"Must you always tell the story of our first meeting on every of our friendship anniversary?" Fiona asked as she chuckled.
"Of course I must. It is now like a tradition for me, till death do I stop" Emily said with her hands up in the air, as if taking a vow. "I still can't believe today makes it three years since we became friends. I'm glad I met you, sixteen of you actually."
"Talking about the story of how we met, you haven't told the whole story yet." Fiona winked at her.
"That's probably because you distracted me. So where was I, hmm… oh yeah, I stopped at when I had chased after you."
***
Emily ran after Fiona who seemed to be running endlessly without feeling tired. She wasn't sure she could keep up with Fiona, so she called out instead. "Hey! Please wait!"
To Emily's delight, Fiona seemed to have heard her, as she had stopped running and just stood at a fixed point. Emily walked towards Fiona, while still trying to catch her breath.
"You stood up for me, that was very kind of you… I thought it wouldn't speak well for me not to extend my gratitude." she was just two steps away from Fiona.
"You stopped me just to tell me this?" Fiona asked without turning around to look at Emily.
"I saw what happened earlier… how your body vibrated, and how you changed into a totally different person."
Fiona turned around, looking surprised on hearing Emily's words. Emily swallowed, sensing that she might have clicked a button. She had no idea if it was a right or a wrong button, but she still pressed further. "Are… are you like… possessed?."
Fiona's jaw fell in surprise, then in the next moment, she burst into laughter… a very awkward one. "Possessed? Girl, you are really funny. I… I just have this thing, this thing called… personality disorder." she nodded her head as she said the last two words. She was really bad at lying, she just hoped that Emily would be dumb enough to believe her words.
"Oh, that checks out" Emily nodded with a smile.
'Thank GOD she is so dumb' Fiona heaved a sigh inwardly. She was distracted by Emily, that she didn't notice that the bracelet on her wrist was flashing a red light continuously.
Emily noticed it first, and out of curiosity, she asked "What kind of bracelet is that? It's flashing a red light."
Fiona's eyes widened immediately, and she looked at her left hand where she had worn the bracelet. "For the love of Christ…" she stopped her sentence midway as her body jerked a little.
"Hello Emily" Fiona said, and that came as a shock to Emily as she didn't remember telling Fiona her name. She could also notice that Fiona was acting totally different again, just like in the library.
"My name is Michele, nice to meet you. You are really curious about us, aren't you?" Fiona asked with a glint in her eyes.
"Us?" Emily asked confusingly.
"Yeah you heard me right. There are sixteen of us in a body, or according to 'Fiona', fifteen of us are just mere personalities, while only she is an actual person." she rolled her eyes when she said the name 'Fiona'.
Emily just stood there with her mouth open, she couldn't find any words to use at that moment.
Fiona cleared her throat and continued. "All fifteen of us, or 'personalities' that Fiona refer to us as, have unique powers. Fiona is the only useless one" she laughed after saying the last sentence.
Emily was finally able to use her tongue, and was about to say something, but Fiona's body jerked again. This time around, she didn't go back to being her normal self, she seemed to be another person again. 'Am I going to see all fifteen of them', Emily wondered.
"How stupid of you to have followed Fiona all the way here just so you could thank her, and ask questions that aren't beneficial to your life in any way." she said with a dangerous smirk displayed on her face.
Emily felt the urge to run, especially when she saw something like electricity moving in Fiona's body, which was followed by sparks from her hands.
"Michele already told you the very secret we tried our best to keep, even if it meant eliminating any threat. Do you know what that means? It means that Michele actually gave you a free ticket to hell my dear." Fiona moved closer to Emily, and when she was about to electrocute Emily, her body jerked again.
Fiona gasped as if she had been holding her breath for a long time, then she looked at Emily with anger mixed with confusion. "Are you crazy, or do you just have a death wish? Why didn't you bother trying to save yourself? If I was late, even just for second, she could have ended you." she yelled.
"I… I froze" Emily said in a shaky voice. "I thought that was the end of the road for me."
Fiona face palmed herself, "Is your adrenal gland functioning at all? A normal person with adrenaline flow would run for their lives." she complained.
Emily smiled, surprising both Fiona and herself. Fiona scoffed, "You really are a dummy. So you aren't scared of me, but you were shivering in the presence of that bully earlier."
"No, I was actually scared, terrified even." Emily paused and smiled, "It was the care I saw in your eyes that made me smile. It really warmed my heart."
Fiona sighed and turned around to leave. "Wait!" Emily said. "What now..." Fiona frustratedly turned and stopped her question midway when she saw the textbook she had rented in Emily's hands.
"Your textbook, you dropped it when one of your personalities took over your body to teach that guy a lesson." Emily said, then she winked.
"Oh thank you so much. I don't know what I would have told the owner if I had lost it." she wanted to take the textbook back from Emily, but Emily withdrew her hands, and hid the textbook. Fiona's brows creased and she was about to say something, but was interrupted by Emily.
"I'm doing you a favor here, and I think I should get a reward." Emily said playfully.
"Well you wouldn't be doing me a favor if I hadn't stepped in to save you earlier. So we are even." She said, and when she saw that Emily still wasn't giving her the textbook, and was still smiling foolishly, she sighed.
"Okay, what do you want as a reward?" She asked with clenched teeth.
Emily composed herself, and cleared her throat. "I would like for us to be... friends. Please don't say no, I've always had a kink that supernatural beings do exist in this world, and I've wanted to meet one. Being your friend would be an honor, I promise I'll keep your secret, lips sealed." She spoke endlessly.
"That's your request?" Fiona asked, looking surprised and Emily nodded in reply. "Okay, we can be friends. So can I have it back now?"
Emily slowly handed the book to Fiona, looking at her suspiciously, and immediately Fiona got hold of the book, she knew the ball was no longer in her court, it was now up to Fiona to decide. "So? Friends?" she asked Fiona with pleading eyes.
Fiona smiled and replied, "Friends."
***
Back to present.
"And that was how our friendship began." Emily ended her story, and they both giggled.
"I say we cheers to that." Fiona said, and they clinked their champagne glasses containing wine together.