Chapter 1: It was too Close

"Please read a book with words, please," Mrs. Bradford added an extra please as she slapped my head with a book full of poems. She fixed her glasses, which were sitting loosely on the crook of her nose. I winced at the pain, rubbed the back of my neck with my hand, and showed her my book.

"Graphic novels have words in them," revealing the book's contents and pouted at her. The class stared at me for breaking the silence of study hall. Even my friend, sitting to my left, gawked at me and gave me the I-told-you-so look.

"Adrienne! Black Butler is not a suitable novel to be reading during this period," the teacher scuffled with the stack of paper on her desk as she scolded me. I could feel the blood rush up to my cheeks, embarrassed that everyone now knows I'm a cartoon lunatic. I stuck my tongue out at everyone and closed my favorite series. There was only less than a minute left when Mrs. Bradford caught me, but it was still thirty seconds too soon.

Beep, the electrical bell chimed, signaling to everyone to gather their books and be ready for their beloved time of the day: lunch.

"Adrienne, you should seriously read something else besides Black Butler," Sophie, from study period, suggested. She, along with the rest of my friends, thinks my obsession was way over normality. The hallway was filled with small crowds of people as I pushed my way toward the lunch room.

"How can I give up on a manga filled with hot boys in it?" I argued back and pushed open two large wooden doors to walk into the cafeteria. Chatters and murmurs filled the atmosphere as I sat down in the chair with a table full of my friends. My friends know me as acting weird, almost stupid, total fan girl, and crazy. I've been acting like this to get friend for years and it might as well be my real personality already but I'm restraining. What they don't know is how much I suffer and a failure I am because I keep a smile on my face. I pulled out my lunch from my backpack and listened around the table for a topic to join in on.

"You do realize that liking a manga is totally different than wanting to marry Ciel," Katy, my fun to hang out with friend, tried differentiating while chewing on a sandwich, "What is he? Ciel is like, two hundred years old! Or thirteen. Either way, one of you is going to be a pedo." The table halted all their conversations to listen to my wild passion of manga.

"Two hundred? That's gross! How are you supposed to meet him if he's dead? He's never met you before, how are you sure he'll fall in love with you when you meet?" Rose, another good friend of mine, looked up from her drawing book and questioned me. She was a practical thinker and has her head in reality, totally opposite from mine. We might as well balance each other out pretty well.

"He's a demon so he'll look thirteen, be two hundred years old but at least he's alive because he's immortal," I took a bite of my pasta my mom prepared for me in the morning. I couldn't answer the latter question; what will I do if he doesn't love me back?

"Alive? He's not real to begin with!" Sophie took Katy's side and reached for a couple of Rose's fries. They all left me speechless and I didn't have a comeback for them since I half admitted Ciel wasn't real. I continued painfully chewing on my pasta and stayed silent for the rest of lunch. I even stayed silent for the rest of the day. After school ended, I felt terribly sick. Was there something wrong with me? Today's weather was fairly warm and nice so my mother made me walk home.

I was sweating like crazy while shouldering a heavy backpack back home. The walk took about an hour and it was not worth it at all. I dropped my backpack at the door the nanosecond my foot stepped into my small cozy house and made my way to my room. How much I yearn for my king sized bed and my pillow that I loved. I had taken the largest room in the house and shoved in the king sized bed when we first moved in this house a few years ago. I plopped down into my bed and slowed down my breathing pace.

My heart ached and I didn't know why. I was probably really sick. I knew I was foolish because I fell in love so hard it felt as if I jumped off a high cliff. I lifted my hand up and grasped the empty void as if someone was there. Ciel, if you're there, please hold onto my hand, I cried quietly to myself. I felt a strange tingle on my hand but it went away as fast as it came. I forced my eyes to close and fall asleep, wanting to dream about Ciel or something to escape this world that I lived in. I needed Ciel.

"Ciel!" I screamed into the open space and stretched my hand out to a mysterious figure. He turned around and smiled a gleaming smile as he offered his hand. It was Ciel standing in front of me and telling me to come follow him. I grinned happily and ran but my feet were chained to the ground. Ciel started fading away as he ran farther from me. I felt a strange chain on my neck starting to tighten as it chocked me.

I woke up from my suffocating dream and choked on nothing. Cold sweat ran down the side of my face. I snapped my head to the right and glanced at the clock. One fourteen a.m. Tears streamed out of my eyes uncontrollably from the nightmare I had. I didn't realize that my body was moving on its own until I found myself halfway climbing out the window. I was hanging by the window sill by the time I regained voluntary control. My mind couldn't understand why I was sleep walking, or should I say sleep climbing. I tried doing a pull up like they taught us in school but I didn't have the energy to pull myself up. Even if my life was in danger, it was impossible for me to pull up myself. I was strangely dangling on the window when I tried another pull up but my finger slipped from my life supporter. I crashed and landed into a flower bed my mom planted and managed to twist my ankle on the stone framing.

I rubbed my ankle as I took in what the night had to grant me. It was a bit misty, not so much clear. There were no stars in the sky, just a simple waning moon, cloaked with flurry clouds. I got up from the flower bed and took a quick stroll around the neighborhood. It looked different at night. Since everyone was sound asleep – judging by lights from the window – I felt excitement fill me up.

"Give me a demon!" I shouted and felt relieved. I vented out all my frustrations about not able to meet Ciel and summon a demon and so. I screamed out all my anger until I ran out of breath.

Suddenly, a hand crept around me and covered my mouth. A person dragged me into a dark, smelly alley and slammed me to the wall. My back hurt when I felt it came in contact with multiple hard bricks. The man, his hands were rough, stuffed a cloth in my mouth and tied it behind my head, agonizingly gagging me. Adrenaline flushed through me as I struggled free, kicking at him like what gangsters did in mangas. It didn't work since my legs never reached him. The man was obviously stronger than I was and held my waist close to his.

"You want a demon? You got one," his eyes had a bloodshot look in them as he took out a pocket knife from his sleeve and tore my shirt down the middle. He could see the fear in my eyes and slit small cuts on my body. I shouted when I felt my skin tore open with the sharp blade skimmed me. I felt the cold blood drip down and soak my pants. He could see my bra as he groped my breast. His hand slowly went down but luckily, I was wearing the tightest skinny jeans ever. They were uncomfortable but they prevented the person's hand from slipping down further. I knew the person was planning to murder me after he was through with me just to get rid of the evidence.

Stop, I can't do this. I'll be murdered before I meet Ciel, I shrieked inside my head and thrashed around until I felt the grasp on my wrist loosened with a thud. The rapist was beaten horribly in a flash and was left on the floor bleeding to death. My savior, who knocked out my kidnapper, faced toward me but I wasn't able to make out who he or she was.

"You called for me?" a deep mellow voice spoke out but it wasn't deep enough for it to be a grown man, "You have a wish?" This guy was a demon! Finally, I called out a demon, but how'd I done it? The demon took out the cloth in my mouth and waited for my wish. I tried catching my breath first before talking. I didn't comprehend the situation but I played along. As if there were demons, heh.

"I want to make Ciel Phantomhive say 'I love you' to me, actually meaning it, and destroy all the people who gets in my way," I joyfully wished. It was impossible since Ciel was fictional but I wanted to test out the demon's skills. I was most likely hallucinating but this sure was a fun hallucination. There was an awkward silence before breathing broke the quietness.

"Contract with her," a second voice, with more manliness tone to it, pushed. Wait, a second voice? There was someone else here too?

"Do you wish to form a contract with me?" the first voice whispered and sighed. I was super confused with what was happening now, my head started aching, and I was dizzy from loss of blood, even if it was just a little blood. I was confused but I didn't hesitate to reply.

"Yes, I do!" I giggled, sounding like I was at a wedding. It was possible that I was high and crazy from whatever shock I received today. I quickly covered my body with the already torn shirt and tried to anticipate what my demon looked like. A dark figure stepped into the moonlight to unmask himself. He wore a black shirt with a white collar underneath it, moreover, a red ribbon that hung limply in his collar. He wore similar shorts that matched his shirt and boots up to his knees. His hair glistened in the light, shining a blue color. His right eye was a dark purple color with a strange symbol on it while his left eye was a bright pink, showing the demon he was. His Faustian sign on the back of his hand glowed a light blue as something above my waist line glowed correspondingly. My eyes widened as I processed in who was the demon I had contracted with.

"CIEL?"