Achilleus Cain
⚭
The new addition to Ithaca House, the infernal Lilian Taft, deeply unsettled me, to the full extent of the word. I believed her presence to be a dark stain that was slowly but insistently contaminating the honor of our house, molding the floors and darkening the vivid, stained glass windows, filling every room with an unplaceable chill. It unsettled me even more that I did not know how to stop the spread. How to prevent her from imprinting her female presence onto everything sacred in our home, even if it was unintentional on her end.
When Ivy had revealed that his cousin was to move into the spare bedroom of our dormitory home, we had all been displeased. Everyone besides Benny, of course, who was perversely delighted to be living in close quarters the girl he was infatuated with. His obsession with her, though not necessarily romantic, was strange in nature, and even stranger to observe. It was well justified regarding her beauty— she was abnormally attractive, with serious, storm-grey eyes and lips that were always in a pout for some reason or another— but I could not understand it past a superficial level.
I almost felt for the girl, for she would need to reside with Benny while he was on his most ludicrous behavior, one that we only truly witnessed during his peak mania days, in the darkest hours of the night while under the influence of substances that he—of all individuals—should not have been taking.
I did not know if Ivy had properly warned Benny to behave, but even I reminded him that he was a gentleman before all, and gentleman did not hassle women that were bestowed under a fellow gentleman's care. There were limits to these things.
It did not seem like our words processed though, because Benny was acting all the more deranged than usual, as we waited for the girl to emerge from the small, peculiar library she worked in.
Benny could not stand in place, pacing back and forth, tucking his hands in and out of his pockets, fidgeting relentlessly. He must have taken a considerable amount of cocaine to be in such a restless, trembling state. Benny even went in at one point, in attempts to personally retrieve the girl, before she chased him out of the strange library.
The building was nearly indistinguishable from the surrounding wildlife, shrouded in dark ivy vines and hanging willow branches, tucked away carefully from wandering eyes. When she finally appeared amongst the fauna, Lilian resembled a pale, eerie sprite emerging from a tree hollow, as she pushed past a curtain of hanging ivy, and stepped out into the moonlight. Her mouth was pinched shut. Displeased, I realized.
I pushed my hands into the pockets of my peacoat. Benny fixed one of his charming, Hollywood smiles onto his chiseled face, flashing his pearly teeth, though the sight merely made him look more deranged. Like a hyena, baring it's teeth.
Benny ran a hand through his curling, dark hair. I watched it all with bland unamusemnet, recognizing the facade all too well. It seemed though, to her credit, Lilian Taft also recognized it well.
"You do not have to wait here. I always walk alone" she stated, her eyes dragging between Benny and I, critically observing us in a way that made my soul feel lain bare. Her voice lilted, her vowels elongated and delicate. It was as though she cradled her words on her tongue, before reluctantly releasing them into the air. She spoke gentler than I imagined.
"We were sent for you, lovely Lilian. We cannot abandon you, in the name of gentleman's honor" Benny responded obnoxiously, making me suddenly cross at him. A flash of impatience struck me, before fading in to cool indifference.
I gave Benny a bored, sideway glance, before pulling out a cigarette from the silver case in my pocket. I stuck it between my lips, struck a match, and lit it, before inhaling deeply, blowing out my irritation with the smoke. I instinctively passed the lit match to Benny, who was already waiting to light his own cigarette.
