This is an Elizabeth centric story set in the manga universe. It will most likely become M later
The room is cold. Her hands are numb and she can hardly feel the icy metal of her weaponry against her fingers. The chill of the swords are no match for the cold fury she harbors deep within her soul now.
"Why?" she asks, her voice quivering as she takes in the sight before her. Ciel, on the ground. Dead. So very tiny in death, even at the age of sixteen. His soft hair, glowing softly in the darkness, fell against his white forehead like silver filigree. The eyepatch is gone. Both eyes are closed. How, Ciel? How did you get into this? she wonders, desperately trying to keep her arms from shaking, What happened all those years ago so that you came to meet Sebastian? Why did you never tell me any of this? I was to be your wife...
"Please do not take it personally," Sebastian says in a luxurious, satiated voice, dripping with the molten chocolate she remembers he enjoys using so often in his baking, "Consider it more of a business transaction. You were around Ciel long enough to have picked up some semblance of the business world he ran, right? Despite you wanting to be a proper, darling, cute girl..." the chocolate in his voice replaces itself with razors, deep and burning, cutting into all of her old insecurities she'd pushed aside after Ciel reassured her that he did love her, swordplay and all. Sebastian steps over Ciel's body, removing his gloves and displaying his perfect, unmarred white hands. Not the hands of a killer. Or a butler. "Clever Elizabeth Ethel Cordelia Middleford, wife to the queen's watchdog," he sneered, "Ciel never feared that you would discover us, he never suspected that his cute little fiancee watched us from the shadows. Such a lady, you are." That will not work, you demon.
"I am a daughter of the British Knights first and a lady second," she says, using all her effort now to keep her voice from quavering, "The events of that ship happened three years ago, Sebastian. You can't toy with my fears of impropriety anymore. Humans grow, they change. But a demon stays the same forever, doesn't he?" Elizabeth asks, caught between feeling nauseous at the sight of him and curious about his existence. The corners of Sebastian's lips quirk upward and his red eyes narrow with pleasure.
"A demon is as inconstant as the moon, my lady," he says, giving the proper words a tinge of malice, "I take the form of whomever my master or mistress chooses for me. This form suited Ciel the best...and I think you know for what reasons." His tongue slides out over his lips, licking them in a lewd manner as he casts his gaze down at Ciel's body. A fresh anger bubbles up inside Elizabeth as she watches the man who obviously debauched Ciel before murdering him reminisce about their former activities.
"How...how DARE you!" she screams, flying at him with a calculated speed garnered by over a decade of training with her mother. She is fast, her curls and dressing gown flying out behind her in a flurry of flaxen gold and white, but he is faster. He is not human. He catches her by the waist and throws her back to the ground after she'd barely sliced through his sleeve. Sebastian looks over at the ruined fabric with an expression of shock and disgust.
"A human damaged my clothes. Hmm. That is a first. I suppose that delicious feast has made me tired...but I am still far, far stronger than you, Elizabeth," he whispers, his hands moving to pin her shoulders down, "I must ask you to not forget that. Now, you assume that I am never changing. You are wrong, my lady. On the contrary, I am ever changing. With every soul I consume, I gain something, whether it be knowledge or desire or a quirk. It's nothing but a side effect, but it is there. I feel Ciel's soul running through me now...he did not scream, I hope you know. But you would've heard a scream. You would've been faster if it was a scream, instead of the toppling of a chair."
"Stop," Elizabeth says, trying to muster up the strength she'd once had in her voice, "You...you bloody disgusting demon! I will slice you from limb to limb, I will gouge your eye out for Ciel and spit in the socket!" her voice is a snarl, feral and wild, and Sebastian lets her go with a surprised expression, allowing her to spring to her feet, "I am a girl, a lady if you must say so, but I am also one hell of a fiancee," she spat, "And I will NOT let Ciel's death be in vain!"
She expects Sebastian to look amused. But he doesn't. He looks passive, as if it's the same tripe he's heard before. He taps his chin with his long index finger for a solid minute, appraising her. She should run. She should grab her swords, at least, although she suspects they wouldn't do her much good. She should be like a damsel and scream herself hoarse.
"I will not consume you," Sebastian says, "Not right now, at least. Elizabeth...Ethel...Cordelia...Middleford." He rolls her name on his lips, savoring every vowel and consonant, "Because while you are a flighty little girl, you are an intriguing one. It's rare that humans intrigue me. Perhaps it runs in the family?" He leans in close to her, and she does not flinch, she allows the murderer of her fiance to brush his hand against her cheek and bring it back up to his nose to inhale.
"The perfume of hatred...vengeance...hurt...repression. A twisted state for a twisted girl," he leers, "Your soul is a type of wine, as Ciel's was. It will grow even finer over time. All those things shall fester within you like a wound until they engulf you and leave you broken and waiting for me to come and devour you. However, I cannot allow you to tell other people about me. I am bound by a certain law to keep my kind a secret. So...like Mr. Wordsmith...I shall silence you in a different way."
And then she stares. She stares. Stares. So much. She can't look away. She can't blink. She can't scream. She can only stand, her feet locked to the ground as she watches him change, watches the skin stretch, the colors change, his eyes redden further and then she's crumpling to the ground and shaking, convulsing, her gown twisting around her body in a sweaty mess as she screams and cries into the ground out of fear and horror. Footsteps sound. She hears a voice. It's Finnian's. The gardener. The strongest. Sebastian is gone. Gone. With her chance. And her swords are...she doesn't know. And Ciel is there. Cold and beautiful. Just like when he lived. She wonders if he's at peace.
Finnian starts screaming and she falls unconscious.
She can hardly remember what happened the first day she came back to the human world. Mother was there. Edward was there. He'd been crying, hard, his face soaked with tears and his eyes red from worry. Mother was more dignified. Father was not there, but not because he wasn't worried. He was looking for Ciel's murderer, because he knew that's what she'd wanted.
He does not know he'll never find him. Only she can. Because he'll come back for her, someday...
Upon opening her eyes, Edward engulfs her in a hug, wrapping his arms around her and crying unabashedly into her shoulder, seeming more like a four year old than a twenty four year old. She's terrified him. Her mother begins to quietly sob into a handkerchief before she too joins them. She still says nothing. After the first few moments of relief, Mother notices something is off. She makes Edward leave. Mother asks her questions. Tears silently roll down her cheeks.
Mother does not make her go to Bedlam. It would shame the family. So, she stays in her room, curled up in bed with the curtains drawn and the stuffed rabbit he gave her so many years ago clutched to her chest. The first day of solitude is numb. So is the second. Rage, emotion, and fear do not build up until the third day. The memories of that night flood back. Everything spins in her brain.
Nightmares take up the next three days. Six days of hell in her room. Daytimes are fine, with Edward and Mother and Paula. It's the nighttimes that worry her. She found him at night. Those eyes glowed reddest in the night. Those red eyes, growing redder by the second...when she dreams of that transformation, she wakes up screaming. And she often dreams of it.
She thinks nobody could ever come to help her, save her, do something to alleviate her pain.
And then he arrives on the seventh night.
She wakes up muffling her screams with a pillow, for she cannot bear Paula and Mother rushing in with cod liver oil or some other kind of disgusting remedy. There is no medicine to help her, not one in this world at least. The moment she comes to her senses, she realizes there is something off about her room. There's a presence that definitely isn't human. Her first reaction is to cry and scream and attack. But then she realizes that it isn't him.
"You aren't on my list...strange," a man's voice, youthful and confused, says. Elizabeth shoots up in bed, her hair falling out of her loose plaits. There is a man there, and her first reaction is to scream for Edward. But she stifles that when she sees it isn't Sebastian. It is a boy, maybe only a few years older than her at the most, with two-tone gold and brown hair and the most startling green eyes she's ever seen.
"What list?" she asks, gathering her sheets up around her chest in a conditioned effort to conceal herself, "Who are you?" The boy's eyes widen, and she can tell he's made a mistake.
"Nothing. I screwed up, again. I'll probably have to do overtime...damn," he curses, turning back to her, "When you shut your eyes...you won't remember. Don't worry, I'm one of the good guys, and I'd never hurt a pretty girl like you-"
"You're not a human," she says, her voice hushed and hurried as she swings her legs over the bed and leaps out, touching to the ground softly. The boy seems taken aback by this sudden change in events.
"Woah, you should go back to sleep, I have work to do. Next time, try not to sound like one of the dying; it made me mix up an address. Really, when you shut your eyes, you'll forget me and be better off for it."
"You're not human, but you're not a demon either. What are you?" she asks, inquisitive and relentless in finding out what this boy is-and most importantly, if he can help her. His bright green eyes darken, and he looks down at her with a mix of confusion and intrigue.
"How...how does the daughter of a Marchioness," he squints, as though he's looking straight through her, "Seventeen years of age and a pure English rose...how do you know about demons?" She pauses, but keeps her eyes trained on him.
"I asked you first." This seems to humor the boy, and he holds out his hand to her to shake.
"Ronald Knox. Grim reaper, London branch. Now you." A reaper, she thinks, the images of scythes and hooded faceless figures popping into her brain, the exact opposite of the young, handsome boy.
"Elizabeth Ethel Cordelia Middleford. Former fiancée of the Queen's watchdog, Ciel Phantomhive, whom one Sebastian Michaelis killed. And...and...I've seen you!" she gasps, stepping back from him and pointing, one hand covering her mouth, "You were on the ship with us four years ago! You and that redhead! You helped me kill the undead!" Ronald Knox looks positively bewildered for a moment before realization dawns on his face.
"Fourteen year old swordswoman. It's hard to forget a girl like that...or a team like Phantomhive and Michaelis. So he finally ate that soul, did he? Hmm...took a little longer than I thought-"
"Don't you dare speak so flippantly about him," she snaps, with more venom in her voice than she should use, "Ciel was a good man. A good fiancé. He deserves respect. And yes, before you ask, I know everything. Yes, everything," she glares, and Ronald Knox puts his hands up in surrender.
"I believe you, Elizabeth Ethel Cordelia Middleford," he says, "Really, I do. I'm a little curious how you came to figure it out, though. Demon scum aren't supposed to reveal themselves."
"I saw him kill Ciel a week ago," she says, and it's easier to say than she thought it would be. "I saw the demon form. He promised to come back and eat my soul too...and so I've just been in this room ever since, trying to forget." She finds herself thinking about that ship...about what else she'd seen Ronald Knox do. A strange whirring device pops into her brain, the thing he'd used to decapitate the monsters. She remembered him aiming it at Sebastian.
"...I'm going to have so much overtime now," the boy groans, but the annoyance doesn't show in his eyes. She can tell she interests him.
"Do you still have that weapon you used to kill the undead?" she asks. He gestures to her newly opened window. The thing is just sitting there.
"It's my transportation. And, well, sorry Elizabeth Ethel Cordelia Middleford," he says, with a cheeky grin that clashes with his formal suit, "But I have some more souls to reap." He moves, faster than she expected, for the device, but she catches his arm the moment he grabs hold of his weapon.
"Help me," she pleads. Ronald Knox looks taken aback.
"Excuse me?" he asks. She nods.
"I want to kill Sebastian Michaelis. I am human. I am skilled with swords, but they cannot kill him. I figured that out a week ago. I am...I am furious, I am vengeful, I'm probably going mad and this is a dream, but I don't care. I only want to kill the demon who killed my fiance." She realizes after speaking that she was probably overly dramatic and not at all serious sounding, but if Ronald Knox thinks that, he doesn't show it. He stares at Elizabeth, as though he's trying to memorize the contours of her face. After a few moments, he grins broadly and links his arm with hers.
"I'm not one to turn down a pretty lady now, am I?" he asks, "And I'm definitely not the kind of man who shies away from the fun. And you, lovely Miss Middleford, are definitely going to be loads of fun. Hold on tight." Before she can say anything, he swings her around and pulls her onto the strange, whirring device with him, and then they're in the air and she can't quite comprehend anything anymore. They're flying. She's still in her nightdress! The white fabric is thin and cool against her skin, and the night air plays with her loose waves as they speed over London.
She feels a fire growing within. For the first time since seeing Ciel lying cold and dead on the ground, she has a fighting chance against Sebastian. And she intends not to waste a single moment of it.
Well, I'm fairly pleased with how my first Kuroshitsuji work turned out. I have several ideas bouncing around about how Lizzie would be in the Underworld/Shinigami universe, a couple written up, but nothing certain yet. Feedback is always appreciated!