Burnt Sienna (Hemlock Grove // Roman Godfrey AU)

Goodbye, White Tower

"I'm leaving," I stated.

"What?" exclaimed Peter.

"This town and its people have hurt me and damaged me to the point where I have no other option but to leave. I love you, but I can't stay."

Peter sat next to me and rested his hand on my knee. "Hey, no need to explain. I'm sorry about my initial reaction. You're right. You've been hurt. And you can't really heal if you stay here. But, where will you go?"

"I don't know. I don't care. I don't care if I have to live with normal humans that won't understand or realize my demonic side. I don't care if I have to keep this a secret. The ones I thought would help me hurt me the most. And now, I want to leave. Tomorrow, I will go to the White Tower one last time, hand in my resignation right then and there, and head out."

"Okay. I support you and I'm here for you, no matter what," said Peter as he pulled me into a hug. I let the tears flow. They carried hurt, pain, and poison. They needed to flow out.

The next day at the White Tower, I locked eyes with Dr. Pryce one last time but not for long before I looked down with disgust.

"You're leaving," Dr. Pryce said.

"Yes, I am," I replied bluntly.

"You were a jewel in the Godfrey Institute. You will be greatly missed," Dr. Pryce stated as he put my resignation letter back in the envelope.

"If I really was a jewel, you wouldn't have treated me like dirt," I said.

"Sienna, I did care about you. I still do. That is why, despite knowing your truth, I refused to research about you. I left you completely alone. As of the Maria Stauffner case and my other lab, I admit I was wrong, but sometimes taking the crooked path yields better results than taking the straight. My work means the most to me. And compromising is necessary. I could not let my admiration for your qualities take over my duty and goals".

"Whatever it is, thank you for taking me under your wing for the time that you did," I said. "But I am sorry to say, you will never be the same to me again." That selfish and cruel man. He really was a mad scientist.

I stomped out of Pryce's office right then and walked past the front desk to get out when Madeleine stopped me. She had no idea I was leaving. I hadn't told her.

"Sienna, Mr. Godfrey is calling you to his office immediately," Madeleine came and told me. A few other interns and lab workers gave me looks. I tried to avoid them. So he probably got to know. Madeleine walked me to Roman's cabin.

"Someone's about to get slaughtered right now. He sounded very angry. What'd you do?" Madeleine whispered.

"It's nothing. You know how Mr. Godfrey is. I probably misplaced a file or something," I tried to brush it off.

"Well, whatever it is, I hope you come out alive," Madeleine winked as she went back. Little did she know. I turned the knob I probably turned a million times in the past months or so and entered the very familiar cabin. This time, I was determined to hide my sadness and act like I didn't care. Roman seemed to be out out his hangover stage from yesterday. 

"You're leaving, I'm seeing." Roman said, anger laced in his voice.

"Yes, Mr. Godfrey," I replied calmly just to tick him off more. "See, I am an intern here, not an employee. I can leave if I want to. Also, I work for Dr. Pryce's department, so if he doesn't have a problem, I don't see why you should," I replied, knowing full well this is going to make him enraged.

"You know exactly what you're doing. You little piece of shit"

"For goodness' sake, calm down. If there's anyone that needs to be mad here, it's me. If I want to take a break from this place, I can. As much as I loved Pryce, I can't keep supporting the unethical stuff that goes down in his lab. It sickens me." I remembered Roman didn't know about Pryce's secret lab, but I didn't care. The two heartless men could sort that out between themselves.  "And you? You made me kill someone. You feed on human blood. I kill people. I make people scared. This is insanity. I pretend to be okay with it when in reality this is all just making me psychotic. I need a break. This is wild. Does that ever hit you? That this is all crazy!"

Roman slapped his palm against his desk in anger. "You can't leave, Sienna. What are you going to do leaving, with blood all over your hands?"

"No, the blood never was on my hands. Don't lie to me now. I know, I know you made me do this! And what happened at your house I did to save someone!" I yelled back.

"So what are you going to do? Answer me! Leave me like that gypsy did? Run away? Is that what demons do too!?" Roman yelled at my face. My heart beat fast with fear. But it was also so weak. So were my feet and ears. I could not move.

"First, Peter needed a break. His girlfriend had died. Did you ever think that he was hurt too? He's not indebted to you. And yes, I do need to leave you. Who knows how many more murders you're going to make me witness and commit if I'm around you!" I gulped. "I need to go. I need to leave you and all this behind", I mumbled, trying to escape from there before I started to tear up.

I took a deep breath. I couldn't hold it on any longer and just started crying. He knew, he knew that the people I have killed were because I absolutely had to or he tricked me into it. But he knew I hurt even thinking about it, and he kept targeting that. The tears that flowed were both of anger and sadness. Trusting someone and having them completely shatter it. It was moments like these when I wished I was a complete demon who felt no emotions at all.