icarus falls • felix catton

ONE

one's theme - something changed - pulp

She felt numb. Nothing could reach her. He was gone. Achilles was gone. Her poor, foolish brother was gone. He was dead. Cold in the ground. Ariadne had felt like this for a while now, an unyielding, unrelenting cold had seeped into her bones and now refused to leave. Life carried on. Her friends forgot all about her, after all she had shut herself off from all those who held her dear. She broke up with her boyfriend, fell out with her best friend and forever fractured the relationship with her mother. She had been written off. A lost cause some would say. A Greek tragedy, living up to her namesake.

Achilles had died in the December frost, as his warm, crimson blood painted and melted the white snow that blanketed his balcony. Her mother found him, her wails, so petrifying you would have thought the world was ending, but for her it did. Her beautiful baby boy was dead in the snow and there was nothing she could do. He didn't even leave a note. Pasiphae was a ghost of the woman she once was, she had left after his funeral, travelling across Europe. She had shed her maternal nature, forgetting she still had one child left, the other half of Achilles' soul, his twin sister Ariadne.

Hoards had shown up for Achilles' final journey and Ariadne was angry. No one in attendance truly knew her brother and all of his dark, sordid secrets that were kept hidden. It was the last time she would ever see her brother six feet above ground and she hated every second of it. All of the Catton's had arrived in the glory, Elspeth giving false condolences to the mother and daughter, and Ariadne could see behind the facade. Elspeth had most likely gossiped to the latest guest at Saltburn about the circumstances surrounding her brother's death and how ghastly it was that a young boy had shot himself to save face.

'Pasiphae, I am truly sorry for your loss darling' Elspeth mused, patting her long term friend on the arm, false tears glittering in her tear ducts. Ariadne watched her mother eat the attention from the Catton woman up, her mother only truly loved two things in this world; her son and her long term friendship with Elspeth. Ariadne's face curled with disgust as the two women muttered between themselves, her mother truly was pathetic. If Elspeth was here, that meant Felix was too and with Felix came Venetia and with Venetia came Farleigh. Ariadne could not think of anything worse at the time.

As Elspeth was led away by Pasiphae, Felix Catton was revealed in all his glory, lit up by the bay window, he looked almost ethereal. Like an angel sent from heaven to her, but she had so cruelly discarded, until now. Ariadne watched him converse with his sister and Farleigh, all three had lit cigarettes in hand, smoke curling from the buts. She thought about approaching him, but fearing rejection she opted not to.

But it was Felix who had decided to approach her first. Suprisingly on his own, with no Venetia or Farleigh lurking at his heels. He approached the golden headed girl and placed a large rough hand on her shoulder, shaking her out of her reverie.

'Hi, Ari uh just wanted to say I'm really sorry about Achilles, I knew how much he meant to you.' Felix breathed out, an awkward smile painted onto his face, his eyes conveyed his true feelings, hurt, grief and sorrow swirled in his deep brown eyes that if you hadn't known him, you wouldn't have picked up on at all, but Ariadne did, she knew him all too well. He loved her and she loved him, it would be clear as day to any outsider looking in but that wasn't their story, not yet at least. He gripped onto her hand, holding it almost to promise that things would get better from here on out.

'Thanks Felix, I appreciate it.' She smiled back at him, her blue eyes shining like sapphires with unshed tears. He awkwardly reached out to hug her, wishing to protect her from prying eyes and she received the hug with great warmth, basking in the fact that it was Felix holding her again. It would be hard, going back to Oxford without Achilles but with Felix there, it might just be easier. Eliot would make things difficult, he couldn't understand the reasoning behind Ariadne breaking things off with him, he couldn't fathom the fact that she could hardly stomach him anymore, not with him being a direct factor that had led to Achilles' death.

Ariadne was afraid of change. But that day something had changed. Fate had changed something in Ariadne's story. Something to do with love. She would go back to Oxford, carry out the school year, pass her exams and make Achilles proud. She would have Felix by her side and Eliot would leave her alone, right? After all that was the plan. What could go wrong? Summer would roll around and she would go to Saltburn, her mother would be travelling and she had no wishes to be trapped in her mausoleum, where her brother and father had died. She would have fun, feel the warmth seep into her bones again, banishing the cold that had begun to inhabit her ligaments and joints.

Snow would fall again next December and she would never be numb again.

a/n: first chapter done!!! no ghost readers please and let me know what you think!