This is the alternate ending.

The spear lodged itself into William's chest, and then pushed through his ribcage. His body arched and coiled with pain. The spear point came back through, blunt end first, spurting blood out of his chest and forcing him to fall forward. Laying on the floor, in stunned silence, William's body shuddered. His thoughts didn't race. Closing his eyes, he heard footsteps.

The long stream of thought and movement, memory, the cinematic record, played through and was held taut at the end, and cut. William let out a gasp and looked up, shaking, blood slipping from his mouth as he smiled at the other dispatch members. Grell turned away and sobbed onto Ronald. Alan and Eric stood stunned and meant to move to him. They were held back.

All three had the displeasure of seeing first the crimson drain from his eyes, then the green, his face paling, body relaxing into a death sleep. His head rested on it's side and his shoulders relaxed. If it weren't for the pool of blood that he lay in or his broken body…He would have looked peaceful. Grell's sobs were the only things heard in the silence of the hall. The officials nodded. Alan and Eric approached William's body and turned him over, closing his eyes. They forced his shoulders back into place and winced.. Because William couldn't feel it himself.

"Do you know where he would have gone?" Ronald asked. The official holding his spear spared him a glance and fixed his glasses.

"We don't decide that, Ronald Knox. If it helps, you can think he went to heaven."

Ronald looked at William's body as it was loaded onto a gurney and taken away. Grell couldn't bring himself to look up. The blonde shinigami shuddered and turned, patting Grell on the back, leading him to their apartment. There was unbearable silence. None of the usual irritation from William. None of the odd flirting and bitching and moaning about men. No bad jokes or testing pick up lines from Ronald. The pair were silent. "..L..Looks like we're going to need a new roomie….Right?" He rubbed the back of his head with a free hand. Grell let him go and sat down at the table.

"…..Yeah." He looked up, his face tear streaked. "I guess we will." Sighing, he went to his room and didn't plan on coming out. Ronald went into William's room. He didn't understand what had happened to him in his last days…. But he felt responsible. He was sorry that he hadn't helped him sooner

Ronald shook his head and then went to cleaning up the mess, fixing William's sheets, folding and cleaning the room as he would have liked it. He refused to cry in William's room. Hell…He felt awkward just being in it. But it was comforting…. But to expect William to come through the door any minute made him more upset.

Time passed. A year from that day. Ronald took Grell out into the shinigami-wilderness to a small clearing. There were summer flowers. The shinigami was bedecked in black. His hair was still flaming, but held back. The blonde shinigami rubbed his shoulder and he kneeled down, placing a small bouquet of wildflowers on the grave. The headstone was simple. Unremarkable. He pet it slightly with a pale hand.

It read:

Here lies the body of William T. Spears

Born: January 13~

Died: August 15~

A shinigami of high status

May he rest in peace.

~Poison hearts will never change.~

Grell sighed. Already the years were obliterated.. Or they had never marked them in the first place. "He wasn't that old… Barely over 200.…" He choked back tears before turning and hugging Ronald. Gripping him, he sobbed. "W..why did it have to be William?"

Ronald pet his hair, holding him in comfort. "…Because the universe has a way of taking what's important… He's probably happier this way…"

Sitting on the ground in front of the headstone, he watched it. "…William wasn't a poison heart."

"…No….The demon was."

Grell nodded and sniffled, looking at William's grave. "Hey Willu~ It's been… a year now? We all miss you."

Ronald smiled. "There's a new chick in Dispatch. We've finally got another woman in dispatch. Her name's Claire. She's really nice and she's rooming with Alan and Eric… They're trying to get us more dispatch members… So we won't have as much work."

Grell nodded. "I stopped chasing Sebas-Chan."

Ronald was quiet. "We hope you're okay, wherever you are, boss."

"…I hope it's nice in heaven."

"Why wouldn't it be?" Ronald looked at him.

"…Because Will died with a lot on his shoulders….. It might not be so nice to him."

"….Don't think he's in hell, Ronald. William doesn't deserve hell."

Ronald was quiet. They stared at the grave for a long time. "How long will it be before…?"

"….I don't know."

They sat in silence, looking at the soil beneath them. Grell petted the grass before he stood. Grabbing his chainsaw, he turned and looked out at the rest of the realm. Ronald stood up and leaned on his lawn-mower before smiling. "Think it's time to move on?"

"….Yeah. We've got work to do. And we don't want overtime."

Ronald gave a smile. "There's no overtime when you're dead." He looked back at Will's grave. Wind rustled the flowers there. Ronald choked back tears and turned back to Grell. "Let's get going."

The pair walked off and it began to rain. The grave, lonely on that hill meant for shinigami, was the only marked grave. Ronald hadn't said anything about the black lilies that were on the grave. Ronald didn't want to. He was afraid of what it might mean.

"See you in hell, William," the voice whispered, resting a clawed hand on the gravestone. He watched the forms of the shinigami leaving, and smiled devilishly. They had rambled, trying to say that William deserved heaven. But no shinigami goes to heaven. "There are no happy endings for death, William."