Costs//A MCD Fanfiction//Sequel to 'Immortality'

20

Gabriella's POV:

Degory led me back upstairs past Irene's office where I heard her discussing some things to which I can only assume were the other divine warriors. I was confused on where he was leading me since I would think that Irene would keep most of the information in her office. We turned left down another hallway and whispered to me; "I'm not supposed to show this to you Ella so, we need to keep as quiet as possible. This where I think we'll find what we need."

He pulled out a little key from his pocket and unlocked the door. He opened it and I was faced with the overwhelming amount of boxes stacked inside the room. It wasn't storage closet sized either. You could easily say it looked to be the size of a at home office where you could put a desk, bookshelf, and maybe a loveseat in the corner.

"What's all of this?", I asked.

Degory has a frown on his face as he told me; "It's your father's. Irene took over his room and office, moving some stuff in here. A few boxes are of her belongings as well that she asked me to store away for her. They're over here."

He picked up three file boxes and said; "I'll take these to your room so we can look through them until dinner. Feel free to grab anything that seems of interest as well."

He quickly rushed off to put the boxes in my room, leaving me to look around on my own. I highly doubted my father would leave anything valuable in his room or office especially since I didn't think he was aware of all of this happening before his death. I was proven right as I looked swiftly through a few boxes, seeing nothing containing anything of interest. I noted though to look through them all when I had a chance.
Degory returned and asked if I had found anything. I shook my head saying; "Do you want Ru'an's export reports from 2015?"

He smirked and shrugged. "You know me. I always enjoy a little learning."

He went through some of the boxes himself, just in case. I asked; "Do you miss teaching?"

"With all my heart,", He said with no hesitation. "When this is all fixed, I'm going straight back to my classroom." I giggled, remembering that I never had too much of a liking to school. That's why I only attended current event classes with a math course throughout the centuries. I saw him gleam though when he found something in one of the boxes. "Ella look at this!"

He pulled out a framed photograph of all of us dating back to who knows when. It was black and white, meaning it wasn't until color was a popular alternative. Penny was in it though. It looked to be quite recent to when she joined the family.  We were all posing in front of the camera, Dylan and Degory to the right, my father and uncle to the left, while Penny and I sat on stools in the middle. Diamond was sitting in between us.

"...I really miss this,", He admitted to me. Something must've hit him and he asked; "How are feeling about Esmund?"

I sighed and said; "Confused. I don't know why Dad couldn't come back instead but, I'll try to understand. It's just hard..."

I took the picture from his hand and placed it back in the box. I asked if he had access to the attic to which he informed he did. We left that room and he led me to where a door would lead me to stairs to help me up to the attic.

"I'm going to stay down here,", He told me. "Irene usually expects me to meet up with her around now to talk about evening plans." He handed me the key to the attic and said; "Just lock up when you're done."

I thanked him and ushered for him to hurry if he was expected to be there. I unlocked the door and walked up the stairs. The attic was still as dusty as ever and the ceilings were low. I tried to ignore the fact that there could be spiders lurking around in every corner by diving straight into anything I could find. There were old outfits and uniforms, albums that I didn't have the heart to look through, and more files and folders. What caught my attention though was a large chest. It was dark blue meaning it had to be my father's. I kneeled down and unlatched it, opening it up. A gust of air blew into my face, smelling like my father. Vanilla to be exact. Is that creeping that I know his scent? Maybe but, if you lived with him for over a thousand years, you'd know what he'd smell like. Inside the chest made me smile.