The Aftermath

Chapter twenty-five

*don't own the gif* 

Jonathan Smith observed from afar as his ex-fiancé glimpsed around at the market stalls circling her. Her creamy blonde hair was skillfully tied up in a perfect bun, not a single strand of hair out of place. It had been six months since she announced she did not love him anymore, told him that she couldn't understand him anymore. To him, he was confused as to why but shrugged the notion of what she had just told him. To only realise after a couple of days querying why she had not come to see him, did Jonathan realise – his marriage was truly off.

Occasionally he would go out and find her to see how she was doing, who she was meeting and why. Lately on Tuesdays, Jonathan recalled, she has been attending an early poetry reading class with a young photographer who then in the evening would take erotic photographs.

Leaning on a different stall, one far away from the one she was browsing by, Jonathan didn't realise that Elijah Blackwood had arrived and watched curiously at to whom he was staring at.

Elijah cast his eyes away from Jonathan's face and to a young blonde conversing with a young boy beside her. Of course he knew who the lady was, he was the one who had to put a stop to the depression it had caused Jonathan. 

Elijah raised an eyebrow, and turned away from the lady, tapping his good friend on the shoulder. Jonathan immediately twirled around, almost dropping his favourite book kept tight underneath his arm. "Oh," Jonathan beamed when he saw his friend before him, "embrace me," he said, awkwardly moving closer to Elijah and wrapping his arms around him. They both hugged for far too long in deadly silence, both realising it had to stop. Elijah removed his bonnet hat from his head and twirled it around in his fingers, nervously.

"I would like to invite you a party, which will be the very last night in America," Elijah requested, standing straight and tall as proud as he could be.

Jonathan's face dropped. "Is the day so soon?" 

Elijah briefly smiled, "I just received information that Allerdale Hall has been half destroyed during a storm, so we must immediately leave as soon as possible."

Jonathan ignored, "But you are just a child. Soon you'll be married, with children, and a lot of money."

Elijah chuckled, "I am a little younger than you but that doesn't stop me from marriage." Elijah then paused, "after all, who wants to die alone?" Referring to Jonathan.

"So, say we'll have a good old-fashioned romp tonight, you'll settle down, have a family and I'll...die alone."

"Yes, that's about it."

Jonathan just laughed; it came across as a sarcastic and immature laugh, "So, you said it was a storm that has destroyed the Hall?" hummed in response.

Elijah looked cynical at him. "Hm, that's what I said."

Jonathan cleared his throat. " Please realise; many, many people died there. Someone wrote a goddamn book about the tragedies that occurred. Monsters that lurked in the hallways and you still think a storm has what destroyed the Hall?"

Elijah while walking cocked his head to the left and glared at Jonathan. "Jonathan, I believe you are getting too delusional. It's just a Hall which has had bad memories - every old house has secrets. We will just stay there for a couple of months, reconstruct the house, then leave with the money." Elijah stopped at a market stall, plucking up a pear and firing it in the air.

Jonathan shook his head and snatched the apple in mid flight just as Elijah was about to reach it. "Money doesn't appeal to me at all," he snapped at his companion.