Rachel E. Goodwin was walking down the empty streets of London in the dead of the night; her death scythes clipped to her belt and her apprentice at her heels. Tonight was a fairly easy reap, an old woman in her mid eighties who dies of a heart failure in her apartment. No special circumstances; nothing out of the ordinary.
Tonight she was clad in a black, high-collared jacket with red trim, her belt around her waist and ruby-handled knives clipped around it. She had identical glasses to her mentor, Grell Sutcliff, and identical boots, her black pants tucked into them as they clicked along the lonely sidewalk. As usual, her hair was a chocolate brown with a red streak in her bangs that hung over her left eye, falling down over her shoulders and just short of the bottom of her shoulder blades. Tonight she wore a black fedora with a red stripe around it, black eyeliner on her eyes, with red, glittery eye-shadow and bright red lipstick.
Rae was more or less the toned-down female counter-part of Grell, her mentor, with a dash of Ronald in. She'd transferred from the French Division to the British nearly seventy-three years ago, just after the French lost in WWII, though the exact reason why she had transferred was still unknown. The brunette never spoke of it, and no one ever asked as, of course, Shinigami don't ask questions. But, whatever caused her transfer also caused her to break out her storage of alcohol every night.
At her heels was the mute Hollis Harvey, a young, freckled recruit with unnatural-looking blue hair that hung down to her waist and was cut into bangs just short of her eyebrows. In her hair she wore a white headband with a blue rose on the left side. She had a traditional sickle on her belt, and was wearing the standard recruit uniform (a tuxedo jacket, waistcoat, dress shirt, slacks, and dress shoes). Hollis was just two months shy from taking her final, and was being sent out with her mentor to witness a real reaping. The young reaper was the only female in her class, and no one quite knew why. Hollis never spoke, and when she did it was short and in sign language. No one knew if she could even speak. They just accepted it, leaving the poor girl to herself. She was reaped at the age of fifteen, yet for some reason, she had been instantly thrown into the Academy without being assigned a caretaker at all. The young reaper had been in the Academy for only six years, and was scheduled to be the youngest Shinigami to ever graduate.
As the two walked down the street, Rae piped up, clasping her hands behind her head and looking up in a classic Ronald Knox pose.
"Hey, kohai, make sure you stay out of my way," she scoffed, rolling her eyes and walking nonchalantly with a sigh. "Will-senpai will give me overtime if anything happened to you. I don't want to be filling out paperwork cause you did something stupid."
Hollis nodded briefly, shying slightly at her mentor's attitude as she sulked and looked down at the ground.
The two walked up to the building, walking up the flights of stairs together in silence. They found their target, Matilda W. Barnheart in room 106 on the fifth flight, walking into the three-room apartment. Matilda was lying on her bed, sleeping peacefully as the the two reapers walked into the room and stood besides the bed.
Rae pulled up a chair, sitting down sideways so her legs dangled over the arm, pulling out a file like Grell usually did. "You might want to pull up a chair, honey, this is going to take awhile," she sighed, taking off the glove of her left hand before running the Emory board along her ruby nails.
Obediently, the young trainee sat on the dresser nearby, kicking her legs back and forth as she looked around with wide eyes. Next to her was a small vase of flowers, and without thinking, she plucked a white rose from the vase; holding it gently in one hand as she ran a tender, bare finger along the petals with the other.
After several moments, Rachel looked up from her current occupation to gaze at Hollis with a confused expression. "You're a weird one, aren't you?" she asked, quirking a trimmed eyebrow.
Hollis blushed, shrugging slightly and shyly, looking away as her freckled cheeks warmed up.
"And obviously you don't talk much either." Rae rolled her eyes, putting the file away as she slipped the glove back on. "Maybe if you talked more, you'd make an excellent reaper."
Hollis blushed even more at that, teeth scrapping against her bottom lip nervously, ducking her head and looking at the other reaper through her navy blue eyelashes.
"So, you're graduating early?" she asked, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow at Hollis; only receiving a nod in response. "So why are you mute?"
Hollis replied in sign language, but Rachel had never bothered to learn it; looking at the blue haired Shinigami with a slightly confused expression. "...I think we're limited by yes and no questions aren't we...Hollis, right?"
The other Shinigami sitting on the dresser nearly face-palmed. This was her mentor. The girl who had been in charge of training her for the last two weeks...and she still didn't know Hollis's name...With a sigh, Hollis gave a small nod and looked away awkwardly again; playing with the rose in her hand absentmindedly.
After several moments of silence, Rae gave up trying to start up a conversation. The faster she got out of here, the faster she could break into that wine storage she'd gotten for Thanksgiving in advance. It wasn't like there was going to be anyone to share it with this year except possibly Grell-senpai, who was going to try and barge in on William's this year. Like usual.
Last year, the redhead had managed to break into William's home without being noticed. However, William came home sooner than expected and Grell, in his haste, hid...in the oven. Which, in the long run, had been a horrible idea, as there was no way to sneak out and William had to preheat the oven to put the turkey in. Grell finally gave up after about four hundred and ten degrees, and ended up being kicked from William's home, stripped of his scythe, demoted, and put on paperwork duty for six months. William was left with having to change menus with his oven being 'filthied' by that redhead and later having it scrubbed top to bottom to get rid of any lingering germs. Needless to say, William was fairly pissed off at having his Thanksgiving ruined and was taking precautions of guarding his home against any more intrusions...
"Alright, let's get this over with," she said with a sigh, getting up off her chair and slipping several of her brown tresses over her shoulder nonchalantly, rolling her eyes once more. The brunette took one of the several knives on her person and tapped the sharp blade against the palm of her hand as she walked towards the sleeping woman.
Matilda's breathing started to hitch; her ankles and wrists were swollen slightly, and her eyes fluttering. The reaper above her sighed, cocking her hips to the side as she simply waited for the old woman to kick the bucket already. Geez, there were things to do, wine to drink, and women to flirt with; she had no time for this.
The brunette began to debate between killing the woman early (as surely, no one would care if the geezer died), or behaving for her apprentice in the room. Choosing the latter, she sat on the bed besides the dying woman, playing with the knife in her hand with a bored expression.
Hollis jumped off the dresser, carefully putting the rose back with a small smile before scuffling over to look past her senpai and at the dying woman. She didn't like it at all, even if it was more peaceful than most deaths. It was horrible to have to do this. The young reaper was having doubts of actually listening to her superiors and doing as she was told. To do her job like everyone else. Though it that no one (save for a select few followed the rules anyway. Maybe she could just get away with doing paperwork for the rest of eternity. She would have chosen to be a secretary if she was given the choice, but for some odd reason, they'd forced her into. It seemed like Higher-Ups were trying to get as many reapers graduated as fast as possible.
But of course, who were they to defy the rules?
The two reapers failed to notice the darkening of the room, but Hollis did notice the cold breeze against her. Goosebumps formed over her pale body, and shivers snaked up her spine. A feeling of dread encased her in an invisible fog. Her eyes widened, and she dared to look over her shoulder...
Matilda finally got to the point where Rae could begin to reap her soul. The brunette leaned in and pressed the dagger against the elderly woman's throat, knowing that Hollis was most likely watching but speaking anyways. "Watch carefully, there is only one chance to do this. No repeats."
When Rae received no response, she thought nothing of it. After all, Hollis didn't talk, so why would Rachel expect a reply?
The experienced reaper slit the dying human's throat, a bright light coming out instead of blood, the cut revealing the woman's Cinematic Record.
Whilst Rachel inspected record, she failed to notice the growing darkness in the room; a shadow crept up upon her, but her mind was focused upon Matilda.
The woman had lived a rather happy life; growing up in Bristol with four siblings (Mary, John, Kate, and William) with the maiden name Matilda Cornwall, marrying her childhood sweetheart but never having kids. Her husband died four years prior and she had lost all her money gambling; forced to move into an apartment. "Matilda Wilma Barnheart, aged 86 years, death from heart failure. Date:November 25th. No special notes." she commented, collecting the soul within her death scythe before closing the ledger in her hand. "And that's how it's done."
Rae turned around with a smile as the light died out, leaving her in complete darkness...alone with a fresh corpse. "Hollis?" she asked, looking around as her eyes slowly adjusted to the dark. "Where the hell did you go?" Turning her head side-to-side, she caught no sign of the trainee and her eyebrows furrowed with suspicion.
And then she felt dread flood her senses. It swirled into a whirlpool in the pit of her stomach, causing her to nearly lurch. It had been so long since she had felt the sensation; however, she knew exactly what it was when the goosebumps pricked her freezing skin and tingles crawling up her spine in warning.
"HOLLIS!"
Eyes wide in panic, she ran through the doorway and into the living room to try and find her apprentice before it was too late. Before...
Rae felt a hand on her leg, yanking her down and dragging her across the room as she let out a feral scream; now caught in a crimson dream.