I actually settled on a weekly update for this story (every weekend), but because I already uploaded Chapter 1 and 2 earlier on other sites and Chapter 3 will be updated this weekend, there will be three updates this week (at least for this website).

I hope you liked the first chapter! And that you will enjoy reading this one!

Chapter Two:

The Reaper, Encounter

"I can't tell you why ‒ but on that day she had managed to bewitch a creature she knew nothing of."

London, England, United Kingdom ‒ January 1847

I had watched them for quite a long time now because of my work.

Every time, one of them was launched by the Royal family a lot of people died. People whose souls I had to collect.

And eventually, they died too – mostly in a gruesome manner. Only a few of them had died peacefully at an old age. There had also been times when one had died only a few months after his decoration.

But a case like this time had never occurred before. Because the past Watchdog's of the Royal family, the past heads of the cursed Phantomhive family, had always been males.

Therefore, I was particularly interested in this new one. In the very first female Watchdog in the long, bloody history of the United Kingdom. Also, she was already one of the Watchdogs with the highest body count – and she held this position for not even five years now.

Almost every day, I was sent to collect the souls of the people she had killed – or would kill.

Today it was the same.

He watched her from high above when Cloudia Phantomhive stabbed Ronan Parrish in the dead of night.

Like always, he was amused by the way she had lured her prey into her trap. She would play the lovely fiancée of a dangerous man who didn't exist, the grieving daughter of a famous man and the caring one for her poor mother.

And when she had managed to trap her prey successfully, she would immediately let her facade fall and show her true face as the deadly Watchdog of the Queen.

In the last five years, Cloudia Phantomhive had played the same game over and over again – and to her own fortune, she had always been successful. The society only knew her facade, the person she had built on lies; and the Underworld she ruled over was as unknowing as its counterpart.

She was like a rose whose immense beauty bewitched everyone. And you would only remember her thorns, which she had hidden so well behind her deadly spell, when there was already no way back anymore.

She never showed mercy – never spared a life. This girl provided most of my work. This girl who could kill people so easily without hesitation.

Without ever thinking about the value of a life.

"L... Lady Cloudia..." Parrish said with his last breath. Cloudia looked down at Parrish, and he thought that the pale moonlight made her look eerie.

"That's Cloudia Phantomhive, Countess of Phantomhive for you. Her Majesty the Queen Victoria's Watchdog."

She buttoned down her coat while Parrish lay dead in front of her feet, his empty eyes staring at her. Cloudia had opened her coat and taken out the dagger so quickly that Lord Parrish hadn't realised anything before it had been too late.

"I liked this dress." Cloudia sighed as she hid the blood stains on it with her coat. "Not even Lisa will be able to save it now." She sighed again.

The dress had been so lovely with its tight bodice, short sleeves and an open but not revealing décolleté. The dress itself was white, but the dressmaker had sewn a transparent layer over it which was covered in lovely, tiny flowers. At the dress's end, the flowers were larger. And now, ugly blood stains befouled this beauty.

What a pity, I thought while grinning.

Like always, Cloudia would wait for her butler, Alfred Newman, to arrive, load the corpse on a carriage, and clean up the blood. It was always the same procedure. She never went out on a job without her butler nearby.

"What a mess," Cloudia murmured to herself. "Now I will have to get a tailor to make me the same dress as a replacement for this one."

"This is indeed a mess," he agreed with her – and even from his place on one of the roofs, he could see her flinch and turn around, looking for a matching body for the voice which had just spoken.

"You always leave quite a mess, do you know that?" he continued, even though he shouldn't. He should run away before Cloudia discovered him. But he had already spoken, and she had already heard him, so it wouldn't matter anymore if he continued or not.

Cloudia looked around and, finally, she spotted him. Her large blue eyes widened when she stared up at him.

She was like a deadly Snow White: Hair as dark as the feathers of ravens, and as dark as sin; skin as pale as snow; lips as red as blood – blood which wasn't hers and painted her lovely clothing in dread.

And in this night, Cloudia Phantomhive looked even more like an eerie Snow White: With the moonlight making her skin paler than usual and soaking her pretty blue eyes in silver.

I wasn't sure why I had decided to show me to her – or to even talk to her. No one should be able to see me, except, of course, I wanted to. But today I had lifted the "invisibility spell" from me to face this young Countess of the Underworld.

For a long time now, I had grown sick of my occupation, feeling empty and bored while executing it. Every day for many, many years, I had followed the same old procedure. I lured for excitement, for something new, for something entertaining, but I had never done anything against it, pushing my desires back and continuing this life which couldn't fill me anymore.

And now I had shown myself to this Dark Queen. It could have been anyone, but of all people, I had chosen her.

Her, this girl, who couldn't even understand what it meant to die. This girl who faced death without blinking an eye.

The reason why, however, was even a mystery to me.

"Who are you? Tell me your name, and the reason why you are sitting on a roof and watching me!" Cloudia demanded, her eyes glaring at him.

She was not afraid. I was sitting on a roof, and she could only guess how I had managed to get here – still, she did not display fear. Instead, she glared at me.

He smiled and jumped off the roof. Cloudia stepped back, staring at him. He bowed gracefully to her for a second, before standing up again and starting to laugh. "Well – I have never done something like that before. Bowing is a really funny thing to do, don't you think, Countess?"

"I have asked you something, stranger," Cloudia said harshly, eying him suspiciously.

I jumped off a roof. What did I have to do to scare this woman? It would fairly be amusing to see her scared face. Definitely, it would make me laugh.

He grinned widely. "I'm sorry. I was just observing the mess you have done this time. You always kill your victims so cold-heartily, and every time the whole ground gets soaked in their blood. Also, you always ruin some nice clothing in the process. You may be a lady, Countess, but you're a fairly messy one." He chuckled at his own words.

She narrowed her eyes. "Who are you? Answer me! I won't allow you to make a fool out of me!"

He laughed. "Why so serious, Countess? I didn't do you any harm! Actually, I'm the one who cleans up your mess in a certain way."

Cloudia lifted one of her elegantly swung eyebrows. "'Clean up in a certain way'? Which way do you refer to, stranger?"

He giggled while covering his mouth with both his hands, which were hidden in his far too long sleeves. "Well, Countess, while I know you very well as you can see, you don't know much of me. Honestly, you don't know anything about me. But that's fine as you actually shouldn't get to know me – not even now. But for you, little Countess, I will make an exception."

Again, he bowed in front of her, before standing up with a giggle, his yellowish green eyes shining behind his glasses in the dark night.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Countess of Phantomhive – I am nothing else than a simple Grim Reaper collecting the souls of the fallen."

Only one chapter left of the little introduction! :D Now, the two have finally met... and now? :)

See you soon!