During the night, William got up, pacing, sweaty, tired, shaking, and hot. He couldn't think and his body was screaming. He held himself and went to his window. It was locked from the outside. Gasping, he pulled at the edge, willing it to open. "Please… I..I need air!" He felt starved and suffocated now, trying to gasp for air that wasn't coming. His body weak, he crawled back into his bed, thrashing, crying, hands at his throat, pulling for air, begging. Closing his eyes, he willed the demon to come to him, hoping for something.

Soft hands over his chest. Gloved hands on his stomach, kissing. William's desperation didn't ease, but intensified. Legs crossed, hands sliding over his own body, he couldn't hear his own screams or feel his own pain. Just desperation. Need. Eyes fluttering open, his heat-fevered mind thought he saw the demon and opened his arms for it.

Nothing came into his arms but he closed them around the invisible creature anyway, nuzzling it. The nothing was caressing William's body in a way that drove him mad. Laying between his legs, arms around him. And even though it was just nothing, William swore that it was Sebastian. His voice was hoarse. "M..master…h..have you come to free me?" he whispered.

Silence answered him and he let out a small, painful sob. "B..but why? Why can't you take me away from here? W..Why can't you take me back?"

More silence, more desperate crying. William was dying now, he had to be, there was no way this pain could drag out longer. He scratched at his face, feeling the demon's cheek but now knowing that it wasn't actually there. Heat drove him to strip naked and throw his sheets and blanket off onto the floor. Pulling at his hair, he stretched and screamed. He felt blood slide down his throat and he gagged and gasped. Turning himself over, his breath came ragged, spitting blood up. His breath came ragged and harsh, laced with the crimson fluid.

Crying, he swallowed it, grimacing at the taste, gasping louder and harsher. He gave in to a ragged edge of unconsciousness before he could get any worse. Curled up on his bed, shivering, sweating, moaning and gasping,

Ronald opened the door slightly and meant to touch him. Grell held a hand on his shoulder and pulled him back. "Don't touch him… You might make it worse."

"But he's bleeding."

Grell's face paled and he looked back. "Eric…. You think you can get something for his throat?"

"I could try to find something…" he said, going into the cabinets of the small kitchen. None of them had slept and all of them were pale, faces shadowed with the imminent future. Alan looked at Eric and then the other two. Biting his lip he grabbed his coat and sighed.

"I..I'm gonna go out for some air.." Taking his scythe, he ran out off into the English countryside, approaching the Phantomhive manor, less than stealthily. He stood in front of the main doors and went inside. "Demon! Where are you?"

"Oh.. Come to replace your boss, Alan Humphries?"

Alan turned round, but found nothing but dark around him. Gripping his scythe, he poised himself, ready to strike Sebastian down at a moment's notice. There was a laugh. "I want to make you a deal, demon," Alan hissed.

"Oh?"

His eyes became visible in the dark, and then followed the rest of him, leather clad and hooker-heeled. "Yes….." Alan held disgust in his voice as he looked Sebastian over.

"You're sweet for a shinigami, Alan. Why come make a deal with the devil?"

"…I want you to let William go. I want you to release him."

"Why should I?"

Alan was silent. "I don't have anything to offer. Give me something and … we'll see."

"Why should I let him go? He'll surely go mad if he stays that way."

"No, he's dying."

Sebastian laughed.

"Is he?"

Alan stood quiet. "I need to make this deal. They're going to execute him."

Sebastian smiled. "I have to be there in person to make the addiction go away."

There was silence. Alan would be risking everything to pull Sebastian into his realm. He'd get overtime, possibly a demotion, maybe a work suspension… Or he could be rewarded for saving William's life. "If you remove the addiction…You get to keep him for later."

Sebastian was briefly impressed by the reaper's knowledge of demonic addiction. Sitting, Sebastian took his master's normal seat and smiled. "If he breaks free himself, I cannot touch him.. If he dies, I cannot touch him."

"S..so if you break him free of his addiction, t..then you can keep messing with him all you want."

"He'll simply be more easily addicted, Alan. Were you not aware?"

"I was…"

The pair stared at each other in silence. "You would rather him be more vulnerable?"

"I..I don't want him to die."

The demon sneered. "I suppose it might be advantageous… There's nothing stopping me from taking him back."

"….C..can't we have a mutual agreement?" "We'll discuss the terms in a day or so.. When is William's execution due?"

"…I..in two days."

Sebastian smiled. "Any way you might be able to sneak me inside for those days? I can make it easier on him."

"They'll know you when they see you. … a..And I don't want you screwing with him, I just want him fixed!"

Sebastian sneered. "I never said I would fix him."

"…Please! Please consider it!"

"Alan… What would YOU give to save your boss?" Licking his lips, Sebastian put a finger to his lips. "Not nearly as much as you would to save Master Eric, correct?"

There was tense silence and Alan gripped his scythe tightly. "I just want to know what I can do to let you fix William!"

"There isn't anything in the world that could make me 'Let him go'."

"Even though William is the one keeping Grell from trying to rape you on a nightly basis?"

Sebastian blinked, laughed and then stood. "Give me a day. I assume the trial is tomorrow, and the execution will be carried out. If I don't arrive by the time William is to… die… Then suppose I'm not giving him up."

Alan's face blanched. He waited for the demon to stand and turn his back before Alan was sure that he was free to leave safely. As he walked back to his home, he shivered. Sebastian had made a point. Alan didn't have anything to offer that would keep him from keeping William. He wandered back into the apartment and looked up. Ron was holding William on his stomach over a trashcan.

He was coughing and shaking, blood pouring from his mouth in thin rivulets. Tears streaked from his face and William seemed not himself. His glasses were discarded on the floor and Alan stared in horror. The shinigami's body was unearthly pale. William managed a glance at Alan and shuddered. The look sent out horror.

Mortified, they put William back into bed and Alan went and sat at the table. "Did your time out help you any, Al?" Eric asked, rubbing his shoulders gently. Alan ran a hand through his hair. The other three sat around him.

"I…I went to see Sebastian."

The three others stared at him. "W..why would you do that?"

"What were you thinking?" Grell stood.

"I..I wanted to make a deal with him.. But I don't have anything to offer him."

Grell narrowed his eyes and Ronald made him sit back down. "And what did he say?"

"He said… He said he would consider releasing him…"

"But?"

"It isn't likely." Alan rested on Eric's shoulder, shaking. "I tried, I really did."

"Did he go after you?"

Alan shook his head and looked toward William's room. "Can you imagine…. Life without the boss?"

Ronald spoke gently, "…No. I can't… The boss. The boss can't die."

"What do you expect we do, then?" Grell asked.

They looked at the crimson reaper, who's usual lax disposition was replaced with tension. "…W..we just…" Alan's voice broke and he let tears roll down his cheeks as he buried his face into Eric's chest. The blond shinigami pet his hair and looked at Grell and Ronald.

William could hear them on the other end of the door, shaking, listening quietly to them talk. 'B..but I'm not worth it,' he thought to himself, body tensed, curled into the fetal position. His muscles contracted and pulled on his limbs, leaving him weak and his skin taut. Turning over, he felt the demon's hands again and his body shuddered.

"Need it, William?" was the voice whispered in his ear. He nodded slightly, feeling a gloved hand caress his jaw. He lifted his head, tilting his chin back, feeling the ghost of the demon's lips there. Putting a hand to his throat and another sliding down his side, he felt disgraced and disgusting. Heat was driving him to illusion, and it was beginning to become something he could barely resist.

Sliding deeper into despair, his world was coated in the inky black of a dreamscape. Suddenly he was the demon again, on top of Sebastian, pinning him down, biting into his throat.

The things that followed were plaguing William's lucidity with a mix of pleasure and hate. Holding himself, he felt alone again. Disillusioned with ideas of lust, drive and love, he felt that if he didn't somehow die in the appointed two days of hell that he would never give in to any of that. He wasn't ambitious by nature. He would lock his emotions away and not let even the slightest shred out.

There was a knock at his window. He covered his ears, hoping that it was in his head and that pretending that it was real would make it go away. Another knock. Sitting up in the dark, drenched in sweat, William moved to the window and looked out into the dark that had taken over the earth. Fuscia eyes, slit pupils, a small grin. His heart stopped for a moment and his hands scrambled for the window. Then he remembered it was locked from the outside. Clawing at the window, his body ached for the demon that waited outside the window. Sebastian pulled it up swiftly, breaking the lock. William reached for him and Sebastian climbed inside, pulling the shinigami into an embrace.

"You're going to die, William."

The shinigami nodded, suddenly unafraid of anything. "B…but master can save me, can't he?"

Sebastian chuckled. "Master doesn't want to let William go, does he?"

William frowned and clung to him, wrapping arms around his waist, laying his head on his chest. Comfort was only so close. "S..still so hot…" Closing his eyes, he collapsed, nothing supporting him. Pushing himself up, he understood that Sebastian wasn't coming for him. The window was closed, he was still sweaty and in pain, and the demon was no where to be seen.

Trying to remain stoic began to fail him. He broke down into loud sobs once more, clawing his wood-floor, crying, gasping, begging from fear and hate. Pulling hands through his hair, he stood and paced, staggering, looking at himself in the mirror through blurred eyes.

Sweat drenched him, his hair was matted against his scalp, eyes ringed crimson, hollow and tired from lack of good sleep. Closing his eyes, he whimpered and examined the rest of his body. He was leaner now, thinner, paler, and his body had lost its substance. He wasn't William anymore. He had lost sense of his own character. Sinking to his knees, his vision remained blurry as he looked at his hands, streaked with copper color.

"W..what am I?" Trying to find himself in this body, this mind that was wracked with a disease that he could only call a vile demon, was making him dizzy and lost. Again he heard the window open. He felt the arms around him. The mocking nibbling on his ear.

"I know just what you are."

Demon hands turned William's head to him, forcing him to a kiss. The shinigami pulled away briefly, before his fevered nerves and body registered that this was a solid being. Leaning against the demon's warm embrace, he felt that faux-love that had dragged him down so far. Crying, he leaned against the demon's shoulder and sobbed, tears staining it's coat. "You're not helping me. You're going to kill me!"

"Oh?"

"Yes. This is your fault."

"I suppose it is." Sebastian nipped his throat before sucking at it gently. William moaned and leaned into the demon's caress, gasping. "This should keep you from dying in the next few days. I've got a big decision to make."

"And what ever could THAT be?" William's words were dripping with disgust.

"Oh, you'll see."

Sneering the demon put William in bed and kissed him, straddling him. "W..what are you doing?" His voice shook with anticipation. The demon kissed him, adding tongue, smiling deviously.

"Pleasing you. Just a bit."

William gasped as Sebastian kissed down his chest. The demon grinned and someone knocked. "Willu~ Are you alright?"

The shinigami meant to speak, but Sebastian silenced him. "Aww, cut short." Dipping down, he kissed him harder. "I'll just lock you back in and go on my way." Staring, his face showed desperation mixed with outrage. The demon was gone in a flash, the window slammed shut. William was so unsure if that had even been real. The sudden loss of heat from his body and the cooling of his fever seemed to confirm it.

"Will?"

"Yeah Grell?" he managed to gasp out. His voice still rasping.

"You alright?"

"Aside from dying a slow and horrible death? Yeah, fine." His sarcasm still in tact, William dropped into the bed. Eased for the moment, he had full time to let his fate sink in. He was going to die. He, William T. Spears, manager, was going to die.. All because of one mistake. And he would be forced, most likely, to relive this part of his life in hell.

Shuddering, he turned over and the burning began again, more intensely than before. Letting out a soft gasp, he felt his body working up the courage to start driving him mad. Again he took a plunge into solid need and the withdrawal made him dizzy with lust. Laying in his bed, he at least knew it would be over. He at least knew the outcome. He at least knew that it might not hurt. He at least knew that the demon had won.