When A Life Is Lost (NaNoWriMo 2013)

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Ania woke later that morning. Later than usual. She didn’t have a nightmare tonight, which was a relief to say the least. She stretched looking forward to see Malus mirroring her actions sub-consciously. She smiled, but it fell from her face when he looked over at her.

She was still pretty angry with him about yesterday. It was like having an overprotective mother hovering all the time. He didn’t trust her to go anywhere by herself. She couldn’t even get a room by herself without him complaining. It was an understatement to say that it was starting to annoy her.

She ignored his attempts at conversation, wandering into the bathroom to shower and get dressed, as Malus attempted to rouse a sleepy Alykana.

By the time she was ready, a lethargic Alykana wandered past her, muttering about getting up early and late nights.

This left Malus and Ania in the main room alone, with time to spare. It was a little awkward to say the least. Ania sat on the bed, grabbing the remote and watching the first channel that came up – the hotel information. She was so unfocused that she didn’t even realise at first.

“Interesting program.” Malus remarked, perching on the bed beside her, “But can I change the channel?”

Ania glared at Malus and kept grasp of the remote, refusing to relinquish hold on it.

“Fine.” He stated, with a little chuckle, “Obviously I can see that you love this.”

Malus got up from next to Ania and walked over to Alykana’s bed. He fell backwards onto it and put his hands behind his head, lounging lazily.

“I’m hungry,” he complained, looking over to Ania, “When is Alykana going to be ready?”

Ania gave a quiet groan – she knew he was only doing that to annoy her. She kept her gaze on the hotel information though.

Breakfast at seven? That’s a bit early.

Malus jumped up from the bed, grabbing one of the suitcases from the doorway. He grabbed a jacket and pulled it on, his arms momentarily blocking Ania’s view of the TV. She knew that he did it on purpose, both because it was Malus and because he gave her an ‘oblivious’ grin from where he was standing.

She refused to be deterred by his efforts. She casually scrolled through the information, and found an odd section about renting films, which had a selection of trailers for films that the hotel offered for hire.

“The Ruby. Follow the story of our Queen as she grew up until she became our Queen. Cameos by-“

The trailer was cut short as the TV shut off, scaring Ania. She looked around the room, to see Malus holding the plug that would give power to the TV in his hands. So he’d finally gotten tired of her ignoring him.

Perfect.

Malus began to speak, but was interrupted by a returning Alykana. She jumped in, looking a lot more awake and a lot more like her normal self.