Return of a Killer

Searching

Marinette paced back and forth in her bedroom. She had never felt like this much of a wreck in her life. Her miraculous was gone, Tikki was gone, Chat Noir was gone, and a deranged akuma was roaming the streets of Paris looking for her. She didn't know who it was or why they were like this.

With most akumas it was simple. Ask someone nearby, check the history of who Chloe had bullied in the past hour, check anyone who Marinette herself had tried to help in the past hour, or it was just Pidgeon Man again. That was it.

Marinette couldn't burden her parents with this. They were both downstairs in the bakery anyway. She had nobody here to help her. She couldn't have stayed in the alley where Chat had left her. Her home was much safer.

Marinette froze as she heard a thud and footsteps come from her ceiling. She began to panic. Looking for a place to hide in case it was Chat Blanc, she scurried under her day bed and curled up in its shadow. She was afraid that Chat Noir wouldn't be able to save her if the white cat snared her in his claws again.

The trapdoor was opened slowly and carefully, in hopes that if someone was in there, they did not hear. The predatory eyes scanning the room could just barely be felt by the hunted girl. Marinette could faintly make out the squeaks of her bed's springs, then footsteps slowly creeping closer as they descended down the little staircase to her bed.

Marinette knew from how careful and quiet the intruder was that they were not the friendly black cat she had been hoping for.

Chat Noir had looked in the alley and at the recently emptied school. He tried listing off in his head the places where Marinette would go. Alya's house? He hoped not, he didn't know how to get there, and he'd have to waste time detransforming and calling her. His house? Nathalie wouldn't let her in. She must be at her own house.

Chat Noir sped off towards the bakery.

Chat Blanc was going to search this room top to bottom. He knew that this would be a place she would hide. He just had to find where. He was losing patience. Chat Blanc's heartbeat accelerated, he needed to find Marinette. He needed to find her before Chat Noir got here.

This gaze turned to the closet. It was closed tight. Maybe Marinette was hiding in there.

She could see his white boots from under the day bed. She held one hand over her mouth and another over her restless heart, worried that the feline villain would hear something from either. Marinette saw the closet doors slam open when Chat Blanc walked over to them.

The only things he could find in the closet were some of the dresses he remembered from the dances they had gone to, but not the girl that had been inside them. He ran his clawed fingers along the rim of a pink dress he  had especially liked.

Chat Blanc's moment of tender fondness was interrupted by panicked shouts for Marinette. He retreated down the second trapdoor into the family kitchen to avoid his black-clad rival.

Marinette wanted to sigh in relief as the springs of her bed squeaked.

" Marinette, are you in here?” Chat Noir called. He sighed in relief as Marinette stuck her hand out from under the day bed.