Mistress Avenue

Chapter Seventeen: Better Ending than This

The room was more silent than a cemetery at midnight, only the harsh winds hitting the glass windows, the fire breaking down thick logs, and two large ice cubes circling Oliver's glass as he drunk dark liquor to calm his nerves. Delilah discreetly rubbed her neck, she can still feel Eric's rough fingers upon her skin; fortunately, the harsh sensation of being pushed down on her knees were now gone. Unfortunately, now Eric was still tormenting her. "How did he look?" She whispered.

Juliette shuddered and filled her mouth with scotch for encouragement. "Horrible. Beat up, barely able to open his eyes. Those monsters, here I thought our justice system was terrible, we never torture our prisoners. It's just immoral." Chugging down the rest of her scotch, Juliette went to pour another, but Oliver beat her in grasping the bottle. "Oliver-"

"We all need a clear head, Juliette, and rest."

Delilah hardly drunk the scotch in her glass, being more than a wine drinker didn't settle well on her tongue, but being the odd man out in such a fragile time would seem to make matters worse. "You can have the rest of mine." Raising the glass to Juliette direction, she smiled faintly.

The older woman scoffed lightly and refused with just a light humorless chuckle. "He called out for you. I was right in his face and he called out for you, a stranger."

"He didn't know we were coming." Oliver reasoned. "Don't make a fuss out of it."

"I'm his mother, Oliver, I've birth him.... raised him after that bastard walked out of our lives, made sure he was successful, and begged him to stay in America to avoid all of this mess."

"You're drunk."

"I'm scared, there's a difference." She snapped, her eyes turning into icicles before swaying from the sudden rush of alcohol rushing to her head. "Maybe a little intoxicated." Juliette sat back down in the antic chair, quite in the unladylike fashion- knees spread, upper body pressed against the surface as her buttocks were nearly off the edge, and hand pressed to her forehead.

Delilah lowered the drunk to her lap and clung to it as if it were to make her invisible. "Perhaps I should retire."

"How old are you?" Oliver was the one to ask, his curiosity held to himself until the alcohol loosened his tongue.

"Eighteen, just turn three weeks ago when Wyatt and I first met. I..." She sighed heavily to push the words out. "Your son saved me from a life of darkness and suffering, do not be upset with Wyatt, in fact you all should blame me for the confusion and anger. I-I grew up in a brothel, raised by the madam, worked as a maid until my eighteenth birthday. Children should never grow up around such things, there's more than sex and indecency that goes on behind those walls. Wyatt gave me an opportunity to leave that place, and I owe him for it. So..." Releasing a shudder, Delilah stood to her feet and finally took an encouraging sip of scotch, which burned her throat. "Try to get some rest."

*~*~*~*~*~*

The candlelight fluttered upon the walls, dancing to its on rhythm, downed by the cold breeze coming from all angles and not once did it dear to go out. The never ending screams of prisoners were now white noise through the thick stone walls, the only bared window holding frost as the open crack on the right lower corner brought in the snow and cold air. The moonlight shined down in the middle of the floor in a rectangular shape, the color of silver with a hint of blue, causing the room to turn quite poetic. Such things that crawl in the night can still be destroyed by light, whether moon or fire.

Wyatt sat in the dark, eyes barely opened, skin cold as ice, breathing slow and steady, all while his wounds were treated by a retired doctor with more booze in his system than blood. His pain was gone, his spirit not once waned, and hope of freedom now showing itself after seeing his mother and godfather storm in the cell. But not Delilah... He called out for her, it was still upon his lips as if saying it three more times in his lonesome would make her appear.