Hey guys!

I started writing this a little while ago, but lost motivation half way through. However, I finally finished it yesterday, but it did turn out slightly darker than I'd originally intended. Oh well, I enjoyed writing it, and I hope you all enjoy reading it. This does contain the Twin Ciel Theory (not much of a theory anymore though, haha).

HeartElyse

XXX

A Word Between Brothers

"Why did you go to such lengths to tell your fibs?... I won't get mad... So go ahead and get it all off your chest..."

The words of his brother seeped through his ears like ink, turning his mind completely black. Or maybe it wasn't ink, but blood; all the blood that had covered his hands since the day he burst free of that cage, washing his brain with crimson. Breathing had suddenly become impossible, and he reached a quaking hand up to his neck and clutched it with such force that bruises were certain to appear.

"I..."

The sound came out as a mere croak, and he swallowed thickly, his throat aching with dryness. With a wavering gaze, he stared upwards into his brother's laughing azure eyes, and humiliation blossomed in his chest.

"I... I just..."

A cackle silenced him.

"Has the cat got your tongue, my dear brother?" Ciel jeered, icy humour carving his pale lips.

The humiliation became so great that a rage replaced it. The crimson on his brain began to taint his sight, and before he was even conscious of it, he was no longer rattling with shock, but with white-hot fury. His grip on his neck grew so tight that his knuckles lost all colour, and bowing his head, he hissed out in a low, unrestrained voice.

"You really want to know why I went so far?... You really want to know?"

A 'tsk' cut the air in half.

"I wouldn't have asked, brother."

The comment only accelerated his infuriation.

"Well then, here it is..."

With a short, terse breath, he tossed up his head. It was clear to see the tears smouldering within his single iris as he sent daggers of loathing flying towards his brother.

"BECAUSE I WAS NOTHING BUT YOUR EXTRA! That's all I've ever been - YOUR. BLOODY. SPARE!"

Taking a nearby vase into his hands, he pegged it straight at his brother's head. Ciel dodged it with an unnatural flick of his head, and it shattered against the banister, an awful clattering resounding in its wake. At least he'd managed to wipe that amused simper from his mouth.

With a sob, he continued.

"Our parents...they always loved you the most! To them, I was just a sickly burden! I COULD HAVE DIED AND NO ONE WOULD HAVE CARED!"

The tears began to flood down his blanched cheeks. The servants merely watched with an air of horror.

"Aunt Anne; you were always her favourite! And Elizabeth...every time she even looked at me...SHE ALWAYS SAW YOU! WHAT A FOOL! WHAT A BLOODY FOOL!"

Manic laughter shook his entire frame, which gradually dissolved into a stream of broken cries.

"How dare you... How dare you resent me for this... When you had everything, and I had absolutely nothing..."

With a stir of sudden strength, he vaulted up the staircase until he was practically nose to nose with his brother and with a snarl, he connected his fist with his brother's temple, sending the older boy reeling back slightly.

"I HATE YOU! I hate you..."

Rushing forward, he began to slam his knuckles against Ciel's button-covered chest at a pace so erratic that he himself couldn't comprehend it. Ciel did nothing but stand there, enduring each blow as though they were mere feathers that were striking him.

"I HATE HOW YOU WERE SOMEHOW ALWAYS BETTER THAN ME, NO MATTER HOW HARD I TRIED! I HATE HOW EVERYONE LOVED YOU MORE! I HATE HOW YOU WOULD PATRONISE ME FOR EVER MISTAKE THAT I EVER MADE! AND I HATE HOW YOU LEFT ME BEHIND!"

Constricting fingers abruptly furled around his flailing wrists, their pincer-like grip instantly halting him. Jerking his gaze upwards, dread pooled in his stomach when his weeping eye caught on Ciel's face. Something wasn't right. Something was horribly wrong with that face - like something beneath it had snapped.

The skin was absent of blood, ghostly and hollow with an emotion far beyond rage. The mouth was barely a line, almost blue with how tightly it was drawn. And the eyes - those perfectly glistening eyes - were now so shrouded by darkness that he was almost convinced that something far more sinister than even a demon resided inside them.

His twin's voice was hardly a whisper, but somehow, that seemed more terrifying than if he'd simply yelled.

"Oh, and do you think that's my fault, do you, brother? Do you really think that I was the one that left you behind?" A chuckle eclipsed from Ciel's lifeless lips, and he felt his insides squirm. "Did you forget, my dear twin, that it was not I who gave my brother's soul away in exchange for eternal power. I believe that was you."

Whatever senseless amusement that Ciel had remaining in his features was snuffed out in a second, replaced just as quickly by something far more unhinged.

"And why do you even care that I left you? You didn't appear all that interested when it was you who was intending to leave me for some petty little toy store. Really, what a hypocrite, brother."

The grasp upon his wrists had become so terse that he was certain that his bones would fracture beneath the pressure. He tried to shake himself free, but his futile struggling only served to heighten the pain he was already enduring.

"L-let me go!"

His whimper only caused Ciel to dig his unusually sharp nails into his flesh, making him cry out even more as crimson oozed down his arms. He shivered as Ciel's breath - icy and rotten with death - combed over his ear.

"But why? Is the guilt too much?"

A piercing crack split the air in two. A flash of searing white burst across his vision as unimaginable agony shot from his very fingers to the very edges of his shoulder blades, a scream tearing his throat asunder.

He sunk to his knees, the pain making him keen. Ciel finally released him, but the damage had already been done. When he looked down to his hands and wrists, nausea washed over him in waves. The sight was far too horrific for even him to comprehend.

"Maybe that will help you, dear brother, to understand even a mere morsel of the pain I suffered on that day," Ciel murmured from above him, the words reaching him as though spoken underwater. "Maybe then you won't feel so bloody sorry for yourself. After all, my death gave you everything."

And with that, Ciel retreated back up the staircase, a trail of blood congealing in his wake...