Elzabeth let out a deep breath, closing her eyes as she held the ledger in her hand firmly. She couldn't believe she was tasked with such a daunting mission such as this, yet it had to be done. There was no one else that could possibly break the news to William without the potential of dying. The ivory haired reaper drummed her fingers nervously on the ledger, biting her bottom lip before opening her eyes.
It was now or never.
The door opened with a small click, and she stepped inside before shutting it behind her. William looked up from his daily mountain of paperwork, the infamous crimson reaper in a chair next to him with his feet on the desk as he filed his ruby-red nails.
"Oh? Why if it isn't Willy's little mini-me~" crooned the effeminate man, batting his eyelashes with a face-splitting Cheshire grin, though he did not look up at her. His only received reply was a small snort.
"Ms. Spears…May I inquire as to why you come unannounced?" William arched a single eyebrow, laying his pencil down on the desk as he adjusted his glasses with his free hand.
Stopping before the supervisor's desk, Elzabeth held the ledger at her side with her left hand, right hand hanging freely as she spoke. "I come to report the disappearance of an officer and her trainee as of two days ago on November 25th." Inwardly, Elzabeth held her breath, watching as Grell's file stopped and two pairs of lime-green eyes widened and stared at her. "Rachel Goodwin and Hollis Harvey were reported missing after failure to return from the collection of Matilda W. Barnhart. The details are in here."
Then, she took a few steps forwards, handing William the ledger which was slowly taken by the hesitant supervisor. He set it on his desk, opening it slowly and looking at the report in deadly silence. Grell stood, looking over his shoulder with a nervous waver in his pupils.
"Were there any clues found at the reaping site?" William asked, not looking up from the ledger.
Elzabeth shook her head with a grim frown. "The site has yet to be investigated; we have been waiting for your approval."
"They've been gone for two days, and I just now get word of this?"
"We decided to wait one more day after we learned they were missing in the hope that they were simply goofing-off," informed the white haired officer, green eyes darting to the floor. "You are aware of our policies. Two days is the lenient time until a missing report is filed."
William sighed, closing his eyes and heavily closing the ledger with a gloved hand. "Reaper Sutcliff, we will investigate the location of disappearance. Officer Spears, please remain here and contact me if any new information comes into play. In the mean time, I trust you to keep things in order during my temporary absence."
Grell giggled, instantly maintaining his grand façade and wrapping his arms around William's neck. "Ah~ I'm going on an adventure with my dark prince~" Swooning over him, he rubbed his blushing cheek against the side of William's head like a cat begging for attention.
Too accustomed to the antics of the redhead, William merely stood, not caring even when the ginger's grip did not loosen and kept walking with the attachment of a madman. Elzabeth arched a single eyebrow as she watched them leave with a flicker of amusement in dual colored eyes. "I wish you luck, Mr. Spears."
William looked over his shoulder, their eyes meeting for but a moment as he nodded slowly. "Thank you," replied the ever stoic Shinigami, staying there for a few fleeting moments before he turned, ignoring the reaper literally hanging off his shoulder—red high heel boots barely skimming the ground.
Xxx
"Room 106, 5th floor, I believe this is the correct location," muttered the ravenette, testing the doorknob that was locked.
Grell peered over his boss's shoulder, smirking as he saw William's inability to open the door. "Hmm~ Apparently someone locked the door~ I wonder if this Matilda became Lady Desdemona and was smothered by her own heart and locked the door moments before her timely DEATH~!" he crooned, grinning wide with a mischievous countenance.
"Or perhaps the landlord locked it after discovering his tenant's death to protect it from thieves." William rolled his eyes, eyes scanning around the door in sign of a key. Naturally, they could have walked through the door to the other side, but if they walked through it and a mortal saw them, or they cloaked themselves and a mortal saw them disappear into thin air, it would be quite…well, it would have definitely cause them the overtime William dreaded. He didn't plan on leaving to cloak themselves and then come all the way back. It took too long. No reason to go to extremes unless necessary.
"Hehe, allow me, darling." Grell waved his hand dismissively, smirking as William stepped aside with a curious, yet deadly glare. Grabbing the bobby pin he always had on his person, he inserted it into the keyhole, fiddling with the locks inside before the door clicked. A sinister smile revealed his shark-like teeth as he took the pin away, turning the knob and opening the door. "Ta-da~"
William rolled his eyes, striding past his inferior companion without a word into the apartment that was much…much too perfect—at least, too perfect for an elderly lady's quarters. It reeked of death, and in the corner of his eye, he could see the open bedroom door and make out the form of a mangled corpse on the bed. "So they really didn't find her~ Poor girl~" crooned his ever-red subordinate, closing the door behind him as his eyes fell upon the same thing. "Let's hurry up, shall we, darling? It reeks in here."
"Of all people, I imagined you would have found the smell of death pleasant," commented he, adjusting his glasses with two fingers and entering the bedroom where the only light came from the open window framed with billowing, vanilla curtains. William stood besides the corpse, inspecting it with meticulous green and amber eyes as he leaned over it to get a closer look. His eyes fell upon the clean cut on the woman's throat only reapers could see. "Her soul is reaped."
"Well, at least we know that they didn't go missing until after Rae-dear took it~"
"That leaves us with a time frame. Between 11:07 that night and the mandatory check-in at midnight," he said, standing straight once more as he looked around the room for any signs of their missing officers.
"Anyone could have told you that, Will," scoffed the red reaper, looking at the white roses that were wilting on the dresser. "Hehe, but I bet you didn't know how much Rae's little minion loved flowers."
"Flowers?" William looked up from the inspecting of the chair near the bed, having found nail clippings beneath it.
Grell held up the flower Holly had held two nights ago, the flower falling apart and wilted to the point it looked as if it were two times older than all the other flowers in the vase. "Yes, flowers. Apparently, little Holly likes flowers of the…rose variety. Notice how old it looks, darling? It's clearly the touch of Death itself."
William took the flower with a scowl. There was a reason reapers wore gloves. No, they didn't wear them for style, but for the protection of living things as everything they touched that was living died. Hollis occasionally wore gloves were fingerless; therefore, when she touched it with her bare fingers, the flower wilted minutes later. "Indeed. Grell, take this to Ms. Easton, have it analyzed to the time of its death."
Taking the flower back, Grell nodded with a wide grin. "Of course darling, I was already planning to." He let the flower disappear into thin air to the alternate dimension in which reapers kept all things important.
The cold reaper turned back to his inspection, leaving to return to the living room and finding nothing wrong with it. And that was the biggest flaw. It was so perfect that it shouldn't have belonged. A slight coolness wrapped around him and there was the slight pricking feeling of goose bumps on his skin. "Demon."
At this, his red companion came in, eyebrows narrowed slightly with confusion. "I would have believed it would have left at least a trace of something, Willy. It's so perfect."
"Exactly. Too perfect." His eyes darted around the room, freezing on the only imperfection in the room: a single drop of blood…in between his feet. Crouching, the reaper touched it gently before he took a handkerchief from his pocket, wiping at the blood and trying to at least get a sample on the white cloth since they could do a proper test of the blood in the apartment. He scrubbed at it until a few specks of dried blood stuck to the cloth, folding it neatly and putting it in his breast pocket. At least that would give them a DNA sample. "That shall be it for now, Sutcliff, come."
Obediently, Grell fell on his heels, trailing after William and making sure to lock the door behind him. "We could have just portaled back, darling. That would have been so much faster," commented the crimson reaper, quirking a trimmed, ginger eyebrow.
"I am certain someone would have seen us, Sutcliff, it would be suspicious if we never came out." William scoffed with simple irritancy as if he could not fathom his partner's overall incompetence.
"Not quite. They might begin to think we got a little…held up," Grell giggled, grinning as he winked at his superior and leaned against the taller man.
Scoffing, William moved his shoulder so the shorter fell sideways and broke contact between the two. "Only you would suggest such lewd things, Sutcliff. Honestly, if you actually got your head out of such ridiculous nonsense, you wouldn't be at the lowest point you could possibly be right now. It's sick and vulgar."
Still smiling, Grell brushed off the snide comment with a chuckle. "And if I did get my head out of such things, you wouldn't have a job, darling."
"The suggestion that you would steal my job so easily if you weren't a complete fool is just another thing to add to your list of insanities, Sutcliff," was all the ravenette said, keeping his pace brisk as he neared the doors to the apartment complex. Almost there…
"Oh? And what else is on that so-called list?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow out of curiosity.
Rolling his eyes with an irate sigh, William adjusted his glasses as he spoke. "To begin with, you're rude, impolite mannerisms, tendency to become overdramatic and to interrupt, the embracing of your title of office slut, the idea tha-"
"OFFICE SLUT?! WHO THE HELL CALLED ME THAT?!" snapped the redhead, glaring at the supervisor with a dangerous, low hiss.
"Nearly everyone in our department and division, Sutcliff. Don't deny it, I've walked in to one of your many escapades before," snorted he, snickering with unkempt disgust.
Grell crossed his arms, gritting his teeth as his dual colored eyes found the ground. He didn't have the heart to say anything back, deciding to leave the conversation where it was, but William had other plans.
"If you really wish to get rid of such an obscene title then stop your revolting behavior and cease living on such a low level. It's disgusting."
"Cease living on such a low level? Even I wouldn't have stopped so low, Will. Oh, you sure can wound a lady~" he crooned, batting his long eyelashes with a pained grin and trying to play it off. He'd heard worse.
"Lady? I could add gender-confused to your list of insanities as well," he spat, glaring at his red companion out of the corner of his dual-colored eyes. "Honestly, I don't comprehend why you would make such an example out of yourself."
Eyes falling to the ground once more and an uncharacteristic frown on his pale lips, Grell sighed, falling silent the rest of their walk towards an alleyway. They had made a portal back to the reaper realm and split paths on the way as it was the end of Grell's shift anyways.
The normally zealous redhead let his crimson tresses fall in his face as he watched William step through the portal, turning his back once his superior was out of sight and making his way down the streets of London. It was late by now, and he looked up at the clear, starry sky with emotionless green eyes.
"Would it be right for me to cease living on such a low level…?"
Xxx
Author's Note:
Hey~ my little minions, hehe. I said I wasn't going to post until Christmas. Well...obviously I'm a liar. I know a lot of you are itching to know who the 'mystery man of doom (from doomland)' is, but do not fret my little children :) For the man shall reappear in *drum roll*
CHAPTER 7
But, do not forget about chapter 6 (my next chapter), if you wish to find out what happens to poor little Grelly~
Anyways, I wrote this chapter and chapter 6 (which I shall be posting very soon) in celebration of Halloween. Because I want to post the glorious chapter 7 ON HALLOWEEN, therefore I have to post this chapter and chapter 6 in able to do so. Anyways, my theme song for this one was: Get Away With Murder by Jefree Star. It really isn't my favorite song, nor am I really big fan of it, but it really just seemed to fit this chapter so well. Ugh, I've actually been sick the last week or so with the stomach flu, and I'm sorry if this chapter really didn't meet your expectations. I'm just...not really in the mood to write right now, nor am I really good at this particular Author's Note, so I will just leave this at that.
PLEASE REVIEW! Because, my looking at past reviews today gave me the energy and strength I needed to write another chapter. You guys give me the incentive to keep going on and without reviews, I probably wouldn't have gotten past chapter 2. Thank you guys so much for everything. The more you guys review, the fast chapter 6 will come and the better chapter 7 will be.
How about I make a deal with you guys. If I can get at least 3 more favorites or 5 REVIEWS (meaning from 5 different people) I will give a PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION of one of the main evil characters in chapter 7. If I get 5 favorites or 7 reviews, I will tell you guys his name. How does that sound? Because I'm just dying to tell you guys. It might not be the man with cigar, but it is the man right under him. And if I tell you the man under the guy with the cigar, then I think it will be easier for you guys to figure out just who the mystery man really is. So, good luck to you guys. Just 14 days left, I hope you guys make it!