glowing eyes

one

The world is cold and unforgiving.

That was one of the first things I remember being taught in my stay here. The phrase had been repeated over and over again until it was permanently engraved in the back of my skull, the words red hot in my mind. Madame Bustier had become a human broken record, it felt as if she could not utter any other phrase but that one. The words had flowed off her tongue with such distaste and conviction, almost as if the thought of the world's actions was enough to make someone vomit.

Though, this bittersweet phrase was not the only thing that was seared into my mind.

The second thing I was taught was that to get what you want you had to push yourself past your limits to achieve them. And boy had I pushed myself past my limits.

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"Marinette! It's uppercut, side, and then kick! How many times must we go over this!" Mendeleiev barked, spit flying from her lips. I tried my best to keep my face as blank as possible as she continued to curse me to hell, her glare becoming harder than steel as the minutes flew by. "As punishment for your idiocy, you are to be given no dinner for the next three nights, dismissed!" Mendeleiev snatched my arm up faster than I could blink and shoved me towards the guarded, who proceeded to drag me towards the door.

"Make sure her punishment is known," Mendeleiev growled barely sparing me a glance before shoving past us and rushing out of the door. We stood there for a moment before leaving the room, the guard keeping a tight grasp on my shoulder. I kept my lips shut as I was led to my room by the guard, not trusting myself to speak. Our footsteps were the only noise in the silent hallways, without them it would seem like an abandoned building, which it technically was. The weapons that decorated the walls felt as if they were taunting me with the idea of escape, that all I had to do was reach up and grab one and I would be free.

That would never happen, of course.

By the time we reached my door, the silence had reached almost maddening, as it did every time I left my room. The people in this building were like robots; they only knew how to function. The creak of the door brought me out of my thoughts, and I glanced up to see the guard looking at me expectantly. I slowly stepped into my room and flinched when the door slammed shut behind me, a loud click echoing as the guard locked it.

I waited until I could no longer hear his footsteps to release the breath I hadn't realized I had been holding in. I leaned back against my door, finally allowing the weight of today's incidents to fall on my shoulders.

Like every other day, my inability to focus and not be clumsy had resulted in many punishments; the worst being my dinner privileges being taken away. I was clueless on how I wold be able to get past the next few days without dinner, especially when breakfast and lunch are overcooked meat, water, and nutrient pills. Sure, it could definitely be worse, but that still didn't stop me from moping around my room in self-pity.

"Marinette?" A voice called out tentatively, a little red head popping out behind the curtains. "What happened?" I simply sighed and dramatically fell down on my bed, causing a horrid groan to come from the old springs. I ignored Tikki's question and instead stared up at the ceiling, wishing that something other than concrete would meet my eyes. "Was it... Mendeleiev again?" Tikki questioned, her voice going soft as she looked at me.

I merely nodded and continued to stare at the ceiling that I've memorized in my time here. I could easily name every single crevice that was engraved in the stone, due to the amount of time I spend staring at it. There wasn't much to do in this place but train and get yelled at, both of which were unpleasant.