The Algorithm

Chapter twenty - The Siren Without a Voice

Without skipping a beat, Plagg directed the agents to seal off the entrance and exit to the labyrinth. The man had found his knife in the grass and dragged the girl into the maze. They did as they were told, running through the rain, searching the border of the square-shaped hedge puzzle until they found the exit. Two of them stayed behind to guard the entrance in case he doubled back. Plagg instructed Adrien, Marinette, and the remaining agents to come with him and search the maze.

But Marinette couldn't move, her eyes were glued to the boy in the crowd. Tall thin, messy black hair that was dyed blue at the ends. But her heart broke all over again when she realized it wasn't him, it was as if she watched him die a second time. The boy shared some of Luka's traits but his eyes were so brown they appeared black against his ashen skin. Someone grabbed her arm. Plagg, she realized, was dragging her into the labyrinth and told her to turn left while he continued straight and Adrien went right with the other soldiers that accompanied him.

Mindlessly, she obeyed. Running in whatever direction her instincts told her. The rain-soaked her to the bone, shivering and with the image of Luka after he was pulled from the rumble fresh in her mind. She hit a dead end.

She couldn't run anymore, she curled up into the corner where the two green hedges met and buried her face into her skirt. Once again she was lost in the forest as she tried to run away from the haunting image. But this time it was so much worse. She was well and truly lost, with no one to pick her up and lead her back to safety.

I'm gonna die here, Marinette thought to herself, might as well, they won't be there when I wake up so what's the point? If I die at least I can be buried next to them, that is if anyone finds my body. Maybe I'll die of hunger, or the rain will give me hypothermia, either will get the job done.

As rain and tears soaked her dress, her body shook with the cold. She decided that hypothermia was her best bet.

She just wanted Luka to come and find her, take her home, but he didn't. Plagg did.

He found her pressed into the wet branches of a bush wall after who knows how long. He saw her shivering and wrapped her in his suit jacket. So much for dying of cold, she thought. Plagg asked her questions like, what are you doing here? Are you hurt? What's wrong? But she answered none of them. For days she said nothing, she skipped training and didn't answer the door when people knocked. Adrien would set food outside for her when she didn't respond to his offer for lunch, but she never ate it. Every day, he would stop by and see the food he left the day prior still waiting on her doorstep. He stopped by the bar a few times to see if she had nightmares but it was empty and the fireplace stone cold.

Over a week passed and Marinette stayed hidden away, still lost in the forest, destined to never escape.

Hunger, she decided after her plan to die in the cold failed, would be her rescue from the dark woods. Even when the scent of food Adrien left outside slid through the door frame and her mouth watered, she refused to get up and take it. The little movement she made since coming back to GUARD was to slip off the wet, sticky dress and take the crystal pins out of her hair.

From what Adrien told her through the door, the man who tried to kidnap the peacock was taken into custody by the agents waiting at the labyrinth's exit. She said nothing in return.

No one knew what was wrong, no one knew what she saw that day. That was until Tikki forced her out of hiding.

The sound of knuckles on Marinette's door had become a familiar one but she ignored it. Whoever was on the other side of the door knocked again and again, then bypassed the electric lock.

As Tikki approached her bedside she was horrified. Her skin was white as a ghost and she had lost weight, she resembled the scared little girl she met three years ago. The little girl who was cowering and crying when she entered the refuge, thinking Tikki was there to take her back into the darkness she feared so much. She had even deserted Longg's dress in a muddy and wrinkled pill in the corner. Tikki knew under normal circumstances Marinette would never discard anything Longg made for her. But the thing Tikki feared most was her eyes. The hollow expression in her gaze had deepened. She was empty.