Queen of Terror

Chap. 24

Bridgette faced me with a challenging smirk. "You'd never do that! You value yourself way more than that!"

"Really? Is that what you think?" I let out a scoff as my finger made its way to the trigger. "Well then, you obviously don't know me well enough, Bridgette!" I shifted the gun so now it was pointed towards her left leg, then I released the trigger immediately. To my surprise, the bullet came flying through, and as soon as it made contact with Bridgette's skin, I felt myself fall down to my knees, breathing heavily while crying in pain. "The machine!" I cried out, letting my body fall to the ground. "DESTROY THE MACHINE!!" I knew as soon as the machine got destroyed, and both of us finally got disconnected, Bridgette wouldn't hesitate to make a move to kill me off. She was probably hiding a weapon for all I knew.

I could feel my eyes starting to close, but even so, I didn't fail to hear the loud smash coming from behind me, which was the sound the machine made whenever it got hit with something. I laid down there, forcing my eyes to keep open, though I was afraid Bridgette was doing much better than I was. I was afraid she was going to get up without a problem. I felt a pair of eyes staring at me and looked up to see Alya. She stared at me for a while before she finally leaned in and picked me up, shouting for someone to help her out. "We need to get her to a hospital. Quick, someone, get her out of here!"

I heard so many voices speaking at once, heard so many footsteps, heard so many loud smashing, but I didn't bother to pay any attention to any of them anymore, just letting my body rest while it was being carried to wherever they were taking me. I didn't fight it, so this time, when my eyes begged to close, I let them.

-

May 20th, Wednesday-

It's. . . over.

Even with the amount of times Alya told me those words, I couldn't stop myself from doubting it. It's over. After Bridgette had been knocked down by the bullet I shot her with, it was easier for the police to carry her out of there. Now, she was securely locked behind bars and charged with years of prison. Alya and Alix sat on a chair next to the bed I was laying on, with Adrien sitting on my other side, muttering sweet nothings of how I'd been extremely brave and should be proud of myself. I couldn't stop my mouth from spreading into a huge grin, and even though my legs still hurt, I didn't care at the moment.

The door then opened and Nino, Chloe with a doctor carrying a table, walked in. On the table I could see a small green bottle, and looking at it reminded me of all the other purple bottles Bridgette had made to get people on her side. Alya patted me on the shoulder to calm me down as she softly explained what this was for. "Don't worry. All the purple potions Bridgette created have been destroyed and so have the machine. But we kept this green one, because we soon figured out that Bridgette actually had a similar idea to you.

"Both of you wanted to get disconnected from each other, so she created this. Your guess was correct, Marinette. We had to destroy the machine to get you two disconnected, but that was only the half of it. We also had to destroy the queen's crown in order for the process to work, because it was also a part of all this. But that isn't necessary anymore because of this potion created. There were two bottles, one for each of you. Bridgette has already drank hers. This one is for you. Don't worry, Marinette. It's safe. We made sure of that."

I trusted the words coming out of her mouth and picked up the bottle, before swallowing every single bit of the liquid inside. It didn't feel like anything, though it tasted pretty bad. But even after minutes passed, nothing happened to me, so I took it that it'd worked. I officially had my own body back and didn't need to share it with anyone else by being connected to it. It felt amazing to have these thoughts without having to put the words 'I wish' right in front. I didn't have to wish any more.

Everything I'd ever hoped for was all falling into place again.

-

2 years later-

My eyes opened, feeling the ray of sunshine pour through from my window. It was calm. Everything was calm, and I liked it this way. I slowly got up from my bed, remembering that today was a day off to just do whatever I wanted; a day when I could just act like I was a normal girl rather than the Queen of Paris. Being Queen wasn't bad at all, especially when things started to become better after the whole incident with my twin sister, but on some days, so many works just piled in that I barely got any rest. Usually, I'd use my day offs to complete those works so I'd always stay on task, but today, I decided it wasn't going to be like the rest. I wanted to know what it felt like again without having to worry that I'd be missing out on my work.

I staggered a little when I got off the bed, which caused me to look down at my leg. I removed my pants so I'd be able to see my bare leg, where the wound was still plastered on there. It was like a scar for remembrance of what I'd had to go through, and everytime I saw it, I'd always get a smile on my face, remembering how courageous I'd been throughout the whole thing, remembering how I'd thought I'd never win, but completely switched things around. It felt so good to have those memories, though I hoped I'd never have to go through anything like that again.

A knock then sounded lightly on my door and I spoke loudly for whomever was outside to come in. The door stepped inside and two guards hurried in, immediately getting down on their knees to bow before their Queen. "Your Majesty," one of them started to speak. "We've got news you'd want to hear. It's related to that twin sister of yours, Bridgette."

At the sound of that, I stood frozen for a second. By now, almost everyone in Paris knew of Bridgette. I had come out, explaining to everyone of what had happened. Even a short, quick glance at Bridgette got them to immediately believe me. It felt good to get that out of the way, to know that the people I ruled over knew of my twin sister so no misunderstandings could happen. Still, hearing these words. . . I wasn't quite sure why they terrified me so much. I'd made a promise that I was completely done with Bridgette; I never had to see her, I never wanted to talk about her and I never needed to hear about her. I took in a short breath, before nodding my head. "Continue."

They motioned for me to follow them and I did so. Downstairs were officers in the living room, and seeing them there, I immediately knew things were serious. The officers were quick to bow down as well once they saw me, before getting up. One of the officers stepped up to explain everything to me.

"Bridgette was found dead last night. She'd actually somehow escaped prison about last week, but we didn't say anything because we didn't want to cause another terror throughout the city, and we didn't inform you because we knew of what you've been through and wanted to give you a rest." I frowned at the words, not knowing how to feel about them not telling me about such important news. Why did they have to wait until now to blurt out everything to me?

The officer continued. "Please don't be mad, Your Majesty. We wanted to take on the case and we did. We actually found Bridgette's dead body last night in the abandoned house because we got a call from her exclaiming that she was going to. . ." He let out a small cough as he looked down, "end her life as she had no more reason to live, so before we could get there in time, she'd already done it."

I didn't know how to feel hearing that. Sure, no one deserved to die and it hadn't technically been Bridgette's fault that her life ended this way, but at the same time, I didn't feel bad at all. She'd murdered so many people I was close with: my parents, butler, my best friends' parents, and even more than half of my classmates. I'd always have this guilt feeling inside of me, always thinking everything was my fault things ended this way, always thinking there must have been a better way to keep them away from Bridgette rather than gathering them all here. I'd sometimes always think it was all my fault that all these people died. I'd failed them. So hearing about this. . . I didn't feel saddened at all.

It kind of almost. . . relieved me, because now I was positive I wouldn't have to deal with Bridgette ever again. Everything that had happened was the past, and I wanted it to stay that way. I didn't want the past to repeat itself, and hearing that Bridgette was gone completely calmed me down. I may have lost important people in life during this entire mess, but at least I'd managed to save a whole city. . .

. . . Right?

|| completed ||