As the mansion started to fall apart, Quinn, Ed, and A.J started heading for the doorway.
"Wait, Wait!! Where's Mark??" Ed looked around.
"I could of sworn I saw him go up the staircase when we were in that ball room"Quinn replied.
"Come on lets go find him!" Ed headed towards the ball room again. A.J grabbed his wrist.
"What are you nuts?!! This whole place is about to fall apart! If we don't get out of here we're going down with this place!"
"Like I don't know that! I don't know about you but Mark is my friend and I'm not gonna leave him!" Ed snatched away from A.J, and started running up the stairs.
"Ed wait!!! what if we cant find him it time??"Quinn ran after Ed. A.J followed behind them.
"Mark!! Mark, where are you?!!" Ed shouted out.
Mark heard Ed's voice.
"Ed, Ed!!! I'm in here!!"He started banging on the wall he fell from.
"Mark where are you?!!"Ed shouted again.
"He cant hear me...." Mark slowly turned around towards the small window where the dim daylight was coming from.
He headed towards the window, pressing his face against it.
"I wonder how far down the ground is from up here..."
Mark took a couple steps back, staring at the window, he stood there in silence for a moment while the mansion was ready to fall apart. He ran towards the window, jumping through it with glass stabbing into his skin, he fell two stories down, landing on his side.
"AH!"Mark slowly got up, pulling himself together, then he ran towards the entrance of the mansion.
"ED!!! QUINN!!!!! A.J!!!!!! GET OUTTA THERE NOW!!!!" He screamed.
Ed, Quinn, and A.J all heard his call. They quickly ran down the stairs, heading towards the entrance. When the three boys got off the staircase, pieces of the mansion fell apart. From the ceiling, parts of it fell off, suddenly it landed on Ed's right leg.
"AAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!"
"ED!" Mark, Quinn, and A.J ran towards him trying to lift the bolder-like part of the ceiling of his leg.
The staircase suddenly fell apart.
"Hang on Ed, we're gonna get you out of here!!" Quinn said struggling to move the rock.
"Just leave me!!! Go or you guys will die too!!"
"We're not gonna leave you Ed!!"Mark still had the princesses heart in his hand, it started to glow, none of the boys noticed. The part of the ceiling started to move off of Ed's leg, finally they forcefully removed it.
"Come on Ed get up!"A.J helped Ed up as they quickly walked towards the doorway. As soon as they all got out of the mansion, it all fell to pieces.
"Ed! Your leg its bleeding!" Quinn said.
"We have to take him to the infirmary!" A.J said as he started walking quickly towards town along with the others. Mark looked back at the mansion, and looked at the heart that he had in his hand, he then buried the princesses heart right in front of the crumbled mansion.
When they took Ed to the infirmary, the doctors quickly took him in. Mark, Quinn, and A.J waited for hours on end near Ed's room in the infirmary. When the doctor finally came out of the room where Ed was in, he had a calm look on his face.
"You young gentlemen are lucky your friends leg doesn't have to be amputated, but his leg is gonna be just fine in a couple of months, but it maybe more"
"Can we see him??"Mark asked.
"Well, he's sleeping the whole thing off right now so I suggest you could come back tomorrow"
"Oh...."
"Well...thanks Doc and take good care of the man will ya" A.J said.
"Don't worry, I will" He smiled.
Mark, Quinn, and A.J walked out of the hospital doorway.
"Are you guys gonna visit him tomorrow?" Mark asked.
"Yup" they boys both said.
"I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow then" Mark waved as he walked off.
The evening then turned to dusk as he walked into his house. No one was home at the time, he went to his room and closed his bedroom door. He then collapsed on his bed, closing his eyes.
Mark quickly fell asleep.
He started to dream.
His dream started out with nothing but pitch black, then the mansion came to his mind like lightning. A voice called out to him just like before.
"Thank you...." the voice said to him.
"Thank you for what?..."He asked.
"......My soul..."
" Your....soul?..."
"Thank...you...for everything..." The voice now sound faded.
"Who are you??"
"......."
"Please tell me"
"........."
Suddenly he heard a loud slamming of a door that woke him up. It was his mother.
"Hey Mark, you home?" She called out.
"Yeah Mom" He called back.
"Did you eat yet?"
"No...I'm not that hungry today..."
"Whoa! You! Not hungry???" She came into his room seeing that he was still laying down.
"What's up with you to day?"She asked.
".....Ed...Ed is in the hospital..."
"...!! What happened to him??"
"Well...."
Mark told his side of the story of what happened, but he didn't tell her that he found the princesses heart.
"So... is he gonna be okay Mark?"
"Yeah... the Doc said that it will take him some months for his leg to heal"
"I see....talk about curiosity kill the cat..."
".....I'm gonna go visit him tomorrow after I visit the shrine...."
"Okay...when you see him tell him that I hope he gets better soon"
" 'Kay..."Mark closed his eyes as his Mother walked out of his room as she closed the door behind her.
When Mark, Quinn, and A.J visited Ed, he seemed to be in a good mood even though he was in pain. They talked for awhile, and when visiting hours were over they all went home.
Weeks and weeks passed by, while Mark was in his classes he didn't have talk that much at all since Ed wasn't there with him.
Friday finally came to Mark on one week that seemed like a long one as he waited for the bus in the morning as he waited on the bench he sat on every time. The bus came to Mark's stop to take him to school once again. He went to his first class when he came to school, sat at his desk and laid his head down as usual. When everyone was inside the classroom and Mr. Knight sat on the edge of his desk until the room was quiet. Before he could even speak, there was a knock on the classroom door. As Mr. Knight got up and opened the door, there was a bit of a chatter outside the doorway as he was talking to someone. They talked for a few minutes, then a young girl walked inside the classroom,Mr. Knight closed the door behind him as the girl and himself stepped into the class.
"Students, its seems like we have a new classmate in the group today"He announced.
The young girls eyes looked forward, of course no one could see her eyes because most of her hair was draped over them. The girl had sparkling dark purple eyes, she had light brown skin,she was about 5'1, most of her hair was wrapped up in a pony tail, her long dark purple hair was passed her back, she was wearing small oval glasses mostly like circled glasses, also wearing a black and purple long sleeved woven blouse, black sandals, a small black bookbag, she was carrying some books with her, she was also wearing a long black skirt that covered her whole legs, she had a very nice figure, she had a pretty big bust, and nice shaped hips.
"Why don't you have a seat miss...–"
"My...name is Rina...."She answered in a shy, soft voice.
"Okay Miss Rina, why don't you go sit behind that young gentlemen over there" He pointed over to Mark. Mark's eyes widened a bit.
Rina walked over towards Mark, she sat behind him like she was told.
Mark turned around slightly, cutting his eye over at her as everyone else did.
Rina looked down at her desk trying avoid everyone's cold stare.
Mark turned back around and laid his head down on his desk.
When the bell rang for the student to switch classes, Mr. Knight called Rina and Mark to his desk to talk to the both of them.
"Now then, since its Rina's first day at this school, she needs an escort, and Rina has every single one of your classes Mark...can you take care of her?..."
Mark cut his eye over at Rina again then looked back at Mr. Knight .
"Yeah"He answered.
"Okay...Miss Rina, I suggest you follow Mark everywhere he goes"
Rina nodded, she slightly looked up at Mark as he walked out of the classroom.
"Hey Mark! Come here for a second"Mr. Knight called to him.
Mark walked inside the classroom again while Rina waited in the hallway.
"Don't worry Mark, I know what you're thinking, there's lots of girl's here who are named Rina...its starting to get common, but I know that girl is not who you think she is" He smirked.
Mark then walked away from his sight.
"Hmph...they look like a nice couple"Mr. Knight grinned.
Rina followed Mark to their next class.
Mark and Rina's next class was Home Economics ((cooking class)), when they both got to their class there was a woman standing next to the doorway, holding the door. The woman had short spiky black hair, her height was 5'5, wearing a white apron, black sandals, jeans, a short sleeved black woven blouse, and she had blue eyes. When everyone was in the classroom and the bell rang again the woman closed the door behind her as she entered the room.
"Alright everyone time to put on your aprons, and as you already may know that I'm Ms. Hatori , the reason why I made that statement is because I see we have a new student in the class, but I'm not gonna point the person out, so lets get started shall we"
"What are we make today??" One student asked.
"A boxed cake, like one of those wedding cakes you see on T.V"
"Also you guys are going to pair up, and I'll be the one doing all the pairing ups"
As Ms. Hatori started pairing up the students, Mark stared down at Rina for a moment.
"Ah, , since you like to stare and drool over your new friend, you can pair up with her"Ms. Hatori smiled.
"Huh?? But Ms–"
"I don't want to hear any complaining from you Mark, and show her "the ropes" will ya, be a gentlemen to this young lady"She then walked away.
Mark look down at Rina again and handed her an apron.
As the day was finally over, Mark went over to the bus loop to wait for his bus, he sat on a bench next to him.
Rina stood far across from him. Many moments passed by, mostly everyone was gone home already even Quinn and A.J. Sooner or later Mark and Rina were the only ones at the bus loop.
Mark looked over at Rina who was still standing at the same spot.
"Hey, you know you can sit on a bench if your legs are tired" Mark informed Rina.
"......"Rina looked over at him then slowly looked back to where she was looking.
A few minutes passed by and the bus came to the bus loop.
"Finally the bus came!!"Mark got up and walked towards the bus and Rina walked towards him. Mark got on the bus, so did Rina.
When the bus dropped both Mark and Rina off at the same stop they both went their separate ways with out even saying goodbye to one another.
To be continued....