Bury Us Alive | Hemlock Grove|

Chapter 7 | Halloween |

Always surprised by what I'd do for love

Some things I never expect

Roman's drenched in sweat. It's barely noon, and he's already in desperate need of a shower. He'd tried to suppress it. He'd been pushing his drinks as far apart as possible. He had been good for so long now. The last time he drank real human blood had been at the cult safe house. He lingers on that. Had it really been that long ago?

His mind drifts away in a desperate attempt to push past its pounding. It always drifted back to the woman at the bar. He'd felt stunted since the appearance and disappearance of his French friend. He had never had someone walk out on him like that. Especially not after finding out who he is- and how much he's worth.

It had been a few days since she had approached him. He returned to the bar two days later, not wanting to look too desperate, but she was gone.

Just when he's clearing her from his mind, Nadia appears. And Miranda. And Letha... The longer both of the women are gone the more his mind pushes them into a singular being. He's ashamed of that. Letha didn't deserve that. She deserved to be remembered as a whole person- not as a bastardized memory forced to share a place with Miranda. But it had been over a year since she died, and it was getting harder to remember what she was like. He remembers her face clear as day, and her voice as well, but he can tell it's slipping away

At home, Emma is sitting on her bed flipping through one of the old books she'd brought back from school. Roman hadn't taken the time to look in them, but they seemed frail like they could turn to dust at any moment. He had glanced at their spines facing outward on her bookshelf but never opened them, had never been tempted to. But after seeing the look of deep interest on her face, his curiosity had been peaked.

Emma feels his presence in her doorway and looks up at him. She stares at him and nods, encouraging him to speak.

"What are you doing?" He asks, not actually having anything to say.

"Reading."

"Clearly," he comments back. "What are you reading?"

"It's just a book of fairy tales."

"Aren't you a bit old for that?"

"I don't know... Some of this shit's pretty freaky."

"Like what?"

"Baba Yaga," she starts. "Koschei, generally any fairy..."

"You're very interested in that stuff," Roman notes.

"Well," Emma wonders aloud. "If you exist, and Peter exists, what else does?" Roman's unsure of how to answer. He didn't like to think too much about that, it made him feel sick to his stomach. "Did you need something?"

Roman changes his weight to the other foot and crosses his arms. "We're leaving on Thursday," he says without acknowledging the look on her face. "Where do you want to go?"

"Oh," she laughs sarcastically. "How nice of you to let me pick where I'm being kidnapped."

"Calling it kidnapping is excessive."

"I'm being taken against my will-"

"Would you prefer I lock you in Nadia's room for the night?" He asks, surprised by how easily Nadia's name slipped out of his mouth. If Emma notices she doesn't let it show.

"Could you set it up like an escape room?"

"No." Roman shakes his head. "It will be extremely boring. I'll even take away your weird books. Or we could leave."