Dreamer (Book Two)

Chapter One: Without A Doubt

The wind made a whistling sound as I flew through the air, landing back on the ground with a somersault.

     "Here kitty, kitty!" A male voice taunted me. I almost growled in frustration. How many times had I fought this guy already? I fought him only three days ago. And two days before that. Tormentor, he called himself. He was a nasty Akuma with the ability to cause anyone he touched with his hands to live out their worst nightmare. Lucky for me, I was already living mine.

     I had warned everyone to treat post-akumatized people with as much caution as they could and warned the post-akumatized victims to try to control their emotions so that we could all avoid situations like this one. It was hard enough fighting Akuma's without Ladybug.

Ladybug. Marinette.

I shoved those thoughts away as quickly as they came. I couldn't afford to get distracted around this Akuma. Already, there were dozens of people curled into balls on the ground; some were crying, some were screaming, and others had blank expressions on their faces. my heart ached at the sight. Without my partner's healing Miraculous Ladybug's, Paris remained chaotic.

"Hey, Terminator!" I shouted as I got my head back into the game. I stood about fifteen feet behind him, my baton at the ready as Tormentor whipped around to sneer at me in disgust.

"My name is Tormentor!" He raged as he charged me, his arms outstretched towards me. I easily dodged his attack and skipped a few feet away as he continuously lunged at me. I had fought this particular Akuma enough to know his style.

After a few more minutes of feinting and dodging, I saw my opportunity. Muttering the command words under my breath I swiped at the akumatized item and destroyed it using my Cataclysm. But the damage couldn't be erased. The people Tormentor affected would remain that way until their worst fear was over. For some people, it didn't take long. There were some people from Tormentor's first attack, almost three weeks ago, that are still in the hospital.

I watched in utter distaste as the butterfly emerged and flew away, knowing I couldn't do anything about it. I didn't wait around for the guy to come to his senses, instead, I used my baton to propel myself away. How badly I wished I could just propel myself from everything. I wished I could propel myself into a whole new reality where Marinette was safe and sound in my arms as we cuddled together on her balcony, whispering so her parents didn't find us out.

Five weeks. Five whole weeks and they still knew nothing as to where she was. My Marinette. My poor, lovely Marinette. The number one thing I could do was keep suspicion off of the coincidence between Marinette's disappearance and Ladybug's. Luckily, everyone who knew Marinette was too worried about her to care about the super heroine's disappearance. Only Alya had suspected, I think. But the fact that Ladybug's disappearance was only noticed when an Akuma  attacked almost two weeks after Marinette's was my saving grace.

I was the only one who knew the connection between the two people. And, again, possibilities flooded my mind. Did Hawkmoth somehow find out Ladybug's civilian identity and capture her? Was she robbed? But why hasn't she turned into Ladybug and escaped whatever situation she was in? Was she... was she... could she be dead?

The police have no clues as to where she is. The last contact she had was when she told her parents goodbye before heading over to my house. But somewhere from her parent's bakery to my house, she must've detoured. Or someone detoured her. The log that keeps track of who enters the house and when they enter showed that Marinette never made it.

I hadn't been too worried when she was late to arrive at my house. It was when the hour late mark hit that the worry began to set. I called her, texted her. Nothing. When she didn't respond, I started making calls to first her parents, then Alya, Nino, and even Chloe. No one knew where she was.