As the sun set, Riley wondered if they should stop in London to get an inn, but Grell made that decision for her.
"Let's camp out tonight under the stars!" he exclaimed excitedly.
Riley looked over at him, surprised. She hadn't taken him for a wilderness type of person.
"What?" Riley asked, confused.
"We can lay in the field and look up at the starry sky and tell stories!" Grell explained, making fists and putting them under his chin like a child.
"You're a romantic at heart, Grell," Riley commented, blandly, her hands in her pockets.
"Absolutely!" Grell replied, sticking his tongue out at her and giving her a hand gesture. "It's not only in my heart! I'm a romantic on the outside, as well, darling!"
"Hm," Riley huffed, as if she were pretending to be interested.
She pulled out her water canister and started to take a drink when Grell muttered to himself.
"Speaking of romance, I miss my Bassy!" Grell mumbled suddenly.
"Who's Bassy?" Riley asked, bringing the canister to her lips and taking a drink.
"Who's Bassy!" Grell repeated in disbelief. "Sebastian, my ex-lover."
Riley did choke this time, and almost dropped the water canister.
She recovered quickly, though.
"Are you alright, there, my dear?" Grell asked, giving her a worried glance.
"Yes," Riley replied, deciding to just be blunt with him. "Just... Surprised me, is all. You fancy men?"
"Who doesn't?" Grell exclaimed, excitedly, bringing his fists up to his chin again. "And of course, I never touched Bassy, if that's what surprised you. I only call him my lover as a sort of joke." He paused, then tacked on at the end: "But secretly, I know he desired me."
"Al...right," Riley replied, with an uncomfortable expression.
"Honestly, darling, men aren't the only ones I fancy," Grell added, with a wink. "I'm in for the beauty."
"Beauty," Riley repeated, as if that could make sense somehow. "Right."
"Right!" Grell exclaimed, with a laugh. "Let's make camp now! I have a scary story that'll knock your socks off!"
Riley hesitated, but agreed.
"So the kid walked in to the room, and the noise got louder and louder..." Grell said, toward the end of his story.
They had two blankets out in the grass, and they were laying on them, staring up at the sky.
Grell told the story while waving his arms, even though he was on his back.
"And the lamp flickered off, suddenly! And the kid was cast in the dark! And wham! The door slammed shut!" Grell exclaimed. "And there it was! The ghost of his later grandmother, standing behind him! The kid screamed, and turned around! And the grandmother's ghost said, 'You shouldn't have lied to the police' and opened it's mouth wide. A bright light shined down the grandmother's throat, like the lamp the kid had used to set the fire..." Grell gave a dramatic pause. "And the kid was never seen again! The end!"
He barked an evil laugh, as Riley stared up at the sky with wide eyes. Riley had expected Grell's scary story to be about honey in his hair or getting lost, but the one he'd just told had actually been pretty frightening.
"How'd you like that?" Grell laughed.
"That was actually one of the scariest stories I've ever heard," Riley admitted. "You're a talented story teller."
"Well, thank you, cupcake!" Grell replied, actually sounding slightly embarrassed. "It's just a little something I picked up along my years."
The silence resumed for a moment, and Riley heard thunder in the distance.
"Hey," she said, suddenly, looking up where Grell's voice was coming from. It was too dark to see him, though.
"What?" Grell asked, his voice not quite as dramatic.
"Do reapers sleep, then?" Riley inquired.
He barked a laugh.
"Every once in a while, darling," Grell replied, his voice returning to normal. "We can. We just don't have to every night."
"I see," Riley said, feeling her eyes grow heavy. "Do you dream?"
"Dream?" Grell repeated. "Everyone dreams."
"Do you have nightmares?" Riley continued, closing her eyes and listening to the thunder.
"Everyone has nightmares," Grell replied, sounding confused.
Riley thought about his answers for a minute, and wondered.
She wanted to ask him another question, but she fell asleep before she got a chance.
Grell laid on his blanket, listening as the Riley girl breathed in her sleep. She'd fallen asleep before he'd gotten to ask her his questions, and that just did not seem acceptable to Grell.
In the morning, he'd question her about things he was curious about. She really did intrigue him, though, more than she should.
It was interesting to Grell how she kept her emotions bottled so tightly, especially with a disturbing past like her own.
In complete honesty, he expected her to break soon. Nobody could live like she had.
She willingly killed people, every single day.
Grell was a reaper, and was used to seeing the dead. But it took a toll on him, and he'd been doing it for much longer than Riley had. He also usually wasn't the cause of the deaths, either.
Grell sighed as he listened to the thunder in the distance.
Why did he always have to get so emotionally involved?
He was a mess.