This had to be a dream, Ciel thought at he wondered back and forward in front of his old home. The gray stones were no longer scattered amongst the perimeter of his house. Instead, they were piled one by one into a grand scale model of what he remembered to be home. The eerie feeling that had once haunted his home was gone. Did that mean that there was actually a chance that everything had gone back to normal? He didn't want to believe such a thing… But there it was. Right in front of him. His home. It sat in beautiful scenery of a blue sky with stray stratus clouds moving towards the west. The sun seemed to shine on his home as if it was telling him that it was a sanctuary for him once more. The nightmares that pulled at his heels would dissipate if only he could make his way inside his home. If he could touch the walls, he would spiral back into the past and his reality would be nothing more than a bad dream that lasted a bit too long.
As he reached out towards his home, it withdrew from him; fleeting from his touch. Should he chase it? The one chance that he had to return to his old life? Any normal person would. But he knew better. There was no turning back. Instead, there was only moving forward. He could no longer chase his past. Instead, he would chase his death. Wasn't that the path that he had chosen when he decided upon his revenge?
Ciel stood quietly as his slumber lifted and the pain of reality crushed him. Crying was for the weak. Regret was for the weak. And He was not weak. He was Ciel Phantomhive. So why were these tears slipping from his eyes as he opened his eyes to face another day.
A Touch from Hell
Chapter 2
Ciel sat up in a cold sweat in his bed. Breathing deeply, the teen grabbed at his heart only to feel the cloth of his shirt. Holding it tightly in his hand, he scanned around him. Where was he? His bed-room? When did he get home? He didn't remember making the trip home.
"Are you awake, Ciel?" Lizzie asked. Her blond curls fell to the right as she peeked into Ciel's room. Smiling brightly, she threw his door open and rushed into his room. Before Ciel compose himself, Lizzie had her arms about him in a fierce hug. Her normally bright complexion seemed to dim as her tears streaked down her face. At first, the tears were graceful—mostly silent, with only her quieted sobs as an accompaniment. Ciel, still very discombobulated from his dream as well as his foggy memory of the last few hours, grew even more confused by her tears. Placing his hand on her back in an attempt to soothe her back fired. The tears became harsh as she cried loudly, almost crushing him with her embrace. "CIEL!"
What was she crying about? Had something happened? How had he gotten home? Prying himself from Lizzie's embrace, he took a moment to compose himself. Combing his fingers through his hair, he tossed his legs over the side of the bed. "What happened?"
"You don't remember?" Lizzie asked. Her brows furrowed as she looked over Ciel. Ciel glanced back at her. Why didn't he remember what happened? It wasn't like Ciel to forget anything, especially when he was near danger. She wasn't exactly sure what happened herself. All she knew is that when she came to visit last night, Aunt Angelina was sitting in the room with a man. Although this shouldn't have been an unusual site, she wasn't familiar with the man that was with her. He looked as if he was afraid of everything in the world. He was a tall man with shoulder length brown hair was that swept into a ponytail. He wore thin black framed glasses and a brown and white suit. He had introduced himself as Mr. Sutcliff. He was a very peculiar man. Although he seemed as though he should be normal, he was very clumsy. It wasn't that quirk that caught Lizzie off-guard, but rather the fact that after every mistake he made—no matter how numerous they were—he would attempt to atone for it by trying to end his life. Most of the evening was spent trying to assure Mr. Sutcliff that he had done nothing wrong and that he didn't need to end his life. After the man had left, Aunt Angelina had told her that Ciel was the root of some sort of bullying at school and that man was the teacher who saved him. Lizzie was told that Ciel needed rest and thus was sent home.
As soon as the sun rose this morning, Lizzie made sure to come over to the Durless home. She wanted to find out what happened and if her precious Ciel was alright, but there was no way of learning anything if Ciel didn't remember. "Some man brought you-"
"CIEL!"
Angelia rushed into Ciel's bedroom, recreating the scene that Lizzie presented earlier. Throwing her arms about her nephew, she cried openly. Her abundance of tears stained the front of Ciel's shirt. "Oh! You slept so long! I was so scared! You should never scare your aunt like this!"
Sighing, Ciel pushed his aunt off of him before resting his head in the palm of his hand. This was becoming tiring. He rather prepare for school and put up with the bull- wait! He remembered. During lunch he had tried to find something to do to distract him until it was time to go home. He had thought that none of his classes would be promising. So he attempted to gain some sort of knowledge that this school had to offer. Going to library, he noticed that there were a few girls that looked at him in an odd way. Some looked at him with utter disappointment as others whispered to each other while looking at him. He had never really had an even like that happen to him before, but he chose to ignore it. Their whispers and dirty looks didn't matter because none of those women were of importance. Rounding the corner, he was just a few meters away from the library. Sadly, he never met his destination. A group of young men, 6 or 7, blocked the entrance. When he attempted to go around him, he was greeted by a punch in the face.
Landing on his bottom, Ciel covered his cheek with his hand. What the hell was that for? Glaring up at his attacker, he noticed the smug grin on his face. "Seems like you don't know the pecking order around here." The young man said. With his friends laughing behind him, the young man grabbed Ciel by the collar. "Its my job to make sure that you don't get above yourself."
Ciel had tried to fight back, but it was no use, the young men were beating him up and there was no chance of him defending himself. He ended up blacking out from the abuse.
"I want you to transfer from that school immediately!" Angelina ordered, crossing her arms and tucking them under her large breast.
Ciel glanced at his aunt for a moment. She was worried about him. That was expected from his guardian. He was the only tie that was left to her late sister. Of course she would make sure that he was safe. But Ciel was much too old to have her dotting on him and barring him from what he had planned. He needed that school in order to accomplish his plans. If he transferred now, not only would those bullies have won, but it would take him longer to become successful.
Pushing himself off the bed, Ciel started out of the room. "I'm going to be late if I don't leave now. We'll discuss this when I return from school."
"But Ciel-" Angelina's protest were cut off when her nephew closed the door behind him.
Bard sat quietly in the upper stairwell near the roof of the school. Biting on the end of his unlit cigarette, he pondered how he could torture the brat. He could put trash on his desk. Ah! That would be great. He could imagine it now. Ciel would walk into the class room and find his desk covered in trash. He would be so devastated that he would fall to his knees in tears. And Bard would be right there to say something insulting like "Why not sit at your desk and join the rest of the trash?"
Laughing aloud, he was rather proud of himself. It was a perfect plan. He would tell Maylene all about it. Even she would be in awe of his brilliance. As if summoned by his thoughts of her, Maylene stumbled up the steps, cracking her over-sized glasses as she fell forward on a step. "Hey, Maylene, are you alright?"
"I'm fine." She turned and sat on the step that she fell on. Taking off her glasses, she looked over at Bard. "Have you thought of how to torment that Phantomhive kid?"
Bard nodded and told her of his brilliant idea. Smirking, he awaited her praise. It never came. With her attention on her cracked glasses, Maylene told him the flaw in his plan. "How do you know which desk is his? And what about his schedule? Also, if you own up to the fact that you put trash in a classroom, you'd have to deal with Mr. Spears."
He hadn't thought of that. Mr. Spears was a very strict man. Besides the fact that he was the advisor of the student morality club, he was also a disciplinarian as well as an abusive teacher. Truth be told, he was rather intimidated by the man. He wanted to avoid a meeting with that man at any cost. Sighing, he moved down a few steps in order to sit next to his friend. "Well… if you put it that way, I guess it is a little too flamboyant. But we've got to figure out something soon."
"It's been handled."
Handled? How? Raising a brow at the red haired woman, he looked at her curiously. Maylene glanced at Bard before explaining further. "I talked with a friend and they recommended that we spread a few rumors about the kid. You know the rumor about how he slept with Druitt in order to get into the school? Well, we added in a few things about how he wanted to rule the school and him saying something about us 'useless' students not amounting to anything. As if that didn't offend enough people, I added in a tale of how he destroyed the garden that Finny worked so hard to make."
"But the garden was like that when the school year started. Don't you remember? Because Finny was gone all summer and forgot to water the plants, they died out."
"But they don't know that. Finny is a nice guy. No one would like it if he was the object of someone else's bullying and ridicule. " Placing her glasses on her face, she gave Bard a clumsy smile. "My friend told me that it was smarter to get others to do the dirty work." She stood up and dusted herself off. Walking around her friend, she walked to the roof.
"You don't have to walk with me, Lizzie."
Lizzie shook her head. Latching onto Ciel's arm, she matched his pace, step for step. "If this is all I can do to make sure that you're safe, then I'll do it."
Because Aunt Angelina was late for work, she couldn't drive Ciel to school. It was needless to say that there was a grand performance of heart-wrenching tears from both his Aunt and Lizzie. Neither of them wanted to him to attend school today. Aunt Angelina wanted him to stay home today and at least let her schedule a meeting with the principal, but Ciel would hear nothing of it. He was going to school and face those idiots and he would win.
When the two of them realized that he was going to school whether they liked it or not, Lizzie volunteered to walk with Ciel to school so that Aunt Angelina could get to work on time. They both seemed satisfied with that idea. And thus, here he was, late for school with his childhood friend refusing to release him until he was safely on school grounds.
"Aw, isn't this charming?"
Ciel turned to find his assailant from yesterday was steadily approaching him and Lizzie. What did they want? He didn't have time to dwell on that thought. Lizzie was with him, meaning that he had to think of her safety first. Grabbing her hand, he began to run from his fellow classmates. Where could go? Heading towards school was like running into a mouse trap. There was the chance that there were more of these thugs waiting for him at the school gates. But then again, there were adults—teachers and staff that could help and intervene—and he could possibly ensure Lizzie's safety as well as end any future encounters with this group. If he were to run into town, there was no guarantee that anyone would bother to help him. Normally, he wouldn't have cared about them catching him. He would have reminded them that they were below him, but this case was different.
Glancing at the blonde behind him, he realized that she was struggling to keep up. She probably couldn't last much longer. Luckily, they were relatively close to the school. Once in the gate, he would push her towards the main office and run in another direction from her. Thankfully, these thugs were not as smart as they believed. If he opened a classroom door, he could pretend that he pushed Lizzie in there and buy her a bit of time. But where would he go after that? He would wing it. So long as Lizzie wasn't harm, it wasn't important.
Pulling Lizzie closer to him, he told her his plan. When she went to protest, he shot her an exasperated look. "If you don't do this, then we both will get caught. Just do as I told you." Holding her hand a bit tighter Ciel gave her the warmth that she expected from him. Hopefully that would be enough to encourage her to do as he said. As they ran through the gates of the school, he instructed Lizzie where he would go. His plan was go to the place populated with the most adults. Perhaps then the delinquents would give up once presented with the threat of authority. Pushing through the entry way of the school and pushed Lizzie in the direction of the principal's office. Turning quickly in the opposite direction, he bounded down the hall.
Glancing behind him, he noticed that there were only two main thugs chasing him. Dammit! They must have figured out his plan. Perhaps they were smarter than what he gave them credit for. "Hey, Brat! Just give up now!" One thug shouted.
Ignoring them, Ciel ran a bit faster, but why? He was going to run out of energy soon. And then they would have caught both him and Elizabeth. What did they want? To torture them some more? Or perhaps they had something worse in mind. They had sent the greater amount of their members after Lizzie, meaning that Ciel wasn't their main target. What did they want?
As Ciel ran passed the stair well, he felt someone reach out and grab his arm. Forcibly pulling Ciel into the darkness of the stairwell, the figure covered Ciel's mouth with a half gloved hand. Ciel tried to pull the man's hand off of his mouth. Squirming and fussing, Ciel tried to escape the man. Taking Ciel's chin and tipping the young man's face upward, a dark haired man stared back at him. His red colored eyes held a twinkle of amusement as he placed his finger against his curved lips, signaling for Ciel to be quiet.
Ciel understood. Remaining completely silent, they hid. The two thugs stopped at the stairwell and peeked in. Seeing nothing but darkness, they decided that he hadn't gone up the stairs. "Dammit. We lost 'em."
"No worries. They caught the girl. He'll come back for her. If not, she's a cutie, so well be able to have some fun with her."
"Really? I thought we were just going to rough her up a bit and send her back to him?"
"Either or. Right now, let's head back."
It was a moment or two before the left, the stairwell still dark and silent. Once Ciel was sure that they were gone, he sighed. So they had caught Lizzie. He silently balled his hands into fist, which grew tighter the more he thought about Lizzie's situation. He should go back for her. If he didn't, there was no telling what they were going to do to her. They wouldn't dare rape her, would they? He wouldn't put it pass them. In fact, he was sure that if Druitt ever met her, he would probably praise her beauty, the same way he had praised Ciel's, before making a move on her. They had even mentioned that she was cute. Now her chastity was at stake, all because she was protecting him. But what could he do by himself? Nothing really. He had been shown that earlier. He could do nothing but run, and it disgusted him to his very core.
How could he be so helpless? He was supposed to enact revenge upon the man who murdered his parents. He was supposed to be revered and feared, and yet he couldn't escape a couple of thugs without someone's help.
Suddenly reminded of the other man's presence, he decided that he should thank him before figuring out how to save Lizzie. Turning to face him, Ciel glanced up at the male. The first thing that captured his attention was the young man's eyes. They were a deep red—a blood color red. It was something so unique yet brought praise to his deathly pale skin and raven black hair. His hair was styled in a very becoming hair cut. A single strain of black hair dangled in his face, the strain the same color of the finger-less half gloves that adorn his hands. Under his black and white moto-style hoodie, he wore a tight fitting black tee. His pants were black skinny jeans with double zippers on the left leg. All in all, he was wearing very stylish and expensive clothes that only added to his ghostly complexion.
"Like what you see?"
Ciel's eyes darted back towards those uniquely colored eyes. Noticing that the man was amused at Ciel's actions, he looked away. Turning on his heel, he started away from the young man. "What I see seems worthless."
"My action a moment ago was worthless?"
So he was bringing up the fact that he saved Ciel from the thugs. Although he was going to thank him, he refused to do so now. "Do you have a habit of reaching from the shadows and grabbing people? I believe that is illegal."
"Perhaps. But they seem to enjoy it until the very end." The young man returned Ciel's quip without hesitation. Following Ciel, step by step, he returned to the original topic. "So it was worthless?"
"I don't remember asking you to do it." Ciel countered lamely. Wrinkling his nose, he realized how childish he sounded. He didn't like it. "Don't feel ashamed. Most people are worthless."
"Ah. Then perhaps I should show you my worth."
Ciel glanced at the ghostly male from the corner of his eye. There was amusement in his voice. What was this? A game? He was being chased down by thugs and his childhood friend could be in horrible danger at this exact moment, and yet this guy could find a way to smile and joke with him. He hadn't been around the ghostly teen for more than ten minutes and yet he could tell that he already didn't like him. It wasn't the fact that he was smile during a time of such turmoil, but just his smile. Perhaps it was how his eyes closed and his perfect white teeth graced his face and made him look less pale and more on the dashing side—WAIT! What was he thinking at a time like this?
Turning his eyes away from the guy, he continued forward. "How could you possibly do that?"
"Hm?" Tapping his finger against his chin, the young man smiled down at Ciel. "I can do anything, even fine this girl that means so much to you…"
Ciel stopped in his tracks. It was obvious that he was not telling the truth. How would he know where Lizzie was? She was captured when he was saving him. It was obvious that it was a lie. Yet, as he listened to the ghostly gentleman's words, he felt as if there was a way that this man would know. "Show me."
"But nothing in this world is free."
Ah. There was a catch. There was always a catch. Perhaps he wanted money? Or he would want Ciel to serve him. Either of the two were impossible for Ciel. Although his family left him with enough money to live wealthy for the rest of his life, it was in a trust fund. Until Ciel was old enough, he couldn't lay a finger on a single dime of the money. The mere thought of Ciel having to serve another human being, much less this particular one made him uncomfortable. Yet, he had the responsibility of protecting Lizzie. Sighing inwardly, he glanced at the man once more. "What will it cost me?"
"I'll serve you. Do your bidding until the thing you want most is completed. In return, you'll have to let me eat until I'm full."
Is that all he wanted? Food? He didn't look as if he was starving, but then again, he couldn't weigh much. In all, it was a pretty good deal. And with the wording, he could use the man more than just once. Smirking, the thirteen year old boy turned to fully face the other. "I suppose that will do." Holding out his hand, he meant to make the verbal contract binding. "I'm Ciel Phantomhive."
The pale young man looked at Ciel's hand before shaking his head. "We make our contracts binding differently, where I'm from."
"How?" Ciel asked, dropping his hand to the side.
"A kiss."
A Kiss! Had he lost his mind? He would never willing kiss another man. Turning on his heel, he walked away from the young man. He would find Lizzie on his own.
"I'm Sebastian Michaelis, by the way." The pale young man called out, as Ciel put a greater distance between the two.
HA! As if he would need to know something like that. He would never need to know that man's name. It wasn't as if he planned on getting close to the man. He didn't need his help; the help of that pervert. He could save Lizzie on his own. He'd even make these thugs bow to him. They'd rue the day that the met Ciel Phantomhive. But the first thing Ciel needed to do was find these young men and their hide out.
Star: Dammit, Apple. I told you to finish this chapter months ago! What the hell took you so long?
Apple: I … ugh… I got distracted by the second season… and then I had to work and pull up my grades and uh—
Star: I guess I'll allow that. But you better update regulary from now on. Geez, taking you four months to update.
Apple: you know you could do something too—
Star: WHAT WAS THAT? –wacks Apple—Apologize to your readers.
Apple: Ah! … I guess I should. ~ Sorry everyone for taking so long with this chapter. But I promise there will be an update at least once a month. And as a special apology, I'll add a really nice Seb/Ciel scene in the next chapter.
Merry Christmas from Stars Juicebox.
