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Pearl can only remember so much, so much of that night. After the splatfest, and being in the car. With Marina, the tall girl she had met a couple years back, now they were friends. Stuck together like glue, Pearl doesn’t remember much. But she does remember how Marina sobbed after Pearl told her they were friends.
And how she was really new to everything in Inkopolis. But also how good she was at singing! Pearl can remember the day Marina showed her the Ebb & Flow demo. And how after that, they made the song, and became Off the hook! The new stars of Inkopolis.
But she just can’t remember this one night. Were her and Marina were just talking in the car, after the splatfest, their first ever splatfest. Cake vs Ice cream, and to Marina’s surprise. Her team won. Marina was talking about something, probably something related to the splatfest. But then…
The car was starting to swirl, Pearl would never figure out why it started to swirl. But she remembers being flown backwards and everything going black.
Then she woke up, her head hurt like crazy. She looked around, after a couple of seconds she saw Marina’s headphones . And this scared Pearl, but it also confused her. Why would Marina leave her headphones behind? Was she kidnapped?! Many thoughts were circling in her head as Pearl looked up, she noticed that the car windows was covered in…pink ink?
Pearl doesn’t know if her head was just in that much pain or if she wasn’t thinking but she took the headphones and stepped out of the car, and what she saw was green and pink ink colored on the once black road.
That meant Marina was close, but why was there pink ink?
Pearl started to walk to the ink, and then as she reached a green puddle someone came out of it.
It was Marina! But she was wearing some weird googles? Marina seemed shocked to see Pearl awake. Pearl then noticed that Marina had something in her hand, but she can’t remember what it was. Actually, now that she thinks about it, for how long was she knocked out? But as the two idols stood on the road Pearl remembers seeing something.
Something horrifying.
Someone appeared behind the road wall, and started sending down something, maybe tenta missiles? And they started to target Pearl, and had Marina spun around and ran towards Pearl. Protecting her with the thing she just can’t remember.
But the thing could only do so much. Pearl found herself (again) defeated, was she always this weak? For a squid that always felt like she was on top of the world she was so powerless in that moment.
Pearl laid on the road, she was in a trance of being almost unconscious, it was surprisingly only for a couple of seconds. She felt the road, the dark and cold road. She could hear a muffled voice, yelling. Was it the attacker? They got her and Marina, why were they then…yelling?
Then, Pearl remembered feeling something on her fingertips. But that feeling on her fingertips were quickly dragged away. And then Pearl just laid there, before everything again went black.
Pearl opened her eyes, she wasn’t in the car or on the road. But in the hospital, she looked around, her eyesight was foggy. She was regaining consciousness, she could only mutter a few words;
“…’Rina?”
She could see as some blurry silhouettes quickly turned to look at her. As her sight slowly started to come back she saw that it was her parents.
“Pearl! Oh dear Pearl! Are you alright? Do you have a headache?” It was her mom, she started to hug the very confused inkling.
“Ariel please, she just woke up!” That was her dad, his calm voice could be recognized anywhere. Pearl was still very confused, she looked at her parents before asking.
“Where’s Marina?”
Her parents shot each other a concerned look. They quickly turned to Pearl.
“Pearl, dearie, Marina is…she’s…she’s gone. ” Her mom said, looking at her daughter anxiously.
It felt like the entire world had stopped for Pearl, she laid there in her bed. Everything sounded…muffled as her parents tried to talk to her. But she heard her dad.
“The police are trying their best to track her down and find her. Believe me dear, they’re trying.” His words cut her like a knife, she didn’t know why, though.
“Hudson, maybe…maybe we should give her some space?” Her mom suggested, her dad nodded.
“No…please don’t…please don’t go.” Pearl weakly said. She felt the tears build up, as her parents just hugged her. The tears were flowing. Pearl covered her face with her hands, how could she let Marina disappear like that? How could she?
Then, to her dismay, her parents had to leave. Then a doctor came, did a checkup, but then an inkling in a military uniform started asking her questions. Where were you when Marina Ida disappeared? Did you see where she went? Did you see the culprit? Unfortunately, and probably much to the other inkling’s annoyance, Pearl couldn’t answer any one those questions.
As he left, Pearl was alone. Just her and her thoughts. She started to cry again, she thought to herself.
“Marina, wherever you are…I will save you!”
“Would she ever find her though..? ” Said another painful thought however. She just laid there, in her bed, with a mix of determination and tears she almost prayed that Marina was safe.
But only time could tell. And that tore Pearl apart.