Chapter 11: trapped

I was stuck in a world of unfamiliar humans and possibly demons and who knows what else, completely alone, with no way of knowing how to get back into my world. So I did the natural thing. I began to panic. I forced myself to calm down before anyone could see me. A girl dressed like a boy sitting on a rooftop that is completely impossible for a human to get up to.

I told myself to calm down. The first thing I needed to do was go find Ronald. He'd probably been teleported to a different place by accident. I hid up on the highest building roof. I would wait until nightfall when everyone was asleep. Most likely, if Ronald wasn't a complete imbecile, he wouldn't make it hard for me to find him and even try to find me himself. I just hoped he hadn't gone and interacted with the humans. That was one thing we weren't supposed to do.

Let me tell you, waiting ten hours on a rooftop with nothing but your panicky thoughts isn't a very nice feeling. I could hardly wait until sunset. Finally, the streets got less crowded. I was free to move around. I jumped down from the house roof and began running down the streets. I got out my to die list and flipped to the very back where all the spells were.

Tracking spell… tracking spell… Oh, there it was.

I clapped my hands together and recited the incantation. I saw red footsteps on the roofs. If I followed them, it would lead me to Ronald. The brighter the footsteps were, the fresher the trail. I jumped back onto the roof and began following the tracks, running as fast as I could, jumping from building to building. Finally, I saw a flash of orange hair.

"Oh… now what am I going to do…?" Ronald was walking along the street, mumbling to himself. He looked tired. He was following a set of green glowing footsteps. Probably my own. "These footsteps go in an entire circle…"

"Hey!" I yelled. Ronald looked up just as I jumped from the roof and landed beside him. "Where were you?" I asked. "I was looking everywhere for you."

"So was I. I think the portal dropped me in the wrong place."

"All right. Let's not waste any time. When morning comes, we're going to look around for Alexander Dawson. I want to try something as well. If I could get my hands on an old Victorian dress, I could probably walk around and pass for human. I could then look around and tell you when I find him."

"Sounds like a good idea… only where are you going to find a dress like that?"

"How strongly are you opposed to stealing things?" I asked as I found a dress shop that had been closed overnight. I closed my eyes and stepped through the wall like it was water. I looked around. Ronald was watching me with a dubious expression on his face.

"What if someone sees you?" He mouthed. I shrugged and kept looking. I wanted something plain. I didn't want to look like a noblewoman. I wanted to blend in with the crowd. I found a plain looking violet dress. I took it and made sure that no one would notice it was missing in the morning. I stepped back through the wall.

"The best part of the human world is that stuff like this happens all the time. Anyway, I'll return it once I have the chance."

*back in the shinigami world, William's POV, third person perspective*

William watched the grim reapers train with their pickaxes. He wondered how Leah was doing. A grim reaper came running up.

"Excuse me, sir… we have some bad news."

"What is it?"

"Two of the grim reapers who were sent to the human world yesterday disappeared off the record."

William stood up and sighed.

"Which two grim reapers?"

"Ronald Knox and Leah Hayes, sir"

He followed the person into the hallway to the reception room.

"What do you mean by 'they disappeared off the record'?" Grell yelled. "I thought that wasn't supposed to happen!"

"I-I'm s-s-sorry…." The grim reaper behind the desk cowered. William walked forwards and hit Grell over the head with his death scythe.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"You have to learn to keep your emotions in check, Grell Sutcliff."

"But Will! She's my best friend! She's the only person I have left! What are we going to do?"

"We wait." William said. "They should return by Wednesday. By then they might reappear on the record. If they don't reappear on the record or in the shinigami world by Wednesday, I will go into the human world and get them myself."

*back in the human world, Leah's POV, first person perspective*

I walked inconspicuously with the crowd. A woman wearing glasses was quite unusual; especially a young woman who was in her twenties wearing glasses. Not to mention that my hair color was so unusual…but no one seemed to pay me any attention. I walked around. So far it was just a mob of people. No names had appeared in the lenses of my glasses yet. I wasn't sure whether or not that was a good or bad thing.

"Excuse me, miss" Someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned and flinched away.

"Yes?" I tried to remain as calm as possible. I'd never seen a human, let alone talked to one

"I seem to be having a problem knowing where to go. Do you know the directions to the Edinburgh warehouse?"

"It's just around the corner." I said, pointing it out.

"Thank you very much." He walked away. I hurried along, looking for people. I saw a flash of purple on my lenses for just a second. Someone had just walked around a corner. I ran to follow that person. Sure enough, there was a purple sign above his head that said 'Alexander Dawson'. I ducked behind an alley and called Ronald.

"Hello?"

"I found him!" I said in barely more than a whisper. "Get down here!"

In less than thirty seconds, Ronald had jumped down from the roof. I pointed at him.

"Ah, you're right."

"Of course I'm right."

"Let's follow him."

We tailed him all the way to his house. We watched from the rooftop through the window as he took out an artist's paintbrush and began to paint.

"So he's an artist, huh? Not what I expected."

"Leah, we found him. Let's just kill him and get this over with."

"No" I snapped. "We're not going to be committing any senseless murder. Remember that just because you have the power to kill, doesn't mean you can over use it. Every soul you collect has meaning. Don't start forgetting the value of things that can't return. Besides… even if we do kill him now… we have no means of getting back. She didn't tell us how to open the portal to get back."

We watched his habits for two days. As time progressed, I saw that he wasn't a very interesting or nice person. He was into pick pocketing and drug smuggling through his artwork. The time came when I agreed with Ronald and we decided to kill him. I had returned the dress to the shop. I had no use for it anymore.

My death scythe changed from a bracelet into two hunting knives.

"Whoa, that's cool. Wasn't your death scythe a different shape, though?" Ronald asked.

"I can make it switch forms."

"That's awesome. I've never heard of any death scythe that could do that."

"Enough talk. Let's get going."

"Right"