Shadowteer

Chapter 35

"So, Manon, what happened in that room?" She looked around at the twins and Meera, rolling her eyes. She cleared her throat and placed her hands tentatively on her ears, preparing herself for the fangirl screams.

"Uh... We talked a lot and... Might've... Almost kissed?" She looked at their shocked faces and took her hands off her ears, letting out a sigh of relief. Then they screamed and she practically fell off her chair.

"Aww, I feel so mad at myself! You were this close and I ruined it. Shame on me for feeling pity I guess. To be honest, Ella was pretty keen on having you stay in that room for the rest of the night." She turned to Ella who was biting her lip.

"Uh..."

"Ella, have anything you would like to say?"

"I... I... Tyler and I are dating!' She slapped a hand over her mouth and groaned. "Oh man, why did I talk? None of you were supposed to know... Why aren't you looking shocked?"

"It was kind of obvious," Meera added a few gestures to emphasise her point and shrugged like it was the clearest thing in the world.

"Yeah, you are really bad at keeping secrets girl." Etta put an arm around her sister's waste and shrugged as well. Manon looked at her friends, clearly confused. Ella chuckled and nudged her.

"It's okay, we didn't expect you to guess. You've been a bit busy... You know... Talking to Chris." Her cheeks burned as the girls laughed. She considered flipping them the bird but considering the fact that she had never done it before, it was definitely more for Chris than her.

"I want details later, missy." Ella nodded once.

"We want details too. We'd love to know about how long you 'talked'."

"Yeah, was the talking good? You know sometimes you can talk and it's like magic in your mouth-" Manon threw a pillow at Etta, making the rest laugh and went into the kitchen to grab a soda and nudged Tyler.

"Nice work, heard you and ice queen finally tied the knot. When are my nephews and nieces arriving?" He groaned.

"ELSA!"

"EESH, SORRY TYLER, THEY GUESSED!" He swore under his breath. Manon told the rest of the guys who congratulated him immediately. Kemen wrapped an arm around her and around Chris.

"Well, the whole gang is all matched up. You two are the only ones left." She glanced at Chris who was staring hard at his phone, ignoring Freddie's constant teasing.

"You two sure took a long time, didn't they boys? Wonder what you were doing?" He smirked. Manon folded her arms.

"Frederick, today is my birthday and I order you to leave Chris alone before I break your jaw." He rose his hands in defence and stepped away. She sat in front of him and snapped her fingers, making him look up from his playlist. He took off his headphones and rose an eyebrow. "What are you listening to?"

"This new album called Leave Me Alone by Mind Your Damn Business." She rose an eyebrow.

"Wow, was that really your best attempt at chasing me away? Chris, you may not like it but I'm not going to leave you. I refuse to. Deal with it." He went back to his phone, ignoring her. She took his headphones off and threw them across the room, earning a few 'oohs'.

"Did you just take off my headphones, short stack?" She looked up at him, completely undaunted by the height difference. She looked into his forest green eyes and spoke.

"Bite me, frost giant." He looked her in the eyes and smirked.

"This is hardly the time, or place, seeing as we have company. But I wouldn't mind later tonight." Her eyes widened and she cursed him for having such a smooth voice. Her friends laughed around her.

"You're all annoying. I'm going upstairs. See you in a few." Chris stayed downstairs, talking to the rest till he decided to go upstairs to check up on her. She had been up there for way too long by herself and he knew she was still depressed and not to be left alone. Plus, it was her birthday.

"Manon? Mano- no." He froze in front of her door. She dropped his bag and turned to him, tears in her eyes. Nightlight was in one of her hands but it was the object in her other hand that got his attention. "You... You..."

"Chris... Why didn't you-"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH MY TORCH?!" She nearly dropped its wincing at the tone of his voice. She took a shaky step towards him, then another but he stepped back. "I shouldn't have trusted you. I should never have trusted you that day. Then I came here, hoping to avoid you and live my life. Instead, I befriended you... I trusted you once again... And you betrayed me."

She stepped back, not trusting herself to speak. She covered her mouth with her hand and walked out of the room, brushing his shoulder as he did. The gang heard the commotion and hurried upstairs one by one. Manon slammed the door to her mother's room shut, taking deep breaths to stop herself from crying. It wasn't working though. Chris locked the door and slid to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably.

"No! No, leave me alone! Get off me, Riley! Stop it!" The boys grabbed nine-year-old Chris, sobbing and pleading to be released, and pushed him into a closet. They slammed the door shut and locked it. Chris began to have a series of panic attacks and he screamed but all his classmates were in the playground so no one knew. He began to remember things, his parents, his nightmares, Maurice's words, every breath he took hurt as he hit the door helplessly.

Suddenly, he heard someone fumble with the lock and the door opened to reveal Manon with wide eyes.

"Manon? Manon, thank you!" He tried to hug her but she pushed him back, giggling. Then she saw the sad look in his eyes and stopped.

"Shh! Sorry, Chris, Riley won't let me bring you out, he doesn't even know I'm here! I brought you a torch so you can see, okay?" She gave it to him and shut the door, giggling. She was six years old, too little to understand how bad it would affect him. He fell to the floor, hands shaking as the darkness seemed to form monstrous creatures around him. He felt around for the torch and fumbled with it, trying to put it on but the battery was dead. Then he curled himself into a ball and cried as his memories took over.

"Shadow Man! Or should I say Nightmare? Well, well, two villains in one, even better! I want to help you get revenge on them for forcing you to see all these monsters, child, but you must help me in return." Chris was changed to Nightmare and he teleported into Riley's shadow, his physical form making the boy scream. It was a very dark day, Parisians all over were forced to see their nightmares come to life and they could not escape. Some, like Manon who was young, forgot after a while but others, like Riley, never let it go. It was so bad that Ladybug and Chat Noir weren't enough to defeat him as their own shadows became their worst nightmares so Alya Cesaire and Chloe Bourgeois became Rena Rouge and Queen bee to save Paris. A lot of people were scared of him so he had no friends but Nino played it off, never mentioning it in front of his brother.

And Chris remembered nothing, but a deep-seated hatred for everyone and everything in Paris, the city that broke him grew. That was why he needed to leave, as soon as possible, before he got any worse.

I sighed and tapped my fingers against my temple, munching on my shawarma. I turned to Nooroo who was watching with absolute shock on the screen.

"This book is awful, right Nooroo? My writing skills are just... Absolute shi-"

"Language young lady."

"Fine. They're absolute poop." He shook his head gently, sitting on top of my head.

"Zee, this is just very sad. I did not mean to make you feel any less of your... Writing skills or book but it is so sad..." I smiled and got up.

"Aww, thanks but the fun isn't over yet." I winked and he sighed. "Nooroo, wings up!"

I akumatised them and waited patiently for them, not in Manon's house but in the lair Hawkmoth had hidden somewhere in Paris. It was a bit old and it hadn't been cleaned up in a long time. I remembered the first people that were brought to the lair, DJWiFi and smiled fondly at the memory. I rose an eyebrow when they both came in, not bothering to look at each other. Manon headed straight to the left and he headed right, not in the mood to speak to her. I heard the echo of two doors slammed shut and rolled my eyes.

Ah, young love.

So gross.