Warwick Academy, the crème de la crème of academia, where the children of the social elite of Britain go to receive their education. These familiar halls are the scene of many strange happenings, usually happening to a very particular group of seven students. On this day, however, nothing particularly remarkable occurred. It was a lazy Monday morning and most of the school was recovering from the weekend, yet students conversed with one another regardless. Some did so simply to wake themselves up! One particular student was a fifteen-year-old boy who went by the name of Preston Omid.

Preston was the son of the owner of SOMA Electronics, which sold various electronic devices and appliances at high quality. As he sat in the classroom, he listened to his friends as they chatted about this, that, and the other. There was the loud-mouthed and somewhat obnoxious Daniel Westley, whose father was a popular politician running for public office at the time. There was Kristopherson Miles, the son of a famous movie star and fashion designer. Next to them sat Travis Sullivan, the son of the CEO of a jewelry company that wrote romance novels on the side and a former professional wrestler, followed by the son of the CEO of a pharmaceutical company, Audrey Baines. Then last but not least were the mysterious but inseparable Ciel Phantomhive and Alois Trancy.

"I dunno what I wanna do when I graduate." said Daniel, leaning back in his seat. "I guess I'll become a politician like my dad."

"You guess?" questioned Kristopherson, arching his brow at his friend with earned skepticism. "You don't seem very committed to the idea."

"Oh yeah? And what do you wanna do, Krissy-boy?"

"Probably become a fashion designer." stated the Miles lad. "Not because of my parents, or anything, I just like it."

"Lucky." said Audrey. "I doubt I could do anything like become a professional gamer. My mum wouldn't care for that, much."

"None of us need to have it figured out right away." piped up Travis on a rare occasion where he actually decided to speak. "We have time to think about it."

"Yeah, you do that, Travis." snorted the Westley boy. "How am I supposed to find my trophy wife if I'm old and wrinkly? I know I can probably find a gold digger, but I want something real."

"Not likely to happen, since you're fake as fuuuuuuuccckkkk." retorted another lad, Alois Trancy. He spoke with a big grin and sat on the edge of his boyfriend's desk.

"Fuck you!"

"No, thanks…"

"What are you gonna be doing after school, Alois?" asked Preston, curious as to what the strange blonde had in store. Surely it must be something peculiar, knowing the menace and his hijinks, but he was about to be disappointed.

"I dunno. I kind of want to go to university." answered the menace. "I want to be a grade A detective, someday."

"You? A detective?" scoffed Daniel. "And me being a politician is weird?"

"Yes, actually." said Audrey. "Who in their right mind would vote for you?"

The conversation carried on with the boys arguing back and forth about their hopes and aspirations. Alois was laughing as Daniel was grilled about his politician idea, while the more quiet members of the seven looked on. They were content with just observing, listening in, but eventually, they started talking amoungst themselves.

"What about you, Preston?" inquired Travis. "What do you want to do?"

It took a while before Preston came up with an answer for him, however. He had thought about it extensively, yet he still didn't have a sure-fire plan for the future. He could not see beyond the present, so he didn't know what was in store for him.

"I don't really know." he finally stated. "I kinda want what most people want. Get a good job, make enough money to live comfortably, find a nice girl and start a family… That kind of stuff. I don't know what I'm going to end up doing for sure, though."

Initially, he expected to be met with the same treatment as Daniel, but soon found himself to be pleasantly surprised. Even Ciel cracked a small smile in response. His expression, although hard to read, wasn't mocking in the slightest.

"That's perfectly alright." Ciel said. "Like Travis said earlier, you have time. Most people don't know what they're going to wind up doing. Even I don't know what the future holds."

"Do you have any ideas, at least?" asked the Omid, raising an eyebrow as the bluenette turned his head away. It was only when he followed the Phantomhive's eye did he observe that Ciel was looking at his boyfriend.

"A couple." replied the Phantomhive, leaving it at that. The bluenette always was somewhat hard to read, although it would become easier to do so over time.

Time would pass, and things would happen. Friendships would be tried, strengthened, and tried again before eventually falling apart. Milestones would be reached and tragedy would occur. Good things would, too, as Preston's story carried on, but ultimately it would come to an end just like that of most mortal beings. Replaying his final moments, the cinematic reel grew shorter and shorter by the second before eventually running out.

Nudging her glasses with a sigh, the reaper viewing the reel would make her judgment while standing in the autopsy room of H.E.L.L.S.I.N.G. headquarters. She paused to tuck her long red hair behind her ear before digging around for her stamp. With that, she marked the evaluation of Preston Omid "Complete".

"What a tragic end..." the grim reaper shook. "Then again, that's why it is also beautiful. Such cruelty! Such betrayal! It really gets my blood pumping!"

"I'm not sure if I'll ever understand your aesthetic, Miss Sutcliffe..." sighed Miranda as she put away her gloves and washed her hands. "I think it's better that way. The Black Annis was starting to spread all over his body. It would have been much more painful."

"Is that what those spots on the x-rays are?" asked the red-headed reaper as she pointed up at the display. On it were several x-rays and scans illuminated from the back, showing how the infection had progressed throughout Preston's body. "Eeugh… In his brain, too..."

"Yes, it's a mild tumor, so he was still very coherent, but still serious, in the long run." answered the physician. "Many of the original Black Annis sufferers had the same thing."

"You kept those ghastly things? You lot are a lot more morbid than me! And that's saying something, considering the fact that I am death! Are you going to keep his body, too?"

"No, after he's cleaned up, his body is going to be given back to his family." Miranda informed. "We will be taking samples of his DNA and of the armour, however."

"Nasty..." Grell replied with a shudder. "I really don't understand humans, but it's not my place to judge… wait… Nevermind, it is. It's my job."

"That's concerning..." Ackerman said.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much. All kinds of researchers get positively judged in the end." answered the other. "That other doctor out at Maunsell, on the other hand, is going to be having some problems. I don't know how they judged him, but it couldn't bave been a decent verdict."

"So reapers evaluate the souls of supernaturals as well, do they?"

"Of course! Who else would do it? They have souls too, so it has to be someone!"

"I just wanted to confirm." replied the other, turning to a page in her personal journal and making a note.

"I wonder, though, how those two are doing… The Phantomhive boy and his blonde friend." Grell mused, rubbing her chin. "Those two keep evading death, right down to dodging the to-die list. I got in serious trouble for not harvesting that blonde kid's soul a hundred years ago. What was his name, again?"

"Which one? He has several. His original name was 'Jim Macken', but later he went by 'Alois Trancy'."

"Ah! That sounds right. Does he still go by 'Trancy'?"

"No, he goes by 'Jim Phantomhive' now. He got married last year and took his husband's name." Miranda informed, capturing the reaper's attention. Blinking, Grell halted her actions momentarily in order to ponder the meaning of this.

"'Phantomhive'?" she asked.

"Yep. He's married to Sir Ciel Phantomhive." nodded the researcher. "The whole operation at Maunsell was actually sped up because of this. Sir Phantomhive was in a hurry to rescue his husband, so things got a little bit messy."

Folding her arms, Grell continued to ponder this, but eventually, she nodded. "Somehow I knew that boy wouldn't be wedding a woman. I think he asked me to help save the woman he was seeing once, but I didn't see it going anywhere. I got vibes from him."

"Really? It came to a surprise to everyone else. Well, except maybe his butler."

"Ugh!" the reaper huffed, turning her nose up. "I don't even want to think about that horrible butler again! That horrible, beautiful, attractive beast!"

"Did something happen?" asked Miranda.

"A hundred years of receiving the cold shoulder would make anyone cross, dearie."

"I see..."

"The Phantomhive boy has gotten eas on the eyes, though… Is he committed?"

"Very. I wouldn't try it."

"Drat." said Sutcliffe before sighing. "Then again, as much as I adore cruel men, I'm not sure if I would mess with someone who did this to his friend. How terrible! Right through the heart!"

"He did what he had to." stated the other. "He had a duty to fulfill, both to England, and to himself."

"Indeed, he felt responsible, didn't he? Such a shame." Multicoloured eye flickered back to the x-ray on the wall. "I wonder how he will carry the weight with him from now on..."


A/N: Hello, hello. Well... here it is. I feel kind of sad...

Preston Omid: DLTD ch. 15 - DLTP ch. 293

He survived a total of 731 chapters.

Death chapter published on 5/5/16

In-universe death was in January.

Bro...

I've been drawing him like crazy as of late. It's weird how whenever I post artwork on Tumblr, I lose followers. Just let me feel, dammit! I want ALL the artwork of Preston. I might go through the tags and see if I can find any, later... I need it...

He was around for so long that it's kinda like: "...That's it?" No more Preston.

Fun fact: The actual reason why there was no A/N at the end of the last chapter was so that what happened would just kind of marinate in your heads for a while. Did it work? Maybe, maybe not. I dunno...

I miss him already... And we're still not done. Oh, no, we're not done.

We didn't get to the aftermath and shit!

It's real.

I had a lot more to say, but I forgot what it was...

Shit...

Until the next chapter, my duckies~!