It was morning in the Phantomhive household. The sun was streaming steadily through the windows and the birds were chirping from their nests. Finnian smiled nervously, as he always did when Sebastian was giving them their morning briefing after the servants' breakfasts. Finny stood just to the left of Mey-Rin, whom he noticed was blushing slightly as she watched Sebastian. The butler had on his usual cool composure, which by now he knew masked his unbound annoyance at the other servants of the mansion.

"Alright," the black-clad butler said crisply, "here are your assignments for the day. Baldroy, you are to prepare an afternoon snack for the master, prefferably something sweet." Baldroy nodded, putting out his cigarette and reaching for another. "Mey-Rin, you are to clean the windows of the mansion." The maid nodded eagerly, though Finny suspected that some of those windows would be broken before the end of the day. "And Finnian," Finny stiffened as his name was said, an eager-to-please smiled upon his face, "your task today is simple. Today you are to pull up the stumps around the mansion, they are becoming a bit of an eyesore and are doing nothing for the appearance of the manor. So pull them out and dispose of them."

"Yes sir," Finny said energetically. Anyone who didn't know him would have thought this would be a near-impossible task for him, what with his slender, weak-looking build. However, all who lived in the manor knew about Finny's massive strength, and they knew that, for him, this task would be as easy as picking sticks up off the ground.

"Very well, you all have your assignments. Now get to it." The servants gave a hearty 'Yes Mr. Sebastian!' and raced off to do their different chores. Finny stopped for just a second as he went out the door. He took in the feel of the warm sun on his face, the feeling of freedom. He always felt a bit twitchy whenever he was in the house for any length of time, so it was no small relief any time he got the chance to go back into the garden. He took in a deep breath of air, then went off to get on the stumps.

There were quite a few of them to be honest. The stumps of trees that had rotted and fallen over from their old age. The trees themselves were removed, but their stumps were left behind. Finny was a bit reluctant to remove them, they made nice places to sit and rest and think, but what Mr. Sebastian said, went. He came to the first stump and leaned over, looking at it. It was a large one, a bit larger than a serving platter. He took a glance at the rings in the wood (Someone had once told him that you could tell how old a tree was by the rings on the stump. He never could figure out how you did it.), then grabbed it on both sides. Without even a 'huff' from the effort, he yanked it out of the soil, roots and all.

He tossed it over his shoulder, then moved on to the next one. This went on for a while, as he worked his way around the trees just outside of the manor walls. He kept on bringing the stumps to where the first one was, leaving them in a pile that he could pick up later. By the time he was done, the sun was high in the sky and shining down on the Earth with a scorching heat. Finny wiped his head from the heat (not at all from the effort he was putting out) with one hand as he held the last stump in the other.

"It's about lunch-time," he said to no one in particular. "Won't Mr. Sebastian be proud. I pulled up all the stumps, just like he said. And nothing got torn up this time. Maybe I'll get a reward!" He smiled a bit at the thought of gulping down something sweet as he tossed the last stump (a little larger than a kitchen table) on the top of the pile. He was just wiping off the back of his neck when he heard something. It was almost like... crying? He looked around, confused.

"Hello?" A little voice came from the nearby trees, making him look that way. "Hello? Is anyone there? Can someone please help me?" The voice sounded like it belonged to a girl (or perhaps a very young boy), and it sounded like it was close. Finny tilted his head, then began walking towards the sound. He peered through some bushes, and started at what he found. It was a young girl, sitting on the ground and rubbing her eyes from tears. She looked up at him when he came through, and he saw why she was so teary-eyed. Her dress was torn and ragged, one leg curled up against her chest, but the other was caught under a tree. He could see her foot sticking out on the other side, bent at an angle that he knew just couldn't be its' natural way to bend.

"Hey, are you alright? That looks like it must really hurt." The girl stared at him, wiping her eyes from tears.

"Oh mister, thank goodness you're here. I was out taking a walk, but a tree fell on me. I'm stuck, and I think my leg is broken. Oh, won't you please help me?" She sniffled, then wiped her nose and eyes once more. Finny nodded, smiling.

"Sure. Don't worry. I'll get you out of there no problem!" He crouched down next to her, looking at the tree. It was an old-looking oak with a thick trunk and leafy branches that he could see on the far end. He grabbed it around the middle and smiled at her. "Alright, hold on. This will only take a second!" He grunted, then lifted the tree up over his head with one pull. The girl stared at him with awe as he tossed the tree away, he could hear it land some ways away in the forest. "There, you're free now." The girl smiled, seeing her leg free.

"Wow! You're amazing mister!" Finny nodded, though he didn't think he was too amazing. It was just the strength he had.

"Thanks. Here, want me to help you up?" She shook her head.

"No thanks. I can get up on my own." True to her word, she stood up on her own two feet, giving Finny quite a surprise.

"Hold on," he said hesitantly. "I thought you said your leg was broken." She nodded cheerily.

"Oh, it was. But I heal really quickly, so it doesn't matter." She looked around really quickly, then motioned for him to come closer with her finger. "Hey, can I tell you something?" Finny nodded, though he began to feel a bit anxious for some reason. He leaned down, and she came up on her tiptoes, placing her mouth next to his ear. Then, the next thing he knew, he felt something sharp jabbed into his neck. Finny gasped at the pain, pulling away from the pain quickly. He grasped at his neck and felt something hard sticking out of it. He pulled it out, and jolted when he realized what it was. It was a syringe.

The girl smiled at him coldly, none of the sugariness from only a few minutes ago was in her face. Finny fell to his knees, feeling like they couldn't support his own weight anymore. The world started going fuzzy, he began breathing heavier, as if getting in more oxygen would keep the world from going so blurry. The girl stood there, in her torn pink dress.

"Now, now, don't you know not to talk to strangers? Hm? 'Finny'?" His name was said with a hint of icy contempt, and a brief wondering of how she knew his name shot through his brain. "Well, it doesn't matter. You're coming home now, and you won't need to be called that ugly name ever again." The blurring colors of the world began turning black, and Finny fell sideways on the ground as the empty syringe fell out of his hands. The last thing he heard was the girl's voice, and what she said made his heart nearly stop. "Sweet dreams S-012."