Chapter Thirty-six

♦Selena's POV♦

I'm devastated, it's taking all I have to keep up my easy-going and uncaring facade. Cameron's memories had been modified too!

I have the urge to run into the nearest restroom and break down but I can't, we're almost at History class anyway.

That's the only thing that had kept me going but now that I think about it, it was really dumb of me, did I really think that Cyril wouldn't cover up his tracks?

Everyone's memories were modified except mine and I could lose mine anytime, the terror of waking up without any remembrance of the past couple days follows me everywhere I go like a dark shadow.

I'm the only one left.

It hits me like a freight train then.

I'm the only one left who knows the truth.

What do I do?

If Neruda was right and the world truly is in danger but the Imperial doesn't even know who she is, what's going to happen then?

Why I wasn't in support of telling September she's the Imperial upfront was because I wanted to  give her a choice.

The privilege of choosing has been taken away from her every single time, ever since she was born.

She was going to be forced to be the hero who saves the world too, without any choice in the matter.

I had to do something but Cyril had his eyes on me all the time, Madeline too had been assigned to dog my every step, other servants were also watching me.

I was under full surveillance every single second of the day in the house, the feeling of people constantly watching you was haunting and I had taken to wearing headphones to distract myself.

I have a feeling that mother knows that Cyril didn't modify my memories but she has no way to prove this, Cyril probably lied to her, although I have no idea why he would do that.

Talk about putting a bandaid on a bullet wound, but I was grateful to whatever twisted sense of guilt was working in my favor because I still had my memories as a result of that.

"Selena? Selena?" September's voice pierces my haze and I blink, dragging myself back to reality.

"Earth to Selena." She snaps a hand in my face and I bat it away.

"I will bite your pickle for fingers off."

She just huffs. "I knew I should have let you run into that table." She crosses her arms in a fake pout.

"I know where you sleep." I toss out reflexively, looking down to confirm that there truly is a desk in front of me, I need to stop getting lost in thought or I am really going to get badly hurt or worse, attract the wrong attention to myself.

"That's the thanks I get for saving your ass." She complains as we make our way over to Dane and Arianna who are sitting at the back of the class, engaged in an intense argument.

"Be happy there weren't any swear words involved." I reply her. "Wanna bet what they're arguing about?" I ask rhetorically.

"Doubt there's any need, it's pretty obvious." Cameron says.

"Hey babe." I greet Dane, going behind his chair to wrap my hands around him.

"Hi Sel." He replies quickly, placing a quicker kiss on my cheek before turning back to his argument with Ari.

"I can't believe you would say that, the mode of getting in the classroom wasn't specified." He argues hotly, leaning closer to jab a finger in Arianna's red face. "It was never stated that I had to use the door."

"You created a portal directly into the classroom." Ari fires back, her hazel brown eyes glowing. "That's cheating."

"You flew all the way here." He shrugs, "I don't see the difference."

"Guys?..." September tries to say.

"Ember, why don't you be the judge?" Arianna tosses at her and her big green eyes widens.

"W-What? Me? Why?" She splutters, stunned at the turn of events.

"Because you're the only neutral one here, Selena is Dane's girlfriend and Cam is his best friend."

"I thought that was you." September mumbled.

Arianna shoots her a dark look and she raises her hand in surrender. "Okay, okay, sorry."

"Good. Now listen to what happened." She orders grumpily.

"Do we have to do this right now?" Cameron groans, slumping on September, he's been in her personal space all day.

"Yes." Arianna says seriously. "Draw up chairs." She orders again and we all silently do this.

Cameron scoots as close as he possibly can to September and drops his head on her shoulder, I wonder how he's going to cope when classes begin.

"What was the bet about again?" September asks, humoring Arianna. I'm just content to lay my head on Dane's shoulder and let him trace patterns over my hand trapped in his.

"Okay, Dane and I bet on who would be the first to arrive at our first class."

"Not school?" She clarifies.

"Yes." Arianna reaffirms, calmer now that we were taking her complaints seriously.

"I got to school first..." She continues.

"But I got to the class first." Dane interrupts.

"Don't fucking interrupt me, I'm the one telling the story." She sasses him. "Immediately I stepped into the class Dane appeared.

"So it's a tie." September says bluntly.

"No!" The two of them exclaim simultaneously and I find myself praying for Axel to show up, anything to end this exasperating argument.

And what do you know? Something finally goes right for once in my upside down life.

Axel barges in. "Get settled stupids." He says as soon as he enters the class and I roll my eyes, there's obviously only one reason why he's still working here because even though he was actually a really good History teacher, his people skills were shit.

We quickly return back to our desks and I sneak a peek at Cameron to see how he's holding up and I blink at what I find, he's tapping his leg and scratching his thighs nervously, that can't be good.

Arianna is the closest to me so I lean towards her to whisper. "What's up with Cam?"

She looks at him and her upset face quickly sobers up. "He's missing Savannah."

"His younger sister?" I blurt out without thinking, from what I found out, Cyril had modified that part out too so Zach and Cameron never had a row and September didn't know about his dead younger sister.

"How do you know about her?" Arianna frowns.

"I think Dane mentioned it." I quickly say, praying that my bluff works and that she didn't decide to confront Dane about it.

"Oh." She nods, thankfully she bought it, it also helps that I'm Dane's girlfriend who he really loves. "When she died, he had recurring nightmares, they reduced with time but when he met September they disappeared all together, at least that was what he told Dane but now..." She trails off, looking into space for a short while then glances back at me. "The nightmares are back again." She adds quickly and settles back in her desk because just then Axel was walking down our row.

I sit back and try to digest the information I had just learned, Axel is saying something about the founding fathers of America but I'm too distracted to listen.

What could have triggered his nightmares again? I might have said that it was the fear of the Beast's minions going after September but he has no memories of that anymore. He can't be triggered by what didn't happen, right?

Axel passes by our row and Arianna leans into me again. "I wanted to ask a favour."

I glance at her. "What's that?"

"Could we all um, have a sleepover at your place today?" She glances over to Cameron. "I'm worried about him."

I hum, considering this. Actually a sleepover was a really good idea, probably the best option we had at the moment, if we were all together, the spies put on me would have their movements restricted and Cameron would be close to September, that might help his case somewhat.

"I don't want to say this." Arianna continues when I don't reply. "But I'm desperate, he's had episodes like this all throughout yesterday. Dane had to spend the night at his house." She concluded earnestly.

I blink at this, my mind was already made up and there was also the bonus of this impromptu sleepover working in my favor, even if I had nothing to gain from it, I would have still acquiesced, I was a friend after all.

"Of course." I agree seriously. "You didn't have to go so far but I'm glad you decided to tell me, I'd always help you if I could, that's what friends are for anyway."

I see a flash of tears in Arianna's eyes but it quickly disappears, no doubt she used a bit of glamour on herself. 

I can tell she's really worried about Cameron, I look at her again to see him scratching double time and tapping his feet even faster, this was going to be one long ass class.