Chapter One
Temptations of the Damned
Two Weeks Later
Tikki was wrong again, things would not be different today. Especially when Lila Rossi was around. God, why did she have to be such a witch?
Marinette watched as the Witch of the West snaked her way into the minds of her fellow classmates. Spewing lies into their ears. God, how she hated her.
Why was she even here? Couldn't she just transfer to a different school and make new friends and then come back and rip them a new one?
"Excuse me, Marinette?" came the voice of the Wi—er, Lila. Marinette looked at the girl, unamused in the slightest.
"Yes, Lila?" Marinette said, putting on a smile that she expected of her. In reality her smile spoke different volumes, it said. Come at me, bitch. I dare you. Whatever you can do I can do it better.
"I was wondering if you could switch seats with me today as my tinnitus is acting up."
"No." She spoke flatly.
"Girl, come on. What's the harm in letting her sit their?" Alya spoke coming up to her.
"There's no problem, it's just that she's a—" Liar.
That one word got stuck in her throat. She couldn't say it. Why would she? Because no one would believe her.
Adrien would, Marinette thought, but he's not here. He's away at a fencing competition in London.
Lila smirked in triumph as she moved past her, "I told you," she whispered. "I would take it all away from you."
"Go to Hell. Hawkmoth 2.0" Marinette hisses to her.
The class gasps upon realization of what Marinette just said. Except for Chloe who couldn't care less of what was going on with her surroundings and was instead filling her already perfect manicure.
"Marinette, how could you be so mean? I c-could get akumatized ." Lila, faking tears in her eyes, spoke timidly.
"Yeah, that wasn't cool, dudette."
"Lila is so nice and caring, she would never become like Hawkmoth?"
Oh, yeah? Marinette wanted to say, then why is she working for him, Rose?
Others chimed in with similar responses, pointing out her good flaws.
Marinette wanted to screamed at them, couldn't they see it? Couldn't they see that they were being manipulated by her? That she was using them too get what she wants?
Once again, nothing would be different. Once again, the only normal thing in her life currently was being Ladybug. It gave her a break from what was going on in her civilian life. It was truly sad knowing that she was resorting to fighting akuma as a coping mechanism to dealing with Lila and her antics.
So without anymore prompting, Marinette moved to the back of the class, to sit alone.
Once again.
Lila Rossi prided herself on her poise, charm, and natural charisma of the human male. Especially one Adrien Agreste. She absolutely loved it when others crumbled to her will, it gave her much joy to watch one succumb to the fruits of he4 labor that she had wrought upon her chosen rival. Oh yes, how, she enjoyed breaking a person. It's why she started to work for Hawkmoth in the first place, he too, broke his victims, and like she, would make those that defy them pay dearly for how they have wrong them.
Ladybug.
Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
How Lila hated them both.
Her fury and spite at those two had broiled and simmered until it was ready to explode into a fiery expression of rage. It was a tempest waiting to be unleashed. A hunger that would never be able to be quenched, it starved her day and night, like a man looking for life giving water in a dry desert sand.
Oh, how she wanted to destroy them both. But, no. Their time for reckoning would come. She would make sure of it.
Hawkmoth promised her, after all.
But, there were times when she doubted herself, when in the quietness of night that she wondered if what she was doing was truly worth it. The lies. The manipulation of others to get what she wanted over all else. Was it truly what she wanted? To be on top of the world? To be number one in life? Not two or three? But one? But then she'd shake her head her head scoff those were thoughts of the weak, of the spineless cowards that would go nowhere in the world, and would do nothing to get want they wanted by any means necessary. Pathetic. To think, she was like that once. That her mother was like that. She was much like her father in that regard: willing to do whatever it took to get what he wanted, even at the cost of others. It didn't matter if his family was thrown out to the wolves. Lila loved her Daddy and that didn't change a bit. She remembered when he used to take her upon her lap and say, look my little vixen, these are your pawns and you shall decide on how to move the pieces of the board that is life. Even when those around you think they are in control, they are not. For you hold the strings in your hand, you are their puppeteer. Their shepherdess of the mindless flock in which that is society.
Oh, how she missed her Papa. Of his wise words and calming presence. Since, the day he died over a year and half ago of a heart attack, Lila had taken those words to heart. Engraved them into her very being. Made them apart of her. Guarded it fiercely. Yes, she would be the puppeteer and they, the puppets. The shepherdess to the mindless flock. The ruler of the board, and manipulator of foolish pawns.
She was Lila Rossi. And nothing would stand in her way.
Not one person.
Not Ladybug.
And especially not, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
The shepherdess of the mindless flock.
The puppeteer that holds the strings.
mover of pawns.
Lila Rossi.
Alexander Black was in a bind. He was angry and bitter and really, really hated his boss. "Laid me off!" He snarled, "the damn bastard laid me off!"
He slung his work bag on the worn down couch he had gotten from a garage sale a few back after he caught his wife (now ex wife) having sex on the living room floor. With his future, now former, boss.
Black loosened his tie and threw his suit jacket in haphazard direction not caring where it landed.
"I need a bottle of whiskey, and fast." He grumbled as he walked towards his kitchen cabinets in search of a drink to take an edge off.
He didn't find it, even after 20 minutes of frantic searching of everything.
He found something better, a pack of cigarettes.
"The bastard deserves to be living in hell all the time! Everyone who has wronged me should. EVERYONE!"
The man shouted this between drags of the cigarette as her sat on the worm out couch, his were bloodshot and he looked half crazed
They should all pay. They should pay. I'll make them pay. I'll make them pay. makethempaymakethempaymakethempaymakethempay—
Unnoticed by the man, a lone dark purple butterfly landed on the packet of the empty cigarette packet, and sunk into bleeding its normal white into black-purple. A cruel voice whispered promised words in his ears. Of sweet revenge and painful torture in return for a certain pair of earrings and a ring. The man barely noticed as the inky cool covered him turning into a manifestation of that was not himself. A black wisp of smoke and smog, eyes like embers and body made of decay of bones and mangled body parts.
A living Nightmare.
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"I am the Nightmare, and I shall make all ones deepest fears become a permanent hell for days on end. Yes, I shall make them pay. And when I take Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous I will laugh at their screams when I rip their head from their bodies and sever them in half."
The thing let out an inhuman shriek, showing a row of razor sharp fangs and disappeared.
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NYM