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“Should I hang it here?” Kim asked, his hands straining to keep the mini ghost cutout lifted in the air. When he received no reply, he turned towards the supposed partner he had, who had been blankly staring off into space for the past 5 minutes. “Marinette? Marinette!” The bluenette snapped out of it and briefly glanced at the ghost, quickly making her assessment.
“A little more to the left… there!” The moment Kim pinned the miniature ghost to the wall, he slumped down in relief. “Phew, anymore and my arms would have been done.” The two of them rested on the classroom desks, sighing in relief that they were now done with their set-up assignment.
Just then, Alya poked her head through the classroom door, looking around at the now set-up room decorated for their haunted house fundraiser. “Wow, the lit up jack–o-lanterns are a nice touch. Good job you guys! We’re all done in the library.”
“Cool! But I doubt your decorations are nowhere near as good as the ones that Nettie and I put up!” Kim boasted, as the three of them started the short walk to the library. Along the way, they stopped by the Ms. Mendeleiev’s room, which had been decorated in the theme of a mad scientist’s lab. Nathaniel and Marc were by the teacher’s desk, struggling to connect the bluetooth speaker.
“Hey guys! Do you need any help with the speaker? I can get Max if you want.” Alya offered, as the two of them sprang up at the sound of her voice. Nathaniel replied, “that would be great. We’ve been struggling to bluetooth this speaker with Marc’s phone. We had a playlist ready to go with spooky songs.”
“Alright, give me a minute and I’ll be right back with him.” Alya turned towards the door, with her hand on the handle, but just as she was about to head back into the hallway, she was thrown back by an invisble force. Marinette glanced at the door which was quickly consumed by thick, oozing poison-like bubbles. They moved across the floor and walls, shrouding everything in a veil of darkness.
Someone was being akumatized.
When she opened her eyes, she looked around to see that the room had been transformed into an actual haunted house! Every bat cutout was now illumanted by neon flashing lights and were flying circles around the ceiling; the jack-o-lanterns had been placed atop a skeletal body with a head of fire, all of whom were rambunctiously running about in circles. Slowly, dark eerie music start to trickle in from the classroom’s sound system, filling the air with an terrifying unease.
Marinette felt her stomach curl into herself, every inch of her body ready to internally combust. But now wasn’t the time for that; she needed to transform and defeat the akuma as soon as possible. She started walking, her hands outstretched in dark, in an attempt to find her other classmates. Her hand hit something wet, she could tell that whatever it was had dripped down her hands and was splashing on the floor.
“Hold on guys.” Alya’s voice pierced through the darkness, instantly helping her calm down. “I’ve got the light switch.” She could hear Alya fumble for the switch, and when she found it, she flick it downwards, causing the lights to blast on. Her vision was clouded for a moment, black dots swarming her line of sight. When she was able to see again, she heard an ear-deafening scream from Kim.
“AHHHHHHH!” Kim had let out a shrill scream, his finger pointed straight at Marinette. She immediately turned to look at him.
“What? What is it?” Nathaniel asked, turning his gaze towards Kim who was moments away from hyperventilating. Then, he noticed that Kim wasn’t staring at Marinette, but rather the door that was behind her. Her hand was pressed upon the wood panel and even from his position, he could see that there was blood dripping from her hands. He clasped his hands over his mouth in shock, subtly turning and gesturing towards the door so Marc could see.
In the end, it didn’t really matter if he was subtle about it or not. The scream, the stares, the gesturing, any of it would have been enough to tip Marinette off that something wasn’t right. He could see that she was slowly starting to turn around, almost moving in slow-motion, and faced the door.
Marinette’s heart jumped as she could now make out the door in its entirety. What had once been a classroom door had been transformed into an olden, chipped wooden door belonging to a witch’s shack. Nailed dead center into the door was the hanging head of one Ms. Mendeleiev, whose mouth was gaping open. The fresh blood had pooled until there was no more space and had begun trickiling down, right into Marinette’s hand.
Unable to take in the sight anymore, she stepped back and started gagging.
“Oh, that’s so disgusting. I feel like throwing up.” Marc’s face turned pale, as he averted his gaze from the door
Meanwhile, Alya had turned to Marinette and offered her a wipe to clean her hands with. “Are you okay girl?”
She gratefully took the wipe, still shaken up by the sensation of blood. “I’m fine. Thanks, Alya.” She replied, swallowing a clump of vomit that had surfaced when she first made eye contact with the door. If she wanted this nightmare to be over, she needed to find an empty area to transform and defeat the akuma as soon as possible.
As they started towards the door, Alya was able to take a closer look at the hanging head. She asked, “is that Ms. Mendeleiev?” After a moment of intense staring, she staggered back, muttering to herself “Oh my gosh, I’m going to throw up.”
Despite Kim’s earlier misgivings, he stepped forward and lightly tapped the door in an outwards direction. Slowly the door creaked open, leading them out into the hallways. However, the second floor had now been transformed into a dark, looming maze. The walls of the mze spanned several feet, preventing them from seeing what was above. The walls were made with some sort of melting sludge, that continuously moved and groaned as if it was uniform organisms.
“Come on everyone. Let’s try to find the exit.” Marinette instucted, feeling queasier with every passing second. Everyone followed suit, leaving the classroom and entering the maze. The moment Nathaniel stepped out of the room and into the hall, the door snapped shut behind him and was replaced by a maze wall.
“Okay, that’s super creepy.” Kim joked, attemting to make light of the situation. Ladybug and Chat Noir would come and save them; he just hoped that they would get here soon.
They started walking through the maze, flinching at every sound the maze made. She wasn’t sure how long they had been walking for but soon, they rounded a corner, marked with MS. Just as she was about to point it out to her friends, they came face-to-face with Frankenstein! They all turned back the way they came and started running as fast as they could.
“RUN!!!” Alya screamed, adrenaline now coursing through her system, which overrided any semblance of fear she had ealier. She ran past Marc and Nathaniel, who were moving at a much slower pace, propelling by the sound of every thunderous step Frankeinstein took. From her peripheral view, she could see that Marinette was keeping up with her, but no matter where she looked, she couldn’t find Kim.
“Kim! Wait! Don’t go too far ahead!” Alya heard Marinette shout, causing her to turn her gaze back ahead, and sure enough, Kim had ran past her and was meters away. She saw Kim round a corner, effectively preventing her from seeing anymore, but it wasn’t enough to stop the sounds she heard. For the second time that day, she heard Kim scream, “GHOST!! STOP! Don’t come hear me.”
A sickening cruch, along with Kim’s screams could be heard, as if bones were breaking into pieces. She didn’t need to see to know what happened. As they rounded the corner, Alya slowed her pace down, anticipating the worst. And she was right to do so. She turned heel and started dashing in a third direction, away from where Kim had been.
“He’s a zombie! He’s been turned into a zombie, RUN!” She screamed a scream so loud that it piereced the skies, immediately causing the others to follow the direction she was running in. Unable able to see any fresh terrors ahead of her, she looked behind her to see what was going and did so just in time to see Nathaniel trip and crash into the wall.
The moment his fingertip grazed the wall, it sucked his entire body in, leaving only a sickening ‘squelch’ sound in its wake.
“NATH!” She heard Marc wail, having stopped in the spot where his boyfriend had been only a moment. Nathaniel was trapped but alive; his screams were muted by the sludge-like wall, but were still audible. But as the walls began to shift once again, the sound of his screams were moved further and further away.
This time, the walls shifted right in front of her eyes, blocking her view of Marinette and Marc, leaving her to wander the maze all by her lonesome.
The walls slumped into place, isolating Marinette from where Alya and Marc had been only a moment ago. She opened her purse, to see Tikki springing up into the air, charged and ready for battle. While it wasn’t the most optimal place, she didn’t have the luxury of finding another empty classrooom; not that she felt particularly inclined towards the idea either.
“Ready to transform?” Tikki asked, her hands holding out a black and red themed macaron. She smiled knowingly, “I think you’ll be needing this.”
“Is that the new flight power-up Master Fu developed?” She asked Tikki, carefully taking it from the kwami’s little paws.
“Yup! He wouldn’t let us go near the potion while he brewed it, so you’ll have to tell me what it tastes like.”
“Alright! Let’s do this.” In an attempt to not get caught by her classmates, she hollered, “TIKKI SPOTS ON!!”
She felt the magic wash over her body, feeling her body stretch in preparation for the long fight ahead of her. Before popping the macaron into her mouth, she yelled “POWER UP!” The effect was immediately, she could feel a pair of wings grow out from the back of her suit, and craning her head to look at them told her that they were bat wings!
So cool! She thought, as she flapped her wings to lift herself up into the air. Flying into the air showed her Marc and Alya, who were wandering around the maze; however, even from her point of view, she wasn’t able to find the exit. Could there even be one?
As she started to inspect the maze more closely, she saw a white shimmery cloth floating after Aurore from Ms. Mendeleiv’s class. The piece of clothing seemed to be intent on sneaking up on her and lifted the ends of its cloth to tower on top of Aurore. It was a ghost and it was going to eat her!
She leaped into action, urging her bat wings to fly her as close to the ghost as possible. She grabbed her yo-yo from her waist, and spun it around the ghost, snapping the string taut. Grasping the string tightly, she started to walk over to the ghost. All of a sudden, the cloth slumped and fell to the ground, leaving her yo-yo to collapse on itself with nothing to hold onto. The ghost was gone.
“Milady!” She heard Chat’s familiar voice coming closer to her and when she looked up, she saw that his power up had changed his Black Cat outfit to a vampire’s costume! His collar was now raised high, with a long sweeping cloak covering any clothing that he might have worn, however, the yellow bell still remained securly strapped around his neck. Similar to her, he had a pair of bat wings sprouting out of his cape.
“Hey kitty.” She greeted, “do you know what’s going on here?”
“It’s a bit confusing, so hang on to your whiskers while I explain, okay?” He punned, flashing a teasing smile at Ladybug. “Just get on with it kitty-cat. There’s supposed be a fundraiser here in 20 minutes.” She replied, face frowning as she heard Chat pun again.
“Alright. So our akuma appears to be a spirit who haunts students with bad grades. Oooooh.” He mimicked the sound of a ghost flying. “They cover the student with their cloak and they turned into some sort of Halloween monster, like a mummy, a werewolf…”
“Like a zombie?" She asked, thinking back to Kim who had disappeared for a moment before returning looking very much like a zombie.
“Exactly! The other thing is that the maze’s wall absorb anyone who touched them, so make sure to be careful.” He added, his look now switching to one of seriousness and stoicsm. “Do you have a plan?”
She shook her head, "but let’s see what happens if I summon my LUCKY CHARM!” The magical ladybugs shot out of her yo-yo, circling each other before dropping an item into her hands. Three items, actually.
“It’s two proton pack and a ghost trap?” She asked, inspecting them with Chat. “Well, capturing the akuma should be easy. We just need to catch it before it flies away then.” She tossed a proton pack to him and slung the other over her shoulder.
Just then, they heard a crash that came from “the library!” She shouted, pointing her finger in that direction to help guide Chat to where it was.
“Let’s spirit ourselves over there.” Chat laughed at his own pun, and when he saw Ladybug flying away without him, he quickly jumped into action by propelling himself with his stick. He struggled for a moment, debating whether he should do it or not, but failed against his instincts. Knowing it was a bad idea, he added “don’t ghost me Milady!”
The yo-yo sprang out from Ladybug’s hand and bonked him square in the head.
Ladybug arrived first, expecting to struggle to locate the spirit; instead, she found the spirit struggling to place a cloth meant for a ghost over its head. To his right was a knocked over bookshelf. Well, that explains the commotion, she thought to her self as she quietly slid the ghost trap a few meters away from the boy spirit.
The moment she saw Chat Noir firing up his proton pack, she started to do the same. She looked in his direction, nodding at the N-Trona (as was labelled on the side) wand in his hand. In tandem, they fired proton beams at the spirit, dragging it away from the cloth and into the trap. The spirit struggled for a moment, before being sucked into the trap.
She walked to the trap, lightly picking it up in her hands to inspect the spirit inside. She gestured for Chat to come closer, “doesn’t this look like Nino Lahiffe’s brother? What’s his name…” She trailed off, pretending to have to think for a moment, “Chris! Doesn’t this look like Chris?”
“You’re right! He must have been the one who got akumatized into a spirit and somehow the haunted house and maze was also created.” Chat agreed, thinking aloud as it what could have happened. Ladybug stretched the box out to him, and understanding what she was thinking, he called for his “CATACLYSM!”
The black energy swirled in his hand, allowing him to see the black and yellow spots echoing across his palm. Pressing a finger against the ghost trap, he felt the contraption swiftly disintegrate into dust. From the ashes, a purple-stricken akuma flew out, flapping it’s wings in the direction of the sky. Grabbing her yo-yo, she sliced it down the middle, allowing it to open then threw it in the direction of the akuma. She saw the akuma fall into the white beam that the yo-yo emitted, and chanted “time to de-evilize.”
The light of purification shone in her yo-yo, alerting her that the akuma was now safe to be released. “Bye-bye little butterly,” she softly whispered, waving as the butterfly flew away. Then, taking the yo-yo pack off her shoulders, she thew it up in the air screaming “MIRACULOUS LADYBUG.”
A swarm of ladybugs began to swirl over the library, the second floor, then the entire school. Within a moment, it was reverted back to it’s original state, allowing her to see the decorations that had been set up in the library.
“Ladybug? Chat Noir?” Chris’ confused voice came from below as the boy was seated on the ground, confusedly looking around. “What’s going on?”
“You were akumatized.” She told him, offering her hand to help him stand up. “But it’s okay now.” She continued, attempting her best to comfort him.
“It’s all my brother’s fault.” Chris complained, angrily crossing his arms while an annoyed look overtook his face. “He told me all this scary story about a boy who died at this school and came back as a spirit to haunt kids with bad grades.” He explained, then admitted. “but it’s not that I’m scared or anything. I just… didn’t do so great on a test.”
“Hey, it’s okay. We all have bad days.” Chat encouragingly said to Chris, who smiled back in reply. “Thanks Chat Noir.”
“Well, this brother of yours sounds interesting. Why don’t you tell me more about him?” Chat inquired, scooping Chris up by the arms and situating him into a seating positon. He turned towards Ladybug and mouthed the words, I can find his brother and return him. She nodded, just as Chris started talking, “I guess he isn’t all that bad. Like, there was this one time Nino, that’s my brother, taught me how to play….”
Chat Noir met her gaze and held up his fist in perfect sync with her, and without any sound, they bumped their fists together in the air. Pound it!