Always Find You

Chapter 13 - "Decisions, Decisions"

  Note: Lol, guys, prepare yourselves. This is kind of a graphic chapter. If you don't like violence, I recommend you skip it.
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Finally, after staying in the same spot behind the door, Marinette hears a familiar set of footsteps coming down the stairs. She tightens the homemade rope in her hands, ready to strike at any given second. The door unlocks and Hawk Moth walks into the room, looking for Marinette.
Before he can lay eyes on her, she leaps at him from behind, wrapping the cord around his neck and pulling it as tight as she can. His hands instinctively go to his throat as he tries to pry her off of him, to no avail: Marinette yanks him to the ground, getting on top of him and pressing the rope down more. He squirms and gasps for a breath, the girl managing to keep a hold on him. Just when she thinks Hawk Moth is about to go unconscious, a second wind hits him, and he forcefully throws her off of him, switching their positions so he's straddling her.

"I should have killed you when I had the chance!" He croaks at her. Gabriel yanks the rope out of her hands and throws it across the room, now pinning her arms to the ground. She doesn't stop squirming beneath his body weight.

"Get off of me!" Marinette yells.

"Or what? You'll try to kill me? We've already seen how well that goes. I have no problem with killing you now, my dear, since you've given me such a good reason to."

At that, she bucks even more, trying to get the man off of her with what little strength she has left. Gabriel holds both her wrists with one hand and grabs a sharp knife from his belt with the other, putting it to her throat,

"I'd stop that if I were you."

"Or what?" She says, choking back tears, accepting her fate, "You'll try to kill me? I see how well that's gone the past three years, Hawk Moth." She spits his name at him.

Gabriel hesitates for a moment, taken aback by the bold comment. His anger is getting the best of him; he still needs the info as to where Ladybug's Miraculous is. She may be the only person alive who knows where it is.
He moves the tip of the knife to her cheekbone, tracing the line of her jaw.

"No," he says, almost in a trance, "I'll get what I want first." With that, he quickly slashes a small cut onto her cheek, drawing a shout from Marinette.
When she gets control of her cries, he leans in uncomfortably close to her ear so that her hair stands on end, and whispers,
"You'll wish you had killed me, because with me, your life will be a living hell."

Hawk Moth sheaths his knife and pulls Marinette's unwilling body up with him. In spite of her struggling, she makes no progress toward getting out of his grip; she's underestimated his strength. He drags her to the center of the small room putting one hand at a time into a set of shackles hanging from the ceiling. Marinette tugs at them, trying to get her hands free, but unless she breaks her thumbs, it'll be impossible to.
With her arms pulled straight above her head, her feet are just barely touching the ground, making her breaths short and stifled.
Hawk Moth lets out a long sigh of exhaustion from their tussle and gives himself a moment to recover from the pain still shooting around his neck.
"This is your last chance," he breathes heavily, "Tell me where your Miraculous is."

"Please, honest to goodness, I don't have any idea. Just let me go." Marinette's cheek throbs and she can feel little drops of blood fall to her neck.

"TELL ME!" He spits out, his throat still not able to handle his anger.

The sting of her salty tears hits her wound, "I told you. I don't know... I don't know," She whispers the last part, almost to herself.

"Stop lying to me!"

"I'm not!"

Hawk Moth gets close to her face, making her turn away in repulsion,
"Unfortunate. Because I've just found my new choice weapon is the knife," He unsheathes the same dagger, twirling it between his fingers.

Marinette's breath hitches in her lungs and her tears continue falling silently, but she doesn't say anything.
Gabriel holds her chin between his fingers, moving her head to face him again, "Hm, a shame to ruin such a pretty face..."
The girl furrows her brows at his comment. Without a word, she brings her knee up as hard as she can under his ribs. He stumbles back, the wind knocked out of him.

"You little bitch. You'll pay for that!" He shouts after regaining his composure.
Gabriel's eyes search around the room and land on the braided rope he had thrown aside earlier. He grabs it from the ground, Marinette watching his every move. He whips her feet off the ground, leaving her hanging by her hands, and he binds the rope tightly around her ankles. He places her tied feet back on the floor.
"So, where were we?" He straightens out his suit, fixing his knife into his right hand once more, "I was thinking: the color of your dress isn't quite the red I like."
The girl looks at him confused.
"Perhaps," He continues, "It should be darker."

Before Marinette can say anything, he plunges the dagger into her torso, directly above her right hip. Her screams get lost in her throat, the pain too much to vocalize anything, only gasps and wheezes escaping from between her clenched teeth. She feels the need to press the wound, but her bound hands won't let her, only being able to grip the chains holding her.

"That's exactly what I had in mind!" Hawk Moth darkly exclaims as he pulls the knife back out, drawing another choked scream from her lips. Marinette looks down as the darker red slowly spreads across her dress and drips down her thigh.
"Is this jogging your memory?" He asks her directly. She can't form any coherent words with her lips.
"Oh, I see," He continues, sounding like a maniac, "You need a gentler touch."
When he starts getting closer with the knife, Marinette manages to scream, "No, no!! Don't!"
But the man- no... the beast before her ignores every word.
He tips her chin up with the point of his knife, seemingly getting pleasure from her fear and agony. He tucks her hair behind her ear with the blade, giving her chills.
"Decisions, decisions," Gabriel muses to himself, "Well, I suppose it's only fair-" He trails off, leaving Marinette in suspense of his next move.
The man suddenly grabs the back of her hair, forcing her to face the ceiling. Her breaths come out ragged in terrible anticipation.

"You know, I could kill you right now if I wanted to. And trust me: I really want to," Marinette swallows hard and Gabriel continues, "But that would be of no use to me. Understand, though, that I know exactly how and where to cut to keep you alive."
He presses the blade almost gingerly into the skin beneath her jaw, causing another shallow gash. Marinette's screams seem almost like background noise at this point.

Hawk Moth continues with his slicing: up her arms, behind her ears, and on her other cheek.

The smaller cuts don't draw as much blood, but Marinette can feel herself becoming faint from blood loss.
"Please..." She gasps, "Stop! You're going to kill me!"

"You'll tell me where your Miraculous is?"

"I... I can't."

"What will it TAKE?" Hawk Moth rubs his temples with his blood stained gloves, then he remembers, "The boy, Adrien. Would you like me to do this same thing to him?"

She whips her head up at him, "No! Don't. You can do this to me 10 fold, just don't... hurt him."

"His life is in your hands. What'll it be, Ladybug?" He grins maliciously.

Her mind races. First she loses Tikki and now she might lose Adrien too. She has to think fast.

"Fine! I'll tell you!" She bows her head, trying to stall for a moment, "I knew my secret identity was compromised after Frenzy attacked. I took off my Miraculous and mailed it to the police station for safe keeping."

Hawk Moth glances between her and the door.
"If you're lying to me, the boy is dead."
He opens the door, slams it shut, and locks it behind him.