Chapter 22 Painful Truth

"Oh, no no no no no," Roy said as he shook his head. His heart plummeted, his stomach ached. How would they be able to break this to Celia? How would she react? Oh dear developer, how could they have possibly gotten themselves into this mess?

Bowser seemed to share Roy's fright, because he hyperventilated. "This is bad. This is really, really bad." He looked at Roy. "What do I do now?"

Roy, who was trying to keep his own breathing under control, looked into Bowser's face. "You need to tell her the truth. She deserves that much."

"What? Are you crazy? I can't tell her the truth; it'll destroy her!" Bowser stood up straight and tall. "No. I will just have to keep up the lie. For how long? I'm not sure. Could be days, weeks, years….heck, it could even be a decade! But I need to do this."

Roy shook his head. "No, you don't." He tried his best to keep a level headed gaze. "Bowser….if the press gets a hold of this news, you'll be blasted to hell and back."

Bowser's face fell. "Oh. You've got a point." He shook his head. "Darn it, and I already told Kamek and Junior about this!"

Roy sighed. "Look, I'm not saying telling the truth won't be messy. But ultimately, it's the right thing to do." He looked at the door to the dining hall, closed so that Celia couldn't hear their conversation. "She needs to hear this. She can't live a lie for the rest of her life."

Bowser nodded hesitantly, his body stiff. "Yes. You're right." He let out a long, weary sigh before turning to the door. Putting his hand on it, he slowly pushed it open.

…

As she waited for Bowser to come back into the dining hall, Celia honestly felt a little nervous. Her stomach squirmed like it had been taken over by a parasite. She looked down at her plate of food, already finished. She hoped her dad would come back soon.

Thankfully, it turned out that the waiting that she was enduring she didn't have to endure any longer. The doors opened, and in stepped Bowser. Celia smiled at him. However, the smile fell from her face when he sat down, allowing her to get a close up look at his worried, consternated face.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Bowser looked at her, his ruby red eyes making him seem millions of miles away. He put his hand on the table and curled his fingers ever so slightly as he bit his lip.

"Celia," he said. "I'm...I'm afraid I've got some bad news."

Celia instantly became worried. Bad news? Oh no. Hopefully, this wouldn't be too bad.

"What kind of bad news?"

Bowser took a deep breath, and then said something that will forever be branded into Celia's memory.

"I'm not your father."

Those words….those four words….they were the exact words that Celia hoped she would never have to hear. Her stomach dropped, her heart slowed to a stop.

"What?" she squeaked.

Bowser chuckled apprehensively. "Yeah, all that talk about me being your dad? I'm afraid it wasn't exactly true. I...uh...you see….I didn't exactly know where babies came from before, so….yeah."

Celia directed her eyes down toward the table. "You're...not my dad?" she muttered. Her hair draped over her face, obscuring her vision. She fell as if she was slowly but surely sinking into the Earth.

"Yeah, so….I think you might want to get out of the castle before security roughs you up? Just a thought."

Celia felt bile rise to her throat. She pushed her hair out of her eyes and stared at the Koopa King.

"If you're not my dad, then why did you lie to me?"

Bowser chuckled nervously. "I told you; I didn't know how babies were made."

Celia felt warm tears build in her eyes. She gripped her hand into a fist. She stared at the Koopa King, this horrible Koopa King.

And then, the floodgates opened. Not only did the tears flow out of her eyes like a faucet, but her mouth just ran away from her. She yelled and screamed, hissed and spat. Her face grew hotter than the mantle. Her voice hurt, but nevertheless she still yelled. She would not stop screaming until the world knew; the world knew how much she had been hurt by this rotten monster known as King Bowser the First.

The yelling lasted for a good ten minutes, but to Celia, it felt as if it lasted longer. She laid all of her cards down on the table as she called Bowser horrible, stupid, and the scum of the Earth. All the layers of her personality were peeled back to reveal her deepest insecurities and fears. She kept on going and going, leaving nothing to rest. It was only when she stopped to catch her breath and leg her scratchy voice recovered that she realized the look on Bowser's face. He looked...angry. Saddened. But most of all, he looked hurt. Beyond hurt.

"Get out of my castle," he growled.

Celia swallowed the sour fluid building in her mouth and glared at him. "Fine. I don't want to spend time with someone who lies to my face." She marched toward the door. When she opened it up, she stared back at him. "I'm glad you're not my father."

With that, she exited the dining hall. Her fists still clenched, she lowered her head to the ground and took deep breaths. She was no one. She wasn't the daughter of the Koopa King. She wasn't actually special, and would never be special. She was just a nobody. Hybrid scum is what people back in Elementary school called her. And they were right. They had always been right. Every horrible thing that they said about her was true, and always would be.

Celia allowed the tears to drop onto the carpet. She held her hand to her face to catch them, and soon enough her hand was drenched. She covered her eyes with her hair. Her horrible, disgusting hair that she inherited from her horrible, disgusting, deadbeat, koopa father

"Celia?"

The voice of Roy was soft and gentle. She lifted her head upon hearing it, and instantly felt even worse. He did not look angry; just concerned. Worried.

"Are you alright?" he asked as he reached out his hand to try and touch her arm.

Celia couldn't bear to look at that face. It made her feel worse. It made her realize even more that she now had the weight of the world pressing down on her chest. She couldn't breathe. She had to get away.

"Celia!" Roy called out as she turned and ran.

She didn't stop. She would never stop. After all, her whole life, she has been running. And now that her life was in pieces, she figured she might as well run again.