Part prologue, part teaser, and yet another story started before finishing or updating anything else. Ain't that just the way? (I'm so sorry, I have no self control)

Anyway, I was watching the Black Butler anime on Netflix earlier this month and had nagging mental images and crossovers on the mind shortly thereafter. It got so bad I actually had to sit down and draw the scenarios to get them out of my head (if you're curious to see the crudely drawn comic pages for this, feel free to send me a PM). I have been plotting and mulling over this story so much over the past month that it's managed to push progress on my other story to the back burner. I have a vague basis and plot set up, but we'll see how things go.

With that out of the way, this story will primarily follow the manga (because what the heck happened with the anime) and will rise in rating within a few chapters to M. This is your warning, though if you're familiar with Black Butler, you shouldn't be too surprised.


Where… where am I?

Hushed whispers. Subdued murmurs of excitement.

Voices? ...whose?

He tries to focus on them but his mind is hazy, clouded as if in a dense fog. The few words he catches are incomprehensible, a garbled mesh of foreign sounding gibberish. He takes a deep breath and feels an unfamiliar heaviness in the air. A dull throbbing begins pounding at the base of his skull and he winces, clenching already shut eyes.

It's cold… I feel weak.

Slowly, he forces his eyelids open. Why are they so heavy; so hard to open?

His vision is out of focus, the dim light making it hard to discern much. He can only just make out several humanoid shapes looming over him, wicked grins on the faces of each and every one. He's unsure whether they're real or simply a trick of his clouded mind. He decides they're clearly the latter. What else could explain this strange situation?

Why are they all staring at me? He ponders, the observation an unsettling one, before the haze begins to settle back in.

I'm so… tired. His inner dialog continues, his eyelids feeling as heavy as lead. His already out-of-focus vision blurs further and he closes his eyes. Maybe if I just… close my eyes... I'll go back to sleep. I'll wake up from this weird dream. He tries to rationalize the odd situation, to explain it away as nothing more than a strange, lucid dream. It's probably time for school, anyway…

That's right, Fenton. It's time to wake up.

What are you waiting for? Hurry up already-wake up.

You're going to be late, Danny.

Wake up.

WAKE UP.

WAKE UP!

His eyes snap open and for the briefest of moments, the area around him is illuminated in an unearthly green. A second passes in silence, the green fading from his vision, before that suffocating heaviness in the air intensifies. It settles on his chest, heavy and unbearable and burning and he winces as he is awash in a searing, crippling pain.

Why? Why does it hurt so much?