That Other Side of Her

{chapter 4}

Marinette rang the doorbell again, and waited. She turned around to face Alya, who only shrugged without any knowledge of what was going on. "What, is no one home?" She muttered out loud to herself, getting even more worried, but at the same time, relieved, because she was starting to believe Adrien might have went somewhere with his mother but just forgot to tell her.

"Girls?"

Marinette and Alya turned around at the voice, and behind them stood Emilie, carrying a bag of groceries. "What are you doing here?" She asked, searching for her keys until she finally found them. She went up front and started unlocking her door.

Marinette looked around, noting how Adrien hadn't come with her. "We're looking for Adrien."

"Why? Isn't he. . .with you?" Emilie stopped short and faced Marinette. "I would say you're playing me, but you would ever do that, right Marinette?"

Marinette slowly nodded. "You mean to say that Adrien isn't with you?"

"Actually, Adrien didn't come home at all last night. He told me before that he'd be with you, so I thought he decided to sleep over at your place. I would have appreciated it more if he had called me-"

"Adrien didn't sleep over at my place!" Marinette exclaimed. "Oh my goodness, this could only mean one thing. . . Adrien is in trouble."

"Hey!" Alya placed a hand on Marinette's shoulder and tried to calm her down. "Let us not jump to conclusions so fast. I'm sure Adrien is fine, he probably went somewhere else, or is playing a joke on us. . .maybe he slept somewhere else. He could be lost. We'll just look for him, and when we can't find him, we'll hand this over to the police."

Marinette still looked worried despite Alya telling her not to worry, but she forced a small smile and nodded. "Alright, Alya. Um, you should go home first. I have. . .some place else to be." Walking away, Marinette took off around a corner, hoping Alya wouldn't come looking for her. When she turned around and was glad she was alone, she took her purse out and unzipped it, Tikki flying out.

"Tikki, you and I both know Adrien is in danger. I figured maybe it'd be more better and helpful if I searched around as Ladybug," Marinette suggested. Tikki quickly nodded, before Marinette called out the words, transforming herself into the ladybug themed hero. As soon as she did, she didn't waste time at all and quickly started jumping from one roof to another; the more worried she was, the faster she went.

She didn't even care that lots of people saw her now, and were pointing at her, but when she looked down, her eyes met Alya's, and Alya stared in shock. Before she could take out her phone and start recording, Ladybug had zoomed past her.

Ladybug searched places she thought Adrien could be in, but everywhere she looked, there was no sign of Adrien. She even double searched everywhere, wanting to make sure that she hadn't missed Adrien by chance, but no, the blonde was still not anywhere.

It was the evening. Marinette got the information that she had been searching for Adrien for 4 hours when she de-transformed and checked the time on her phone. She figured maybe Adrien would have sent her a message, but her thoughts were wrong. Instead, there were mixed calls from her parents, her friends, text messages from Alya and Emilie. Marinette slid down to the ground and covered her face.

"Marinette, don't cry. Tomorrow we can continue looking," Tikki tried to calm her down, patting Marinette on the shoulder. "Maybe tomorrow, Adrien will show up. You never know, Marinette."

"But what if he doesn't?" Marinette wiped a few tears out of her eyes, afraid that she was right in some way. What if Adrien never came back?

"It's not always a bad thing to have some hope. Tomorrow. Adrien should be back, and if he's not, then we'll continue looking. Maybe we can look for clues on where he could be," Tikki suggested. Marinette sniffed again, but nodded.

"Wait!" It was then that Marinette remembered something. "We still haven't checked one last place. The alleyway Adrien showed me. He said he always de-transformed there, right? Maybe he got attacked while he was de-transforming or something." After getting that idea, Marinette quickly shouted, "Tikki, spots on!" She transformed into Ladybug again and made her way over to where the alleyway was.

Ladybug landed on the ground and looked around. She then gasped when she saw something that made her stop cold. "B-Blood?" She headed over to where she saw it. Shattered pieces of glass were all around, with a few drops of blood.

Ladybug gritted her teeth. "Adrien didn't go anywhere! He was kidnapped!" She stopped and balled her hands into fists. "And I have a feeling I know who it was."