A Grimms Fate

Ryan rested against the car door with her elbow, looking up, out of the car window, watching the trees pass them by as they drove. The sun shone brightly through the leaves, tinting everything green. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, she used to love this part of the trip, now it just reminded her of the emptiness that consumes her life. "So, ah, do you have family out here or something?" the cab driver asked, trying to break the awkward silence with small talk. Ryan sat up straight and sighed again. The driver has been quiet up until now, and it's been a 3 hour drive and not once did he attempt to make conversation. "Uhm, sort of. It's actually a bit of a reunion, if you could ever call it that. I barely knew the man" The cab driver looked at Ryan through the rear view mirror and frowned. "Quite a far way to come for a stranger, you sure he's worth the trip?" Ryan smiled slightly, realizing that the driver showed genuine concern. " Well, I'm not at all in too much danger, unless the folks around this town have a habit of rising from the dead." The driver seemed a little paler that usual. "Sorry miss, I didn't mean to be so... insensitive. I'm sorry for your loss" "it's okay, really, I barely knew him, like I said, my grandfather abandoned my mother and I years ago, just as my father did. Guess I'm not all to lucky when it comes to reliable men in my life" Ryan said, jokingly, trying to lift the mood a bit. Another silence. After a few moments, the cab driver broke the silence again. "So, why are you traveling to a town too small to notice, for a dead man who never knew you?" Ryan was a bit surprised by the forwardness of the drivers question. "Well, between you and me, I don't really have anywhere else to go, and apparently, my grandfather had no one else to leave, well, everything he had ever owned, to. So i figured I'd give small town living a go." The driver just huffed and nodded in understanding. The rest of the 45 min drive was completed in silence, which was only broken again when the driver stopped in front of a old deserted looking manor. "You sure about this miss? It's not too late for you to come back with me, you know." The driver said, however he wasn't looking at her while he spoke but rather, he was eyeing the manor. Ryan smiled at the driver, and waved goodbye. "I'll be okay, thanks for the ride." The driver hooted and shouted out the window as he drove off. "Give me a call if you need a getaway car!" Ryan stood outside and watched the drive disappear around a corner. She turned around and pushed open a large black iron garden gate, partially overgrown with creepers. The gate opened with an eery screech, which made Ryan hesitate for a moment, suddenly feeling very grateful that the sun still shone high in the sky, and that it would be daylight for a good few hours. She walked up a barely visible cobble stone pathway, which lead to the front door of the manor. She ran her hand over the dark oak wood. The front door was beautifully crafted, you could tell it was done by hand. Intricate details were carved out such as vines and symbols and the moon. Ryan's hand rested on a carved out wolf's head, she was absolutely amazed by the craftsmanship. She took the gold key out of her pocket and slowly unlocked the door, pushing it open, she was hit by a heavy odor, equivalent to an old dusty library or antique store, that hadn't seen an open window in decades. Inside, it was dark and cold, lifeless and way too quiet. She could faintly make out a wooden spiral staircase to the left, an archway that lead into what looked like a living area and books, scattered all around the floor. Ryan sighed, realizing the amount of work that lay before her. She walked up to the first window that she could find and pushed the heavy velvet curtains open. Sunlight poured in, filling the living room with light. She coughed and waved her hand, trying to combat the dust that was released by moving the curtain. "Well Ryan, welcome home.. I guess" she said to herself as she dropped the bag of clothes that she was carrying, on the floor and ran her hand through her hair. She found a door that lead to the back yard, which she was surprised to find that the area had no fencing, it just led directly into the forest. "Strange" she wondered "How on earth did he keep the wild life out" she said softly to herself. After getting all the curtains open downstairs, she decided to venture upstairs, although, seeing the state the first floor was in, she'd only imagine how much worse the second floor would be. Luckily for her, it was not nearly as bad as it was downstairs. There were 3 bedrooms, two of the three rooms had double beds in them, all neatly made up. The one room was almost spotless, completely untouched, and the other, still neat, but you could see that someone had used it. There were more books piled around, the closet door was open enough to reveal clothes belonging to a man, probably her grandfather, and the bedding was slightly ruffled, as if someone sat on the edge of the bed. She stood there a moment, trying to imagine his last moments here, if he knew death was coming, if he had thought of her at all. The third room brought a lump to her throat and slight tears to her eyes. It was a child's room, also untouched, clearly made up for a little girl. Instead of princesses however, there were wolves painted on the walls, not scary like the big bad wolf, but a pack of wolves running together, they looked happy. The bedside lamp was a large purple glass flower, the cupboards and desk were also both painted a lilac purple, with painted vines running from the bottom up. On the desk the letter 'R' was painted in a darker purple, which matched the 'R' on the door of the room. Ryan went to sit of the edge of the single bed, as the realization dawned on her that the room was meant for her, which meant that the second untouched room was probably meant for her mother. So many questions swirled around in her head, such as why did they never live here if there was clearly a place here for them? They struggled all her life, her and her mother moving from place to place, never being able to afford more than a single room at a motel. She remembered seeing her grandfather, once or twice in her lifetime, the last time was for her 7th birthday, she vaguely remembers hearing him and her mother argue, and then they left, never returning again. He never called, or wrote. He was her favorite person in the whole world, but after that day, Ryan never heard from him again. She left the her childhood room and closed the door behind her, promising herself that she would never open it again. She walked down the corridor, and entered the very last room, at the end of the corridor. It was a large study, with book cases that covered the walls, many of which were empty, she now knew where all the books came from. There was a large oak desk in the center of the room, also filled with books and papers. She sat on the large brown leather chair which was behind the desk, and started looking through the papers and books on the desk. She remembered this room, her grandfather spent many hours here, extremely busy with, well whatever kept him too busy for his family. She was only allowed to be in here briefly, before her mother dragged her out. Her grandfather would protest, saying that she could be in there with him if she wanted too, however her mother never allowed it, something about not being involved in his world. Probably one of the many reasons why her grandfather abandoned them and wanted nothing more to do with them. Ryan sighed as she continued going through the items on the large desk in front of her. Most of the papers made no sense to her. There were maps, invitations to gatherings and letters from what looked like to be important people, she didn't pay too much attention to them. She came across a rather curious looking leather bound book. It had a metal badge on it, with symbols that made no sense to her, circling a wolfs head. There was no visible lock, however, Ryan could not open it, no matter how hard she tried. Her finger got caught on one of the metal corner edges of the books cover and cut her, just enough that a drop of her blood dripped on the badge of the book, which caused it to glow before a clicking sound was heard and the book flew open. This startled Ryan, enough for her to catch her breath in her throat, her heart was beating unbelievably fast, and her ears were burning, she could tell she was flushed. She started paging through the magically accessible book, which, at first, were written only in more of the symbols that she could not read, but the deeper she paged into the book, the more the symbols started to change and morph into English, almost as if the book change so that she could read and understand it. She got to a page that spoke of a Moon Goddess and what her true name was, and how only the purest could utter her name. She ran her fingers over the gold letters and she slowly read out the name S.E.L.E.N.E. Almost immediately, her ears started ringing, her vision became blurred and the last thing she remembered before blacking out was a large bight light, almost blinding, coming from the book and a soft voice speaking to her.. "...I appear as I am called... bloodline of Grimm"