William faced the glass-windowed door to his former Superior's funeral parlor. He looked at his dim reflection in the latticed glass, made sure his hair was slicked properly, and ran his hands down the front of his suit to smooth out the wrinkles. He wanted to look presentable to the Undertaker after all, it wasn't often that he had an excuse (let alone two) to come visit him at his home after his retirement.
He turned the door knob, pushed the door open, and said "Undertaker? Sir?" No one responded, so he repeated it again, more loudly this time, while stepping inside.
The dimly lit room was empty, with coffins scattered around the floor. He felt quite uneasy being in the small shop, and there was a dark unsettling feeling that he's was being watched by some unknown predator just waiting to claim his prey. Nevertheless, William T. Spears had a job to do, and being frightened in front of his idol was inadmissible. He might as well be bowing down to that filthy demon.
After putting his mind back together, he realized that there was still no response. This was somewhat odd, but considering that this WAS the Undertaker, he was liable to try and scare him when he least expected it so he waited a bit in anticipation. Then he noticed a note on his desk with very bold-ed letters facing the door. Glancing slightly at the closed coffins and irritating himself that he was actually this nervous as he picked up the letter and read it.
"I'm not in at the moment; if you're picking up a customer, they're all beautified and waiting nearby the door, but if you need me for something else, I'll be in the cemetery near by my shop - Your friendly Undertaker"
"Honestly. That son of a-" William began to say before he stopped himself; you shouldn't talk badly of someone if you're about to ask them a favor, no matter how irritating the situation. All the same, he had a small tantrum over this minor detail about how such things should be posted on the DOOR instead of your desk and how the room should be neat and orderly, and how he was so nervous and even made himself look presentable only to feel like an idiot. Then, after searching for those missing death plays, he found the stack of them behind his desk-all of the ones that were on the list given to him . Some were even bookmarked. "Really?" he mused.
He pulled a random sample of the books out of the stack, and flipped the death play open, curious to know what was so significant about these books that Undertaker would not want to part with them. It couldn't simply be that he forgot, that wasn't like the diligent and reliable superior he knew, at all. William looked over his shoulder. Undertaker would probably be returning any moment now. "These cinematic records are not even his to keep in the first place" he reasoned, and started to pore over the death play to sate his curiosity.
He watched as unremarkable scenes from a young woman's life flashed before his eyes. This young lady was a common English noble. Raised by a governess, the girl didn't seem to be involved much with her parents. After some time she was sent away to a boarding school, and upon graduation instead of returning home, she took up the position of a nurse in the slums of London. William flipped over a few pages to see the woman walking back home from her clinic at night, stumbling across an unconscious man in a long black coat lying face down with silver hair spread everywhere. William felt a jolt as he recognized the man he was seeing - a younger Undertaker, and quickly flipped another page.
The woman had taken the man back to the clinic, laid him down on a bed, and was unbuttoning his blood-soaked shirt to reveal a long slash wound in his abdomen, she then stretched a linen cloth over the wound before the wound suddenly started resealing itself and the unconscious reaper sat up, staring at her curiously. William flipped some more pages to see Undertaker and the woman holding hands, walking alongside a lake.
William felt as if he was intruding on something very personal. Perhaps he should close the death play. So Undertaker was involved with the owners of these cinematic records... though a reaper shouldn't be getting be this involved in their jobs. Suddenly, his train of thought was interrupted. "As nosy as ever aren't you, Mr. Spears?" Came a deep voice from behind him. William spun around, to face the Undertaker perched on top of a coffin with his legs crossed and a frown on his face. "You haven't changed at all since your days in the academy, have you?"
"I was checking to see that you haven't altered the death plays in any way and that they were well taken care of." William tensely said. Even though he was expecting Undertaker to come in very soon, this was still very unsettling, not to mention that it was uncharacteristic of his peculiar Undertaker self, which says he touched a nerve that most people can't find.
"You and I both know that's a lie, but I'll let that pass as you're probably here so you can take those back, correct?" Undertaker replied.
"Yes sir, however there is also another matter that I need to speak to you about that is more urgent than dealing with very overdue death plays." William told him, hoping the reply would be sufficient enough.
He then tensed up when Undertaker got up walking towards Will, backed him to the wall and grabbed his chin, raising it up towards his face, and replied, "Is that right~?" smiling a bit in such a disturbing way that sent a slight chill running through William's spine, not that he would let that show much on his face.
He knew he was in for something, but didn't know just what, yet.
Undertaker then leaned in close to his ear whispering "I would like for you to take a walk with me, would you care to oblige~?" he asked him breathing into his ear just a bit. William swallowed nervously as a slight cold sweat went down the side of his head as Undertaker ran his long nails along his throat.
"Give me your answer or I will refuse anything you ask of me, regardless of the situation, Mr. Spears." Undertaker said, giving a slight hint of a threat to the naive child before him. "Don't forget, I think you still owe me a favor from your time in the academy, William~ " chimed the Undertaker. William's eyes widened a bit at the dramatic turn of events, but even so said, "I would gladly join you." to him as a response.
"Would?" he started to ask, " 'gladly join you'...?" he continued as he sharply pinched William's neck, drawing a small bit of blood from the injury causing William to wince a bit.
"I will gladly join you, sir", he corrected himself forcefully. He was starting to think that accepting this mission was a mistake altogether; no WONDER they decided to send him instead of someone else: there would've either been excessive trouble or he would've scared them away. It wasn't like William to let others use him like this, but then again, even though the death plays were way past overdue, William did intrude on the Undertaker's privacy to an alarming degree. He couldn't possibly have the chance of that day, or what happened just now, get loose to the other staff, much less to his superiors.
"Hmm... it seems you have learned something since then, haven't you~?" Undertaker said smiling a bit, letting go of William's neck, "I'm glad you decided to come with me, then~" partially returning to his usual playful voice with a slightly serious undertone and then proceeding to yank him by his tie out the shop, and towards the cemetery.
"Sir, the matter I wish to discuss..." William started to say before he was stopped and silenced with Undertaker's finger touching his lips firmly.
"If the 'matter' is such that is so urgent that you needed to come to me for, it's probably best if you don't speak of it until we're alone~" he relied, giving William a mischievous smile. "Otherwise..." he continued, "...you might cause a mass chaos, before it's ready~" he finished saying as he winked at him, removing his finger and having them both continue on to their destination.
William was slightly distracted by those beautiful piercing eyes of his; he has tried to mimic that look for as long as he could remember, never really got it right. Also thinking on what he said, realized that both the points Undertaker gave were very true and decided to wait on it a bit as advised.
