Our Sweet Nights

Confinement

"What do you want from me!" Alya screamed.

Her hands were tied behind her back, her ankles each to a chair leg and around her stomach was another rope restraining her from getting up. She spat in the space in front of her even though she knew there was no one. Because she was alone in that dark room.

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Marinette couldn't wait any longer and she opened the door before Chat Noir could stop her.

"My best friend is missing!"

Master Fu looked up at the two teenagers and sighed.

"I assume he knows your identity, Ladybug. But do you know his?"

The girl glanced at her friend and shook her head.

"I see," the old man said.

"May I see Tikki?"

"I told you I wouldn't be able to heal her until I receive the proper herbs and bones. Wasn't I clear enough?"

Chat noticed how Marinette's hands and legs were shaking. Her whole body was actually. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gently squeezed her arm, telling her he was there. Master Fu ran his fingers on his pointy grey beard. He slowly walked to a table at the back of the room and carefully took a box.

It was black with tiny red flowers on it. Real ones. Around each flower were four small shining white stones. A golden ribbon was wrapped around it. He sat on the traditional chinese rug and placed the box on the wooden table.

"Sit down."

The teenagers did so and Marinette reached out for the box. She slowly pulled on the golden bow to untie it.

"This box is keeping her alive. The flowers come from a secret temple, in India. They are almost useless to humans, but to kwamis they act as a shield from any bad energy."

The girl lifted the top and frowned when she saw another box.

"The white gems are believed to create imperceptible waves of relaxation that both works on humans and kwamis, from my personal observations."

Marinette took the second box out. It was made out of a dark wood and had symbols carved all around it. On the top was a small weirdly shaped mirror with spikes and round curves. But when she looked in it, she didn't see herself but rather what was behind her, as if she didn't exist.

"This box is made of ancient wood, probably older than me. The tree it comes from could never die, even when hit by lightning. But one day, it died abruptly when the last heir of the royal family who owned it died. People think that its wood will keep anything safe."

"What's this mirror?" Marinette asked.

"If you can see your self in it, it's because you're dead. Then you'll be so scared of your own reflection that you'll run away. Therefore, it protects its surrounding from spirits."

The blue haired girl opened the second box to find a white velvet bad. She glanced at the old man.

"I liked how it looked," he shrugged.

Carefully her fingers opened the bag and in the middle of it, curled up in a ball, she saw her kwami resting on a small bed of feathers. Tikki didn't even open her eyes. Marinette felt a pressure on her chest.

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"I already told you, all I do is run a blog about her, I don't know her identity!"

But that wasn't the right answer.

Alya received an electric shock down her spine.

"I asked: what is Ladybug's identity."

The computer generated voice was hurting the girl's ears and the deep and heavy vibrations made her feel like she was about to implode.

"Please let me go! I won't tell anyone just, please..."

But she received another shock. And this time she couldn't hold back her tears and she let out a desperate scream.