This is now a collaboration story of 4fireking and KillerAkuma. I have been in dark places when people bully me because I don't think or care the way they do, but if I can at least put together something with someone that will at least be read I will be fine.

XXX

Allen was stuck to the spot as he stared at the boy in front of him. That boy… he had just killed another man without hesitation. The boy looked up at Allen, who was still standing in the same spot, frozen. The boy put an innocent look on his face, like he hadn't just killed someone in cold blood. "Why hello, who may you be?"

Allen was a little dumbfounded at what had just happened, and found himself unable to answer, instead choking on his words as he tried to spit them out. The boy walked back into the shadows, slowly disappearing, chuckling as he vanished into the darkness that enveloped him. "We'll meet again."

Lenalee returned from finding someone or somewhere to keep the children safe, confusion written all over her face. Allen was staring off into space, confused and horrified, but snapped out of it when Lenalee spoke. "Allen, what happened…? Did you kill the Akuma?"

Allen's face was wiped of all emotions as he spoke, eyes dulled considerably and mouth pressed into a straight line. "It wasn't an Akuma, Lenalee… It was a boy. I didn't see what he looked like because his face was hidden by the shadows."

"Was he a member of the Noah Family?" Kanda asked, not sure as to what exactly had happened, as the frozen Allen has blocked his path through the doorway.

"I-I don't know," Allen stammered, shrugging. He couldn't tell the Noah apart from humans with his left eye, and he hadn't gotten a proper look at the boy. "And then he vanished when he stepped into the shadows."

Kanda narrowed his dark eyes at the Moyashi. "So that means you imagined it, or you hit your head."

Allen narrowed his eyes in return to Kanda's cold look, yelling at him, sure of what he had seen. "I didn't imagine it, BaKanda! He was over there!"

Allen pointed at the exact, shadowy spot where the boy vanished, and Kanda was about to pull out Mugen when Lenalee jumped into the argument, acting as the peacekeeper. "Both of you stop arguing! If Allen said he saw it, then he did. Now we just have to worry about whether we can find this vanishing boy or not, got it?"

Allen, Kanda, and Lenalee all looked around town for the boy Allen saw. They asked everyone in town if they saw or had ever seen the boy, but no one had seen him. It wasn't helpful that the trio of Exorcists didn't have much information to provide, either. Some people in the town even showed Lenalee, the only one who could persuade them to do so, pictures of people they knew. None of them looked like the boy Allen saw. After asking around town they decided that maybe they should check with the police.

Allen, Lenalee and Kanda arrived at the police station; it was quiet, with only a couple policemen and women being seen, five or six at the most. Lenalee walked over to one of the men, who appeared to be in his early thirties. He looked at Lenalee with a tired look in his dark brown– nearly black –eyes, his voice deep and rough and he pushed a hand through his sandy brown hair. "What is it ya want, little lady?"

Lenalee did her best to smile politely. Normally the people who would call her 'little lady' were the weirdos of the town. She would have to be careful as she talked to this man. "Um… Have you seen strange boy around lately?" Lenalee asked, while carefully keeping her distance from the man. She didn't want to get too close.

The man scratched his chin in thought as he looked at the others, his dark eyes scanning over their Black Order uniforms, eyes staying glued to the silver crest on their chests. "Um... No, I don't think I have little lady, sorry… But you could ask the others, maybe they have."

The three of them split to talk to the policemen and see what they knew, but Allen didn't really think it was a good idea to let Kanda talk to people on his own. He had a habit of threatening for information.

Allen walked over to a lady, who seemed to be in her mid-twenties. Her deep green eyes moved to Allen as he drew closer, the dark bags beneath then showing her weariness. She smiled faintly at Allen even though she look like if she moved or the wind hit her she would collapse to the ground like a puppet without strings. She was working on her tangled auburn hair with her fingers, trying to get the knots out by picking at them with her nails. Her voice was quiet as she spoke, only just above a whisper, making Allen lean in slightly to hear her. "Yes, did you wish to ask me something, boy?"

Allen looked at her for a little longer before answering her. "Have you seen a strange boy wondering around at night or anything?"

The lady paused, hands dropping from her hair, before she began to play with her slender, pale fingers as she looked at the crest on his chest, her left eye twitching slightly. "N-no… I haven't, sorry… Please excuse me."

With that the lady folded her hands before her and walked away, her strides fast and hurried as if she was running from something or someone. This caused curiosity to flash into Allen's mercury eyes as he looked at his comrades talk to other people, waiting for them. "Again? How many times do we have to ask every man and woman on the scene before we realize we walked into the wrong building?"

Allen tapped his chin in thought, thinking hard about what was happening. 'Well, there must be someone who knows about the boy we're talking about. Some of the police offices seemed too quick to tell us something, but also flustered as though they were making it all up; you could tell by their body movements and tone of voice. The lady I talked to played with her hair and fingers, and kept eyeing the crest on my chest, and her voice was quiet like she was scared to speak up or that she was worried that someone would hear her. This just keeps getting more and more interesting.'

Allen was snapped from his thoughts by Lenalee touching his shoulder, a small smile gracing her delicate face.

"I have good news for you, Allen," she told him. "Can you listen to what I have to say and not stand around thinking?" She placed her hands on her hips, narrowing her violet eyes at him slightly.

Allen shook his head to gain concentration, before he gave her a small smile and rubbed the back of his neck, sheepish. "Sorry, Lena. What is it?"

"One officer that Kanda talked to– threatened, actually–" Lenalee glared at Kanda for a moment, before looking back at Allen and continuing her story, "thinks he knows who the boy you saw is. His name is Sephtis. He's responsible for more than one murder."

Allen nodded his head, his left hand clenching shut into a fist before opening as he relaxed them. "Well… We'll have to find this Sephtis, and see why he's killing these people."

Allen looked at Lenalee then at the grouchy teen standing behind her with a scowl on his narrow face, his slightly tanned hand on the hilt of his Japanese sword, Mugen.

"The only reason I'm helping you two find this Sephtis is because I will be the one to stop him from killing more people." Allen had to wonder if violence was the only thing that changed Kanda's mind.

Lenalee rolled her eyes at Kanda as Allen narrowed his silver eyes at the Japanese swordsman. "So, where are we supposed to find this Sephtis then?"