Hi everyone!

Happy March!

I have literally just finished writing this chapter which was so intense, however I was listening to the soundtrack to Teen Wolf whilst I did so I was fired up (any Teen Wolf fans reading? If so PLEASE tell me, I need to talk to someone else who loves it too haha!)

But anyways, I'm pleased I can get you this chapter before my exams start (again!). So as always, I hope you enjoy, I hope you are all well and please let me know if you liked it.

Enjoy!

I need to get out of here.

I need to escape.

Now.

I put the piece of paper back where I found it, alarm rising rapidly inside of me, clutching my throat with its red hot iron fist and crushing it until I can't breathe.

As quickly as I can, I turn around to leave, so that hopefully I can get back to my cell before anyone finds me here. I'm still slightly in shock that I haven't yet been caught, but at the same time, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. I feel like someone is waiting just around the corner, filling me with the false belief that I've succeeded with my part of their plan before they shackle me again and drag me back to my eternal prison, filled with a new routine of danger and uncertainty. I hurry back over to the desk at the back of the room to make sure I've left everything in its rightful place before I leave. There's no harm in checking again. I turn around, about to head for the door, when a beeping noise makes me freeze, blood running cold.

Beeping.

Keys on the keypad. Beeping.

I'm frozen still, blood turning to ice, limbs locking in place. My heart is the only thing moving, beating, pounding, thundering against my ribcage, telling me something is wrong, trying to tell me to move forward, to move at all.

Someone is coming.

Gabriel? Lila? Guards? Something, someone worse than them? They're going to find me, and then they're going to kill me and drain my powers for-

I need to move. Now.

Doing the only thing I think I can in this moment, I dive behind the desk in the middle of the room, and wait, trying not to make any noise so I can hear the person enter the room.

One louder beep. One click, the door unlocking. One creak as it swings open.

I press myself against the back of the desk, praying that I'm hidden from view. The most unnerving thing about this whole situation is the fact that I can hear...

...nothing.

It's deathly silent.

The door has been swung open but I don't hear anyone there. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end and I'm terrified for my life. The silence is making me paranoid, so paranoid that I want to scream just to fill the empty air, because I'm worried, worried that I've missed something, adamant that I've been spotted, completely unaware of the whereabouts of the other person in this room with me. They could be anywhere, everywhere, watching me closely as they lie in wait ready to attack. They could be nowhere, stood, unaware, right above my head as I quiver underneath this desk. This desk is quite possibly the only barrier between myself and certain death. Which, as you can imagine, isn't a terrifying thought at all.

I listen again. Still, nothing.

Silence.

Silence...

Silence...

In the next few seconds, there's a flurry of action and I'm not prepared for any of it.

Quick footsteps are pacing back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, and right in front of where I am hiding behind the desk, there's an exasperated sigh that I can't connect to a person. I clasp my hands over my mouth to stop my breaths escaping and getting me caught. I focus on the sigh, the exasperated noises the person is making, my brain listening with mind-numbing intent. If I can just figure out who-

"Dammit Agreste, I swear if you've-"

Another sigh.

I force myself to swallow. To do something.

Lila.

Definitely her.

I need to leave, and so my mind jumps into action, thinking and thinking and formulating a plan of escape, all the time mindful of Lila's position in the room. But I have absolutely no idea what to do.

There's those moments in life, when the world just stops around you.

When the world has been coated in honey and moves slowly around you as you try to see what's going on but all you can see is colours and shapes and blurs and you're trying to think, to grasp some concept of reality but nothing is working and everything is moving so slowly, and all you want to do is think but it's so hard, too hard.

Why is it so hard to think?!

Calm down, I chant inside my head. Calm down and don't lose it completely.

Just think.

My mind is alive, my senses are on fire and yet my body won't move, so I'm stuck here. And I'm forced to listen to Lila's movements as she begins rooting around, looking for something I assume. After a few moments I hear her press a small something that omits a single long beeping noise.

Then, as noise starts to fill the air, she goes completely silent. Deathly silent.

I realise that what we're both listening to is some sort of voice recording. I immediately recognise Adrien's voice, calm with an inquisitive tone.

"What is all this research about? Why does my father need so much intel on Marinette and I?"

A small pause. I've never tried to listen so intensely in my entire life. Lila's slow drawl that makes me want to punch her is so sure of itself when it replies to him.

"Well, he wanted to be able to extract yours and Marinette's powers, so that he- I mean... we, can harness them for his... our, own use," she explains to him.

As the recording beeps to signal its end, there's a moment where no one makes any noise. I don't, obviously. But Lila is chillingly quiet. I can't even hear her breaths, and it sends a shiver like an electric shock rocketing down my spine, because I have no idea where she is or what she's thinking.

But hey, you know what? Maybe there's a new silver lining in this! You know? Maybe, maybe she's unable to move, or she can't speak, or maybe her vocals have just fallen onto the floor so she's useless! All great alternatives! This silence has no downfall! She'd be unable to get to me and I could just run on past!

But then she SLAMS on the desk in rage, slaughtering the silence in one swoop and my entire body jolts from the sudden shock. Yep... I realise very quickly that I was very wrong. As I try desperately to steady my breath as quietly as humanly possible, I can hear Lila cursing under her breath, something about if anyone hears the recording and why was she so naïve, and I caught a few words of the sentence of how could she let herself be fooled by a handsome face.

I raise my eyebrows at the surprising piece of information. Oh! So Lila had feelings for Adrien? The more I think about it, the more I realise that I'd never seen that coming. Most situations have unexpected plot twists I know, but even this is too much for me to handle. I mean, she tortured him, how could she like him? Well, tough love I guess.

With no more time to think about it, I decide I'll amuse myself with that ridiculous notion later. If I make it out of this room unescorted with a knife to my throat that is. I'll probably find it much less funny then.

Lila is rushing around the room again like she's incapable of standing still. Clearly in a flap, she doesn't even seem to pause to take a breath.

I narrow my eyes, focusing. Now is a better opportunity than ever. It's going to have to be in this moment that I do whatever it is I'm planning on doing. Which at this point looks like is going to be just running for it. But I think if she's distracted enough it should be easy enough for me to slip out without her seeing me.

So I kneel up ever so slowly so I'm balancing on the balls of my feet and spread my hands out on the floor so I can easily move. Inhaling as steadily as possible, I become completely alert, suddenly aware of every cell in my body and its position as I slink around the corner of the desk, the small of my back still very much glued to the polished oak surface. I'm barely just edging around the corner of the desk and I know that Lila is behind me on the other side. Beads of sweat are coating every pore as I concentrate with intense effort to maintain calm whilst also calming my shaking hands.

The door is in front of me.

Directly in front of me, maybe a few paces at a run, so close just miles away. My stomach is an acrobat, flipping and twirling and churning to the point where I'm terrified I might be in danger of throwing up the meagre contents of my stomach. But I've got to get out of here at some point, this has gone on for long enough.

So here I am, I'm perched on the tips of my toes, fingers steadying me as they spread across the floor, arms quivering, begging myself not to give myself away, not to by typical, clumsy Marinette for five minutes and to not get killed. It's the least I can do.

I grit my teeth.

Block out the sound of my heartbeat which is now so loud it's starting to sound like a large battle drum, marching the time further and further towards the war that I'm about to start. I fix my eyes firmly on the door, the door that has been left slightly ajar so it doesn't create too much noise as Lila leaves. The sound of her pacing behind me is in the forefront of my mind, the only sound I want to keep hearing in these next few moments. Keeping my eyes locked on the door, staring with such commitment that I make myself go dizzy, but that only fuels me to go on. Right now, I've got that old feeling back, the feeling like adrenaline has set my entire frame on fire, like I'm coated in flames of will power that make me jolt upwards and into action. My head is filled with noise but silence at the same time, like my thoughts are both here and non-existent as every sensation in my body is alive but numb.

I am an oxymoron.

My limbs are fired up but frozen in place.

My eyes are set on my goal but are hazy and blurring.

My mind is ready to go but not prepared for the consequences.

My heart is hammering, thundering, clamouring, screaming but my head is telling me to go for it.

To go now.

My head is telling me, imploring me, begging me...

...to run

Swallowing back the doubt and fear, I lift my hands off the floor, gritting my teeth so tight I feel like I might shatter all of them.

This is happening.

This is happening right now.

The world is back in its familiar state of slow motion and I lift myself up so slowly I haven't even convinced myself that I'm moving.

Despite the storm that is raging inside of my skull, I turn my head to see Lila, who thank goodness isn't facing my way. She hasn't heard my movements, hasn't detected my presence.

Yet.

And then, I close my eyes, feel them open, now seeing the door, my goal, my chance at freedom, the way out, in a whole other way. I glare at it, readying myself for what's about to come next. Feed my brain another shot of adrenaline and that fire I've always loved to feel.

I start to move. Eyes are locked on the door, ears are locked on the footsteps, heart is gradually beating faster, faster, faster, faster, quicker quicker quicker quicker as I stand up up up up up listening more and more and more and more, hands shaking, soul on fire, gut wrenching, brain screaming, telling me to go go go go go.

Telling me to run.

So that's exactly what I do.