Killing (And Other Games)

(Forty)

(Forty)

I make pancakes and we're both very much on edge. Last night we'd planned to discuss the possibility of Piers not being the killer but both Gray and I had fallen asleep on the couch before we'd had a chance. Now we are awake and we have to face the facts.

"So..." I begin as the pancakes hiss on the pancake maker. "Yesterday..."

"Usually in this situation it's an awkward morning after," Gray notes, forcing a smirk onto his face.

"Well no one would be making pancakes if that were the case," I snort as I slap a pancake down in front of Gray. He reads the nutritional information of vegemite and I have a feeling he's actually going to try and put that on the pancakes. "We should talk about, you know, the Grimm Reaper."

"Yes. Let's discuss that." His tone is curt and distant.

I give Gray a frustrated look. "What's wrong with you? Is there something you need to say before we progress with this conversation?"

"I need to go home," Gray admits. "My parents will be looking for me. I think I promised to have dinner with them tonight."

"That was stupid," I say under my breath and then, louder, "the next fight is in two days."

"I'm aware of that. Look, this might be...weird but why don't you come to my house with me. I'll just need to prove to them that I still exist and then we can plan our next move."

I bite my lip, looking away. Gray's house? The only image that comes to mind is a castle. "You're right, that is weird. Where do you live?"

"Underworld," Gray says, shrugging.

"Well that narrows it down," I mutter. "Your parents aren't going to care about me being human, are they?"

"Maybe."

"Maybe? Great so maybe they'll chase me out. Alright I'll go but only because I want to see where you live."

"Don't get too excited," Gray warns but there's this look in his eye that tells me he's excited.

Half an hour later and we're off to Gray's, climbing back down into the Underworld like second nature now. His house is on the surface. Like the gated community and the prison, it's way out in an abandoned block of land way past the airport. It doesn't take long to navigate from my house to the entrance to Gray's block of land but when we get there it's a twenty minute walk through thick bush to his house.

"This is freaking inconvenient," I hiss as I push a gum branch back. "Who are you, Ned Kelly? The man from snowy river?" Gray just keeps walking as I rattle off names of bush rangers.

"This isn't the way I normally go," Gray finally explains as we climb over a fallen tree. "This is the back way."

"Oh please Gray," I snort, "we both know you use the discrete entrance regularly." He has no comeback for that. I'm at the point where I'm going to start quoting My Country when I see his house.

"Holy crap," I whisper and Gray goes bright red. The first thing that comes to mind is an American plantation mansion. We've come in from the side but it's pretty hard to miss the four story, gleaming white house that looks like...well, the white house. The lawns around it are perfectly manicured and a road lined with rose bushes leads up to the massive front porch.

"How many people live here?" I gasp.

"Me, my parents, my sisters, my grandparents, my uncle and aunt, my cousins ...a lot of us." Even with all those people living in it, it still looks too big.