The Grim's Daughter

Chapter Seven:

A bird woke Nevaeh next morning with it's sorrowful cries, but it wasn't Thrindle. Nevaeh looked around the room, not realising where she was for a moment, not understanding what was going on. She was home. 

Thrindle was not around now, and she was layed in her bed, watching the ceiling. Nevaeh could hear the rushing water from outside and the wind, hitting the walls, and sneaking through the gaps, causing drafts in the house. 

"Dad?" she asked. That was the only sulution, he had came back and brought her to the underworld; but why? She got no answer. The house was silent. 

Nevaeh jumped out of the bed, calling for anyone, but nobody came. Nevaeh walked into the landing, and crept downstairs, she hated the creaking foorboards underneith her feet. Nevaeh saw that a lot of things had been left, like paintings, furniture and stuff; did Death plan to come back?

She rushed on the clothes she had been wearing before Death chucked some clothes at her, they were lying on the floor of the bathroom. 

She ran out of the house, slamming the door behind her. The town was only across the few fields. The plants in the garden had tied and curled up under the tree, even though the tree was still heathly with it's long branches and dark levaes. It seemed like they had been gone years when she looked back at the house's broken windows and dead garden.

By the time she got there, she had already realised that nobody was around; the place was abandoned. Until she heard children laughing. Nevaeh ran down the street, so she could see the children's faces, ask them what exactly was going on? A young boy, around the age of seven, bumped into her but kept on walking while she stood there, amaze and mostly speachless from lack of air. Then, the boy turned back, standing still as he watched her crouch over in pain. She had finally recovered, when a girl even younger than him took his hand and pulled him away. "Come on, mam and dad will want us home now."

It was impossible. The whole town had vanished, and she was alone. Nevaeh's feet felt weak after running about. She collapsed on a pile of hay that had been left out, rubbing her sore soles. "What if the whole underworld has vanished, leaving me behind?" she wondered. "No, don't think that, Nevaeh! Dad wouldn't just leave me, of course he wouldn't!"

Nevaeh tried to hold the tears back, but they ran down her face, leaving small tear stains; she didn't have the strenght to hold them back any longer. But he was nowhere, nobody was.

Suddenly, in the far distance, a woman cried. Nevaeh walked over to the gates of the cemetary, noticing people as she came closer. Roy Burnes had his face tucked into his hankercheif with his initials embroided on. Keife, the town's witch, offered him a boiled cockroach from her tub, and greedily took one for herself when he shook his head. 

Nevaeh walked closer, but felt the crowd push her forward as she tried to get past the large crowd. She looked back, noticing everyone's faces, their eyes red and sore, with tears sticking to their faces. Nevaeh turned her head back round towards the grave, taking another small step forward. She could hear voices from behind her. 

"Is that the girl?"

"Yes, poor child."

"Adria, don't talk to loud, she could hear you!"

"Of course she will if you don't quiten, Lucien."

Are they talking about me, Nevaeh wondered. Well they aren't talking about the person in the grave, are they?

Nevaeh was closer to the open grave now, so close that if she took another step, she would fall intp the open grave. She leaned over, reading the gold plate. 

Death Stolhem.

Nevaeh jumped back, almost tripping over some peoples' feet. Someone quickly helped her back onto her feet, while everyone grew a circle around her. The reapers were stood with their hoods back on. How clumsy she looked. She didn't know what to do exactly, with everyone  crowding her. Some of the people tried to tell her it was going to be alright. But it wouldn't, not with Death gone.