A content warning for detailed gore (if you're sensitive to blood/insects you are free to skip certain scenes) and a brief scene of domestic abuse. you have been warned.
Marinette undeniably found it near impossible to sleep the whole night, negative and paranoid thoughts consciously swarming through her head at an alltime high like an army of ants ravaging over discarded food. The eerily silent room the blunette laid in was wrapped with the darkness of the night as dozens of sheets surrounded her lower half.
A scratching at the glass of her balcony door nearby lurked behind the drapes-where marinette's ears were strained to the sound. Slowly pulling the sheets away, marinette walked across the room to check the doors-the scratches increasing with every step she took.
She slowly pulled open the drapes and clearly wilted with pure horror as she slowly looked up; from what she could see through the raindrop-dominated glass, the rest of her coven were airborne outside her balcony, faces chalk white as they stared down at the paling marinette before them.
"We want to talk to you, marinette..." darcy cooed after a while of sound silence between them.
"A...about-about what?" she asked silently.
Steven's face darkened as a malicious, toothy smirk marred his face.
"Your suicide."
The shattering of glass rang throughout the room as the four unexpectedly fled towards the window, through an explosion of glass. Marinette's body roughly flung against the far wall, eyes widened as they flew towards her, their hands grabbing at their neck. Wicked, demented laughs filled the choking blunette's ears as twitching, starving hands collectively attempted to clutch at her neck, strangling her.
Even as she could barely breathe through the constant tightness of her neck, she slowly opened her eyes, before they immediately shot open-her irises shrinking to the size of pinpricks that matched her white face.
It was a vision of lila falling to her head from that night, marinette's ears filled to the sound of bone snapping, along with that same crunch resounding from her precipitous fall upon impact with the hard flagstone. Lila's body violently toppled to the side as soon as she made it, where scarlet caked heavily into her scalp and nearly matted into her skull discolouring the very head of her brown locks, the side of her face puddling with blood.
Marinette's shoulders dropped on impulse as she released an absolutely blood-curdling scream from the top of her lungs as if her heart had been ripped out through her skin.
"YOU'RE A TRAITOR AND YOU SHOULD BE CONDEMNED AS SUCH!!!!!!!" shouted a disembodied voice-one that was eerily akin to steven's as it was the only thing for her to hear.
"NO!!!!!!!!"
"YOU SHALL SUFFER FROM YOUR SINS!!!!!!!"
"Marinetta! Marinetta!"
The blunette violently tossed and turned over on her side of the bed where gina tried to calm her down.
"Marinetta, calm down!" gina tried to hold onto her to no avail, as marinette couldn't listen to her.
"LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!"
"Marinetta, please wake up!" she directed, shaking the blunette more.
"LET GO OF ME!!!! STOP IT!!!!! STOP, PLEASE, DON'T!!!" mari screeched out.
Within a horrified shriek, marinette shot awake in cold sweat, her body quivering. Looking up she ran a few trembling fingers through her hair-and later, her head roughly switched back and forth looking around to try to establish where she was. Then she looked at a worried gina beside her, her heart racing.
"Leetle fairy, everything will be okay..." she cooed silently, "you were just having a nightmare."
"Granny!" marinette immediately burst into tears as she leant forward into the older woman's chest. Gina later sat by her, fastening her arms over her granddaughter as she silently comforted her.
Clean streaks were apparent on marinette's cold, faded cheeks as she slowly walked home through the late afternoon sky. Bags wore thin around her lowered, bloodshot eyes as she barely got enough sleep from what happened earlier last night.
A sigh sounded through her pink lips as she soon made it to the front of her house. As she walked in, the lights in the house were off, leaving the sitting room in darkness.
"Hello?' marinette called out, as she sat her bag down on the sofa. "Granny? Are you home?"
Marinette's attention was pulled to the sofa as her phone vibrated in her bag. Walking over she opened it, pulling her phone from between some books where she winced a bit as the ringtone played a tiny bit louder as later answered it.
"Hello?" she asked through a tired voice.
'Marinette." Came steven's voice from over on the other line. It took marinette a while that his voice wasn't as menacing as it usually was-it was more subdued and quiet-if not, actually desolate for marinette's sake.
"Look, there's been an accident...I swear on my heart, hell on my uncle steg that I'm not shitting you about it."
Marinette's eyes slightly widened, twitching a bit by steven's eerie-sounding words.
"...What?" she said. "Steven-what are you talking about?"
"It's been all over the news. Just...go look at your tv for a second." steven confirmed, before cutting the line.
Looking over to the flatscreen, marinette pulled the phone away from her ear as she grabbed the remote to turn to the news-and immediately paled as she silently watched the report.
Behind two reporters that both sat behind a console played footage of a massive pileup on the highway that led to somewhere upstate at least half an hour earlier, where marinette's heart dropped as she saw that gina was one of the victims when she saw her damaged car in a sea of other destroyed automobiles.
The sounds of the reporters' voices were drowned out by the loud ringing resounding in marinette's ears as she immediately dropped to her knees.
"God-if I was as weak, stupid and absolutely pathetic as you are-I would've just did everyone a favour and just offed myself ages ago for their sake."
Marinette looked up through her blurry vision-and immediately wept away her tears as she looked to her side. Before her stood steven and the others, a big smirk on his stubbly face as he glanced down at this target with predatorial eyes.
"Where's my grandmother?" marinette immediately questioned.
"Oh, don't count on it." steven shook his head. "You'll be joining her soon enough. With lila, and darcy's parents-who I may remind you that they went up to the great beyond just not too long ago. Darcy felt like celebrating when she first heard about it."
"That aside..." steven resolved to get his point across as he smirked at her. "You're going to kill yourself tonight, my dear."
Marinette looked at him with dread, stuck for words at what he had planned for her along the way.
"No..." she immediately decided, before regaining her composure. She stood up tall, giving steven a dangerous glare as she glanced at no one but him.
"No. No steven, I don't think I will."
Steven looked at her coyly, slightly tilting his head as he watched her tempt fate.
He and the others slowly float to the air, releasing a silent, yet menacing chuckle.
"...really now?" he asked. "Look in your eyes tells me-that you might not be so sure. After all-you have every reason in the world to do it. I mean-you killed lila, then darcy's parents..."
The memories of the nightmare from last night immediately came back to her in raw detail-where marinette shook her head-not wanting to remember it.
"Stop it." She demanded aloud.
"What's the deal...?" sabrina asked out of nowhere, voice fully emotionless. "Why doesn't she use any magic on us?"
"Because SHE'S FUCKING WEAK!!!!!" steven screamed out unexpectedly, pointing to the blunette. "Weak weak weak."
Marinette quickly wept a tear that threatened to fall from her eyes.
"Oh gods-you're so disgusting." Steven reviled as he looked her in the face. He looked to the side with a sigh and a shaking head, before immediately resolving to get his point across.
"Now is the end, let her go in peace." through a hasty, annoyed voice he proceeded to chant aloud, where everyone followed after him.
Now is the end.
Let her go in peace.
Now is the end.
Let her go in peace
Now is the end.
let her go in peace.
One by one, all their collective voices became slow and grim-where marinette stepped back with slightly widened eyes. Down below, a written sheet of paper daintily flowed down to her feet.
"I killed Lila Rossi.
I'm sorry,
Love Marinette Dupain-Cheng"
Marinette's eyes were drawn to the paper, and slowly looked up to steven and the others.
"I didn't write that."
"Doesn't matter," steven shrugged, slowly floating down to the floor with the grace of a leaf. "Handwriting still looks the same, that checks out."
He pointed his dark eyes down to marinette, "What's wrong with your scars, marinette?"
Before marinette looked down, stainless steel flashed brightly before her widened eyes as steven quickly snatched his arm to the side-and two red lacerations marred both her wrists.
Steven laughed-where a slightly trembling marinette shook her head, and immediately to the side.
"It isn't real." she immediately pointed out.
"Then why are you still bleeding?" steven asked gleefully. His finger pulled one of the lacerations, where droplets of crimson that bubbled from the scars landed on the paper, staining it with its presence.
Marinette later gave a cold stare to steven, who still kept his demented grin.
"Run!" he yelled playfully, "Run back up to your room-your sweet little safe haven-like the cowardly little bitch you are."
A series of ragged breaths followed marinette as she immediately hit the stairs.
"That's right....fucking christ-SHE'S SO PATHETIC!!!!"
Marinette ran through the threshold of the bedroom door and slammed open the door that led to her washroom, where she immediately stormed the medicine cabinet, roughly slinging everything that was inside away to the tiled floor as she desperately searched for bandages to stop the bleeding.
"S-stop-STOP IT!!!' she yelled out to no one in particular through her search. She held a white cloth that she later discoloured with blood as she raggedly sauntered back into her room, where she later lowered her head as she burst into a mess of broken, exhausted sobs. Steven's indescribable screams from downstairs however were loud enough to cancel out her quiet sobs.
"Please, god, somebody help me..." she sobbed out, "Please," she helplessly dropped to her knees, where the sobs continued. "Please....:
She later looked up from her lap-drowning in a horde of thoughts as she silently speculated of the horrors of what steven and the girls would do to her.
And as she thought-it had immediately hit her.
As he fiddled with the athame that he carried in his hands, steven's body bathed in the light of a sudden bolt of lightning from afar as he stood before the large windows of the far wall.
"Connie." He finally spoke after a while of silence. "Go upstairs. Go see what's going on with her."
"No!" connie immediately protested. "Steven, i don't like this! This whole thing is just absolutely-"
The monosyllabic word grabbed steven's attention-as through all their time through their relationship, connie never said no to him before.
"No...?" his voice immediately went grim, as he turned around.
"I said no!" the Indian girl glared at him, as she stood up from her seat on the couch. "Steven-"
Connie was immediately silenced into submission as steven pointed the sharp blade of his athame to her neck. She found herself glancing into steven's murderous stare, as he scowled at her.
"Connie get your WORTHLESS ARSE up those FUCKING stairs or so HELP ME GOD I'LL GLADLY SLIT YOUR FUCKING THROAT!!!!!!!!" his voice later went quiet as his intimidating scowl burned into her eyes, "Defy me that way again-and you'll be as dead as she is."
Sabrina grabbed connie's limped arm, with darcy flanking her. Steven's arm lowered as he looked at the trio.
"Come on, we'll go with you." sabrina offered, as she along with darcy whisked the horrified Indian girl to the stairs.
Hail to the guardians
of the watchtowers of the north...
by the powers of mother and earth.
I invoke thee.
I invoke thee.
"Marinette?" a voice sounded from the hall, where another followed.
"Hey, marinette?"
By the powers of three times three,
make them see, make them see.
By the powers of three times three,
make them see, make them see.
The three walked the dimmed halls of the house, where connie slowly followed behind.
"Get over it already, wiatch," sabrina demanded to the seemingly downcast indian girl, "We have a traitor to kill right now."
"...S-sabrina?" darcy called out.
Shaking her head, sabrina turned around-only for her eyes to widen at what she saw at the mirror connie and darcy were both gathered to.
"My..."my hair.." two hands of connie's went to touch at her rapidly receding scalp, slowly yet shakily. Sabrina was absolutely horrified to know that she was also suffering the same fate as the Indian girl as a sizeable lock of white/black hair was found on the palm of her trembling hand.
Tears rapidly escaped from darcy's eyes as she stared at her reflection. From head to toe was nothing but a complete monster-which took the form of the darcy as her skin was marred with hideous extensive burn marks.
"No..." the plus-sized girl immediately burst into tears, "No, not again."
"It's coming back to us, three times three...." connie ultimately assumed to herself.
"Not again, please not again.." darcy roughly shook her head where dozens of tears sprang free, where she was the first to immediately run away. Sabrina ran after her, along with connie behind her.
Downstairs, the girls immediately ran for the door, where their sudden escape came to steven's knowledge.
"What happened?" he watched as without warning they all dashed out of the house one by one, "Where the fuck are you going?!"
Steven looked to the nearest window as the girls immediately ran down the street. He felt like stomping his foot, where he later turned away from the sight.
"Fucking damn it..." he snarled, "If you ever want something done around here-then you have to do it yourself."
Hail to the guardians of the watchtowers.
Don't be afraid.
Reach inside yourself.
Reach inside yourself.
Hail to the guardians
of the watchtowers of the north...
by the powers of mother and earth.
I invoke thee.
I invoke thee manon.
I invoke thee manon.
"Marinette?"
Thunder sounded through the house as steven slowly crept down the hall, the sharp tip of blade tracing through the side of the bland-coloured wall with every slow step he took.
"Marinette..." he called out again with a slightly impish voice, "Come out come out wherever you are...."
He noticed that one of the doors down the hall were opened, where a smirk slowly made its way to his face.
Steven slowly made his way into the room, expected to find a helpless, or if not dead marinette as soon as he arrived-only for his hopes to dwindle as he later realised that the parisian girl was completely nowhere to be seen.
His eyes scan the room, proceeding to give it a small, harsh once-over to confirm that. He walked around to the other side, looking around to no avail.
"Just where oh where could my little playmate be....?" steven called out, to no one in particular.
An arm extended, where a small hand slowly reached out for steven, where it later sat upon his shoulder-where with widened eyes steven wildly turned around at whoever touched him.
"Did i frighten you, steven?" asked marinette, making her appearance fully known to him, "I'm really sorry."
Steven's eyes jumped around the room shiftily. "What the hell's going on?" he immediately questioned. "Why are you still alive?"
Marinette still levelled him with the same cold stare she gave him earlier, as she chose to stay pragmatic about her vague explanation.
"Came to me...saved me....and they wanted me to pass along a message to you. You're in deep shit right now, steven. They say you've abused what they gave to you-and now you have to pay the price."
As she spoke, a small roach crept over the side of steven's face-where as he noticed it, he immediately snatched it away from him where he later threw it away somewhere.
"....did they...?" he wanted to confirm.
Marinette slowly nodded. "Oh. They did."
A small number of bugs later emerged from the sleeve of steven's spiked leather trenchcoat-and steven immediately shook his wrist to try to get them out of there.
"By the way; what happened to the others?" marinette's head slightly tilted to the side as she asked of the question. "They just ran off without even giving wither of us so much as a single wave goodbye. That's bad manners."
The small roaches later swarmed downward to steven's arm and to his hand, where they errantly crawled around it-even when steven shook his hand, they still wouldn't go away.
As steven looked on to his glove-clad hand as he slightly raised it for him to see-before his eyes, each of his painted fingers slowly morphed into small, hissing snakes.
'W...what..." he murmured, clearly horrified, "What's going on-"
Marinette couldn't be bothered to answer that question for him as she just stood there, watching. A swarm of roaches later climbed around steven's lace-up combat boots, where they slowly made their way to his lower half.
"S-stop it..." he demanded silently, before shouting as he stepped back. "Stop it!"
Steven later stumbled on his feet, falling on his back to the carpet. He proceeded to break out in horrified pants as he was unable to comprehend what was happening to him.
"Stop...STOP!!!!!"
Marinette slowly walked up to him, facing him. From what she saw, the uncontrollable storm of various insects immediately consumed steven's body, overwhelming him with profound fear with their unwanted embrace-where a wave of snakes slowly sprouted, hissing as they later fully arose from his head. Another horde of roaches later emerged from his mouth-and without warning, he immediately released a terrified scream.
The lightning struck from out the window for the umpteenth time, as steven screamed again as he wildly thrashed on the carpet, he later found himself to snap out of it.
Panting heavily, he slowly opened his eyes, first glancing down upon his body. No roaches, no snakes.
"Oh steven, relax...it's only magic." marinette shrugged nonchalantly.
Steven looked back at her from the carpet, unable to fully speak through his throaty breaths as he was fully consumed with horror over what he went through earlier.
"Who's pathetic now?" the blunette's voice was low and ominous to match her stony face.
Through his gasps for air, steven managed to regain his composure as he slowly arose from his place on the carpet. He stood at least just a foot away from an aloof marinette, where he finally faced her.
"L...look..." his voice was broken, silent as it could be, "I know i'm a little crazy...i know i was an arsehole from the beginning...and i really don't mean to be...everything all got out of hand-and i'm so sorry."
Marinette's deadpanned face refused to change through his words however, as she allowed him to speak.
"No more games, okay?" he promised. "Marinette, please-I'm so sorry."
"Good." the parisian girl silently agreed.
Steven's thick eyebrows later lowered, as he slowly nodded. His hands were behind his back as he slowly looked down to his boots.
"I'm...i'm just gonna go now." as he reminded her, he fastened his arms away from his back as he immediately started to leave-until marinette's voice stopped him.
"And before you do, there's one more thing."
Steven stopped as he later turned around to look back at her, awaiting a response from her.
I bind you from doing harm, Steven Demayo,
harm against others,
and harm against yourself.
"Wait-" steven interjected-but marinette disregarded the sound of his voice, as she just kept chanting.
I bind you from doing harm Steven Demayo.
harm against others
and harm against yourself.
"Marinette, please, wait-" his voice was pleading in a matter unimportant to the blunette however, as she just continued.
I bind you from doing harm, Steven Demayo.
harm against others
and harm against yourself.
I bind you from doing harm, Stev-
Screaming, steven quickly brandished the athame from his pocket as he immediately lunged towards marinette-a sudden harsh breeze pulled the two out of the room and into a wall outside of the room. A rabid storm of items from marinette's room flew their way, as through furious tears steven desperately tried to lung the blade in marinette's skin, where she quickly tried to dodge every stab.
"I CALLED THEM BEFORE YOU!!!" many sheets of paper, books and other items flew steven's way as he tried to stab her, "I'LL KILL YOU!!! I'll KILL YOU, YOU BITCH!!! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!!!!" The athame eventually freed itself from steven's messy grip as he later proceeded to rough up the blunette, who masked her face with her trembling arms. "I'LL KILL YOU I'll KILL YOU I'LL KILL YOU I'LL KILL YOU!!!!!"
Before marinette and steven knew it, a large wooden dresser drawer immediately escaped through the threshold as it steadily rowed forward. Steven quickly turned around taking notice of its sudden presence, where he immediately jumped away from her-and marinette's scream was cut shot as the dresser drawer plowed into her.
The chaos steven's sudden rage bought upon them finally ended-and from the other side the boy in question looked back as he slowly got on his feet from the sea of papers and other various items that surrounded him, crawling through the area where marinette was struck.
"Where are you....?" He wordlessly asked, wriggling forward.
He slowly moved the papers out of his way, where he later fiercely pulled everything away form his to look for any trace of the blunette-to ultimately no avail.
"Where are you?!" he snapped out through his desperate search.
He moved a couple books out of his way-where he later found her-or what was left of her right at the corner of her wall. Before him sat her uniform as it lied there, clean and untouched.
"Tricky." he said under his breath as he looked at her clothes, "Tricky, tricky, tricky....tricky tricky tricky..."
With a wide-eyed stare, he quickly retrieved his athame where it sat unused somewhere in the pile nearby. He slowly held it in his left hand, grip tightening on the ornate handle as he held it downward. Staring at the uniform shirt with expert precision-his irises shrunk once he saw a petite body slowly morph into the uniform.
Marinette gave him a thousand-yard stare as her legs slowly rose up, much to steven's mix of horror and rage as he glowered right at her.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
With perfect timing the soles of marinette's black heels directly yet roughly plunged into the centre of steven's stomach-where as he screamed as he was hurled all the way to the other side of the hall, his back immediately hit the mirror that was propped up on the wall behind him.
A shower of sparkling glass fell before and around steven as his body ultimately fell to the floor.
From the corner of the wall where she originally sat at, marinette slowly opened her eyes, silently staring at the seemingly unconscious, subdued older teenager that lied a distance before her.
Closing her eyes, she silently proceeded to continue chanting.
I bind you from doing harm, Steven Demayo...
Harm against others....
.
.
.
and harm against yourself.