Silent Scream (O/S)

Silent Scream

A/N: This is a sneak peek/excerpt/behind the scenes look (I haven't decided yet) for the main story, "Wished at Midnight." It is also included in my Miraculous2k18musicchallenge on my Tumblr :)

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Marinette stared at the matte black computer screen. She wasn't sure what she was expecting... she knew that her grandmother would eventually catch up to her. Her eyes drifted down to the designs for the camp's masquerade ball, and a strange, prickling fire-ice sensation traveled over her skin in ripples. She glanced down and watched patterns appear over her skin as her body fought to shape change and her mind tried to keep hold of her emotions. But inside, her heart screamed with agony and rage.

She raised her hand and a zap of magick escaped, waking the computer without her meaning to. Her skin settled for a brief few seconds before the patterns began to appear again. She wanted to let out the agony in her soul, but years of drilled-in training kept her throat locked tight.

I wish...

A tear escaped, splashing down on her hand. Not for the first time, she wished she wasn't Marinette Dupain-Cheng, heiress to her grandmother's empire. She wished she wasn't Marinette Dupain-Cheng, keeper of the Ladybug and Peacock miraculouses. No, that wasn't true; she loved being the keeper of those miraculouses. They were the keys to her freedom. To be...

I wish I was more like Ladybug!

Suddenly, her skin erupted into a frenzy of spots that were too clean and sharp to be a leopard's. She stood up and went to her dress and fingered the crimson silk on the skirt. It truly was her finest work, and she felt pride radiating out of her troubled heart looking at it. Her blue eyes flicked to the picture frame on the bed. Her grandmother's sharp brown eyes stared coldly back at her. That one look broke the lock that held her tongue in place.

"I'm caught up in your expectations, you're trying to make me live your dream!" she sang to the picture.

"But I'm causing you so much frustration, and you only want the best for me..."

Her magick shimmered around her as memories overlapped each other. She moved around the room. Her magick created vague images of people that her grandmother wished her to interact with to create powerful alliances with, or to react warmly to being matched with Shang...

"You wanted me to show more interest," she waved widely to encompass the phantom audience. "To always keep a big bright smile!" she stretched the expression over her face sarcastically. She folded her hands just as she had been taught, "Be the pinky little perfect princess," and the expression and the tightness in her shoulders melted off. She caught her expression in the mirror beside her, and she turned to face it. "But I'm not that type of child."

Magick hummed all around her. The peacock broach suddenly shimmered to life on her chest, as did the ladybug earrings. Suddenly, her grandmother's image appeared in the glass. Whether it was a true vision or an illusion, Marinette didn't allow herself to care. "There's a storm that's rising inside of me." Her grandmother stepped aside, pointing to a still and proper image of Marinette. Trapped summer blue met the glistening summer ice storm rimmed in a mask that wasn't completely Ladybug, nor completely Paon Bleau. Zyah Cheng's image completely faded. Marinette watched her reflection press a hand to the glass, her eyes warm and understanding.

"Can you feel it, our worlds collide?" she asked softly in a voice Marinette recognized as her own... yet it sounded so alien to her. She pressed a hand gloved in black back to the glass, matching the shape and size on the other side.