Master? This was this rich fancy man's Master?!

"More like a disgusting old man..." I muttered under my breath.

"SHH!" One of the boys says next to me. We had all been hunkered down in small wooden cots. The entire place stunk of rats and something else I didn't want to know. "The maid girls will hear you…"

Sure enough they were. Peering through the bars were the girls, each clad in white outfits. They had been assigned to wash us and feed us. "So what? They are all probably awful women anyway…"

The boy twiddled his thumbs as he talked in nervous short gasps, like he had breathing problems. "B-But, I heard awful things about this man! H-He's to eat us!"

"Eat us?" I questioned, pulling my knees close to my body. The other boys and I had been stripped of our clothes and given ugly plaid strips of cloth to cover us from our waists to our knees. "No way. No human 'n the world is that low…"

"W-Well this m-man is…" He said, continuing to shake. "I…I don't wanna be here Jim!" With that the small boy hung onto my arm like it was his best friend.

"Get off o' me!" I yelled, knocking him away. "How'd you know my name anyway?!"

The small boy looked on the dirty floor and sighed. "I w-was there…when the old man attacked you…"

Oh…of course…that first meeting with that demented THING was etched into my mind. I even had the bruise on my shoulder to prove it…

"I wanna go home…" The boy's whimper sounded like a wounded dog, "M-My mum must be w-worried 'bout me…"

"Your Mum…?" I questioned, "You've one…?"

"Yeah…" He continues, keeping his face away from the maids, who were staring at us with their creepy black eyes. "She and I were out when a man took me away from her…I-I…want my Mummy!" He began crying, and covered his face with his scrawny hands.

"Hmm." I muttered before pulling on the boy's hair, forcing his head up. "You seemed to really loved ya Mum, huh…?"

"Y-Yes…" He said, his eyes still overflowing with tears. "She and I-I loved each other much…b-but she's gone now…MUMMY!"

"Shut up!" I scolded him, and put my hand over his mouth. "Look, at least you've your memoires of her that will stay with you forever…I never even knew my mum…"

The boy hesitantly lifted my hand off his mouth and looked right into my eyes. "Why…? W-what happened to her…?"

"…She burned."

…..

I walked calmly away from Samantha's body, feeling no remorse. Her demon blood was speckled over me, and staining my coat. But it would go away if I merely washed my hands after all. Plus for my plan, I needed demon blood anyway.

I made my way upstairs quickly, knowing that time was a precious jewel. If Hannah had listened to my plan, she'd already be there with…him. If you could call him that anyway…

I reached the balcony in no time, and saw that my plan had worked perfectly.

"HEY! HEY! STOP IT!"

"Grell, if I were you, I'd hold my tongue." I said, hiding my bloody hands behind my back.

"Y-you! Uh, Jim Macken, yes?" Grell stuttered as Hannah held his hands in one hand and his chainsaw in the other.

"Yes, it is. However, I prefer Alois Trancy…" I began circling the demon and Grim Reaper, making sure to keep my hands out of sight. "Know, I understand that you are a Grim Reaper, or Shinigami, and come when someone is killed to reap their soul, correct."

"Well give the kid an award." Grell said, rolling his eyes sarcastically. "Yes, I AM A REAPER FOR DEATH!"

"Then…could you identify this person's blood…?" Raising my bloodied hand, I shoved into his face.

The bespectacled man-woman stared at my hand. He leaned over a bit and stuck his tongue out, licking me, as he taking some of Samantha's blood with him. After a few moments he spoke up. "Demon…human…A Halfer….COOL!"

Sighed at his annoyingly raspy and loud voice. "Look, Grell, could you please tell me all of this…Halfer's background? I am rather interested…"

"Is this DARLING Halfer DEAD?!" Grell asked, barely able to hold still from his excitement. "Oh, PLEASE tell me it IS!"

"Yes, it is…" I said, not quite sure of myself. "Well, she is…I stabbed her through the heart."

Grell made a duck face and shook his head, "Oh nonononononono. It doesn't work like THAT, love! Oh no, killing Halfers is a HARD thing to do. Stabbing them in the petty heart does NOTHING dear!"

"I-It doesn't?" I stammered, afraid that a now VERY angry and bleeding Samantha was walking around my manor with the idea of getting revenge on me for stabbing her and maybe trying to kill her. "Then what does kill a Halfer?"

"Are you MAD boy!?" Grell exclaims, nearly jumping right out of Hannah's tight clutches. "Saying you'll kill a Halfer is like saying BASSY is able to DIE! Both are unbelievable!"

That was it. I had enough of this red-clad menace. I pulled his face close to mine and dung my long nails into his skin deep enough until blood erupted from the small cuts I had created. "Listen to me, you homosexual creep. You are going to explain everything about how to kill Halfers to me RIGHT NOW."

"Someone is a big-mouthed BRAT, huh…?" Grell said, ignoring the little wounds I had made on him. "Alright, I'll tell you, but at a PRICE…"

"You dare bargain with me?" I said, sneering. "I am not in the mood. Nichole, my lovely friend whom I care much about, is going to die. I want everything perfect for her when we go back to her time and I save her. But the only way to do that is to kill Samantha and Claude."

"You want TWO dead now?!" Rolling his eyes and beginning to thrash about, Grell shook his head fiercely at me. "I refuse to help a little boring brat like yourself! Unless you help me as well, you'll never figure it all out! Besides, I have places to BE!"

"Listen to me." Hannah says, speaking up for the first time. Her voice is slightly quiet, yet also extremely stern. "Young Master may not be your Master, however treating him with that amount of respect is unacceptable. So unless you want to die right where you stand, I recommend shutting your loud mouth and doing what he says."

"Why you…" Grell mutters then speaks up. "Fine. I guess I'll give you some information…Your library holds all the answers you need…"

"M-My library?!" That dusty place with all the boring books? "What do you mean?!Don't tell me someone wrote a damn book on demons…"

"You bet they did!" Grell said as Hannah began losing her grip on him. "Edgar Allen Poe wrote his last book on demons! It was never published of course…The dear demon he had been contracted to ate him right after he wrote it. Somehow it ended up here…"

"No way…" I said. That creepy author man had been contracted to a demon? Hm, I guess that explained everything…

"It was BASSY himself too!" Grell said, sighing and spinning around. "How else would he have written the RAVEN?!"

Suddenly, the red demon thrashed his way out of Hannah's arms and grabbed his chainsaw. Quickly, he jumped away, laughing like a manic.

Hannah began running after him, but I raised my hand to stop her. "Hannah, no! I've got all I need from him!"

My demon maid spun around and faced me. "B-But…"

"Let him go." I stated calmly. "It doesn't matter. He gave me enough info to go on…besides, I'm pretty sure he'll be back…"

Hannah nodded and started back inside, "I'll save you the time of finding the document, Master. Is that alright?"

Grell was a mere red speck upon the horizon now. "No…This is my job. I said I'd save Nichole, and I am…not you…please, just go take care of something…I'll be fine."

"…I've never seen you so mature Master…" Hannah said, wringing her hands. "You…you've really become a young man…"

"I guess that's what happens, huh…?" I began walking back inside, my still bloodied hands in my pocket. "Once you realize your bloody purpose in life you get serious…Oh well, I'm still a kid…"

"Yes…a kid…"

I wasn't one who liked being called that. After all, I was a child Earl. Well, not anymore anyway. But I had been. Now I was free…kind of…

Even it was no longer present on my tongue, that damned contract still held strong. My every move was studied by him, and now his daughter…But after I'd find this book, I'd finally free myself. Then I could run away...

YO! I hate how I ended this chapter...sorry. Live with it. I've been busy lately, so it's hard for me to keep my mind on one thing. I literally went from writing this to playing XenoBlade and THEN watching AoT in a span of 20 minutes...Lioner's mind is so scattered. Anyway, leave your reviews as always! Luv ya.