Chapter 22 – Vicious

Like every Monday morning, now – and it had become a habit for Charlie to start the week like this – Charlie met Henry early for their morning run. The ground was a little muddy from the previous day's rain, but he didn't mind. A little mud never killed anyone.

And besides, Charlie needed something to clear his mind before the coming week.

"Good morning," he said as he joined his running companion. Easton had not joined them again, and Charlie was glad– not that he didn't like the man, but he would rather run alone with Henry.

"Hi!" Henry replied with a genuine wide smile on his face. "How are you?"

"I'll be better after the run and a shower," Charlie replied. "Shall we?"

Henry nodded but didn't prod more. They walked while warming up their knees and ankles and continued to do that when they arrived at the beginning of the track. When they were both ready, they started running in silence, their sneakers thumping on the still-wet path the only sound around them, apart from some birds and the breeze in the trees

After a while in silence like that, Henry spoke, breaking the quiet. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked. "You're very quiet, today." Charlie was one to spare his words, but he had become more open and generous with them as they spent time together.

Charlie shrugged. "I'm fine. But my car isn't."

"Your car?" Henry asked. "What's wrong with it?"

"I took it yesterday with my sister to go see my parents– our usual monthly Sunday together." He ran a few strides before continuing. "Everything was fine on the way there. It did make a few weird sounds, though. And when we came back, we almost broke down on the side of the road."

"Oh, no!" Henry said. "What kind of car do you have? Maybe I can help."

"You?" Charlie snorted despite his better judgment. "I thought you were a baker, not a mechanic."

"True," Henry replied, laughing. He didn't seem offended by the question. "That's only half of my daily life." Again, he ran a few steps before going on. "But in my free time, I do lots of manual and mechanical work. I fix up my own truck."

"Oh." Charlie hadn't been expecting that. Why hadn't he known that? Maybe because he didn't ask any questions. He had followed all of the Selected on Instagram, but he didn't remember seeing anything related to his truck or his mechanical skills on it. "It's an old dark green Chevrolet that I've had forever. My first and only car, actually," he said. "It's so old that most garages don't have the pieces anymore and it's not worth a buck, anymore, either."

"Well, I can definitely have a look at it," Henry offered before laughing softly.

"What? Why are you laughing?"

"My truck is also green," he replied. "Only it's a Ford pickup truck."

Charlie smiled. He could totally imagine Henry driving one of those. It fit so well! "Yeah, okay," he finally said. "You can have a look at my car. This afternoon?"

"Absolutely," Henry replied. "I'd be glad to help. If I can."

Charlie nodded. "What do you want in return? I'm not going to let you do that for free…"

Henry thought for a few strides. "Just bring a couple of beers," he said with a smile, which made Charlie laugh.

"Alright, two beers it is." They continued running, and Charlie was much more lighthearted than before, happy that Henry was going to have a look at his car and maybe fix it! All he hoped was that he would get a few more thousand miles out of it… he wasn't ready to let it go just yet.

When they were done running the track three times, they walked back to the Palace. Charlie was finding it harder and harder to keep a straight face when Henry was around. They had played together at the Table Soccer tournament, even if they hadn't made it further than the semifinals and had lost against Domenico and Weston.

But as they walked side by side, Charlie couldn't deny that Henry was the one who walked close to him… right? Or had he stepped closer? The heat on his cheeks was growing, and he was eager for a cold shower to calm down. They didn't talk as their somewhat sticky arms – thank you perspiration, ew – brushed together.

"I'll see you later," Henry said as they reached the second floor and he headed to his room. "And don't forget the beers." He grinned and was on his way, leaving Charlie quite flustered to climb up the stairs to the third floor. He quickly headed to his room, stripped down once he was in the bathroom, and stepped into the cold shower, letting the water drop his body temperature. When goosebumps rose on his skin, he turned the warm water on and took a real shower, washing off the sweat of the run before donning on one of his usual suits.

Charlie went to the breakfast room, piled food on his plate, and sat next to the Princess at their family table.

"Good morning," he said to her.

Willow swallowed her waffles before greeting him, too. "Any plans for this morning?" she asked.

"Yes, we need to organize your solo dates," he said. "These guys are anxious to know when you're going on a date, and for now you've gone on only two dates."

"Technically…" Willow said, making a face, "I've been on six or seven, already."

Charlie almost choked on his scrambled eggs. "Pardon me?"

The princess shrugged. "Four or five of those were not planned and they just happened."

"I see…" he paused, sipping on his black coffee. "What happens when you draw their names? You go on a second one?"

"Of course. Why not?"

Charlie narrowed his eyes at her. "Who exactly had the privilege of an unplanned date with the Crown Princess? And who knows about this?"

"I haven't told anyone. So unless they told the others, no one knows…" She then focused on cleaning the maple syrup in her plate with a small square of waffle, not looking at him. But Charlie knew exactly what she doing: ignoring his question. So he asked again.

"Who?"

"What does it matter to you?" she retorted. "They were perfectly fine dates without everyone watching."

"Who, Wilhelmina?" he said for the third time. "I need to keep track of everything."

His cousin rolled her eyes. "Fine." She lowered her voice so no one else would hear this but him. "I shared a walk in the gardens with Weston, a Sunday of sewing and choosing fabrics for the teal dress with Aidyn–"

"I knew it," he said. "How would he have done it otherwise? Who else?"

"We had a girl's night with Jaylen, and Julian wanted his high school sweater back, and we talked a bit while I was looking for it– and that barely counts as a date."

Charlie nodded but then he frowned. "That's four. You said five."

"I said four or five," Willow said. "I didn't remember exactly."

"Hmpf." Charlie knew that she was keeping something from him but could he blame her? He was keeping his morning runs with Henry from her– or at least what they meant for him. He took a deep breath and let the whole thing drop. "But we're still going to go over the schedule for the next few weeks. There are 25 Selected left, two of which you had an official date with, so that means there are 23 left. Counting at least four or five dates a week–"

"What? Four or five a week? Do you want to kill me?"

"No, I want to minimize the Selection Budget. The faster you go through the official dates, the faster you'll eliminate them, and the quicker you'll get to the end of it."

Willow snorted. "You're already tired of all this?" she asked. "Your parents followed the Selections for six months." She paused. "We've done only four weeks."

"Four– no way," Charlie said. "It feels like four months, honestly."

"You said it, not me…"

/ / /

After spending the whole morning going over the next few week's dating schedule – not the actual dates, but what days she would be drawing a new name – they joined the Selected for lunch in the garden. The sun was out again and everything was now dry and warm, perfect for eating outside.

"Where's your car parked?" Henry asked after lunch. "We can go there now if you want."

Charlie nodded. "Good idea. Let me just go grab us some beers in the kitchen and I'll meet you in the Entrance Hall."

"Sounds good," Henry said, smiling. He headed upstairs while Charlie went to the floor below ground, to the kitchen under the West Wing.

"Sorry to interrupt," he said when he walked in, "but would it be possible to have two beers, please?" Charlie may be a little cold and distant, but he had been taught good manners by his mother, and he was polite. Polite always gave him what he wanted when the other way didn't work.

"Of course, sir," one of the cooks said. "Follow me." Charlie obeyed and followed the cook to a large cold room and he showed him the beer section. "Take your pick."

Oh shoot, Charlie thought. I don't even know what type of beer Henry likes! So he went with the one he liked and grabbed two bottles before thanking the cook and making his way out of the kitchen. He headed upstairs to meet up with Henry in the Entrance Hall. He couldn't help the grin that spread on his face when he saw his running partner who was dressed in jeans overalls over a tight-fitted navy-blue t-shirt, and Henry smiled, too. "I didn't know what you liked, so I just went with this," he said, gesturing to the two bottles in his hand.

"That's perfect," Henry said. "Do you have any tools? I didn't take my toolbox with me, unfortunately…"

Charlie nodded, telling him he could probably borrow the Palace's mechanic's tools but they'd have to make a detour to the Royal Hangar to get that. He then led the way to the hangar before going to the staff's parking lot a little bit out of the way of the Palace, where his green Chevrolet was waiting, parked with the front against the hedge.

"Ooh, she's pretty," Henry said, walking around the car and patting the hood. "How old is she?"

"I've had her for seven years, but she's at least forty years old…" Charlie said.

"Hmm. She's an old lady, then."

Charlie nodded, chuckling. He watched as Henry expertly opened the hood and looked inside, touching this or that. "Could you turn it on and show me that weird sound?"

"Sure." Charlie went around the driver's seat, put the ignition on, and found that odd noise with the clutch. "Here! Do you hear it?"

"Yes," Henry nodded. "You'll probably have to change the clutch," he continued. "Is it the original?"

"I have absolutely no idea," Charlie replied, shrugging, as he climbed out of the car. "And I'm not even sure they still make the piece." He grabbed a bottle and handed it to Henry before popping his open.

"Thanks, man," Henry said, smiling. Their gazes met for a few seconds before Henry looked away and popped his open, too. "Cheers."

"Cheers." They clinked their bottles and both took a sip at the same time before chuckling. For the next thirty minutes, Charlie watched Henry work inside his car, cleaning this or that, making sure there was enough cooling liquid, and generally doing what Charlie always paid someone to do. He wasn't very fond of getting his hands dirty himself but watching him doing that, he was very intrigued about this man. Clearly, he hadn't found half the info on him. And Charlie was staring, unmoving, leaning on Mikey's Cadillac right next to his.

Henry looked up and smiled. "What?" he asked, still not dropping the grin. Charlie felt busted, staring at him like that, and he quickly looked down at his half-drunk beer, which had turned warm in the past half hour.

"Nothing," he mumbled. But when he looked up again, Henry had come closer.

"You know, I think I'm starting to feel like a fraud in this Selection," he said.

"Why?" Charlie swallowed hard.

"Because I was here for the Princess."

"Was?"

Henry nodded once. "Charlie– I…" he cut himself short, mulling over his words. "I've really enjoyed our runs together," he finally said.

"Me too," Charles replied. Henry was still coming closer and closer, but Charlie wasn't moving from the car. Not that he could have, anyway. His legs had turned into jelly, and he would have fallen on his face had he tried to run away. But he didn't want to run away. Charlie was too much of a coward to make a move himself; so if that's what Henry was doing, then he would let him.

"Charlie, man, you've got to stop me if I'm–"

But Charlie shook his head. He waited. A couple of seconds later, Henry was pressing his lips on his and everything inside Charlie's mind exploded at once. He had never planned on falling for one of his cousin's Selected. Yet, here he was, sharing a beer and then kissing one of them on the hood of his best friend's car. Charlie deepened the kiss and pulled Henry's face in closer with his hand behind his head when everything around them trembled.

Henry lost his balance and fell on Charlie. The cars bumped into one another on the parking lot and–

"What's happening!?" Henry said, panicking.

Charlie had already sensed something like this before, but never this strong. "Earthquake!" he replied. He grabbed Henry's hand and lead him out of the parking lot where staying among the cars would have been dangerous for both of them. They were a few hundred meters away from the East Wing of the palace and the whole end of the building collapsed right in front of their eyes!

"No!" Charlie said. That was the East Wing! Willow's room! Half the Selected were there, too! Unless they were in the garden and hoped to God that they were! He was about to run towards the crumbling building but Henry held him back.

"No, you can't go yet!" he yelled over the noise. "It's too dangerous! We have to wait this out!"

Charlie knew he was right, but he also knew that anyone inside the east wing at that moment would be dead by now. He fell to his knees, as the ground under his feet buckled. He and Henry were somewhat safe, away from the cars and the dangerous walls, but everything around them moved. It seemed to last forever! The logical part of his mind said that it was only a few minutes, but it really felt like an eternity!

They couldn't hear any screams, but that didn't mean anything. Over the loud rumbling of the earth and the Palace stones and windows falling, they could barely hear each other.

Then everything stopped as fast as it had started. Charlie knew there would probably be an echo or two of this quake in a moment, but right now, all he needed to do was find out if everyone else was safe. They both ran around the tumbled wall and into the garden when they saw Willow and a huge group of selected huddled together in the grass.

"Thank God," Charlie said. They walked up to the group. "Is everyone okay?" he asked.

"All of us here, yes," Mikey replied for everyone. Being from Angeles he was used to yearly earthquakes, too, just not as strong as this one. A moment later, the King, the Queen, the other royal Siblings came running out of the West Wing that had miraculously stood throughout the whole thing. A line of servants followed them out, too, and everyone started counting everyone, making a huge mess of everything.

"Okay, listen up, everyone!" the king's bodyguard and head of security, Timothy Parker called out over the cacophony. "I want the Royal Family on this side, The Selected over there, and staff members on the other side, and guard members behind me." He paused, waiting for everyone to join their group. "Staff, separate by groups of work, too," he said. He looked at the royal family: everyone was there, including Charlie and Annie. Then he went to the group of Selected and counted everyone. "Twenty-three. How many of you are left?"

"Twenty-five," Willow replied.

Parker paled a little. "Alright, who's missing?" he asked. The Selected looked among themselves, trying to figure out who was missing.

"Comoe and Feighree," Mikhail finally said.

"Where and when did you see them last?" he asked.

"At lunch, I think," Willow said.

"Alright. Did anyone see them after lunch?" he asked, but everyone shook their heads. He wrote down their names on his phone. He then went to the staff members and each group – maids, kitchen staff, footmen, etc. – had to tell him if someone was missing from their group. several were missing, and the same was true for the guard members. All in all, nine people were missing. Parker then organized the next few hours while he called firefighters to come help find the nine missing people in the rubble of the East Wing.

/ / /

Willow and the others were asked to stay in the gardens, away from the Palace. The pool had cracked in two in the earthquake, some trees had fallen down around them, but everyone was uninjured, at least. All the Selected were huddled in small groups, talking anxiously about what had just happened. Willow was standing on her own, biting her thumbnail, looking at her half-crumbled home. There was still smoke – or dust? – coming out of the East wing.

"Hey, you okay, Mina?" Mikey said softly, standing next to her. She would have wanted him to wrap his arms around her, but with everyone looking, it wouldn't have been a good idea.

She nodded. "I just hope Comoe and Feighree are okay," she said. "And all the others, too."

Mikey nodded. "Yeah, me too." He paused. "Hey, maybe they were in the game room below ground and they're safe."

Willow smiled: leave it to Mikey to always find the least bad scenario and to hope for the best. She nodded and rested her head on his shoulder, damn what everyone else would say. He was her best friend first and foremost and if people were not happy about that, then they could leave.

A moment later, several fire trucks entered the Palace grounds and a team went in to look for the mine missing people. Everyone watched the Palace anxiously, waiting. The crumbled part of the Palace was not that big, though it was four floors high. But at the end of the afternoon, the firefighters had found the nine bodies.

All dead.

Willow fell to her knees, crying, and Mikey held her against him, staying strong for her. She had lost two Selected, five staff members, two guards, and everything she held dear in her room, crushed between the roof and the fourth floor and the second floor. She wasn't a very materialistic person– at least she hoped she wasn't. But knowing her whole collection of shoes and clothes was lost– Maybe they could salvage something from the rubble, but Parker's next order was to not go into the Palace, not even in the West Wing. It was too insecure for now, and they needed to make sure the walls weren't going to fall on them.

So Nathan and Valerian arrived on the scene after her father had called them and they separated the royals and Selected into two groups to stay with them for a night or two until all this was taken care of. The staff members would pile into the barracks until new lodgings were found for them.

Willow, Lolly, and a half of the Selected went to Nathan and Jenissa's home, while her parents, her brothers, and the other half of the Selected went to Valerian's house. Charlie and Annie went to their parents in LA, not wanting to take up space in those two homes.

Woop. the beginning of the road to hell... anyway! what did you think of Chenry? the quake? the casualties? let me know!

see you next week! byeee!