Chapter 1

Sickly

Blinding light rudely woke me that morning as Sebastian pulled the blinds, letting in the morning sun. I grumbled, turning to try and block out the sun.

"Come now young mistress, you wouldn't want to be late for school, now would you?" Sebastian asked, walking to the side of the bed I'd turned myself to, bending to peer directly into my face. I grumbled more, pulling the blanket up above my head, hiding from him.

"Screw school…" I muttered, sounding almost like a child having a tantrum. Despite being nineteen years old, I'm still in my final year of High School. That's because of the year I was missing with Sebastian. I'd had to catch up and repeat a year of school. Because of that, I wasn't too impressed with school anymore. It was boring, and honestly, I could learn so much more, much quicker, if Sebastian was teaching me. There was honestly no point in going. I heard Sebastian sigh, placing his hands on mine and pulling my hands down so the blanket would be removed from my face.

"Now young mistress, you don't want to sullen your family name, do you? Your family is prided for completing school with honours and completing university of the highest degrees. In order to do that, you need to go to school today" Sebastian tried to reason. I simply glared at him, and then turned my head to look out the window.

"To be honest… I feel like crap today… But I'll go, seen as you insist so strongly. But in condition, you stop calling me young mistress. Your butler habits are getting the better of you again" I replied, sighing and pulling myself up into a sitting position. Sebastian looked a little worried now, looking very concerned. I raised a brow.

"What? What is it Sebastian?" I asked, seeing his perfect brows furrow together, causing delicate wrinkles to begin forming between them.

"If you feel like you ever can't handle it, simply call my name, I'll be there in a heartbeat, okay?" Sebastian informed, making me sigh and nod at him. Honestly, he worries so much, but I guess that's the father role I'd assigned to him. I stood from my bed, managing to stop wincing from the sudden headache that coursed through my forehead.

"Alright, out, out!" I barked, getting behind Sebastian and pushing him out the room. He looked startled, and also confused.

"Isabella?" he asked, wondering why my face was so red. I looked down, continuing to push him out.

"I can't get dressed with you in the room! Out!" I barked again, pushing him out the room, getting ready to close the door. He turned to glance at me, still confused.

"I don't get what's so embarrassing. I've seen you naked thousands of times…" he pondered, making my cheeks burn furiously.

"Like I said, your butler habits are dying hard! And that was back when I was a child! I'm an adult now, so I can't just let you see me like that so casually!" I shouted, slamming the door. Geez, what was with him!? Saying stuff like that so casually. I mean sure, he used to be a butler and saw his previous master naked a lot. But I'm a female of the year 2013! As I stood there, fuming in my embarrassment I heard Sebastian chuckle, beginning to walk away from the door. I sighed, beginning to dress in my school uniform. Just when did women's clothing get so indecent? My uniform consisted of a shirt with the school brand on it, a checker jacket and a short, black skirt. The skirt didn't even make it half way between my knees and my hips.

"Looks like I'll be wearing mini shorts again" I muttered, grabbing my small black mini shorts and putting them on too. Finally I was ready, and I exited to see Sebastian outside my door again, holding my backpack.

"Well, shall we go?" he asked, also holding out a plate of toast. I gave him a weird look, snatching my bag and putting it on my shoulders.

"I can walk myself to school now Sebastian. You stay here and make sure my sisters don't wreck the house" I stated, grabbing the toast and shoving one of the corners into my mouth. The moment I took a bite, I didn't feel very hungry. Sebastian looked concerned again, his brows furrowed to make wrinkles. I sighed, raising my brows a bit. I pointed at him and then poked between his brows.

"Keep making that face and you'll be getting wrinkles in no time at all, demon or not" I stated, giggling. He glared at me, looking unimpressed. I couldn't help but grin, giggling.

"Are you sure you should be walking to school on your own when you claimed to not be feeling well?" Sebastian asked, adjusting the collar of his shirt, probably out of habit when he was a butler. I sighed, giving him an exasperated look.

"I'm nineteen; I don't need constant babysitting anymore. I can walk myself to school, thank you" I stated, walking to the door.

"Very well then… I shall be there to pick you up at the end of the day. Have a good day Isabella" Sebastian stated, bowing a little as he watched me walk out the door, closing the door behind myself. I sighed in relief. He was finally out of my hair. Sebastian could get a little suffocating every now and then; even I needed a little time to myself. I shook the thoughts out of my head, instantly regretting it, wincing in pain from my headache. Come on, time to get to school.

Getting to school had been easy, even in this heat, but what I was greeted with was anything other than pleasant.

"Where's your boyfriend Isabella? Did he finally see how ugly you are?" taunted one of the girls in my school. She's the typical school bully, followed by four other girls in her class, all just stuck up as each other. I sighed. Honestly, I didn't have the stamina or will to deal with her today.

"He's not my boyfriend and you know it. He's my older brother, clearly the fact that you fail to even remember that must show how stupid you truly can be. And because he hasn't shown much of any interest in you or your friends must prove how ugly you all must be" I retorted back, seeing the shocked and horrified looks on their faces. I don't see why they even bothered saying such things to me; it always got thrown back in their faces.

"You'll pay for that, I swear it Isabella! I'm going to wipe that smug grin right off your face!" she snapped back, her face going red from how angry she was. The same retort, always the same, nothing ever changes.

People in this school have been led to believe that Sebastian is my older brother. No one in my primary school had met my real brother, and during high school and the end of primary school when Sebastian had been walking me to school and back home we'd spread the rumour that he was my older brother. Only one person knew the truth, and that was Annie. She's the school reporter, writing articles for the school paper. She and I had been close friends back when I was little, so she'd been round to my house and met my real brother. Whether or not she remembered is a different story.

"Isabella! Isabella! Ready for PE today? It's first up!" shouted the person probably closest to being my friend. Hannah Porteous, she's bright, bubbly, clumsy and clingy. She stuck to me like glue at the beginning of High School, no matter how much I tried to shake her off, she stayed attached. I didn't want to be stuck to anyone; it'd make me want to stay after I'd fulfilled my goal. I sighed in annoyance.

"Yeah, I'm ready. But what're you so excited about it for? You suck at volleyball" I asked, seeing her flinch from my reminder.

"Yeah, but if you're playing it'll be fine! I'm good at serving, so you can protect me during the rest of the match! You're almost as strong as an entire team!" Hannah stated, giggling happily. Honestly, she wonders why I try and ditch her all the time. She relies on me way too heavily, I won't be here forever.

A sudden wave of dizziness made me stagger a little, but I managed to regain my senses and remain upright. Luckily Hannah had been walking away from me and hadn't seen my moment of weakness.

"Come on Isabella! Let's go!" Hannah shouted, turning to make sure I was still behind her. I sighed in irritation.

"Yes, I see. What is she up to now?" Sebastian asked, holding the home phone to his ear.

"Hehehe, she's currently getting ready to play some volleyball with her classmates. I dear say Sebastian; you seem to be rather possessive of this master of yours. You were never this attached to lord Ciel or anyone else. Could it be that… that demon heart of yours fancies her more than just for her soul?" replied the Under Taker who was sitting up in a tree, mobile phone in hand. Sebastian sighed, holding the bridge of his nose in his hand.

"Hardly… it's just this era has so many unseen dangers. One can never be too careful when it comes to the condition and safety of the soul they shall devour" Sebastian replied, sighing to himself. The Under Taker merely laughed.

"That lying to yourself will one day come and bite you in the ass my dear Sebastian" The Under Taker replied, chuckling more.

"Whatever… Just make sure you do your job" Sebastian retorted, his eye brow twitching.

"I'm afraid you're going to have to find someone else to watch your little mockingbird, I have to work now. Ta ta, Sebastian" The Under Taker stated, hanging up his mobile as he swung off the tree and began heading back to his shop. Sebastian looked at the phone, almost stunned. He sighed, thinking of other people he could ask to watch her. There was only one other person he knew that was still alive that could do it, but what would he have to pay in return? He shuddered at the thought.

Volleyball was one of the last things I wanted to play at the moment. My head was pounding and I couldn't think straight. When Hannah served the ball, it took all my strength and stamina just to keep the ball from hitting the ground on our side, as well as shout out what the other players needed to do. For some reason, without my instruction, all my other team members were ridiculously horrible at sports. I even let myself smack into the ground harshly to dig the ball back up into the air. Sebastian would be asking where these graze marks came from, geez.

I pulled myself back up onto my feet, shouting out the next command as the ball came flying at us. We returned it without much effort and it came flying back at us, straight at Hannah.

"Leave it!" I shouted, making us all jump away from the ball. The ball bounced outside the court and we won the match. My team members looked at me in amazement.

"Wow that was cool. How'd you know it would miss the court by a few centimetres?" Hannah asked, approaching me. I sighed, feeling dizzy.

"I could tell from the angle and force she hit the ball at" I replied, feeling incredibly dizzy. My vision was blurring and I was drenched in sweat. Maybe I was coming down with someone more than just the common cold.

"Hey, are you okay?" Hannah asked, approaching me. I was panting heavily, and suddenly I felt the landscape begin to sway. Black tainted my vision and soon it had been painted entirely in black. The same shade of black as Sebastian's hair.

When my eyes opened, I was greeted by Sebastian's face obnoxiously close to mine. I gasped, jumping up in shock, knocking our foreheads together. He flinched, covering the red mark on his forehead with his hand. I winced, covering my head with my own hand, my headache getting worse.

"Young mistress, are you alright?" Sebastian asked, tilting his head to look at me.

"I'm alright, in a sense. What happened? How did I get here?" I asked, looking around to see I was in the nurse's office.

"It appears you passed out during the game of volleyball" Sebastian explained, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"I'll say! You must've passed out as I was on my way there to watch you, cause when I arrived at the school, you were nowhere to be found!" stated an over dramatic voice I'd never heard before. I looked in the direction of the voice in shock and confusion to see a man standing there. He had really, really long red hair, yellow eyes and red glasses. He also wore a long red trench coat as well.

"U-Um… who?" I asked, pointing at him. He looked shocked suddenly, rushing to Sebastian and began clinging to his arm.

"How cruel Sebby! You never told her about me? About us?" he asked, sounding really hurt. Wait what!? My head hurt too much to try and process this.

"What us? There is no us. There is only you, there will never be an us!" Sebastian retorted, attempting to pry the red head off his arm.

"Who is this Sebastian?" I asked, tilting my head slightly.

"This is Grell, he's a Grim Reaper. For some reason he has this huge obsession with handsome men… Seems to think he'd a woman…" Sebastian explained, sounding annoyed about the red head.

"Come now Sebby! You make me sound so uncouth!" Grell exclaimed, sounding appalled. Sebastian turned to glare at him.

"Can we leave? My head hurts way too much…" I asked, holding my forehead in my hand. Sebastian stood, pushing Grell away, and then bowed to me.

"Certainly Isabella. We shall begin the trip home immediately" he stated, putting his arms behind my back and underneath my knees, and then lifted me up into his arms. I was too tired to fight back, letting my head rest by his chest.

"Now, let us return home" Sebastian stated, walking out the nurse's office as my world slipped back into black.