Beauty and the Beast | Fillie

The Eleventh Hour

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Millie Bobby Brown had to come back to her new life, and in a way or another, she had to survive.

The first week of November was slowly passing by, almost a month had passed since she had started to work there, at Finn's mansion, and things were just the same: she used to see her father and Noah in the weekends - the young model always came for her from New York just to see her a bit, but he still didn't know the truth; she was attending her lectures at college and doing all of her assignments, studying hard every night until her eyes would close and she would fell asleep on her desk; and she also was getting good in cleaning the house, and there were no mysteries left in that giant mansion.

Except for two, naturally.

Without Finn around, that month seemed almost a normal one; Lilia tried her best to make her feel home, and sometimes they hanged out together, or simply they spent the night with each other, consisting in Millie crying and the housekeeper comforting her, cuddling the locks of her hair and kissing sweetly the top of her head until she finally fell asleep in her arms.

For Lilia, Millie was still a baby, a delicate flower whose petals were so beautiful and majestic that she couldn't let her suffer for any reason in the world. She knew she wanted Millie to wake Finn up and let him see who he really was, but... after seeing her suffering and her smile fading away, day by day, she understood that her wellbeing was something more important than everything else.

And even though Millie wasn't happy there, she always tried her best to not show her colleagues that she felt like a bird in a golden cage; when she was alone, she just thought of a possibile solution to get out of there. But there was none. Her father wanted to sell the bookshop but the proceeds wouldn't have been enough anyway. She was trapped, and that was it. Useless. Alone. With no one there to save her.

That day of November was strange, though; there was something in the air, something she couldn't even explain.

She woke up that day and felt her body shaking without any reason in particular. She just thought it was because of the weather.

Vancouver was cold outside, freezing; the windows of the mansion were tarnished by a thick layer of condensation; the trees outside had lost all their colorful leaves, standing still, hibernating, waiting for the sun to awaken them from that absolute state of loneliness and desperation.

Millie thought she was one of those trees; dead inside, just waiting for the spring to awake them up.

She couldn't go out in the garden anymore and, oh God, she missed swinging on her favorite swing so much; in those weeks, especially in the evenings, she basically stayed in the huge living room - even if she wasn't supposed to do so -, staring at flames the fireplace crackling, and drinking her usual hot tea in completely loneliness.

She just wanted to get out of there; but the more she stared at the red and orange flames, the more she understood it was simply impossible.

"Oh, look who's there. The girl who wanted to kill my lilies!"

Millie turned her head and she sketched a little smile; she didn't expect to see him. Winter was arrived, and after abandoning her usual spot in the garden, she hadn't seen him anymore.

"Conor! What are you doing here?" she asked tiredly but trying her best to smile.

"Just checking the garden. The flowers are of course dying but I need to do some maintenance even in winter and in the greenhouse. And now, I think I'm going home."

"Oh, okay."

"And you haven't given me your number yet!" he said jokingly, while sitting on the floor next to her, crossing his legs and staring at her with emotion; she was flawless.