A/N: I've been itching to write for awhile. Just playing around here. Comments and criticisms are much appreciated!
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters.
Warnings: Rated M for later chapters. I assume this will eventually be Ciel/Sebastian. This chapter rated T for implied violence and gore. But if you read Kuroshitsuji, this should be nothing new to you :)
Men, in their evil days, move my compassion;
Such sorry things to plague is nothing worth.
-Mephistopheles, Goethe's Faust
Let's make a wager then, you and I, seeing that this cannot be resolved through the old ways.
A wager? I'm listening.
...
"Well aren't you…a very small master."
The voice coiled curiously through Ciel's mind, from all directions, from all angles, as though a disembodied being was circling him in scrutiny. Ciel's surprise at hearing it soothed the edges of the tension and the pain for a moment. His eyes remained pursed tightly shut, but he heard the hushed whispers of those who had just so recently been laughing, cutting, burning. He heard the sharp clicks of a hard, pointed heel on the marble floor.
The demon circled the stone slab, its eyes searching the child with interest. The brand on his side still smelled of newly burnt flesh. The demon stopped here. It was the same mark that had blazed so gloriously on the shield of that misguided angel, shortly before the demon had shattered it to pieces.
...
This amuses you?
That you would allow me to work my influence? Yes.
Humans are filthy, sullied, disgusting creatures from birth. Only through purification can they be saved. Only in their darkness can they be purified. I invite you to do your worst.
You have nothing to fear from me on that. I fully intend to.
...
So this is to be the game.
The demon flashed its teeth in a devilish grin, and ran one long nail over the mark. The child responded with a gasp.
Ciel's eyes flew open and he found himself staring into a pair of brightly burning crimson ones. The creature was now tracing a finger through the pool of blood that had begun to overflow from the edges of the pedestal. It lifted its finger to its mouth, and ran its tongue slowly over it to savour the taste. And it smiled. The child's gaze did not waver.
"You have summoned me. This fact will not change for all eternity."
Its eyes darted up to access the situation. A dozen masked, cloaked figures flinched in synchronization at the sudden movement.
"What has been sacrificed will never be returned."
The demon once again looked down to the pedestal to find the child looking back at him with fierce intelligence, a calculating furrow formed on his smooth, bloodstained forehead. It surprised the demon that this boy, by far the youngest of any who had caught his attention, seemed to understand the proposition exactly, even though no agreement had been articulated. The demon was pleased that no more words were necessary. Explaining contracts was so horribly tedious.
"Now…choose."
Without hesitating, the boy's eyes hardened in resolution. Taking this for its answer, the demon purred in triumph. It ran one sharp fingernail across its wrist, and allowed the blood to splatter artlessly onto the boy's face. Ciel blinked as the liquid hit his eyes and began to burn there. His nerves were too saturated from his recent wounds to react to this new assault, as the agreement began to etch itself across his right cornea.
"This is an order!" Ciel's voice rang clear through the stone halls, despite being hoarse from hours of screaming.
The demon's ears pricked by instinct, bound already by the bond to its master.
"Kill them!"
It flashed its teeth in yet another smirk, and bowed reverently.
"Yes, my lord."
This bet will be easily won.