Note from Author: Sorry for not working on Grell's Christmas Carol, I had this idea and wanted to get it down before I forget. I promise I'll get back to work on GCC and post the next chapter.

WilliamxGrell, EricxAlan, Ronaldx? ? ?: there's going to be a lot going on so don't think this chapter is the begining and end! There's more to come!

"Mummy! Dad! Where are you? !"

The shouts of a child were lost in a crowd of people on a cold winter's afternoon. A blizzard was on it's way and everyone was rushing to get inside their warm, safe homes. "Mummy! I can't see you! Where are you? !" the screams grew louder but no one this boy called mother answered his call. He was alone and the worst type of alone too: alone in a crowd of strangers. Pale hands wrapped in fingerless gloves wrapped around the boy's mouth as he screamed again, hoping with all his heart that he would be heard.

Light snowflakes dropped onto the dark hair and stuck like ice crystals to the window, his fingers turning slightly blue from the bitter cold, his cheeks a light pink from his hard breathing and constant screaming. His dark brown eyes watered when he found that no one had answered his last call, the tears overflowed slightly but he wiped them away quickly as he walked along the bustling street, looking up at the people passing by him if he knew any one of them. Sadly his luck was never any good, every face belonged to an unknown merchant or a noble with his family, all heading for their homes. He didn't even know how to reach home from where he was, being in a part of town that he had never ventured to before. He only turned his head for a minute to gaze upon some toys a stand was selling, the next thing he knew was that both his parents were gone from his sight.

"Mum- AH!" in the middle of his next call, he was shoved into the snow covered path face first, resulting in his glasses bending out of terrible shape. The boy sniffled as he attempted to get back on his feet. Pedestrians only trampled over him as if he was part of the pavement itself. They stepped onto his fragile back and easily breakable legs and feet. He screamed out in pain as he tried to whither away from them all, only getting himself more crushed and with a bloody nose. "...mu...mummy..." he whimpered as he took off the broken glasses, the glass was cracked and the frames were bent out of proportion. Stuffing them into his ragged coat's pocket, he continued to fight the battle of being able to stand.

Stomp! Crack! Step! Break! Trample!

He found no victory this day, his battle ending himself in a bloody broken mess now unable to get up at all, he laid with his cheek pressed against the snow as people continued to run him over. As the number of people died out, so did his conscious. The world became to grow blurrier and blurrier until nothing but darkness crowded his closed eyes.

"GAH!"

Crack!

"That's only twenty five kid! You're only half way there!" a hooded man shouted as he cracked a whip against the teenager's back for the twenty sixth time.

He was completely stripped down to only flesh and bone, his hands tied from a rope that was secured on the high ceiling, his feet/ankles were bound against the wall. Several welts were across his back, ass, neck, and legs. When the whip went against his already damaged skin, his head whipped back as he gave out a scream.

How could he have ended up like this? All he did was smile at his Master and now here he was, being punished with fifty lashes to his backside. After the three years he's been here, he's never been punished the way he was-

"CHRIST!" he felt another welt develop on his neck, interrupting his thoughts completely. He kept his head back, trying to protect his neck from being lashed out anymore.

"What do you think you're doing boy? ! Punishment is punishment! No trying to save any part of your body!" another man grabbed his hair and pulled his head forward, exposing his neck completely. The hooded man cracked his whip in the air before beating down on the teenager once again. Soon there was only the need for one more whip and his body was shaking entirely from pain and cold. He wanted this to be over with, he wished in his mind that the wounds won't prevent him from working, and he wished that his Mother and Father would never ever see him the way he was now. His cheeks flushed with embarrassment, his pride was gone, every emotion but hate and pain remained in his broken soul.

With a final cry, the last of the lashes was given on the back of his legs and he gave a slight sigh of relief, knowing that it was over for now. He knew why there was punishment, it was there to make sure you learned your lesson and that you won't make the mistake again. He defiantly learned his lesson now: no more smiling, it would only lead him to where he was now, tied up and being whipped across his back painfully. It was somewhere where he never wanted to find himself again.

He closed his eyes as he felt hands untie the ropes at his ankles and soon the one at his wrists, the man let him fall onto the ground in a crippled mess. He felt a small, cold metal fall onto his back.

"Here's your damn glasses boy, be grateful we didn't brake them." the man laughed as he and his partner walked away from the scene, not giving him the courtesy to cover the boy with a blanket or help him to his feet. He laid there while his back bled onto the stainless marble floor he had thoroughly cleaned earlier that morning. He bet to himself that he was going to have to clean it again tomorrow or later tonight for that matter. Nothing seemed to be going right the day he woke up in this grand estate, his fingers bandages as well as other parts of his body. He found a new pair of glasses resting next to him. At first he thought he found himself in a good place, but once he was healed and ready to work, everyday was a living nightmare. He would clean everything from the curtains to the bedsheets, and even cook a meal every once in a while even though he had never cooked anything in his life before.

"...I hate it here... why did I have to get trapped here? Why is God toying with my life...?" he rasped as the puddle of blood grew around him. Like that one afternoon, darkness crept in from the corner of his eyes until it was all he saw. He was alone again, alone in a large home with several servents running around and only one noble to serve. Nothing to him added up anymore, it was the times like this when he thought himself better off dead.

"Mr. Spears! Mr. Spears! Sir? ! Are you in? !"

William T. Spears slowly awoke from him slumber, somewhere where he though the last place he would like to be asleep. He opened his eyes partly as he looked down on what he had fallen asleep on. Below him was a small pile of paperwork he had been working on that night. Now it was completely covered in tears and drool. Tears? William asked himself mentally as he propped up into a sitting position, his back cracking loudly as he did so. He knew he was working very late last night and had nearly finished with anything, it wasn't like him to fall asleep right in the middle of it all. His head pounded as the knocking on the door continued. Despite his messy hair, unkempt shirt and tie, he allowed the man to enter his office as if William had gone to work at a normal time instead of being there all night long.

Alan Humphries walked through the office door, his hair combed to perfection and his shirt clearly had been just ironed to a firm press. "Mr. William, I have the paperwork from yesterday and Eric's too. He's feeling unwell so I... he told me to bring his down for him. He's going to take a day or two off until he feels better." he said handing his boss two folders with the required paperwork needed with the souls the two must have collected.

"Yes yes, I will note that Mr. Humphries, thank you for turning in the work." William muttered as he placed them into a filing cabinet.

"Mr. Spears? Are you feeling alright as well? You don't look very well today. Your hair seems unkempt and your top is a bit of a mess." Alan pointed out softly as he looked over the dark haired shinigami.

"I'm fine Mr. Humphries, just a bit of a late start for me today is all, go on with your work and your required souls for today. And if you could convince Mr. Sutcliff in turning his work before heading out I will be delighted." he stated as he sat back in his swivel chair and looked through his personal drawers for a comb or something to fix his hair with.

"Not to be nosy sir but... did you spend the night in here? You have ink smudges all over your left cheek."

Without a reply, William looked into a mirror placed on the wall and sure enough there it was, words smudged onto his cheek from the work he had been sleeping on. "Eh hem... well thank you Mr. Humphries for pointing it out. With that being said, you may carry on with your day as well as I do to mine." he went back to searching for a comb to fix his hair, he would not walk out of his office to go and buy his morning coffee with the way he looked. He knew well enough so many people would get the wrong idea about what happened and none of them would believe if he told them he had slept in his office. Until he looked like his normal self, he would not let anyone else enter his office or let himself leave.

"Alright... good day Mr. Spears." the chocolate haired shinigami bowed slightly before leaving the office, closing the door behing him firmly.

Just the sounding of the door made William grab his head in pain, so after coffee he would have to run to his flat and grab some pain killers so he could go on with the day's work. With his papers he worked on last night all crumbly and wet now, he would have to rewrite them on clean paper. Going in front of the wall hung mirror, he fixed his hair with a few simple strokes of the comb, placed it back where he always kept it, and left his office for a cup of coffee, surely after one he would be able to stay awake... at least until that night where probably more paperwork was going to wait for him.

William walked down the hallways of the offices and down several flights of stairs. The whole time, he couldn't keep himself from recalling the dream he was experiencing until he had woken up. He knew the boy in the dream was him, but did all of that really happen to him? His life as a human was over three hundred years ago, any memory he had of it was foggy and unclear. All he could remember was that he didn't have parents for his teenage and adult years and how he worked for a noble. He couldn't remember how he died, but the one thing he remembered clearly was the strict rules of the house and emotions never came across a servant's face. That'll explain the last part of his dream where he was being whipped and why he acted like he did now, but it left William with many questions to ponder about. After a while of walking, he reached the cafeteria where breakfast was being served. It was mainly empty and most people were finishing up their drinks and meals while chatting with friends and coworkers.

Without giving things a second thought about the dream or the fact that tears were falling from his eyes when woke up, he went up to counter and prepared his usual concoction for coffee, adding just a hint more sugar for good measure of staying awake. Even with many open tables and seats, he paid for his coffee and left the room, not buying any breakfast which was unlike him (he always scolded Grell for spending his money on clothes and things instead of food). He went out the doors and across the courtyard to where the building was that held the flats to the shinigami who worked out in the field collecting souls. Another building was for the medical reapers and anyone else who worked there and there was also a building for the shinigami who were considered elders and were of extreme high rank, they would also usually give out the orders of souls and keep things in order. William made his way up the stairs of the Dispatch building to more near the top floor where his flat was located, higher ranked shinigami had rooms on the top floors. But before William could get to the fifth floor, he had to stop in his tracks when he heard someone call out his name.

"William senpai! William senpai wait!"

Without even having to turn around, he knew strait away who it was- Ronald Knox. He never knew if he should like this shinigami or not, he gave his full respect to him, copying his dress style minus the shoes and glasses, but he was still close friends to Grell, acting almost similar flamboyant shinigami except that Ronald was more into women than men. "Ronald Knox, what is it?" he asked coldly, without facing the blonde reaper.

"I've been looking for you everywhere! Alan senpai said you were in your office but when I checked you weren't there so I was going to check your flat!" he panted, he ran up every flight of stairs and every hallway to find his senpai. "I got orders that we need to go out and get some souls, they told me to go get you because you have to come with me, he also told me that one reaper can't do it by themselves. Grell senpai is already out, Alan senpai is busy, and Eric senpai is sick which kinda left you William senpai." he babbled, holding out a file to William.

He quickly took it from him and skimmed through the papers inside, there were a lot of souls here all scuelded to die about the same time in the same place. He didn't need a second thought that this job needed at least two reapers- it was a most likely outcome that a demon wouild be lurking about wanting a taste at some or even all of the souls. "Fine, I'll come with you. Are you ready to leave now?"

"Of course I am Senpai! But are you? You look like you had a hangover this morning."

"I'm fine, just a late start is all." he finished whatever coffee was left in his cup and threw the cup in the wastebasket. "Let's go Ronald Knox, get this over as quickly as possible to prevent any overtime."

The two reapers walked slowly up a stoned path past sharp, iron gates. A run down factory sat in the middle of a lot full of debris and over grown dead grass reached up to William's knees. A polluted stream ran along side the west side of the building under the running wheel that powered any machines running inside. To any outsider, one would think that the building was well abandoned, but this factory was still active and working it's employees to the bone. From where William stood, he could here faint screaming from the inside and could make out a reddish glow from the few windows. So that was it, a meltdown at a factory and practically everyone perishes because they're employer is so much of a slave driver that he only cared for his own safety. It was a safe bet that he took whatever money there was and ran out of there, locking in his employees from the inside. "Typically humans, selfish and cold hearted. Now Knox, let's get those souls before they burn up in flames or a demon comes." he walked up the stoned path toward the double doors leading into the building.

"William senpai don't go yet!" Ronald, death scythe swung over his back with one arm, ran after Will. "I got a bad feeling I don't think you should go in there!"

"Ronald Knox, it's perfectly fine. Yes there could be a few fires and some falling beams. If we are careful than neither of us will be hurt. Try to understa-"

"That's not what I meant senpai! I mean I think there's a-"

"Knox would you please calm done! There's nothing in there and we're going to be perfectly alright." he swung open the doors to show only the mass chaos of people either trying to help a dying worker, squished under a beam that fell from the roof, or squirming around on the ground- body fully engulfed in flames. "See? Nothing to worry about." he turned around to face Knox and to show the inside of the area, however Ronald was still several yards away from everything. "Now would you please come over-"

"SENPAI BEHIND YOU!" Ronald had a look of complete fear etched into his features as he stared at something just past his dark haired senpai. As soon as William turned around, a sharp pain went shooting through his chest causing him to scream out in pain and drop his death scythe. When he looked down to see what caused his pain, he saw a clawed hand going through his chest and out his back side, going through his lungs and most likely poking his heart. It hurt for him to breath and move, he stood completely still and breathed as little as possible. He only tilted his head up to see what exactly the arm was attached to. He was disgusted at what he saw- a demon in his true form.

"Sen-senpai! I'll help you just stay still adn I'll-"

"SHUT UP PRICK!" the demon shouted, glaring over William's head to glare at the young shinigami. "You move a damn muscle and your senpai ain't gonna be around another second!"

"..." Ronald instantly obeyed and backed down, taking several steps back and placing the lawn mower onto the ground and out of his reach to show the demon he was no threat at the moment.

"Now now two reapers are interrupting my meal? Didn't your mother always tell you how rude it is to interrupt things? But perhaps that was from years and years ago when people were civalized- now everyone is barbaric in his own way!" he was laughing madly as he twisted his hand inside Will's chest, a smirk growing wide when he heard more groans and screams coming from the reaper's mouth.

The pain was something intolerable and something William had only felt once before so many years ago, only to be remembered now in this moment. It was a painful memory that all reapers forget first: their death.

William was alone in the hallway, dusting the various pieces of decorations and trinkets and of course, the grandfather clock. He had been working in this household for many years now, he was ten when he was first here, now he was at least twenty eight years old. It has also been thirteen years since the last time he smiled, a stoic look was glued on his face, not to be changed by any reasons. He kept a monotoned voice, only perhaps once in a blue moon would it have any emotion in it at all. Even by himself he would speak in a single toned voice.

"Spears! Lord Rae wishes to see you in his chambers." the butler of the household ran up to Will, a slight panic on his face as he looked at Will.

"Why? What could he want from me? You serve to his every need, I am here to simply care for the house itself."

"He's on his deathbed and wishes for you to be at his side. He bore no children so he needs someone there- he requests it be you."

"Me?" he almost sounded shocked that this heartless old man could want William at his side at death, nothing added up in his mind and he was curious as to why he wanted him there. "I'll be there as quickly as possible, thank you for informing me." he gave a nod to the butler before placing the duster down and taking fast strides to his Master's bedroom. The bedroom was up on the third story and near the end of the hall, almost secluded from the entire house. There were very few other rooms on this floor, only a W.C., the Master's bedroom, his personal study, an office for meeting with guests, and a large balcony to view the backyard. William opened the door slowly, poking his head in to look inside.

There was Lord Rae, laying in his large canopy bed with flowers spread out around the bedroom and a painting of him in his younger days propped against the end of the bed. Lord Rae himself was fragile looking and more pale than William has ever saw him before. He looked completely defenceless and weak, unable to even to get himself in a proper sitting position, he was placed up against a dozen pillows to have him sit up just slightly. He lifted a skinny arm and waved his hand, asking William to come to his side.

The dark haired man nodded and walked slowly into the room, closing the door firmly behind him before walking to the old man's side. He sat on a chair that was prepared next to the bed; Lord Rae held out a hand to William, he knew what coming so he took the elder's hand and held it loosely. It was usually the final moment in a man's life where he would hold his sons hand and wait for death to play it's role. "...Will...William... I.. I..." the man coughed, blood going past his lips and staining the white covers of the bed. "...I love you... I love you dearly... I'm...I'm very... I was always... I was always pleased when I...when I walked out of this room and saw-saw all your work... I never smiled though... i couldn't... I lost that ability long ago... I envy all who could smile but... your smile is so beautiful...so so so very beautiful..." he gaze shifted from the wall across the room to face William. "...I...I beg of you... let me- let me see that smile of yours one more time... I want to leave this world seeing an angel smile..." he rasped, staring blankly into Will's dark brown eyes that were behind rather thick lences.

William looked back with a blank expression. Smile? Could he even do that anymore? He hasn't smiled in so many years being too afraid to do so, if he were too now would it even come out right? He couldn't disobey this man after all he has done and the fact it was a dying wish. But William couldn't smile, he would be breaking the rules of no smiling if he did.

The desperate look the man was giving him soon grew into a glare and a look of dissatisfaction. "We-well Spears? Can't...can't you smile for a dying man? I...I asked you to smile!" he spoke in a panted yell as his hidden left arm shook.

"...I am afraid, my Lord, I cannot smile anymore. You broke my soul and my smile was broken with it. I'm sorry for not granting your wish." William apologized, still keeping the monotone voice.

"Can-can you at least look...look sad? ! You look like you- you look like you don't even care about my death after all I gave you!" the hidden hand was suddenly brought up, bringing a large dagger down upon William's chest, strait through his heart. His white shirt was instantly stained crimson and it leached through the cotton material, making the stain bigger and bigger. He gasped and panted, the color instantly draining from his face as more blood poured out of him. As he fell forward, he witnessed through blurry vision Lord Rae fall back to his own death, bringing the knife down through William's skin and organs as he arm dropped. The last things he could remember seeing was a man in all black and long silver hair, holding a rather large sickle decorated in skulls standing by the window.

William stared now at the demon, his eyes playing rather sick jokes on him. The face of the demon change into that of the old man's, at first they stayed long and changed little. Soon they changed quickly and stayed all too a short of time. It wasn't long until the faces blended together and William saw that this was the man that tortured him so many years ago. He was a demon all along was he? He remembered one rumor that the Undertaker had judged a demon's soul once, something no other reaper has done before and still to this day the Undertaker is still the only shinigami to collect a demon's soul. Then why was this man here? Was he dead like William saw that day or was the Undertaker simply there to collect William's soul?

"...what's wrong William? Maybe if you can smile for me then I'll let you live..." the creature whispered, driving his hand further into William. He felt his lungs rip and being flooded by his bodies fluids. He couldn't stay awake, it was too hard at this point and the pain was too much to bare. "...smile William...smile for me...smile... William...smile..."

The words whispered to him remained in his head as he felt himself fall forward and darkness crowding his vision.

"SENPAI! WILLIAM SENPAI!" he lastly heard Ronald's broken screams as everything soon grew quiet and blackness was everything he saw.