Roses are Red

Chapter eleven: Blood? Where? Whose?

The first thing Spade recognized when he first opened his eyes was nothing at all out of the ordinary. 

The last thing he remembered... Shit... How had that man gotten inside his room? Who was Alexander? And where was Sarah?

He sat up, glancing around in the empty room, head pounding. The window was still open, a gentle 'pitter patter' joining the overall confusing environment. It almost seemed to taunt him, in a way. Had there been a man in his room in the first place?

Spade was beginning to doubt that anything had happened, but the throbbing in his skull continued to remind him that perhaps it hadn't just been a dream. 

He lifted a hand to move a few strands of hair away from his eyes, when it brushed something wet further up his forehead. He pulled his fingers away, which were stained with a crimson liquid that he immediately recognized as blood. So something had happened after all.

Spade got to his feet shakily, the room spinning under his feet. That couldn't be normal, right? 

He glanced around just to make sure there was no other blood spatters around the room that he had been convinced belonged to Sarah. He knew he'd seen her eyes. How could he have forgotten them?

As if to continue the strain of bad luck, there was a knock on his door. "Spade? You in there? You've been up here all day," Elijah's voice echoed through the wood.

"What? Uhm. Hang on. Indecent!" Spade shouted back. The simple shout elicited a wince; it felt like he'd just knocked his head against a wall after the simple action.

Spade walked into his bathroom, peering around for a towel. He grabbed a smaller washcloth and dabbed off the trails of blood on his forehead and under his nose. His right eye felt like he'd just taken a baseball to it, and was looking pretty red.

He winced as he finished wiping the blood off, hoping it was done bleeding so Eli didn't notice. 

"I'm coming in, you'd better be decent," Elijah warned and Spade heard the click of his doorknob opening and closing. A few seconds later Elijah's voice echoed, tone different, "What happened?"

Spade peeked his head out of the bathroom, throwing the washcloth behind the toilet as he rushed to turn the lights off. "What do you mean? Just uh... was... chilling. Yeah."

He hoped Elijah was buying it, but with Spade's ingenuine lie, he couldn't see how Elijah would. 

Elijah stared at Spade, who shifted uncomfortably under the scrutinization. His head was still spinning. He'd had concussions before, and hoped to whatever god that was listening that he didn't turn out to have another one.

"Something happened, didn't it? Was someone hear? Why is the window open?" Elijah turned away from Spade and wandered towards the window, standing in the exact spot Spade had woken up in just minutes prior. 

"What? Are you crazy? You're telling me someone broke in through the window, got past me without injuring me or vice versa, and then escaped back through the window without taking any valuables and put the screen back in after?" Spade scoffed, though under his facade he was genuinely terrified, both of how Elijah knew something had happened and at the fact that he had no idea what that man had wanted besides avenging Alexander.

Spade still had so many questions... why would that man use him as revenge for Alexander? Spade wasn't anything special to the Kingston's, just hired to clean which so far he'd done a pretty piss-poor job of doing.

"Hello?" Elijah snapped, and Spade flinched and looked up. 

"Huh?" He asked, dumbfounded.

"Are you deaf or something?" Elijah growled. "I asked why there's blood on the wall."

Spade squinted, playing stupid. "Blood? Where? Whose?"

"I don't know, idiot," Elijah snapped again, however he sounded genuinely upset now as he stared at the blood splotch on the wall. Exactly where that man had first slammed his head against the wall. Shit. It had been that hard of a hit to his head that it made him bleed? He hadn't even seen it, he certainly couldn't let Elijah see the back of his head now.

"I guess I hadn't noticed it." Spade lied through his teeth.

Elijah looked back at him, face unreadable. "It's fresh. Spade I swear to God if you don't tell me what happened-"

"Why do you think something happened? I said I don't know, so I don't know!" Spade shouted. Bad idea. 

He stumbled ever so slightly into the doorway of the bathroom next to him, but he tried to play it off as if he'd simply lent against it rather than genuinely stumbled into it.

Apparently, though, Elijah was a lot smarter than Spade had given him credit for.

"What was that? Did you just like fall into the wall?" Elijah was scowling, at least Spade thought he was as Elijah's face was flashing in and out of focus. 

"What? ...No." Spade swallowed hard. His nose felt wet, and his eyes were straining against the light. "I didn't do that. You don't know everything." Spade continued, rambling.

"Are you bleeding?" Elijah asked, bewildered. 

Spade lifted a hand to his nose, wiping and wincing. "Aw shit, I think I am.." He stumbled again, even against the doorframe. 

He vaguely recognized Elijah stepping closer to him, reaching an arm out to steady him.

"Woah, come on Spade, why are you bleeding? That's a lot of blood- uh... under your nose." Elijah stuttered, and if Spade weren't so completely out of it, he should've wondered what Elijah had meant by the first part of his sentence.

"I'm not feelin' so well, actu'lly.. think I need'a sit down," Spade slurred gently as he did in fact take a seat directly in the doorway of his bathroom.

Elijah supposed that was fair, considering.

"Come on, move over a little so I can clean you up," Elijah stepped into the bathroom to grab a rag and wet it, when he noticed another rag crumpled near the toilet stained with blood. He clenched his jaw and kneeled behind Spade to his side, noticed the back of his head matted with blood. 

As he cleaned the blood off of Spade's face, he wondered why Spade had lied. What did he think he needed to cover up? Had he hurt himself and been embarrassed by it? But that didn't explain the odd scent accompanying the overwhelming one of blood. He and his parents had been able to smell it all the way downstairs.

Elijah dabbed under Spade's nose gently as the man turned to face Elijah more clearly, letting out a small breath as he looked into Elijah's eyes.

He'd almost thought Spade was about to kiss him, when he uttered just a few words, barely audible to even Elijah himself, but had his heart skipping a beat (metaphorically). 

"Who's Alexander?"

                                                         🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

I can explain... I've been super inactive and I'm so sorry haha, but it's been a rough year and a half lol. But I was going through my wattpad stories and I just wanted to write so badly so I updated rar. I'm pretty sure a lot of you guys probably won't see it because I've been inactive for so long but in general I feel pretty accomplished for writing a longer piece after being on hiatus for about 2 years almost. so uh yeah hi guys :)

QOTD: How is everyone? You can feel free to share whatever you'd like, mentally, physically, happy or sad. I'll share a little too! Last September a close friend killed himself, then my great grandmother died over the summer. But I'm recovering so it's all okay.

Have a good day/night lovelies!

Word count: 1269