"What do you mean it died?" William asked surprised at what Ronald had just said.

"I told you, it died. It ran into the forest and I fell off and... When I went to see if it was OK, it just fell over and died." Ronald replied quietly, trying to find a comfortable position to sit in.

"Perhaps it had a heart attack or something?" Alan theorised. "I mean, it had been running extremely fast after all and it seemed extremely distressed..."

"Maybe... What happened to your leg?" Ronald asked Alan, finally noticing that his leg was bleeding quite heavily.

"Why does everyone keep asking that?" Alan asked, half joking in an attempt to lighten the mood. "Anyway, it was scraped along the ground... a lot." He eventually explained.

"Oh. How's head?" Ronald asked William, noticing that there was still some dried blood on it.

"It's fine... It stopped bleeding ages ago." William replied, attempting to wipe some of it off.

A long silence followed after that and the four of them just sat looking out of the windows at the approaching darkness as Grell continued to try and find a place they could turn. Ronald had calmed considerably since his frantic shouts to turn around earlier, but only because he appeared to be in some sort of shock. As it began to get darker – and colder – outside, it soon became clear that there weren't going to be any turning points along the seemingly endless road. Three of the reapers in the carriage had by this time fallen asleep somehow, even Alan with his sore leg, yet William remained awake contemplating the situation. Eventually, he leaned out of the window and called up to Grell who had finally gained full control of the horses.

"How are you faring up there, Sutcliff?" He called, glad to feel the cool wind on his face.

"Not bad I suppose..." Replied Grell. "But I could really do with a rest..."

William thought for a moment before opening the door and climbing up to the driver's seat next to Grell. "I'll take over for a minute of you want..." He said, picking up some of the reigns. "Go and get some rest, we can take it in turns if it makes it any easier."

"Are you sure?" Grell asked, handing over the rest of the reigns. "These things are really hard to control..."

"I'm sure I'll manage." William replied, half kicking Grell out of the way so he could sit in the centre. "Go and get some sleep or something."

"...Is there even any room in there? I mean, Alan's leg –" Grell started.

"There's plenty of room, Sutcliff, don't think you can trick your way into sleeping next to me because it's not going to happen." said William irritably. He knew what Grell was up to. Eventually, Grell made his way into the carriage via the same route William had used to get up there. Of course, it mean having to crawl over William, but the dark haired reaper put up with it if it would mean getting Grell out of the way. After some fuss and a few mumbled complaints from a half asleep Eric, William was finally alone at the front of the carriage with the horses. He would have remained that way too, were it not for Grell coming back up just an hour later...

William was sitting fairly relaxed on the carriage looking for some way of turning around or at least trying to work out if the road would take them in a circle, when he suddenly felt a warm presence near him. He sighed before turning to his right and finding Sutcliff sitting there staring at him.

"Can I help you?" He asked him, trying to focus on the road ahead.

"I can't sleep... It smells of blood in there and it's very uncomfortable too."

"I thought you liked blood?" William asked, remembering the case with the Madam Red lady.

"Not when it's coming from my friends..." replied Grell, finally stopping staring at William and also looking at the road. "Besides, it's the colour I like best."

William just sighed again before turning to look at Grell once more. He looked extremely worn out and his eyes seemed to be red, either from lack of sleep or crying that he wasn't going to admit. "Fine then, you can stay up here, but no talking, stroking, hugging, whining, joking or anything else of the sort, understand?"

"Yes sir!" Grell said, pretending to zip his mouth and sitting with his arms folded.

"And none of that nonsense either. A simple yes would have been enough." William stated.

Half an hour later, Grell's silence was actually starting to get more annoying that if he had been speaking. Every time William looked over, he found Grell had been staring at him, but quickly looked away to pretend he hadn't been and eventually he spoke up. "What is it Sutcliff? Why do you keep staring at me?" His question was met by silence and eventually he realised why. "You're allowed to speak..." he sighed.

"Thank you~" Grell said, pretending to unzip his mouth. "I'm watching to make sure you don't fall asleep, it's the last thing we need after all"

"As if I would be foolish enough to do such a thing-" William began.

"You already have though, twice." Grell said, almost a bit too happily. "I've had to take control of the horses a couple of times without you even noticing~"

William was taken aback by the fact that he could have fallen asleep so easily. He rubbed his eyes for a moment before speaking. "Are you telling the truth?"

"Of course! I'd never lie to you~" Grell chimed. "But don't worry, now that I'm allowed to speak, I'll be sure to keep you awake, OK?"

"Alright..." William agreed. "Let's both agree to keep each other awake yes? That way nothing bad can happen."

"Deal!" Said Grell happily, going to hug William but stopping when he remembered the warning and realised that a fall from such a high, moving place could be dangerous. "Ahaha~"

William just looked back coldly and the two of them then just stared ahead at the road. As they went on, Grell could feel his eyes getting heavy, helped by the somewhat relaxing rocking of the carriage, but he knew William would wake him up, so he didn't worry about it...

Grell opened his eyes slowly as he wondered for a second where he was and what was happening. As he looked around, he quickly realised in horror that both he and William must have fallen asleep when they were meant to be controlling the horses. Sitting up quickly, he discovered that he was facing a tree into which the carriage had obviously crashed. He looked over at William to see that he was still asleep (or maybe knocked out?) and reached over to him, giving him a gentle nudge. "Hey...Are you alive over there? Wake up, we crashed..." Grell said. William opened and eye and stared at him.

"What?

"We fell asleep you idiot! I told you to keep me awake!"

William sat up and rubbed the back of his head where he had obviously banged it. "You're the idiot! You were meant to keep me awake!" He looked around. "Where are we?!"

"Some sort of forest it seems... A hot one too..."

"Well it is the 16th of June..." William said jumping down and making his way towards the carriage to see if everyone else was okay. Grell sighed and also jumped down. "Where are the horses?" William asked pausing and looking over towards the front.

"They're here..." Said Grell approaching them. "I guess I'll just wake them up and we can try and get out of here..."

"OK... I'm going to check on Ronald and the others."

"Right... William?"

"Yes?"

"Is it me or does something not seem right?" Grell asked as he hesitantly approached the horses, which were lying down.

"Of course it's not right, we just crashed for God sake!" he said making his way towards the carriage door once more. Just as he was about to open it he heard a small whimper from where Grell was standing. "Is something wrong?" He called, pulling back.

"I...I think you should come over here..." Grell said quietly.

"What is it?" Asked William making his way over.

"The...The..." Grell gulped. "I don't think we'll be going anywhere any time soon..."

"Why?"

"Push that horse over..." said Grell, pointing at the nearest horse.

"What?"

"Just kick it over or something..."

William approached the horse and did so to find that the entire underside of the horse had been eaten away. Maggots covered it everywhere and he could see right through to the horse's spine. He quickly turned away to vomit into a bush as Grell pushed the horse back over to avoid looking at it. "WHAT THE HELL?!" Screamed William after he managed to stop getting sick.

"I'd like to know the same thing..." Said Grell. "...Oh My God!"

"What?"

"Ronald! And Alan and Eric!" screamed Grell.

"Damn it!" Shouted William and they quickly ran over to the carriage and yanked the door open to find the other three still inside.