The Angel in Hell

C O R N W A L L

Its Not Over Yet by Klaxons<3

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Months had passed and still no news on Felix. There had been no more voicemails, not a word from James' special contact, just nothing. It had begun to wear Delilah down, she didn't know how much longer her heart could ache for him before it just gave up. She had called her university and dropped out, as had Farleigh. Everything was too much and nobody could go and commit to essay upon essay with what was going on. Delilah felt slightly disappointed in herself for leaving school, but she didn't like her course that much anyway and she would have to at some point- well- in exactly four months. To Delilah's disbelief, the days had all blurred into one and suddenly she found herself 5 months pregnant. She was too tired to be angry at Felix anymore, she didn't know what to feel for him. He had been gone so long, so much had changed.

The Cattons were still keeping Delilah's pregnancy quiet, only the house staff knew outside of the family. However, Delilah had told her mother once the third trimester had passed. Her mother had acted interested, for a few minutes until she got bored when Delilah told her she hadn;t asked about the gender. Truth be told, finding out the gender of her baby was the final thing keeping her mind on Felix. It was no longer his safety, his whereabouts, whether he loved or missed her, but the fact that she knew she could not forgive him if he missed the moment they found out the gender of their own child. Their very DNA. If he missed that then all her love for him was for nothing, because that love would be for a version of him that didn't exist. She just couldn't handle that. Not yet.

After breaking the news, her mother conveniently prolonged her trip in Bali for another six months and that was that. It was typical selfish and in-denial behaviour from her but Delilah was glad in a way, she didn't want to bring her baby up around someone like her mother. For all Elsbeth's flaws, at least she knew how to show some level of love and care. At least she was here.

They were in November now and Delilah couldn't quite understand why more wasn't being done to find Felix, why breakfast, lunch and dinner remained that same, why the machine that was Saltburn remained the same, unaffected by his absence. Although it was a safe place for Delilah to hide out from reality, the manor felt increasingly weak in its protection. While everybody acted as normal, their faces grew grey and sunken, worry aging every member of the household. Tensions were high within the house too, Elsbeth and James forever getting caught having whispered conversations in the corners of the hallways, never revealing what was said when confronted. Venetia wasn't speaking to either of them at the moment. Last week she had overheard them mention something about Felix and something about Oliver, something about the night of the party. When V asked them, begging them to include her in the search for her own brother, they denied her- of course. They brushed her off as they always do, told her to go and lie down, rest, eat something. And it all really went downhill from there. The argument turned from Felix to Venetia and, as much as she hated to admit it, James and Elsbeth had successfully manipulated V into an angry silence. Silence was good, silence meant secrets stayed that way.

Despite the days merging into one, they were painfully slow. Life was just like one continuous and bleak shot, never changing angles or scenes, the climax never being reached. Life never being lived. Eventually, to say that time was slow made it sound ironically fast, it was safe to say that the days were neverending. But, as Delilah sat with Farleigh and V, watching 'Keeping Up With The Kardashians', the slow pace at which life was passing by was more bearable.

The three had been binge watching the series since the Dr left this morning, the weather outside raging and harsh in the early winter storm that had fallen over the manor. The trees swayed and creaked with age in the wind, being stripped bare of all their remaining leaves. The driveway and lawns were scattered with debris from all the raucous, small waves in the lake rippled continuously as they smacked against the bank. The rain was like a million pebbled being thrown against the wooden roof of the house, as if they were all under brutal attack. Delilah still kept her window open, allowing herself to become mesmerised by the dance her curtains performed as the wind flowed through them. Despite all the chaos, the moon still shone through the clouds, illuminating their fluffy mounds and thick layers to create a surprisingly bright sky considering it was nearing 2am now.