The youthful face of a brown-skinned young man, around the same age Rey herself should have been, peered around the door. He frowned, but not in an unfriendly or grumpy manner. "Who are you?"
Rey stood up straight, well, as straight as her body would allow her to. "My name is Rey and… and if you had any respect for your elders, you would open the door and let me in," she replied in what she hoped was an authoritative tone. She didn't feel afraid. She was certain that the young man in front of her couldn't be the wizard; she couldn't feel even the slightest aura of maliciousness from him.
"As much as I do respect my elders, I'm not going to let you in. I have no idea of who you are, where you're from—"
"As I said, my name is Rey, I am…ninety years old,"—she gave a stab in the dark about her age—"I'm from Hanna City, and now will you let me in?"
The young man opened the door more, albeit rather reluctantly.
A voice yelled from behind, "What are you doing Finn?! Shut that door you idiot! Don't let the old bat in!"
Was that Kylo Ren? Rey wondered, but by the time the voice had finished speaking, she had pushed past Finn and promptly sat down in an armchair in front of the fireplace. She looked around but saw no other figure who could have spoken. Brushing off her bewilderment over where the voice had come from, she settled into her seat, her weary body finally getting a proper rest.
The voice suddenly piped up grumpily, "Who in the world are you and why are you here?"
She heard a cackle as she looked around wildly. Her mouth dropped open as she noticed a face in the blaze in front of her. The fire was somehow alive and talking.
There was a slight smirk and the voice added in a hopeful tone, expecting her to leg it at any moment, "Before you even ask, I'm a fire demon."
"A demon?!"
Finn rolled his eyes. "Don't worry about him, he's more of a nuisance than a demon."
"Hey!" the fire demon retorted adamantly. "I'll have you know that I am as evil and devilish as they come."
"Hux, you're more high maintenance than Kylo, you liar. Speaking of which, he should have been here over an hour ago. Where is he?" Finn said as he calmly poured a mysterious lime-green powder into a small cauldron of violet-coloured liquid bubbling away.
"How should I know?"
"Well, you're the one who's—" But before Finn could finish, a tall figure opened the door.
Rey gasped as she recognised the familiar man entering the room.
She had met Wizard Ren at the anniversary celebration.
Thank goodness I didn't keep talking to him, Rey thought to herself, I don't even want to think what could have happened to me.
Kylo stopped suddenly as he noticed Rey. He studied the old woman sitting in the armchair. "Have we met before?"
"No," Rey replied abruptly. "Why?"
Kylo shrugged. "You just seem familiar." He walked over to Finn and looked in his cauldron. "Looks good, well done."
Rey was confused; he certainly didn't look or behave how she expected an evil wizard to. She was expecting to see another Snoke, not an attractive twenty-something-year-old man. Kylo walked over to Rey. He was a lot taller than she remembered. Mind you, the last time she saw him she wasn't stooped over with age. She recalled their first encounter. Whose heart had he stolen that day? Which poor girl had fallen victim to him?
She raised herself from the chair and glared at him. "You're a monster."
"Yes, I am," he replied seriously.
There was a pause before Hux and Finn laughed loudly.
"Kylo's not a monster," Finn said with a snort. "Sure, he's a dickhead, but he is definitely not monster."
"Yes, I am a monster. You've just forgotten how evil and heartless I am." He glared at Finn, sending him into another fit of laughter. He looked helplessly at the fire demon. "Do I even have any authority in my own home?"
"Authority? You?" Hux chortled.
"You shut up." He ran a hand through his raven hair and turned back to Rey with a weary sigh. "First of all, who are you? Secondly, why are you here?"
"I'm... I'm..." She tried her hardest to tell Kylo the truth, but Snoke certainly did a good job of making sure she couldn't even insinuate she was under a spell. She gritted her teeth in frustration and lied.
"I'm your cleaning lady."
Kylo looked at Finn and raised his eyebrows.
Finn put his hands up. "It wasn't me. I didn't call for her."
"This could be a nice place if it was a bit cleaner…" said Rey.
"It is a nice place!" Kylo exclaimed adamantly.
It wasn't.
Spiderwebs decorated every corner, dust coated every shelf, dirty dishes were piled up in the kitchen sink, and frankly, Rey didn't know what colour the rug on the floor was supposed to be.
If Rey was to convince Kylo to let her be the cleaning lady, she had to play the part. Hux looked at Rey suspiciously as she ran a finger over the mantlepiece. She drew it back and waved a very dusty finger in front of Kylo's face. "Look at this! It's filthy here."
Kylo frowned. The feisty woman in front of him did not seem to be one to back down easily. "I have a horrible feeling that you're not going to leave me alone. If I give you a one-month trial, when it's over, will you go away and let me, my fire demon and my apprentice be?"
One month. Surely that would be enough time to figure out a way to get the wizard to break the spell. Rey nodded and stuck out a knobbly and age-spotted hand for him to shake. He clasped hers and quickly ducked away into another room. Rey gave a sigh of relief and sat back down in the armchair. Rey heard Finn huff behind her, "I should have used the bathroom before he came back. Why do I never learn?"
Seeing the look of confusion on Rey's face, Finn explained, "He's going to be in there for ages, and Hux has been pretty lazy today—"
"Hey! I work hard to keep this bloody building from falling apart and now you expect me to make sure there's hot water every hour of the day," Hux grumbled. "I refuse to be exploited.'
Finn rolled his eyes as he cleared off the workbench where the potion now sat. About to throw the apron over a cobweb-covered chair in the corner, he caught Rey's sharp look and moved to hang it up nicely on a hook on the kitchen wall. Bidding Rey goodnight, he shuffled out of the room, acutely aware of her scrutinising look as he left. Rey sat back in the chair and tried to relax. However, the fire demon's beady eyes were unnerving, and she felt restless as he watched her. Rey folded her arms and glared at Hux. "What?"
"I know you're under a spell."