𝐋𝐀𝐁𝐘𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐇 𖤓 - 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐧.

TÉSERA.

"Felix, how do you remember the way out of here?," Lyssa asked, weary as they were in the epitome of the night and their visibility had become seriously reduced - she couldn't help but fret she'd be trapped here til dawn.

"Relax - Farleigh, Venetia and I would play hide and seek and tag in here all the time when we were little," He asserted confidently, dusting off her worrisome tone, "I know every turn, every passage and I know exactly where we'll end up."

Lyssa nodded.

His assurance was all she'd needed to hear as she allowed herself to let her back collide with the statue podium as Felix had - resting against it's cool, metallic surface in a seated position, legs crossed.

"Who's that boy with the red antlers?," She piqued curiously - jabbing the boy beside her with a continuous stream of questions that he was on the brink of being too drunk to respond to.

"- I just assumed that you'd know who he was, because he was talking to comfortably to Farleigh and, well, he's here."

Felix still dwindled in his hazed state, his words elongating and starting to slur.

"Oh, him? I know who you're on about," He let out a prolonged exhale, running a hand through his rumpled hair, "That's Oliver. He goes to our college."

Makes sense, Lyssa concluded.

"I invited him to Saltburn for the summer - Lad's been through some fucked up stuff - utter insanity."

The first thing that concerned Lyssa was Felix's non deliberate saviour complex.

She had noticed this in the premature stage of their friendship last year, how he'd always manage to take one of the runts - the social rejects of Oxford that were trampled by the conceited extroverts - under his wing.

A part of Lyssa knew that that's what kept Felix steady on his pedestal. Gave him purpose, power.

He liked knowing that he had the ability to save people - improve quality of life by having them wrap themselves around his finger.

Attracted to the vulnerable, he was.

He introduced these disadvantaged people to a new way of life - a slather of insight into his way of life - eventually letting them leech off of him like a volunteer putting in overtime doing charity work - except, none of his efforts ever came out of his expense.

Lyssa, though, wasn't confident wether he knew that he was doing this. Majority of her believed that he was a soft-cored, gentle boy who found affinity knowing he was a haven for others.

But, Lyssa wouldn't doubt that a fragment of him adored the attention, the feeling of control - chasing after something and investing himself into it, and the gratification he felt once he had this person cooped up in the palm of his hand.

But, as expected, he was taken advantage of - hence the Eddy situation - in which then, he was alarmingly skilled at cutting people out of his life the second he feels exploited, unneeded.

Dabbling in the human show and tell antics, Felix explained to Lyssa how he'd met Oliver - antler boy - after he lent his bicycle to him.

And since then, he'd introduced the outcast to his friends, the local pub, and now, evidently, his family and his home.

Felix had appeared fond of this boy, in a way that a child was with their favourite toy - ushering it everywhere they went, never straying away from their clutch.

Farleigh had mentioned how each of Felix's pitiful human hyper-fixations always had an expiration date.

Then, a new opportunity - a new plaything comes along, and Felix loops himself back into the cycle of rehabilitating, disposing these people, and then replacing them.