soo this is my first story and looking back at this i realise how god awful this chapter is. it gets better. i hope at least. take this chapter like a prologue. its not mandatory to read, really, its like a little peak into everything. either way things will be explained as the story progresses.

"Valentina… Valentina, hold on. Stay awake."

I cough a little let my sister know that I haven't fallen asleep yet. I would smile for her but currently my body feels too weak to do that. Instead, I concentrate on breathing so my body can gather all the oxygen possible. I feel my stomach rise and fall with each intake and outtake.

"Where's Penelope?" I croak.

My sister, London, forces a smile as she looks at me. I must sound awful. "Shh, you don't need to talk. Penelope is coming with your serving right away."

I nod in confirmation, closing my eyes and focusing on my breathing again. Every inch of my body feels like it's on fire. Everything feels like a task to do. Obviously, I'm not well. I'm incredibly ill, in fact.

My family is what you would call a strange one. I currently live with my three sisters, Penelope, London, and Victoria. Fancy names, right? My mother loves that. It may seem like a lot of children, but when she was younger, four was actually quite a small amount. Mom gave birth to Penelope and Victoria first as twins, and then London and I followed a year later in the same way.

We're quite wealthy, too. Our family has quite a long generation and story behind it, and we're lucky enough to inherit some of the wealth that came from being part of the Caverly family. Therefore, my sisters and I have never had to suffer through hardly anything, except for this – I guess you can call it – genetic disease that's been passed through the generations.

In fact, it's so common, that we even have our own family medicine to treat it. And it works like a miracle spell every time.

I feel two hands lightly tap my cheeks. It feels cold on my heated skin. "Hey, hey, Valentina. Stay awake, will you?"

I realize that I've started to fall asleep. Quickly snapping myself out of it, I take a deep breath. It's best not to fall asleep when I'm as ill as this. Or else it'd be hard to wake myself up again.

A knock on the door sounds and relief falls through me. That must be Penelope. London raises her head to look at the door and mutters a small 'come in.' The door smoothly slides open and footsteps enter the room quietly.

"Hey, Vale." Penelope's voice is hushed and gentle. I open my eyes slightly to look at her. She sits herself on the bed next to me and I feel the mattress tilt a bit in her direction. London rushes to the other side of me and helps lift me up.

The small amount of liquid in the bowl Penelope's holding swishes a little as I get up. Penelope looks at me in pity as she takes in my form. "Gosh, I'm sorry. Here, eat up." She gathers a tiny bit onto the spoon she's holding and sticks the utensil in my direction. I open my mouth slightly and take in the food.

Almost immediately, I feel the cool, cold liquid go through my body and into my bloodstream. It feels like a nice breath of air just flew through me after not being able to breathe for the longest time. I let out a big breath of air. "Thanks." I say.

"No problem." Penelope smiles as she gathers a bit more of the content onto the spoon again. "Here, have some more."

I gladly agree, opening my mouth more easily and taking in the rest. When I'm finished, Penelope puts the bowl on top of the side table and smiles at me. London stops supporting my weight as I'm slowly able to do it myself.

Like I said, it's like a miracle. I feel pretty much good as new and it hasn't even been ten minutes. "How's Victoria doing?" I ask. Victoria has been in the same position as me. When London took way too long to deliver my serving to me, I assume it's because she's been tending to Victoria.

"I need to go help her right now." Penelope responds. She pushes herself off the bed and gathers the empty bowl and spoon.

"Help her?" I question. "Didn't you already feed her?"

Upon hearing my question, Penelope's shoulders dropped. She turns to give me an apologetic look. "Look, we're sorry. It's just that you've been sick for longer than she has."

"We?" I echo. I feel my heart begin to race at the news. Then, I turn to look at London incredulously. "You agreed to this?"

London nods at me with the same expression as Penelope. "You have been sick for longer than she, and Victoria said herself to help you first."

My jaw drops in disbelief. Did they abandon Victoria to help me? And Victoria agreed to this? This won't due. Shaking my head, I start to get out of the bed I'm in.

"Valentina!" London says, taking one of my arms in her hand in her hand and pulling me down. "What are you doing? You must rest. You just got better."

"I've rested long enough!" I reply as I tug my hand out of London's grasp. Flinging the blankets off of me, I start towards the door. "Penelope, you go get Victoria's serving right now. London and I will go monitor her."

Penelope nods at me, a guilty look strung on her face. I almost roll my eyes. I don't have time for this. Victoria is almost dying off. Being guilty is the last thing that she needs to be.

We four sisters have been together for quite some time. We've hardly had any boyfriends, and if we did, our relationships would hardly last a year. Dare I say, we're all pretty cold to other people if they're not someone we know really well, or someone in our family. If you had a family that moved around as much as us, or as wealthy as us, it'd be easy to understand why we act this way.

Victoria's room is two flights up and down the long hall in our house. We reach there in just a few minutes, with both of us running like crazy. When we enter, Victoria's lying in the middle of her bed. Her eyes are closed, her breath is shallow and she's clutching onto the blankets as if her life depended on it. I cautiously walk over to her bed and from the corner of my eye, I see London is doing the same.

"Vicky…" I whisper quietly, and she opens her eyes just a fracture to look at me. "How are you doing?"

Victoria swallows. She pulls her lips apart as they've probably stayed close for such a long time they're kind of stuck to each other. "Vale. How are you feeling?"

"Fine." I reply as I take one of her hands in mine. "I can't believe you told them to –"

"Hey. I'm breathing."

"You're suffering." I correct. London reaches over to pat and fix the pillows and blankets while I draw little circles on Victoria's hands. "We all know how uncomfortable this is."

Victoria smiles. She turns her head, closes her eyes and shrugs slightly. "You've been sick far longer than I have. I didn't want you to die."

"But you've always been the fragile one."

"Hey."

I chuckle slightly. I'm glad she's trying to lighten the mood in this situation. "It's true, though."

Victoria doesn't reply. I watch as her breathing gets shallower. I knit my eyebrows. She better not be falling asleep. "Hey," I say, tugging on her hand. "Don't go to sleep."

Victoria doesn't reply and I repeat the action, and voice the same commands again. I lift my head up to look at London and she seems to be staring down at Victoria with the same worried look. "Where's Penelope?"

"I – I don't know." London says. She reaches down and grabs Victoria's hands in the same fashion that I did. "She's coming. Vicky. Stay awake. Vicky."

Victoria stirs slightly in her spot. A tiny bit of relief washes through me. Victoria groans and her fingers wrap around my hand. "Where's Penelope? I feel a lot worse than usual."

I almost want to cry. I hate seeing my sister like this. "She's coming. Hold on."

"I'm try–" Her speech is cut short as she suddenly starts coughing. A sequence of non-stop noises flow out of her. In a hurry, London reaches over to lift Victoria into a sitting position. I put my hand on Victoria's back and give her a few gentle pats.

Worry starts to settle in me as after quite some time, Victoria's coughing doesn't seem to be calming down. London and I make eye contact. Her expression mirrors my scared one. "Victoria, are you –"

Suddenly, Victoria's body jerks forward. Her brunette hair flies past me as I realize that she's vomiting something onto the blankets. My eyes widen in shock when I realize what just came out of her body.

Blood.

"Victoria!" London cries. I can feel tears starting to sting my eyes because I'm worrying so much. "Victoria, are you okay?"

"Penelope!" I yell as loud as I can down the long hall. I don't know why, but I'm furious. If they treated Victoria before me none of this would be happening. "Penelope, get your fucking ass up here right now!"

I look to Victoria again to see that London has set her head down on the pillow again. Victoria's eyes are squeezed shut and she's shaking her head. "No. No, no, no. This is awful. I want to sleep."

"You can't!" London says. She gently reaches over to pat on Victoria's cheeks. "Stay awake. Please. Stay awake."

"Vicky." I join in, trying to hold back tears. "Vicky, please."

Suddenly, the door across the room flies open and Penelope's little body flies in. Her dyed pink hair is now in a messy ponytail. She holds the bowl in her hand as she rushes to beside Victoria's bed. Upon seeing the pool of blood, her eyes widen. "What happened?!"

"She coughed up blood." I shake my head. "It doesn't matter. Feed her. Now."

Penelope nods. I step back so she can take a closer spot next to Victoria. Setting the bowl down on the end table, she tries to get Victoria's attention. "Vicky… wake up. I'm here." When her actions gain no visible reaction from Victoria she lifts her head to London. "What happened?"

London looks just as confused. In fact, so am I. "She's… tired. She was in a coughing fit and…."

"Well get her up!"

"We're trying–!"

"Knock knock!"

The sudden intrusion of a new voice causes all three of us to quickly snap our heads to the door. When we see a stranger that is not familiar to any of us, a small scream escaped out of our mouths simultaneously.

Our voices together must've been loud – and high pitched I wouldn't know – because the stranger makes the most obvious gestures of sticking his pinky in his ear as if to see if it's okay. "Geez, what was that for? You girls are most certainly so rude."

The stranger standing in front of us looks, well, pretty. With flowing red hair and glasses to match he – or she? It's kind of hard to tell – holds what looks like a chainsaw in between his hands. My eyes widen as I see that. Why hadn't I realize that he was holding a death trap before? When he sees that I'm staring at his weapon, he grins. I gasp as I realize that his teeth are all sharpened at the end to perfection.

"Like it?" He asks, waving it around as if it was a prize and not a dangerous weapon. He slides one loving finger over it, staring at the saw in admiration. "I made it myself. It is beautiful is it not?"

I try to reply, but my vocal chords seem to be failing me. The stranger in front of me tilts his head to the side with a smug "hmmm?" Thank goodness London's here, as she's the first one to talk. "How'd you get into our house?"

"Oh, is that really the question you want to ask?"

Penelope beside me shakes her head in disbelief. "What?"

"Don't worry, don't worry!" He sticks his hand out in front of him and waves it up and down. "I won't hurt you guys… yet." The redheaded stranger snickers maniacally at what seems to be his inside joke. I realize that despite what he's dressed in – which is something that no one can really take seriously – he is not someone that we want to be messing with.

What'd he mean by the question you want to ask, though? Shaking my head, I decide to take a different approach. "What are you doing here?"

The stranger tilts his head and winks at me, the grin returning to his face. "That's the question! Oh," He turns his gaze to inspect the four of us. "You girls are really the attractive four aren't you? It's so sad to see one of you go…" He feigns sadness before shaking his head. "Oh well!"

"See one of us go?" I echo. What is he implying here? That one of us is going to die? How dare he say that when he just barged into our house.

The redhead nods his head. "MmHmmn. In fact, it says so right here." He reaches into his long trench coat and pulls out a small book. Casually, he flips through the pages. His eyes curve into a smile when he spots what he's looking for. "Victoria Caverly. Death at August 2nd, 2014. 2:56 PM." The stranger then closes the book with a maniacal grin.

"No." I say as his words settle in me. I find myself stepping backwards into Victoria. "She's not dead." I tell him, even though I'm not too sure of that fact myself. With a wildly beating heart, I stick a finger under Victoria's nose. When I feel that breath is still coming out of her, I turn back to the redhead. "See? Told you. Not. Dead."

"Didn't you hear me?" The stranger looks annoyed. He puts one hand on his hip and rolls his eyes. "I said 2:56. It is 2:47 right now."

"Then why are you here?" London asks.

He shrugs, carelessly waving around the chainsaw. "I'm trying to take precautions on these things. Not to mention that doing this is so much fun."

Penelope seems to have snapped out of her shocked stage too because I hear her scoff. "Doing what exactly?"

"Souls." The redhead replies as if he were telling us about the weather. He uses his tongue to slowly swipe across his sharp teeth. A shiver runs down my spine at how menacing that looks. "I collect souls."

"Souls?" Penelope scoffs. "So what, like a grim reaper?"

The stranger tilts his head and grins. "Exactly that! Oooh, am I famous here, too? I'm touched."

London steps forward. I see that her fists are clenched. Even though only her back is to me, I can tell she's angry. The man in front of us is clearly insane. London seems to do the same. It's apparent she and I both agree that he's just wasting time. "Get out!"

The stranger makes a tsking noise while wagging his fingers. "Wrong answer!" He takes his chainsaw out, and begins to fiddle with it. In a few moments a humming sound comes out of the weapon as the blades start to run.

I can feel my sisters tense around me. I know that their hearts are probably beating as fast as mine is. Is he really going to kill Victoria? In my head, I've already decided that I won't let him do that. I take a cautious step towards the redhead with the spinning blade.

"Wait!"

To my surprise, he actually halts in his step. He doesn't look too pleased to do so, though. "What is it?" He says in a sassy tone.

"She's…" I start. "She's not actually going to die." That sentence gives me a raised eyebrow from the redhead. Before he can open his mouth and refute that statement, I continue. "I mean, look! We know that she's sick. But we have medicine. We have medicine that will save her. Just… believe us. Please? Let us save her."

The redhead stares at us for a few moments. I'm starting to fear that he'll think that we're lying to him. However, after a while, he lets out a small huff of breath. "All right. I honestly would just like to see what you girls can come up with." The grin I'm starting to hate so much surfaces on his face again. "This should be fun. But remember, ten minutes, girls…"

"Thank you." I turn to Penelope and she looks like she's about to cry. With a hand covering her mouth, she repeats her gratitude. "Thank you so much just..."

He rolls his eyes. "I'm merely curious as to how you girls are planning on saving her." Reaching into his trench coat, he pulls out his little book again. Penelope and London start getting ready to feed Victoria. I keep an eye on the redhead to fake sure he's not planning any funny business. "Like I said, it's written here that she's going to… hey! I have an appointment in ten minutes! Why did I not see this? Oh, but look at this… this is in the 1800s. Oh, this is so exciting! This means I get to try out my time machine again!"

I scrunch my nose. What is this guy on? Maybe we shouldn't be that worried of his killing our sister threat. He seems crazy. "Time machine?"

The redhead nods. He pulls out another little device out of his coat. I squint at what it is. It's small. Really small. Almost the same size as my iPod Nano. If not, tinier. I almost scoff at how miniscule that is. "Are you saying that that can get you through time? I don't believe you."

"Well, you better believe it, you brat." He scowls at me. With his eyes squinted and his sharp teeth bearing, it's quite a frightening image. "I came from 3023 all the way over here."

"You did?"

"MmnHmmn." It's almost scary how his menacing look suddenly turns into one of admiration. He holds up his little device. "Isn't it fantastic? I was only trusted with one recently." He brings the device closer to his face. I look, completely creeped out as he kisses the device. Do the two need to get a room?

He clasps his hand around the device and turns towards us again. "Oh, what a shame this is, really, but I do have another appointment in ten minutes and I just can not pass up another opportunity to use this little thing again." He shakes his fist holding his time travelling thing. "According to my book, though, your sister is still going to die." A small chuckle escapes him. "I'm completely sorry." The blades on his chainsaw start to run again. "Not!"

I look behind to Penelope and London and see that they're still trying to get Victoria awake. I almost am starting to think that it's hopeless when Victoria starts stirring in her place. Penelope looks over to me, worry clouding her eyes. Victoria can still be saved. He can't kill her now.

Turning back to the stranger, I see him fiddling with his small device. After pressing a few numbers, he aims it at the large mirror on the wall. A small signal flies through the device and suddenly, the mirror starts to look all distorted and weird.

The redhead grins at my confused reaction. "This shouldn't take long. I'll just get your sister and off we go! I'll just deal with her cinematic record later."

I decide to ignore his gibberish. There's a much more important matter at hand here. "You can't do that!"

"Do you really want to test me?" An eye roll from him.

"Yes." I confirm, even though I'm practically shaking on the inside. "I'll… I'll jump through the portal with you. After you."

"Just to save your sister?" He questions. "Well, I got to say, I'm touched. So sad that she has to go."

"I'll do it!" I'm not really going to. I still believe that he's crazy, but humoring him might talk him out of killing our sibling.

A sigh. A groan. An eye roll. It's as if I'm being way too stupid for him. "The portal allows two people at a time. After I jump in with your sister, all you're going to be doing is crashing into a mirror."

"It's done." Penelope's soft voice stops the retort that I was about to say. Both the claimed-to-be-reaper and I turn to look at Penelope. "It's done. She can be saved."

"Oh, really?" The redhead replies. Sarcasm drips from his every word. He pulls out his little book again and opens it. "Not according to here. Says her death is in four minutes, actually."

"Then give her time!" London says. She puts a hand on her hip, an agitated look on her face. "The medication doesn't work as fast for her as it does with the rest of her."

"You silly girls. Don't you understand that I don't have time? Guess she'll just have to die."

"No, please –" In a panic, I look back towards my sisters for help. I'm surprised to find them both looking at me, too. In a few moments I realize that they're trying to tell me something. They've got a plan, and I think I know exactly what it is.

And they need my help to execute it.

I nod back at them to tell them that I understand what's going on. The redhead is still spurting some nonsense in the background. I ignore him, instead making eye contact with my two sisters.

We all begin mouthing to each other.

One.

Two.

Three.

As soon as we reach the last number, we all burst into action. Penelope and London jump onto the stranger who falls down under their weight. In all honesty, he looks more surprised than anything else that two girls just randomly jump on him. Thank goodness his chainsaw wasn't on.

Me, I run towards the bed to lift Victoria up. Silently, I thank my sisters for convincing me to take karate a few years back or else I probably wouldn't have the strength to lift her. Starting to run, I realize that the only door to exist this room is blocked by the stranger who is just beginning to get my two sisters off of him.

If I run past him, he'll definitely be able to reach for me and get me.

Taking a deep breath, I decide to do the next best thing. Walking towards the mirror that he hit with his little 'time travelling device,' I close my eyes and walk through. It surprises me that I don't just meet glass but instead, I do seem to be going through a portal.

"Hey, little brat! You get back here!"

Victoria just needs a few more minutes to get better. I don't have time for this. Instead of walking back like the redhead wants me to, I take another step forward away from them until I can't hear his cries anymore. Air gushes around me, and a weird force seems to be pushing my back.

I try to stay awake so that I can make sure that I'm holding onto Victoria. However, the longer I stay here with the rapid wind running around me, the more tired I become.

Soon, my eyelids close, and I drift into unconsciousness.

hello hello ^_^

new author, new story, going to try to fit in

i realise that the entire story may not make any sense and that im probably a very bad writer but this is the first time writing fanfiction and i have this great new idea in my head but b/c its an idea i never really tried before im kind of having difficulty writing but i hope i will get better with each chapter ^_^ sorry about the weird time travel thing I just really want a good reason for her to be teleported back to the 19th century without just saying "it happened" i do have really fun storylines for this that i want to try out so if you can, please stick with me

so basically, i dont think we ever met grell when he's (or she, i refer to him as a he) just plain reaping souls without sebastion or ciel (correct me if im wrong) so writing him for this was a bit difficult

hope you want to stick with me for the next chapter :P

adios~~~~~~