Camp Cheng (CONTINUED)

~CHAPTER 33~

Adrien's POV

"Adrien..." Felix laid a hand on my shoulder, and I turned around and blinked rapidly through the tears. Felix was crying too, the tears dripping down his face steadily. Bridgette had collapsed on the floor, her head in her hands, muffled sobs echoing in the room. I warily placed a hand on her shoulder, making her look up through her tears. My vision blurred from all my crying, I murmured, "Hey. She'd want us to keep going."

Felix smiled. "And that's what we're going to do. For Marinette."

Bridgette slowly got to her feet. "For Marinette."

I wiped away the tears. "For Marinette."

We ran down the corridor and away from the room.

~

After running for a good ten minutes, we came to a large stone door which towered over us. Swirling golden patterns ran up and down the sides and a large handle in the middle.

Bridgette reached a hand out to the door, stretching her fingers to reach as if she was glued on the spot- and for me it felt like it, too. Something from the door was like a reverse magnet, pushing me away from it.

Just as Bridgette's fingers, fighting past the strange energy keeping us away from the door, closed around the handle, Felix slapped her arm away. "Don't! Something's not right about this place," he murmured, voicing my thoughts. My cousin turned around in a circle, scanning every inch of the walls around us until...

"Aha!" He grinned, eyes fixated on a spot on the wall. "Aha! I knew it was coming from somewhere!"

I followed his trained gaze to the part of the wall he'd suddenly fallen in love with, but there was nothing out of the ordinary there.

Bridge rolled her eyes. "Felix...stop going all Sherlock Holmes on us and bloody tell us what it is!"

"Right you are, Watson," he grinned at her rolling her eyes again, "okay, so earlier I put on some contacts I'd been working on. They were malfunctioning right up until this point, but for some reason they'd switched on as soon as we arrived. These scan for heat signatures, and that area behind the wall must be hollow, because I sense at least three people in close proximity to us."

"Hollow?" I questioned. "You're saying that there's some- I dunno, secret area back there?"

"Yep. That's exactly what I'm saying."

"Woah, that's pretty- hang on...why haven't you said anything about these contacts before? They could've been useful earlier!" Bridgette complained.

"Hey! Don't blame me! They were a bust- or, at least, I thought they were! Besides, there wasn't really an appropriate time to mention it."

"Okay, fine. Point Felix. I will say this though...this new invention of yours must've been pretty damn strong to see in the dim light and through the walls...I'm impressed!"

"Thanks! Well, it was that, and the fact that I heard voices coming from that exact area moments after we'd arrived. Seriously guys, are you deaf or what?"

"Wait...you can hear voices?" Bridgette looked incredulous.

"Yes, I can!" he sighed. "Guys, stop fooling around, I know you can too."

Wondering if Felix was going insane, Bridgette and I strained our ears. Oddly enough, I couldn't hear anything, and by the confused look on her face, she didn't either.

Felix looked at us. "Wait...you guys really can't hear anything?" He looked at us, astonished. "But...how can I?"

"I don't know, Felix," I folded my arms, "but I'm getting a weird feeling from this place. We shouldn't be here. Your stupid eye-things must be malfunctioning, because that section of wall looks PERFECTLY fine to me!"

"Where else were we supposed to go then?! The only way was forward from the room. Unless you've secretly invented a new direction, I'm pretty sure we went the right way! And don't you DARE insult my work; I calculated everything down to the point and triple checked all the mechanisms. It works FINE."

I sighed, unfolding my arms. "You're right. I'm sorry, I'm just really stressed."

Bridgette came forward and smiled. "We all are. But we're doing this for Marinette, right?" She continued, not even waiting for an answer. "Exactly. That's why we have to just keep our chins up and march onward."

"Hear hear," Felix clapped.

I grinned. "Okay, I have a plan. Felix, since you seem to be the only one who can hear these 'voices', why don't you try to figure out a way past the wall? Bridgette, you work on getting that door open, and I'll go back down the tunnel and look for any clues."

"What, like split up?" Bridgette raised her eyebrows.

I shrugged. "You got a better idea?"

She smiled sheepishly. "No. No I do not."

"Okay, just scream if you find anything!"

I took off down the narrow passageway. Running normally calmed my nerves- like when I used to parkour over Paris, fighting crime. Something felt off this time, though...maybe it was the fact that I was on edge ever since I figured out Hawkmoth was my dad... or maybe it was the fact that Marinette wasn't around-

I lost my rhythm at that, stumbling forward, raising dust around my feet till I finally fell to the floor, my arms windmilling in a futile attempt to stable my balance. Lying there, groaning and trying to rub the dirt out of my eyes (I don't think I have to tell you how hard that was), my cat-ears picked up a low grating noise coming from the direction I was headed. With normal hearing I wouldn't have been able to hear it. I mentally thanked Plagg as I got up. What could that noise possibly have been? Judging by the scraping, I assumed it was something big, like...a door...

Suddenly rejuvenated, I sprinted down the hallway, my negative thoughts and weakness chased away by the fact that I'd heard Marinette's door open.

~

Around ten minutes later, I came rushing to a stop at the doorway. Not having stopped once, I backed up against the wall; sliding down until I came to a rest at the floor, breathing heavily. Then I stood up straight again and took in the sight before me.

The door was now out of sight, having slid smoothly out of the way. The room beyond was empty. Well, apart from a few blood stains- oh god, they were Mari's. But where WAS she? I dashed into the room, my hopes deflating faster than a popped balloon. She wasn't there. I ran around the room, searching for anything out of the ordinary, despite the fact that I had a feeling I already knew.

She was gone.

I yelled into my hands, collapsing onto the floor for what felt like the hundredth time today. Tears began to stream from my eyes. I didn't stop them, letting them dampen the stone floor.

"Adrien?!" I heard my cousin yell, the sound reverberating down the hallway.

"Felix," I responded, sobbing into my hands.

"Adrien, hang on, we're com-" Felix stopped.

"Felix?" I screamed, forcing the name out of my shredded voice box. "Felix?! What's going on?!" I got up and started running, adrenaline pumping through my veins. If I wasn't so distracted I would've noticed that I was running twice my normal speed.

Five minutes later, I burst into the room. The...empty room? No one was there.

"Felix?! Bridgette?!" I screamed. I seemed to be doing that a lot lately...

As if in answer to my pleas, a piece of paper floated down from above me. I looked up, nut nothing and no one was there.

I swiftly plucked the writing out of the air and smoothed it out.

It read: You won't recognize them when we're done.

A/N: Apologies for the short chapter!

I have huge plans for the next few chapters *grins evilly*

Bye for now!

-MyCrazyFandoms