Hi!

I'm so sorry I haven't updated in forever, school has decided that it hates me and would like to give me too much coursework.

I'm working as hard as I can on this story when I have time, so please let me know if you're enjoying it!

"Are you crazy?!"

Adrien is goggling at me like I've just suggested flying out of the window backwards.

I'm not crazy.

Or maybe I am.

After all, I've talked to no one but myself these past few years. And the thing about insanity is it doesn't infect you like a vicious plague, it's much more subtle. It steals into your heart and takes the time to know you personally. Maybe after being locked up for so long with the burdens of my past, I've gone insane from many hours of horrible sanity.

So what if I'm crazy after all?

He knows it's risky. I know it's risky. But I want to know what happens.

"Maybe I am," I answer, smiling.

But my joke doesn't seem to have had the same effect on him. Adrien shrinks back into the corner, backing slowly away from me as if I'm walking on ice and at any moment it's going to break beneath my feet, and I'm going to fall and touch his skin.

"No. No, no you can't. I can't- I won't kill someone. Not now I know what I'm capable of. Marinette please!"

There is an edge to his voice. One that I don't expect.

I consider ignoring him and attempting anyway, but after quiet contemplation, I think that it's best to leave things. After all, I'm very happy now, having had a conversation with him. A real conversation. With a real human!

"Ok, I won't. I'm sorry," I apologise, holding my hands up to show him I've backed down. He seems to be pleased, or at least relieved, so I walk back over to my side of the room and curl up on the floor. Adrien still has the mattress, but I don't mind. I've never had a proper bed for so long, it would almost feel alien to have one now.

I don't remember falling asleep when I wake up in the morning. I'm startled at first, but I rub my eyes and sit up.

There is a small beam of light that has managed to sneak into the cell, but it looks out of place amongst the charred walls, an outsider to the melancholy atmosphere that is living in the cell with us. I listen for birds, cars, people, outside. Anything telling me that there is life somewhere beyond this dismal institution.

But I hear nothing.

I wonder how much has changed since I was last properly in Paris. I realise my cellmate has been here a lot less time than me, so he must have some idea, I glance over at him.

Adrien is still asleep, sprawled on the mattress facing the wall. I stare at the back of his blond head, a strange calmness residing within me. He looks so peaceful, whilst he's asleep.

Sleep, the only chance we have to escape. To break free from our lives, our problems, our stress, for a few glorious hours and hide from them, until we eventually wake up with enough strength to face them. Sleep is never just sleep, it's a powerful escape, taking us under its cloak of invisibility and providing refuge until we're ready to face the bitterness of reality, the icy jaws of living.

I stop thinking. Sometimes I just want my mind to quieten and come to a stop, so that the wheels of my brain can come to a halt and I can just exist, and let it be just that.

For a while, I revel in the silence. No screaming, no voices in my head, no people.

Nothing.

Adrien rolls over on the mattress but he remains asleep.

Unfortunately for him, it doesn't last much longer.

They don't knock. Don't even announce themselves.

Gabriel flings the doors open and I watch as Adrien is forced to wake up. In behind Gabriel comes the girl I saw yesterday. I think her name was Lila. As if she's part of a routine I'm not aware of, she beckons to Adrien, who barely moves to look at her, his disinterest apparent.

"Morning Adrien. I do hope you slept well. Are you coming?" she asks, voice sickly sweet. She acts like he has a choice. Like he could just opt out if he fancied, like he could tell her he would rather relax in captivity for today.

It makes everything worse.

Adrien meets my eyes for the first time today. I reply with a concerned look.

Gabriel steps forward, deciding enough time has been wasted.

"Adrien, this way please," he says, voice devoid of emotion.

"You know it's what your mother would want you to do," Lila chips in.

I actually gasp out loud in shock. I can't believe she just said what she did. How dare she?!

Lila and Gabriel turn their attention to me.

"You can't say that!" I burst out, an edge to my voice that I instantly regret.

I don't know how to register what happens next.

Lila laughs at me, amused that I dare to speak out, to use my voice and protest. As if she is meant to take my point seriously.

When she has finished mocking me, she narrows her eyes in my direction and her lips twist into a grin.

"Unless, of course," she starts, pivoting on her heel slowly to face Adrien once more, "you'd like your lovely cellmate here to take your place? Would you like that?"

Adrien looks at me.

I look at him.

I try to offer a small smile, to tell him that it's ok. That I wouldn't mind going if he couldn't.

Instead, he stands up and comes closer to Lila.

"Leave her out of this. I'll come if I have to," he growls, before joining Gabriel at the door.

As they all begin to leave, I race to the door to try and follow them, to help my new friend, but I find someone waiting for me.

"Oh no. You've got to stay here. Know your place here, 367," Lila snarls, voice low and warning. She kicks her foot out and manages to trip me over, so I fall to the floor. She pulls the door closed, but before she does, she locks her eyes onto mine, her features unmoving. She slowly brings her hand up to her mouth and rests her finger in front of her lips.

I get her message.

Tell anyone, and things get a lot harder for me. And for Adrien.

Her cold laugh echoes off the walls as she leaves, and I feel a sharp pain sear through my knee. I groan in pain and look at where the pain is coming from. I must have cut it when I fell to the floor. A drop of scarlet blood trickles down my pale skin, leaving a red trail in its wake. I take this opportunity to make something very, very clear to myself.

I hate Lila.

Undoubtedly.

In fact, I'm so angry I can feel it, an angry red fist inside my stomach, wanting to punch its way out. Pummelling the inside of my stomach repeatedly, trying to break free. The anger boils my blood, sending a rush of emotion to the palms of my hands, where I press my hand to my cut knee and watch as the familiar white light reaches out its ethereal fingertips and strokes the blood away.

It's the most peculiar feeling that fills me. It's a feeling like no other, it's a cup full of water and I'm dying of thirst, I want to drink it in, savour it, tuck the feeling away into my pocket and retrieve it whenever I'm in need. I never want this feeling to end. When I realise my cut has healed, I lift my hand away from my knee. But where the anger and fulfilment have gone, a new feeling floods into my system.

Empowerment.

Determination.

I'm so determined to see what else I can do with this power, see if there are limits, condition, rules, boundaries.

And I can start by doing what I couldn't before.

I face the mattress, fingers spread on its surface and almost straight away, I can see the black beginning to crumble away and the corner of the mattress slowly returning to its former white state, a limp and lifeless corpse that is being pumped with life. There is a war raging over it, one between the dark and the light. The light is winning, striking down the darkness and enveloping it. It's a war where there are no casualties, a war where good will triumph, a war where-

"Argh!"

The door is thrown open and Adrien is flung back into the cell.

He's gasping in pain and clutching his side.

I jump up from my position and rush over, offering to help him up, but there is a new depth to his eyes, an intensity that scares me. So I back off.

Eyes wide and alert, he scans my body, a panic-stricken look etched into his features, making sure that I'm ok, that whilst he's been in agony I have gone without harm. And I have no idea why.

As our eyes meet, I see him wince, and stupidly, I realise for the first time he looks how he did when he returned yesterday. His face is bloodied and bruised, a trickle of blood running down his neck. I shudder, imagining what sorts of torture they put him through, and what on earth they were doing.

But I know I can help him now.

"A- Adrien, a-are you alright?" I ask, cursing myself for not being able to say a full coherent sentence without stumbling over my words.

"Yes, don't worry about me. Are you ok? Did they hurt you?" he replies, his eyes betraying his expression.

My mind is cast back to a few hours earlier, when I had fallen. Do I tell him? About Lila? My mind is a container full of ifs and maybes, dos and don'ts. It's in turmoil, until I look at the pain that has been inflicted on my friend, the scars that torture has left on his face.

I don't want to make that worse.

I suspect that Lila is dangerous, and I have no idea what monstrosities she is capable of, so I decide it's best to keep it to myself. After all, it isn't really my secret to tell.

Is it?