SECOND RUNNER-UP

A chilling wind pervaded the air around the park. There was the cacophony of shrieks of joy and the Halloween-themed music coming from speakers around the park, not to mention, the echo of 'Trick or Treat' throughout the whole city. The smell of pumpkin and burning leaves surrounded the park.

Everyone from school was at the party. Alya, Nino, even Adrien. Marinette enjoyed looking at all their costumes. Alya had gone as a unicorn from the mythical world of Respa. Nino was a DJ, which was rather fitting. Adrien went as Jackady, and that was a good fortune because Marinette went as Stormy Weather.

"Hey Marinette, my little brother, and sisters need something to do, could you do me a huge favor and tell them like a ghost story or something?" Alya begged, desperate for a break.

"Yeah, sure," Marinette replied, knowing she needed a break.

"I'll help too, little kids are fun." Adrien smiled.

They kids were gathered around the bonfire, roasting ghost-shaped marshmallows.

"Who wants to hear a story?" Marinette asked.

"Oh! Marinette please tell us a story!" The children said.

After getting the kids situated on the grabs in a circle, with minimal fussing, Marinette cleared her throat and began her tale.

"It was a Halloween night, with a full moon, just like this one." Marinette said, pointing to the sky, "I went to go trick or treating when Adrien stopped me and asked if I wanted to go to the park with him."

"So we went to the park, but nobody was in the town."

A memory popped up in Marinette's head.

The bakery was filled with the illuminating light coming from jack-o-lantern that were scattered across the bakery. The doorbell echoed through the halls, Marinette quickly scooped up a bowl of wrapped cookies and went to answer it. Instead of shrieking children, she was meet with a familiar pair of green eyes.

"Adrien? What are you doing here?" Marinette asked, trying not to think about what she looked like.

"I was wondering if you wanted to go down to the party at the park with me." Adrien smiled.

"Yes! Of course!...I mean...yeah, sounds good." Marinette laughed nervously.

"Alright, awesome," Adrien said.

The moon was a ghostly orange, and the town was cold and dreary, despite what festivities should have been taking place. But the people of Paris had decorated, with plenty of spider webs.

"Then, when I and Adrien got to the park, we found everyone."

In the park was a massive spider web, and tied within the sticky silk were the citizens of Paris.

"They were tied up, in Arachiness web!"

A large shadow approached. Adrien pulled Marinette behind some bushes and looked out on the web. A large spider creature came out and began giggling to itself.

"Ahuhuhuhuhu~" The creature laughed tentatively, "Who wants some more Spider Cider?"

"She was the most feared creature of them all. She was the Queen of the spiders, who bit people and injected them with her poison, and then she killed them. Adrien and I, we didn't know what else to do, so we ran."

The creature went and bit into an innocent victim. A shrill scream echoed off the nearby buildings. The creature wiped the extra venom on her lips and broke into a sly smile.

"Ah~," The creature giggled, "Spider Cider in my favorite flavor, poison."

Adrien adjusted his position to get a better look at the creature. The leaves rustled and the creature's attention snapped over to them. Marinette let out a tiny whimper.

"Oh~?" The creature said, "Who's there? Show yourself so I can be a good hostess."

Adrien and Marinette didn't move. They sat paralyzed in pure terror.

"I should probably introduce myself. My name is Arachiness. I'm the queen of the spiders." The creature smiled.

"Akuma?" Adrien whispered under his breath.

"Nope. I'm no Akuma, I was awoken on this very special Halloween night. But, I shall disappear when midnight arrives. So we must make to most of this occasion." Arachiness laughed.

The pitter-patter of many footsteps traveled across the grass. Marinette could feel the presence of Arachiness' gaze upon them. She wished she could shrink away and hide, but she had a job to finish.

With a sudden leap, she pulled Adrien by the arm and traversed the park. She ran across the street and sought refuge in the nearest building. Once they were safely inside, she almost collapsed.

"We ran for cover in the nearest building, but Arachiness was still after us. So we had to keep moving. We decided to go upstairs and find a place to hide."

"Even in those boots, you're still faster than me." Adrien gasped, taking in deep breaths.

"That was adrenaline." Marinette said, steadying her breathing, "You should stay and hide, we should split up."

Marinette reached for her earrings, to find they were ice cold. She dug through her pockets to search for Tikki to find she was gone. In that moment, she realized she hadn't seen Tikki all night.

Adrien was also frantically searching through his suit coat for Plagg, oblivious to the fact that Marinette also had and expression of panic. Plagg was gone, not even leaving the scent of camembert behind.

"Well never mind, that plan went out the window," Marinette exclaimed, beginning to think.

"I don't know but we should keep moving. I have a bad feeling we are next on Arachiness' hit list." Adrien shuddered.

"Okay," Marinette said, not even noticing Adrien holding her hand and guiding her towards the door to the stairs.

After ascending a few flights of stairs, they decided it was good enough and went to go find a good place to hide. They opened the door to a random room. The lights were dimmed and the only light came from a jack-o-lantern with an intricate carving of Ladybug.

"We made it to a room that was completely dark. We had to look for a place to hide."

A thick feeling hung in the air as Marinette and Adrien crept along the walls of the room. The room was filled with the sticky spider's webs. Marinette skimmed her hand along the wall to guide her through the darkness.

There were small pools of strange liquid across the floor. They got larger and larger as they created a path along the ground. Marinette and Adrien followed them slowly until they reached the ending point.

It was a large spider web, with prey wrapped in a wad of the spider silk in the middle. The victim was struggling.

The familiar patter of many feet made it's way closer to them. Adrien grabbed Marinette arm and pulled her behind a couch, out of Arachiness' line of vision. Marinette looked at her surroundings and realized exactly where they were.

In Le Grand Paris.

In Chloe's room.

And Chloe was currently tied up and was about to be devoured.

"Then, we saw Arachiness again, but she was going to kill Chloe! So we had to find a way to save her, so I kicked over a lamp to grab Arachiness attention."

Marinette winced as she heard Chloe's hysterical screaming as Arachiness became closer. She had to think fast and execute her plan quickly.

"Ahuhuhuhuhu~" Arachiness laughed, "I love it when they scream."

Marinette closed her eyes, and purposefully kicked over the lamp. She took in a deep breath and tried to quiet her pounding heartbeat.

"Are my guests back? How wonderful. Please, come enjoy some Spider Cider." Arachiness said.

Marinette looked for an escape route. The only was the door but that would be a stretch. Arachiness inched closer.

"Arachiness almost had gotten to us, when we dashed away towards the door. It had almost reached midnight when she would disappear."

Marinette grabbed Adrien by the arm as she scrambled to her feet. Dashing out of the room, she realized that she had hit a dead end in the hallway. The spider webs blocked all exits. Marinette panicked.

"The doors were all blocked off, and we were trapped. It was time for the final showdown."

Arachiness towered over them, Marinette and Adrien's backs hit the wall. Arachiness had entrapped them in a corner. Marinette dove on the floor, Adrien the following suit. Marinette glanced at the clock. Ten minutes until the clock struck Midnight.

Arachiness hissed, and sprayed sticky pools of venom across the floor, staining Marinette's costume. She started to work on coating the room with webs, to finally trap them. Marinette glanced over at the clock. 7 more minutes.

"She tried to wrap us in her sticky web with 7 minutes to go, and she threw her spider cider at us to make up dizzy."

Arachiness once again sprayed more venom around the room. This time, it hit Adrien on bare skin. His suit had multiple stains from it but those didn't affect him, it was when he was hit on the hand. He stumbled over.

"Marinette, I don't feel so good," Adrien mumbled as he hit the floor.

Marinette didn't know what to do, Adrien had passed out and now she was all alone. Glancing over at the clock, she realized they only had 6 minutes to go.

"With six minutes to go, and Adrien was down, it was up to me to save everyone."

Marinette looked around. There was a slight hissing sound from the walls, and the venom appeared to be acidic since it was now burning holes through her costume. Arachiness was creating bundles of silk that she was now launching at Marinette. Marinette slammed into a wall while dodging the sticky silk. She gripped her side in pain as she glanced over at the clock again.

Three minutes.

"I hit the wall and fell over in pain, it was almost over, there were just three minutes left."

Marinette looked down at her venom splattered shoes and took in a sharp breath. She was mentally counting down the seconds in her head.

Standing up, she barely dodged another ball of silk. Arachiness scampered across the ceiling and dropped on the other side of the room. She began wrapping Adrien up so she could inject him and kill him.

Marinette got up and stumbled across the room. Just as Arachiness was about to bite Adrien, Marinette ran to and kicked her out of the way.

"Time to squash some spiders. Arachiness you're out of minutes." Marinette said, determined to protect Adrien for two more minutes.

"I had to protect Adrien from Arachiness for two minutes. Her time was almost up."

Arachiness was angry now. She scampered off the ceiling and began dropping more balls of a web from above. Marinette scurried across the floor to dodged them all. Arachiness sprayed her venom again, and this time it hit Marinette.

"I was hit with Arachiness' venom, but I had to keep going."

Marinette vision was blurry, but she managed to watch the ticking second Han in the clock. With only thirty seconds left, Marinette felt she was going to be sick. The vision from the venom overwhelmed her. She could hear Adrien struggling to break free from the webs.

Twenty...

Marinette's knees hit the floor, she groaned from pain.

Fifteen...

Marinette got back up again.

Ten...

"Your time is up Arachiness, see you next time," Marinette said waving goodbye.

Five...

"No!" Arachiness screamed

Three...

Two...

One...

"And she was gone. And the city of Paris was saved."

Marinette smiled as she saw the amazed looks on the kid's faces.

"Wow, Marinette you sound like Ladybug!" One of the kids said with glee.

Adrien glanced over her with a smirk.

"She might not be Ladybug, but she still pretty amazing," Adrien said, putting an arm around her shoulder.

"How did you do that? I'm deathly afraid of spiders." One of the kids asked.

"Well let's just say I'm not afraid of spiders anymore." Marinette laughed.