The Algorithm

Chapter twenty - The Siren Without a Voice

"Marinette, what's going on?" She said while sitting down at her bedside. Marinette had not looked at her once, her devoid gaze was locked onto something in the distance. "What happened?" No response. She worried she had died but the small rise and fall of her chest put her mind at ease. "You can talk to me, you know?"

I can't talk to you, Marinette wanted to scream, don't you see that? There's no point in us talking about the good old days when we were friends, those times are gone and they're never coming back!

"Plagg said he found you curled up in the maze crying. Why were you crying?"

Marinette clenched her jaw to keep a string of words from falling out. You wouldn't understand. It's not like you missed them, you didn't even care, you just kept going. You act as nothing has changed! You never cared about them! You never cared about me!

"I'm worried about you. We all are."

Just go away.

"Have you moved at all since you came in here?" No response. Marinette still had remnants of rain-seared makeup on her face and her hair was heavy with grease so it was obvious she hadn't bathed since she locked herself away. Tikki stood up and Marinette was happy to see her go, except she didn't leave, she entered the door to the left of the room that held a bathroom and ran a bath.

She dragged Marinette into the bathroom, which wasn't all that difficult since she had no energy to protest. Set her inside and held the door closed so she could not try to leave which was pointless. Even if Marinette tried to pull on the door, she didn't have the strength. There was a hollow pit in her stomach and the cold from the rain never seemed to dry, as if the water had dampened her bones. She just sat on the white tiles of the bathroom, waiting for Tikki to leave. But she didn't. She could still see the redhead's shadow through the small gap under the door.

Believing it would make Tikki leave, she complied with what she asked of her. She pulled off the sweater and sweatpants she had worn for the past week and got in the tub. The water was cold from Marinette's time spent on the bathroom tile but she didn't mind. Being cold was familiar now. She didn't care anymore.

She submerged herself under the chilled water, hoping it would calm her empty belly. But it didn't, her body longed for the food she refused to give it. She found the strength to wash her hair and scrub the remaining makeup from her face, and in her boredom, counted her scars. It had been so long since she last checked how many lingered on her skin.

Eighteen, as far as she could see, but she knew there was a volley of white discolored flesh on her back from the metal being fussed to her spine. She pulled herself out of the cold water, wrapped herself in a towel, and knocked on the bathroom door to notify Tikki she was clean and she could go.

"Get dressed." The redhead responded while opening up the door a few centimeters and throwing clean clothes through to her. Complacently, Marinette dried off and put on the jeans and white T-shirt. She walked out of the bathroom and flopped back onto the bed. "No, we have a mission, let's go."

Surprise, surprise, Marinette thought, you're only here because you need something from me. All that talk of being worried was just an excuse huh?

Again, Tikki dragged her out of bed. Marinette had spent what little energy she had on getting clean and had nothing left in her reserves to fight off Tikki, so she allowed her to drag her wherever needed. She was brought to the white room where she faced Adrien and Plagg for the first time in over a week.

"Hey, Mari," Plagg said in an unnaturally gentle tone as if the slightest hint of bitterness could cause her to flee back into her dorm and lock the world out again. "What's going on?"