A/N: This chapter is written in a bit of a different style than the rest will be since it's to set-up the story. It's also a bit darker than the others will be.

Disclaimer: I only own Faye

Prologue

3 Years Ago

Faye sat in a huddled pile with the rest of the girls, fearful of who would be chosen today. Many of the girls had lost all hope. They sat there with dead looks in their eyes, oblivious to everything around them. It was the only way they could cope. Faye couldn't blame them. The temptation to follow their lead was strong. To let go of all her feelings, to be numb and let the pain and humiliation just wash over her…but she didn't want to lose hope. She didn't want to lose her. She didn't know why. It wasn't as though she had anything waiting for her if she made it out of here. Her parents were dead. Her mansion burned to the ground. Her last sight of her younger brother Ciel was of him being dragged away after their butler, Tanaka, was stabbed trying to protect him. He was most likely dead as well. It must be the Phantomhive blood that wouldn't let Faye quite.

The door opened and two men came in, grabbed a girl each, and left. The girls not chosen let out a quiet breath of relief. Another moment of not being taken. Another moment of relative safety. Over five months ago the Phantomhives had been attacked. Faye was kidnapped and sold as a slave to a psychotic occult. The men of the occult believed that raping beautiful young woman while performing bizarre rituals gave them power. Woman being a relative term since none of them were even really adults yet. The youngest were thirteen, the oldest eighteen. Faye fell somewhere in the middle of that range being fifteen years old.

Faye was sure the occultists must be insane to believe their macabre rituals would give them power. Or maybe they were just using it as an excuse to act out their depraved desires. Still, as time had gone by after the rituals Faye felt odd. As though she some strange part of her was open and could act as a conduit for something, or as though she could summon energy. Which was ridiculous, of course. Magic wasn't real. Maybe after going through so many tortuous ceremonies and hearing the degenerate occultists talk so much about power and the effects of the ritual she was beginning to believe that they did do something.

The door opened again. The girls all tensed and stopped breathing. Faye's hands curled into fists as the man slowly walked in and perused all the women. Was it really necessary for him to drag this out? He stopped next to Faye, reached down to grab her arm, and jerked her up. Faye grit her teeth, her stomach churning. She gave only a token resistance, knowing that it would be far worse if she did fight. She struggled to prevent herself from hyperventilating, the only thought running through her head was, 'No more, no more, no more.' How long was she supposed to suffer this?! Death would be better than this existence.

He threw her into a room and locked the door. There was a pentagram as well as other designs drawn on the floor. Torches around the room let in meager light. The window had bars over it. The curtains let in no light from the dark night outside. It had been so long since Faye had seen the sun…The tormentors only came at night. The rest of the time the woman were locked in a windowless, stifling room.

The man removed his coat and hat and looked at Faye intently. "Remove your dress," he ordered. Faye clenched her fists and slowly walked backwards towards the window. An irritated look flashed across his face and as he walked towards her she noticed the flash of a gun in his pocket. Faye hardly knew what she was doing, but so help her she could suffer this no longer. She would rather die than go on living like this.

Faye grabbed the curtain behind her and whipped it around the man's neck. His eyes widened in surprise, but before he could move she jumped on his back, driving him to his knees and pulling the curtain tight. She grabbed the end still attached to the curtain rod and the loose end looped around his neck and pulled. She didn't know if she could actually manage to strangle him. Faye had no idea how hard it was to strangle a man, and she was weak since the hostage women were only fed once a day.

The man gasped, grasping at the curtain, Faye pulled harder, digging her knee into his back to give herself leverage. She was terrified what would happen if he got free. Slowly, so slowly, his attempts to get free stopped and his hands dropped to his sides before he fell on his face. Faye kept pulling the curtain, not trusting that he was out yet. She didn't want to kill anyone. Even after all that had been done to her, she didn't want this man's death on her conscience. She'd love to see all the occultists hanged by the law, but not by her. However, if it took this man's death to gain her freedom, then so be it.

After a few more minutes Faye loosened her grip before dropping the curtain and standing up. She looked at the man dispassionately, wondering if he were dead or just passed out. If only her old life could see her now. Who could have possibly imagined the eldest child of the noble Phantomhive family in this situation?

Rousing herself out of her stupor, Faye reached down to grab the man's gun out of his pocket. She pulled the curtains to the sides of the window and studied the bars. They were bolted into the wall. If she shot the wall next to the bolts, maybe she could pull them away…which only left the problem that they were on the second floor. Faye hooked the fingers of one hand around the bars as she peered out the window. There was another building only a few feet away, meaning that directly outside the window would be an alleyway. Good. Faye had been afraid she was locked up on an isolated estate. That there was a building so close by was a good sign. It likely meant they were in a city.

Faye looked nervously over her shoulder at the locked door. Once she started firing the gun, it probably wouldn't be long before others came running. It would take them a while to get the door open, but she wanted to be long gone before that happened.

Turning resolutely back to the window, Faye steadied the gun in both hands and took aim. The bars were bolted at the top and bottom of the window. Getting just two off should be enough for her to squeeze through. She shot near the bottom bars then the top, leaping forward right afterwards. She dropped the gun to grab the bars in both hands, and pulled with all her might. The bars came loose, the damaged wall crumbing around the bolts. Faye stumbled back, dropping the bars before scooping up the gun and running to the window. She pushed the window up and stared down at the ground apprehensively.

Hearing shouting outside the door gave her courage. Whatever damage this fall might do would be worth it if it got her away from here. She sat on the windowsill, singing her legs outside, then she lowered herself as far down as she could, her grip on the sill awkward due to the gun in her hand. Taking a deep breath she let go and plummeted to the ground. She landed on her feet before falling forward on her hands and knees. She gasped in pain and clutched her right ankle. She hadn't heard a crack. Hopefully, that meant it wasn't broken.

She stood up and shuffled along as fast as she could. Her guess that she was in a city was correct. Now if only she could figure out which city. She hurried through the street, not having any direction in mind other than away from that house. She had to find someplace to hide. Once they broke into that room and found her gone, they'd come looking for her.

As she turned a corner, she stopped dead in shock. There was a dapper looking man holding a pruner and a dead man on the ground in front of him, but out of the dead man was flowing multiple…strips? Each of the strips showed pictures of the dead man in various activities. After a moment, the strips seemed to collapse back into the man.

The man with the pruner looked up to see Faye and frowned. He adjusted his glasses before asking, "How did you sneak up on me?"

"W-what?" Faye asked in confusion, feeling frightened and completely bewildered.

"Humans aren't supposed to come upon a reaper when they are doing their job."

"They maybe you shouldn't do your job right in the open!" Faye burst out, surprising herself. For the past five months she had been docile, rarely ever speaking. Doing nothing but existing. She wasn't sure what came over her. Perhaps she was feeling heady from finally feeling fresh air on her skin again.

The man looked more closely at Faye, using his pruners to adjust his glasses this time. He studied her intently as he took a few steps closer.

"What do you want?" Faye demanded, taking a few steps back and tightening her hold on her gun. This was insane. What had this man done to make those strips with pictures appear than disappear? Had the world gone made while she was locked up? Or was she the one who had gone mad?

"Interesting," the man commented with his head titled to the side. "I've never seen a human with so much magical potential. I wonder where it comes from." He swiped his pruner towards Faye and she backed up more, half raising the gun. Could she shoot someone who hadn't actually caused her harm yet? Were there even any bullets left in the gun?

The man's eyes moved back and forth as though he were studying something. "What are you looking at?" Faye demanded, unnerved by his odd behavior.

Rather than answering her he replied, "I now see why you have such magical potential. It's a result of what's been done to you. And you're surprisingly virtuous given the ordeal you've gone through."

The two stood in silence for a minute. Faye still wondering if she should shoot the man, him staring at her intently. "This is a bit unconventional, but not unheard of. I'm going to offer you a job."

"You're what?" She asked, more confused than ever. Of all the possible outcomes of this scenario, this was certainly not one she could have predicted.

"Humans have at times worked for The Grim Reaper Dispatch Society. Particularly those with magical talents. You wouldn't do the job of a grim reaper, of course, but you can help out. There are some targets who can be particularly difficult to catch. Often criminals and evil men are the hard ones to get. I can train you to use your magic to help us. Are you interested?"

Faye was beyond overwhelmed and had no idea what was going on. What she did know was that she had just escaped a hell that was probably now searching to bring her back. Her family and home were both gone, and trying to reclaim her birthright as a Phantomhive would likely lead to more pain and danger since someone had obviously been targeting the Phantomhive family. She had no chances and no future prospects. Except maybe this.

"Could you do something to prove you mean what you say?" She asked. "To prove that you're a grim reaper, or that I can use magic? I won't simply just go with you." She had seen the thing with the strips, but it hadn't made any sense to her.

The man heaved a sigh. "This is tedious, but I suppose it would be reckless for you to run off with a man you've just met." Without further ado, he bent his legs and jumped. Except, he went up twenty feet in the air and landed on a nearby building.

Faye stared up at him in awe, the gun dropping from her limp hand. That was certainly proof that this man wasn't just human. "All right," she said, steeling her resolve. This would be her path in life. To learn magic and help grim reapers to end the lives of evil men who were meant to die. That idea had a ring of poetic justice to it.

"Very well," the man called down before jumping off the building. He landed softly next to her and said, "I'm afraid I've been remiss on introductions. My name is William T. Spears."

"I am Faye," she responded, leaving off her last name. Being Phantomhives was what led to the death of all her family. There was no need for her to lay claim to that name any longer.

Meanwhile…

Outside a two-story brick building stood a boy with an eye patch and next him was a tall butler. "This is the place," the boy ground out. "This is the cult that Faye was sold to. After four months of investigating we've tracked them down to here. Let's go."

The two entered the building just as three men were running down the stairs from the second floor. They stopped when they saw the two companions. "Oye! How'd you get in here?" One of them demanded.

The boy looked on disdainfully. "Where are you keeping the women?"

The three men looked at each other nervously. "I've no idea what you're talkin' bout," another said as he pulled a gun out of his pocket, "but you just walked into the wrong place."

He leveled the gun at the boy's head. The boy stared dispassionately at the gun before uttering one word. "Sebastian."

The butler bowed and said, "Yes, my Lord." Within seconds all three men were unarmed. Two were thrown over the banister where they lay unmoving. The third found his own gun pointed at his head. He fell backwards onto the stairs, shaking in fear.

"I will ask you one more time," the boy said coldly. "Where are you keeping the women?"

"I-in a room! There up the stairs and to the left. I-it's l-locked though."

"Not for long." The boy walked up the stairs, calling, "Come, Sebastian," once he reached the top. A shot rang out and a moment later the butler stood next to the boy. They reached the room and the butler effortlessly opened the door. A sharp crack was heard as the lock broke.

The boy peered into the dim room. There were several young women there, but none reacted to his presence other than shrinking back against the wall. He felt his heart rate speed up as he searched desperately. No. No. Nonononono! He abruptly turned his back on the women, bitterly disappointed. Faye wasn't there. They had already killed her. He took a slow breath to gain of himself control before saying, "Search out all the men in this building and kill them. Then hunt down all the members of the cult who aren't here, and burn their houses to the ground with them in it. They will all pay for defiling the Phantomhive name."

"Yes, my Lord," the butler replied as he bowed.