It had been clear since after that confrontation, marinette spent at least the middle of the week constantly fighting inside herself as she walked down the halls of her school one late Wednesday afternoon.
The dappled late afternoon sunlight gave a sparkling radiance to her glitter notebook, as she held it close to her chest as she slowly walked down the near vacant halls.
As soon as she silently arrived in the girls washroom, the blunette had no idea what to think when she was met with the sight of lila before her. The Italian girl stood over the sink with a lowered head-and from what marinette could see, lila looked as if she was on the verge of real tears-which shocked her to the very core.
The door unexpectedly closed behind her as soon as her hand slowly gave out from holding it open-much to marinette's shock. The heavy "click" drew the attention of lila as she wildly shot up- and through her blurry vision, she immediately saw red once she eyed the parisian girl before her.
"You..." undeniable rage hit the Italian girl like a bus as she immediately withdrew from the sink, stomping over to her. "So it was you...you did this to me."
Marinette took it to mean that lila considered her to be the first person to be the catalyst of her downfall-and immediately paled as the girl approached her with every menacing step.
"You did this to me, haven't you?! You were the one who was behind all this?!"
"I-"
Lila panted like a threatened animal, the absolutely furious, predatorial look in her eyes making the extent of her rage known-giving marinette little time to establish what was going on as with the speed of a cheetah she immediately lashed out at her. Marinette's horrified scream sounded through the room as the back of her head hit the tiled taupe floor as the Italian girl pounced atop her.
She tried to restrain from lila's grip, lila's fist wiggling around in the blunette's grip where lila eventually managed to free it. The fist later coming in contact with the side of her face. She grabbed
"YOU FUCKING BITCH!!!!!!" tear after tear sprung free from lila's eyes through every slap she gave the blunette, "YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF TRASH!!!!!! YOU RUINED MY LIFE!!!!!!! YOU'VE RUINED EVERYTHING!!!! EVERYTHING!!!!!"
Even as she went through every aching punch/slap lila had to offer, a sudden scream sounded from lila as marinette's fist quickly ran to the centre of her face. The italian girl fell back on her arse-and that gave marinette a chance to immediately hit the ground running as she immediately sped out of the washroom-and outside of the school through the back doors-her briefcase shrugged over her shoulder.
She was unsure of how much she ran as she constantly found herself scrambling through trees and bushes through the colouring sky. Branches reached out to her, marring her skin with scratches as she ran and ran.
Tears cascaded over dried tracks that had since been made on her cheeks as she made it out of school perimeters-and later stumbled up the street, across a freshly mowed lawn as she semiconciously clutched onto her slightly tattered clothing. She finally made it up to the steps, quickly prodding a finger against the doorbell.
She waited a while before out came sabrina from the door, the Brazilian girl's eyes widened at the dishelleved, teary eyed blunette before her.
"Marinette, my god..." she held her limped hands as she later slowly guided her inside the house.
A cloth dampened with peroxide ran over the scratches and cuts as with bloodshot eyes, marinette's bathrobe-clad body was slumped over sabrina's window seat. Connie carefully positioned a bag of frozen vegetables in place over marinette's one eye, where silently darcy watched before them, clearly nervous.
"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.
That goody-goody bitch actually turned her plot to ruin her life against her-and not only it actually worked-she got away with it. Not a single person was aware that she was behind it.
She seethed as she remembered the smile on marinette's face the day it all went down-oh how she wanted to rip it from her face.
She felt that the beating she gave her earlier would be the only thing to suffice for a while-because that isn't compared for the idea of revenge she started plotting as soon as she arrived home. She knew and understood very well that this was far from over.
The sound of her bedroom door had closed with a click-almost startling lila before she began to administer it. Wasn't her door already closed?
"Mum?" she called out. Her mum wasn't due to arrive home until later, which confused her. As her voice sounded through her room, she wasn't given an answer.
A figure slowly emerged from the darkness of the night, blue locks of hair cascaded to above her chest, her lowered cerulean eyes holding a glint of venom to them as she slowly came forward from the shadows.
"You!" the Italian girl yelled out, "What are you doing in my house?"
"Miss me?" "marinette" cooed to her. "I'd bet you'd thought you saw the last of me."
Sabrina's car sped down lila's neighbourhood, sabrina looking around as she searched for an idea of steven's whereabouts.
"There's his car!" connie shouted out, grabbing the Brazilian girl's attention.
The rubber tires screeched as sabrina immediately pulled over, quickly parking the car to steven's. At that, all four doors were opened and later slammed shut as everyone ran out of the car. Running over to lila's house, they immediately made a beeline for the front door.
"We should not be here," sabrina shouted irritably as they ran for the front porch.
"Neither should Steven." connie added.
Lila immediately rolled away from the blunette, astounded.
"What are you going to do to me?!" she shouted.
"Marinette"'s lips form into a wry smirk-before later emerging in a series of body-racking laughs-unnerving the Italian girl for a while-until she finally stopped as she proceeded to get her point across.
"'Nothing will ever prepare for what I'm about to do with you'...well-isn't that what you told me not too long ago, lila?" she said coyly.
The door immediately slammed to the side-revealing the four girls standing in the doorway, looking as if they were ready for a fight. "Marinette" took notice of their presence from behind, and just looked to the side almost impassively.
"How amazing that you all coincidentally graced me with your presence." she sighed, not taking her eyes off lila.
"Steven!" the real Marinette shouted, stepping closer. "Stop this madness! End this now!"
"I guess it's time to drop the ruse?" "Marinette" deduced with a sigh.
At that, she slowly pulled her dainty hands through her face-where much to lila's shock, stood steven right before her, his petite body forming back to its original muscular form after the short transformation.
"You..." she tried to speak, but was stuck for words at what she saw before her, "You're a-"
Steven flashed a grin, "Yes. Yes I am. And those girls over there," he pointed to sabrina, connie, darcy and marinette, "Are all witches themselves."
"And another thing," he added, sitting on the edge of lila's bed. "You were actually right about marinette being behind those rumours. She casted a vengeance spell against you. And that's precisely why I'm here. To make you have an idea of who not to fuck with."
"Steven, enough!" marinette immediately yelled, "Look, you already scared the shit out of Lila, you taught her a lesson, thank you very much for that, let's just fucking go already!"
Steven pulled away from lila, his relaxed face forming into a childish pout as he looked at the fuming blunette. "No. She needs to pay. Anyone who hurts a member of this coven is the first on my permanent shitlist."
Lila eventually managed to free herself from her state of shock, where she scowled at steven.
"Oh, I'm the one who needs to pay?! If it's anyone, it should be her!" she pointed to marinette, "I hate that bitch! It's all her fault...everything is! I tried running her out of paris and now that she's here, she has her stupid grandma and all you fucking losers as friends and she's still happy! My parents were divorced and she gets to keep hers all safe and sound! And it's all because she's prettier than me, better than me...it's always all about marinette; smart marinette, beautiful marinette, amazing popular pretty fun marinette! Even when she's fucking dead everyone would still care about her more than me!"
Steven remained silence as he impassively levelled a seething, almost tearful lila as she finished her tirade. After a long bout of silence, his body rose up as he slowly floated upward, his two feet hanging from the carpet-much to lila's horror.
"I can only think of one way to teach a lesson to someone like you..." he said. "A spoilt brat like you should realise that everything can't always be about her."
He floated closer, where lila gradually backed up against the french doors that led out to her balcony, trying to evade him. She immediately resolved to lock the door-but failed as the doors thunderously slammed open before her paling face, where steven floated closer to her.
"I think you're such a lying, manipulative, horrible, snotnosed little sack of shit-that not even your own parents want to deal with your whiny scheming bullshit-even after they split up."
Words prepared to retort instantly died in lila's throat once she gave one good look in steven's eyes-his dark eyes were ablaze with absolute, primal fury with every word he spoke. Lila didn't know what to say-but realise that whatever steven was ready do to her, she still had some time on her hands to try to save face.
"I'm..." lila's voice was chocked as she tried to force out words to try to save face. "I actually...didn't mean that. I was just only throwing a tantrum...and I really didn't mean anything by it...and I'm...I'm so,,, sorry." the words felt bitter to lila as she tried to apologise-which was something marinette never expected her to actually do to her victims one-on-one. "I'm so sorry for everything, marinette-really."
Lila foolishly took it to mean that steven let the apology flow past his radar-and at random, a small, dry smile slowly crept on her lips, where steven later took notice of it.
"You're sorry?" he immediately went grim, demoralising the shorter girl at his sudden change, "You're sorry?!"
"You're SORRY?! YOU'RE SORRY?!" he shouted out, directly into lila's scrunched face. "YOU'RE SORRY, YOU'RE SORRY, YOU'RE SORRY!!!!!!!" his head wildly rammed back and forth through every furious screech, "SORRY, SORRY, SORRY, SORRY MY ASS!!!!!!!!!!!"
An earsplitting, inhuman scream emerged from the mouth of steven as a furious gust of wind breezed through the room, knocking everything away from its place with the wrath of its force, where sabrina, connie and darcy carefully held on to each other as they tried not to risk getting blown away by the strong gale.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"NO!!!!" marinette shouted through his scream.
The heavy force was enough to push lila's body off the railing of her balcony, as she fell over with a horrified scream that resonated through the whole neighbourhood.
And before the Italian girl even knew it-with a sickening crunch the back of her head met the flagstone terrace.