CHAPTER THREE
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The horrifying scene remained etched at the back of her eyelids. Mortems eat humans. Chewy flesh washed down with still crimson blood. Now, Madam was a witness to what could possibly happen to a human that was unwanted in Death's Tier. What they did to trespassers. They had to know now. The Tier guards had to realize that she was a human as well. Marked or not, she ran away like a prisoner trying to escape Alcatraz. Eleanora's feet carried her all the way back through the alleyway, and to the hotel. A dark carriage advanced up the pavement pulled by nothing but nonexistent puppet strings, shocked to a halt as she flew past it and to the hotel door, where she threw it open, and rushed inside.
"What in the..."
The receptionist's attention locked on her as she ran past the lobby in a mad dash. He shook his head and blinked a couple of times as if he, death himself, had seen a ghost. No longer did she care about everyone around her. Up the batch of stairs to the second floor, and her hand swerved the rail as she turned the corner. Longing to be in her cooped-up room alone, that just where Madam fled and slammed the door shut behind her. What an uproar. The hallway now settling again from the sudden burst of activity. To the warm bed she went, and sat down, still, deep in thought. This was just a fraction of the many possibilities that William could have landed, and she takes it as the same for her. William had said himself that it was just a matter of time before they found her too, and they are by far aware that she was rogue. How foolish will they be to give every human that claims they will not to hurt them a little chance? God forbid, the tales that she always heard as a little girl comes true. "Death's Door" they called it. Knocking on Death's Door was the ultimate demise according to the humans and the heinous stories they told. Taken straight to the Tier Head, to stand in front of his towering entrance. Waiting patiently to be killed by the Mortem Tier Head of 18 himself. Standing up slowly, she began to reconsider her confidence about making it without being caught. To the window, she slowly slid the curtains back and gazed upon the lit and busy city. Her eyes locked with it, the exact spot where she had witnessed the horrendous scene. The crowd was back to a normality, a flow. Almost like a snack. Madam had to get her mind away from the thoughts, so she turned and gazed out the window to the next thing that grabbed at her attention.
No, the perfect view of the towering mansion, higher than any building and piercing the clouds, did not console the sickening feeling. The Tier Head's Mansion seemed to climb above the city for its view, beautiful, yet to a fugitive it was sickening to know that the man that lead these dead beings, and could potentially kill her lies behind those exquisite and beautifully built walls. Lit from the inside, and Mortem flags with its "Three Moon" insignia printed smoothly on it.
"You know, Elenora, that a new Head takes the old ones place every hundred human years? That's incredible! I mean, think about that in human terms! That exceeds past thousands and thousands of years by a landslide, in their time!"
The conversations Ann had with her crawled its way into her thoughts. What kind of powerful Mortem lived behind those doors, waiting to catch and kill all the rogues? Waiting to hook childish humans that thought prancing in enemy territory was like a game you would play on a late Saturday afternoon. Just exhausted, thats all she was, yet her eyes couldn't retreat from the sight the beautiful building treated her with. It was as if she was being rocked to sleep and fright was her caring mother.
"Maybe... I should read... I could get my mind off of..."
No reason to finish the sentence. Closing the curtains trying to end the show, her eyes never left the building. Backing away in small, meager steps, she sat on the bedside, slipping her small heels off and lining them perfectly by the bedside. The book sat nicely on the nightstand, waiting to be read. The mansion still engraved to the back of her eyelids, she saw it when she blinked. This was her refuge, the small ribbon saved her place. Stretching its spine, learning the paragraphs of entries, becoming absorbed and completely oblivious to the passage of time. Everything was shut in with an unnerved feeling.
