The glamourous settings with splendid interior designs had the girl unbelievably gawking at every corner. Versatile black marble floor shining in the hallway with bright ceiling lighting was exhibiting spacious look. The little fawn was following grim as if she was a lost cat who got a slight hit by the man's car who was heading towards this place for dinner but he had to carry her along as a small apology. However, grim was that rude master who would never show an ounce of care. He just had his status and prestige to hold and for that, he would go beyond all the boundaries even if it meant to tag along a passing-by-cat.
Passing through the hallway, they entered the dining area where Ellen stood at the entrance staring at the outside-the-box ceiling design in wonder. She had never been through such a luxurious place before. Her parents used to have dinners in some restaurants downtown but none of those were this grand and expensive. On the south of the restaurant, the LED-lit glass cylinders suspended from the ceiling were giving the place more of an opulent look. The paintings hung on the wall were illuminating by accent lights. However, the dim-lit walls lightening made the place look warmer in contrast with the hallway which was luminously coloured with brilliant lightning on the ceiling. The warm atmosphere was giving intimate vibes.
"This way, please", Ellen was snapped out of her journey of exploring the place when a waiter asked her to follow him. She blinked at him to process the situation and followed the direction of his hand to find grim already seated on a table, annoyingly looking at the former for spacing out, twice.
She hesitantly followed the waiter and sat across grim. The waiter handed her the menu. After a while when he asked for her order, she looked at grim. She hadn't even finished reading the names of all the dishes on the menu yet.
"Bring your best dishes", grim said. The waiter nodded and walked off.
Grim came to the place once when he flew to earth for his task roughly thirty years ago, before Ellen was even born. He had to write the name of a man who was having dinner at this place with his family. The cause of his death was congestive heart failure. He simply walked in, wrote his name and walked out without sparing a glance at the seven-year-old who was enjoying the meal with his parents. And why would he in the first place? Would it make any difference if he showed mercy to his prey? Absolutely no.
Whether he cared or not, looked at his targets or not, wanted or not, it never mattered. People might have thought of him as a cold, stone-hearted being, however, the reality was that he was created to write the names in the Death Note. Just like people hated death for it was painful truth and adored life, for being a beautiful lie, they loathed grim reapers for writing the names. To them,
if a reaper would refuse to write the name of those who were young and needed by their families, they would get to live more. Well, even if a grim reaper had done that, what would happen to him? Who would face the diverse consequences? Nobody had an answer to that because nobody ever went for such an insane act.
To be loyal to the responsibility grim was created for, he shut off his heart. Any type of emotion that could have him stumble and fall over had been blocked by him, putting the mockers on the side of the brain that could act emotionally. Emotionally? He refused to act under that state of mind that could provoke a change in his behaviour and thoughts quite ages ago. He chose. He chose for what he was created for.
Rather to be a prey, he preferred to be a hunter. A cut-throat hunter.
"Why did you bring me here?", Ellen whispered in an audible voice. The place was exceptionally decent to have dined at, and exceptionally expensive as well. When she was having the menu in her hands, her eyes were staying on the right side of it rather than the left one which had names of various dishes. Upon the waiter asking her for the order, she looked at grim because she wanted to tell him about the expensive meals and that they should go somewhere cheaper but he simply ordered.
"Didn't you say you were hungry?", grim responded, his voice void of emotions as always.
"Yes, but I said cafe. Have you troubled hearing? Even if I work my a*s off for my whole life, I still can't pay for the meal you've ordered. It's not late yet. Let's leave before they come", she got to her feet, grabbing the bag from the chair.
"Sit down", as much grim was having a good time with the little fawn, he was irritated on the top when she would talk and act without knowing the details of the matter. Just as she opened her mouth to talk back, the waiters came with different dishes and laid them out on the table. The waiters were giving her is-there-any-problem Miss? Yes, there was a problem. She didn't have money to pay for this extremely expensive meal. When she saw grim staring at her, she was forced to sit back.
"Enjoy your meal", they smiled at them and walked away.
"Eat up before it gets cold", Ellen looked at all the tasty dishes before her and back at grim. Only if he had stopped by the cafe on the way to her house, she wouldn't be contemplating whether to eat or not. But it couldn't be undone now. They were gonna charge them if they would eat or not so why not eat and work all night cleaning the place with filled stomachs. It sounded a little satisfactory to her. So she attacked the table. In the middle of eating, she noticed grim hadn't touched anything.
"Why are you not eating?", she asked slurping the soup.
Instead of coming with 'I never felt hunger' he replied with "I'm not hungry."
"You must have never eaten such good food. Better make some space in your stomach. Here, try this one. Ahhh", taking a spoonful of the soup, she scooted up a little from her seat and brought it close to his face.
Grim blankly stared at the girl. What the girl thought of him! He was a grim reaper for life's sake, not a three-year-old to feed spoonfuls!
"Hurry, hurry", to prevent the velvety clothe from getting ruined by the soup drops, she brought her other hand under the spoon. His mouth subconsciously opened and the little fawn shoved the spoon straight into his mouth. It looked like a master feeding the puppy. How unbelievably they were switching their roles. A lost cat following her new master and a poor puppy getting forcefully eaten by his master.
Too romantic for their not-so-romantic lives.
"How's it? Tasty?", she sat back on the chair.
When the soup passed down his throat, he felt his stomach muscles curling, the soup coming up to his throat.
"Finish before I come", with a disgusted face he walked to the restroom to empty his stomach. To puke out the one spoonful of soup.
"Ungrateful brat", Ellen continued savouring the taste of delicious, mouth-watering dishes.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you coming", when she leaned back in the chair, filling the stomach with lavish food, she was two persons bumping into each other. One was a boy who looked around the same age as her and the other was a man.
The boy was wearing glasses, dark brown hair covering his forehead, a turtle-neck shirt paired with white pants and a bag slung over his shoulder, apparently looking like a student. He crouched down and collected his scattered papers on the floor. After collecting them, he made his way towards the exit. However, an envelope was left unnoticed by him. Ellen got up from the chair and bent to grab the white envelope.
"To someone special", she read out the line on the backside of the envelope.
"It must be important. I should bring it to him", she looked at the restroom side. There were no signs of grim coming out. Having only one thought in her mind, that was giving the envelope to the owner, she ran. Exiting the hallway she saw him opening the door of a car.
Stepping down the stairs, she ran after him.
Without knowing the details, she acted again. Oblivious to what she was running into, she ran. She ran as if she was running from her death. Nobody was certain though.
Was she running from her death or towards her death?