Harsh Goodbyes & Butterflies {LadyNoir/Adriette}

Chapter 6

Noir

As soon as I felt my hand close around the box, my focus flew to one thing and one thing only. Rescue her. It was a desire so strong, so deep and so captivating, that my body began thinking for its own. Suddenly, I barely felt the strain in my muscles as I leapt; the pain was nothing compared to the screaming that now wracked my brain, reminding me again and again that I had failed. This was my mess to clean up, my mistake to fix. And the energy that thought provoked was simply far too much for me to comprehend. So I went into autopilot.

I hardly felt the blows as they came. Blundering about and seething in rage, the monster wailed with confusion, and I took it upon myself right there to slam my staff into the backs of its kneecaps, watching as it crumpled to the floor. I forced myself to keep my chin up and away from the sickening crime scene, the glass under my feet. My hand found the box and, with shaking fingers, undid the latch. It gave way, and I felt my lungs deflate with a sigh of relief. There it was. Nestled in the biggest compartment was a red charm around the size and shape of a yo-yo, practically begging me to snatch it up and try it out for fun. And I would have, had the situation not been the current situation. But now, in the heat of the moment, I weakly grabbed hold of it and tossed the box to the side, feeling the nerves build up in my throat as I stared at what now seemed to be a foreign object. How did she even work this thing? I fiddled with what seemed to be the hinge and tried to shake the ringing from my ears.

And then, a yell from across the hall. "The wings! You open the wings!"

"Ah."

I slid my pointer finger along the face of the charm, thanking the heavens when it opened, and shut my eyes. "Alright, here goes," I muttered, spinning the thing in my fingers. "Time to fix the unfixable. Ladybug, help me out here!"

A flash of light made me stagger back, and I watched in shock as the charm flew out of my hand, clearly having a mind of its own. Seconds later and it had snapped back into my grasp. I blinked, still slightly stunned at the brilliance the little thing had in it. I spun quickly and locked onto the beast, now completely comatose, and let my guard down.

"Bye bye, little butterfly," I whispered, and let myself fall to the ground.

Another flash of light, and then everything went blank.
"Adrien. Adrien!"

I shot up, immediately cursing as a shock of pain went down my spine. The brightness was unbelievable. I shut my eyes again and fell back, groaning, completely unable to even begin to comprehend what was happening.

"Adrien, oh my God, are you okay? What happened out there?"

"Peachy," I muttered, bracing my arms against what I assumed was the ground and pushing myself up as carefully as I could. My head felt like a bowling ball.

"It's me, it's Nino. Dude, I have no idea what just happened, but you weren't in class and then suddenly, BANG! This really loud sound goes off, and everyone's panicking, and then we go on lockdown. The police came and everything - I saw all the cars out the classroom window - and were searching around, but they didn't find anything except a teacher who was in, like, super bad shape and some girl who I guess had accidentally cut her hand with glass or something. And then they found you. Dude, did you pass out or what? You were just conked out in the middle of the hall, and you were out cold. I've been calling your name for like five minutes."

It was at that point when I realized how lucky I had been. I had a way out.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I...I forgot to eat breakfast this morning, and I didn't get much sleep last night studying for that test in Homeroom, and then I think I over-exerted myself running in Physical Education and I must've just passed out. Just really unlucky timing, huh? I must've missed a lot."