A/N: Hey there! Anyone else excited for AHS Hotel? Personally I'm still a bit stuck on the foxxay, so in the spirit of the upcoming release, here's a multi chapter fic that's all about the foxxay. And other people. You're in for a bit of a slow burn, but I do hope you'll be patient with me. Fluff will come when the time is right.

Disclaimer: I own no characters, settings or alligators, but boy I wish I did.

On that note, I would like to add, that there will be some horror and some opinions expressed by characters that I promise you I do not share. Just getting into character, but I thought I'd say it explicitly for good measure. Anyway, I'll stop rambling now and get on with it. As always, I would love to hear what you think of it and please enjoy!

Part 1

"And the songbirds are singing, like they know the score."

- Songbird, Fleetwood Mac

"Burn the witch!"

They crowd was roaring like thunder attacking from the ground and not the sky. They encircled the scene, chanting and shouting, some in anger, some out of fright. In their midst stood three men all staring at a desperate woman enclosed with them. She kneeled before them, clutched a small child in her arms. The child looked around with fearsome eyes and she hid from the faces of the angry crowd. The crackling of an evolving fire behind the circle made the music that steadied their deafening chants.

The man in the middle, an old priest with white wispy hair and wrinkles around his hard eyes, stood out. He moved with calm and with a hand raised in the air, he silenced the thunder of their voices. He looked at the frantic woman before him. "Miss Day, rise."

"No please father", she whimpered. She stayed down on her knees and looked up at him with a face twisted in the purest of despair. "I'm beggin' you, don't burn her. Not my child. Please father, she's just a little girl! She can't help it!"

"She has brought the devil to us. She's a witch!" He spat the last word at her like it was poison on his tongue.

"She only healed Norma's little boy. He'd be dead, if she hadn't helped him! Please, she means no harm!"

Only half the crowd could hear the exchange of words. It was a large circle. It was growing impatient and a man shouted: "Burn the witch!" which rallied up the rest and they started over.

"Please father, there must be another way!" She inched closer to the old priest, difficult as it was, moving on her knees while holding her child tight into her, as if she feared the battle was lost the second she let go. It could very well be. Her words drowned in the violent noises and only the priest, at whose feet she trembled, could hear them. "Father, listen please. She's your son's child. As your grandchild, how can her powers be anythin' but divine?"

The priest's eyes widened at this, such a faint twitch it went unnoticed by everyone but the pleading woman. With a furious twist of his old, wrinkled hand, he silenced the crowd again. Neither of them noticed how the color had drained from his face.

When silence came upon the scene, he said, in a clear voice that betrayed none of the sudden shock: "Once she bleeds her powers will grow. That's when the devil inevitably latches on. Don't you think, son?" He regarded the man on his right for the first time. The young man jumped and he hesitated before meeting his father's gaze.

"Son?" There was anger wavering in his voice.

With a quiet, quivering voice, he answered: "Or her ability will disintegrate as she matures."

The priest sneered, turned to look again at his bastard witch child of a granddaughter and to her mother.

Loud enough that the whole circle could hear him, he yelled: "I will not have this child in my town! I will not have her bones in my graveyard! I want her out! Misty Day is from today forth banished from this town! You" – he pointed at the man in the left – "will see to that she's left in the forest. From then on her destiny is her own. If she lives or dies that is up to her, but anyone who helps her will be executed by the word of God!"

The woman cried as the man on the left crossed over and pried the child from her arms. Without a word of goodbye, he carried the child that was Misty Day deep into the woods and left her there.

O0O

A year had gone by since the banishment of Misty day. Cordelia sprinted through the wilderness, ran as fast as her little feet could carry her, eyes scanning the forest for a way out. Twilight was settling into the spaces between the trees, the noises of the night was emerging from the depth of the forest. These woods were no place for an eight year old, especially not one who wasn't born here and hadn't gotten used to the Louisiana swamps. Cordelia knew that and she regretted more than ever running away from her mom. Now she was completely lost. Why did all trees look the same?

Her foot caught in a root, sticking up from the uneven ground and she fell down with all her rush poured into it. Her dress ripped apart as the sharp rocks on the ground tore into it and the smooth, fragile skin beneath it. Cordelia cried out in pain. Her whole body trembled as she sat up and she looked at her hands, now a colorful palette of blood red and earth tones of dirt and dust. At least she hadn't fallen in the wet area. Out where the real swamps were. She might just drown in the mud. At least she was on dry land and the edge had to be close. Cordelia just had no idea which way was home.

She started crying.

Noise. To her left something appeared in between the trees. It made the girl stop crying, only to freeze to the spot with fear instead. She had no idea what kind of creatures lurked in these woods, but her mom had made sure to tell her all kinds of scary tales, like how alligators sometimes crawled up from the waters to eat those who strayed too far. What other animals lived here? She was new in the state. It could be a puma for all she knew.

It would have to be a small puma. And it didn't stride with elegance, the way any cat would. It had bouncy steps and a weirdly shaped figure for a feline. It was hard to see in the growing dark, but Cordelia was starting to think it was no foreign animal at all. It looked… human?

Whatever it was, it was being very careful. It hopped a few steps, then stopped and gazed at her. As it came closer, Cordelia, to her immense dread, thought it had a mane. Her mind skipped through a number of scenarios involving feral, murderous monkeys taking her away. Only the mane turned out to be a chaotic mess of muddy, dirty human hair. It was child closing in and it was now only half a dozen feet from her.

It looked like a little girl. Cordelia started to calm down. It was a little girl, younger than herself even. More than that was almost impossible to tell, as the girl was covered in mud. She was so dirty her clothes and skin couldn't be told apart. She was crouching and walking on four legs with her back rounded like a scared cat.

"Hello there", Cordelia called out. The little girl bared her teeth in a feral growl and her clear blue eyes locked on Cordelia's. There was a certain quality of strength to her stare. And she looked so strange with her teeth and eyes being the only features that wasn't completely clouded with dirt.

"It's okay. I won't hurt you. Where's your mommy?"

The little girl cocked her head to the side as soon as Cordelia spoke, if listening for her voice.

"What's your name?" Cordelia asked and the girl's eyes glimmered with what Cordelia thought was curiosity. She took a few hopping steps closer, seemingly over her initial fright. Only a few feet away, Cordelia could now take a closer look at her. She wore something that might once have been a knee length dress, but it was so torn that only a few strands of dirty fabric hung below her tiny thighs. She looked skinny, so skinny that Cordelia thought it a wonder she managed to hop around with so much energy. But there was strength in her body as well. She didn't appear weak in any way.

She didn't say anything, but studied Cordelia intensely. There was nothing frightening about her after all, but Cordelia was starting to think that she wasn't a normal girl. That she had been out here a very long time and hadn't just recently gotten lost from her mom's sight, the way she herself had. There was a wildness to the child, which Cordelia had never seen before; something that told her, maybe this little girl lived out here in the woods.

She spoke again, keeping her tone light, because it appeared to intrigue the child: "My name is Cordelia. I'm sorry if I scared you. I just got lost and I fell down." She held up her palms to show the little girl. The girl looked curiously at her hands and then her eyes wandered up and down Cordelia, from head to toe, nothing missed. Cordelia had never felt so studied before. The girl's eyes went to her knees and widened. Cordelia followed her gaze and realized blood had stained her ruined dress. Her heart sunk in her chest. Her mom would be so mad at her, when she found this out.

The little girl looked at her with an expression that seemed to be asking some kind of question. She looked from Cordelia's face to her knee and then back again. Cordelia didn't understand at first, but she didn't push her away, when the girl stretched out a mud-covered hand and lifted up her dress. Cordelia hissed in pain when the little girl touched the wound, and the girl flinched at the sound, but didn't move away. A look of concentration had come upon the her face and Cordelia was too mystified to do anything. She only watched as the girl stared at her wound. Without breaking contact, she spit in her hands, cleaning the palms until something vaguely resembling a real skin color emerged from the dirt. Then she put her hand on the wound. Cordelia whimpered at the sharp pain, but this time the girl didn't move an inch. Instead she closed her eyes and all of a sudden warmth blossomed underneath her filthy hands. It was a soothing warmth, one that reminded Cordelia of soft blankets and a hot cup of tea.

When the girl removed her hands, there was no wound, only milky, soft skin, where the cuts had been. Cordelia stared wide eyed from her knee to the girl.

"How did you do that?"

She received no answer. Instead the little, mysterious girl held out her hands. Instinctively Cordelia did the same. The girl spit in those too, cleaning away the dirt and took one hand in each. The skin of her palms felt rough against Cordelia's own, but a moment later, all she felt was that same warmth. When the girl opened her eyes again and let go of Cordelia, her hands were as good as new.

"Wow." She looked up. "Thank you."

The girl smiled.

"Who are you?" Neither this time did she get any answer out of the girl. Cordelia started to wonder, if she had a voice at all. Only she growled before, she remembered. Maybe she had never learned to speak, being out here.

Cordelia started to get up. The little girl gripped her hand and looked at her with a sad expression.

"I have to get home. Out of the forest. Do you know what way it is?"

The girl thought for a moment it seemed. Then she looked up and nodded.

"So you do understand me. Can you show me the way?"

The girl nodded again and started hopping ahead. Cordelia hurried after her.

O0O

Delphine stood at the edge of the path, Cordelia had disappeared from, looking in through the trees in hopes of spotting the puerile little girl. She walked a little up and down the line of the forest, glancing in between the massive trees. It was getting dark now and it had been half an hour since she saw the figure of the little girl running into the woods. Delphine shook her head and sighed. Young Cordelia knew better than to wander into unknown territory like this. If only Madame hadn't yelled at her, Delphine wouldn't find herself in this horrific situation. She couldn't return home without Mrs. Goode's daughter, but she couldn't go in there and look for her herself. It was no use getting lost too.

"Oh you foolish girl", she muttered. She anticipated Madame's wrath. Hell had no fury like Fiona Goode. Gods, she knew that. She wished Fiona had brought Spalding out here. He was better with the patience. Of course there would be a chance the girl would run straight back into the woods, when she saw his face.

It was at times like these she wished to just quit her job as Mrs. Goode's maid. What kind of honor was there is this, given where she had been only a decade ago? Back then she was the one living in a mansion, having servants, fighting people like Fiona for the spot at the top. One little trick out of a filthy Voodoo queen's pocket and her fortune was gone and she was left to wash dishes for the rest of her life. Left to shut up about it if she wished to have her daughter freed from enslavement. Sometimes she wondered if it was really worth it. Her fine ancestors were turning in their graves, she was sure of it. She herself was out of the Laveau house now, thanks to Fiona Goode. Truth be told these conditions were far better, cleaner people. A shy, lost daughter and a bitter Madame was much preferable to being locked in a wooden box in the ground whenever she misbehaved. God, she despised Fiona, but Marie Laveau was far worse.

"Delphine!"

Delphine turned her head at the first sound of the girl. She emerged from the darkened forest some hundred feet down. Delphine held up her dress and ran towards the girl.

Some animal appeared to walk beside her. A rather curious animal at that. As she came closer, Delphine realized it was a human child. The dirtiest child she had ever seen. And Laveau's kids were black.

"Heavens child, you scared me half to death! What is this vile creature, you have dragged with you? And what happened to your dress? Your mother will have my head on a plate for this!"

"I'm so sorry Delphine, I'm sorry I ran away!" Cordelia looked up at her with a painstaking look in her mismatched eyes.

Delphine sighed. "As long as you're okay. Well?" She eyed the dirty child, crouching beside Cordelia. One of its hands snuck up to Cordelia's and remarkable blue eyes scrutinized Delphine from top to bottom.

"Well, I… I don't know her name, but she found me in the woods and… She helped me out. I don't think she has a mom. Please Delphine, can she come home with us? She's really hungry."

She did strike Delphine as an abandoned child, with her dirty, bony body and that God-awful mess of a hair. It baffled Delphine that such child was even alive. It was obvious that he was outrageously underfed. Still, her eyes betrayed no energetic shortcomings. She appeared healthy.

"How do you know she's hungry, if she cannot speak?"

"She showed me." Cordelia looked down at the child, who pointed a finger to her open mouth and shot Delphine a pleading look.

Delphine sighed, puzzled. Madame would certainly not like a guest of this quality – frankly, she didn't like guests at all – but who was she to tell a mistreated child to just go away? And it could be scrubbed, made presentable this one. She saw how the child clung to Cordelia's hand, while eyeing her closely. If Delphine didn't know better, she would think the child was challenging her, daring her to say no.

"Fine. She can come. But your mother will not appreciate this."

O0O

When they finally arrived at the mansion, after a five-minute drive, the little girl was all but frozen in fear. She had gone willingly into the car with Cordelia, but as soon as it started, she shrieked in panic and tried to crawl out again. She couldn't get the door open though. Cordelia quickly realized she had never been in a car before. It took a while to calm her down enough for Cordelia to put a seatbelt on her. Another thing for which the girl seemed to hold a deep mistrust. Now that they had safely parked at home, the girl was trembling in her seat, her skinny fingers gripping Cordelia's hand so tightly she could barely feel her own fingers.

"Come on, we're here." Cordelia opened the door and pulled at the girl. She eyed the outsides with a suspicious look in her sky blue eyes, before jumping out after Cordelia. She landed on all four and walked like that beside Cordelia, keeping her pace. Delphine walked up behind them, scoffing.

"Can't she walk properly?"

"I don't know." Cordelia stopped and so did the girl. "Can you walk like this? Like me?" The girl cocked her head to the side. Cordelia held out a hand, which she took without hesitation, and Cordelia tried to drag her up to a standing position. The girl shakily rose to her feet, now grasping both Cordelia's outstretched hands for support. As she stood in her full height, she was one head shorter than her supporter was.

"Now try walking. Come on." She did. With trembling steps, as if she hadn't walked like this in ages, the wild child started walking. She got all the way up to the door, all the while clinging to Cordelia's hand, and earning an examining look from Delphine. Cordelia was somehow mesmerized by the child clutching her hand, as if she never wanted to let go again, and doing everything Cordelia told her, as if nothing had ever made greater sense to her. No one had ever done that before.

Once they made it to the steps and Cordelia had to use her hands to open the door, the girl crouched down again.

As soon as they opened the door, her mom came striding down the hallway, her blonde hair flying and her eyes sparkling with lightning.

"There you are finally! Christ child, what possessed you to run away like that? Look at you! Your best dress is completely ruined and – what is that?"

Her eyes fell on the child, crouching by Cordelia's side, and now staring right back at Cordelia's mom with her lips parted in a half sneer. Fiona looked from her daughter to Delphine with a perplexed, slightly disgusted expression.

"Well? Delphine, explain what this pile of dried mud is doing in my home."

Cordelia answered before Delphine had a chance: "She found me, mommy. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to run so far away, but I got lost and this girl helped me out again. She's really hungry, can she please stay for dinner?"

"Absolutely not!"

"Mommy, she saved me!" Cordelia insisted, begging with her eyes and words. The child stretched up a hand and caught Cordelia's again. Then yanked it a bit, as she stood beside her. "Mom, look at her, she must be starving. And I don't think she has anyone."

Fiona sighed. "I guess Delphine can make a little extra. But clean her up first. She's not getting anywhere near my living room looking like that. And she's your responsibility!"

Cordelia bowed her head. "Of course mom."

Fiona waved Delphine off to the kitchen and directed her gaze at the child again. "What's your name?" The girl said nothing, but stared back with what Cordelia thought was cautious curiosity.

"Well speak child!" Fiona demanded impatiently.

"I don't think she can, Mommy."

"Wonderful. You brought a mute stray home. Don't we have enough of those?"

Fiona shook her head, turned on her heel and left. The clicking of her heels echoed through the hall. Cordelia tugged at the child's hand and lead her to the bathroom.

"And don't let her wear your nice dresses!"

The bathtub seemed to be something she enjoyed. She splashed around in the water – now the dirtiest shade Cordelia had ever seen water take – with a big grin on her face and her eyes flashing with excitement. Afterwards, when Cordelia hugged the towel around her tiny body, the girl felt the edges of it, still with a huge smile on her face, as if a dry towel was another thing she had never seen before either.

Cordelia dressed her in one of her older dresses, a light beige one that almost fit the girl's skinny figure. Her hair was still tangled up in a mess and that fought hard and long against Cordelia's hairbrush. It came to a point, where she just gave up, because the girl was hissing at the brush. At least it was clean. Her hair turned out to be a golden blonde, floating around her head like a giant halo. As Cordelia was looking at her, her eyes locked with the little girl. The child held up her finger, pointing at Cordelia's eyes and cocked her head to the side with a questioning look on her face.

"I know, it's weird", Cordelia admitted. "I was born with it. It's called complete heterochromia. I don't suppose you know that word?"

The girl didn't answer, as Cordelia expected, but she kept staring, obviously fascinated. There was no trace of cruelty in her curiosity, not like the boys and girls at school, who thought she was just weird looking.

At dinner the girl refused to sit at the table, but sat against the wall on the floor, accepting whatever Cordelia gave her. She ate with great appetite and made no discrimination with what she was handed. Fiona scoffed, eyed the child with annoyance. Cordelia followed her expressions nervously. She was starting to really like this mysterious child and she hoped her mom would let her stay. She planned to fight for it.