#but ellis is literally haunted by the fact that they were always meant to say goodbye

[higheverlost]

this playlist is a) a bop & b) reminds me of ellis & morrigan.

[bbrandy2002]

My Love

Chapter Three: Yesterday

A/N: Want to give proper credit to @fromthedeskofpaisleybleakmore whose thoughtful comments on the previous chapter inspired some of the sentiments and title of this chapter (even though she killed Liam this week and I had to declare war against her).

*One day I will create a moodboard, but, today is not that day.

Warnings: Language and brief mention of infant loss THAT HAS NOTHING to do with this chapter. I was asked by several people how Ellie will be able to continue feeding and it will be explained. Just wanted to be on the safe side there.

Series Summary: After losing the love of his life, Liam is forced to endure another social season. Not wanting to move on, he finds help from an unlikely ally...his late wife

__________________________________

Hana squinted as her car drove through the crowded gates of the palace; the sun hadn’t fully risen above the horizon yet and its rays were projecting a blinding glare. She slammed her brakes to a halt when she pulled into her usual spot, causing the car's tires to slightly squeal. The car door swung open wildly and she walked with purpose at a quick step, hastily swiping at the tears on her cheeks -- a woman determined to fulfill a promise she made months ago. 

She had received the call from Drake only an hour ago, and without hesitation, threw on a pair of white jeans, a tank, and flats. She sobbed as she brushed her hair and tossed it up into a loose ponytail, knowing she had more to do than just grieving the loss of her best friend. Hana, never one to shirk from her duties, had an obligation, one that meant more to her than her own life. 

Approaching the rear landing of the palace, she ignored the chatter and bellows that could still be heard from a great distance outside of the gates. For a split second earlier, as she drove in through the seemingly hundreds of mourners and press crowded at the entrance, she contemplated running them down. It was one thing to offer their support and want answers, however at what cost? Did they even know Riley Brooks? The real Riley Brooks? The American behind the Cordonian Crown who befriended a woman from Shanghai and helped her see she was more than some object -- a show-thing -- her parent’s means to success and notoriety. When Constantine was killed during the Costume Ball, she thought, she didn’t recall him receiving this much outpouring of sympathy and heartache. Riley’s death has yet to be officially announced and yet there they were, waiting anxiously for any word on their beloved queen.

Maybe, they did know her after all.

A Royal Guardswoman watched Hana ascend the stairs rapidly with a fierce look.  She was quite familiar with Her Majesties, best friend, and didn’t hesitate to open the door for her knowing if she didn’t comply quickly, Hana just may bust through it herself.

The atmosphere inside was somber as Hana continued her quest through familiar passageways; she disregarded the greetings and condolences that were offered to her. Even at a time like this, her mind was sharp and clear. She’d be damned if anyone was going to stop her right now. 

When she neared closer to Riley’s office and slowed her quickened pace -- not wanting to make a lot of sounds. Hana had not planned to knock, however what she heard from inside stopped her before her hand could reach the knob.

The voice was gruff but soothing and the song melted her shattered heart. Drake.

“Baby mine, don’t you cry. Baby mine, dry your eyes. Rest your head close to my heart, never to part, baby of mine ...”.

Hana had heard Riley sing it to the baby more times than she could count. It was obvious, Drake did as well.

She twisted the knob and eased the door open and closed it softly behind her. Riley had her office completely remodeled weeks ago to accommodate Ellie spending the majority of her time with her when she returned from maternity leave. In the corner of the room, next to a large, open window, Drake sat in an old wooden rocking chair that he refurbished as a baby gift for her office, gently rocking Ellie in his arms. 

With Ellie’s tiny fingers wrapped around his large, calloused thumb, he sensed Hana’s presence and began to blush, “I...uhhh...was just..”. 

She smiles softly, “I know.”

She walked over to Drake and the baby and crouched down beside them. As her hands glided lovingly over the fine hairs on the top of Ellie’s head, knowing she was fulfilling the promise she made to Riley, she looked up at Drake, both with small tears in their eyes. 

“Mind if I sing with you?” She asked; her voice cracked and wispy.

Drake pondered for a moment, not really wanting to in front of Hana, but, nodded..

______ 

Within the hour, Maxwell and Bertrand made the two-hour drive from Ramsford to the Capitol. The limo was subdued for most of the drive; Maxwell glanced at old photos of he and Riley on his phone while a dismayed Bertrand stared out the window, not saying a word. 

Maxwell had wept from the time he found out, that was just the kind of man he was. He is and has always been a very emotional person and shows no fear nor remorse in that fact. Bertrand, on the other hand, accepted the news like a Duke learning his monarch had lost any random member; he had work to do.

After arriving at the palace, Maxwell knew Drake was in Riley’s office, having received the text from Hana several minutes ago. As he headed in that direction, Bertrand moved towards the grand staircase, causing Maxwell to take notice in what appeared to be insensitive behavior on his brother’s part.

“Bertrand, where the hell are you going? I told Hana we would meet them in Riley’s office”.

Bertrand turned to his brother just as he climbed the first step, “Yes, yes...please offer up my sincerest condolences to your friends. I will be in the press office should I be needed...and Maxwell...don’t need me”. 

“But the press office is on the first floor”, Maxwell shot back.

Bertrand straightened his jacket and his posture, “Indeed it is”, before turning away and continuing up the stairs.

The eldest Beaumont, weaved his way through the corridor he had walked literally hundreds of times, stopping in front of one particularly large, wooden door. He peered down both ends of the hallway, ensuring no one was the wiser to his presence. 

Knowing there would be no one inside, he pushed the door open and entered. Everything was exactly the same as he remembered. 

He took a deep breath, the scent of lavender and rosewood painting a clear picture in his mind, one that haunted him deeply.

“This is the girl you’ve chosen to represent House Beaumont?”

Bertrand notices the large closet across from the bed and is surprised to find it still full of familiar clothing and accessories; every single piece he remembers fondly as he trails his fingers over each one. The pink derby dress and flashy hat that nearly bankrupted him to purchase and the white gown she wore in Lythikos that showed entirely too much cleavage.  

His eyes narrowed as he thumbed across the Applewood peasant costume and removed it with a growl, “Those two nitwits”.  

Riley and Maxwell had sworn to him they had returned it to that stage production company he borrowed it from -- quite convincingly so. Bertrand spent nearly a week on the phone defending the two of them and insisted the production company must have misplaced this one-of-a-kind piece of Cordonian history. After losing the battle and his temper, he set up a payment plan to pay off the 35000 Euros the heirloom cost.

He rolled his eyes thinking about how insufferable those two were during the social season: staying up all hours of the night giggling like two schoolgirls, the never-ending jokes at his expense, and those god-forsaken, drunken duets as they traveled from one event to the next.  If he never heard, ‘We Will Rock You’,  while stomping on the floor of the limo, it would be a day too soon.

 Riley and Maxwell caused him more anxiety and agitation than any two people have since, yet at that moment, he would do anything to go back and relive every annoying minute of it. 

He held the costume up, looking over it for rips and stains, thinking maybe he could still get his money back, yet that thought quickly dissipated. 

“Long live the Apple Queen.” He smiled, then held it close to himself briefly before placing it back on the hook and shutting the door.

He took in the entire room, recalling all those early mornings: their arguments over propriety and cutlery, her backtalk, and lessons upon lessons that somehow the waitress from New York aced each time. Riley knew he was proud of her, Bertrand was confident in that fact.  

He glanced down at his watch, contemplating whether or not he should meet up with the others. He opted instead to stay longer, to be alone in this room, with the thoughts and memories of his sister, fresh on his mind and heart.  As he sat on the corner of her old bed, he let the pain that had festered within him since leaving Ramsford finally break him down. 

His face fell into his palms as he let out a painful sob.

____________

Liam was still curled in the same spot on the floor in front of the sofa; still clinging to her throw blanket and still wondering what the hell happened just a few hours ago. His eyes were dry, having nothing left to secrete from them. He needed to get up because there is so much to do: arrangements needed to be made, meet with Madeleine to make an announcement to the public, and accept phone calls and messages from international leaders expressing their condolences. 

He pushed himself up from the floor, still holding on tightly to her blanket, and turned to take in the vast living quarters that had become their home. 

On the table in front of Liam were the purple lilies he sent her yesterday -- just like the ones he sent her every week for over a year.  

The flowers he would never send again.

Yesterday, everything was fine. Yesterday, he was a happily married man that was more in love with his wife than he thought was possible. Yesterday, he woke up with his arms around her and she taunted him about the plans she had for him that evening. Yesterday, life was normal, happy, and everything he ever envisioned a life with Riley would be like. 

Liam tossed her blanket on the couch and wondered: if all those things were true yesterday, how can it not be today? 

Their home seemed so empty without her and he shuddered thinking about the finality of that thought: she wouldn’t be home again.  He wouldn’t hear that laugh again, dance with her in the kitchen, or arrive late to another ball because he just couldn’t keep his hands off her. Those thoughts grew, and the anger that it manifested took root in the pit of his stomach and was now pushing on every nerve ending in his body. Liam could feel his face redden with heat and scorn. His heart surged, and his mind became muddled with rage. He lurched to the vase full of flowers and threw them across the room. The shattering of glass against the wall only propelled him further as he turned to the sofa table and flipped it over.

“You said you would never leave!" he yelled towards the heavens, “after everything we went through to be together: the scandal, the assassination attempts!!". 

He swiped a lamp and book off a nearby end table, "Was it all a fucking lie Riley? .Answer me, goddammit!!! Liam shouted.

Liam shoved the couch corner into the glass cabinet and continued to push and slam again with each remark, “We had a life..We had a marriage. We have a baby!". 

He reached for the fireplace poker and didn’t hesitate to bust out the glass covering of the stone hearth, "Damn you for leaving me, Riley Brooks! DAMN YOU!" 

He swung furiously over and over at anything and everything in his path while continuing his emphatic curses of damnation against his wife. The glass of picture frames broke, wood splintered, walls pelted with tiny holes, fabrics stripped.

In all of his rage, he didn’t hear the footsteps that were quickly approaching him from behind, Suddenly, there were two strong arms wrapped around him with a tightened grip and pulled him down to the floor.

“Get the fuck off of me, Drake.” Liam struggled to loosen himself as he laid face down on the floor with his best friend holding him in place.

Drake jerked the poker from his hand and tossed it away, “This isn’t the way, Li. She wouldn’t want --”

“Fuck what she would have wanted and your self-righteous indignation, Drake Walker.”  Liam continued to fight his way out of the constraints Drake had on him, “I remember the looks you would give her, I bet the two of you were going at it behind my back the entire time. Did you enjoy my wife Drake? Did she fuck you and ...”

“STOP IT!”

As much as Drake wanted to punch him, he knew his friend well enough to ignore his gibes; Maxwell, on the other hand, had enough.

Liam and Drake both snapped their heads back to Maxwell, never seeing him that furious or hearing his voice that raised.  “You will never, ever speak of her like that again, treason be damned. Do you understand me?”

A dispirited look crossed Liam’s face, replacing the rage and adrenaline he felt. His face lowered and rested on the floor, having nothing more to give.  “I...I just miss her so damn much.”

Drake quickly moved off and Maxwell closed in on them; the two comforting their lifelong friend as he draped his arms over his head and wept.

“Is it okay to come in now?” Hana asked as she peeked around the corner, holding the baby in her arms.

“Yeah...we’re good,” Drake shouted back.

Liam lowered his arms and looked to Hana when he saw his daughter, “Ellie”, he whispered.

Maxwell and Drake helped Liam up and watched as he crossed through the carnage in the living room to retrieve his baby.

Hana asked if he was okay, wanting to be sure he was calm enough to hold her; he assured her he was.

He held Ellie close to him, taking in Riley’s features, feeling ashamed of the words he never meant to say about her mother. 

Drake, Maxwell, and Hana spent the rest of the day with Liam and Ellie, joined later by Bertrand. 

Riley had pumped enough breastmilk to last several days and Miss Talbert, Riley’s personal assistant, found that bereaved mothers who lost their babies after birth, donated their breast milk to help deal with the loss. Liam gave her the go-ahead to look into that option further and get back with him.  

Liam informed Madeleine to release the news to the press and public, but insisted on privacy, although he knew not only the Cordonian press would be all of this, but the American’s, as well.

As Ellie slept in Maxwell’s arms, the group picked and prodded at their lunch, not one of them feeling like eating, when the doorbell rang.

Liam answered the door and stepped aside to let Bastien in.

“Your Majesty.” He bowed.

“Bastien.”

Bastien handed him an envelope. “I received this moments ago. You’ll want to see this, sir.”

Liam turned it over, studying the large, yellowish envelop skeptically, His brows knitted.  “What is this?”

The head guard stiffened his postured and let out a heavy breath. “It's the results of Her Majesty's autopsy.. You may want to sit". 

[rndyounghowze]

Rites of Spring Proves That The Rush Of Good Storytelling is Worth The Ride

@risingsunnyc

By Ricky and Dana Young-Howze

New York, New York

Venmo: @rndyounghowze

Review 209

It’s always interesting and challenging writing reviews of short play festivals. You have to honor the work of a whole bunch of people in an itty bitty amount of time. When you throw in the fact that these plays were written, rehearsed, and performed in a short amount of time you also have to honor the amount of experimentation and expression involved. These plays didn’t exist just a little while ago and now they do. It’s that joy of creation that makes writing these reviews so rewarding.

Each of the Eight Teams had a prompt or a line to use in the story and a prop. Then they had to write a play about something Spring themed. Let’s see how they did!

Spring Cleaning for Mrs. J

Written by: Orlando F. Rodriguez

Directed by Mia Y Anderson

Cast- Luana Seu, Judd Silverman, Josephine Pizzino

She has to do spring cleaning and finds a cursed object and has to solve riddles to escape a magical bird. The husband doesn’t listen to us however and chaos ensues. The characters were super relatable to us since we are a married couple ourselves. Dana couldn’t keep from yelling at the screen saying this guy had better listen up. If that had been Dana and me in this situation I would have been dead before the last wish. We both appreciated the nice twist at the ending. Playwriting is all about managing tension and staying ahead of expectations. The fact that Rodriguez was able to do that in a short time was amazing. Kudos to some brilliant directing by Anderson and the talented cast.

Eggs In One Basket

Written By: Donna Latham

Directed by: Chelsey Smith

Cast-Ralane Cantisano, Raul Chavez, Samuel Neagley, Maggie Kissinger

A girl is taking a boyfriend back to her magical childhood stomping grounds. Her fairy besties are not amused. The acting of our two performers playing the fairies was really effective. Dana and I Iove fairies and pop culture and these were a great balance between mystical beings and your catty best friends. We like the idea of modern fairies telling you to dump your man. I now have to add “Starbucks date with these fairies” to my bucket list and that is the best review I could give to Latham’s playwriting.

Chasing Juliet

Written by Katie Frazier

Directed by Brock Hill

Cast: Lluvia Almanza, Anel Carmona, Orlando F. Rodriguez, Maya Schnaider, Zara Kaahn

This story about a young woman trying to keep up with her favorite blogger shows us why keeping up with the Joneses doesn’t always pay off. We both laughed at the “identities as a haunted house” line! We loved that this play was funny AF and got to the point quickly. Kudos to the cast on this one for pulling off a great performance.

Riots of Spring: The Audition

Written By Becky Saunders

Directed by Antonio Mniño

Cast Ellie Mae Niller, Sean Phillips, Samantha Simone

This play about a mistaken identity at an audition was performed excellently but it did seem to have a pacing problem. That’s a shame because I personally favor plays that attempt something ambitious like an episodic structure in a short form. It was weird and wacky and I have no clue why they did it but I’m glad they tried it. When pulled off correctly these things can really shine. I’d love to see if Saunders does a second version after this. A revision not done under the ticking clock might kick this good play up a notch to phenomenal.

Miracle Birds

Written by Ben Dworken

Directed by Paul Andrews

The Cast: Jonathan Wong Frye, Jennifer Atkinson, Isabelle Barany, Mary Sheridan

I have literally had fever dreams about a day when I’ll be walking out in a mask and people will be staring at me like I’m a freak because everyone except me for this universal message that COVID was over except me. So I really feel for this dude. Now these three ladies and their miracle birds were absolutely nothing from my dreams. Very good acting on the part of Atkinson, Barany, and Sheridan and kudos to Wong Frye for going along with that “is this even real” face. Good job to Ben Dworken for making me Google and see if Miracle Birds even exist. I hope I never see these ladies and their bird nest in a dark or well lit alley.

The Year Of The Fall Of May

Written by Susan Goodell

Directed by Paige Washington

Cast-Jo Walker, Natalie Osborne, Rick Benson

Three individuals wonder if they angered the goddess by not performing the May festival. We didn’t know what the stakes were or what would happen if the parade didn’t get done this year.

There was no urgency as if the play lacked heat. You know how you test a skillet’s temperature by hovering your hand over it? We seemed able to stay a long time in this moment. We had brilliant characters and a talented cast. The Good news is I think Goodell has such a great foundation for this play that with a couple of tweaks it will get much better. If I were your dramaturge I would just add a line about the city being destroyed by giant chickens if the parade doesn’t happen (or something to that effect). Whatever you choose would be fine.

The Rite-ing on the wall.

Written By Anel Carmona

Directed by Crystal Ramirez

Cast- Johnny Blaze Leavitt, Mateo Moreno

Ever thought what would happen if magic spells had tech support? Well no you do! This one was oddly weird. I know that’s not a thing but after seeing this yes it is. It’s exactly what I meant about keeping the tension ramped up. Even though it was splotches on a wall, Carmona's writing kept me feeling itchy. Great job from the cast for selling it so well. I feel like our director Ramirez and Carmona had to have a great rapport to get this idea working.

Blue Man Manakins

Written by Molly Kirschner

Directed by Lanise Antoine Shelley

Cast-Ita Korenzecher, Jennifer Iris Rivera, Chris Jumper, Stephanie D. Barney.

This show about birds trying to find a mate seemed to gender swap. We apologize for any assumption about gender but it seemed as though toxic masculinity was coming from a femme perspective and we loved that. That’s one of the great things that we artists get to do sometimes. When we treat the stage like a snow globe and shake things up we can have fun seeing what comes falling down. The cast did an amazing job working with the playwright and director on this idea. Overall a great performance.

This production shows you exactly why short form festivals like these are so vital. This is what is possible when talented people are constrained in space in time. This is the kind of artistry and expression that comes when artists get rid of their internal block and allow themselves to create freely. We as the audience get to come in with the same nervous excitement we would have if we were riding a rollercoaster. Will we make it or will we crash and burn?

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