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PERCY was absolutely paralyzed. He couldn't move an inch; his gaze was unwavering. The grey eyes in front of him paused, blinking slowly in his direction, before jerking back. It sounded like they were snapping back into place, like a foot stomping on a branch. Percy cringed, but his face showed no weakness. His expression was blank, unmoving, waiting for the fallout.
The figure moved forward. Their boots hardly made a noise against the old floorboards. Percy could only hear their heels click against the wood, and he swallowed hard. The darkness enveloped the figure like a blanket, until they finally revealed themselves, and the dim light from the bathroom betrayed whatever disguise they once had.
It was the girl from the lobby.
Her hair was in perfect waves, but the ends hung in wet strands, dripping with a red, sticky liquid. Her eyes were hungry, flashing with a sense of darkness that made Percy's heart hammer in his chest. He wasn't sure if he was excited or scared, or maybe it was a bit of both. Her mouth was coated in blood, trickling down her chin and onto the floor. Her whole outfit was stained with blood – his friends' blood.
Her tone was harsh, spine-chilling, as she growled, "You're in my room."
Percy didn't respond. How could he? What could he possibly say in this moment as the lobby girl stood before him with his friends' blood caking her entire mouth? That's why the room originally looked like it had been slept in. Room 66 was her room, but ... why? Was she living in the hotel? Didn't she have a family?
He swallowed down the lump in his throat, wondering if she ate her family too.
If only he knew that wasn't the case, that Hadley was cursed simply because her creator wanted a girl her age. As she looked into his eyes, a part of her wanted to make him understand that she wasn't some monster. However, another part of her wanted to rip the Band-Aid off and just kill him already. But there was something different about this guy. Something that she saw days ago in the lobby; something that she still couldn't put her finger on. When she took another step forward, he didn't run away. He had the ability to look death in the face and not cower.
Her face softened then, causing Percy to blink rapidly.
She knew then. She knew from the moment she saw him that he wasn't like his friends. She noticed it when she watched them walk back from the bar together. Hadley heard the argument before they entered the room. "We need to get them another room," he had said. The friends were perfectly fine with having sex with two women that clearly couldn't give consent. When he didn't agree, one of them had thrown him into the bathroom, locked him up like an animal that misbehaved. She saw it happen while lurking in the darkness. She saw it all.
He had empathy. A kind of empathy that most humans lacked, and something Hadley wanted to experience again.
She stood in front of him, watching him look down at her with the bluest eyes she'd ever witnessed. They reminded her of the ocean she yearned to see. Hadley licked at her lips, and blood dripped from her mouth to his sneakers. She was smaller than him, but the power she held made his eyes widen, but he didn't want to move away. She was enigmatic – a side effect of the curse that was thrust upon her years ago.
