The Angel in Hell

F E L I X

Deception by Le Tigre <3

~

After their escape to the Labyrinth, the girls let the clock hit 4am on the little blue ipod and packed up the pillow and blankets, chucked back the last few drops of wine from the bottle and shoved it into the thick green bushes of the maze. They made their way out of the puzzle that they now knew like the back of their hands, arm in arm having successfully survived the first witching hour of summer. Kissing each other on the cheek goodnight the two separated off to their rooms to sleep off their intoxication and whirring thoughts of the night.

The next morning Delilah woke up to one of the maids gently drawing duck-egg blue linen curtains to reveal the cloudless shining blue sky that framed her little balcony. Below Delilah could see one of the gardeners sitting on an industrial sized lawn mower as he created dark and light green stripes on vast lawns of the manor.

She sat up and stretched her arms toward her toes, rubbing on her lower back where the stone from the statue she sat in front of last night had caused a sore spot. The maid left her room and Delilah headed towards her shower. While breakfast was the most casual meal of the day, everyone adhered to a sort of unspoken rule that one must always look somewhat presentable when sitting down for a meal.

The haze that filled her head from whatever the girl had drunk or smoked last night left a sort of queasy feeling in her stomach that would only be fixed by a couple of ibuprofen, a coffee and an everything shower. Needing the ibuprofen urgently, Delilah settled for no coffee just yet and popped two of the pills into her mouth then leaned down to the tap in her bathroom to gulp some water down with them. Swallowing, she turned on her shower and let the cold water shock her into sobriety before it turned warm and soothing over her skin. She washed her hair with the vanilla bourbon and coconut hair products, courtesy of Elsbeth once again, and grabbed a gritten exfoliating mix, lathering it with the bar of sweet smelling soap on the side. She exfoliated, shaved and then doused herself in oils as she always does before wrapping a warmed fluffy sage-green coloured towel around her body and throwing her hair into a t-shirt to dry her curls without damaging them.

Opening her wardrobe, Lilah had absolutely no clue what to wear. She wished for a moment such trivial things didn't matter here but the fact was they did. The image of life at Saltburn was notorious and just in case anyone were to pop in unannounced, the family had to look the part. Going for a sort of Parisian summer meets incredibly hungover young woman, she chose some soft cream cotton shorts and a bright blue and white striped shirt that fell off her right shoulder slightly. Delilah looked at herself in the mirror. She was disgracefully pale. In the winter her fair skin was alright but in the summer, when everyone else was turning a gorgeous nutty brown sort of colour, she was either turning bright red and freckles or staying almost see through. Ignoring the monologue of self-hatred in her head, she took her hair out of the shirt, scrunched some honey-smelling oil into it and headed down to the breakfast room.

'Morning' she said, entering the calm room where Elsbeth sipped a china cup of tea. James was reading the paper as normal and Venetia was nowhere to be found except there was a bowl of fruits and half eaten yoghurt...so everyone knew exactly where she was.

As Delilah poured herself a cup of coffee that sat on the side and plated up a croissant with strawberry jam and butter, Venetia tiptoed in and gave her best friend a small kiss on the seat before sitting back at her chair and sipping some water. Delilah sat down opposite V and began tucking into her breakfast as the three women at the table discussed the weather, James dropping in every now and then to agree with whatever his wife was saying.

In the distance Delilah could hear a faint crackling noise that she could have sworn she recognised. She waited a few more moments as it became louder and louder before she could put her finger on what it was. It was the sound that woke her up yesterday, the sound of an inevitable fancy car rolling up the driveway. Felix.