Chapter 1: The beginning

"Announcing the murder of the Archduke of Austria! Austria-Hungary has declared war on Serbia!" The paper boys had been all running around, announcing it all over London a little while ago. England had declared war and troops from all around the country were starting to mobilize. A girl sat on a bridge in the country, dangling her feet over the edge. Her blond braids blew in the wind, tied back with red ribbons. She wore a plain salt and pepper grey dress. She gazed sadly at the river running under the bridge. Soon, everything would change in her life, and not for the better.

Soon the lands of the world would be stained with the many shades of crimson, people she would know would start dying. Her brother might never come back from war. She loved her brother dearly, and didn't want him to go. She knew without a doubt that he would receive a mobilization letter. She wanted to tell him to run away, so that he didn't have to go to war. She wondered what she could do. War was a horrible thing.

She gazed up at the blue sky and the clouds that rolled over it sometimes. How bad would this become?

X-x-x-x-x-X

"So the countries have all declared war now?"

"Yes sir"

"How stupid" William sighed. "More overtime for us. I highly doubt we'll ever see this amount of souls anywhere." He said, glancing at his to-die list, which was halfway full from just one day's work.

"What do we do now, sir?"

"I'm going to split the dispatch into teams for each battle. One partner will take care of the casualties on one line of battle, the other on the other line." He paused and looked over his shoulder. "Grell Sutcliff. How much longer were you planning to make us wait?"

Grell paused halfway between the dispatch lobby and the entrance. He had been trying to sneak in unnoticed.

"A lady needs her sleep!" He said indignantly.

"You need to get to work on time" William said, frowning. "A war has started in the human world. You'll be taking care of the casualties on the British side of the line."

"Aw, you've got to be kidding me!" Grell said as he stared at the impossible amount of souls he had to collect within a day. He already wasn't getting enough sleep, and now he was being worked like a horse. At this rate, he'd be hard pressed to collect all the souls. He knew for sure that if he messed up even once, he'd get demoted, if not even fired if he happened to kill the wrong person. And he had to do this all by himself… This was going to be a nightmare. He sighed and got out his chainsaw.

"And I suppose that battle is already about to start?"

"You have two hours."

"Just wonderful" Grell sighed. He tucked his to-die list back in his pocket and wandered outside. He shredded the air with his death scythe and the portal to the human world opened. He stepped through it.

This is going to be such a pain in the ass…

X-x-X

He landed on the roof of a tent. He carefully slid down the tent wall so he wouldn't get seen. Grell looked around. Dozens of soldiers were moving around, carrying ammunition, barbed wire and halfway finished landmines. It was a little bit of a disappointment. They weren't all young and handsome like he'd hoped.

He wandered around, hoping maybe to catch a glimpse of some of the people who he was supposed to kill. All the soldiers were so preoccupied with war preparations that they didn't notice him at all… Until one of them carrying a crate full of ammo smashed right into him.

"Ow, watch it!"

"Sorry" The guy muttered and began picking up the dropped ammunition. He scrambled around and threw them all back into the crate he had been carrying. He picked it up and looked Grell in the face. A shiver passed down his spine. The boy was young. He had features that were almost delicate somehow. He couldn't have been older than nineteen. He had chin length blond hair that stuck up everywhere. It was much longer than everyone else's, but it was still acceptable. He had sea blue eyes that were clear like the surface of a lake, tan skin and a light spray of barely visible freckles just under his eyes. So adorable…

He couldn't see the boy's name through the lenses of his glasses, so he figured he wasn't going to die any time soon.

"I don't think I've ever seen you around." The boy said. He frowned slightly at Grell's appearance. Like most people, he probably couldn't tell whether Grell was a man or a woman. "Are you a new recruit?" His voice was high for a boy's, and it had a nice ring to it that could calm anyone down. Grell had to think quickly about his answer so the boy wouldn't notice his pause.

"No. I just came to see that preparations were going well."

"Oh, so you come from Her Majesty!"

"I guess you could say that. Hey, what's your name, kid?"

"Jaime."

"What's your specialty?"

"I'm a sharpshooter by training, a sniper on the battlefield."

Ooh… even better… I do love a man with wonderful eyesight. My, my, he just riles me right up! So very charming…

"Knightwood! What the hell are you doing? Get back to work right this minute!" A gruff voice called from behind them. "We're not gonna win the war on our own!" Jaime yelped and shot up as if he'd just swallowed a metal pole.

"Right away, sir" He turned back to Grell. "I'm very sorry" He walked away quickly with the box of ammunition.

Jaime Knightwood… What a lovely name.

Grell turned away.

Remind me to return tomorrow…