Spellbound

penumbra

"She was crying...and the second I walked inside-" she half-heartedly recounted. "she immediately assumed it was me-and went insane."

"She was enraged-and i've never seen anything like it."

Connie's hands withdrew from the blunette, eyes closed as she clasped one hand over her mouth. She errantly paced around the area, thoughts consciously swarming her head.

"If steven ever finds out-" the south-asian girl spoke, much to marinette's horror.

"No!" the blunette snapped, alert, "Don't tell him!"

Connie gave her friend a look of concern, as she kneeled beside her. "Why ever not, marinette?"

The room grew silent, where marinette's eyes lowered as she slowly hugged her knees at the mention of their leader. She slowly got up from her seat, before later standing in the centre of the room as she allowed everyone's eyes to be on her.

"He..." she whispered out, "he...he doesn't need to know."

Unbeknown to the Parisian girl, a silhouette from behind gently moves.

"If I didn't know any better..." came a more deeper, masculine voice.

Marinette immediately whirled around at thew sound of the sinister voice, where its presence grabbed the other girls' attention-where marinette happened to be the only one to pale at who it was.

Steven gradually sauntered out from the shadows, his eyes tapered as he slowly came forward and from out the darkness.

"...I'd think I'd say you don't trust me." He later finished, getting closer to marinette with every slow step.

"N...no...." marinette's voice was below a whisper, weak and submissive enough for only steven to hear. "I...I really just think that-"

"Shut. The fuck. Up." steven's slightly raised voice dripped with pure venom as he snaringly spoke of the demand through clenched teeth-pushing it further as he gently touched against a pallid marinette's pulsing black eye.

"You know, now that I'm looking at this..." he gave the black eye a onceover, holding her chin slightly as he spoke, "I think it's time for me to have a conversation with this 'lila' girl about this..."

"Steven..." marinette intoned silently, as she watched him step away from her..

"Steven," came connie's voice as she stood up. "Please-try not to do anything you'll regret."

He turned over to his lover, taking notice of the imploring look on her face-and to him, she almost resembled a little lost puppy.

"When one foolishly chooses to hurt a member of our circle, connie," he explained mechanically, "they hurt all of us."

"We act as one."

It had been a half an hour since he made his presence to the other girls known, and steven's car sped through the vacant streets as it drove into a neighbourhood. As he drove along out on the empty road, passing under each lit streetlight, the lights flickered.

His glove-clad hands gripped at the steering wheel as he drove, silently talking to himself in angered bursts-angered bursts-and from behind, a lamp shatters with a large bang, within a bright shower of sparks.

A sprawling Spanish-style townhouse, similar to marinette's-suddenly caught his eyes, where he later parked his car over to the street.

Alone in her bedroom, lila's hazel eyes stung bitterly as the confrontation she had with marinette earlier came back into mind.