Alone

Chapter 12

"It's time..." Announced Twister raising his staff and slamming it on the ice.

The staff hit the ice with such force that it was a miracle it didn't crack. Instead of cracks on the ice, dark purple magic crept on the ice, surrounding the entire ice rink in a dome of evil magic. The magic slithered up along the walls and the seats, glittering with power. The supernatural spell crawled up the walls slowly transforming the ice rink. The lights started flickering as the entire structure moved on its own, arranging according to its Master's will.

Marinette was still at the entrance of the ice rink when the doors shut behind her. The lights started flickering and most of them burned out, raining sparks on Marinette. Marinette crouched down, her hands above her head to shield herself from the exploding bulbs above her. She felt the ground shake under her feet and was knocked onto the floor where she lay crawled in a ball. She saw the glittering shine of the dark magic through her closed eyelids but was too scared to see what it was. She felt her body rise and fall back onto solid ground as the ice rink contracted and expanded under her. She knew by instinct that the ground under her was not the cool surface of the ice rink but something much more sinister and ominous.

Slowly opening her eyes, Marinette stared at the ground, now covered in black and designed with gold and silver patterns. But she couldn't quite decipher the weird decorations of different colours. She was kneeling on the ground tracing her index finger on the patterns trying to feel the meaning of the inscriptions through her knowledge of designs. Suddenly, another shockwave passed under the structure and Marinette was once again, knocked off of her feet. She heard the loud sound of brick scraping across brick and looked up to see walls made of brick shifting on either side of her. The walls of concrete that had been there a few minutes ago were now walls of faded bricks shifting constantly as if they had a mind of their own. She glanced at the door through which she had entered, now a mere brick wall blocking her path.

Marinette got the feeling as if her surroundings were changing despite them being the same when she looked around. But the continuous sound of moving bricks alerted Marinette that something was wrong. Dust rained down on Marinette when she was certain that nothing around her was moving. She placed her hand against one wall watching her hand slowly moving towards her body even though she wasn't moving it. It took her a few seconds to realise that the walls were closing in on her, trying to trap her.

"Tikki! Spots on!" Marinette shouted out of pure instinct.

When she didn't feel the sparkling feeling spreading along her body, Marinette raised her hands to her ears to feel the Ladybug Miraculous.

"Oh no! Tikki!" Cried Marinette remembering that she had left her Miraculous in the possession of Master Fu. 

Marinette flattened herself against one wall trying to push it backwards. But her efforts were in vain. The wall didn't budge with the force she was adding but kept on moving towards the wall opposite to her.  Yet, the walls continued to corner her. Another low rumbling forced Marinette to look upwards. Her throat dried when she saw the ceiling, lined with spikes, coming down onto her. She added force onto her hands and lifted herself off the ground and planted her legs on the opposite wall and pushed. Seeing that pushing against the walls was going to do no good, Marinette slid down the walls and pulled her legs to her chest, awaiting death.

"You are Ladybug, with or without the costume!" Echoed Tikki's voice in Marinette's head as she was pulled back to when she had fought Chloé when she had gotten Akumatised into Antibug.

Marinette remembered Tikki sitting on her shoulder eating her cookie and giving Marinette advice, asking her to take it. Marinette smiled at the memory and lifted her head from her knees with tears streaming down her cheeks. Breathing in, Marinette stood up, crouching just in case the ceiling collapsed on top of her. With adrenaline pumping through her veins, Marinette looked around trying to absorb every single detail about the gradually shrinking room.