10:00am

Marlena rose from her bed, her head hurting. She didn't want to get up today due to how tired she was from working so much yesterday, but she had to. She constrained herself from sleeping longer than 10:00am.

She never knew such thing was going to happen in her life. If she did know, she would have prepared for it. Having her two daughters be in the hands of two kidnappers scared her. Those kidnappers had coerced her to work hard to get that €75 million.

Her phone rang, and she was almost afraid to pick it up. She looked over at it with fright as if someone or something was going to jump out of the screen and get on her face.

Seeing that it was an unknown number didn't help her either. She picked up the phone and pressed it against her ear.

"Hello?"

"Hello. It's us!"

Marlena clenched her fists at the voice. "What do you want now?! I swear we're working hard to get the money!"

"Awe, don't worry. Your daughter are still safe and sound. Here, I'll even prove it to you! Come on, Ella, Etta. Say something to your mother."

Marlena waited, wanting to so bad hear the voices she had been longing to hear. Finally they came.

"Mommy, where are you? We're so scared..." Ella's voice was cracked, but Marlena could still make out the sentence. She covered her mouth, as if constraining herself from speaking. The tears threatened to fall.

"Yeah. Mommy, where are we? Do you know where we are?" Next came Etta's voice, making Marlena break down again.

"I'm sorry, lovelies. Mommy is trying her hardest."

"Well, whatever you do, we love you, Mommy. We want to see you- hey!"

It sounded like the phone was being snatched away from them. The kidnapper's voice came up again, this time even a bit more snarky than it had been before.

"We're desperate, so we are changing the amount of money again. This time, you have to bring us €100 million. Don't worry. I did hear that your other daughter was close to Marinette. Just get some millions from Marinette and pay us. We expect the money to be over next week Tuesday. Understand?"

"U-understand..."

"And just so you know... If you even tell anyone you're not supposed to, don't expect your daughters to be as okay as they are now. I'm hanging up!"

The phone beeped, showing that the call had ended. Marlena dropped her phone on the table, her face welling up with tears.

There was no way they could get €100 million by next Tuesday. They didn't even have €100 thousand yet.

Walking out of her room, she walked downstairs, where she saw Otis making breakfast like he usually did.

"Nora is already off to school, and Alya is at her Survival Week thing. It's just the two of us," Otis said, turning to her. "I will head to work early today, and come back late."

"Wait, before you go, I have...something to tell you," Marlena stopped him. She tried not to break down again.

"What is it?"

"The kidnappers... They're so desperate for money so they increased the amount of money we have to pay to €100 million."

Otis slammed a fist on the table. "Those damn bastards should just make up their minds instead of changing it every single time!"

Marlena was in no mood to tell her husband to calm down. She too was tired of the games these kidnappers were playing.

"Maybe we can get help somehow without the kidnappers knowing that we told," Otis suggested, wanting to try anything at this point even though it was risky. "Maybe we can ask our friends, make up another excuse on why we need the money."

"I don't know," Marlena rubbed her eyes. "I'm ready to try anything just as long as it doesn't hurt Ella and Etta."

"I'll try to find where the kidnappers are staying first. Maybe I can sneak in and take Ella and Etta away from there..."

"Otis, no. Too dangerous. They could catch you and who knows what they would do to you. I don't want to lose another family member."

"Don't worry, Marlena. We'll figure something out."

Marlena nodded, though she wasn't too sure. Getting out her phone again, she read the new message Alya had sent her.

☆☆
☆☆10:20am|A - Marinette says she's got a plan on how to help us. I trust her. I think we'll be able to get out of this situation. Don't worry☆☆
☆☆

Marlena shook her head as she put her phone back. She could only pray for a miracle.

❣❣❣

10:50am

"We have 35 more minutes. Eat up!" Tiki stood in front of Alya and Marinette as they gulped down their food.

"Hey! Breakfast is not supposed to be rushed!" Adrien glared at them. "Yes, we have 35 more minutes. That's enough time to finish up."

"I know that, but still! I want to get to the first activity quickly so we can have more time," Tiki explained.

Marinette had invited her best friends over, Alya and Tiki ending up inviting their other friends. They were just finishing up breakfast, some of them already getting ready for the first activity they were doing.

"Sardines?" Amelie frowned. "Who suggested this again?"

"Hehe, me," Stephanie raised her hand. "I love playing Sardines. You'll enjoy it too. Savannah, Alison, Chloe, you three want to join?"

"Sardines?" Savannah rolled her eyes. "Sounds disgusting."

Alison and Chloe had only come over to accompany Savannah, because Savannah said she was going to be all alone. They didn't want to join the game whatsoever.

"Nah, Sardines is basically like Hide-and-Seek but backwards," Stephanie explained. "So, one person hides and the rest of the others search for that person. Whoever finds the person hides along with him/her. Whoever is the last one to hide loses."

"Sounds boring. I'm not playing," Chloe headed for the door. "I know they gave us the choice to pick a game to play, but wow. I actually thought that you guys would pick a fun game."

Stephanie looked at her, hurt.

"I mean no offence, Steph," Chloe quickly added. "I'm just not into baby games like that."

"Me too," Savannah nodded, following Chloe towards the door.

"I don't mind, I'll play!" Adrien exclaimed. "Sardines sounds like fun, what are you girls talking about."

"You're only saying that because when you were young, you didn't play any games like this," Chloe turned to him. "You practically lived your childhood life obeying what your father wanted you to do."

Adrien slammed a fist on the table as he glared at Chloe. "Okay, you think the game is boring, big deal! Others have different opinions, okay?! No need to get so rude about it!"

"I wasn't trying to be rude about it. I was just saying that you didn't play any games when you were a kid, so now that you're a teenager, you want to play all those boring kid games," Chloe rolled her eyes. "Just telling the truth. Come on, Alison, Savannah. Let's get out of here. Stephanie, you can stay if you want to die of boredom!"

"Why did you even come here in the first place?!" Adrien stood up. "If you were just going to walk out of here, what was the point?!"

Chloe molded her hands into fists as she wanted to say an insult towards Adrien, but couldn't. For goodness sake, he was Gabriel's son. Gabriel was sure to do something to her if he found out she insulted his son.

"Whatever," She murmured, opening the door. "We'll leave, so you all can play your stupid, boring game!"

"Good, no one needed you here in the first place anyway!"

"Let's just... Play another game then," Stephanie sighed. "Remember, if your partner is playing a game, you have to play along. Adrien wants to play. Savannah doesn't. This game isn't going to work out." At those words, the girls stayed back.

"Fine, how about this?" Tiki started suggesting. "We all call out the games we want to play. At the end, we'll vote for one game that we want. Whichever game has the most votes is what we're going to play."

"What are we, five?" Alison groaned. "Whatever. Let's just do this and get it over with!"

"I say Murder in the Dark," Plagg chuckled, rubbing his hands together.

"Ooh, me too!" Alya nodded. "That's a good game. I straight up vote for it!"

"Again I say, what are we, five?!" Alison threw her hands up in the air.

"What do you mean?! Murder in the Dark is absolutely mysterious," Plagg said with a grin. "You try to find who the murderer is. There will be a detective, and a murder, and the rest will be victims. They do say you sit in a circle to play this game, but I kinda want to change that."

"What do you want to change into."

Plagg stood up in a such a dramatic way. "This time we spread around. There is a Wood here, so we'll use that, it's perfect. The one person that is the murderer goes around, trying to find his/her victims. Once she catches the victims, she taps on them with a...stick, I guess. The goal of the murderer is to get every single one of his/her victims.

"Now there's a detective, who's trying to find out who the murderer is. The detective will go around, searching for the murderer. One he/she thinks that he knows how the murderer is, he/she will tap on that person. No lying! If you're actually the murderer, you have to say you are once you've gotten caught!"

"Alright fine," Savannah shrugged. "At least it sounds way better than Sardines!"

Stephanie rolled her eyes. "Who wants to play Murder in the Dark then?"

Everyone raised their hands, expect for Chloe and Alison.

"What is it now?" Adrien turned to the girls. "What? Is it too dirty? It will dirty your clothes?!"

Chloe glared at him. "Don't act so tough just because you're 2nd on the Popularity Board. You never know... A person that you trust so much could just go and stab you in the back. And you know what? I can't wait for that to happen to you! Bette, come on, let's go. Alison, you can stay since your partner wants to play."

Bette and Chloe left the cabin, going to do their own thing.

"Alright, we'll get started." Plagg got out a large piece of paper and Nino's cap. He started ripping the paper into smaller pieces, until he had as many had he wanted. Then he took out two of the pieces he had ripped, a pencil and wrote down "M" on one, and "D" on the other.

He then folded all the pieces and put them in Nino's cap, mixing them up. "Each of us are going to pick one piece of paper. If there's nothing written on your paper, then that means you're a victim. If you have a "D" on your paper, then that means you're the detective. If you have an "M", then you're the murderer. Simple as that."

So they started doing what Plagg told them to do; picking out the papers and seeing what you were.

"Now everyone spread out!" Plagg yelled, and they all ran out of the cabin.

Just as soon as Marinette stepped out of the cabin, her phone dinged, and out of curiosity, she took it out to read the new message.

☆☆
☆☆11:15am|S - finally got your number☆☆
☆☆

Marinette frowned. She then ran off into the woods to hide. When she was sure she was in a safe spot, she took out her phone again.

☆☆
☆☆11:25am|M - who are you?☆☆
☆☆

☆☆
☆☆11:25am|S - oh dear, it's Stella. Andy's mother, Kathleen gave me your number☆☆
☆☆

☆☆
☆☆11:25am|M - why do you need my number, Stella?☆☆
☆☆

☆☆
☆☆11:26am|S - I just want to give you an update on what's going on at home. Wanna hear it?☆☆
☆☆

☆☆
☆☆11:26am|M - IDC☆☆
☆☆

Marinette sighed as she put her phone back. She could hear it dinging with a whole bunch of messages, so she decided to silence it.

"Are you really her friend?"

Marinette looked up at the familiar voice. She could see Savannah and Stephanie walking together not to far away from her. Because she was hiding, they didn't see her.

"What do you mean?" Stephanie stopped walking and turned to Stephanie.

"I mean, I know you're so in need of friends, but seriously?" Savannah said with a mocking tone. "Alya? Nah, you can't be friends with your crush's girlfriend!"

"Where's the rule on that?" Stephanie folded her arms. "I can be friends with whoever I want."

"But put yourself in Alya's shoes," Savannah smirked. "For goodness sake, you're crushing on her boyfriend. If you had a crush on my boyfriend, I would be mad. Have you ever asked yourself why Alya decided to suddenly become your friend?"

"I..."

"Exactly! Alya isn't who you think she is. She's only pretending to be your friend so to take you down and make sure you have no chance of getting her boyfriend at all! It makes sense, doesn't it?"

Stephanie clenched her fists. "And?"

"Besides, she's friends with my enemy, Marinette. Marinette is a totally dangerous person. She pretends to be nice when in reality, she's the worst," Savannah scoffed. "Wanna hear what I caught her doing just yesterday?"

"What?"

"When I walked inside my room because I heard Adrien yelling, I saw Marinette on top of him. She was forcing herself on him, and he was furiously trying to push her off."

Marinette grimaced at the lie.

"That sounds kinda fishy," Stephanie chuckled. "You sure that's what you heard and saw?"

"Oh please, my eyes didn't deceive me. She was taking off her clothes and trying to get Adrien to like her. After I finally chased her away, Adrien told me that he hated her so much at how hard she was trying."

Marinette wanted to laugh but decided to hold it in.

"He told me that it wasn't the first time Marinette did that. Can you believe it?!" Savannah picked up a stick from the ground and sighed. "So far I'm pretty sure that I'm the only girl Adrien is so close to. I want to help him, though I'm not exactly sure how. Marinette is a tough egg to handle."

Marinette couldn't hold it anymore. She burst into laughter, causing Savannah and Stephanie to look over at her. Savannah looked horrified, while Stephanie had an amused look on her face.

"Well done, Savannah," Marinette started clapping. "You should really join the lying competition. I'm sure you'll win it without a problem."

"Marinette, what are you doing here?"

"What kind of a stupid question is that? Hey, I was just walking by and I saw you girls talking, so I decided to eavesdrop on your conversation," Marinette rolled her eyes with a smile. "Savannah, that story you told just now, was it a dream or what? Because I definitely don't remember even taking my clothes off in front of Adrien. Kinda sounds like something you would do!"

"You! I would never do that in front of Adrien."

"Seriously Savannah," Marinette walked closer to her. "Between me and you, who's most likely to seduce her crush and then lie about it?"

"Are you saying that Savannah took her clothes off in front of Adrien?" Stephanie quickly covered her mouth after her question to prevent herself from laughing.

"No, i didn't!" Savannah glared at Stephanie. "What kind of a friend are you??"

"Not yours, that's for sure!"

"Stephanie, all these time I've been with you and this is how you treat me?!"

"What do you mean? You never tell a single truth when you're with me, Savannah," Stephanie replied. "You're always lying about something bad Marinette did to make me dislike her."

"Stephanie!"

"Oh, by the way you better run, Marinette," Stephanie turned her attention back to Marinette. "Savannah is the murderer!"

"Ooh," Marinette laughed, before she and Stephanie started running off.

Marinette turned to look back, seeing Savannah heading the other way.

Now that I think about it... Savannah looks a lot like Lila Rossi.

~~~

Word Count: 2724 (excluding this)
- Edited -