Chat Noir X Reader: The Muse

Chapter 28: The First Kiss of the Sun (Part 2)

You felt tears pricking your eyes. How you hated to be so weak, so impotent. Your muscles were stiff from exhaustion and you had to stop running after you entered the tenth corridor. You couldn't keep going anymore.

Your skin was sticky with sweat even with the cold chilling your bones. You passed by a torn poster with Adrien's face and shook your head, your eyes burning along with your lungs. You were dejected. He had sacrificed himself for you and you couldn't do anything to help him. The spider hadn't followed you like you had planned.

There was a small hope in your heart that the miraculous heroes had arrived by now, but the distance from Versailles to Paris was big. It'd take them at least half an hour to arrive.

You let out a long, distressed sigh. If only Chat would be able to get Adrien before the spider transformed him into one of her horrible cocoons. You still didn't know what she'd do to those. Transform them into spiders? Eat them? You shuddered at the thought.

Your feet stopped when you saw moonlight lighting an area in front of you. The big clearing. However, it looked nothing like before, with spider webs covering everything. The chairs and sculptures were broken and scattered around the place; the backstage tent had been trampled; and on top of the catwalk laid a single cocoon. Gabriel.

You began to walk to him when your foot hit something. Your stomach dropped when you looked at the ground. There were many other cocoons lying around, and some of them were almost completely dark.

A creaking noise by your side made you jump and look around for the spider. But the sound had come from one dark cocoon. It had opened, and as you looked inside, you only saw red cloth threads. You took a step back, feeling nauseous at the strong smell coming from it. What was the spider doing to people?

You entered the clearing with careful steps. Maybe you could help the others before this happened to them. You just hoped Adrien wasn't in one of those things.

You managed to open a few cocoons, scrunching up your nose at their weird smell and stickiness, but it seemed that they were also made of cloth. The people inside were all sleeping, probably poisoned. You sighed in relief when you opened the last one. No sign of Adrien.

You got up on the catwalk and kneeled down on the ground to help Gabriel. His cocoon was almost all dark already. When you took the last strings off his face, he began to breathe again, his chest going up and down as he slept.

The hairs on the back of your neck stood up as you noticed something coming right at you in your peripheral view. You managed to duck, feeling something whizzing past your head.

"You're a slippery one, aren't you?"

You turned around and saw the spider perched on the hedges, three of her eight red legs limp. She contorted her body and crawled down, trying to balance herself on her remaining legs. The sound of them cracking as she moved made your stomach churn in disgust.

"Hawkmoth said I could have Gabriel if I caught you," she said, fixing the scarf around her head. "It's nothing personal."

Taking a closer look at her body you could see she was bleeding in various places. There were some bumps and claws marks even on her human skin. Your attention perked up at that. It seemed that the miraculous heroes had arrived and had fought her at some point.

The spider took a step forward and grabbed the open dark cocoon. As she touched it, the red strings went to her lower body, wrapping around her torso and legs. She closed her eyes in satisfaction as her wounds healed and disappeared.

You took advantage of that moment to get down from the catwalk and hide behind it, your chest heaving as you struggled to breathe. The spider was using people to regenerate. How were the heroes going to defeat her?