In a little house at the edge of here and there, sits a boy at a crooked table.
Not a muscle he moves. Silent. Still. Unmoving. The feeling of anticipation hanging like dusty drapery in a long forgotten ballroom.
But this place is no ballroom. One could hardly consider it a place with any elegance at all…
And though this boy sits in a place of such squalor, he still sits at that same crooked table. He being the only elegant element in this scene of discontent.
He looks glumly at the wooden door opposite him.
That door opens. And in walks a child in a pink dress, appearing to be even younger than the boy. Perhaps 3 or 4 years of age…
She is rather short. But that is to be expected of one so young.
Rosy cheeks and hair reminiscent of autumn leaves the girl somehow manages to close the heavy door with as much ease as she had opened it.
The boy smirks as the girl pulls a box three times her size up to the table. Proceeding to quickly climb it, finally sitting atop almost eye level with the boy across from her.
"Having trouble?" The boy sneers.
Having properly balanced herself atop the box the little girl gives the boy a piercing look.
"Tell me you brought-" But the girl interrupts him.
"No I did NOT bring your death machine Ciel. It's evil. This plan you have is a wicked scheme. I realize this now. And I want no more part in it."
Ciel smirks.
"Losing your temper? How unattractive….."
The little girl's face goes from rosy to beet red. Nostrils flaring she stands atop the box, her small frame now towering over Ciel.
"You think you have a handle on this situation but you are sorely mistaken!"
"Sit down Knox." He simply says with what appears to be perpetual composure.
"No." She remains standing.
Ciel appears at first to be unmoved.
But then his expression softens.
"Alois is dead Knox. Do you know how that happened?"
Knox stares at Ciel in shock. As if unsure what to say.
"Alois Trancy. Not just dead. He is gone. He has been devoured. He no longer exists. He is nothing. He might as well have never been born."
Ciel stands up from his chair and walks to a splintering desk at the darkest corner of the room.
He pulls out a small black notebook and brings it back to the table, tossing it to its surface.
Knox sits down. Looking at the notebook with a look of both horror and disgust.
"Vivian E Wilcoks age 14, William Penn age 6, Peter Davidson age 11. All new to the book. Do you know what has happened to these people Knox?"
Knox avoids Ciel's gaze.
"They have been devoured. By the hands of demons. Falling to the same fate I almost did."
"Do you think. That we should stop progress because we think the machine is evil? Is erasing lives any less evil?"
Knox shakes her head. "I've been a part of this for too long… I've seen too much… I don't want to run that damn machine again Ciel. Please. Let me disappear…"
"I need you Knox. Regardless of your opinions the machine will end this."
"Will it Ciel? Will the artificial souls it makes be enough to satiate demon? And is the mutilation of our reality a fair price to pay for our self preservation? Can we not just kill them Ciel?"
Ciel does not look impressed.
"You know why we can't do that Knox."
Ciel's eyes widen suddenly.
"Knox he's here. He found us."
The little girl's face goes pale. For a moment her uncanny maturity leaves her. For one instant she is an ordinary small and frightened child. She quickly regains herself however as the wooden door slowly creaks open.
In the doorway stands a tall man in a tattered tailcoat.
"Good daaaaaayy." Says the figure.
The man enters the room. He is limping. As if his right leg were dead meat.
The little girl pulls the two hair ribbons tying up her autumn curls. As they leave her head they straighten into two ruby daggers. Her eyes now resemble flames of fury.
"You bastard…. You had to come back here…. You couldn't just leave him alone…. You manipulative bastard…."
"Knox." Ciel said quietly but clearly.
He's feeding off of you… You need to-
"Don't tell me what to do!" She barks.
Ciel walks towards her.
The man in the tailcoat seems to be getting taller.
Ciel is now next to her. He puts his hand on the top of her head. And he whispers "Let him look for us. If we are peaceful he won't find us."
"But he almost stole you!"
"I know. But it's ok."
Her shoulders began to fall and she and the boy just stood there before the dark figure. That seemed to look away. And then it walked out into the night.
Ciel tapped Knox on the shoulder.
"Go close the door"
The little girl bounced over to the big door and slid it shut.
Knox looked at Ciel with a look of embarrassment.
"Your old butler got me good this time…"