They were sent straight home; their show for now was over and they weren't required to do anything for a few months at least. But it was recommended because who would vote for a king or queen who they never saw? Charities, volunteering and basically getting involved was only part of what they suggested but Celeste couldn't have cared less about it at that moment.
Falling asleep in the limo, her head bouncing against the window as the careened around corners and flew down the streets, thoughts of millions of people placing their life into the hands of twelve young adults left her mind. When she got home the sleeping girl was shaken gently and led out of the car where she absentmindedly wandered inside, changed out of the restricting dress and dragged a makeup wipe across her face.
Despite the sun still sitting on the horizon, it didn't take long for Celeste to fall asleep.
It was dark and peaceful; everyone had already gone to bed and the light all turned off. She didn't know why she had jolted awake when such a nice sleep had been something new, but her bright blue eyes had snapped open and she lay there staring for a moment.
All was quite again and she felt no sense of fear; if someone was going to kill her, they probably would've already. When there was another gentle tapping at her window - not the kind that you would get from an impatient finger nail tapping, but the kind that a gentle knock would make - the young girl pulled herself up and gave a slight yawn.
There was no fear but Celeste felt devoid of everything else as well, light headed as she gently rose to her feet realising that she had been slipped into a silk nightgown from when she had fallen asleep in just her underwear.
There was no rush to get the balcony but once she was there she swung open the glass doors and took in a deep breath of the fresh air, stinging against her hot face. 'Anyone there?' she asked quietly, voice low and soft as her eyes prowled the balcony for any sight.
She was just about to give up and walk away before there was a bang from above her and the sound of something against tiles made her stumble back a little in shock.
No sound escaped from her lips as the body fell from the roof above her, its falling halted by a rope tied around its neck. There was a sickly crack and Celeste fell backwards with eyes plastered wide in shock as the persons neck was snapped immediately.
It was Dante, the kind Italian from before but now he was dead and Celeste could only stare as nausea made her dry heave. She didn't think about closing the balcony door, to protect herself from both the sight of the dead body hanging only a meter away or any other potential dangers.
It took a moment for the frightened girl to find her voice and when she did she could only scream. The high pitched sound of absolute fear alerted everyone in the house to her problem and Noah was in there first, his face a look of pure horror before his instincts kicked in and he bolted foward to grab her by the arms and start dragging back the screaming, kicking and crying girl away from the sight.
The servants dashed in, instantly getting to work on removing the body from her room seemingly unpreturbed by the dead person. Noah had pushed her against the wall and instead of offering comfort he was shaking her hard by the shoulders; she had gone into shock and wasn't responding to anything he was trying.
'Listen to me!' Noah screamed, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her hard, not seeming to notice as she hit her head multiple times on the wall. 'Snap out of it! Celeste, calm down!'
Her breathing slowed down and her panicked blue eyes began to flutter closed as she focused on controlling her shallow breaths. She kept trying to see the body but Noah's frame blocked her view and deep down she knew she was grateful.
'That was Dante,' she said quickly, wiping away at her tears though new ones just took their place. 'He's dead, Noah!'
It had taken a while to completely calm down the girl, but after a long hot bath at the other end of the house and a few small sips of water to avoid throwing up, Celeste was calm. Plans had been arranged for her to go to Christa's house and when she arrived with a pale face and a shaky smile, the blonde girl gathered up the older queen in her arms.
'I'm sorry for intruding,' Celeste said with her head down and avoiding eye contact with the blonde girl.
'This is merely my repayment for what you told me yesterday,' Christa laughed gently, 'what you said really made me think.'
She was invited inside and Celeste couldn't help but think that this was just like a regular sleepover. They sat down in their pajama's and Celeste briefly recalled what had happened and what she could remember in her moment of panic and fear.
The newspaper was picked up absentmindedly during the conversation and Celeste gently flattened it out against her knee before she turned her attention downwards while Christa ordered more food and an extra room to be set up from her servant.
On the front page was a giant picture of Hayden with the title "SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGH" at the top in bold letters. She scanned through the article with narrowed eyes and only picked up on certain words. It was just the information that they all had, just leaked out into the world. It would only cause more panic but everyone seemed so happy about it; she knew that the happiness would only last a month or so.
Down the bottom of the page was a smaller article, easy to look over with the title of "king dead" in smaller letters. It was only a paragraph stating how Dante had commited suicide with no mention of where it happened or who was involved.
'This is bullshit!' Celeste screamed, throwing the newspaper on the table so that it skidded to a stop in front of Christa who began reading immediately. 'Down the bottom. They're just covering the truth with something happier; it'll take a while for them to realise that he's actually dead with an article like that.'
There was a moment of silence as Celeste watched Christa read, her frown deepening with every line that she read.
'It wasn't a suicide either! If he wanted to die, then why at my house?!' Celeste fumed, her hands balling into fists. 'Someone killed him, tied a noose around his neck and through him off the roof. It's stupid, it shouldn't have happened!'
