Chapter 3

Amélie POV:

I awoke to see the same man with red hair and glasses that I had been dreaming about in my room. All I could think to do was take out the gun which Sebastian had put under my pillow and shoot. Even before I could shoot, he had a handkerchief up to my face with something weird smelling on it. Before I passed out I saw Sebastian open the door and grab the man. His eyes were a pinkish red and black raven feathers where trailing behind him. Then, everything went black.

I woke up to find Sebastian by my side and the red haired man gone. His face had a look of relief on it when he realized that my eyes were open.

"How are you feeling?"

"A little dizzy." The shakiness of my voice surprised me.

"Do you want some more tea?"

"No, I think I will be ok. What happened?"

"The reaper came back."

"What's a reaper?"

"Reapers decide whether you live or die. They look at your cinematic record, well you life events, right before they kill you to see if you should continue living or not. That's where the phrase life flashes before your eyes come from."

"Ok. I assume they are part of the underworld."

"Yes however, this one is should not be bothering you; now that you are under a contract they cannot touch you even if you are supposed to die. That's a common rule, every reaper knows that. This specific reaper has a tendency to do things that he's not supposed to do. I think I may have to make a trip to the reaper head quarters."

"Will you go tomorrow?"

"I will go as soon as you fall asleep."

"Ok, just make sure you come back before I wake up."

"I promise," he said as he turned out the light and walked through the door.

"Wait!" I shouted as loud as could.

"What is the matter?"

"Why were your eyes a different color?"

"I was going into my true demon form. It's a good thing you passed out before you could see what I really look like."

"Are you a raven?"

"Not entirely. I will not say anything more on the matter. Not even if you command me."

"You don't have to worry about that, I already told you I won't make you do anything you don't want to."

"Good night, Amélie" he whispered as he shut the door.

I fell asleep as soon as I heard his footsteps disappear.

Sebastian POV:

I got to the headquarters of the Reapers just as the sun was rising. I knew I had about 3 hours before I had to be back to get Amélie up for her lessons. The building was a grey white with Grecian architecture. I entered the double doors only to find Grell at the front desk. I wanted to lunge at him because of what he had been doing to Amélie.

"Oh Batty you came. I was wondering when you would show up," Grell said while winking an eye at me.

"Why are you working the front desk?" I said, ignoring his flirting. "You normally work out on the field."

"Well... I got reassigned because of getting involved with your girl's case."

"Serves you right. You know you can't touch people under contract. We dealt with this awhile ago. Remember?"

"Yes well, that was a long time ago. I haven't seen you in ages Batty."

"Why where you bothering Amélie?"

"She's been on the to die list since she was born. We haven't been able to kill her."

"Hmm that's interesting. Has the undertaker investigated this case all? I know he usually deals with the hard to kill people."

"Yeah he has. Even tried to use the bookmark and write in her death. That didn't work. The bookmark shot out of her book and locked itself up. No one can touch it."

"That is weird, normally even the undertaker can change contract members' books."
"He was very perplexed with this case so he's been studying her book."

"If that's all, please stop bothering me. You scare my mistress."

"But Batty I miss you."

"You can bother me, just not my mistress."

"It was the only way to get your attention. I'd been following you for awhile."

"I know, I just ignored you."

"BATTY!"

"Bye Grell, I need to leave."

I walked back through the front door and saw Amélie in the kitchen making herself tea. She was still in her pajamas but had her hair up in a pony-tail with one big curler at the end. "Amélie your kettle," I said after I realized the whistle was going off.

She turned around and gave me a big smile. She took the kettle off while humming the tune to something I didn't know. She poured it into the tea pot and shut the lid. "I can get that, you go sit down." I gestured towards the tea and scones on the tray.

"I can do this myself, I'm not a princess. Do you want some, it's earl grey?"

"Sure"

Amélie POV:

I brought the tea into the dining area and set the tray down on the table. I poured a cup for Sebastian first and then one for me. When I looked up Sebastian's eyes met mine. They were not the same brown color they normally were, but the pink red color they had been back when the red haired man was in my room. He continued staring at me like a predator looks at its prey right before they are about to pounce.

"Why aren't you talking?" I said, trying to break his gaze.

"You are my mistress, you need to speak to me first before I can talk to you. It's only proper."

I slammed my tea cup down causing my saucer to break. I couldn't take his attitude any logner; I shouted, "Why are you acting like this? First you act like you're my parent, then you act like my manager, and now you're acting like my servant. Decide who you want to be in my life!" He said nothing for a few seconds, stunned at what I had said to him. Sebastian then got up calmly and walked out the door.

I got up so fast I knocked my chair over and then ran through the double doors to try to catch him. As soon as I got out in the hall Sebastian was nowhere to be seen. I did however, see a small note attached to the screen for the elevator. It said in Sebastian's neat cursive: I will come back when you have decided that you will not act like a child. This just made me even angrier, so I ripped up the note and started to scream. A few seconds later I heard someone coming up the emergency stairs. I took out my gun from the back pocket in my shorts and pointed it at the door. Even if I didn't really know how to use it I would certainly look threatening, I hoped.

The door opened and I saw it was the concierge who worked downstairs. I dropped my gun and ran into his arms crying. He then picked me up and set me on the couch in the living room. Everything was blurry from the tears in my eyes. All I could hear was the man asking if I was ok and what had happened. I truly did not know how to answer, but his questions for some reason made me stop crying. I looked up and said "My butler left me," then began crying again.

I heard the door open and saw Sebastian's shadow on the wall opposite the door. He told the man to go away and that he would talk to me. From that point on I don't really remember what he said to me, but it made me feel better and more calm. It must be something daemons can do to calm there masters, well whatever it was, it helped.

I looked up at Sebastian's face and saw a worried look. He had my small gun in his hand and was holding it just far enough away so I could not reach it. "Why? Why did you leave?" I said while wiping tears away from my eyes.

"Because this was a much better result than having a tea pot thrown at my head. You need to learn how to control yourself."

"You need to learn not to make me upset. All you had to do was answer my question."

"No...you wanted more than that."

"I did not want any such thing."

"I wasn't meaning that, you crave attention. It's because you never had it back home. You want someone who will care for you no matter what."

"Maybe that's true, but isn't it part of your job to make me happy?"

"That was never part of our contract. Daemons are no replacement for real people. We understand human feelings but don't experience them ourselves."

"Hrmf."

"Well go get dressed, your shooting teacher will be here soon, don't want to be having a hissy fit while doing that, now do you?"

"No, you never answered my question."

"I will be whoever you need or command me to be. I will be your butler when needed to teach you things and be your escort to formal functions. I will be your manager to help you organize your job. But no, I will never be your parent, you still have yours and I will not replace them unless it's necessary."

"Fine I'll go get ready."

While in my room getting ready I heard the door open and someone walking in. I put my ear to the door to hear what was going on. I heard Sebastian say, "Monica-Rin so glad you decided to show up." Then, in a deep woman's voice with an English accent, "I'm only doing this since my family has been tied to you since Mey-Rin worked for you and the Phantomhives."

Again with the Phantomhives, were they really that important? I opened the door and saw whose voice it was. Monica was a tall red haired woman. She wore big round nerdy glasses with jeans and a tee-shirt. Monica looked over at me and pointed, "Is this her?"

Sebastian answered, "Oh Amélie, yes she's the one you need to teach."

"Doesn't look like she could even handle the kick back of her tiny gun."

"She will do just fine. The roof stairs are just down the hall , right by the elevator. I have everything set up as you told me to."

"Fine, Amélie was it? Come, we haven't got all day."

Sebastian and I followed her as she went back out into the hall. Once I got to the top of the stairs and looked out I saw two targets, one a bull's eye and the other a black paper with the shape of a human marked out like the ones the police use. Monica set the guns on a table that was about 10 feet away from the targets. She took the small gun out and then took off her glasses.

She aimed and then shot three rounds off. Even from where I was standing I could see that every shot had been a bull's eye. "Now your turn," she said, holding out the gun for me to pick up. It was heavy, but not so heavy that I could not hold my arm out to shoot.

"Ok hold your hand like this," Monica said as she positioned my had around the gun. "See that little notch in the top, use that to aim. Point that at where you want the bullet to go, although depending on the wind the bullet might go in a different direction so you have to learn to account for that."

I help my arm up to get ready to shoot. I was about to pull the trigger but then stopped. I realized that my hair was blowing towards the left, so I aimed a little to the right. Pow. I took a few steps back not being prepared for the rebound. I had thought it would be a lot less. Even though it was a small gun it was very powerful. I looked over and saw that Sebastian was smiling and Monica's jaw was wide open. I had hit the bull's eye.

"Ok now try to hit the human target, mind you they won't always be as stationary as this or even look like this, especially in your line of work. Try to aim for somewhere on the torso so you have a bigger area, although since you seen to be a natural you might as well try to hit the head."

I lined the gun up for a shot right between the eyes and took a deep breath. Pow. This time I didn't move a step from the kick back. I looked up at the paper and saw I had hit my target. I set the gun on the table and said, "Are we don't for today?"

"For today, yes. I will come once a week just to make sure you keep your skills up. Have you ever shot a gun?" Monica asked.

"Not unless you count today," I said with a smirk on my face.

As I was eating lunch Sebastian came in with a letter and set it on the table. I opened it up and it read: You are invited to join me and the rest of the noble family for dinner. A car will come by at 6 p.m. Please wear the dress I picked out for you.

- Christophe

"Are you going to go?" Sebastian said.

"I guess, it seemed more like a command rather than a 'Do you want to go' kind of thing."

"I put the dress and things in your room. I think we can fit an etiquette lesson in before you have to start to get ready."

"Really? I was hoping we were done with those."

"Unless you want to be treated as a social outcast, you might want to spend some time practicing."

"Fine, we can leave off where we stopped at dinner the other day. You said for me it was probably best if I waited till the person next to me started eating so I could just see what utensil they used, right?"

"Yes, since we do not have time on our side I think that is the best course to take. Also, you will probably be next to the prince since he will be your escort for tonight. I will also be there, even if you don't see me."

"Ok, is that all?"

"One more thing, try not to trip, it's not lady like. I think we can start getting you ready."

Sebastian took everything off the table: silverware, plates, serving dishes, and glass ware all in one swoop of his hands. It must be a daemon butler thing. He took the huge stack and tossed it all into the kitchen and said, "Shall we begin?"

I took his hand to help me out of the chair. Sebastian had been trying to act as any butler would during meals since I had had my little episode. He led me into my closet where I saw the garment bag hanging on one of the drawer handles. As Sebastian unzipped the bag I saw a black dress with a rather short skirt. The fabric looked like silk on the top and underneath the skirt were a few layers of tulle to make it poof out some. On a shelf next to the dress there was a pair of super high black stilettos, which I knew I would hardly be able to walk in, and a small tiara which looked to be made out of gold and diamonds. I did not want to know how much that had cost.

"I think you should wear a capelet and gloves since it's supposed to be cloudy tonight," Sebastian said without even asking my opinion on the outfit.

"Leave so I can put this on."

After Sebastian walked out I stared at the dress for a good few minutes deciding what I would do. Should I find something else, or should I just go ahead and wear it so the prince and Sebastian wouldn't get angry. As I felt the dress brush my skin when I put it on, I knew instantly I could have probably bought a house with how much it had cost. I put black tights on thinking I would not feel so exposed but it just made the outfit even more provocative. "Ok you can come in now," I said.

"Well let's see what we can do with your hair," Sebastian said as he pointed to a seat in front of a mirror.

He pulled my hair up into a bun so tight that I could barely move my face. The pins jabbed into my scalp and hurt even more as new pins were added. The final touch was to shove the little tiara into the bun making it feel like a sword had just been stuck into my head. I never truly understood the meaning of beauty is pain until this. After he was done, Sebastian put some make up on me.

First was my eyes, he used dark grey eye shadow and pushed so hard on my eyelids it made then water. He then decided I needed mascara and brushed it all over my eyelashes until they looked like a doll's. For the finishing touch dark red lipstick. When Sebastian stepped away I could barely recognize myself. I, who was never really interested in girly things, had never even worn makeup.

There was a knock on the door. "I will go get it. Your cape and gloves are on the end table in your room," Sebastian said. I walked out of my closet and put on the cape and gloves. Out through the window I could barely make out a few snow flurries falling in the winter night sky.

"Amélie!" Sebastian called.

"Coming!" I answered. I was really dreading what was going to happen at the party.