Shall We Dance?- A Miraculous Ladybug Fanfiction

Chapter 20

Somewhere in a little townhouse in Paris, laid a woman sobbing into her mattress, hot, fat tears streaming down her face. Her hair was a disheveled mess. Her eyes, normally a pleasant brown color, were swollen and red just like the cheeks underneath them; angry claw marks made by her own fingers traced down the sides of her face. She cuddled deep into the blankets surrounding her. Nothing brought her comfort. The nightmares were still there. They ran her life, deprived her of sleep, chased off everyone she either knew or loved. She thought she'd gotten over the loneliness. She thought the medicine had been helping.

It wasn't.

She'd woken again, screaming in the night, thrashing against the covers she now coveted as her lifeline, gasping for air as the screams lessened. Her throat became horribly dry and miserable.

She wasn't calming like normal. Her heart kept racing and she turned over, squeezing the bedsheets beneath her. Weariness settled over her like an anvil. Her shoulders and head rolled back a bit; they didn't go far but they did sink into the pillows and mattress just a bit more.

A flash of the dream and reality crossed in front of her eyes.

She saw her husband, a strong man with an angular jaw, sharp nose, and narrow eyes, and even though he looked homely to some, he couldn't have been more handsome to her. His sharp features often scared people. There couldn't have been anything that was more untrue. He was the kindest, happiest man in the world. One of her hands rested on his, the other on her swollen stomach. She was the happiest woman in the world right next to him.

He smiled at her brightly.

There was a jolt and it was so forceful that her world went black. Glass shattered, metal twisted. The world was deafeningly loud then it wasn't; there was nothing and all was silence. She woke up screaming as hands clutched at her, strapping her down to something, her middle was on fire! She screamed for them to stop it. They didn't. Someone touched her but it only made it worse. The fire wouldn't die. It burned and burned and burned and all she could do was scream.

Waking for a third time, she found herself no longer strapped down but instead, was lying in a bed, her mother worriedly eyeing her and calling for a nurse. Tears had welled in her eyes then too. She knew. She just knew. Her sobs were inconsolable then just as they were now. She tore at the IV's in her arms and, again, hands appeared to hold her down. Everything went dark soon after.

The fourth time she woke, she was calm enough to hear what had happened.

They'd been hit by a reckless driver.

The driver blamed her husband for pulling out in front of him.

Before anything could be done, the driver decided to escape to another country. No one could find him.

No one bothered to look and all she was left with were her nightmares and fears and loneliness and all things related to darkness that she wasn't sure she'd ever be able to pull herself out of again. Time didn't help. If anything, it only made everything worse.

Anger flared in her stomach.

It wasn't fair!

He shouldn't have gotten away. They all let him get away!

She shouldn't be the one suffering. He was probably off living life normally while she was being haunted by the ghosts of the past. She just wanted relief.

Her head spun at the unfair feeling.

It made her sick.

Turning over, she reached for the trash can she left by her bed and retched into it.

It lasted for several minutes but afterwards, she wiped her mouth dry with the back of a hand.

Suddenly, she felt... better. Powerful. Her eyes glazed over as in her mind she heard a voice calmly greet her, "Nightmare, I am Hawkmoth. I will give you the power to seek the revenge on those that constantly haunt your dreams but in return, I need you to do something for me."

A twisted smile crossed her lips.

"Of course Hawkmoth."

Then all was darkness as the akuma finally took her over.