"Stay with me, Sebastian," Ciel spoke calmly, even though he was terrified. His butler writhed beneath him and let out another scream of pain. The black blood was everywhere, but neither of them could care less.
"Come on, you can do this. Just... hang in there." He didn't know what else to say. What did you say to a demon as it took its final breath? Sebastian had begun to convulse on the road where he lay, struggling to breathe. He wasn't reacting at all to Ciel. The demon coughed violently. Black blood suddenly poured from his mouth and onto Ciel's lap which his head was resting on. Sebastian was seized by tremors again, and he curled himself into a fetal position. An agonized feeling of utter helplessness hit Ciel like a brick wall.
"Don't die Sebastian, Please don't die." Ciel could have been pleading with a rock for all the good it did. The butler had begun to hyperventilate. Ciel looked at the bodies that littered the ground around them. At the blade that had been used to end Sebastian's life. Ciel suddenly felt an almost painful pressure on his hand, and looked down to see that Sebastian has grasping it with what little strength he had left. The boy returned the pressure, linking his finger's through Sebastian's. The demon's eyes bored into Ciel's own, the contract mark on his eye slowly fading away with the former.
Ciel should have been happy. Sebastian fell while he was killing Ciel's arsonists. The earl had obtained his revenge, and he would get to keep his soul. But all the earl could think about was what he was going to do without Sebastian. Ciel had come to see the demon as a father or brother of sorts. Someone he could go to for anything. Normally Sebastian was disgusted by his display of such weakness, but right now, all he wanted was something to hold onto as his soul slipped away. He wanted to speak, to beg his master's forgiveness for failing him as the Phantomhive butler. He mumbled something unintelligible, lacking the strength to make proper words.
Ciel shushed the demon and brushed the hair out of his face, trying to comfort him as a parent would a child. Ciel felt traitorous tears slipping down his face. They fell onto Sebastian's face and mixed with the blood red tears that had spilled from his own eyes. The demon was trembling. His cries of pain faded into pathetic whimpers. His once-violent struggles weakened to fidgets of pain. He took a deep, shuddering breath, gathering up the last of his strength to say the words.
"Ciel Phantomhive..." Sebastian whispered. Ciel would have been shocked that the butler called him by name, but considering the current situation he couldn't care less. The demon struggled to speak, to do anything really. Ciel could see him struggling to keep his eyes focused.
"My young m-master..." the butler's dying whispers were barely audible. There was the smallest hint of a smile playing at the edges of his mouth. "I am p- proud... to have served you... u- until the very... end..." The light left Sebastian's eyes as a shudder ran through his body. The pressure on Ciel's hand lifted. Sebastian let out a final gasp, and went limp, never to move again. Ciel simply stared, expecting the demon to stand up and apologize for the cruel joke he had decided to play. Ciel only watched for minutes, but to him it felt like years. He grabbed Sebastian's wrist, only to feel nothing. He tried again at the demon's neck, only to get the same result.
"No," Ciel said. He refused to believe it. How could this once-great creature be dead? Sebastian, the man that could stop a moving train with his bare hands, who ripped apart an angel with one working arm, who survived bullet wounds and laughed. How could he have been felled so easily?
"No, Sebastian!" He grabbed his butler's shoulders and shook him frantically. "This an an order! Wake up! Please! Please, you can't be dead!" Ciel screamed and cried hysterically. He sobbed and pleaded, but nothing worked. He couldn't think clearly, his mind was numb.
"Damn you," he whispered. "Damn you for leaving my like this, you were never supposed to leave my side... until the end..." Ice cold realization crashed over him as he was forced to accepted the terrible reality of what was in front of him; Sebastian was gone. This was the end. In that moment grief drove him to insanity. He lunged and grabbed the bloodstained blade that had been used to end his butler. He couldn't help but admire the beauty of the weapon, the hauntingly eerie glow of it, the strange symbols inscribed on the blade, and the strange, other-wordly energy it seemed to emit. He positioned the blade over his heart. The boy remembered Sebastian's last words.
"Checkmate," he whispered.