As a result, in last night's turn of events I learned that with great fear comes even greater paranoia, something I now fancy very much. Alastair woke me up as he did every day the same normal routine: He walks in says my name and then opens the curtains. I wake up and put on a new outfit. I sit at my vanity table whilst Alastair brushes my hair. My servant comes in and helps me get dressed while Alastair gets breakfast ready. After all my clothes are on Sephronia and I walk out and walk down to the dining room; where Anthony, Oswn, Vincent, Richard, and Christian greet me for breakfast. Alastair pulls out my seat at the head of the table, I sit down and my servants sit down around me.
All these people around me, they are just my pawns, in this never-ending game of chess. I know that I am not alone but I feel as though I am, so alone in this world. When you lose the two most important people in your life, you do feel alone. I have realized something now, I am very scared to lose my soul I do not want to die but I realize in order to gain relief in my life I need that person dead. The person who sent me that letter, they need to die in order for me to gain my sanity back. Who are you, and why did you want my family dead and why only Father's side. Why not Mother's I mean with the whole relation to Nana... I thought. I slam my hand against the table. "No it has to be something else there must be more here somewhere, there has to be I must find it!" I pushed away from the table and ran out into the main hall. I have to find something; there must be something around here somewhere. I thought.
"My young mistress, where are you going, what are you going to find, is there not enough breakfast do you want dessert before breakfast, are you going to take the rest of breakfast upstairs in your drawing room?" Oswn asks. That was where my parents were murdered. I searched everywhere, where Dawn was shot, and where both my mother and father were. When I saw a very small patch of blood underneath of where father was on the day he died. Memories flooded through my head my whole body pulsed and I collapsed. They heard the thud and Alastair ran out into the grand hall.
"Young mistress!" Alastair exclaimed. He sighed heavily and picked me up. With me now in his arms we walked up the stairs. "Oh young mistress you really need to learn to control yourself." Alastair set me down on my bed "I'd expect you to rest up before you actually start your day. My eyes flutter open.
"Hmm, Alastair, Alastair is that you?" I ask. Alastair turns around. "Alastair what exactly does my Schedule look like for today?"
"Well you do have your studies with Mr. Archibald Longstaff at nine and that goes until 10, and you will take up the piano and the violin, the woman teaching you have been also teaching The Earl Phantomhive and that starts at ten fifteen. Sebastian tells me that she is an amazing violinist and pianist. Since you already have a fair bit of training with the violin but very little with the piano, we decided that every month you will change instruments, Violin one month then the next you would study the piano. You will never have to fret about a thing just follow the schedule, oh and then at noon you will have lunch with your grandmother at her palace. At about one, one thirty you will go out shopping with Oswn, Lilly and your aunt, Lucille. Then you are free but you have been invited to a ball at the Phantomhive manor for a ball at six thirty but the Earl Phantomhive is requesting you there an hour and a half early. Certainly the guest of honor should attend, and, she can bring whomever she chooses." He says passively.
"So that's why I have to go shopping. Do you know how much I hate spending time with my family, especially Mother's side, well all but Nana Victoria, it was through her that I met Ciel. Alastair, do I have to go shopping? And you realize that if the answer is yes that you are going to come?" I pause. "You have to, that's an order!" I scowl.
"As you wish my young mistress." He says with a smile. I look at him and scowl some more. "Young Mistress whatever is the matter?" Alastair asks.
"You're always so pleasant; smiling all the time and here I sit and stuck with a frown until I can live without pain, fear, anguish, negligence, and paranoia, I can only do that when you take my soul." I say blankly. Wait a second, maybe they want me dead, not my family, and friends and maybe they gave up their lives to save mine. I thought. Tears begin rolling down my face. "Alastair I have an order!" I exclaim.
"Yes young mistress?" He asked.
"I will no longer be known as the Queen's Lap dog, or Lioness, No today this is a new day and I'm a changed lady, I'm a duchess, and once Nana dies I'll be the new Queen. There will not be any more titles I hate them so much; from now on everyone shall be known by their names not 'servant woman' or 'servant boy' I'm done with titles. Never again shall I call anyone something without his or her permission. Make sure I do it Alastair." I reply.
"Yes malady. I should see to it," He says with a bow. "It's almost seven shall I bring breakfast up to you or will you come down with everyone else?"
"I tend to come downstairs with everyone else, besides like you said it's almost seven I have to eat breakfast and then get ready for a Very long day." I sighed. I dusted off my dress and walked with Alastair. "Do you have any idea how much I don't want to go to that stupid ball I don't do good at balls,"
"Well Malady if you want, I can teach you how to dance," Alastair stated.
"You mean to tell me that you Alastair Langstaff Cutler can dance and will teach me how?"
"Yes Mistress." He said. We went back to the dining hall and I sat back down in my seat. When I sat down, everyone gave me funny looks
"Are you alright me mistress?" Christian asks, with a mouthful of food.
"I'm fine I just have a bit of a headache, that's all," I say. "I just need to rest up before studies." I say, wearing a fake smile. "I want ask all of you a question"
"Alright mistress, what is it? Oswn asks.
"That's just it I'm sick of the mistress thing, everyone who called me that have died, I will not have that, I do hate titles. Therefore, everyone call me Rose yes it's royal conduct that you call me mistress, but I am taking a stand. I will call you by your name if you call me by mine."
"But Mistress,"
"The only one allowed to call me that is Alastair if you don't like it then there's the door, you're free to go, but remember you go, then I don't expect you to come back nor will I let you."
"Alright but malady I'm not sure how well this is going to work but we can try,"
"All right then, Looks like I won't have to fire anyone, for now," I reply. I finish my main meal, and Alastair brings me dessert.
"Well for dessert this morning we have a chocolate angel food cake topped with fresh ripe strawberries, curtsy of Anthony and Richard," Alastair begins. "The cake of course was made by the capable hands of Christian and Vincent."
"Well everyone, the strawberries and whipped cream are both delicious and the cake, it's different from what I've had in the past it's light, fluffy, and very, very chocolaty," I say blankly. "I love it guys it's good."
"I push away from the table once I finish my dessert. "Well everyone I hope you have a very good day today and I'm taking all of you out shopping to buy costumes for The Earl Phantomhive's costume ball tonight." I said with a fake smile. I put my shoes back on and stand up. "Everyone, I'll be resting up until Mr. Longstaff shows up, so when our guest arrives make sure he enjoys his stay at Le Châteaux de Clark." I proclaim. "Oh and Alastair when he comes get Sephronia to come wake me up and from now on we will be taking my lessons in the drawing room not my study, do you understand?" I ask.
"Yes malady I understand loud and clear," Alastair replies. As I approach the doors to enter the main hall, Alastair opens them for me. Two gunshots go off and he pushes me out of the way; as I fall to the floor, I hit my head against the wall.
"Lady Rose!" Oswn slides over to me. "Are you alright malady?" She asks. I let out a low groan.
"Oh, my, god, someone help me out down here I think I'm bleeding," I say painfully. Christian and Vincent run over and help me up. "Thank you boys," I say with relief.
"No problem Rose, don't mention it,"
"You know now that I think about it I think that I like Lady Rose, it rolls off the tongue," I said weakly. Christian and Vincent put my arms around their necks.
"Alastair's in the main hall Malady, how are we going to get you washed up?"
"There's a door behind the China cabinet, right there," I point to the crack in the wall.
"Alright is there anything in particular we have to do?"
"No Vincent,"
"Alrighty," Vincent said. We walked over to the cabinet, I opened it and pulled on a plate, and the cabinet moved into the wall. We started down the path, and walked up the stairs.
"Miss, where exactly does this lead to, and how come nobody else knows where this was?" Oswn asks
"Well Oswn, This is a secret passage used by me and Ciel to get around from manor to manor, room to room. It was a clever idea created by our parents; it was the first thing they started building when Ciel's Manor burnt down. They had to rebuild all the paths after all the unfortunate events that have happened: His Manor, my manor, his parents, my parents, everything." I said.
"Wow, so this goes throughout the manor and into the Earl Phantomhive's as well?"
"Yes basically there's a couple paths up ahead, I haven't had to use these paths in a long time, but fortunately I remember what path takes you where. The one on the right leads to several others leading you directly to Ciel's manor. However if we take the one on the left, it will take us straight to my study."
"Okay then, we'll take the left path to your study then and get you all cleaned up." Oswn adds. I nod and keep limping down the path. We come to two paths.
"Phantomhive Manor, Study." Sephronia reads. I stop dead in my tracks.
"Okay everyone, roll call." I say weakly. "Anthony and Richard,"
"Present," They call.
"Good, Sephronia and Oswn" I call weakly.
"Present," They say happily.
"And I already know that Christian and Vincent, are here, wait I'm always one to strategize, so if there are people in my manor who wish to kill me, then maybe we should tell all my morning professors to meet me at Ciel's," I state.
"Sounds like a plan but what if Christian and I check and make sure that the manor is safe, or at least make sure that Alastair is alright," Vincent pipes in. I look at Vincent and Christian I wasn't sure what to make of that, what was I to do, I didn't want anyone else dead, I can't let anyone else close to me because if I do they'll die, I can't have that, no I won't have it.
"No"
"B... But what do you mean? Why not?" They ask.
"Look without you guys, I wouldn't make it through the day, Sephronia, you help me get dressed every morning, Oswn, you do my hair and makeup, Vincent, Christian, you manage to make my food edible. Richard and Anthony, you are probably the best groundskeepers I've ever met, You are all so important, and without you guys, my manor wouldn't be a home, it would just be a place where I'm stuck because I'm too young to do anything with my life. All in all, you make this house a home." I feel a lump in my throat. "I can't live without any of you; I just want you all to know that." They stare at me watery eyed.
"Thank you Lady Rose, Thank you so much." They all said, in harmony. I began tearing up as well.
"You are all very welcome," I reply. We start down the left path. After walking for about five minutes, we come to two more paths.
"Miss, where do we go to now?" Richard asks.
"Straight to Phantomhive," I reply. As we head straight down the path, we finally come to a small box, an elevator made for two.
"Okay everyone, Oswn and Sephronia will go first, after they send the elevator back down Richard and Anthony will go. Then Christian, and Vincent and I'll go alone," I said
"But Miss Rose, your hurt let me go with you," Anthony replied.
"Look I'm fine, really I am I can do it myself."
"What kind of servants would we be if we didn't put our mistress first, so before any of us go you're going to go first, and Oswn's going to go with you."
"Okay then fine it's a two person elevator so I don't see anything wrong with it okay Oswn let's get going," I said. Christian picked me up and set me in the elevator. Oswn approaches the elevator and sits down beside me. Christian grabs the cord making the elevator move.
"Thanks Christian," Oswn beams. I put my head on Oswn's shoulder, and she wraps her arm around my waist.
"Oswn,"
"Yes malady"
"What are you, for some reason you just don't seem human?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean like, something about you doesn't seem human,"
"Well malady there's a reason behind your knowledge, it's because I'm not, I'm what you would call a soul collector, I make deals with people in payment they give me their souls, but I'm sure you know what I mean, your butler Alastair, he isn't exactly human isn't he?"
"How did you know?"
"It's the way he looks at you, like you're his next meal and he hasn't eaten in weeks. I knew something was not right, I knew that he wasn't human. In addition, when you give an order, he listens; I knew that Alastair must not have been human." Oswn replied. "Look malady, I know why so many people want your soul, it smells, fantastic, amazing really there's not many souls like yours, tainted with so much hatred and craving the wonderful taste of revenge, but what does one do when one's soul is so tainted they turn evil, both hypothetically, and literally?" She asked. The elevator stopped, we were at the top and now all we had to do was open the door. She slid open the cupboard door open and stepped out; she pulled on the rope and sent the elevator back down.
"Okay Malady, where are we?" Oswn asked.
"We're in the kitchen Baldroy, should be in here shortly, if I'm not mistaken." I replied. "And I'm never mistaken," As I said that Baldroy walked in. "Speak of the devil," I said.
"Oh Lady Rosalie, what an honour to bask in your beauty,"
"Thanks Bardy," I replied. "Oh and Where's Ciel, we had a mishap at my manor this morning."
"The young master is in his study will you need an escort?" He asked.
"No Baldroy, I don't think I will, after all, you'll need to be here for the rest of my servants arrive. Don't worry I know where the study is, I know this manor better than my own sometimes. I promise I won't get lost, and if I do then I'm sure my nanny Oswn here will find a way, trust me I'm in quite capable hands." I say with a fake smile.
"Okay then Rosalie, have fun." He replies smiling.
"Thanks Baldroy," I reply. I staggered through the door, and then faltered through the corridors, following my memories we started down the halls, and came to a slightly larger door. I knocked on the door.
"Come in," Ciel called. I stumbled into Ciel's study, and then collapsed.
"Rose!" Ciel and Oswn exclaimed. Ciel ran over to me. I look into his deep blue eye.
"I think I'm bleeding," I paused. "And I think I've lost a lot of blood trying to get here." He held me in his arms.
"What happened to you why wasn't Alastair there to protect you?" He yelled.
"Stop screaming Ciel, it was he who did this to me, can't you see, in trying to protect me he hurt me in the process." I shouted over him.
"Please stop talking I don't need you to get any worse than you already are." He changed his tone. "I'm sorry for yelling at you, you know that I have a very short temper, and this isn't making it any better, I love seeing you, that's not the problem, the problem is, that I hate seeing you get hurt, especially by someone who is supposed to be protecting you with their very own life. What happened?" He asked.
"Earl Phantomhive, let me explain, I'm Lady Rose's maid and friend, my name is Oswn. This morning we had an outbreak of violence at Clark Manor. It seemed as though it would be a normal morning at Clark manor, but things took a turn for the worse when we all thought she was going mad, but she was fine she was just over thinking. So we had breakfast, and as she was about to leave to go rest up before her day, we heard gunshots. Mr. Alastair pushed her out of the way and took the bullets for her so that she wouldn't get hurt." Oswn said. He looked down at me, fear overpowering them.
"Is this true? Wait before you answer, are you okay?" He asked frightfully.
"Yes that is what happened and I think that I'm okay I just need to sleep that's all... Oh and I do need to stop the bleeding," I said.
"Okay we'll fix you up, Sebastian, come here!" Ciel called. Sebastian was waltzing through the door in just seconds.
"What is it young Master?" He asked with a bow.
"Well there was a slight mishap at Clark manor this morning and Rosie here, got hurt quite a bit so, If you could get Lulee, and Mey-Rin and let's get Rosie all cleaned up." Ciel exclaimed.
"Yes young master," He replied.
"Be snappy about it please I would hate for her to bleed out in my arms,"
"Yes milord," Sebastian says, as he backs out of the room. Ciel, Oswn and I waited patiently for Lulee and Mey-Rin. I was having a hard time breathing.
"Are you okay Rosie, you're taking very deep breaths, are you having a hard time breathing?" Ciel asked, worriedly. I stared up into Ciel's eyes.
"Ciel, I want to know something," I stated.
"Anything sweetie," he said. "Anything you want, what is it."
"Do you love me?"
"What kind of question is that?"
"A question," I coughed.
"Are you okay!?" He asked with tears forming in his eyes.
"I'm fine, I'm just Dying!" I just about lost it. "Ciel please, answer my question." Ciel put his hand up to my face.
"How could anyone not love you you're just so wonderful, and lovable. Please let me live the rest of my life with you, I don't want to be without you. Shh no one has to know, so in general, yes I do love you, I will always love you, no matter what and you know that I'm proud so I'll never show it, but, you, you're different." Ciel says. I felt like I was dying and I could not see well out of my eye.
"Ciel, can you take off my eye patch?" I asked groggily. He was in shock and his face said it all.
"What! Why?" He said.
"Ciel, please if you take it off I can call Alastair and he'll come please Ciel, take it off," I pleaded.
"Okay," He replied. Ciel took it off my face, once I opened my eyes I called for Alastair. We all sat in silence. No, no, no he can't be dead be dead, he can't it's impossible he should have been here by now, he has to, the contract says that he has to protect me until my wishes have been granted, and he takes my soul, until his last breath. Do you know how hard it is to kill a demon; the correct answer would be, very.
"Sorry I took so long getting here malady; I hope you didn't get hurt too, too bad." Alastair bowed before me. I tried to stand, but I quickly fell to the floor. Oswn and Ciel tried helping me stand and stay on my feet. I put both arms around Ciel, and Oswn helped balance me.
"Just in the nick of time should be your new name, I'm going to need stitches because of you!" I screamed. You should have seen his face; he was in more shock than Ciel.
"Ma...Malady"
"Don't even pull that crap with me, look at me there would be a reason why I'm all pale, bastard, I've lost so much blood it's not even funny!"
"I'm sorry Malady,"
"Then fix my head you idiot!"
"Yes malady," All the blood had drained from his face leaving him paler than usual. He pulled out a stitching kit and he slowly began stitching the back of my head. "Oswn get a chair she's going to want to sit down." He said. "For what I'm about to tell her." I winced from the pain. Oswn ran over to Ciel's desk and grabbed the chair, and slid it over to where I stood.
"What I'm about to tell you is going to be very hard, but it has to be said, I was talking to Anthony, we might have a lead on your parents murderer but you aren't going to like what Anthony told me," Alastair paused.
I swallowed hard, "I can take it!" I said fearfully.
"I'll tell you as soon as I'm done because you'll fly off the handle you've been known to do it in the past, but he forgives you for what you did to everyone, that's all I'm telling you, malady," Alastair exclaims. I glared forward. I was curious. What could be so important that I would freak out and become extremely angry, wait question is what Anthony told him, what was it and why was it so important that I would freak out? I glanced at Oswn, but Instead of giving me her quick 'it's going to be okay' nods, she looked away from me. I knew something was up, but the question was, what? What were my servants hiding from me? He finished the final stitch.
"Now as I promised you,"
"What is it?"
"Anthony is your, brother."