~ Cordelia Gail ~
Tears flooded silently down my cheeks.
No...
¿Por qué está pasando esto?
I huddled closer to Liam, whose arm tightened around me, and I pulled the blanket closer.
"Delia," he murmured, his hand softly running through my hair. "You've seen this movie a million times. Why do you sob like I've been killed?"
I reached out, grabbed the remote, and paused the movie, looking up at him. "If you died, mi amor, I would cry much harder than this," I thought it over. "Or not at all."
"Gee, thanks."
"No," I leaned up, giving him a peck on the cheek. "I meant, I'd probably be too grief-stricken to cry at all. Unable to process..." I sighed. "No podría vivir sin ti."
I knew he understood my words. Liam learned Spanish so he could understand my words. But he smiled at me anyways. "Leonardo DiCaprio gets more tears than your fiancé," he shook his head. "I guess I know where I'd stand if we ever stood in the same room."
I decided to play along. "No," I said. "Jack Dawson gets more tears than my beloved fiancé. Leonardo DiCaprio is, like, forty years old. He's the same age as my tía." my tía Lucia, my mother's younger sister, is ten years younger than my mother. Mother often claims she was an accidente, but she does always say it with love. Whenever she speaks of her sister that way, it makes me wish I wasn't an only child.
I guess, living in the Darcy's manor for most of the year, I sort of did have siblings. Annoying ones, at that, but still siblings. Especially today, shopping for dresses with the girls... for once, we were all having fun. For once, I wasn't even annoyed with Megan or Kristina. I actually, in the weirdest way, enjoyed their company. Even at Taco Bell afterward, when Kristina scolded Liam and I for kissing, there was some sense of humor in her tone... one I didn't detect soon enough, and I sent her a particularly nasty look, before I saw how amused she was. I kind of felt bad - which was strange, feeling bad for being rude to Kristina - but I wasn't about to give her the satisfaction of watching me apologize.
I have too much orgullo for that.
Liam kissed the top of my head as I turned back to the screen, wanting to get this scene over with. "We went through this same thing when we watched the nineteen-ninety-six version of Romeo and Juliet," he reminded me. "You couldn't care less when Juliet died, but when dear old Leonardo - I mean, Romeo..."
"He just had to look down at her!" I defended the estúpido character. "If he'd simply looked down before drinking the poison, he would have seen that Juliet's eyes were open, and she was very much alive! That's why I sobbed."
"You also burst into tears every time Romeo so much as skipped across the scene in the background."
"What can I say? He's just so condenadamente hermosa!"
Liam chuckled, but said no more on the subject, determined not to get between me and the love of my life - that is, twenty-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio. He un-paused the movie, and the most heart-wrenching scene in the entire film continued.
"Promise me you'll survive. That you won't give up, no matter what happens, no matter how hopeless. Promise me now, Rose, and never let go of that promise."
I tried choking back my tears, determined to not make Liam even more amused, but that just made me cry harder. He looked at me like I was crazy.
"He's not even dead yet!" he exclaimed. "How are you already crying this hard?"
"It's the anticipation," I rolled my eyes, sending another load of tears trickling out. "Honestly, Liam, it's like you've never cried during a movie!"
"I watch things like Game of Thrones," he defended himself. "You don't have time to cry while watching that. Somebody else dies a second later."
I made a face. Liam was always trying to get me to watch Game of Thrones with him, or at least read the books. But blood, gore, lots of death, fantasy - that's almost the opposite of what I like to watch. I prefer the romance side of television, muchas gracias.
I settled back, hoping to get through these final few minutes - then I can go to the music room with Liam and practice for the gala.
When Jack Dawson actually died, Rose carefully removing his cold, frozen hand from hers, letting him sink into the depths of the sea, following the fate of the ship, I completely broke down. Liam, who was probably sporting a confused look behind my back, murmured words of comfort as I mourned the loss of my favorite movie character - for the fourth or fifth time.
I had somewhat calmed down and composed myself by the time the movie ended.
"Why," I said, as the credits started rolling. "Do I keep putting myself through that?"
"I was about to ask you the same question," Liam said, turning the television off with a click of the remote. "I'm going to run to the bathroom... meet you in the music room?"
I nodded, allowing him to pull me off the couch. I folded up the blanket, leaving it on the arm of the couch before I followed him out of the room. Less work for the maids.
We separated in the foyer, Liam heading straight for the bathroom at the bottom of the staircase, myself turning right into the gallery, venturing to the music room.
Though I stopped short upon turning the corner into the hallway.
Jamie was collapsed on the floor, leaning against the wall, shaking violently. My first thought was that she was having some sort of fit. But the other two people with her - Mr. Abrams and Weston Charlton - didn't look too concerned for her health.
No... Mr. Abrams looked... shocked, his face resembling the sheets draped over my bed at the moment. Weston looked like he was barely able to keep himself composed as he crouched down next to Jamie.
"Mr. Abrams?" I called quietly, picking my way over to the small group. "What... what's going on? Is everything all right?"
Estúpido, I mentally scolded myself. Obviously, not everything is fine.
Mr. Abrams jumped a little, looking up sharply, surprised to see me there.
"Miss Gail," he said, shaking his head. "I didn't see you... stay here a moment, please, while I go get Mrs. Darcy," without waiting for my response, he rushed down the hallway, stopping briefly outside of the door to Mrs. Darcy's study to step inside.
I turned to Jamie and Weston. The former looked... not well. Was she sick? She was shuddering, the way one would while sick with the flu or something else that gave you chills. She was pale, too, but not pasty.
"Jamie?" I said, quietly and gently, talking to her like I would talk to my puppy, Royce, when he was scared. That adorable animal was scared an awful lot, too. "What is it?"
Jamie shook her head, drawing her legs in closer. "I - I c-can't..."
Weston, still crouched next to Jamie, looked up at me. "Alie's dead," he said.
Silence.
¿Qué?
Did I hear him right?
Alie can't possibly be dead. I liked her too much... she was one of the maids I was closer friends with... one of the ones I'd help out most often as she did her work, chattering idly about everything and nothing... she was so excited about the masquerade, intent on not buying herself a brand-new dress, but fixing up one of her mother's old ones...
She not dead, right? This has to be a joke.
I didn't know Weston well enough to be able to tell if he was serious or not. If he was joking, I'd seriously reprimand him. This was not something to joke about... Alie's missing, and instead he's turning whatever awful situation she's in into a joke...
Then I took in Jamie's expression.
She looked haunted, traumatized, like she was in shock. Her eyes were wide and red-rimmed, but otherwise dry. And the shaking - the violent, teeth-chattering shaking.
Weston saying Alie's dead is one thing.
But Jamie backing it up - not with her voice, but with her body language...
Jamie doesn't lie.
As I stared at her, my vision starting to blur, processing the terrible realization washing over me, footsteps rushed down the halls. Mr. Abrams, returning with Mrs. Darcy and Mrs. Green.
"Weston," Mrs. Darcy said, immediately upon reaching us. "Tell me what happened."
He shook his head. "I'm not exactly sure... we were outside, by the pond, doing, um..." he trailed off, glancing down at Jamie, who looked like she hadn't heard him. "Anyways, she saw something in the water... it took us a minute to realize it was a body."
An unfinished sentence... suspicious.
"It was Alie," Jamie suddenly said, looking up at Mrs. Darcy. "She was all bloated, blue, waterlogged..." she shuddered. "I know it was Alie, Sarah. I just know it was her."
Mrs. Darcy took a deep breath, appearing calm, and turned to Mrs. Green.
"Opal," she began. "If you could take Joseph and Weston to - "
"No!" Jamie exclaimed, finally making eye contact with Weston. "Don't leave me alone! You promised!"
He looked taken aback, a bit startled at Jamie's outburst, but nodded. "I won't leave you," he said.
That's new... where did this come from?
Mrs. Darcy looked confused. "Okay... just Opal and Joseph, then. You said the pond, Weston?"
He nodded, but didn't move his gaze away from Jamie. At once, Mrs. Green and Mr. Abrams spun around and headed to the back door, moving out into the garden.
"Cordelia," Mrs. Darcy continued. "Could you go tell the kitchen staff what happened? They were closest to Alie, and she was roommates with Stephanie and Julienne."
"Tell the kitchen staff what?"
Liam had just come into the hallway - expecting to meet me in the music room. He looked confused, especially after he took in the devastation on Jamie's face, the disbelief on mine, and the forced calm Mrs. Darcy and Weston were sporting.
Ignoring Liam for the moment, I nodded to Mrs. Darcy. She sighed in relief. "Thanks, Cordelia. Have any of you seen Kristina, by the way?"
Jamie numbly shook her head. Weston shrugged. "I haven't seen my brother, either, so I think it's safe to assume they're together," quickly, he pulled out his phone.
"They were," I said. "Liam and I saw them about three hours ago, in the living room. I don't know where they went after that," though I don't particularly like Kristina, nobody knowing where she is a bit unnerving, especially considering what's just happened. For the first time, I prayed she was safe, and not alone.
"Check the library," Liam said, though he still looked bewildered as to what's got us all so upset. "Kriss spends half her time in there."
"I checked earlier," Mrs. Darcy was starting to look worried. "It was empty."
Weston waved his phone. "Jase said they're in the billiard room."
Mrs. Darcy nodded, looking like she wanted nothing more than to rush off to find her daughter, but hesitated, looking down at Jamie.
"Are you going to be all right, Jamie?" she asked gently.
Slowly, the small girl nodded, but her eyes were distant. Taking that as a sign that my presence probably wasn't going to help her much either way, I turned, heading back down the gallery, Liam following after me.
"Will you tell me what's going on?" he asked, slightly impatient.
"I'll tell you when we get to the kitchen," I responded. I didn't want to repeat the story more than once. I'm struggling to hold it together enough as it is - being an actress in this kind of situation helps.
There was a shocked silence.
For a long, heart-wrenching moment, nobody moved. Nobody spoke. I don't think anybody even breathed.
Esto no es bueno.
I think even the room stopped making noise. The silence was pressing, almost suffocating, as my words were slowly processed.
Stephanie was the first to break it.
"Alie can't be dead," she said, almost flippantly. "Why would the Ghost kill her? She's done nothing to upset him."
"Steph..." Corbin was shocked, his eyes bright with both disbelief and dread. "I don't want to believe it, either, but..."
"Cordelia wouldn't lie about this," Liam said, his hand firmly holding mine. "Cordelia hardly lies about anything."
"I'm not accusing Cordelia of lying," Stephanie said, looking like she was on the verge of falling into hysterics. "I'm just saying, it doesn't make sense. Alie can't possibly be dead, because there's no logic behind it."
"People have disappeared before," Corbin said. "One or two a year, but only for a day at a time. They'd always come back eventually, claiming they don't remember what happened to them, where they went, but they'd never be right after that. They'd all quit, some even left Plattsburgh..." a tear dropped from his eye. "Perhaps the Ghost kidnapped them, too, and threatened them to stay silent. But Alie wasn't ever one to listen to threats. So the Ghost ensured her silence..."
"But that still doesn't make sense," Stephanie insisted. "What's the motive behind the kidnappings? Why hasn't anybody done anything to look further into this?"
"Do you question the actions of a madman?" Julie murmured, speaking for the first time. "The Ghost may have threatened everybody into silence. Maybe somebody has tried speaking up before, and they suffered the consequences," her eyes were bright with unshed tears, but she kept it together. "I'm just saying, Steph. These things do happen, whether we understand them or not."
"These things do happen?" Stephanie screamed. "These things have been happening since I first started working here! Has anybody stopped them from happening? No! Nobody has done anything? And because of it, one of my best friends is now dead!"
She broke down completely, bursting into sobs. Julie reacted immediately, wrapping her arms around her friend.
"Corbin," Julie said. "Can you find Mrs. Green and ask her if Stephanie can have the rest of today, and tomorrow off?"
He nodded. "I'll take her to her room. Do you need time off too, Julie?"
The young girl shook her head. "Somebody needs to be in here. Besides, I liked Alie, but we weren't close in the way she and Steph were. I've only been here a few weeks, after all."
Corbin gave her a disbelieving look, but nodded.
After delivering the news to the kitchen staff, Liam and I went into the music room, at my insistence.
"I don't think this is the best idea right now, Delia," he protested. "I know you and Alie were friends, you should mourn - "
"Estoy bien," I said, entering the room. "I need to keep my mind off of this for a while, to let it completely sink in. I need to sing."
He was about to argue, but one look at my face made the words die on his tongue. "What do you want to sing?" he said instead, pulling out his phone and heading over to the speaker that sat on the shelf, next to the stereo.
"Memory," I said, without hesitation. "I think it's a bit fitting for this situation, don't you?"
He shrugged, but started playing the karaoke backing he had saved on his phone.
I started singing after the intro, but it became clear almost immediately that my heart wasn't quite in it. I kept sliding off-key, missing notes, and coming in too late.
Music isn't quite distracting enough.
I glanced at Liam. Perhaps after I finish this song, he and I could -
A book hit me in the face.
¿Qué carajo?
A book.
A maldito book.
I threw Liam a questioning look. He wasn't close enough to the bookshelf to have thrown a book at me - not that I thought it was him.
The thing that worried me was that I wasn't close to the bookshelf, either. The book didn't simply fall down.
I slid into the next verse, uneasy now, remembering the incident with the piano.
Smack. Smack.
Two more books flew off of the shelf, the first one catching my shoulder, the second one my collar bone.
¿Qué diablos está pasando?
Then I saw it.
A book, without anybody nearby, launched itself off the shelf. I leaped back, and it landed at my feet. A small slip of paper slid out. Bewildered, a bit scared, I pulled it away from the book, reading it carefully.
Ah.
I see.
El fantasma.
Liam, who had come over in a rush, worried, pulled me out of range. I passed him the paper, the words it contained, in the same neat, elegant scrawl as the note after the piano incident, already memorized.
Keep singing, and I'll make you sound even more toad-like during the gala.
Did the phans here appreciate my references? I think there was two...
Things are about to really start picking up in the next chapter or two. Well, maybe not the next chapter... I think that's going to be another idle, recovery ones for my characters, set things up for future chapters... But the next eight chapters? 34-42? Big events. Then there's five more set-up chapters, then three more big-event chapters... then boom! the book is done! Damn... we only have, like seventeen chapters left. Lol... that number sounds bigger than it did in my head.
The chapters might start getting shorter, too. I'm getting bored of the weird conversations the characters have in every chapter. Instead of aiming for 3000 words, I shall start aiming for 2500.
Anyways...
Did we like the Cordelia perspective?
As I wrote this, I realized I should probably give Pipes some more page time... but he's not very important right now. He will be, eventually. I think.
Do you all still hate Cordelia?
I don't think I've ever really hated Cordelia... or any of my characters. I love most of them... and I tolerate Carl. Hmm... maybe I should do another Carl-Megan-Kriss FaceTime session soon...
Should I give a hint as to what happens in the next chapter? Hmm... um... everybody's kind of depressed and sad? I mean, they should be, but they'll probably all be bouncing off the walls again. Idk, I love them too much to keep them sad. I'll try to tone down the energy, though.
Don't forget to vote and comment!
Love you all!
~ Evie