CHAPTER 7
SAYING SORRY
THE old newspaper fell down onto the front desk with a hard smack. Liz looked up immediately, tossing her reading glasses off and meeting Hadley's glare. The younger woman had her arms crossed over her chest, a look of violence in her eyes. Liz wanted to lock herself in the back room, but that was useless in getting away from Hadley. She had the strength of a bulldozer. She could break down a locked door easily. Perhaps, it was better for Liz to just face the music, but even that terrified her.
Hadley didn't move a muscle. Her back was rigid and her stare bore into the depths of Liz's fear. She didn't speak until a minute later, and even then, Liz didn't notice her mouth move when she said, "Give me one reason why I shouldn't slap you right now."
Liz swallowed hard, reaching out and folding down the corner of the page she left on in her current read. She hid her panic well, but not well enough. Hadley's hearing was remarkable, and she heard that big heart of hers pounding hard against her ribcage without any trouble. Spinning in her chair, Liz replied, "Because I am probably one of the best people you know." Her eyes slid to Hadley's hands wrapped around her arms. Her grip didn't loosen. "And you'll feel guilty after. Very guilty."
Hadley's eyes formed into slits, but it didn't take her long to sigh heavily and drop her arms to her hips. She gave up her stance, yet her anger hadn't lessened one bit. "Why did you give Percy this article?" She gestured to the newspaper laying idly on the desk.
"Would you believe me if I said he threatened me?"
Hadley frowned.
"Right," Liz nodded. "I wouldn't believe me either."
"He basically knows everything now, Liz!" She exclaimed, smacking her manicured hands on the table. Liz noticed, for a split second, that one of her nails on her right hand had blood crusted underneath. "Well, he knows enough. But I was trying to take my time with this. I didn't want to tell him this soon –"
Liz scoffed, "Hadley, cut the bullshit. The guy needed to know sooner or later." Her words were cutthroat, causing Hadley's back to straighten. "You already showed him your true self when you killed his shitty friends. You can't keep yourself a mystery forever."
Hadley viewed away. "Mysteries are better," she whispered. With a low sigh, she turned back to the older woman. "Elizabeth once told me that it was much more fun to hide in the shadows, rather than the light. I've grown accustomed to that over the years."
She remembered the way Percy regarded at her when she found him, brows furrowing with distress. It was the same look Hadley had given her parents when she did something bad as a child. The paper had slipped from his hands so easily, as if he had given up the moment she set foot in the suite. Hadley remembered her cruel tone. She remembered the words she spewed at the one person she was trying to form a connection with. Regret filled her stomach.
A snort emerged from the back of Liz's throat, bringing Hadley out of her thoughts. "For once, the Countess is wrong on that one."
Hadley studied the older woman for a second, watching her brows crease as she placed a cigarette in her mouth. It hung off the edge of her lips, right in between her teeth, and it took her a moment while playing with her lighter to finally get it lit. "So what do you want me to say?" She asked, gaining Liz's attention again. "You're right? That it was wrong to act irrationally when Percy questioned me about the article?"
"That sounds like a wonderful thing to say," Liz grinned big.
The younger woman's expression fell. "I'm being serious," she quipped. "Percy's upset with me. I guess I can understand it. I was harsh with him when I caught him reading the paper." She paused for a moment, lifting a finger to make a point. "But that's only because I gave him specific instructions to not leave the room –"
She halted her words for a moment, noticing Liz's brows lift to her hairline. With a cigarette dangling from her pink lips, it didn't take an idiot to realize that she was mocking Hadley – in a joking way, of course.
Hadley pursed her lips. "Okay, whatever. It was wrong of me to act irrationally." Her voice went softer, and the tone was refreshing to Liz. She hardly heard Hadley's voice break. "I just ... I want him to trust me, and I think he wants the same. I mean, obviously, he wants something. He hasn't left yet, even when I've given him several opportunities."
"Of course, you want to be close with him," Liz chuckled, flicking the end of her cigarette into an ashtray. "He's a handsome young man, after all."
"That's not what this is about."
The light flickered above Liz's head. She smirked. "Oh, it isn't?"
"Can you just give me advice, please?" Hadley replied, a girlish plea in her tone. For someone that was supposed to be thirty-seven, Liz liked that she'd always act the age she was turned. "I don't know what to do, and I can never go to Elizabeth about this. I don't even have Donovan to talk to anymore –"
"Alright, alright. Enough with the pity party." Liz took a long drag from her cigarette before resting her hand against the desk. Smoke billowed into the air, swirling above their heads. "You said it yourself, Hadley. The boy –"
"Percy."
Liz sighed. "Yeah, Percy. Whatever." She rolled her eyes. "He obviously wants to know you better. He would've left by now if he didn't. If you want to make this work – if you want to learn to form a real relationship with someone, let alone a human – you have to stop keeping yourself a mystery."
Hadley hesitated, brow knitting together as she weighed her options. "You make it sound so simple."
"It is simple," Liz remarked, stabbing her cigarette into the ashtray. "Just make sure the Countess doesn't find out, or you'll both be dead meat."
•••
Percy had been looking for his phone for hours. After the mess Hadley had made in Room 66, he thought he'd lost his phone in the rubble of it all. When he finally decided to take his time to look around for it, he found the tiny device right under his very bed. So much for searching, he thought to himself, pulling it out of a pile of clothes underneath the mattress.
The screen was cracked beyond repair and it wasn't turning on. Percy assumed – more like, hoped – the phone had just died, so he plugged it into an outlet. More hours past, and it still hadn't turned on. He never left anywhere without his phone. How could it have ended up like this?
Percy guessed it didn't matter. There was no cellphone service anyways.
When he picked up the vintage phone in his hotel room, he realized that there was hardly any service at all. It was an old, yellow phone with a curly cord plugged into the wall. Percy tried dialing on it several times, but all he heard was an annoying beeping on the other end, causing him to become even more frustrated than before. He slammed the phone down and fell back on the bed.
Percy wondered if he was going to end up in the same situation as Hadley: lost, alone, stuck in this cursed hotel for eternity. He knew she was angry with him right now, but maybe she'd get over it. She'd have to. She seemed to want him there more than he did, and he wasn't exactly keen on stopping their interactions, especially when her pretty, grey eyes met his own and her cheeks flushed a pale pink.
If he was cursed to stay at the Cortez forever, he wouldn't mind it. Not if Hadley was with him.
He was suddenly brought out of his thoughts when he heard an unfamiliar voice through the walls. It was female, deep and sultry. Percy sat up, eyes shifting to the door before he decided to walk over. With a furrowed brow, he pressed his ear against the old wood, wondering if the voices he was hearing were just from his imagination.
"I don't understand why you want to inspect my room. There's nothing in there, mama."
Hadley. It was Hadley. But who was with her?
"I believe you," the other voice replied. Hadley had called her mama. Was this the dreaded Elizabeth? "But Sally mentioned on seeing a young boy filter out of your room. I just want to make sure you're not hiding meals that you can't share with your brothers and sisters."
Hadley scoffed. "You're listening to Sally now? The woman's too coked up to remember what day it is."
The doorknob started to jiggle, and Percy immediately backed away. His heart was racing, bumping against his chest. He needed a place to hide. His eyes roamed the suite, until they eventually landed on a coat closet right by the door. As he heard a key crack into the lock, he jumped inside, shoving the screen forward and enclosing himself in.
"Well, that coked-up woman," Elizabeth spat, clicking her cherry-red heels into the suite, "also saved your ass once when you killed the wrong college boy and that detective was after you. Don't forget that."
Percy's breathing was so loud that he had to cover his mouth. He watched Hadley through the small slits of the door. She was turning around in the room, looking for him in the most subtle way possible. Percy's eyes slid to her right, where a tall, blonde woman was standing with her hands on her hips. She wore a sleek, black dress of the finest silks, and on one hand, she wore a silver bejeweled glove with a claw at the end of the pointing finger. Percy swallowed hard.
"There's nothing for you to worry about," Hadley persisted, crossing her arms over her chest.
Elizabeth's gaze moved around, and her keen eyes spotted the half-eaten pomegranate in the trash. She raised a brow, but didn't say a word. Her smirk said it all. Percy realized that she and Hadley didn't look alike at all.
"Your room smells like men, child." Elizabeth walked forward, grinning down at her creation with upturned red lips. She placed the gloved hand on her shoulder. "Have you been feasting on the lowlife males from the bar across the street again?"
"Um –" Hadley slid her hands into her back pockets. "Yeah, totally."
Elizabeth frowned. She began to saunter out of the room, but not before pausing at the door. "Wane yourself off of that," she instructed. "You know how bad contaminated blood can be sometimes."
Hadley nodded. "Yes, mama."
With one last quirk of her lips, Elizabeth slammed the door shut. Both Hadley and Percy finally released a sigh of relief. Hadley picked up on his scent quickly, leading her to the coat closet. She whipped the door open and found him behind her collection of pea coats, back pressed against the wall with his arms wrapped around his torso.
Before she could pull him out, his eyebrows were rising, and he asked, "You got siblings?"
Hadley paused, blinking rapidly. She almost forgot that he heard their whole conversation. "Uh – yeah, I guess. I'm not related to them. We're just ..." She shrugged. "The same."
Percy dared not to question what she meant by that. Hadley reached and he grabbed her hand, allowing her to yank him out of the closet. Percy dusted off his white t-shirt, trying to ignore the small spark that ignited in his hand when she touched him. He noticed she was doing the same as she looked away from him, refusing to meet his eyes.
He pursed his lips, and before he could stop himself, he said, "So you're into killing college boys, huh?"
She chuckled, "It's kind of my thing." Suddenly, her expression fell, and she realized the impact of her words. Had she scared him? "Only the bad ones, though. That's it."
"Only the bad ones," Percy repeated with a smile.
Hadley bit on her bottom lip, wiping the sweat from her hands onto the back of her pants. She took a step forward, and Percy's bright, baby blues slid to hers. "Hey," she muttered, voice low and full of hesitation, "I'm ... I'm sorry you had to listen to all of that."
"It's okay –"
"And I'm sorry for blowing up at you about the article," she continued, playing with her hands. "That was unwarranted." Percy blinked, and just the sight of his blank expression made Hadley's stomach form into knots. "I know I've given you several outs, but it's not a joke. The Cortez is fucked. It wrecks everyone from the moment they step in. You can leave, if that's what you desire. You're not my hostage. You've never been."
Percy's throat went dry and he struggled to form a coherent response. Hadley watched him drag his tongue across his lips with bated breath. "Why did you want to keep me around in the first place?"
She glanced away for a moment, squinting her eyes at the sunset seeping through the heavy curtains. With a knitted brow, Percy watched her walk over to the window and pull the curtains closer together. She turned on her heel and replied, "I wanted to see if I could be near a human and resist the urges." She was suddenly in front of him again, crossing her arms over her chest. "You passed the test."
Before Percy could reply that it wasn't him – that maybe it was her who passed her own test – she was gesturing to the trash can behind him with her chin. "I gave you that pomegranate for a reason."
"I didn't eat it," Percy whispered. He almost regretted it, assuming that she was going to snap his neck for throwing it away, and suddenly, he was comfortable in embracing death within her hands.
Hadley nodded. "Elizabeth once told me that pomegranates can make anyone stay in one place. It worked on Persephone, didn't it?" She asked, causing Percy to arch a brow at the similarity between their names. "I'm glad you didn't eat it. Now you can make your own decision to leave."
"I'm not leaving."
The reply surprised Hadley, causing her head to jerk back for a short second. Her nose wrinkled, and Percy finally saw her golden freckles in the dim light. "Why?" She asked. Her tone was candy-sweet, disguising the monster that lurked beneath the surface.
Percy swallowed hard. "I'm not leaving until you explain yourself to me."
He had laid out a hand in front of her. Hadley looked at it – hesitating, waiting – and found her hands begin to shake at the thought of agreeing to lay her whole past in front of some human she just met. But when she viewed back up at him, Hadley realized that he wasn't just some human. Percy was going to be her savior, and also her kryptonite.
That was when she locked her fingers with his own and gave his hand a firm shake.
•••
A/N: Is this me and Duncan Shepherd or Michael Langdon⁉️ Blink if you agree
ALSO IDK IF ANY OF YOU WATCHED THAT LIVESTREAM INTERVIEW WITH CODY BUT WHEN THE INTERVIEWER ASKED HIM ABOUT DUNCAN AND HE SAID "UGH NEXT" I LOST IT AJSJSJSKSNSKSM