BlackMaster


His chuckles only intensified as the voices grew louder. Rattling against his locked arms, arms thrashing around, the screaming that comes – let me go, let me go, pleasepleaseplease. Nothing could change the demon's mind however, no matter how pitiful it looked and mercy was one of those things he would never give.

(…)


Prologue


Ciel Phantomhive did not belong here.

Eton, the prestigious boarding school for nobleman, and yet Ciel did not feel a sense of belonging. He preferred the idea of being tutored by some random person he hired. That way, he could have everything under control. And mind you, he despised the very idea of losing control, simply couldn't even imagine it.

But no, he was obligated to go here because Aunt Ann said so.

"Please Ciel, stop being so aloof and go make some friends." That's what she'd said, directly quoted.

Well, he didn't really see the point of being friends with the other nobles, seeing as their friendship would be nothing more than a mere acquaintances and based on the benefits they've got from each other – but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that's the way he had been with everyone around him, even with his fiancé, Elizabeth, so it didn't mind him as much.

The school tour proved to be boring. Nothing seemed to amaze him for he was a very hard person to please. The dining hall, courts, divisions – everything in general, seemed displeasing in his eyes. Halfway through the tour, all he could think of was to be left alone.

The last destination was the room section – his designated room.

The tour guide not once stopping – he kept ascending up the stairs with candle in his hand, leaving Ciel to wonder when the hell will they stop because goddamn it, his legs hurt so much. He was almost tempted to ask but went against it.

Eventually, they reached the top. It felt so eerie up here, considering how dark and tall it was, cutting Ciel from any form of connection, like whoever set him with this place was intending to lock him up.

Ciel pretended not to notice.

"Here's the room, My Lord." The tour guide said, handing him the key after putting his luggage on the floor. Ciel quickly dismissed him without much thought, itching to get a little bit of privacy after a long, exhausting day.

Finally, some peace.

Ciel walked towards his bed, settling down on the mattress while looking out the window. From his room, he could see the vast orange sky, sun going down over the horizon. Truthfully, it looked quite beautiful, not that he would admit it, he was never one for sentimentality, after all.

After staring at the descending sun for a while, he finally allowed himself a thorough look around the room. The room was big enough for him – although his room at his mansion was bigger – with its own bathroom. He was glad he didn't have to share with other people, privacy was something important, after all.

Not bad.

He shook off the thought of being isolated and rose from his bed to unpack and shower.


Around midnight, he was roused from his sleep for some unknown reason. At first, he shrugged it off as some form of body adaption to the new environment or some nightmares he can't remember, after all, it was not rare for him to have nightmares, it came quite often, to be honest.

Ding-dong.

He stared at the ceiling with the clock sounding in the background, signaling the beginning of midnight. But hold on, he did not remember having a clock… or did he? Ciel wondered to himself, trying hard to remember something about the clock but nothing came to his mind.

Strange, his brain was usually very sharp.

The clock eventually stopped, leaving the familiar ticking sound he heard often from a clock. Tick tock, tick tock, it went. He kept staring at the ceiling, not giving the odd sound a second thought and was about to sleep, tossing and turning in the process when his eyes caught something very odd. Even odd can't begin to describe it.

Chills went down his spine

A pair of red eyes were staring at him through the gap of his cabinet.


He was late for his first day.

The last night occurrence haunted him throughout the night he couldn't rest for a second. Nearing dawn, he was finally able to get some sleep and ended up waking up at 8.30 AM. School started at 8.00 which meant he was very, very late.

He went to shower and get dressed, not bothering to comb his hair. He even got his buttons in the wrong hole. Not that it mattered as much to him. Then, he remembered about the noisy clock and searched around the room for that damned clock since he can't hold his curiosity much longer.

Nothing, no clock. Zilch.

By the time he realized he was supposed to attend his divisions, the sun has ascended up in the sky. Well, goddamn it. He hastily grabbed his books and went down stairs which took forever and ran all the way to his… where is it, again?

Ciel checked his schedule and ran to the Latin Division. Upon arriving, he knocked on the door and opened it without waiting for a response.

"I'm sorry for being late, Sir. Please forgive my ineptness." Ciel uttered with an air of dignity. Even though he was the one apologizing, it seemed like the other way around, somehow.

The teacher cleared his throat, giving him the look before nodding. "Very well, you may sit down."

Ciel spotted the only empty seat near the Indian guy and walked over there. Once seated, he began to focus his attention on the teacher describing about Latin which he did not really understand because he came late.

Something tugged on his clothes.

He glanced at the source which was a hand that belonged to the Indian guy. "I've never seen you before." the Indian guy squinted at him.

Ciel scoffed, "Yes, I am the new student here, Ciel Phantomhive, isn't that very recognizable – that I'm a new student since you've never seen me?" Seriously, how stupid can he get?

"Weird, usually there would be an announcement about a new student, you know. Anyway, I'm Soma, prince from India – " the Indian guy whose name was apparently Soma went on but everything went past his head.

It felt like he was being outcasted – what with his secluded room and his unannounced presence. It was certainly odd, he thought, but kept on nonetheless, ignoring the gnawing feeling inside his chest that something was indeed, very wrong.

After all, it was very unlike Ciel to back down.

The division soon ended with Ciel learning nothing from the whole session. It was futile – perhaps, he was better off sleeping at his room, seeing he was still sleepy and had zero motivation to do anything productive.

The teachers here, looked very suspicious, just looking at them made him itch. The latin teacher's name was Ash – according to Soma – and he looked like those guys in the choir group at church. One would have expected Ash to have a nice personality by the way he described Ash but Ciel found himself disliking the guy for some unknown reason. Well, perhaps it was just him, Ciel was the epitome of coldness nevertheless, his taste wasn't quite the same as other people.

Then the next division started. History teacher, Will, looked downright cold with his emotionless speech about deaths and such. Ciel didn't mind him as much.

After that, the students were to go to the dining room to have an afternoon tea. This was the only thing he was looking forward to and he hoped it wasn't bad. Turned out, it was so bad Ciel nearly vomited. The earl grey was too bitter and the pie was too lumpy for his taste. He cringed.

He glanced forth and back, searching for the sign of distaste from other people but they just casually ate it as if nothing was wrong. His blue eyes landed on Soma and finally he saw one person who looked like he was about to choke on the sheer awfulness of the food.

Soma looked up and met his eyes before waving at him brightly.

Ciel snorted, looking at the other way.

He put down his fork and knife, having no interest to continue with his meal. The bell rang after a few minutes had passed, signaling the end of afternoon tea time. Ash stood at the end of the table and looked around for a while. It might have been his feeling but he felt Ash's eyes landed on him seconds longer than anyone else in the room.

"May God bless our food," Ash smiled, clasping his hands together. The next thing he did is very unpredictable. With a smile still etched on his feature, his eyes stared at Ciel dead in the eye. "Also, Mr. Phantomhive, finish your meal next time, alright? You are to meet us next Friday in the headmaster's office, is that clear?"

Ciel nodded, confused by the entire situation. He glanced in Soma's direction and his plate was already clean with no trace of reluctance there. Traitor.

"Understood?"

It went unheard, lost in his own thoughts.

Then the sound of a table being banged resounded in the room. "UNDERSTOOD?!"

Ciel, shocked to find an angry-looking Ash, replied with a, "Yes, sir."

"Good."

He sat back down, relieved to find the lunatic man looked calm again. It was the right decision to dislike him, however.

One by one, everyone went out of the dining room to their designated class. Soma, walked up next to him with an apologetic grin. "That was scary."

Ciel grunted in reply.

"It tasted bad too. I never really liked England food but it was still edible. This is downright terrible."

"I know. Now, you can shut your mouth. I am tired of hearing your voice, it gives me headache." Ciel said without any sign of remorse. It was long gone, any inkling feeling of remorse, that was.

Soma looked sad for a moment before nodding and went to bother someone else. Ciel didn't care much – he had always been like that, pushing people away constantly until they themselves grew tired of approaching him. Having no friends suited him just fine.

The next division was religion, taught by a lady who looked like Ash – same white hair, same violet eyes. Judging by their looks, one would assume they're twins. The lady smiled uneasily, strained at the corners. Ciel found himself not liking her, at all. More so than his brother.

"Good evening, children." The lady greeted. "Open the bible page – "

And the rest went on. Her calm voice resounded like something bitter in Ciel's ear. Turned out her name was Angela. Instead of paying attention, he looked out the window in boredom. He had lost his faith in God long ago amidst everything that happened.

Before long, the division had ended. He passed Angela through his way out, certain he saw Angela's lip curling up in his direction but it was gone just as fast as he saw it.

The night finally came and everyone was allowed to go to their own rooms. Ciel went up the stairs, opening the door to his room that creaked like something out of a horror movie. The room was empty and looked exactly like how he'd left it at noon. It struck him as odd – after all, he'd expected something would happen.

Sighing, he sat at the edge of his bed, listening intently to any sound resembling the dreaded last night clock.

Nothing.

Ciel decided to take a bath when he realized that nothing is happening. He dipped his feet first, calculating the warmth before sinking into the water wholly. He resurfaced a second later. It did feel good. He closed his eyes in comfort with his hands over the edge of the bathtub.

He brought one hand to rinse his face with water, eyes still closed. The tangy scent of metal felt really – hold on, metal? Ciel's eyes snapped open in surprise, looking down on impulse.

His bathtub was filled with blood.


He didn't scream, having to deal with the red liquid numerous times before, albeit a little bit surprised. He quickly rinsed himself off the blood. If anything, the blood was more of an inconvenience.

Alright, there was this strange midnight incident, clock's sounds, his unannounced arrival, Ash's disdain, then – this. Whoever put him up with so much trouble must have hated his guts with passion to be able to do all this. He suspected Ash because he looked like he despised Ciel.

Or it could be someone else and he had an idea of who it was.

Ciel threw the door of his bathroom open in anger, eyes searching around the room,

"Enough with the games already, out with it."

Silence.

Ciel slumped against his bed when he received no response. He wondered all the strange things he had encountered so far, it seemed too odd to call it a "coincidence". One thing he was sure of that none of these things are just "coincidence". But for what someone did this if this were someone's doing? Nothing that would benefit the person behind all these certainly unless,...

But it couldn't be them. They weren't capable of such supernatural power.

Or were they?

He was disturbed from his thoughts when the entire room turned pitch black, caused by a sudden strong wind which blew out the candle – Ciel could still make out the grey smoke in the darkness.

He waited and waited something to happen.

Seconds passed, minutes passed, and before he knew it, an entire hour had passed. His eyes grew heavier and heavier with each second passing, waiting for something that didn't – or haven't – happened. By then, he was already fast asleep.

Tick tock.

That noise.

His eyes fluttered open. Sitting up, he glanced around the room, searching for that damned clock once again to no avail. Then, something caught him in the corner of his eyes.

A pair of red eyes were staring at him from the cabinet.

"What do you want?"

Then, he saw it – fangs glinting, reflected by the moonlight. Ciel realized, he was no human.

"Get out of my cabinet."

A gurgle of humorless laughter.

And the thing whispered but, Ciel still heard him clearly:


"Interesting."


a/n my first kuroshitsuji fanfic. I was confused whether I should make it to fem!ciel or male!ciel. Any suggestion? Also, Eton is an academy during victorian era, I heard.