There's a scream… and blood splashes on the wall… Alexander can't move as the body falls to the floor… a yellow smile illuminates above her…

Alexander sits up abruptly, breathing fast and holding his head. He feels pain in his chest and holds in his sounds as he leans back, he can feel the pillows behind him and jumps slightly. Those weren't there before.

Alexander sits up and again and pulls a pillow out in front of him, ignoring the pain the best he could. It's soft. He looks around in confusion. He's in a room. A room he's never been in before.

The fuck is going on?

Alexander shakes his head and starts kneading the pillow. He needs to calm down. He's not dead, so he should be safe.

He looks around again and takes in where he is. This room is… generic. A bed, a side bathroom, bed side table, some empty picture frames… he's in the Hotel. There's no denying it, he's in the Hotel. No one can keep a room so clean, he knows Niffty's work.

Alexander sighs in relief. He's safe. He throws the pillow back and looks down to relax his neck, but pauses when he sees white hair. He looks over to see Molly. She's lying next to him above the blankets, sleeping. Alexander can see tear stains on her cheeks.

He reaches over and needs to make sure. He brushes his fingers through her hair and determines that she is real. He can feel his finger tremble but he keeps his composure. He wants so bad to hug her, to hold and embrace her. But he can't.

Because, an irritating pain in his chest is stopping him from doing so.

Alexander looks down and pulls up the blanket to see his chest tightly wrapped in bandaging. There's no blood but it still hurts, kind of. But it's still a bit freaky. Alexander calms down a bit before he starts thinking about it too much. His injuries are all dressed. That's a good sign. It should be a good sign.

He recalls what happened before and he can feel himself shake. How dare he. Oh, when he heals up, Richard is going to regret everything. Alexander is going to make him suffer, beg for death.

No. Don't do that.

Alexander lets out a silent breath. He doesn't want to wake up Molly… He doesn't want her to know.

He groans silently and falls back into the pillow, pain subsiding now and turning a bit numb – either a good or bad sign, he's not sure. But back to the matter at hand, how the fuck is he going to lie his way out of this one? He can't just tell her what happened!

Hey, Molly, I just got stabbed by some narcissistic cunt that stalked you for God knows how long! But Don't worry! I'm going to go right after him and give him no mercy…

That's not going to work!

Alexander pulls his hair in front of his face and racks his mind for excuses. He can't think of anything. Why can't he think of anything? He needs to think of something!

The door opens.

Alexanders sits up fast and winces at the pain. He holds his chest and rubs near the sore as he looks over. Vaggie's poking her head in.

Vaggie enters and quietly shuts the door. She stays silent as Alexander sits up properly and waits for her to get closer, but she stays where she is. The two stay there in silence before she speaks up, "what happened?"

Alexander lifts his head at her question. He calms down his heart before it starts up, it's not jumping but it was about to. He puts on a smile "just a scuffle, nothing much to worry about, Love."

"And he stabbed you?" Vaggie's voice is equal to that of a mother talking to her lying child. It's like sarcasm, but it hurts a little bit more when Alexander knows that Vaggie probably helped fix his wounds. There's no going passed her intuition…

"Well, he is a scumbag." Alexander explains like it was obvious. It is obvious, but Richard isn't a scumbag, he's worse.

"With an Angel Blade." Upon hearing her words Alexander looks down at his lap and holds himself from shutting down.

He laughs quietly as he's taking it in. He's not really processing the seriousness of this situation, he's entirely focused on what happened and not what is happening. He got stabbed by an Angel Blade? Is that what Richard stabbed him with? An Angel Blade? Alexander can feel a chill – he nearly died. "Is-is that why it hurts?"

"Alexander." Alexander looks Vaggie in the eye when he looks over again. He puts on a smile at her expression. He doesn't like it. It's a mixture of sympathy and understanding. What could she possibly understand? "We know about the letter."

Alexander goes silent. No… no, she was not meant to find it, how'd she find it? Wasn't it covered in his blood or something? He still had it on him, so it must have been covered in blood, thus making it unreadable. That should be for the photos as well. God, the rest didn't see what's on the letter right? Wait, are they talking about the same Letter? Of course not! She must be talking about another letter! Otherwise Angel would have killed him! "What letter?"

"Listen you idiot-!" Vaggie gets shushed frantically with waving hands and a constant "shh!", Molly groans slightly in her sleep but she stays quiet. Alexander and Vaggie watch her for a few seconds before they relax.

"I…" Alexander swallows, feeling a lump. Are those tears? Better not be, he doesn't want to ugly cry here, not in front of Molly "I don't want Molly to know."

Vaggie sighs and Alexander holds his arm while curling his hair. This tension is something he should have predicted.

"I'll answer your questions, just don't tell Molly…" Alexander surrenders. He might as well get this over with…

.

.

Alexander winces slightly when he puts on a shirt Vaggie had given him. It's a regular large t-shirt, a bit too big for him, but it's fine. It covered the bandaging, it's all good.

He looks over to Molly and leans over her carefully to kiss her forehead, he holds in his pain for her. She doesn't need to wake up seeing him like this.

"You coming?" Vaggie calls out and pokes her head in through the door, Alexander shushes her quietly and she holds her mouth, nodding along as he comes out.

He can practically hear the questions already. He's not looking forward to it…

The minute he steps into the living room, his stomach drops a bit. Seeing everyone… they look normal, a little concerned… but the air… the air is hard to breathe…

Someone's pissed off…

Someone's horrified…

It's not a good mix…

Alexander swallows back his anxiety and gives a smile. He waves and tries to act like his chest isn't hurting like a ten out of ten "hi, guys…"

That was not what he should have done.

Immediately Angel gets up and he's grabbing Alexander's shoulders. Alexander can see the film of his life start playing.

"What the hell happened!?" Angel's shaking him and he's yelling into his face "That creep had photos of my sister! Who the fuck-!"

"Angel! Calm down!" Charlie pulls the spider off of Alexander and the deer calms his heart down. The film had stopped. He's still alive.

Alexander composes himself right when Angel sits back down, crossing his arms and huffing. Alexander sports a wary smile and holds his arms.

He watches as everyone calms down in their own way. He's not going to get out of this. He keeps up his smile. Putting up a brave face is what he can do for now. He has no idea what is going to happen, but he knows it's not going to end smoothly…

He sits down on the couch and rubs near the wound to ease the soreness. His leg is bouncing out of anxiousness, he's ready but it doesn't mean he's not nervous.

"Right. I'll start" Vaggie starts off and gives Angel a stern glare. Alexander stops rubbing his sore. He leans back on the couch to get comfortable without pain. Vaggie clears her throat "What exactly happened with that guy you fought? His name's Richard, right?"

Alexander confirms with a nod, not looking her in the eye as he mentally shakes off his anger upon hearing Richard's name. He doesn't want to tell them what happened. He doesn't want them to know.

"How long have you had this?" Vaggie holds up the letter and Alexander avoids looking at it. It's not entirely covered in blood, so they read everything…

"How long was I out for?" Alexander deflects. He doesn't want to talk about this, it's technically a private matter.

"Around two or three hours…" Crymini informs quietly. Two or three hours? He must have been in a lot of pain to pass out like that…

"Stop beating around the bush and answer the question." Vaggie order and Alexander flinches at that.

"Fine, fine, uh… I… I got it this morning. Boss gave it to me saying someone said it was from a mate." Alexander hides his anger. He's not going to let it out. "I opened it and I saw the photos first. I first thought it was a little strange. Then I read the letter… I won't lie… I was pissed."

Alexander opens an eye to peak at Angel who's still pissed off, but he understands. He understands that Angel is an equally scared as him, if not more.

"But it took me painstakingly too long to realise what the bastard was doing, aside from him threatening me…" Alexander sighs and bounces his other leg "I'm pissed at myself for not connecting the dots instantly that the motherfucker was stalking Molly."

Alexander can feel his voice distort slightly, and he's sure everyone else can hear it as well… so much for hiding his anger…

"I don't think I can describe how angry I was, but… I'll tell you this." Alexander opens his eyes again and he sees everyone tense up. Is something wrong? Is there something on his face? Or are they reacting to his voice? The Distortion is something he's new to as well… Why does everything have a slightly violet hue? "I was out for blood last night."

There's a silent and the violet hue intensifies gradually, but it's slow. Alexander doesn't really understand why there's violet everywhere, are his eyes going off?

"Okay… I think we need to calm down…" Charlie speaks up as Alexander reaches up and rubs his eyes, soon the hue disappears and he sees Charlie in front of him. "You okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine." Alexander rubs his eyes again. His voice is back to normal, thank god, but it's wavering slightly. No… he doesn't want to cry… so he sighs, holding back potential tears "I'd rather not… talk about Dickhead at the moment, Love."

"Too bad, we are." Angel is suddenly in front of him now, pissed off in all his glory. Alexander feels a little nervous. He pushes Charlie away and grabs Alexander by the shoulders, he pulls him up and Alexander can feel his second set of arms grab his arms and pin them to his sides. Not good… "You have only one chance to tell me straight. Who is he?"

Alexander shakes slightly. He doesn't want to tell Angel who Richard is; he doesn't want him to get involved. No matter how strong Angel seems to be, Alexander can't risk it. Richard's dangerous, in more ways than one, especially when he's determined…

But he doesn't really have a choice…

"He's… well, he's an old ex-mate of mine…" Alexander avoids eye contact. He's not lying… He can tell him about Richard being a narcissistic psychotic stalker with a vendetta against him because Alexander managed to be good enough to win a place in his band. "A narcissistic cun-"

"Alexander?" Upon hearing the frantic sounding cry of Molly, both Alexander and Alexander get off each other to go to her. She sounds scared.

Everyone else stays in place when they leave the living room.

Both Angel and Alexander see Molly open the door and looks around frantically. She sees them speed walking over and she looks like she has calmed down, but they both don't like those tears in her eyes.

"Sis? You okay?" Angel walks a bit faster, pushing Alexander in front of him because he knows why she's freaking out. Alexander can practically hear Angel's thoughts and knows what he's doing.

"Darling, is everything alright?" Alexander asks as he's pushed in front of her. Molly instantly hugs Alexander and he ignores the pain, no matter how much it hurts, he won't say anything. Because, he can feel her tears through his shirt. He probably should have woken her up before he left.

He wraps his arms around her and pets her back. Now he feels bad. He must have scared her. He would be scared as well if their roles were switched.

Alexander feels Angel suddenly get pulled into the hug and assumes Molly pulled him in as well. He gives Angel a little smile as they both hold Molly, he smiles back and all three just enjoy the embrace.

Until a few seconds later when Angel pulls himself away. Both Molly and Alexander look over at him as he crosses his arms and appears a little bothered.

Angel closes his eyes and sighs, he looks back to them and states, in a softer voice "Get back to bed, we'll sort through things later, then you can go back home."

"Aye, aye, Captain." Alexander gives a mock salute while Molly pulls him along to get back inside. Maybe making a joke now is a little bit inappropriate, he can feel her grip on him turning a little tighter.

He manages to close the door as Molly pulls him to the bed. He winces slightly when he lands, but stays quiet when Molly cuddles beside him. She wraps two of her arms around him and he's able to sit up.

"Come back down." Molly mumbles and tugs his shirt, Alexander smiles down at her and rubs near his wound to ease the pain. She shifts herself to sit up as well "Does it hurt?"

"It hurts less when I'm sitting up." Alexander explains and Molly seems happy with that excuse. It's not a lie. It just feels less weird when he's sitting up, and yeah, it hurts less.

She lies back down and Alexander hesitantly lifts his hand over her head, he brushes his fingers through her hair and she reaches a hand up to entwine her fingers with his. Alexander gives a small laugh and Molly joins.

So they enjoy the peace they have.

But… Alexander probably needs to text his mates. Where's his phone? He looks around and sees a few things on the night stand. A clean shirt and his phone. Niffty probably cleaned the blood off his shirt.

He reaches over to grab his phone and he instantly turns it on. He sees so many notifications…

Alexander looks down at Molly and wonders if he could hide out in her place for a while. No, probably not, maybe he could stay in the Hotel for a while. He wonders if Molly would like to stay with him. It would be safer, considering what happened.

Alexander gives a silent sigh and tightens his hold with Molly's hand.

Hey. He texts the group chat and he doesn't need much time to get responses.

Where the fuck are you?! Wow, Jackson doesn't usually swear at him, he must be worried.

Are you okay? Hector seems calm.

WHY were you gone so long? Sam seems to be a little worried. Alexander's sure that he turned off cap mode mid text. He does that when he's worried, but he acts like he's fine.

NOW YOU RESPOND?! And the final one is Brandon. No surprise Brandon's texting in caps, he usually does that when he's freaked out.

Of course they're sending in more texts. Alexander needs to respond fast before they go haywire.

Sorry! I had to go! There was a misunderstanding with Molly but it's all sorted now. Hopefully that would keep them quiet. It's not exactly a lie, but it's not the truth.

Why? What happened? That's Jackson again.

What's wrong with Molly? Alexander doesn't really find it strange that Sam's worried about Molly. They get along well.

He notes that the other two have fallen silent. They're probably waiting for his response.

Nothing is wrong with Molly, that was the misunderstanding Alexander looks down at Molly and he sees her playing around with the blanket. She's probably tired. He doesn't blame her. He turns his attention back to his phone By the way I'm staying at the Hotel for a while just to sort out some things.

What kind of things? Alexander can practically feel Hector's disbelief shine on him like an interrogation light.

Apparently the Garden here is acting up at night the black bonsai lookin vine thing has a literal mind of its own. He's not lying. The Bonsai acts up more at night. If he tells them about… what happened… oh god, Alexander can't begin to think of what would happen, but he can't hide the fact he's injured forever…

You're staying back because of a tree?

Excuse you it's a beautiful tree and that's not the only reason… Alexander lets out a silent sigh and glances to Molly again, she's still and playing with something under the blanket. She must be tired, and Alexander feels guilty. It he worried Molly so much, he can't imagine what his mates would be feeling.

He looks back to the phone and sees someone typing. Should he tell them? No… he shouldn't… but they'll find out… ugh… what should he do?!

The quiet ding catches his attention. Alexander opens it and he pales slightly at the message in all caps. YOU GOT STABBED AGAIN

How did they know? How did they know? How did they know? Alexander is silently freaking out and shifting his fingers in Molly's hand. They're blasting his phone now. God, they're not going to let him outside for a while… How did you know?!

Molly texted us Alexander pauses at that answer. He glances back down at Molly and sees a faint smile on her lips… and her phone in her hand. Damn. But, he can't get mad at her.

Alexander hears a ding and looks to his messages. There's one that stands out, one that gives him chills. An inevitable sense of doom washed over Alexander as the rest of the texts suddenly stop. Only this one stands left, towering over the rest like a warlord conquering his enemy.

It's from his Boss. Tavern. Now.

Alexander groans and throws his phone to his side. He's not going to get out of this one easily…