Miranda [Watty Awards 2013]

Chapter 3

Grim threw a log into the fire, not aged a single year. Unlike me. I stood in the doorway, not feeling welcome, despite his cheerful manner.

            "Lexi!" he said, giving me a broad smile. "It's still Alexa, isn't it?"

            I nodded stiffly.

            "Hm. You're going to have to change that when you find a new house."

            "I know."

            I shifted my stance, feeling the tension thick through the air. It had been a while since I'd seen Grim, a while since my last long-term, which hadn't really been long-term after all. Sometime had gone wrong the day I'd arrived, and my meeting with Grim had been for nothing.

            Grim had started taking me with him to work when I was eleven. I started getting my own assignments at thirteen. And two years later, I got long-terms, where I am now. Grim had left me on my own when I got solo jobs, and since then I've only seen him sparingly.

            I guess you could say I'd long since grown bitter towards him, angry that he used me so much. I wanted my own life, my own independence, but this man who I couldn't even call Dad would not let me have that freedom. I just had to see what he wanted and move on.

            He stared at me, masking cold eyes. "You know that you can come in, sweetie."

            I nodded. "I know. I just don't want to."

            He sighed, settling down on a leather couch with a groan. "Oh, Lexi. You've grown so much since the last time I saw you."

            I had to hide rolling my eyes, because I knew that even though I didn't need to deal with him I could not disrespect him. Terrible things happened to those who got in the way of Grim, of Death, and I was not too keen on figuring out just what he did to them. I may be his only daughter, but that would not stop him from delivering justice.

            "Why don't you ever use my real name?" I asked, and he flinched, like I'd tried to slap him.

            For a while now I'd become more difficult, asking him questions I already knew the answer to. The point was that I didn't understand his explanations, or just didn't like them, and I wanted him to answer them the way I knew he could. I just wanted him to be honest with me.

            As I'd grown up, things had become more and more secretive between me and Grim. I didn't like that. At all. I didn't like the lies, being treated like a child. I was not a child anymore; I'd done my job just like he had. The daughter of Grim does not get an easy way out, and she does not grow mellow from it. She grows strong.

            Grim had never used my real name, not once in my life. When I was younger, he trained me not to answer to my name, although I know what it is, and he gave me new names when I couldn't come up with any on my own. It was part of protection, he said, because nobody should ever know my real name.

            "Names have power, Lexi," he said wearily, tired of having the same arguments over and over. He knew this would not be a smooth visit. "You can never let your real name be discovered."

            Of course I know this, and I know that it is true. The arguments that I have with Grim are not because I disagree, but simply because I don't want him to feel that he has control over me. Everything that Grim tells me is the truth, and I know better than to try testing it. I may not be his perfect little daughter anymore, but if I had learned nothing else I had learned not to doubt him.