The Head and Heart Thorns

A Black Butler Fanfic

Chapter 2 - Nightmares… Or Visions?

A/N:

Hey everyone, I'm back once again! Thank you all so-so much for waiting for Chapter 2 of this Fanfic and being patient while waiting for it!

I DO NOT own Black Butler (Kuroshitsuji)! If I did then I'd probably end up making an entire season that would focus solely on the Grim Reapers and their world and you would probably end up seeing a ton of scenes mainly featuring either Undertaker or Ronald most likely. Anywaaaaayyys... Please read the warning below that mentions certain things that are included in this chapter, in case there are one or more things in this chapter that could be a trigger for you!

DETAIL WARNING: This chapter includes mentions of the following: Nightmare, Coffins, and Passing Out.

Alrighty, everybody! I hope you enjoy Chapter 2 of The Head and Heart Thorns!

(More notes at the end of the chapter!)

The Streets of London

Walking along in the streets of London, was a Grim Reaper with neatly combed, dark-brown hair, and a stern expression on his face as he walked.

As he continued walking, a funeral parlor with a purple sign that was embellished with a yellow lining and a skull, hanging above the door that said "Undertaker" started to come into view. When the Reaper made it to the front of the funeral parlor, he stood there as if he was silently debating with himself on whether or not he should actually do this. After a few minutes, he let out a reluctant sigh and opened the door, and walked in.

He closed the door behind him and stood near it before he called out into the shadows of the quite dark funeral parlor "Undertaker!"

Just a few seconds after the name was called, faint giggles could be heard from the shadows of the shop, and a coffin that was standing up against the wall near where William stood, slid open slowly until a man stepped out of it.

Some candles lit around the room, making it bright enough to see a man that had long gray hair, a part of it being tied into a single braid on the right side of his head, black fingernails that seemed to have a shine to them whenever the light from the candles struck them at just the right angle, and he had a jagged scar across his face, neck, and left pinky finger. His eyes were covered by his hair quite well, but he could still see the Reaper standing in front of him near the door as he was looking directly at him.

Undertaker let out a light giggle when the younger-than-him Reaper just stood there, clearly trying to keep a straight face. After a few more moments of Undertaker continuing to giggle, he stopped when he noticed that the Reaper in front of him, which he knew his name was William T. Spears, still had a stern face, but it seemed to drift away to fear and concern just a little bit for just a moment before his expression went back to being stern once again. Undertaker started grinning at the thought of the usually stern, and cold Grim Reaper being concerned about something.

He said to William with a grin still on his face "I can already tell you want information, and I will give it to you. You already paid the fee when you had that brief look of concern in your eyes. That was certainly a rare treat since it came from someone such as yourself, and while it may not have made me laugh, I still find it amusing enough to be payment. Come with me. I'll make us some tea." He turned and walked towards his desk at the back of the shop, gesturing to William to sit down on one of the coffins that were placed in front of it before he went to make the tea.

When he came back with the tea, William was sitting on one of the coffins, the stern look was still apparent on his face, but compared to when Undertaker had first seen William walk into his shop with the same expression, the one he saw now seemed to be a bit softer, and his eyes were just staring down at the floor as if he was lost in his own thoughts.

Undertaker put the cup of tea he held in his hand, next to where William sat on the coffin before saying to him while walking to his desk "My, my. Something must have happened if you are lost in thought like this." Once Undertaker had sat down behind his desk, that's when William raised his head and switched his gaze, which now started to show a fair bit of concern, but was also mixed with a couple of other feelings, from the floor to Undertaker, before he looked back down at the floor once again.

Undertaker giggled a bit at William and pulled out a jar of dog bone-shaped biscuits and set it on his desk before taking one of the biscuits out and eating it.

As he continued to eat the biscuits, he looked over at William when he started talking "Vanessa, she- She's suffering from something that I don't know much about… And I don't know how else I can help her… Why is it happening to her? What even is happening to her specifically…"

After a few more moments of William talking out loud, with his gaze still focused on the floor, Undertaker realized that he wasn't talking to him specifically, but was speaking his thoughts out loud. And judging by the look on his face, he doesn't even realize he's doing it.

Undertaker started to giggle a bit to himself at this side of William before he stood up and walked towards the door. Undertaker grinned before opening the door and closing it, the sound of the bell hanging above it going off and swinging around a bit when the door was opened and then again when it was closed. The sound of the bell certainly seemed to snap William out of his thoughts, as he had stood up from the coffin he was sitting on in a bit of a startled way and flashed a brief, mildly surprised look to Undertaker, which earned a few giggles from the mortician as he sat back down.

Undertaker walked back over to William and stood in front of him instead of going back to sit at his desk.

William looked up at him when he started talking "Have you ever heard about a rare disease called 'The Head and Heart Thorns?'" When William shook his head in reply, Undertaker continued "Well, from what I've heard about it, it's not a pleasant experience for whoever has it. If someone has it, it always starts with headaches, which eventually turn into really bad migraines after a few months, then it gets worse a short while after the migraines start..." Undertaker's gaze dulled a bit for a moment or two before he continued once again "Unfortunately, not much is known about what specifically happens after the migraines start, because those who have had it, somehow seemed like they had just, disappeared from the outside world..."

William looked at Undertaker for a few more moments after he had finished talking before he looked back at the floor once again.

Undertaker looked at the reaper for a moment or two before he said "The thing about The Head and Heart Thorns? It seems to only happen to Grim Reapers. There's not a single thing that even mentions The Head and Heart Thorns infecting any other creature. And there has only been one reaper who has had it before. Just one. I heard about him a short while ago and afterward, I got curious and tried to find what I could about the disease, and the headache and migraine part was, unfortunately, all I was able to find..."

William's gaze snapped up to look straight at Undertaker when he said that this disease "seems to only happen to Grim Reapers." William's eyes had less of a stern look to them and more of a look of fear in them when he looked at Undertaker.

Undertaker said to William with no specific expression on his face when he spoke "I'm going to take a guess and say that you think a reaper you know might have it?"

William looked down at the floor and replied quietly "I'm not certain, but I was told earlier that she had a really bad headache that was said to have gotten worse before the reaper who came to my office to get me, informed me of what was happening to her. By the time I got to her, she was on the floor in the middle of a harsh coughing fit, and she ended up coughing up some blood…" William trailed off a bit before he continued "After I had managed to get something in her that would help with the coughing and headaches, I told the other two reapers that were there to take her home so she could rest. When she was picked up… She just looked so tired and worn out. She had tried to say my name but she couldn't even finish saying it before she fell asleep." William looked back up at Undertaker and asked "What can I do to help her, Undertaker? You must know of something I can do to help her more."

Undertaker looked directly into William's, mostly fear-filled eyes for a few moments before a small grin appeared on his face and he said to William "Bring her to me twenty-four hours after she wakes up. I'll see what I can do then." William nodded and stood up off the coffin, thanking the Undertaker before turning and heading for the door.

When William had placed his hand on the doorknob, Undertaker said to him before he opened the door making the reaper look at him over his shoulder "And William? As I said, bring her here twenty-four hours after she wakes up. Even if she is having one of those headaches or migraines, bring her here." William nodded before he opened the door and walked out of Undertaker's funeral parlor, closing the door behind him.

William sighed and looked at the sky, the sun had now begun to set and William said quietly to himself "What is the Undertaker going to do when I bring Vanessa to him…" He let out a light sigh before he started to head back to Grim Reaper HQ to try and finish the rest of his paperwork. He decided he would check on Vanessa tomorrow if he wasn't called by Ronald or Alan tonight saying that something was happening to her again.

At Vanessa's House

At Vanessa's house, Ronald was sitting on one of the chairs in the house's living room while Alan stood by the window, clearly too anxious and lost in thought to sit down and try and relax.

Ronald let out a light sigh at the sight of Alan having been tense since they had gotten Vanessa here. He looked away from Alan and switched his gaze to Vanessa who was lying asleep on the couch in front of where he sat. He kept his gaze focused on her for a few moments before he got up and said to Alan "I'm going to go get some fresh air. I'll be back in a few minutes."

Alan turned away from the window to face Ronald and nodded in response. Ronald then walked out of the living room and left the house, leaving Alan alone in the living room with Vanessa.

Alan looked back out the window for a few more moments before he turned back to face the couch when he had seen Vanessa start to move slightly in her sleep from the corner of his eye.

He walked over to her and watched with concern as her face clearly showed that she was having a nightmare as beads of sweat were starting to form on her face, and the expression that she had, showed that she was fearful of the nightmare that was currently going on in her head.

Alan walked into the kitchen and put a clean cloth under the tap with cold water, squeezing the excess water out of the cloth before he went back to Vanessa and wiped the sweat off her face with the cloth before resting it on her forehead. He looked at her expression for a few more moments, noticing that it had started to soften a bit after the cloth was put on her forehead. He said quietly to himself with a tone that was mixed with curiosity and concern both at the same time "What is going on with you…"

In Vanessa's Nightmare

Vanessa opened her eyes and looked around at her surroundings, a slightly confused look on her face. All she could see was pitch black darkness all around her, and she thought to herself 'Where am I? The last thing I remember was the feeling of being picked up by someone and then a brief glimpse of William before I…' She trailed off, her eyes widening as she realized what was happening and as soon as she did, an intense ringing started to sound off in her ears, making her cry out in pain and fall to her knees, covering her hands over her ears in an attempt to lessen the intensity of the ringing, but to no avail.

A few moments later, the ringing seemed to subside as Vanessa started to see the dark void all around her change and another moment later, Vanessa was in a shop. She guessed a funeral parlor from the looks of it as she slowly stood up and looked around.

Her eyes landed on someone who was standing in front of someone else who sat on a coffin.

The man had silver hair and wore a black robe, and had a gray sash strapped around his chest that was knotted at the hip.

Vanessa walked towards them and as she got closer, she realized that the one sitting on the coffin was not some random person, but was actually herself. The version of her that sat on the coffin looked like she was in a lot of pain as she was hunched over, eyes shut tightly, one hand holding her chest and the other covering her mouth as harsh, insistent coughing could be heard from her.

The silver-haired man that stood in front of her only said to the coughing reaper, a stern tone to his voice as he spoke "You have to find the thing that can help you to suppress the coughing fits before I can help you further." The last few words that the man spoke started to sound farther and farther away as the scene started to fade away when the real version of Vanessa clutched her chest and squeezed her eyes shut as pain started to fill her chest, her breathing coming in gasps as she fell to her knees once again.

After around a minute or so of her gasping for breath, her vision started to become increasingly black around the edges and a moment later, she collapsed onto her side, hand still clutching her chest as she passed out. She felt herself slipping deeper into the darkness before she started to wake in the real world.

End of Nightmare

Back in the real world, Alan had just put the cloth back on Vanessa's forehead after he had gotten up to put it under the tap again, and a moment later Vanessa's eyes snapped open and she gasped as she suddenly sat bolt upright in the couch, the damp cloth falling off her forehead.

She sat there panting heavily and her eyes wide with obvious shock and fear as she just stared at nothing as if she thought the nightmare was still happening and she hadn't yet woken up.

Alan started when she suddenly sat up and when he saw her gaze and noticed the way she was breathing, he took a deep breath and gently rested a hand on her back and said calmly and quietly to her "It's alright, Vanessa. The nightmare is over... Come out of it." After a few moments, her breathing calmed back down and she was no longer panting.

She looked at Alan with eyes that showed she was a bit more relaxed but a hint of fear still lingered in her gaze. She looked away from Alan and brought her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them and burying her face in them. She started crying softly, occasionally taking shaky breaths as she wept.

Ronald came back into the house just then and when he saw Vanessa crying he walked into the living room and softly asked Alan "Woah… What happened?" Alan looked at him and answered softly "She had a nightmare it seems. A bad one from the looks of it."

Vanessa let out a couple more soft cries before she raised her head, two more tears falling down her face and said to them with a tone that sounded a bit rude but mostly like she was just tired and done with it all "I can hear every word you guys are saying. And yes the nightmare was bad." She looked at them for a moment or two with eyes that showed she was tired but also serious before she got up from the couch and went to the window.

She stared out the window at the full moon that had just risen almost fully into the night sky. She sighed lightly and closed her eyes briefly before opening them again and saying to Alan and Ronald without looking at them "The nightmare just felt… so real. It was as if it was actually happening." She let out a brief humorless chuckle "It's either that or I'm going crazy or something because I feel like it was so real." Her smile faded into a frown as she continued to look out the window at the moon for another minute or so before she turned around to face the other two reapers.

She cracked a small smile, tilted her head to the side just a bit, and said in a tone that sounded sweet but the words that came out of her mouth were anything but "Now, which one of you guys wants to help me punch something solid on purpose so I don't feel like punching a hole through my wall for basically no reason?"

Ronald and Alan both stared at her with slightly stunned expressions at what she just said before Ronald gave her a grin and said out loud "I take it you aren't the type that prefers sitting around doing nothing then?"

Vanessa's small smile turned into a kind of grin that made her look like she would take you on in a fight any day of the week if you asked her to. She replied with the grin still on her face "Oh you have no idea how much I hate sitting around doing nothin'. I can handle an hour or two, three at max, but after that, well I gotta get out at some point." Her grin faded away and became a slight frown before she spoke again "Let's just call it "pent-up energy" or something along those lines for now."

She sighed lightly again before she walked out of the living room, grabbed her coat that was hanging on a chair in the kitchen and she started walking towards the door.

She stopped and looked back at Ronald and Alan and said to them with barely a hint of emotion in her tone "If you two don't want to follow me, then that's fine. Not like that'd be a new thing for me."

She looked at them for another moment before she went out the door, heading down the road back to HQ and she went into the training room.

Grim Reaper HQ Training Room

Almost twelve hours after Vanessa had woken up, she was still in the training room, currently landing strong punches and kicks on a punching bag while Alan and Ronald sat in the chairs on the side of the room watching her.

Vanessa had only taken two breaks since she first started training, one when she had gotten to the third hour of her training and the second when she had gotten to the ninth hour. Since then, she had started working up a sweat and now she was starting to show signs of her getting somewhat exhausted as she continued going after the punching bag, each solid punch sending it swinging backwards, and each kick dealt to it caused the bag to swing side to side, the strength of her attacks started to fade as the minutes ticked by, and as she had started to pant heavily, she grit her teeth and went at the punching bag once again, landing a strong final punch which sent it swinging backwards quite a fair bit before she heaved a sigh of relief as she fell on her back on the floor, panting a fair bit, and taking in big breaths as she closed her eyes and lay there, arms spread out on either side of her.

Ronald and Alan saw her collapse onto the floor and they ran over to her with worried looks on their faces.

Vanessa opened her eyes as she heard them approach. She looked at them and grinned before saying breathlessly "Well... Guess that's... a new record... for me then." She grunted slightly as she dragged herself up into a sitting position, sighing in relief once again as her breathing evened out back to normal.

Both Ronald and Alan looked at each other for a moment before Ronald asked Vanessa with a slightly puzzled look on his face "A new record? What do you mean? How long have you spent here training before today?"

Vanessa let out a slightly amused chuckle at the last question before she answered "Well it started with me just wanting to go for an hour one day, then that one hour turned into three the next and then became six the next time, then it sprang up to about eight or nine hours after that. Today was my new record of twelve hours with only two breaks snuck in there." She sighed again and flopped onto her back once more and stared at the ceiling as she continued "I have no clue what drives me to be in here so much just going after a punching bag for so many hours, but the least it does is give me some practice in strengthening my punches and kicks and whatnot. Ugh. But I'm pretty sure I'm gonna end up thinking about whether or not to take an ice bath after this. Twelve hours of this kind of thing doesn't come without pain in some areas." Ronald let out a soft chuckle and said to her "Remind me not to pick a fight with you when it comes to hand-to-hand, eh?"

Vanessa chuckled too and said to him with a smirk "Hey, if ya need practice in that area, then, by all means, go right ahead. But I can assure you, you won't get out without some pain if you decide you do need the practice."

She put her hands behind her head as she stared up at the ceiling for another minute or two before she sensed a presence that was coming near the training room and she knew who it belonged to.

She let out a slightly annoyed-sounding sigh and said sarcastically "Oh. Wonderful. This should be fun."

Ronald looked at her after she said that in a sarcastic tone and he started to ask her "What do you-" He was cut off when the door to the training room opened and he saw William come up to them, looking at Vanessa with a stern expression on his face.

She looked straight back at him with a look in her eyes that seemed to say "Yeah? What do you want?" William sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose for a few moments before he looked at Vanessa again and asked her sternly, clearly expecting an answer from her "And just how long have you been training in here since you woke up, Steelgrip?"

Vanessa let out a groan of annoyance and stood up, saying to William as she walked over to where the punching bag was before landing a few light kicks and punches to it while moving around it as she did so "A few hours. What's the problem with me being in here exactly?"

William watched her continue landing the light blows to the punching bag and when she answered his question and asked her own, he replied to her "You know exactly what the problem is when it comes to you being in here so soon after one of your episodes. So don't act like you don't know."

Vanessa slammed her fist into the punching bag after hearing William's reply, sending it swinging back and forth quite strongly as she turned around and walked over to him, standing right in front of his face and saying with a tone and an expression that showed she completely despised his reply "Well, I don't recall ever asking you or anyone to give a damn about me AFTER I have an episode! And if that's really the best answer you can give me, then you've got a lot of improvements to work on with answers to those kinds of questions."

She let out a frustrated growl before turning around and going back to the punching bag, slamming her fists into it repeatedly, making it swing back even more with each frustration-filled punch.

William watched her take out her frustration on the punching bag and he sighed lightly and said out loud to her with a tone that didn't seem to have much emotion sounding in it as he spoke "If you care at all about your condition, then you might like to know that I may have found someone who can help you manage the episodes that come with it."

Vanessa had just landed a punch on the punching bag when William said this and she turned her head to look at him, taking her focus off of the punching bag and while Vanessa was distracted, the punching bag swung back towards her and before she could react to it, it slammed into her strongly, knocking her backwards and almost winding her. As she was knocked backward she went down onto one knee as the wind was almost knocked out of her. She cursed out loud with a slightly strained voice "Damn it!" She let out a couple of coughs before she took a few deep breaths as she started to come out of almost being winded.

A minute or so later, she stood back up again and walked over to William. Ronald and Alan were standing and watching a safe distance away from the two other Reapers in case things ended up going crazy.

Vanessa stopped and stood in front of William and she asked him with a tone that seemed to make her sound like she was annoyed but a hint of worry sounded in her tone at the same time "You want to repeat that? I think my hearing might be going to hell because I thought I heard you say that you found someone who could be able to help me with these episodes."

William looked straight into her eyes and said to her "That is what I said." Vanessa's eyes widened just a bit and William saw the hint of worry and faint fear in them just before she turned around and faced her back to him.

She stared down at the floor with slightly wide eyes and her arms started to shake a bit as the memory of the nightmare from last night came to the front of her mind. As the memory of the pain she felt during the nightmare came to her, she put her hand to her mouth to muffle her soft cries as she sank to her knees and cried quietly.

William came up behind her and knelt next to her and put a hand on her back as tears streamed down her face.

Ronald and Alan watched with fairly shocked faces at the pretty much never-seen display of William comforting someone.

William started to gently rub Vanessa's back as she wept and he said to her softly "You have something weighing heavily on your mind, and I know you do because you reacted like this once before after your… first episode. You were thinking so much about what had just happened, and what was happening to you and you reacted similarly to right now." He turned his head and looked at Vanessa with a calm but slightly stern look in his eyes and he asked her calmly "So, what is on your mind right now?"

Vanessa let out a few more quiet sobs before she took a shaky deep breath and looked up at Will for a few moments before she looked away and said with a slightly shaky voice "I-I had a nightmare last night… Just before I woke up. It… It showed myself in it. I-I... was in some kind of funeral parlor or something… I saw myself sitting on a… coffin. Someone was standing in front of me. Silver… hair…" She trailed off to take in another shaky breath and to try and hold back the tears that still threatened to come.

William continued rubbing her back gently and said softly to her as he knew she was trying to fight back more tears "Just take your time. There's no rush to reply."

She inhaled and let out a shaky exhale before she continued explaining what happened in the nightmare "In the nightmare, I saw myself on the coffin clutching my chest, and… coughing harshly… My eyes shut tightly as the coughing became more insistent…"

She looked at William with fear in her eyes as she said to him "I was watching myself go through that, William!" She looked away and shifted her position so her knees were up against her chest and she wrapped her arms around herself and she squeezed her eyes shut and her quiet crying continued.

William showed a brief hint of surprise on his face when Vanessa said this, and while he continued rubbing her back gently, he said to her "I have a slight idea of what this 'nightmare' could be, but I want to know what you think it is. Do you think it is a nightmare or something else that may hold truth to the events that occurred in it?"

Vanessa opened her eyes a moment later and said quietly "I don't know for sure. But I've had nightmares before, but this one? It didn't feel at all like the others… It felt real. I think some part of me is clinging to the hope that it really is just a normal nightmare, but then my head keeps bringing up the same word, over and over…" She closed her eyes and let out a shaky exhale when as if on cue, the word came whispering into her mind over and over again.

She said softly out loud with a slightly nervous sounding voice as she tried to shut out the whispers in her head "Vision…" She shuddered as one of the whispers of the word sounded louder above the others in her head and it sounded like it came from something that had a completely twisted mind.

William heard her say 'Vision' softly and he was about to say something about it, but he saw her shudder and he looked at Ronald and Alan who were standing off to the side, their gazes showing their concern for Vanessa, and after a moment he said to them "Knox, Humphries, I imagine neither of you ended up eating much since you brought Steelgrip to her house, so go get something to eat. I will inform you both if anything else happens." The two reapers exchanged a glance before nodding and heading out of the training room, leaving William and Vanessa alone.

After they left, Vanessa could still hear the whispers in her head and she shuddered again when a few of the whispers were louder and sounded like they had a seriously twisted and messed up tone to them, and without even realizing she did so, Vanessa let out a barely audible whimper as the whispers continued, alternating from sounding incredibly faint and far away, to sounding like they were right up against her ear.

William saw her shudder again and he said to her with a calm tone to his voice "Vanessa, I know it's hard for you to block out whatever is sounding off in your head right now, but you have to try. If you don't it may very well make this worse than it currently is." He made Vanessa look up at him and he looked directly into her eyes and said softly "Block out the sounds. I know you can."

Vanessa looked at him for a few more moments before she lowered her gaze down to the floor and squeezed her eyes shut, and a few moments later she managed to put up a kind of 'wall' in her mind that successfully blocked out the whispers. She groaned softly before opening her eyes and looking up at William before saying quietly to him "Thanks, Will..."

She groaned lightly as she started to get up and her arms and legs started to hurt, the pain from going after that punching bag finally setting in. She cursed softly as she started to half walk-half limp out of the training room, heading back to her house.

William followed her, ignoring the shocked and somewhat stunned looks some of the reapers gave them as they walked away from the Dispatch building.

Author's Notes:

This is the second chapter of The Head and Heart Thorns and I really hope you all enjoyed it! The Undertaker is now a brand new character in the story! (And I love it when he opened and closed the door to his shop to snap William out of his thoughts so much. I probably would have done the same exact thing if that were me tbh.) Before I go, if any of you guys could put in a review of this chapter, and tell me what you thought of it, what I could try and improve on, and if you think it is needed, suggest some things to change. Rude or mean comments aimed towards others or myself, are NOT tolerated here. Thank you for understanding.

I will try and get Chapter 3 out whenever it is finished! I haven't quite figured out what I want to include in Chapter 3 just yet, but I'll see what I can come up with!

A little thing to keep in mind for Chapter 3: When Chapter 3 comes out, it will start off with Vanessa and William being at Vanessa's house following the ending of Chapter 2. Other than that, I will see you all in the next chapter when it's finished! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!