The Reaper Child: Book II [Child!Reader Protagonist]

~Chapter 5~

Grell quickly grabbed her keys and unlocked the door. She gave the door knob a twist before pushing it open. You followed her as she entered the house.

"Here we are!" Grell tossed her keys on a small table by the entrance. She removed her red overcoat and threw it on the floor against the wall. "Oh, before you get in here, take your shoes off and leave them by the door. It's one of Will's rules we ought to follow," Grell said as she removed her own heels and threw them to the side as well, but nowhere near the entrance.

You nodded and followed her instructions. This wasn't anything atypical to you. Back in your foster care life, it was a common rule for all the children to follow. The last thing in your foster parents busy lives needed was ten children running around tracking mud all over the place. But when you saw that Grell did something completely different to what she just told you to do, you frowned and said, "Hey! Why aren't you putting YOUR shoes by the door? I thought you said that was a rule!"

Grell waved a hand in dismissal. "I'll fix it later. I just don't feel like it right now."

"But-"

"Honey," Grell interrupted you. "I know what I'm doing. I've been living here much longer than you have." When she saw your scowling face, she laughed. "Come, let me show you around!" She took you by the hand and led you forward through a short hallway past a flight of stairs.

"Here is our living room. We spend most of our time here." Grell gestured to the right. You looked to see a large room with a light grey, comfy-looking sectional sofa placed against a wall with a large window. The sofa was covered with various pillows and plush blankets, some folded while others were scattered. Half of those blankets were red while others were neutral colors. Directly across the sofa was a dormant fireplace that connected to the chimney. Several feet above the fireplace was a plasma, the largest television you've ever seen in your life. It reminded you of a movie theater.

"Just there is our backyard with our patio." Grell pointed to the glass door to the left of the sofa. "We have a table out there. When the weather is nice, we eat out there. We also have our kitchen just to the left here with our dining room." Grell was now speaking a little bit faster, as if she wanted to get this tour talk over with.

"And that's all there is to this floor," Grell concluded. "I'll show you to your room now." She took you up the stairs that led into a dark hallway before Grell switched on the dim lights. There were a total of three doors: One at the end of the hallway, one to the left, and one to the right. Grell opened up the one on the right.

"Here is your room!" Grell made a dramatic gesture as you walked in. "Well, there isn't much else to show you, darling. I hope you like it here. Why don't you explore your room a bit and make yourself at home? I'm going to go downstairs and see what we have to eat. I'm sure you're starving!"

Coincidentally, your stomach growled. Loudly. You clutched your stomach and felt heat rising to your cheeks.

"Those bastards didn't even feed you. You poor thing," Grell said, having clearly heard the noise from your stomach. She shook her head and gazed at you sympathetically. Though Grell's statement wasn't true. You were fed at lunchtime, but your anxiety leading up to Grell's arrival made it so you merely had a few bites of your meal. Before you could correct her, she turned and left the room.

"Wait!" You called out to the redhead, just before she began descending the stairs.

"Yes?" Grell looked at you over her shoulder.

After a moment's hesitation, you asked, "Is it alright if I call you mum?"

"No," Grell scoffed and rolled her eyes. "I CLEARLY went through all this hassle to bring you here just so you can't call me that." But when she saw that you lowered your head in embarrassment from that harsh and sarcastic remark, she chuckled and padded over to you. She knelt down to your level and pulled you into a tight hug. "Of course you can, darling. I'll come get you when lunch is ready." She gave you a quick kiss on the forehead before standing. You watched as she headed downstairs, leaving you alone in the hallway.

You walked back into your bedroom and took a look around. The room wasn't quite as big as the one you had back at that foster home, but it certainly wasn't small either.

To your absence of surprise, the walls were painted red. In front of you to the right was a simple bed. The covers were, again, red. To the left of the bed was a wardrobe closet. You padded over to it and opened it. Inside was a variety of clothing attire including shirts, sweaters, pants, etc. They all looked like they would fit you.

A good amount of those clothes were red too.

Grell was right when she said that the color red would be a large part of your life. Regardless of whether red was your favorite color or not, that didn't matter. Though the clothes you were currently wearing weren't terrible, the ones in front of you were much nicer. And this whole room was yours.

You shut the wardrobe closed and saw a shelf just to the left of it. There was a decent collection of children's books. Some you were familiar with, others you haven't seen before. But there were some books on the shelves that caught your attention. They all had Shakespeare written on the spines. You pulled one of them out to see a title called Romeo and Juliet.

You've never heard of such a title before, and it certainly didn't look like a children's book. You put the book back on the shelf, making a mental note to yourself to ask Grell about it later.