By the River~ open

[Sekl Lara-Duran]

The dark-haired man stood near the riverbank, sketching an outline of the scenery in front of him. It was grey and dreary that day, the sky heavy with rain clouds about to burst. But Sekl would be gone by the time that happened. He glanced over at the small girl who stood in the shade of a green parasol, over looking the river. Sekl had been with her family for over three months now and he was quite bored of it. This part of London always seemed too busy. He did not enjoy large crowds, though there were only nobles and gentlefolk in this part of town. None of these people would stoop so low as to even glance at the undercover cab driver. Instead Sekl leant back against the carriage behind him and continued with his art, undisturbed by anyone.

A drop of rain fell down onto the page in front of him. He squinted up at the dreary sky and sighed. It would be time to return to the house soon, and that meant more chores.
He glanced again at the child before him; young as she was, everyone had their time coming to them, some sooner than most. And this girl happened to be the sole purpose of Sekl’s mission. To witness her death and to collect the precious time record.
“Henrietta!” Sekl called over to the little girl, smiling as she turned and waved back at him. She was still too young to understand how a lady should act. But then again, she would never learn, would she?
“Come and see the picture I drew for you.” He said, beckoning the small child towards him.
As she tottered over, Sekl smiled reaching out a hand to her. This way, things would be a lot less painful. Less painful than being run over by a carriage at least, which was the girl’s true fate.
“Sekky!!” the little girl demanded, pouting up at the undercover shinigami, “Show me!”
“Alright then…” Sekl chuckled lightly, handing her his sketchbook. “Do you like it?”
The sketch showed the scene before them, in quite accurate detail; passing by in the river was a small barge and cargo ship and in the foreground, Henrietta was playing with her dolls beneath the silk parasol.
The young lady scrutinized it carefully, and then looked up at Sekl and smiled, “It’s pretty.”
“Why thank you~” the grim reaper replied, smiling and ruffling the young girl’s curls. “Your mother should be back soon. Aren’t you cold?”
The girl nodded.
Sekl took her little gloved hand, “Come with me then~” He helped her into the carriage and peered in on her. “Comfortable?”
The girl nodded again.
Sekl flashed her a friendly smile and then turned away to look around for Henrietta’s mother.
The street was crowded but the short blonde woman was nowhere in sight.
"Alice!!"
Sekl turned to watch as Henrietta leapt out of the carriage and ran across the road towards a girl on the opposite side, waving back at her.
The events that followed seemed almost like a dream; Henrietta was running when a horse and cart reared in front of her, the horses hooves not quite missing the young girls head. Next moment, Henrietta was lying in the middle of the road, her expensive clothes stained with mud and with the blood that was now gushing out of the open wound in her skull. There was no doubt. The wound to her head was definitely going to be fatal.
Sekl stood where he was for a few seconds, almost frozen to the spot in horror. He was used to this sort of thing, but the sight of the young girl he had known for over three months now lying in the mud in front of him was still quite a shock.
The cab driver had already dismounted from his seat and was examining Henrietta's body. Even these pitiful humans should have been able to realize she was dying just from the amount of blood that had now collected in a pool around her blonde head.
By now, many onlookers who had seen the incident occur were gathering around, whispering amongst themselves, others crying out in shock and disgust.
Sekl pushed his way to the front of this crowd and gently lifted the young girl's body half off the floor. Better to remove the time record while her body was still warm, but not in front of all these people.
"She's fine!!" Sekl laughed halfheartedly, carrying the little lady back to his carriage, "Just needs a nurse, that's all~"

[Byron Wakely]

Fine?

Byron Wakely watched the scene unfold in front of him. He hadn't expected to see such a scene as he was wandering about London, running his errands. He could have easily completed the tasks laid out for him within a few minutes but what was the fun in that? Byron would much rather skip around London at a leisurely pace and observe all the humans who were doing similarly petty things.

But it seemed that fate had a different plan and today would be a bit more entertaining.

The young lady whose blood was gushing from her head was certainly not fine. He had no idea why the humans even needed to check to see that she was going to die. There weren't that many pints of blood in the human body. And they were so beautifully delicate... such a loss of blood, while it didn't faze his kind, was deadly to these fragile creatures.

Before Byron could think to do anything someone else was moving in. Someone who was decidedly off. Byron's ears twitched in curiosity and he crept closer to the shinigami as he carried the girl to his carriage.

Had he been here to collect her soul? It seemed like a pretty bloody and public display if that were the case. Didn't shinigami usually like to keep their work a bit... quieter?

Wordlessly Byron approached the pair then smiled brightly, his large eyes glancing over her body. "Are you sure she's gonna be fine?" He pouted for a moment.

[Sekl Lara-Duran]

Sekl cursed to himself under his breath and turned to grin at the white-haired stranger.
"Of course I'm sure, I'm a policeman after all~ We're trained for these sorts of situations." he turned back to the task at hand- shoving Henrietta's body into the carriage. "After I've had her patched up, she'll be good as new~"
The dark-haired man was talking unnaturally fast, which he was sure that the other had already noticed.
This was dangerous. The young girls life was fading fast, he didn't have time for meaningless chitchat with this irrelevant human. Except he wasn't human was he...
The shinigami had just noticed the small boy's eyes. They were large and red and staring at Henrietta's body with an almost... 'hungry' look?
Sekl growled to himself and turned his back on the kid.
Even if he was a demon he would have to deal with him later. Right now, it was important that he get Henrietta out of here and collect the time record before her life ran out.

[Byron Wakely]

Byron bit his lower lip - a contrived display of innocence - and wondered what he should do. There were a lot of options here. He could simply walk away and get back to what he was supposed to be doing. But where was the fun in that? Besides wasn't it against human nature to simply walk away when you saw someone getting hurt?

So the only option left was to annoy the shinigami. And honestly Byron was liking that option.

"I'll come with you!" The small demon chirped happily and moved to
climb into the carriage he wasn't invited into and probably wasn't welcome in.

Humans were starting to gather and stare at the trio and he couldn't blame them. It wasn't as though they were causing a scene or anything but she had certainly caused one earlier and there was still blood on the pavement.

"Besides! We don't want her to wake up with a strong guy like yourself. Think of what she'll think waah she'd be so scared!" And Byron was adorable and not scary at all. He didn't add that but it was implied. Inside the carriage she was bleeding as he expected. What a mess she was making. It was kind of disgusting.

[Sekl Lara-Duran]

The shinigami hissed and his knuckles went white, clenched on the handle of the carriage door. He was tempted to grab the little demon and throw him right into the river, but that was just cause more disturbance in the humans around them and Sekl was already running out of time.
"Fine!!" he snarled at the kid, slamming the door, and swinging himself up into the seat of the cab. He whipped the horses impatiently and scowled as they thundered off down the road.
He would just have to wait; when they got somewhere more quiet, there he could dispose of the little nuisance. There they could fight, and this time, Sekl would win.
He smirked to himself, cheered by this thought. He could return to the other shinigami a champion, a hero.
But don't get so big headed... that's what happened last time...
Sekl winced at the painful memory and turned to look in on his two passengers. "Don't you dare touch her." he growled, glaring at the demon. "Don't even think about it!"
Sekl spun around in his seat and concentrated on directing the carriage to a more quiet part of town.

Sekl pulled on the horse's reins and brought the carriage to a halt. The horses whinnied loudly and scratched at the ground with their hooves as the shinigami descended to the ground and roughly pulled open the door, glowering at Henrietta's body and the unwelcome stowaway that had also hitched a ride.
"Get out!" he hissed, scowling at the demon, his hand resting on the hilt of his death scythe, should the small devil refuse.