A/N: This is just a short interlude that I wrote for fun. I wasn't going to upload on here but I thought you guys might enjoy it as a break since it's short to read. This is just Alfred's point of view back in chapter one. Arthur's interlude is next. I hope this isn't confusing.

Interlude: Alfred

I was standing just on the roof looking down; looking down at what would be my next photoshoot of the city of London from this Victorian school. I never knew why the magazine company always requested the same pictures of the city over and over again. I'm sorry, but having the same scenery with the Big Ben as the centre of attention but in different angles does not make things more 'creative.' Of course I never said anything to the company or else I would get my ass canned on the spot. Unfortunately, it wasn't worth it with the salary that I was making. I just wished the guy in charge would realized how much he lacked in creativity. In my opinion, photographing this old school itself would show off London's tourist attractions a lot more effectively. Not only that, but it would display the city's charm. Whoever gave my boss a degree in photography and journalism needs to be kicked in the face.

I stepped over the ledge of the building and was dangerously close to the very edge. Judging from the height, I was at least ten stories from the ground floor and one little tap would probably send me plummeting down towards the concrete. And we know what happens to human bodies when they fall from that height. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out! Or in my case, I wouldn't need Mattie to help me figure that out since studying to be a doctor is his life. The ledge crumbling from old age wasn't reassuring either. Despite how high I was, I wasn't scared.

I wasn't scared at all.

In fact, the wind that was cutting across my skin and making me sway slightly made me feel alive. I felt so alive that I didn't care if I looked crazy from the pedestrians down below. I didn't care if they started yelling about a bloody American lunatic looking like he was going to kill himself by jumping off the building or that he was so crazy that he actually thought he could fly like a fucking bird.

I just didn't care.

It was at that moment that I had completely forgotten about my task at hand. The fact that I had to photograph a picture slipped my mind as I started bathing myself in this feeling of being completely free; free from everything that shackled me and bounded me to the depths of misery; free from the ropes of tyranny that ripped away the familiar and replaced it with uncertainty.

Free from everything.

I closed my eyes to savour that feeling before I had to let it go. I kept my eyes closed and didn't open them for a long time for I didn't want to come back to reality. I didn't want to come back to a world that never existed for me; a world that seemed perfect but was rotten from the very start. London may be different from America, but it's still the same world. Running away did nothing but help me turn a blind eye to what was there.

As I began to lean forward a tad bit, I felt myself being pulled back harshly by an unknown force. A loud thud was heard as I came crashing backwards onto the roof of the building with something cushioning my impact. I suddenly realized that that something was someone and that I was not alone when sounds of heavy breathing could be heard behind me.

"J-just what the hell do you think you're doing?!" Came a voice ringing through my ears.

I finally opened my eyes to find that returning to my world didn't seem so bad after all.

-Alfred F. Jones