Hummingbird // AHS Hotel

Chapter Five: The Encounter

♪ Dead To Me - Kali Uchis ♪

--------------------------------------------------------------------

After making the decision to stay the course at the Cortez, I realized that hiding myself away was no way to live. If I was going to stay here, I would have to get out of my room some more. Initially after the Countess had left my room, I'd had to rethink every interaction I had with all the other hotel guests: were they all complicit in James' and the Countess' crimes? How could I go to the bar and talk to Liz knowing she was guilty by association?

I came to the conclusion that they were just as complicit as I was, which was to say, helpless. The Countess was going to feed no matter what any of us did to try and stop her. James was going to continue to kill. Everyone else in the hotel was likely either going along with their schemes out of fear for their own lives, or just entirely apathetic. 

I had also done some more research on James, figuring it was best to know what I was dealing with. The more I read about him, the more disturbed I grew. The websites I read estimated his body count to be in the hundreds back when he was alive, averaging a few kills a week. I couldn't even imagine his grand total considering how many decades he'd been stuck here in the hotel, murdering the guests. 

James was thought to be responsible for the Ten Commandments killings, a series of murders targeting people who broke each of the Commandments. He had conveniently killed himself when the police showed up to question him, so he was never tried for the crimes. Since no culprit was ever found, and the killings stopped after his death, it was easy to infer that James was indeed responsible.

Terrifying as he was, I held onto the notion that if James had really intended to kill me, he would have done so when we were alone together. The next time I saw him, I would just have to make it abundantly clear that I wanted nothing to do with him. 

Though the idea of talking to James again filled me with dread, I decided that I wasn't going to let my fear of interacting with him hinder my chances of having a nice, pleasant night at the bar talking with Liz. 

I left my room, reminding myself that seeing Liz again would be good for me. Isolating myself from the budding friendships I was making here would not do me any favors. 

I walked down the hallway, empty at both ends. I kept glancing behind me, sure I would turn around and catch James following me, but there was no sign of him. I felt like I was the star of my own personal horror movie, literally waiting for a serial killer to jump out and surprise me. 

I made it into the elevator without spotting anyone else in the hallway. Anxiously I waited for it to stop on the second floor, praying no one would be on the other side of the doors. When they finally opened with a ding, I scanned the hallway in front of me, and upon seeing no one, continued my quick pace. 

I rounded the corner and saw a man walking in the direction towards me, a jolt going through me when I realized who it was. I hurried my pace, not stopping to even look at him. In my peripheral vision, I saw him stop in his tracks, his gaze following me.

I walked past him. "Nope. Don't even try."

"Charlotte—" I heard him follow after me, and from behind me I could picture him going to put a hand on my arm and then refraining because of what happened last time he did that.

"You lied to me," I said as I continued walking.

"I didn't lie!"

"You lied by omission. That's the same thing."

"I was going to get to it eventually!"

"You could've saved us both the time and opened with it," I said, resisting the urge to turn around and look at him as I continued my stride.