Kidnapped (A Miraculous Ladybug tale)

Chapter 3

Hey Kittens! So sorry that this chapter took so long. Life has been hectic, and I realized that I'm probably not going to be able to have a regular upload schedule during semesters. I'm going to try and work on it as much as I can over breaks and have some pre-prepped chapters so I can upload more regularly, but I can't guarantee anything. 😅

          For the next week, nothing too eventful happened. The guy who had led her to her room, brought her some food and water each day, while Mari stayed in that room with nothing to do. She made do with her blankets as makeshift toys, and sometimes a loaf of bread she saved from her meal for entertainment. She also made a trip the the nice lady each day to get her knee checked on. It wasn't until her knee was healed that something finally happened. The man brought her out of her room for her usual check-up, but when she got there, the nice lady was acting different. She was quieter than normal, and Mari noticed her fidgeting as well. After she was done checking Mari's knee, and confirmed that her knee was fully healed, she looked around, almost frantically before leaning in and whispering in Mari's ear, "Be ready. I'm leaving tonight, and I'm taking you and the others with me."

          Back in the room, Mari sat waiting, and wondering. With each passing minute feeling like an hour, she grew more and more anxious, afraid that she had been left behind, or that something had happened. Finally, with the moon high in the sky, and the building dead silent, there was a small click from her door. Mari quickly looked over to the door and saw the lady carefully poking her head inside. She gestured for Mari to quietly follow her out the door, and she did. Upon exiting her room, she found 5 other children huddled behind the lady, shaking, and scared. She quickly glanced around, and then ushered all the children forward as fast as she could, clearly worried. They went through many hallways taking so many twists and turns, that Mari couldn't imagine how the nice lady knew where they were going. After what felt like forever, eventually, they made it out the door. Once they had exited the building, the lady began ushering them over to a van that looked just like the one she had been kidnapped in. Some of the children stopped, refusing to go anywhere near the van. "Everything's ok, we're going to get out of here." She quietly assures them and opens the back van doors. "This is the safest way to get everyone out of here." She gently lifts everyone into the back of the van before quietly closing the doors. The children huddled together quietly in the dark of the van. After a few moments, they could hear the sound of the van starting, and feel the rumble and lurch as it started to move.

          They began to have doubts in their minds. 'Was she really taking them to freedom? Or was they one step further into this scary situation they'd all been shoved into. However, their thoughts were interrupted by a loud sound, and the vehicle violently swerving. They had no idea what was going on, but they knew it couldn't be anything good. A few moments later, They all fell over as the vehicle stopped abruptly, launching them towards the front of the van.

They couldn't tell exactly what was going on outside, but there was a commotion, and whatever it was, it wasn't good. So they huddled together in the corner, afraid of what could be happening outside. The doors were flung open, and the children were dragged out of the van. In the little bit of moonlight that was able to make it's way through the trees, Mari recognized one of the men dragging them out of the van, as one of the thugs in the group that kidnapped her. Looking around in panic, she noticed that one of the tires on the van was flat, and the front of the vehicle was scrunched with a tree mushed into it. The lady was also being dragged out of the van, but she was not moving. Before Mari could get see anything else, she was dragged away. Her and all the other children were brought back to where they had just barely managed to get away from, only a few moments ago. Their escape attempt had failed, and who knew what was going to happen to them now.

Hey Kittens... my goodness this chapter took me forever to finish. I don't even remember when I started it at this point, but I do know I started it before the end of the semester, and now it's already almost the beginning of the next semester. Anyways, I'm doing my best right now to schedule the things that I need to do, including working on these book chapters, so hopefully I'll be able to keep up a little better in the future. If I can manage to actually make and keep a schedule, I'm thinking uploads on Sundays. What do you all think? I debated on waiting till next week to upload this chapter, so that I can get a bit of a headstart on the next one first, but that felt mean of me to do after I already made you all wait this long. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter my Kittens, and I'll see you in the next chapter! ❤️