WARNING: there's like... sorta violence this chapter? Dark themes? It's pretty tame imo. It's kinda obvious with the drama/mystery turn that it took, but just in case it still feels like a kick in the teeth thanks to the fluffy employee/CEO thing that's also going on... well... here u go :)

Enjoy!

Shit. Shit. Shit. He had known something was fishy when the doctor had walked past him with that gurney—the gurney with the cut-up feet sticking out from under the white sheet. Those cut up feet he knew, he'd read about them in the report, yet he'd still been stupid enough to watch the very person he was supposed to be protecting get rolled away by the criminal—the criminal who'd had the nerve to break into the hospital in broad daylight!

Luka pounded down corridors, narrowly avoiding staff walking through and ignoring their gazes as he sped by. His surroundings became a blur as he tried to pick up his pace. Finally he broke out into the open lobby, but by this time, there were more people milling about—none of which were the ones he was looking for. He ran forward a few paces and whirled around, not even noticing how hard he was breathing. His heartbeat pulsed in his throat as he turned and turned. Where could he have gone?! He ran past the lobby to the other wing of the hospital where there were escalators and scanned the bottom floor. Nothing except some nurses, patients in better health walking around, general hospital staff…

…and a man dressed in all black rolling an unconscious girl on a wheelchair out the door. An unconscious girl with cut up feet.

Cursing, Luka burst into action, going down the stairs three at a time. By the time he'd made it down, the wheelchair was already out the spinning doors, and when he followed, the situation was even worse outside. A multitude of people were walking around as they made their way to work. Luka craned his neck, frantically searching for the wheelchair. When his sight finally fell on it, though, his heart sank to his stomach.

The wheelchair was empty. And it was in front of the entrance to the underground parking lot.

Just as Luka ran inside the underground parking lot, a car sped off, screeching on the asphalt and leaving a burning smell as it did so. Luka gritted his teeth so hard he felt his jaw pop. I just let the culprit take away the second victim.

Unbidden, in the privacy of the empty parking lot, Luka let out an enraged shout.

Later, as he trudged back to the hospital, he ran into Marinette in the lobby. She had a crumpled expression on her face, and Luka felt even more horrible when he realized that she was blaming herself for his mistake.

"Marinette, I know what you're thinking," he said as soon as he reached her. He bent down to her level so he could look her directly in her eyes, since she wouldn't stop looking down. She still wouldn't meet his eyes. "It's not your fault. It's my fault for leaving my post." His fingers itched to brush her hair back, but he stopped himself.

She finally met his gaze at that. Her lip was quivering. "But… I noticed how the doctor got there so fast with a gurney when she started—and I—"

"It's not your fault," Luka firmly repeated. "Don't worry, alright? Danielle will be fine, he won't kill her. And we'll catch him soon." Inside, his own words sparked anger in his belly. He could have caught the criminal today. He could have ensured Danielle's safety. But he was just such an idiot, and now here he was, promising the very thing that he couldn't keep.

Marinette's nose wrinkled. She looked confused for some reason. "Yeah…" Something struck a wrong chord within her. What was it? For some reason Luka's words didn't sit right. We'll catch him soon. He won't kill her.

Him. He.

Her eyes suddenly widened. Luka furrowed his eyebrows. "What? What is it?"

"I heard the voice," Marinette whispered. "I heard…" She looked to Luka so suddenly, and with so much intensity that he jerked back.

"The criminal isn't a man. It's a woman."

…

Humming echoed throughout the chamber as Lila placed Danielle Aude down on a thin mattress. The frame of the bed was old and rusted, but four pairs of gleaming steel cuffs three inches long and half an inch thick hung off of both ends of the bed. Lila clicked Danielle's skinny wrists and ankles into the contraptions.

Personally, she didn't really like the place. While it did have two floors and a convenient number of prison cells surrounding the main floor where she'd set everything up, making for a handy system in which she'd be able to view all of her prisoners (if it even came to that), it was just so dingy. With one far up, yellow lightbulb being all that there was to light up the fairly big area, it was dark and flickering most of the time. There was a consistent noise of dripping water from a broken pipe that wouldn't stop no matter what, and the rusted hand cuffs that were already there on the bed frame were just so old-fashioned—but Lila couldn't get them off, even with a crowbar. But she supposed it was a fair price to pay for a hideout that none of the dumb police would be able to find.

Lila tore off the surgical face mask and black wig, grateful to be able to feel the cool air on her face and scalp again, if only for a moment. The glasses and coat came off, too, but she stayed dressed in the padded black jacket and pants she'd worn underneath. She pulled a flesh colored mask over her head and hummed some more as she waited for her guest to wake up.

This girl was supposed to have been the second, but instead she was special guest #1. Truthfully, the murder had been an accident. Lila was just trying to scare the first girl so she'd stop flailing around, but her hand had slipped. Oh, well. Since she'd died so easily it just proved that she wasn't the one that Lila was looking for, so nothing was lost, she supposed. But this girl… she had managed to escape Lila one time. Perhaps she had fate on her side, and that meant…

"Could you be a lucky little ladybug?" Lila cooed as she stroked Danielle's battered face. The sight caused her a little bit of pleasure. She'd done that. It felt good to see her hard work represented.

As Lila leaned over the girl, her eyes slowly fluttered. When they fully opened and focused, she instantly let out an ear-splitting scream, an exact replica of the one she'd screamed when Lila had approached her in the street. She thrashed against her binds and began to wail.

Lila rolled her eyes, though it wasn't visible behind the flesh mask that covered her whole head. Oh, bother. It was so annoying when girls screamed and cried like that. Lila already had a feeling that this girl wasn't the one, but it was worth a shot. "Stop crying." When Danielle kept crying, Lila slammed a fist right next to where her head rested, yanking on some of her hair in the process. "I said, stop crying." Danielle quieted down, but sobs wracked her whole body and tears leaked out of her eyes. The poor thing was shaking where she lay.

"P-please don't kill me," she said in a strangled voice. "Let me… let me go home, please…"

"Break out," Lila said flatly. She straightened up and eyed Danielle with disdain. "Break those cuffs."

Danielle looked like a lamb before slaughter. She had a pleading look in her eye as she gazed up at Lila pitifully, hyperventilating. "I—I don't—I can't do…" Honestly, she didn't need to say anything. All it took was that pathetic look in her eyes for Lila to know she wasn't it. The eyes that she remembered had been infuriatingly ambitious ones, nothing like the pitiful ones that the lamb in front of her was displaying.

Lila scoffed in disgust before kicking the bed frame, scaring Danielle out of her wits. She bit her lip to keep from crying loudly as Lila kicked the bed again, shaking Danielle on the bed. Her head banged against the bed frame, causing one of her forehead wounds to open up again and soak the gauze on top of it red.

"You're useless," Lila snarled. "And to think I really thought it would be you because you managed to escape me… so I risked everything at that hospital for nothing?!"

Danielle shook in fear, whimpering. Please, God… anybody… please get me out of here!

...

8 years ago

Lila roamed around the store, eyeing several of the items on display. Much of it was behind glass, which was a shame, but many good items were still out for her to pick. After all, being a Gabriel brand store, the perfume, watches and jewelry might be locked up, but the clothes would still be worth a lot. Lila plucked several hangers off of racks, hardly looking at the clothing that she was picking up. She was more focused on being an inconspicuous as possible. Any time she met a fellow customer's eye, she made sure to smile sweetly so that they smiled back or, even better, blushed. Erased any suspicion of her.

Lila made her way to the cash register when her arms had been properly laden with items. For this day, she'd dressed up especially nice. A fur jacket, dress and heels replaced her normal street attire. Oversized sunglasses were perched on her face—partly to look posh, partly to hide her face. Big jewels hung from her ears and weighed her fingers down, the fingers that held a snakeskin hand clutch. Red was painted onto pursed lips.

"Excuse me," she said in a buttery voice to the cashier. She'd specifically picked the one with a round, open face. Her entire face was dotted with freckles and she nibbled on her lower lip from time to time. The perfect candidate. The girl looked up and, as Lila had guessed she would, straightened up at the sight of her. Lila's outfit made her look like a grown woman, an intimidating one, that the teenage cashier in front of her would be no match for. "I want to return these items. They simply did not cooperate with the rest of my wardrobe, you see."

"Oh, I see." The girl nodded. "Do you have receipts?"

Lila cocked a sculpted eyebrow at that. The calculated, desired effect took place: the girl in front of her shrunk back. "Receipts? Was I supposed to bring those simply to return some items?"

"Er, well…" The cashier nervously tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "Did you buy it on credit card?"

Lila scoffed and looked to the ceiling at that. "No, I used cash. Look, I have the tags on and everything." She showed the new items to the cashier. "They're unused, so please return my money!"

The cashier shifted, then looked down at her hands. "Umm… sorry, but I can't do that…"

Lila waited for exactly four seconds before feigning annoyance. "Oh, alright." She waved a hand in the air. "Could you at least give me a bag?"

The girl looked glad that Lila asked. "Right, I can do that for you." She rummaged around under the front desk to take out a bag. Lila felt victory swell in her chest and fought off a smirk. However, just as the cashier was about to hand over the bag stamped with Gabriel's logo, a hand grabbed her wrist. The bag remained suspended in the air between them.

"Huh?" Lila and the cashier both looked over. A girl who looked to be Lila's age, about seventeen, held the cashier's wrist midair. She was dressed in a baggy red hoodie with big, black spots on them and pink jeans underneath. The huge hood was flipped over her face so her features were muddled. However, what had Lila's hackles rising was the glare that her icy blue eyes, clear from beneath the shadow, were sending her. She almost glared back before remembering about her sunglasses.

"What do you think you're doing?" Lila snapped. The girl's frigid glare only intensified, if that was even possible.

"I should be asking you that," she responded icily. "You just tried stealing all of those items."

Lila froze. No, no. Fix it. Her pause lasted no more than a second. "What? Are you trying to frame me?" She made a show of looking the girl up and down. "Me, the thief? Look at how you're dressed! And you're lurking around in a Gabriel store? Between us, I think the thief must be you."

The girl turned to the cashier and released her wrist. "Look on the security tapes. You'll see her picking items up off the shelves. She came in here empty handed." She turned back and glared at Lila again so infuriatingly that Lila wanted to slap and claw at her face till there was nothing left of those stupid eyes. "I was watching."

Because of her anger, she realized too late that the cashier was now watching her with suspicion as she slowly reached for the black phone situated on the desk. Lila realized that she was calling in security. The clothes dropped between them as Lila chucked her heels off and dashed for the exit, shoving past the security guards at the front and running into the mall's heavy crowd. She kept running and shoving past customers until she found a bathroom and ducked inside, breathing heavily. Luckily it was empty, but…

Lila snarled as she smashed a fist into the counter, ignoring the pain that flared up in her knuckles soon after. "That bitch!" She struck her fist again and again until the fake rings she'd slipped on shattered and sliced her fingers open. The sight of blood did little to calm her down. At some point, her sunglasses had fallen off and they lay on the bathroom floor, displaying a fake brand's logo on the inside. She kept smashing her fist into the counter, watching blood smear on it.

"If I find her again, I'll—" Just at that moment, the restroom's door creaked and the same girl entered. It was almost a mockery, the way she stood in front of Lila again as if on purpose. They stared at each other for a few silent seconds, the door swinging shut, before Lila had turned the girl around and slammed her against the wall by the throat. She bared her teeth at the stranger in a vicious half-gnarl, half-grin.

"I'll show you what happens when you stick your nose where it doesn't belong," she growled, digging her nails into the girl's neck. Her rage only grew when the girl remained expressionless, looking at her with those same stupid eyes. Where was the fear? The screaming, the kicking, the tears? Begging to let her go?

Most of all… why couldn't her nails draw blood from her neck? Lila pressed even harder but it almost felt like her nails couldn't sink into the soft flesh.

The girl grabbed Lila's wrist, much like she'd held the cashier, and wrenched it off of her neck. Lila's whole body jolted with the action and her eyes flared. What the hell? Why is she so strong? She was clutching Lila's wrist so hard that she could feel her hand going numb, but the girl's knuckles weren't even white.

Lila tried to tug her wrist free, only to find that it wouldn't budge. Even more—the girl had her rooted to the spot just by holding onto her wrist. Lila curled her lips back. "Let go!"

"Take this as a lesson," the girl said quietly. The more she looked at Lila with those flaming eyes, the more Lila wanted to gouge them out. "Don't lie." With that, she finally let the struggling Lila go, who stumbled back and hit her head against a bathroom stall. Despite the spinning pain that erupted in her head, Lila lurched at her again almost instantly. "Don't you try to teach me a lesson, you little piece of—"

She felt a pressure on her head. When she looked up, it was one finger pressed to her forehead. And no matter how hard she pushed forward, she just couldn't budge. The ladybug looked angry now. "And don't go attacking people when they teach you a lesson, either." With that, she pushed Lila back again with the one finger. Lila's whole body swayed back with the action once again; this time she stumbled. The ladybug strode out the bathroom purposefully, leaving Lila standing there in the middle of a public bathroom, ragged, bleeding, and disheveled.

Whoever she was, she was stronger than the average person. Lila didn't know by how much, but it didn't matter. She didn't care. The stranger had humiliated her, exposed her, almost gotten her caught, ruined her—and then tried to teach her a lesson? What a piece of scum. It wasn't her business to try and make Lila change. She was doing perfectly fine on her own until the stupid bug had to come and interfere.

Lila was nothing if not exact in her revenge. She'd ruined a boy's social life back in collège when he'd refused to give her answers to a test. She'd made restaurants and bakeries go out of business by saying she saw rats when they wouldn't offer her free food. She even ruined a singer's career when he'd refused to date her by claiming sexual assault. After all, it was their fault—what was it to them to just give her what she wanted? Was it that hard?

So she definitely wouldn't let this girl go. She didn't care how strong the girl could be, or why. A little muscle never saved someone from her wrath. "I'll kill her," Lila hissed, glaring at the door which she'd exited out of seconds ago with pure hatred in her eyes. No—she'd catch her and torture her and make her wish for death instead.

It was a punishment befitting what the bug had done, after all.

yikes...

also i want to note that i got the idea for Lila's flashback scene from a movie but IDK which movie it is cause i just saw a clip on INstagram... so... heh...