The Grim's Daughter

Chapter Three:

After five minutes of gazing out of the window, the bus stopped outside a pub, where men and woman sat in the window, talking as they drank from their glasses. Nevaeh walked off the bus with her suitcase and waited at the bus stop whilst  Death thanked they driver and dragged the rest of their belongings from the bus. 

"The hotel should be somewhere around here," said Death, gazing around. He put the bags on the floor, but Nevaeh kept tight hold of hers. "I think it's called The Robinson Hotel... I'm not sure. Umm..." The bus drove past them, leaving them to gaze at a tall building. Death laughed, pointing at the hotel across the road. "How could I have missed that? We have to get there as fast as we can and put these things in our room. And after that, we'll buy something to eat."

They walked up to the traffic lights, watching the cars, taxis and buses drive past them. "How do we get across?" Nevaeh asked, following the cars with her eyes until they disappeared in the round-about. 

Death pressed the round, red button on the traffic lights and waited for the cars to stop at the green man. Nevaeh was puched across the road when everybody else started to walk. The building became bigger and bigger as they wandered closer. 

"I was thinking," said Nevaeh, trying to catch up with him. "Won't living in a hotel, where people wander in and out everyday, require some background information on us?"

"I've spent years watching the humans, so I have learnt a thing or two. Leave it to me," said Death, pressing his finger to his lips. 

The Robinson Hotel was much larger than the cottage in The Underworld. On the wall, above the glass entrance door was a hotel sign saying The Robinson  Hotel with a picture of a house, created out of lights. Death opened the glass door for Nevaeh.

The lounge was red and gold, with thick red roses that were placed neatly in golden flower pots and staff wearing red and cold ties with pinnies.Death moved closer to the check-in desk. "Can I help you?" asked the man behind the desk. He gave them an unwelcome glare. 

"Umm...yes. I phoned earlier," said Death, leaning on the table. 

"If you would just state your name, sir," said the man, looking at his computer. 

Death itched his ear. Nevaeh knew he had forgotten the name he had to live by. He looked at the man. "Ah, yes. My name... my name? Mr.Thompson. Sorry, it's been a long ride here, quite exhausted," he said, sighing in relief. 

"I see," said the man, rolling his mouse. "Why, Mr.Thompson, we have you right here. You'll get a bill sent to you every fortnight, sir. Toby, get this man's bags and take them to room 106!"

A man picked up some of the suitcases, but Death took hold of the rest. Toby took them up to the lift and pressed one of the two side buttons. After a few seconds, the doors opened and Death pushed her inside. The man pressed a button inside and waited. Nevaeh felt her legs go weak as the lift moved up, leaving the first floor. Then it came to a stop, the doors parting as a voice repeated the floor number. Nevaeh jumped at the noise and quickly hurried out of the lift, after her father, before the doors slammed shut behind her. 

Toby led them down to their room in the Corrian hotel and turned the rusty looking key in the small key-hole. He handed Death the key after taking everything into the first room and left Death, searching through his coat pocket for a tip, then took the money gratefully from his cold hands. 

"Thankyou, sir. I'm so sorry, your name has suddenly slipped out of my mind. Mr... Mr..."

"Thompson," said Death, interupting Toby as he stuttered nervously. "George Thompson." Death dropped the hotel key on the coffee table and walked back toward the door. 

"Have a pleasant stay," said Toby. After shaking Death's hands, the man waved to Nevaeh who was giving an unwelcome glare as he closed the door to room 106.

"George Thompson?" said Nevaeh, laughing hysterically while crouched, holding her stomach. "Is that the best you could do?"

"I wouldn't laugh if I were you, Anna!" grinned Death. 

Nevaeh stopped laughing and gave a cold glance while meeting her father's dark eyes. "Anna?"

"Yes. Anna. Now take your things to your room," he said, pointing to the room with an open door. "Hurry, before I decide to give you a middle name."

"This is the worst day ever," she muttered quietly under her breath. She was thankful that he would be at work most of the time, so she would not have to see very much of her father. 

The room was at a likeable size, but it looked like every colour in the room had faded. The walls were a dirty cream colour and the carpet had stains in almost every spot. Nevaeh left her only trunk under the half-moon mirror and hung her jacket from the frame's golden leaves, making the gold scrape even more under the edges. 

A small dainty desk hid below the window frame, collecting dust on it's white surface. A yellow cotten quilt as tightly wrapped a nd tucked around the bed that stood in the darkest corner of the room. 

Nevaeh took a look around the dismal room, opening many draws and playing with the blinds they had jammed, leaving her to look across the tiny ally at the other hotel room. "I don't like it," she yelled, "It stinks!"

"Just pretend you like it," shouted Death, who was trying to work out the television remote in the front room. 

She fell onto the bed, creaing wrinkles in the yellow quilt. It was early in the morning, most of the humans would have been in bed at the hour, waiting for the sun to reappear with it's bright beam and wake them up from their pleasant dreams. The bus ride had taken them an hour or so, while late. 

Nevaeh pulled a creased picture out of her mother, and dropped her shoulder bag onto the floor, not noticing to books had fallen to the floor already. "It's not much, is it?" said Nevaeh; it was carming to think her mother would be listening to her words as she spoke. 

Nevaeh placed the photo in the mirror frame where she could see it. Across the ally she saw someone at their desk, sitting by the window as they read. She looked at the girl, she was about Nevaeh's age. The girl looked up and smiled when she met Nevaeh's eyes. Nevaeh closed the blinds and hurried for the door to find her father.