Chapter Two- This
Nino looked down at the listed addresses on his phone. He had three to go to, all in close proximity to one another. He rolled his shoulders back and looked at the other unmasked heroes, his eyes lingering on Alya and Adrien in turn.
It didn't surprise him in the least that Alya was the woman behind Rena Rouge. She had the attitude and knowledge to make a perfect superhero. She was obviously dedicated to Ladybug and Chat Noir, or, he guessed Marinette and Adrien, through her vlogs. It was no wonder that Marinette decided to trust her with a miraculous.
Adrien was a completely different story. His kind, somewhat introverted and timid friend, with a heart of gold, was the smooth talking, pun making, class-clown embodiment of Chat Noir? When looking back on it there were hints of Chat Noir's true personality peeking out from underneath the carefully crafted Adrien façade, but it was nothing drastic. It was the occasional stupid joke, or the love-struck puppy dog eyes that he gave to Marinette that really were the similarities. Still, it was hard to believe. Chat Noir was always so free, and Adrien, even years after graduating from high school and being a few years into university, was still like a prisoner in his own home, a slave to his father. Perhaps why Adrien made such a perfect Chat Noir.
Marinette as Ladybug was a shock too. Marinette was normal. Extraordinary in her own way, in the same way everyone is. She makes mistakes, pisses people off, over sleeps (though the sleeping in suddenly makes a whole lot more sense), and is clumsy. Ladybug is the pinnacle of perfection. How did Marinette carry herself in such a way? She was probably stressed out to no end. It was a good thing Adrien was there for her. He knew Marinette nearly his whole life. She needed someone to remind her to destress, and Adrien needed someone to teach him about love and freedom. In a way the were perfect for one another.
He would do anything to save his best friend's girl, hero of Paris or otherwise. Whatever this freak put their way he would face it head on. "Alright. I'm off." He turned to Alya who was just about to head off in the opposite direction and gave her a quick peck on the lips. "Be safe out there, okay? Call me if anything happens." She was his world, but he wasn't about to admit that.
"I'll be safe, okay? You call me too." Alya turned to Adrien and gave what Nino knew to be Alya's brave face. "We'll get her back. You can count on us." She exhaled and looked at the kwami floating beside her. "Trixx, let's pounce," she called, transforming. "See you all on the flip side."
Nino nodded, turning to Wayzz. "Let's go. Wayzz, shell on." He felt his transformation take over him and turned his attention to Adrien and Chloé. "Let me know if anything happens," he said, and took off.
Nino sprinted across rooftops as quickly as a turtle shouldn't, ignoring the people who were out in the late night, looking up at him, calling out "Carapce," as he passed by. He just needed to get to the first location.
The address led to a small house on the outskirts of the city, seemingly abandoned. He dropped his transformation and looked over the scenery. The lawn was overgrown with weeds which were slowly dying with the oncoming winter-like weather. The lawn was surrounded by an old brown wooden fence with heavily weathered spaced dark, splintering panels making it up. Some of the panels began to fall, crookedly hanging. In the yard stood a solitary tree, long dead by the looks up it, with a wooden plank held up by a pair of ropes making a swing that Nino half expected a ghost child to start swinging on. A small gust of wind caused the swing to sway as Nino thought this, causing him to jump slightly. He turned away from the swing and made his way down the old path made in the lawn, though it was little more than a dirt path carved into the landscaping.
The house was as creepy as the lawn. It was small, dark and wooden, with half the windows broken, with shards of glass jutting out like knives, and the other half boarded up with large pieces of weathered plywood. The door was black with peeling paint and an old style knocker with a gargoyle on it.
"Why is there a ghost house in Paris?" Nino asked under his breath. Steeling his nerves he took the knocker in his hand and banged on the door. No response. He took the doorknob in his hand and turned, only to have the knob come off, though the door still opened. Nino abandoned the knob on the ground and entered the home. "Come on, Wayzz," he said, stepping inside.
Dusty floral wallpaper covered the walls, and cobwebs covered the dilapidated furniture that littered the room. The walls had holes punched through them, looking like second doorways to the other rooms in the house. The only thing that looked remotely valuable in the home was a fireplace, obviously once treasured, made of stone, with a black and white picture of a young, pale skinned, dark haired girl in a gray and black dress, lace collar, and a bow tied up in her hair. Her pale eyes, probably blue in real life, appeared white in the picture and lips were dark colored, almost black. The eyes followed Nino wherever he went. He let out an involuntary shiver and hesitated to turn his back on the girl, fearing she would attack him at any moment.
"What is it we have to do here, Wayzz?" Nino asked, looking around the room for some sort of clue.
"Perhaps this is what we need?" Wayzz found a piece of card stock resting on the dust covered coffee table.
Nino took the card stock in his hand and looked it over. "In this house a piece of a map leading to the coffin's location is hiding. Good luck finding it."
Nino looked around. This was going to be a challenge, but he wanted to get this out of the way, quick. He wanted to get to Marinette as fast as possible, but he also wanted to escape thengaze of that little girl. "Come on, Wayzz. Let's get to work."
The two of them tore the house apart, searching under every piece of furniture, prying up every loose floorboard, sifting through the ashes of the burned out fireplace, checking the toilet, which was filled with a putrid odor and filled with a brown substance with the consistency of curdled milk inside. Nino found himself gagging. He closed the lid and turned on the sink, hoping for water so he could wash his hands after being in proximity of the rancid feces, only to have the sink spill out yellow-brown metallic smelling water. He pulled away quickly and shut off the sink, giving up the escapade.
The two of them found themselves in the bedroom next, and they tore the place apart. Wayzz looked over the bookshelf, dissolving in and out of the various titles, looking for anything out of place. Nino looked at the bed, pulling the stained comforter and moth eaten sheets off, hoping for some kind of clue. Nothing. He turned his attention under the bed, using his phone as a source of light, allowing himself to finally smile upon seeing a glint of white.
Nino put his phone away and reached his arm under the bed, finding the white thing he saw, curious when it wasn't what he expected paper to feel like. He pulled out the item only to scream once he realized what it was the he was holding. In his hands was not a note. It was the corpse of a dead white cat. On the side of its fur, written in sticky red liquid that he imagined could only be blood, was "Save her."
Nino felt like he was going to throw up. Why a cat? Was this an attempt to get at Chat Noir? And why hide the cat. There was no way that there was any guarantee that someone would have found the poor deceased animal. Nino felt his heart pound in his chest rapidly. He needed to calm down. Freaking out wasn't going to save Marinette. Why did he have to be stuck at the haunted house? What was up with this place?
"Nino," Wayzz said, coming over, sensing his holder's distress, "let's breathe." Wayzz led Nino though breathing exercises until the young man regained control of his mind.
"Thanks, little bro." Nino took another deep breath. "I needed that." He looked around the room. "Remind me never to watch a horror movie for the rest of my life, alright? I've had enough nightmare fuel for one lifetime."
"As you say, Nino." Wayzz resumed his search of the books and Nino wandered out of the bedroom and started to head towards the kitchen. He opened the fridge, finding nothing but long expired food in a fridge that seemingly stopped working years ago. He opened every cabinet, finding no pots, pans or seasonings, but a plethora a knives.
"Calm down," he said to himself. "It's all in your head. They're just messing with you." He walked over to the sink, haphazardly investigating, not expecting to find anything, only to see an arrow, written in that same blood from earlier, pointing to the sink's drain. It was one of the sinks that contained a garbage disposal. "No. No way. This- this is insane."
"What is it, Nino?" Wayzz came rushing into the kitchen when he heard Nino's distress once again. "Did you find something?"
Nino nodded. "I think the note is in there."
Wayzz nodded and disappeared inside the pipe, coming out a moment later, nodding in confirmation. "This is it! I tried getting it myself, Nino, but I wasn't able to. I'm sorry about that. It's deep in there, but you should be able to pull it out of you're careful."
"Are there spinning knives in there?"
"The knives are not on, so you should be fine. Still, be careful. There wouldn't be any way for me to heal you if something happened."
"Because that is exactly what I need to hear." Nino pushed up his sleeve and prepared to dive his hand into the system. He said he would do anything to get Ladybug back, to get Marinette. It was time for him to prove it. He glanced at the old photo hanging above the fireplace. "No funny business, you hear?" He rolled his shoulders back and prepared to enter the dark abyss that was the garbage disposal. "One, two," he hesitated only for a moment before plunging his hand down, feeling the piece of paper in his hands, as well as the brush of the blades. He pulled out quickly, holding the piece of paper. "Got it." He then looked at the switch that powered the disposal. "This thing didn't actually work, did it?" Nino flipped the switch, hearing the telltale sound of the disposal turning on. He felt the blood rush from his face, feeling glad that he was safe.
"Come on, Wayzz. Let's get out of here." He didn't want to be stuck inside a moment longer. He left the old house and opened the folded piece of paper. True to the killer's word it was anpiece of a map. A crudely drawn one, but a map nonetheless, and written in pen were the words "a, this."
"A, this? What does that mean?"
Wayzz shrugged. "I have no idea. Maybe we'll know later?"
Nino nodded. "Yeah, probably." He put the paper in his pocket and pulled out his phone. "Only two places to go. Wayzz, shell on." The transformation took over and he prepared his next plan of attack.
My laptop overheated almost writing this chapter... that and I wrote it after doing nine straight hours of French homework. So that was fun. So next chapter we'll be having someone else take on another one of these killer's challenges. Any thoughts for what that could be? Please let me know y'all's thoughts. They really help as I incorporate what people say into future chapters. It really helps me create the best story for you guys. So, question of the: what is the scariest encounter you had? I'm curious. See y'all tomorrow!
