icarus falls • felix catton

SIX

six's theme - please, please, please, let me get what i want- the smiths

Saltburn.

A place where revelry and debauchery resumes and chaos thrives. And Ariadne fucking loved Saltburn. It was her escape, a refuge from the harsh reality in which she resided in on the daily.

She had arrived with Felix earlier that morning, with tired eyes but a full heart. This was going to be the summer she had dreamed of so many months ago, when she was trapped in the icy depths of winter. Her room was different this year because she didn't have one. She would be sharing with Felix upon his request and she was okay with that.

She preferred it that way, then she wouldn't have to sleep in the wing of the house where her brother had once resided, it was full of ghosts now.

However staying in Felix's room had a con, his room would be adjacent to Oliver's room and the bathroom was shared. It would be weird, having a boy that she had only known for a few months, traversing through her private space everyday for six weeks. But she was with Felix so she didn't care.

Currently they were all sat in the library awaiting Felix's return with Oliver in tow. Venetia was off, haunting the room adjacent to the library in the hopes of getting a glimpse of the new shiny toy before anyone else.

Elspeth and her newest guest at Saltburn, Pamela were gossiping about Ollie as Farleigh intervened, wanting to get in on the action. 'It's called Prescot.' he laughed, clearly making fun of the unknown place up North where Ollie had originated from.

Pamela, the open hearted, naive idiot she was assumed instantly that it would be some awful slum situation and Ariadne's nose curled at the thought, she sounded a lot like Eliot.

Elspeth agreed with Pamela in a tone of false sympathy 'Hmm, some sort of hovel-ish squat I suppose'.

Felix had entered the room, seeking out Ariadne and when he laid eyes on her, he grinned, dimples showing as he made his way over to her and situated himself between her legs as his attention flicked towards the television set. Reruns of Top of the Pops played with the likes of Queen gracing the screen.

Elspeth, Pamela and Farleigh continued to gossip about the newcomer in hushed tones with Elspeth criticising Ollie's tragic upbringing 'And both his parents were dealing.God, and his mother's a drunk. I mean, babies can be really affected. Traumatized.' False tears shone in the woman's eyes as she turned to Farleigh 'Is that right that he had to put his fingers down his mother's throat to make her sick?' she recoiled at the thought.

Ollie crossed the threshold into the library and Felix was quick to defend his friend, who wasn't here to defend himself, from where he sat 'Farleigh, that's private stuff.'

Farleigh argued back that Felix told them all and Felix grew defensive saying that it was said in confidence.

Oliver observed that Ariadne had her fingers tousled in Felix's hair, messing with the shaggy, brown strands, her rings glinting delicately in the morning light. No one had noticed that he had entered the room and could hear the conversation that revolved around him. But someone had noticed him. Farleigh.

'And here he is now! We were just talking about you!' As all heads turned towards the Quick boy, whose confidence shrank into a ball of jumbled nerves.

Elspeth quickly jumped up from her seat, eager to set the narrative that Farleigh had so negatively painted straight, she shot Farleigh a pointed look as she grabbed Ollie's cheeks

'Don't be silly. Farleigh you just make up the most awful things. Of course we weren't. Hello Oliver, darling.' she mused, admiring the oddity of his beauty. She complimented his eyes, calling them wonderful as she gazed into them.

Felix's eyes flicked from the television over to the pair.

'I told you he wasn't a minger!' he exclaimed as Ariadne looked down at him, smiling ever so slightly, she had been awfully quiet since arriving this morning.

Elspeth turned back towards her son, lips curved into a teasing smile 'Yes but darling you're kind about everyone, you can't be trusted.' She looked at her son with apparent fondness in her eyes, adoring the image in front of her, him being adored by a girl who held his devotion. She diverted her eyes back to Oliver and rambled on 'Oliver, I have a complete and utter horror of ugliness. Ever since I was very young. I don't know why.' He smiled at her, his eyes picking every aspect of the woman in front of him apart.

Felix re-entered the conversation by teasing his mother 'Because you're a terrible person?' with the widest Cheshire cat grin that could be humanly possible. Elspeth ignored him as she rambled on about how Venetia would adore Ollie and so on and so forth.

Ariadne got up and decided to leave the room and the family who were so fascinated with their shiny new toy as she made her way over the threshold Felix called out to her

'Ari, where are you going? Ollie just got here.' He was perplexed by her behaviour.

Ariadne called out over her shoulder that she was going to go and get some air as she thought that the library had grown too stuffy as she walked away.

Truth be told, she hated the fact her brother wasn't there. He was gone and had been so for nearly 8 months now. And with Ollie's arrival, she felt that the Catton's were doing what they did best, replacing people like they were objects, not human beings.

Ariadne caught Venetia in the hallway eavesdropping on the conversation in the library, muttering words of acknowledgement between the two girls, Ariadne carried on, walking past Felix's wing of the house and heading to hers and Achilles.

She entered her brother's room and the hairs on her neck rose, as if to warn her of the danger ahead. The layout of the room had changed, the bed had been removed and replaced with a sofa. She let out a guttural sob, they had already begun to erase him. No room for the commemoration of her brother. They had brushed over him like they had done with her father when she was young. She gripped at the curtain drapes, being the only thing left from when Achilles had once inhabited the room.

She turned to the dresser, praying to whatever God was out there, that they had not thrown away his clothes. Clothes that he left last summer, clothes that hopefully would smell like him.

The drawers were empty as she ransacked through them in a fury.

Tears rolling down her cheeks. Until she got to the last drawer, a singular striped linen shirt and three woven bracelets lay in the wooden cavity. Achilles favourite top and the friendship bracelets him, Felix and Farleigh made last year. Here in all their forgotten glory as Ariadne clutched the shirt, holding it to her tear-sodden face. She slipped the three bracelets around her slim wrists, vowing to never take them off.

She carefully wrapped the linen shirt around her, over her summer dress, creating a blanket of protective warmth as she composed herself, it still smelled like him and she let out an small laugh of disbelief, her brother would always haunt her in the best ways possible.

Ariadne closed the hardwood door behind her as she got back to Felix's room, the boy was absent, most likely showing Ollie childhood picture albums or something trivial. She knew she had a few hours until dinner so headed into the bathroom to get ready.

She drew herself a nice, hot bubble bath and slowly eased herself into it, humming the tune to Under Pressure under her breath as she bathed, unknown to the pair of eager eyes watching her through the crack of the door.

a/n: here it is! think this might be the longest chapter yet? anyways enjoy it! x