once we were out of the train we were able to contact our parents again" Scarlett explained. She then looked at Kizu. "Is she alright?" Kizu nodded weakly. "Marley! Kizu!" Bradley Marsh yelled , getting out of the helicopter. "Where is this Delilah Bloom Jiang and Scarlett spoke of?" Marley pointed to the woman, who was bleeding out. Bradley signalled to the other helicopters, and called the police in semi- fluent German. "Ja, danke. Es gibt eine Frau. Sie hat Mein kind. Uh… I'm sorry, she kidnapped them? Ah, Ja danke viel mal! Wo sind wir? Uh..." Marley ended up taking the phone from their father and finished the conversation. "Kizu, I contacted your mother, she is on her way. Until then we should get you to the ER" Bradley stated as Kizu sat down on the ground, her back in agony. "Thank you."

Kizu ended up with a few broken ribs and was asked to stay in the hospital for a few weeks, so they could monitor her. Marley, Jiang and Scarlett made it out with minimal injuries. They visited Kizu every day to keep her company, bringing her snacks and flowers. After the experience like this, they all ended up going to therapy, though Marley and Kizu had already been going through therapy after the portal incident, which occurred when they were sixteen years old. But the most important thing is that they all survived and Delilah Bloom didn't get what she wanted, whatever it was. She refused to talk in the interrogation, so the group never found out why she wanted portal tech, money, illegal chemicals or whatever it was she wanted from Kaede. Kizu's mother refused to tell them, not wishing to contribute to their trauma. But at least Delilah Bloom was in prison now, where she should never hurt anyone again. Or so they thought...