“Uh-uhm, Mr. Agreste, good, you're awake? You’re father’s here.” She was quaking in terror. “I’ll um, just ask you a few questions now that you’re awake, you girls need to leave.” We nodded and she didn’t notice when I stole the extra sheet.
Chloe and I took a small detour per my request. We stopped by the laundry room where someone was already throwing dirty sheets in the wash.
“Um, excuse me? I’m afraid you missed one so I brought it down.” I held out the sheet, crumpled to hide the blood stains. She gave me an odd look for a moment.
“Oh, thank you.” she accepted it, shrugging, throwing it in with the rest.
“Have a great day!” I called exiting the room.
“You too.” she nodded, turning on the washing machine.
We started down the hall to the exit when Chloe stopped me as a tall man passed by.
“Mr. Agreste.” she nodded in a small bow.
“Hello Chloe, I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Neither did I, you.” I looked at the man before me, he seemed cold and distant even though he was warmly greeting us and was right there.
“And who’s this?” He asked, turning to me. I held out my hand.
“Marinette, Marinette Dupain-chang.” He looked at my hand in disgust and I realized that I held out my bandaged hand as the pain started to pang through my arm, diving deep into my bones.
I pulled my hand back, embarrassed, I know I shouldn't be, it’s there because I helped my friend. But just how he looked at it, like it was the foulist thing he’s ever laid eyes on made me feel, I don’t know, bad I guess? I want to say that I don’t care about others' disapproval, but this person just had a knack for staring into your soul and showing that he’s judging it.
I understood the nurses fear now, I didn’t even notice when he left I was in such a state of panic and humiliation. My mind swirled and for a moment I felt the room silp a bit. It didn’t tilt, it slipped, like it jerked suddenly forward for a moment.
“Okay, let’s go.” Chloe ushered me, on hand holding my shoulder, grounding me. The other hand, holding out the set of gloves from yesterday, I gladly took them and slipped them on. “Don’t worry, he’s scary to everyone. How are you feeling?”
“Small.”
“No, like, how tired are you right now?”
“I’m good, there's one more thing I want to do though.”
“What is it?”
“You know Adrien’s mom?”
“Mhm?”
“I want to resurrect her. I know where her body is and I can do it, I just need time.” My stomach grumbled at me. “Eating something first might also be nice though.”
We stopped at a small cafe on the way to the library and got a cookie and two mocha’s. We took a moment to rest as we waited for the car Chloe called for. I held my injured hand to my stomach as I sipped my drink, the pain flaring up and burning.
“So you know Emily?”
“Mh, I’ve known her for a couple of years, we read together. She’s more of a mom to me than my own.”
“She was the same for me as well. That was, until she disappeared, she was last seen entering a library with her friend and then no one saw her exit.” she took a breath. “Whenever mom would leave for her travels, Emily was there for me. I really miss her.”
“Well, it’s good that I’ll be bringing her back.” I tried to lighten the mood but Chloe did one better when her sleek black limo pulled up.
“Um, Chloe? You really did have to do that, I mean, we could have gotten an uber, or, a taxi, you know something a little less, well, extravagant?”
“Listen Dupain-cheng, I rode on the gross bus for you and had to deal with those irritating children. Let me have this one thing! So help me if I have to nearly die of public transportation air and germs again!”
“Okay then, s-sorry about that, I didn’t realize that you’d never been on a bus.” I tried to deactivate this situation and started to get up, ready to go.
“Wait!” She held out her hand, concerned that I would leave right then. “One second.” she motioned for me to stay where I was so I sat back in my seat. Chloe ran up to the counter and talked with the cashier for a bit. She paid and shifted her weight onto one foot, tapping the other impatiently.
She was handed a large orange drink and came back over, thrusting it towards me. “Here, it’s orange juice. I wasn’t sure how much blood you’ve lost, but when you helped Alya combined with now, you must have lost about 1.5 liters. The first time I tried to feed you oranges to help but you for some reason, completely looked over them so now you’ve got to drink all of this.”
I didn’t really have a choice but to accept it. “Th-thanks I guess, but do I really need this?”
“Yes!” she stood up straight and held out her hand counting on her fingers as she talked about the reasons why I needed the juice. “Well first, when you tried to hand the sheet’s to the nurse, you were a bit to the left and holding them out to air. Then you blacked out when I was talking to Mr. Agreste and when you came to, you looked confused and were standing at a tilt. And when we were walking here, I had to keep you from walking it to traffic, not once, not twice, but three times! If you don’t start drinking this drink and have it finished by the time we get to the library, no more resurrections for 48 hours and you’ll be on bed rest per my orders.” I started sucking back the juice, maybe I can finish before I get in the car.
Chloe led me to the limo and her driver held the door for us and it closed behind me. I caught sight of a newspaper in the car door.
“Hey, is this from today?” I asked Chloe, taking a break from the drink.
“Hm?” She looked over.
I pointed to it. “Is this from today-”
“Oh! Yes, why?”
“No reason.” I said bending over to pick it up and read it. I flipped to the obituary section. ‘Martha Walkers.’ it read under the picture of the old lady I met last night. I continued the page. ‘September 16th, 1940- January 13th 2020 Paris, France- Widowed at 45 when her husband, Frank Walkers, passed away from breast cancer at 48. She never remarried, waiting for the time when she could finally reunite with him. She passed away peacefully at 4:15 am on the 13th, her family all by her side.’ there was more to it but I had just skimmed it. I was happy to have found out their names, it made me feel better and closer to them.
“Who’s that?” Chloe asked leaning over, frowning a bit as she studied the photo.
“I just was curious.”
“Okay, but remember, only one more resurrection today, Emily.” I nodded. “Also, sorry if I was a bit harsh with the juice and all, you just needed to get some blood sugar going, or, whatever.”
“Eh, it’s okay.” I shrugged, setting aside the newspaper, taking some more sips of the pulpy orange juice, a sweet taste on my tongue and felt soothing running down my throat. We arrived at the library and stepped out.
“Okay, you ready?” I just shivered with nerves, gulping down the juice to avoid answering. “Great! Let’s go in then!” I barely had time to shove the container in the trashcan right outside so I didn’t bring any sticky drink into the library.
“I can’t wait to see her again-...” Her voice trailed off. The place was desert and destroyed. The Librarian, Fu was glaring at a woman in the center of the mess as he laid on the floor beat up and bruised, a faint glow of magic fading from his hands.
“Welcome Marinette, nice protective spell you placed on your friends. Too bad you couldn’t help all of them.” My Aunt stepped towards me, her voice sweet and soft, surrounded in light, looking almost welcoming. “My offer still stands, I won’t harm any of them, I just need what was rightfully mine back. Okay?” She asked, reaching her hand out to me, giving me a gentle smile, beckoning me to shake her hand.
It looked so tempting, this time, I didn’t have the power to resist and started making my way to her. My leg’s involuntary bringing me closer, I tried to force my body from moving but my hand still moved up to take hers.
No, I can’t do this, this can’t be happening.
“That’s it my dear, just a bit closer. A bit closer and all the pain will go away, you can be happy. You were just the universe's puppet, my father- your grandfather’s puppet. Expected to jump when the strings were pulled, going through life with only this as your destiny. Let me cut the strings now. You can be free of all the chain lick strings tying you to this fate.
“That’s it, one, more, step.”
One, more, step.
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Like u said yesterday, I've finished the story so I'll be updating daily 1 to 2 chapters at a time. Thanks for reading and i hope you have an amazing day! See you tomorrow!