Dear Bugaboo

The Lair

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  "Hey, Tikki."

   Tikki paused in mid-lick and looked over at her older cousin with a vanilla ice cream beard. Doe-like, blue eyes blinked in curiosity as she asked, "What?"

   "Do you know why our moms are fighting so much?" Marinette asked, scooping some of her mint ice cream and placed it in her mouth. The young ginger had to take a moment to think over the question. She seemed to be in deep thought, face scrunched up in unsureness.

   Her features finally turned slack and head shook, saying, "No, not really. I'm usually out of the room before they start."

   "That's alright," Marinette assured before her phone buzzed a few times of incoming text messages. The bluenette grabbed her device and saw that the texts were from Alya. Marinette opened up the messages and began to read through them.

   From Alya:

   Girl!

   From Alya:

   You will not believe what I just found!

   Below the second message, there was a link for an article. Marinette read the headline before her eyes scrunched in disbelief and mild shock.

The Disturbing Discovery of Hawkmoth's Secret Lair

   Without thinking twice, the bluenette clicked the link and began to read the article. Marinette had been warned but was not prepared for what she was about to read in the article.

   Just yesterday, on Friday the 13th, a secret room was discovered in Gabriel Agreste's bedroom hidden under his retractable bed...

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   George opened the door, earning a loud groan that echoed off the walls. The bodyguard pointed his flashlight into the darkness of the seemingly narrow hallway before searching for a light switch.

   He was able to find a switch and flicked it on, brightening up the narrow path and revealing the walls were indented with shelves. The rows of shelves held jars, boxes and many other assorted objects coated in layers of dust. At the other end of the hallway, there was another iron door.

George carefully began to make his way through the hallway. With his broad body structure, he had to walk at an angle to be able to fit in the narrow path. Brown orbs scanned all the various items on the shelves he passed.

   Most of the items were tagged with dates wrapped up, stored in boxes or non-seeable jars. Then, there were some miscellaneous items such as bottles of various drinks and pills, a few tossed zip block baggies, bent needles.

   George felt slightly squeamish when seeing the needles, accidentally bumping his shoulder into a jar close to the edge. The glass containment fell onto the cement flooring and shattered into pieces.

A liquid splattered to everything that it was able to touch, creating a growing puddle on the floor. The burning smell of alcohol hit his nostrils. Yet, that wasn't the thing that phased the bodyguard.

   It was the venomous-looking snake sprawled out on the ground.

   George leaped back in fright, knocking more things off the shelves. He watched the reptile for a few seconds before realizing that it wasn't moving. Skeptical, the bodyguard grabbed a beer can and tossed it at the snake. The can hit but the snake did nothing.

   He let out a sigh of relief, realizing that the animal was dead. Still feeling his heart violently pound, the ape-like man quickly stepped over the reptile and finally arrived at the door.