Shadows Chapter 10: "Haunted Horror Part 2"
Lila rushed past a sarcophagus, breathing heavily. She reached into her pocket, pulling out her phone, "HAWK MOTH! WHERE ARE YOU?! WHERE'S- WHERE'S THE AKUMA?" Lila asked. A part of her felt bad for leaving Adrien alone, but she knew he was smart- he could find the way out. He didn't need lies to back up every mistake he made.
"Why do you sound so out of breath?" Hawk Moth raised an eyebrow.
"The museum- power went out-" Lila panted.
Hawk Moth suddenly sounded panicked, "Where's Adrien?"
Lila looked puzzled, "I thought I was supposed to leave him to find the akuma...?"
"NO YOU IDIOT!" Hawk Moth snapped, "I never thought that something would go wrong at the museum. We'll save the akuma for another day. For now, go find him."
Something crashed into her.
"what-"
"Lila! Guards!" Adrien said, pointing at someone with a flashlight. Lila ended the call.
"HEY! What are you kids doing in here?!" He bent down, using his flashlight to illuminate the broken pieces of the vase. He stood up again, furious, "COME BACK HERE!"
Adrien flinched, "UH, we need to get out of here!"
"Where's the exit?!" Lila panicked.
"I- I don't know! Why are you asking me?!"
"We need to find an exit!"
"We won't make it to the exit in time!" Adrien hissed. His hands touched something metal.
"An elevator!" He felt along the wall, pressing the button.
"Comeoncomeoncomeoncomeon…" Adrien said nervously, pressing the button several times.
"HURRY!"
"I'M TRYING, OKAY?!"
The elevator doors slid open, and Adrien stepped inside along with Lila.
"Which button?! Which floor?!" Lila asked.
"WHY DO YOU KEEP ASKING ME?! HIT ALL OF THEM FOR ALL I CARE!"
Lila, taking this literally, pressed all of the buttons.
"NO THAT'S NOT WHAT I-"
The elevator swayed, and Adrien fell down. The elevator plummeted downwards.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" Adrien and Lila screamed in unison. After what seemed like years to Adrien, the elevator seemed to stop. The doors creaked open.
"You have arrived at your d-d-d-d-d-d-d-de-e-e-e-e-signated f-f-f-f-f-f-floor-r." Said the robotic elevator voice.
"Yikes." Adrien scratched his head, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah." Lila said. She turned her phone light on.
"Hey, they said no flash photography, remember?"
"I...I don't think we're even at the museum anymore. Plus, pretty sure they would let us have our phone lights on if it was a life or death situation." Lila said.
Adrien shook his head, going back into the elevator, "We...we have to go back." He pushed a button. The elevator did nothing. He pushed the other buttons. Nothing happened.
"No!" Adrien cried, banging his hands against the buttons.
"Someone! HELP!" Adrien screamed, Lila doing the same. No one answered.
Adrien breathed shakily, "Okay, maybe we should access our surroundings. Think like Ladybug."
"Your celebrity crush can't help you this time."
Adrien reddened, "She is so not my celebrity crush."
"She so is!"
"Is not!"
"Is too!"
"Is NOT!"
"Is TOO!"
A loud "THUD" sound echoed throughout the room.
"What was that?" Adrien whispered.
"MAMA, MAMA" Something cried.
Lila shrieked, "GET IT OFF ME GET IT OFF ME!" Adrien pointed his phone light at where he'd heard her shriek. On the floor next to her, lay a small porcelain wind-up doll. Adrien burst into loud obnoxious laughter.
"THIS is what scared you so much?! A DOLL!" He picked it up, laughing hysterically.
"Adrien! Put that down! That thing is evil!"
"Yeah, really evil." Adrien grinned, studying the doll. It had a pink frilly dress and blond curly hair with a pink bonnet. It wore frilly socks and black shoes, and had small eyelashes and fitting baby blue eyes.
"Oooo! RAWR!" Adrien said, pushing the doll towards Lila.
Lila whimpered, "Please, stop! Let it go! That thing is terrifying!"
"Oh pssh, it's just a harmless little doll. You probably just pulled the string on its back by accident."
Adrien turned it over, confused when he saw that there wasn't a string.
"Wait, then how did it-"
"That's what I was trying to tell you." Lila whispered.
"DADA, DADA" The doll's head turned all the way around to face him. It waved its arms wildly, "DADA, DADA!" The doll's eyes lit up red, revealing a feature Adrien hadn't noticed at first glance: A large crack was on the head of the doll.
Adrien and Lila both screamed, dropping it. To their surprise, the doll stood up on its own.
"DADA, DADA" It cried, it's head turning around and around, "DADA. MAMA. DADA."
Adrien stepped on it with his foot as the doll tried climbing him.
"DADA. DAAAADAAAAAAA." The doll's voice faded.
"I...think I killed it." Adrien panted.
"D-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-da-a-a-a-a-a-da"
Adrien screamed, chucking it against the wall.
CRASH!
Adrien breathed heavily, using his phone light to see where the doll had landed: Snug in between two cardboard boxes with fabric inside of them, missing its head.
"This place is freak central." Lila said.
"I know. Even the mummy exhibit was better than this."
Adrien moved his phone light around, "This place looks like some sort of office." A desk was laid on it's side, along with the remnants of what looked like an office chair. Something wet and slimly slithered past his shoes, but Adrien didn't dare try and figure out what it was. Rolls of fabric cluttered the area.
Adrien poked a pair of sharp, rusty scissors with his foot, "These look like they belonged to a killer." He moved to a clown mask lying the floor, "Wow, this place really IS freak central."
Adrien stiffened as he felt to hands grab him by the shoulders. He whipped around, heart pounding loudly in his chest.
"Ooooo, a manikin. So scary, right? At least my thing was real."
"It's not my fault, the way they posed it is really creepy. He looks like he's about to pull someone down into the grave with him." Adrien shuddered.
"Hey, what's this?" Lila asked, leaning closer. The manikin was wearing a tuxedo with the letters "AD" etched on the tie of the outfit."
"AD? What does AD stand for?! Maybe it's someone's initials?" Lila guessed.
Adrien paled, "It's not a name. It's a brand abbreviation. Agreste Designs." Adrien looked around, "That explains all the fabric." He looked over at where the doll was lying, prodding it carefully with his foot. The letters AD were etched onto the bottom of its dress.
"This wasn't meant to be a toy. It never was haunted, or evil. It was for modeling clothing. So was this manikin. The scissors...were for cutting clothing." Adrien blinked. He moved his phone light over to the desk, illuminating a whiteboard with red scribbles all over it.
"Well, looks like someone had a temper tantrum in here." Lila said.
"Wait, these are letters: "K, N, O,E, T, O, B, O."
"Knoetobo?! What does that even mean?"
"I think we need to arrange the letters."
"Well, I see book." Lila said.
"I see note..."
They gasped, exclaiming in unison, "NOTEBOOK!"
Adrien searched the drawers, excitedly pulling out a brown notebook, but disappointed when he saw that.
"It's empty. Wait-"
Pieces of paper with letters on them fell out of the notebook, "L,E,A,C,N,D."
"What does that spell?" Adrien asked.
"Candle?"
"Wait, I think I saw one around here." Adrien frowned, "We have nothing to light it with."
"I found a lighter inside the other drawer."
Once the candle was lit, Adrien held it up against the notebook. The first page revealed a drawing of a woman in a dress, crossed out. Adrien flipped the page, the next drawing crossed out as well. And the next, and the next...
"This makes no sense." Adrien said, getting frustrated, "These are just some unfinished costume designs. There's nothing important in he-" The last drawing caught his eye. It was the only one he could see without the candle, and was circled in the same red ink that was on the board. It was a drawing of a peacock dress...
….
….
And it was the exact same one Mayura had. However, the woman was not Mayura. She had a softer face expression and longer hair.
"Adrien, there's a nameplate here." Lila said, picking up the nameplate. She blew off the dust on top of it:
EMILY AGRESTE
Adrien froze, opening and closing his mouth again in shock. The words were on the tip of his tongue, but didn't seem to come out.
My mom was a Miraculous holder.
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