Silence.
Many say, fearing not error, that silence is the loudest plea for help.
And amidst the silence, Prince Soma could still hear the muffled moans and pained cries from his khan being stabbed to death.
His eyes stared unblinking at the ceiling, the white only making more room for void whilst his eyelids gave him horrid images. He laid on the mattress, restless, fleeing any sort of emotion. His eyes had long since adjusted to darkness, and his body had long since gone numb to the urge in his brain to go and do something.
His ears tried to look for any sound pertaining to the people on the house. He was still under careful watch; most probably an order from little Ciel so he could not get back at him. The young prince clenched his teeth, little Ciel had little to worry from him! It was the universe he could fear! How dare he… do that… to someone as Agni…!
Tears were not prickling his eyes, they had long since dried and irritated his eyes. But that did not mean his face could not grimace, or that his vocal chords were no longer capable of sobbing.
He covered his eyes with his eyes, relishing in the bittersweet moments his mind offered. A sweet voice, a warm hug. The perfect summer day under the perfect room with the perfect human being. Well, his daydream was over. Waking up to reality was something harsh; and this time, there was no-one to take comfort in.
Not able to stand silence anymore, his mind began to wander. Were Miss Sullivan and her khan still awake? He had waited long for an outing, and flaws in his timing would simply not do.
He rubbed his eyes one last time and made an effort in getting up. The wardrobe surely had clothing that suited fighting. He had the nagging feeling at the back of his head that he would need something like that.
Maybe his current clothes would be fitting? They were loose enough, and he didn't actually feel like changing into something else. So he just shrugged and tried to look in his mind for the next step to follow.
He tiptoed to the door and, as slowly as he could, peeked through the keyhole, making sure there was no-one to stop him.
Once knowing lady Sullivan was in her basement working on her experiments, and her butler down there with him, he tried looking for a weapon as he would need it.
Looking around he noticed a loose plank in the floor, and since his curiosity peaked he lifted it and grinned to himself at having found what he was looking for. He mentally thanked little Ciel for being as paranoid as he was before he remembered who he was escaping for, and a bitter grimace made its way to the prince's face.
He grabbed a coat from the wardrobe; outside was raining heavily and if he was going to fight in his current clothing, he would need it to be as dry as possible.
Soma walked to the window, contemplating the night sky for a few seconds before inching the frame open. He took a deep breath and convinced himself this was the right thing to do, and dropped himself to the ground.
In the silence he didn't hear Agni's warning to stop.
He walked partly blind to the stables, and picked out the first horse that could take him to his desired place. Surely mounting a horse was no more different than riding an elephant, right? Right. So he adjusted the saddle as he had seen Sebastian do a couple of times and jumped into the animal. He then remembered he had to hit its sides to make it move.
He rode not looking behind, missing all the light and all the shadows that the storm hosted.
Once at the Phantomhive manor, he got the gun from the coat pocket and prepared it to shoot; he needed time on his side and he could not waste a single second with the first shot.
He breathed once again, reassuring himself again and again that he was the right thing, he was doing it for Agni, and maybe he could feel the sting in his chest go away.
Soma walked the steps towards the door, and the barrel of the pistol already pointed in front of him, he dashed inside where he knew the culprit was.
He just… didn't know exactly who that was.
His finger froze half an inch from the trigger at the sight. Little Ciel was gaping, panting and panicking to the figure of his doppelgänger. Or… something of the sorts.
He had seen the picture Agni had given to him, so he wasn't completely blind into the situation, but he knew it had been a little rash to just come in here without a clear plan. Especially when he hadn't figured out which of the Phantomhives had ended the life of Agni.
The people at the manor were also surprised to see him there, holding a gun towards his master's temple, and a rage in his eyes before unknown. He couldn't bother with them, he couldn't bother with anything actually.
"Oh, may I presume you are the famous Prince of Bengali? I must say, I became a big fan of your performance as part of my brother's music band," Soma eyed carefully Ciel's brother, feeling a weird aura from him creep up his back and send chills through his whole body; though he assumed it was probably just the situation in general and not the boy in personal.
He didn't miss the fact that even Sebastian was frozen in place at the sight of him.
"Yes. What business do you have with me?" He asked, he had no time for formalities, and the gun then was aimed at him for having spoken up. He now had a higher place as a suspect. Ciel's brother smirked and turned to Mr. Tanaka.
"Grandpa, do you think you can serve some tea to our lovely guest? I have an offer to discuss, and I am quite sure he will be pleased to hear it once he hears of the promised reward." Tanaka nodded and served tea on one of the cups from the tray, his eyes calmed and his posture straight. The rest of the servants were still trying I digest just what was going on.
Soma lowered the pistol, but kept the wary look to the boy and his guard up in case he tried anything funny. He didn't look back to little Ciel, nor Sebastian, or Miss Mey-rin, Bard…, but instead walked forward.
"How many sugar cubes would you like?" The boy asked as if it was actually tea time, they were friends for life and were having the nicest of times.
"Two," he answered mechanically, and kept walking. Once close enough, the boy handed the tea cup with a proud smile and stared into the prince's eyes.
"I heard about the terrible news," he announced with a sad tone, as if he actually lamented the loss as his. "I honestly do not know, nor can understand the pain you must be going through," Soma clenched the frail china tighter in his hands, his teeth tight as well from anger. "But, I think I can offer something to make up for it." At this, the prince looked up from his tea and eyed Ciel's brother; they were mirror twins, that much was obvious, their flare, their manners, their talking; but the devious look in his eyes wasn't exactly devious as it was gloating.
Soma tried not to think too much about that fact as he took the last sip from his Ear Grey, his expression still distrusting. "And what can I gain from it?" It wasn't so much as gain something, but rather for the lost not to be completely lost. And Ben if the price would be hard to pay, he'd be willing to pay depending on the compensation.
Ciel's brother merely shrugged and tried the innocent look, "maybe, say, you could get your butler back?" Soma's eyes widened at the possibility and tried really hard not to drop the tea cup into the carpetweed floor of the stairway.
"You must be lying… there is no way to bring the dead back…" he stepped back, his small hope of maybe fixing half of the mess he had gotten into dissipated into thin air at the madman's preposition.
The boy just smirked wider in gloat. "Oh, then how do you explained me being here," he pointed in the general direction of the manor servants and his brother, "when they left me for dead? I assure you, the dead were quicker than me when I awoke." He laughed at his own joke and extended his arm. "So, prince Soma; what do you think of my generous offer? Is it a deal?"
The prince glanced at the ashen hand, small veins showing beneath his sleeve; and he considered quietly what was to be done. As if on automatic, his arm started inching towards the boy's, just a few seconds before…
"Soma, wait!" The shout startled him enough to stop his doings, he stared back at his so-called friend who had suddenly regained the ability to talk; even though he was still panting and panicked. "He is lying, the dead are still quicker than him," he glanced at his butler, and once he received an affirmation, proceeded to pass on the information. "Sebastian ate his soul ages ago, and with no soul to bear, he is no human to promise you back Agni!"
The prince went numb again, Ciel's words sounded so sincere despite being harsh, as they usually did, but this time they were also carried with something else he had never seen in his little brother: desperation. He could see it in his eyes, all his fears coming to life and making themselves present in a single room. And wondered, if he had also been honest when he showed surprised at his wounded state, sobbing his life into Agni's death.
His eyes narrowed, and turned back to the boy. "No deal," he muttered and shot the trigger straight into his chest; Ciel's brother didn't do so much as flinch when the bullet passed through his ribcage. He stared at his clothes, uninterested, and gave a huff.
"You do that as if bullets could hurt me by this point," he then turned on his heels and started walking down the hallway, not looking back to Soma's shaking form, "I suppose then that you, too, are against me.
"Grandpa, please do bring new clothes to my bedroom, and burn these. I hate I that they're stained with someone else's blood…"
Soma was still trembling like a leaf when Sebastian and Ciel approached him, the shock instilled into him over the fact that he'd shot someone with the intention to kill. He jumped slightly when Ciel talked.
"Thank you," Soma wasn't sure why, so he just nodded. He gulped the lump in his throat and tried to dampen his sand-dry mouth.
"Was it… was it him who killed Agni?" It was something he wanted to know, he prayed to all the goddesses and gods he could list from the top of his head that his assumption was right. His heart could not live on the thought that it had been his little brother who murdered one of his loved ones. Ciel nodded.
"Most probably, yes. Maybe his servant helped." He signalled to his servants to come, and turned back to his friend. "Please do honour the last wish of your butler and get away to safety; this part wasn't as hard as the rest will be, and you would not want his effort to save you do be in vain, would you?" The prince shook his head. "Take Mey-rin with you. She may be a bit clumsy in house chores, but the best shooter out there."
Soma nodded and walked to the maid, the shock still not quite away. "I promise I will come back to try and protect you." It is my desire to become your Agni. Ciel kept nodding absentmindedly.
"Stay safe, Soma."
"And Ciel?" Phantomhive flinched a little at the mention of his name.
"I know older siblings can be really mean at times; don't let them intimidate you or they'll think they have control over you." He had not missed the aura of utter submission coming from Ciel at the confrontation.
"I'll… keep that in mind."
"Make sure you do."
And the silence was finally silent.
Black Butler ©Yana Toboso.
I know, what an anticlimactic ending. But I couldn't figure something better at the moment, maybe a sequel will come out of this; focusing on both Ciels. Also, happy almost arrival of chapter 131! (No? No celebrating?)
By the way, this was a request by the lovely DarkSideOfTheMoon1324! :D I hope this was good enough, I'm sorry if it was shitty. My excuse is I'm a little sleep-deprived.
There was a video game I was playing a few days ago, it was an RPG called 'inhuman' (if you're into Hetalia you'll probably know what I'm talking about) and there were three options. The main antagonist was threatening to skin a little girl and the (hidden) main character, heroic as he was, couldn't just stay and watch. So you had three choices: intervene, wait, or flee. You'd probably say: "well, intervening is better than letting the little girl get hurt by the bad guy."
Well, you intervened, and you killed the guy before he could harm the girl. But you lost an eye and from the bleeding, you died. That was a bad ending; If you waited, there was a worker that came down to fetch the bad guy for bed. The worker stayed behind and told the hero about how he wanted no more girls getting killed; he dropped the key and let you go. You are able to escape safe and sound with the girl.
My point here is, that I'm on the "Soma should not seek revenge" team. His religion has a strong belief that things work themselves out in the end, and whilst I do not want him to sit around and mope, Agni would not want the prince tainting his soul for something that —I'm sorry to say this— is not worth all the complications it could have.
That being said, I hope you somehow enjoyed this. And if you want to, you can go to my Tumblr and drop me asks with writing prompts (anything, really). Or you can also tell me here in the comments. It might take me a while, but I'll come around eventually.
Matane!