The Fox and the Ladybug

Part Twenty-Seven: Crashing Down

Chloe's POV

5:29 pm

I stormed out of my father office ragefully, slamming doors in the labyrinth that was my hotel/mansion all the way to my room. Once, I stepped inside, I slammed the final door and sank against the door, using my body to barricade the door and prevent someone from barging in.

I heard a timid knock against the door and a pretty but quiet voice asking me if I was okay.

Sabrina. A wave of guilt washed over me for slamming the door on her, so I got up and opened it as quick as lightning. My emotions started to change from anger to devastation. I broke in front of the doorway and cried out all my stupid, stupid emotions while she just stood there, listening and just being there.

 After my sobbing started to slow down, I closed the door behind Sabrina and sat down on one of my comfortable chairs. Sabrina plopped down on the carpeted floor. She got my manicure supplies and started to clean my nails while I was sniffling.

"W-we need t-t-to get that scholarship," I tried to say determinedly while crying. She looked at me sympathetically with her beautiful ocean green eyes. I never realized just how magnificent they were until now.

"But how?" she asked.

"I know, but it's, it's a bit risky. We need to, um..."

"What?" she pressed while still applying yellow nail polish, knowing perfectly well I had an idea that wasn't being shared out loud. I took a deep breath.

"She can't design if she's hurt. Badly," I said shamefully. I'm not sure what I was expecting Sabrina to say, but whatever I assumed, I was scared of the possibility that it would come true.

Sabrina looked at me weirdly with her eyebrows raised to the sky and her eyes dinner plates, like what I said was so unfathomable it was causing her pain.

"What?" she asked. I cautiously repeated what I said, cowering before her like she did for me all those times.

"What have I done?" Sabrina whispered to herself.

I raised my confused drawn-on eyebrows. Based on her facial reaction, you would think she was horrified at my actions, not her own. Her verbal reaction, on the other hand, wasn't the same. She paused for moment, filling the room with tension and banishing all oxygen from my room as well. I held my breath until she spoke again; louder this time.

"What have I done?" she said again, tears streaming down her cheeks onto the marble floor. "What have I done, what have I done, what have I done?!" she screeched at the ceiling, each sentence louder than the last until she was screaming.

"Sabri-" I tried to say, but she cut me off.

"No! You cannot do this anymore! Don't try to tell me to calm down, or do this, or do that, because I know your secret now. Everything everyone at school thinks is absolutely correct! You are a monster, and I made you that way! I made you as cruel and evil as you are, deep down! I spent years trying to change you, or help you, but I never saw that I only made it worse!"

Her words hit me like a mountain. A mountain of people I've hurt over the years I've shamelessly lived not tied down by the burdens of regret or empathy. A mountain of negative feelings I've caused. A mountain of ruthless things I've done or said. I stood there stunned, unable to speak. I opened my mouth rapidly to retort, or defend myself, or to fire an insult, but nothing came out.

Because I knew it was true, deep down. At least I think I did. But it doesn't matter anymore. Soon I'll be free of the guilt that I thought I was avoiding, but really just saving for a day when it would all come crashing down. Soon.

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Hey everyone! Wow, that was dramatic, right? 

I don't want to spoil much, especially towards the end of the story (I think? Who knows?), but I do want to say this.

⚠️Attention everyone! This story will have no characters committing s3icide. If I change my mind, I will make it VERY CLEAR. Okay, thanks for reading, bye peeps!⚠️