Dear Bugaboo

True Colors

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Marinette froze for a moment, letting her mom's words sink in before slamming the door wide open. Marinette can easily say she wasn't expecting to return home to all of this, especially the scene in front of her.

Shattered dishes and cups are scattered all over the floor. Some pictures and decorations are knocked down. The coffee table in the living room is flipped onto its side like it was used as a barricade.

   Sabine stood paralyzed behind the kitchen counter, eyes as wide as the plate in her hand, looking like she is about the chuck it. Celine stood in the living room just as stunned, using two pillows as shields.

   "...Marinette..." the Chinese woman barely managed to say, the dish slipping out of her hand and shattering on the floor. She jumped, looking down at the shattered dish with a pale, aghast face and covering her mouth, stunned at the situation.

   There is only one thing Marinette could think to do at this moment.

"What the heck is going on!?" Marinette shouted, earning flinches from both women. The room went dead silent. The air is so thick with tension, not even a chainsaw would be able to cut through. The two women could only look at the teen baffled, guilt creasing their faces.

   "What is going on?" Marinette repeated not as loudly, furiously glancing between the two. Celine is the first to give in, throwing the pillows back onto the couch and looked the teen straight in the eye. This is the most serious Marinette has ever seen of her aunt.

"Marinette, there's something we need to tell you," Celine said, earnestly. Marinette felt the stiffness in her body grow and reflexively gulped in fear. Celine's never shown such raw emotions before, always seeming playful and childish. Marinette never knew her aunt had this held within her.

This whole thing with the fighting, broken dishes and now, Celine...it scared Marinette. She had to hold in the urge to escape back out the door and take Tikki along until this whole dispute is over.

   "Mama and Aunt Sabine are fighting again."

   Tikki's words echoed off the walls of Marinette's skull, remembering the day she returned home from school. Tikki sat in the stairwell playing with her dollies because the two women were fighting...again. Again...

   "But..." Marinette thought, "will this ever end until whatever it is they're hiding is revealed? Besides, I need to know what's going on. This is not only tearing the family apart, it's tearing me apart too. What are they hiding that it gets us to this point?"

   "No...I just..." Sabine stuttered out, unsurely glancing between the two.

   "Sabine, look at what this secret is doing to us!" Celine exclaimed, gesturing to the room and voice growing shaky, "We've been doing this for years. It has to stop right now. It's not only hurting me, it's hurting all of us."

   Sabine's mouth opened but no words formed, leaving it ajar. She tried to comprehend the words and weight of the situation. She tried to think of any other possible way to just forget this ever happened. She tried to figure out something so that nobody would get hurt in the end.

   Yet, they are already too deep in the waters of this secret. There is no way to avoid this any longer. Sabine's flood gates finally opened, the water beginning to gush out. She knows there is no point in continuing to keep it locked up and finally gave in.