Chapter 12: The Fall

"Where should I place this?" Emily asked Damian as she carry a box from the moving van.

"Just place it at the living room first, we can unpack it later." He replied while grabbed two other boxes.

"Leave this to me." Beck volunteered as he grabbed the box from Emily's hands. She said nothing and leave him be. It was still difficult to look him in the eyes, especially what the two of them did at the ceremony.

Emily got a smaller box and followed Beck inside. Hailey stood by the door and watched all the boxes got moved while savouring the tub of ice cream. She fed Emily a spoon of ice cream, before she headed out to get another box. "Gooooo, Emily." She cheered.

In matter of minutes all of the boxes were at the living room. "Woah, that's was quick."

Hailey grimaced at the sight of all those boxes. Even though she said nothing, her expression was clearly saying something.

If Damian were to guess, it will be 'ew.'

Sighing to himself, he looked over and questioned, "Hey, what's with that look?"

"...Nothing much." She answered as she aggressively stabbed her spoon into the tub of ice cream repeatedly, making dead eye contact with him, "I didn't know a guy like you would need so much stuff. But, now I'm actually not that surprised, since it's you."

"What do you mean by that?" He challenged with an eyebrow raised.

"Hmm. I don't know, why don't you tell me?" She sneered.

"Oh man, here we go again." Emily thought as she shook her head tiredly.

"Calm down, she's Emily's friend. So, swallow your anger." Damian repeated to himself, trying his best to compose himself. He then let out a sigh before he spoke, "You have a really sharp tongue, don't you?"

Hailey ignored him and asked Emily, "When are you going to be done with this waste-of-time-task?"

"You--" Damian swallowed his words and forced out a smile. "Relax, she's just a little girl. There's no point fighting against her. Besides, she's Emily's friend. I need to treat her well."

Hailey gave him a judgmental look once she saw his smile, "...What a creepy guy."

"Just. A. Little. Fucking. Girl." Damian thought as retained his smile.

Emily could immediately tell that Damian was pissed off, especially how his eyelids were obviously twitching.

She forced out a smile as she picked up a box that was labelled 'clothes' and passed it to Damian, "Umm... Maybe in a couple of hours."

In an attempt to try to clear up this awkward situation, she turned to Damian and continued, "Damian, you still remember your old room, right? Why don't you head upside to place some of clothes."

"I will be pleased to do that." He replied as he picked up two other boxes up to his room.

Emily sighed as kneeled down to open one of the boxes. Anna, Jai, Mary and Beck opened some of the other boxes, before unpacking them. On the other hand, those four other people, Hailey, Yukiko, Lavi and Ben, were minding their own business, either eating or just standing at the side, looking.

The box that Emily opened was filled with many of thick books, which were leather covered and for some reason, the titles were scratched off.

Out of curiosity, she took one book from the box and begin to inspect it. She flipped through the book and grimaced at the sight of the tiny words in it. Her squinted eyes picked up some words while she quickly scanned through, "Some... powerful families... Scarlett Family... family of assassins."

"What is this? A fantasy book?" Emily deduced mentally as continued to looked through the book.

Suddenly, something caught her eyes.

A phrase that seemed way too familiar to her.

"... The Fiorentina Family..."

She blinked for a few times, trying to make sure that she was not looking at it wrongly. Just as she went for a closer look, someone pulled the book away from her hands.

It was Damian.

"Hey, that's not very nice thing to do." He stated as he placed the book back in the box, "I can't believe you found out my secret collection of epics. I thought getting the titles off will not aroused anybody's attention. Guess I was wrong."

He then when close to her to whisper, "Keep my embarrassing interest a secret, alright?"

He gave Emily a playful grin and carried the box full of books up.

Emily rubbed her eyes, before moving onto another box, "Maybe I read it wrongly? Yeah, that must be it. There is no way Damian would know about those things." She stared onto the ground for a moment as her thoughts began to overwhelm her, "Yeah, there is no way he knows. Actually, he can't know. I don't want him to be involved."

Beck, who was crouching across her, noticed her disorientation and whispered, "You okay?"

Emily was too engaged in her own thoughts that Beck's words did not reach her.

"Emily?"

Again, no responses.

Beck then gave her a light tap on her shoulder. She jolted up momentarily and looked at him blankly.

"Are you okay?"

For some reason, she took quite a while to process his words. It was as if they were from a language that she could not understand.

However, once she finally got herself intact, she nodded.

"Why don't you rest? Leave these things to us." He suggested with a concerned look on his face.

"...Oh." She paused for a while before continuing with a smile, "It's fine, I'm good. Just... A little out."

Even though his eyes had a hint of doubt, he still let her be. "Alright, just rest when you want to. No one is stopping you, okay?"

"Yeah."

She rose to her feet and carried at box filled with sand filled glass jars up to the Damian's room.

Just as she walked up, her mind was continuously screaming, "Don't let him know. Don't you DARE let him know! He should not be dragged in this. Who knows what might happen. Even if he wants to know, stop him. I can't let him know about this."

Those words filled her mind, repeatedly telling her that she should not let her secret slip out.

When mind became more chaotic than she made it to be, it made her forget about the things that she was doing and on her last step to second floor, she missed the step.

"Crap."

Everything seemed to slow down as she felt herself falling. It was as if she was floating, but... Not really. She could only see the ceiling above, which was slowly getting further away from her. Subconsciously, she reached out as if to grab the ceiling, which was impossible. She knew it was, but somehow, she still did it. She could see the glass jars glistening as they fell out of the box and towards her face.

"That will hurt."

She could probably get in a position which enabled her to reduce the injuries that she might sustain. However, her mind went blank in the midst of the fall, disabling from doing so. She probably would not die, but it will definitely be painful.

She clamped her eyes shut, as to prepare for the fall... And the pain.

...

Finally, she made contact with another medium, but for some reason, it did not hurt.

Instead, it was pretty warm.

"Maybe, the pain comes later. Let me wait for it." She thought as she kept her eyes closed.

"Seriously, open your eyes already!"

A familiar voice boomed in her ears.

She did was she was told and saw Lavi and Ben held two glass jars each, while Anna caught the box. Emily, herself, was in Beck's arms as Jai and Yukiko stood beside her. Mary was nearby, ready for her ability to be in use. All of her members in her group, who were presented, were prepared to catch her from that fall.

Hailey saw what happened and ran to the eight of them.

Damian heard the noise and rushed out of his room.

"Is everything oka--"

He paused when he saw the eight of them in some weird formation on the stairs.

"... I didn't know you all were into cheerleading." He stated unemotionally, "Um... That's an interesting common interest you have there. But, I don't think this is the correctly place to practice your cheerleading routines, right...?"

Beck carry her down the stairs and placed her down gently.

"No, we weren't--" Emily tried to explain but she did bother, it will probably make things worst. "...Nevermind."

He did not pursue further, instead he just let it slide as he grabbed the jars from Ben and Lavi, "Thanks for helping by the way."

*****

Damian placed the jars down in his messy room and walked to his bookshelf to laid the books, "Wow, she was so close to find out who I am. Well, I better keep these books away from her."

Just then as he reached for the last book, he paused before he could slot it between a small gap created by two other books.

"Those people protected her as if she was something precious. Maybe because she is one of most powerful upcoming Princesses, so they were instructed to protect her well? Who am I kidding? They weren't looking at her as if she was a property, it was as if she was... A friend. A very important friend."

Laying on the bed, he stared up at the ceiling, "...Is it right for me to separate her from her members? It's hard to say this, but there's no doubt she looks really happy with them..."

"Man... I don't know."