Alice

Shun walked down from somewhere upstairs; probably the roof if I knew him well enough. His timing was just right, for we were about to ask Kato to call him down and let him know that dinner was about to be served. He sat down in a chair that was a little bit closer to the rest of us, something he hadn't done since he left that hospital.

Perhaps he was slowly starting to turn back into his old self. With the thought of that, I felt a little bit of hope bubble up in me. All I, along with everyone else, wanted was for Shun to be himself again. Dinner was brought out to us, and unlike this morning, Shun didn't turn down the food that was placed before him.

As we sat around the table and talked, I noticed that Shun and Dan were actually carrying on a conversation that wasn't turning into an argument. Looking at Dan now, I was glad to see that he had completely calmed down from earlier.

He had been nothing short of freaked out by what that weird man did and said. But one thing was on all of our minds; who was that guy, and how did he know Shun? If he even did know Shun for that matter. The acting like he knew him though, or perhaps he was nothing more than a lunatic that was running wild in the streets.

When I thought about it, he never said Shun's name, but called him 'little raven' on several occassions. It confused me. This guy didn't even fit the description of people that Shun socialized with, and I wasn't even sure where somebody could run into such a character.

Honestly though, it wasn't so much the man's personality, as it was what he had said to Dan. After touching that scar on Dan's arm, he said how it got there. And as far as the I knew, there was no easily explainable way that this creep could have possibly known how Dan got that scar.

It was disturbing, and I was surprised that our friend hadn't freaked out more than he had. I turned my attention down at the end of the table to see if Dan and Shun's conversation was still going on peacefully and without conflict. It appeared that things were going smoothly at their end of the table.

Shun then ran a hand through his hair, and rested his head in the palm of his hand, as if he were tired. I didn't think anything of it other than Dan might have been boring him a bit, so I went on about my business and ate my dinner.

Shun

Much to my surprise, Dan never brought up what happened between him and Grim today, which was a relief for me. Instead, he just spoke about normal things; like telling me about what he had been up to for the past several years after his sudden disappearance.

I sat there and listened to him, and was actually happy that he was talking about something other than my wreck or something along those lines. That's all they had to do. I was getting so tired of them constantly bringing stuff up about my wreck, or if I was feeling fine, which was almost like doing the same thing.

I liked this feeling of normalcy, even if everything wasn't exactly normal anymore. Dan was continuing with his story when I suddenly began to feel as if I were trying to get a headache. I ran a hand through my hair, and rested the side of my face in my hand. Dan must have noticed my sudden change because he asked me, "Hey, everything alright? You're not looking so good."

I nodded, trying my best not to let him see that I was in pain. "Yeah. Feels like I might be getting a migrane. Nothing to worry about," I said softly. I knew for a fact that it wasn't anything major or something that could kill me, but I recalled the last time I felt this kind of pain trying to sneak up on me.

It had made itself known the first time I saw a death, and I remember how severe and horrible that pain had been. This could have really been nothing more than a headache, but paranoia had me thinking otherwise. What if I was trying to get another vision, and the same thing happened like last time?

I would end up passing out right here in front of everyone, possibly writhing in pain as well. How would I explain that to them? The moment that would happen, I knew they would immediately rush me to the nearest hospital. So, as to not take any chances, I stood up from my seat, wobbling on my feet a bit, and said, "I think I'm going to turn in early."

Alice looked up from her plate and asked me in that concerned voice of hers, "Are you not feeling well?" Before I could answer he question, Dan jumped in and told her, "Shun thinks he's getting one of his migranes. Might as well let him go and sleep it off." I gave Dan a nod, silently thanking him for giving Alice an explaination.

The others knew that I used to get migranes all the time when I was younger, so this shouldn't make them worry all that much. I left the dining hall and hurried up to my room as quickly as I could. Around me, the hallways started to spin, causing me to lose my balance on more than once occasion.

The pain in my head, also had started to congregate on the right side of my face, making me all the more certain about what was going to happen. Thankfully, I reached my room and locked the door behind me. The pain was growing more and more intense, causing me to place my hands over my eye; that was all I could do.

No amount of pain killers would help this; the only thing I could do, would be the deal with it until the vision subsided and showed me what I needed to see. It then felt like a knife had been stuck into my brain, and I gasped from the sudden, stabbing pain.

I dropped onto my knees like I had done in the bathroom the first time, and then fell against the wall of my room. My body made a thud when I hit the sheetrock wall, but I doubted that it was loud enough for anyone to have heard. All around me, the room began to vanish from my blurred sight.

Then, the foggy shapes around me began to change forms into other things. Slowly, my eyesight came somewhat back into focus, but not everything was clear. It looked like my vision had deposited me at the city's subway station. I was able to hear the sounds of trains, and masses of people walked around.

Then, I heard explosions, and the people began to scream and run in a massive panic. I then caught a glimpse of a gunman, pistol raised above his head. The vision then stopped there, and I was sucked back into the current time. I was laying in a crumpled heap on the floor, my back pressed against the wall.

My face was wet with tears from where I had been crying due to the severity of the pain. Slowly, I pushed myself up with my shaking arms, and leaned against the wall. I began to catch my breath and recompose myself. I then tried to use the wall to get up on my feet, but my knees buckled and I collapsed onto the floor.

Taking in a deep breath, I rolled over onto my back and stared up at the ceiling. I decided that I would lay there until I recovered enough energy to stand, but I did realize something that was different about my vision this time; it didn't nearly take as much out of me as the last one.

Yeah, the pain had been almost as bad, but I hadn't passed out immediately after this one ended. Maybe the more I had, the easier they were to handle. It was almost like an immune system in a way. Hopefully I would build up a tolerance, and then they wouldn't bother me the least bit. Out of exhaustion, I began to fall asleep.

While in my half awake state, I thought I heard a voice say, "Must have been some vision." The voice made me open my eyes and look around. It didn't take me long to realize that I wasn't on the floor any longer, but rather, I was laying in my bed. "Huh?" I said with grogginess in my voice.

I pushed myself up with my hands, and now I was sitting up in my bed. The digital clock on my nightstand caught my eye; it was five in the morning. "What was it of this time?" somebody asked from the darkness of my room. It was now second nature for me to know whose deep, monotone voice it was.

"A shooting at a train station," I told it. "How did I end up in my bed?" I leaned over and flipped on the lamp on my nightstand, giving the pitch black room some light. Death was leaning against the door, arms folded over his chest.

He was looking right at me when he said, "I put you there. You wouldn't want one of your worried friends to come in here to check on you, and find you lying on the floor, would you?" I shook my head, but then wondered why he had decided to pay me a visit so late at night.

"Why are you here this time?" Death pushed himself off of the door and strode across the room and towards the window. "I told you I had a feeling that you'd have a vision sooner or later, and I was correct. Besides, you're still my responsibility right now. Until then, I have to check in with you every so often until I'm a hundred percent sure that you can handle yourself. So, a shooting at a train station, you say?"

I nodded, surprised that I was not as sickened by what I saw as I thought I'd be. But then again, my vision didn't show me who all died. For all I knew, this could have been like my first vision, and the person who I assumed would die, did not.

Death then asked me, "Do you know what time this one took place?" I Again, I shook my head. The only thing I saw, was the gunman and people running away from him. I was sure that there had been a clock somewhere in that station, but I mustn't have paid it any mind.

Death shook his head and told me, "You're going to have to learn how to get more control over your visions and see more than what they are allowing you. If you don't, then you might miss a Reaping and get punished for not Reaping the intended souls."

I wasn't entirely sure how I was supposed to do that, but if it meant keeping me out of trouble with these Reapers, then I'd do whatever I had to; for I didn't want to know how a Reaper was punished. "So, I take it we'll have to stay around the train station until my vision happens? Like we did at that alley?" I asked.

Death turned his back to me and said, "Not me. You're going to go solo on this one." The lamp beside my bed clicked off, turning the room back into darkness. Quickly, I felt around for the switch and turned it back on, only to find that Death was no longer in the room.

Death

My cloak lowered, and deposited me on the roof of the Marakura mansion. Beside me, I heard a snickering and looked down. Grim was sitting like a dog next to my feet. His eyes sparkled with anticipation when he asked, "So, did the little Reaper have another vision? Please tell me, Death! I want to be there and watch him Reap souls! Come on! Can I please go, Death?"

As if I had to give Grim permission to go anywhere, but he was strange like that, and I found it best not to question him. "I don't care, Grim. I'm not going to show up there though until his work is done. But if you do go, try not to get in his way. You know as well as I do, that he's still new to all of this."

Grim rapidly clapped his hands together and squealed, "I get to see the little Reaper take some souls! Yay!" I chuckled at Grim's behavior; I always found his child-like attitude somewhat amusing. Grim then gave eyed me slyly and said in a silky tone, "Are you still dwelling on Rogue?"

I turned around and began to pace back and forth on the roof. "You know I always am, Grim. What he's doing, it's wrong." Grim followed my movements while walking on all fours, making him appear even more like a dog or pet. He lifted his head up some so he could make eye contact with me and said, "I've always found your fascination with him…Fascinating."

I cut him a glare and said coldly, "There is no fascination with him, and you know that. I'm strickly trying to get him off of these streets and to stop him from slaughtering innocent people." Grim chuckled and stood up on his feet. "I know, Death. I'm just having a little fun with ya," he hissed near my ear while slinging his arm over my shoulders.

This action would have normally disturbed somebody that did not know Grim, but it hardly fazed me; I had been around him far too long, and knew how he was. "Oh, is that so, my pretty? I'll be right there then," Grim said to himself.

He then turned to me and said, "Duty calls. Like I always say, Death never sleeps. By, my friend! Tell the little Reaper I said hello and shall be there to watch him Reap some souls!" Grim jumped off of the building's roof, all thirty or forty floors, and landed in the street below without so much as gaining a scratch.

From the roof, I watched him run off somewhere else into the city so he could take another soul. I then stood on the edge of the roof, staring out at the horizon, and waited for the coming on another day.

check out my poll before it closes at the end of the month. also, since it was so popular the past couple of times, i'm making look-a-likes for the OC's in this story as well. they are on my photobucket profile, and the the link to the album for one of my other stories is on my fanfiction profile, and the new album should be accessible from that link. regardless, i'm going to have the link to the new story's look-a-likes up sooner or later. (just to let you all know, there are a few spoilers in the picture's summaries, so if you don't want to spoil any of the story, try and refrain from reading the descriptions.) read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~