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Chapter 1

Falling
I was falling. Everything was darkness. I could see nothing to help me gauge exactly how fast I was falling. I just knew I was falling. I didn't know how it was even possible for one to simply fall through perfectly solid ground. But here I was, waiting for the ground to rush up and smash my head in. I'd been falling so long, I was past the initial fear completely, and was almost at the point of boredom. That was when it hit me. No, literally, something hit me, and it was not the ground.
"Excuse me…Miss?" The voice was muffled and almost… familiar in a way. I could have sworn I heard it somewhere before.
"She's not moving. Is she on the to-die list?" Wait… to-die list? Am I… nah, that would just be silly, not to mention impossible.
"No, she is not." Someone else said. Yet another familiar voice.
"Are you sure William dear? She looks very… dead. And my what on earth is she wearing?" There was a guy called William, and a guy doing a very good impression of a girl.
"Ok, but dead or not can you please get her off me?" Then I realized the muffled voice, seemed to be coming from under me. Then I realized whatever I was on was moving, and what I was on top of was-
"Ah! A person!" I leapt from the ground as fast as my disoriented body would allow me. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry Ronald are you Ok?" The words just popped out, before I realized that even though I had spent more than a year fangirling over him and the other reapers of Black Butler, none of them had the foggiest clue that I existed until just now, and I literally dropped from the sky.
"You know who I am?" Ronald brushed the dust from his black suit and gave me a very strange look.
"I'm sorry." I squeaked. "I must have mistaken you for someone else."
"Well then," He laughed, which was the opposite of what I expected. "Other than the whole part where you crushed me, it was nice meeting you, I'm Ronald Knox." He smiled a cute teenager smile and extended a hand in greeting. I shook it, and gave him a pleasant smile in return, but I couldn't help but notice the strange lack of heat in his hand.
"I'm Elizabeth Bates, but please call me Eliza."
"Knox, it's time we return to the office." William glanced at his pocket watch.
"Sorry Boss." Ronald said. "I've got to go; maybe I'll see you around sometime."
"She's coming with us." William said.
"Pardon?" I gulped.
"Sir we don't-" But Ronald's protests were immediately squashed, by Williams firm voice.
"Quiet." He grabbed my arm in a neither rough nor gentle manner, and pulled me along as we walked through the crowded streets of London. It was a strange feeling to glide through the bustling crowd with ease, like shadows, like we weren't even there...
"Where are we going?" I asked. William didn't answer.
"Close your eyes."
"Why?"
"Just do it." I squeezed them shut just as he told me. My hair and clothes fluttered in a brief breeze. All this, just seemed like a dream come true, to me, and it hadn't quite struck me yet, that all this was real. "You can open them now." William said, and I obeyed. We were standing on the stone pavilion by the lake. Glittering skyscrapers dominated the cloudless skyline, while on the cliffs stood the great library, a monolithic structure I was unable to compare to anything I'd ever seen. A couple ravens in a birch tree croaked at one another, ominously and the situation at hand was brought back to my attention. "The rest of you should be getting back to your duties." He ordered.
"Yes, boss."
"Anything for you William darling!" I saw his eyes follow them intently until he was sure they were gone. There was a sudden change in the strength of his grip, so that I was starting to lose circulation in my arm. His pace was unnaturally fast for a walk, and I could barely keep up without entangling my limbs.
"Let go!" I cried, tugging and pulling at my arm, but from the result I could have been nothing more than a very persistent fruit fly, so I followed him tripping and cursing under my breath. His office door slammed shut behind us. I didn't need to check to know it was locked.
"Who are you?" He demanded, his voice firm and commanding. This wasn't an interview, but an interrogation.
"Elizabeth Bates!" I answered as if a particularly strict teacher had called on me, with both fear and respect.
"Why are you here?"
"I don't know!" His death scythe hit the desk with a sharp crack. I jumped.
"I have no time for games." His hand moved dangerously to the trigger. "Answer my question."
"I really don't know!" What was left of the courage in my voice vanished. "How am I supposed to know when the ground decides it doesn't want to be the ground anymore but a hole to another dimension..." My sentence petered off, as I realized how utterly ridiculous it sounded. He stared at me for a while, his blank face showing no sign as to whether or not he thought I was crazy or not. I could feel his bright yellow-green eyes piercing through me, but somehow I felt they were doing more than just staring at me.
"Intriguing," He muttered as if to himself. "You do not seem to be lying, but none the less your situation is very suspicious." The change in his tone was sudden. It was hard exactly, to explain how an emotionless voice could change tones and still remain emotionless, but somehow William had managed it. "Take these." He handed me a typical female reaper uniform, which to my disgust included a skirt, not pants, and a nightdress. "Now then, I expect you've had a long day. I'll show you where you sleep."
He walked wordlessly as I padded along behind him, once again struggling to keep up. When the officer's housing block came into view, it struck me how brilliant his plan was. No isolation for me, he was going to take me where there were many experienced reapers there to watch over me. He knocked on an apartment door, and a glasses-less blond reaper still in his pajamas answered.
"Hello, boss." Ronald poked his head out from the door and squinted at us. "Oh, and you're that Eliza girl from before aren't you?"
"I'm here on business Ronald. I need you to keep an eye on this human girl." I hated the tone of his voice when he spoke about me, like I wasn't worth his time. I wanted to punch his arrogant face into the next world, but instead I stood there smiling meekly.
"Sure thing, boss."
"Good." William said. "Make her feel… at home." And he walked away without another word to me, leaving Ronald and I standing awkwardly at the doorway.
"Don't worry about him; he always takes thing way too serious." He said yawning. "I'm sure you're fine." His room was decorated much like a typical teenager's room would. There were posters of people I didn't recognize tacked up on the otherwise boring white walls. The lampshade was crooked and there were a couple of socks and ties sticking out of their drawers. On the top bunk was a pile of scrunched up sheets where he must have been sleeping when we arrived. "You can take the bottom bunk. I haven't had a roommate for a very long time." He waved a finger in the general direction of the bed, and yawned again. "Sorry, I've got to be in bed. Early start tomorrow."
I lay in on the bunk under a wrap of warm comforters, as cozy and comfortable as I could possibly be. Somehow though, sleep managed to elude me. There was a question running over and over in my mind, but part of the problem was I wasn't exactly sure if I wanted it answered.
"Ronald." I called into the darkened room. He grunted, so I assumed he was still awake. "You're a reaper right?" Another grunt. "So you know how I die then." This time no grunt came. It was so long until I got a response, I thought he must have really been asleep the whole time.
"Ask any reaper, and normally they wouldn't give you answer, but in your case…" He sighed. "It's quite interesting really, because you don't die, not tomorrow not in a hundred or even a thousand years. I could go on, our list is very extensive.
"No way." I said quietly, more to myself than anyone.
"Yeah, that's what I thought too. Extremely odd, but lucky for you I guess. Being dead's no fun, especially when you've got William as a boss." If I wasn't on the reaper's death list, it could only mean two things. One, the least likely, was me not having a soul in to begin with, and two, the most likely but difficult to believe, being that I was not truly of their world. That meant I had traveled not only through time, but to a completely different universe than my own.

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Chapter 1

Falling
I was falling. Everything was darkness. I could see nothing to help me gauge exactly how fast I was falling. I just knew I was falling. I didn't know how it was even possible for one to simply fall through perfectly solid ground. But here I was, waiting for the ground to rush up and smash my head in. I'd been falling so long, I was past the initial fear completely, and was almost at the point of boredom. That was when it hit me. No, literally, something hit me, and it was not the ground.
"Excuse me…Miss?" The voice was muffled and almost… familiar in a way. I could have sworn I heard it somewhere before.
"She's not moving. Is she on the to-die list?" Wait… to-die list? Am I… nah, that would just be silly, not to mention impossible.
"No, she is not." Someone else said. Yet another familiar voice.
"Are you sure William dear? She looks very… dead. And my what on earth is she wearing?" There was a guy called William, and a guy doing a very good impression of a girl.
"Ok, but dead or not can you please get her off me?" Then I realized the muffled voice, seemed to be coming from under me. Then I realized whatever I was on was moving, and what I was on top of was-
"Ah! A person!" I leapt from the ground as fast as my disoriented body would allow me. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry Ronald are you Ok?" The words just popped out, before I realized that even though I had spent more than a year fangirling over him and the other reapers of Black Butler, none of them had the foggiest clue that I existed until just now, and I literally dropped from the sky.
"You know who I am?" Ronald brushed the dust from his black suit and gave me a very strange look.
"I'm sorry." I squeaked. "I must have mistaken you for someone else."
"Well then," He laughed, which was the opposite of what I expected. "Other than the whole part where you crushed me, it was nice meeting you, I'm Ronald Knox." He smiled a cute teenager smile and extended a hand in greeting. I shook it, and gave him a pleasant smile in return, but I couldn't help but notice the strange lack of heat in his hand.
"I'm Elizabeth Bates, but please call me Eliza."
"Knox, it's time we return to the office." William glanced at his pocket watch.
"Sorry Boss." Ronald said. "I've got to go; maybe I'll see you around sometime."
"She's coming with us." William said.
"Pardon?" I gulped.
"Sir we don't-" But Ronald's protests were immediately squashed, by Williams firm voice.
"Quiet." He grabbed my arm in a neither rough nor gentle manner, and pulled me along as we walked through the crowded streets of London. It was a strange feeling to glide through the bustling crowd with ease, like shadows, like we weren't even there...
"Where are we going?" I asked. William didn't answer.
"Close your eyes."
"Why?"
"Just do it." I squeezed them shut just as he told me. My hair and clothes fluttered in a brief breeze. All this, just seemed like a dream come true, to me, and it hadn't quite struck me yet, that all this was real. "You can open them now." William said, and I obeyed. We were standing on the stone pavilion by the lake. Glittering skyscrapers dominated the cloudless skyline, while on the cliffs stood the great library, a monolithic structure I was unable to compare to anything I'd ever seen. A couple ravens in a birch tree croaked at one another, ominously and the situation at hand was brought back to my attention. "The rest of you should be getting back to your duties." He ordered.
"Yes, boss."
"Anything for you William darling!" I saw his eyes follow them intently until he was sure they were gone. There was a sudden change in the strength of his grip, so that I was starting to lose circulation in my arm. His pace was unnaturally fast for a walk, and I could barely keep up without entangling my limbs.
"Let go!" I cried, tugging and pulling at my arm, but from the result I could have been nothing more than a very persistent fruit fly, so I followed him tripping and cursing under my breath. His office door slammed shut behind us. I didn't need to check to know it was locked.
"Who are you?" He demanded, his voice firm and commanding. This wasn't an interview, but an interrogation.
"Elizabeth Bates!" I answered as if a particularly strict teacher had called on me, with both fear and respect.
"Why are you here?"
"I don't know!" His death scythe hit the desk with a sharp crack. I jumped.
"I have no time for games." His hand moved dangerously to the trigger. "Answer my question."
"I really don't know!" What was left of the courage in my voice vanished. "How am I supposed to know when the ground decides it doesn't want to be the ground anymore but a hole to another dimension..." My sentence petered off, as I realized how utterly ridiculous it sounded. He stared at me for a while, his blank face showing no sign as to whether or not he thought I was crazy or not. I could feel his bright yellow-green eyes piercing through me, but somehow I felt they were doing more than just staring at me.
"Intriguing," He muttered as if to himself. "You do not seem to be lying, but none the less your situation is very suspicious." The change in his tone was sudden. It was hard exactly, to explain how an emotionless voice could change tones and still remain emotionless, but somehow William had managed it. "Take these." He handed me a typical female reaper uniform, which to my disgust included a skirt, not pants, and a nightdress. "Now then, I expect you've had a long day. I'll show you where you sleep."
He walked wordlessly as I padded along behind him, once again struggling to keep up. When the officer's housing block came into view, it struck me how brilliant his plan was. No isolation for me, he was going to take me where there were many experienced reapers there to watch over me. He knocked on an apartment door, and a glasses-less blond reaper still in his pajamas answered.
"Hello, boss." Ronald poked his head out from the door and squinted at us. "Oh, and you're that Eliza girl from before aren't you?"
"I'm here on business Ronald. I need you to keep an eye on this human girl." I hated the tone of his voice when he spoke about me, like I wasn't worth his time. I wanted to punch his arrogant face into the next world, but instead I stood there smiling meekly.
"Sure thing, boss."
"Good." William said. "Make her feel… at home." And he walked away without another word to me, leaving Ronald and I standing awkwardly at the doorway.
"Don't worry about him; he always takes thing way too serious." He said yawning. "I'm sure you're fine." His room was decorated much like a typical teenager's room would. There were posters of people I didn't recognize tacked up on the otherwise boring white walls. The lampshade was crooked and there were a couple of socks and ties sticking out of their drawers. On the top bunk was a pile of scrunched up sheets where he must have been sleeping when we arrived. "You can take the bottom bunk. I haven't had a roommate for a very long time." He waved a finger in the general direction of the bed, and yawned again. "Sorry, I've got to be in bed. Early start tomorrow."
I lay in on the bunk under a wrap of warm comforters, as cozy and comfortable as I could possibly be. Somehow though, sleep managed to elude me. There was a question running over and over in my mind, but part of the problem was I wasn't exactly sure if I wanted it answered.
"Ronald." I called into the darkened room. He grunted, so I assumed he was still awake. "You're a reaper right?" Another grunt. "So you know how I die then." This time no grunt came. It was so long until I got a response, I thought he must have really been asleep the whole time.
"Ask any reaper, and normally they wouldn't give you answer, but in your case…" He sighed. "It's quite interesting really, because you don't die, not tomorrow not in a hundred or even a thousand years. I could go on, our list is very extensive.
"No way." I said quietly, more to myself than anyone.
"Yeah, that's what I thought too. Extremely odd, but lucky for you I guess. Being dead's no fun, especially when you've got William as a boss." If I wasn't on the reaper's death list, it could only mean two things. One, the least likely, was me not having a soul in to begin with, and two, the most likely but difficult to believe, being that I was not truly of their world. That meant I had traveled not only through time, but to a completely different universe than my own.