A while later, after many trips to various shops, the man finally returned to a particularly shabby-looking motel and entered, talking to the woman at the desk, who was busy filing her nails, her feet on the desk. She looked up at the man and plastered an extremely false smile on her face, handing over a set of keys with a green tag on them. It said '34'. It was a room number. The man left and walked up the crumbling stairs, waving behind him. The woman shrugged and went back to her nails. Ariana decided to be friendly as she walked in. She would only kill the lady a little bit.
The rest of the dying bit would totally not be her fault.
"Hey," Ariana said casually as she strolled in through the glass doors. The woman glanced up as Ariana wandered over. Her name tag said 'Amanda'.
"Um, who was that guy who was just here?" Ariana asked. Amanda raised an eyebrow.
"Why? Ya know him?"
"If I knew him, then I wouldn't be asking who he was, now would I?"
"I dunno, maybe. It's not my job to be smart about people who come in. I'm just the one who hands out the keys."
"Can you at least answer one question?"
"... What?"
"Does anyone live with him?"
"Uh, one girl lives with him, his little sister he said. Lexi, I think her name is. Weird kid. His name is Jacob."
"Okie doke. Can I go see him?"
"Not unless you have a key," said Amanda suddenly, sitting up straight and looking Ariana in the eye. So she picks now to be serious? Yeah, that doesn't work, thought Ariana.
"I don't have a key. Give me one, then." Ariana said tonelessly, stepping forward, hand out. Amanda shook her head.
"Sorry, no pay, no reservations, no key."
"You don't get it, do you?"
"Explain then-"
"I can't explain-"
"Just tell me-"
"You wouldn't get it-"
"What wouldn't I-"
"Just shut up and let me through, you stupid idiot!" snarled Ariana, her eyes flashing. Her fist crashed onto the desk, sending pens, paper and a nail file flying. Amanda backed up, but she couldn't go far because of the wall.
"I-I can't... I'll be fired..."
Ariana clicked her fingers, summoning a tiny flame in her hand.
"If I were you, my job would be the last thing I'd be worrying about. I reckon that, oh, maybe living would be a top priority." Amanda shrank down so that Ariana couldn't see her behind the desk. She in turn held her hand against the desk so the tiny flickering of the fire started eating at the wood of the polished furniture. A faint whirring sound behind her alerted her to the presence of a security camera and she turned to see the small round device trained on her. She moved to cover the small fire and gestured to the camera, which rattled and exploded, leaving a torn bundle of sparking wires poking through the wall. She was desperately hoping no-one saw that. The desk was literally crumbling in the fire, ash from papers, melted plastic from pens and burnt pencils covering the top and spilling onto the shivering form of Amanda, who looked up into the angry face of the Elemental standing over her.
"F-freak..." she whispered.