LOVER TO LOVER ━ AHS Hotel

FOUR

Hadley reached out then. Slowly, but surely, her fingers crept towards his cheeks, grazing the blood she had splattered on them. She smelled the copper and iron in the liquid, but she dared not to lick the blood off her fingertips, in fear that she'd scare him even more. For once, she didn't want to scare a human away – or maybe he was just an exception.

He didn't move. His face burned when her skin met his own, and he was pretty sure his heart could be seen thumping in his chest. Hadley placed both hands on his cheeks, feeling the smoothness of his skin. She closed her eyes for a moment and remembered when touching a boy was so innocent, when she didn't feel an aching thirst being near one. The blood smeared on his face and he almost tasted it on his mouth.

Her eyes opened. Percy noticed they were wide with terror, as if she realized what she'd done. "I ..." She swallowed. "I'm sorry."

Percy noticed her tone had shifted. It was softer, gentle and maternal. It reminded him of the calming wind you'd hear on the beach, a complete contrast to the snarl she sent him just minutes ago.

"They were going to assault those girls," she said, voice lowering to a whisper. "I had to do something."

Percy didn't know what to say. He knew she was right, but his body hardly gave him the will to blink. Her hands still rested on his cheeks, thumbs caressing and rubbing the blood into his skin. He understood – he did, he really did – but the words were clogged in his throat. He wanted to say, "I know," or, "Maybe it's what they deserved." That's how he felt, and yet, he was scared to release them into the cold air. Christian and Bobby had been awful, but did they deserve what they got?

In the back of his mind, Percy knew they did.

Hadley pursed her lips, slipping her hands off his face. "I – uh ..." She twisted her torso and allowed her eyes to linger on the corpses now littering the room. Hadley could hear his heartbeat. It was all she could hear when she turned back to meet his burning stare. "What's your name?"

He cleared his throat, surprised when his mouth formed the word, "Percy."

Hadley wanted to smile at hearing his voice, but she decided it wasn't the time to do that, even though his name made her whole body shake. She looked to her red hands for a short moment, before finally nodding, "Okay, okay."

Percy wasn't sure if she was simply talking out loud as she walked to the bathroom. He heard the sink creak when she turned it on, causing his teeth to clamp down on his bottom lip. Percy finally found the urge to move and walked towards the bathroom once again. His eyes raked over her stained clothes until they eventually reached her hands. She scrubbed them with no mercy, mumbling incoherent words under her breath. The white porcelain sink was now streaked with red.

She splashed water onto her mouth, even though she knew it wouldn't do anything. Hadley wrung out her hands, and then wiped her mouth with a towel, but the crimson tint hadn't left her skin. She watched him freeze once again when she looked at him, eyeing the blood masking his face and t-shirt. Placing the towel on the sink, her frown faltered and she gestured for him to come forward. After a long minute, he took a step in her direction.

"I'm not going to hurt you," she assured.

Percy raised a brow, gaining his confidence back, even in the face of a murderer. He wasn't afraid of her. "How can I be sure of that?"

"Don't you think I would've done that by now?"

His eyes shifted back to Christain's body on the floor, watching a pool of blood form around his head. He swallowed and turned back to Hadley, noticing that one brow was now arched in his direction. He finally walked further into the bathroom.