A note before I begin: this is set in an alternate universe: modern day. Sebastian is not a demon (I don't think? O_o). The story revolves around an OC: Skye Riverson. I made her up. Out of my head.

**Disclaimer for this whole series: of course, I do not own Kuroshitsuji / Black Butler. **

P.S. please bear with me for the first chapter, it gets better -I do not tell lies :)

Enjoy.

Chapter One
The Lavender Bed

Today is a new day.

I walk with a spring in my step, down towards to centre of the valley.

Sighing happily, I close my eyes and raise my chin to the morning sun. Breathing in, a huge gust of fresh country air fills my lungs. There are so many flavours and smells in that one breath that I begin to laugh delightedly to myself.

...Then again, am I really laughing to myself? That makes me sound so lonely – but I am anything but alone.

I am free; completely and utterly free. I am freer than the birds, with their feathered wings gliding through the heavens. In fact I am so fee, I think I shall spin. Ah yes, that's it: I'm spinning now.

The forest around me is but a blur of colours. And oh, what magnificent colours they are! Reds and oranges and pinks and blues. There are fifty thousand shades of green: emerald green, bottle green, pea green, greens so yellow I'm not even sure if they are green…

I screech delightedly to the trees and the birds and the flowers.

I'm so dizzy I can barely walk, and I'm stumbling into all sorts of plants I don't even know the name of. And at last I fall to the ground, my landing cushioned by a thick flurry of lavender.

"Mmm…" I sniff, "lavender…"

.

I gaze up at the sky in a daze. It's a brilliant shade of blue, and there's a great big feathered animal gliding over me. There are so many creatures and animals in the forest that I gave up researching their names long ago. I have decided that no name would do their beauty justice, anyway.

There are people in the forest too. No, not forest people (however much I pretend they exist), just normal people. They saunter through the woodland on their way to work or school or wherever their paths of normality lead them.

But I don't think they're normal at all.

How could any normal person walk through this place, and not stop to stare in awe and wonder? It bothers me, these people. If reality robs you of this pleasure, then I'd rather sleep forever in this false world of dreams. After all, a dreaming land is the best kind of land, in my opinion.

A DEFINITION
Dream: An unrealistic or self-deluding fantasy

That's why I always try to dream – even when I am awake. Gazing at the world through the lens of a dream is such a beautiful thing. It's like seeing everything with fresh, new eyes. I never want to let go of this.

"What are you doing?" a boys voice is tugging at the corners of my consciousness.

"Thinking" I say, hoping my vague answer will make the voice go away.

"About what?" clearly not.

"Everything" I say, "don't you think it's beautiful?"

"What?"

"The world."

"No." His voice is blunt, "Get up Skye, you're making me late for school"

That does it. I'm snapped out of my hazy half-existent world and slung back into the iron prison of reality. The boy looming over my bed of lavender is my 'brother', Ciel. Ciel is one of those prisoners of reality.

"Fine" I surrender, hauling myself up from the lavender bed.

"You reek of lavender,"

"Good. I like lavender."

.

I walk beside my 'brother' through the forest. Of course, Ciel is only a fake brother. My real family died several months ago. Yes, it's sad…but not as sad as other things. I have gotten over my past now, and today is a new day. I shall start school. I shall continue to work. I shall distract myself, by any and all means necessary.

This is why I take great pleasure in the distraction of dreams. In my Dream Land, it's like wearing thick, tinted glasses: I see the same world as you, but through a rosier perspective. The biosphere I see whilst wearing these invisible, rose tinted glasses is the best distraction from the harsh reality of life. In my dream land, I do not imagine my family to be alive – no, that would be dangerous.

I simply imagine a world where it doesn't matter that they're dead.

.

We're nearing the edge of the forest now: the trees are growing thinner and fewer. My enthusiasm droops slightly as we leave the embrace of the trees and step onto the street. It's always so much easier to slip into my dream world when I'm in the woodland.

As we grow closer and closer to school, my stomach begins to churn uncomfortably. It does not churn because I am worried, however. I am not worried about those mundane things like making friends. I decided that I do not necessarily need friends: in my life, school shall only exist as a distraction from my past. And besides, protecting Ciel would be distracting enough. So no, my stomach twists for a different reason. I'm worried that this school is not going to be distracting enough.

I reassure myself that it's going to be fine: I've missed several months of school, it should be plenty stressful. And we all know that stress is a perfect form of distraction.

"We're here" Ciel murmurs and we both look up at the building in front of us.

A SNAPSHOT OF ST CHARLES
A grand building which resembles a 14thcentury cathedral more than a school. The exterior facade is two spear-like towers. In between them, a grand oak door, sitting underneath a circular detail of carved stone entwined with glass. The building then stretches out on either side of the towers in a crescent. All of this is surrounded by pillared paths, and sits behind an extravagant courtyard.

So the exterior of St Charles' is rather grand, to say the least, and I sigh at the thought of just how religious it's going to be. We've already established that God hates me, is there really much point in rubbing salt into my wounds? Clearly whatever deity is in charge around here, they have a sense of humour in sending me here.

"Looks posh" I say, and it doesn't exactly sound like a compliment.

"Welcome to hell." And that definitely wasn't a compliment.

SO tada, there's the first chapter - sorry if it's a little dull for you, it'll get interesting soon I promise :) see the next chapter VERY SOON! Do leave feedback - I'd love to know your opinions :)

[[P.s. Yes the title of this is story very unoriginal, but I'm still in the process of writing & so I have no idea what title will do the story justice (meaning no worries if the title of this suddenly changes~!)]]

~Ched.~