A/N: Madam Red is still alive in this story. This is because I feel like I can really relate to her backstory... And also because I thought she was pretty cool. Anyways, I had fun writing this so I hope you enjoy it too. Oh, and one more thing. Review. Seriously. Please. I will love you forever. *-*
Chapter Two: Sudden Plans
After Ciel Phantomhive thought it over several times, he believed it was best to first gather as much information as possible on the event. This usually took a few seconds, but the highly-caffeinated black tea that Sebastian had previously served was keeping him up and about all night and even the brightest prodigies didn't do so well when it was half past two in morning and they could not catch a wink of sleep. Ciel was ready to kill Sebastian for the horribly unpleasant havoc he had caused to his brain, but the thing was, that butler was one of those people who were rather difficult to kill, to put it mildly. Heck, he wasn't even a person, so to speak. He was simply, as he called it: one hell of a butler.
Oh, and another thing, Ciel thought with an annoyed look on his face. He would have to meet with Lau, that irritating man who always talked as if he knew what was going on and then at the end it turned out he basically knew nothing on the subject. And the constant harem of women he brought with him was rather irritating too. But he was involved with the trading connections between Asia and England and he was an Oriental Asian himself, so this had to be one of the cases that Lau should at least be a bit familiar with. And seeing how things were, if Lau came along, Madame Red, his crimson-loving aunt would probably show up too. This wouldn't be too much of a bad thing, since Madam Red worked for the Royal Hospital, so she might have some information regarding the first case with the faceless women in the medicinal department.
Anyhow, he just really needed to take a nap to refresh his mind. But sleep would not come and when the sun rose over the hills it shone painfully through the windows and into his eyes, making sleep virtually impossible now. Ciel sighed and shook his head. Whatever. He would find time to sleep later on. Right now, he needed to solve these cases.
So the first one involved the murdering of women who worked in the underground facilities, hmm? In most cases, he would have Sebastian do this kind of dirty work and look for clues underground, but that would leave him just sitting around here doing nothing. Maybe he could use a walk anyway. He hadn't used his legs for ages.
Ciel rang a bell in his chamber and almost immediately Sebastian strode, smiling agreeably at him.
"Impeccable timing, as to be expected of the young master. Breakfast will be served momentarily,"
The butler had driven in the silver cart again and today, he flawlessly poured in a cup of sweet chamomile tea for Ciel, along with warm oats served in a bowl with peach slices and cream. A small dessert of diced strawberries in vanilla yogurt was placed alongside it.
Ciel looked at his meal, a bit confused.
Sebastian smiled and calmly explained.
"I thought we'd start out with something light this morning, as not to overwhelm your delicate tastes as I had carelessly done yesterday,"
Ciel grunted and slowly spooned the oats into his mouth. They were reasonably sweet and the peach slices tasted pretty nice too. Maybe he could excuse Sebastian for ruining the blackcurrent tea last night. It had been late anyway; maybe occasionally the butler wasn't up to par when he should be resting. He gently picked up the cup and sipped his tea. He raised his eyebrows at the slight hint of spice in the tea. It didn't taste bad though, he could adjust to it.
"I had sweetened it with a dash of honey, and added some delicate notes of fresh ginger. It is good for revitalizing your senses, as you seem rather fatigued today, my lord, and additionally, it prevents congestion in the throat and nose," Sebastian described fluently.
Ciel nodded and waved off the subject.
"Sebastian. Usually, I ask you to first investigate to gain some background knowledge on the case we are given. But I feel horribly bored today so I suppose I would like to accompany you for a change,"
The butler smiled.
"Very good, sir. I will make arrangements for us at once. On a final note, where is it you would like us to go?"
"Let's go straight to the scene of the crime to see what immediate clues we can find. I know it isn't our usual route when we do this kind of work, but my mind is in a very disorganized state, at the moment. If we want further information we may speak with him…" Ciel muttered, shivering.
"Understood. I will be ready in a moment,"
With a quick grin, Sebastian left to finish up the rest of his morning duties.
A moment later, the two of them were seated inside a carriage that jumped and skipped violently along the path to the outskirts of London. Ciel sighed, very irritated.
"I was hoping with the money we have, that you, Sebastian, could have bought us a better ride to our destination," Ciel protested indignantly.
"It is not the carriage that is of substandard quality, my lord. The route you have chosen is the quickest route and it is also the most unpleasant. Your impatience can make your life more difficult than necessary, young master,"
Ciel sighed and shook his head, looking out the window. Slowly but surely the complexity of the town, the fancy shops, the warm bakeries, the exquisite restaurants all faded away into the dust until what was left were simply fields of dead grass, with occasional farms dotting the landscape here and there. The forests grew quite beautiful this time of the year, with the vibrant reds, blazing oranges and warm golds filling the scenery with a nice burst of color. It was a shame that such dark crimes were being committed amongst such lovely places like this.
When they finally arrived at the scene of the crime, it was completely deserted, not a body in sight. The wind blew, cold and empty and the sky was a sickening gray. Crows cackled, their black feathers scattering as they flew off. It was a sorry sight to behold.
Sebastian surveyed the surroundings and quickly found the area the bodies had been laid down that night. He bent down and gave the grass a swift swipe with his gloved forefinger. He sniffed and then reported back to the young master.
"I couldn't detect any chemicals used, my lord. This means these women must have been killed with another means of assassination,"
Ciel coughed lightly and peered coldly about the empty field. They needed to find more evidence then this in order to solve this case. Just knowing that the victims were not killed using chemicals was not enough.
"I don't see any traces of blood either," The young master observed. '-so we can deduct razors, broken glass, or really any sharp objects out of the equation,"
"Yes, that is true. You know, my lord, seeing how things are going, I'm afraid we will have to pay him a visit whether we like it or not..."
Ciel sighed heavily and shook his head.
"No. I went into all this trouble to accompany you here, I'm not going to leave empty handed..."
"From what I see, the murderer has not left behind any other means of evidence. If we just stay here trying to find more hints, we will just be wasting time,"
Ciel snorted, glaring at the butler.
"You have been awfully opinionated these past few days. What gives...?"
Sebastian placed one hand upon his own heart and simply smiled politely at the young master.
"I am only being truthful, my lord. One of your orders when we first made the contract was that I would not lie to you. Isn't that right...?"
Ciel grumbled and reluctantly agreed. He told the butler to take him there in the swiftest means possible. Sebastian took the boy in his arms and with that he raced the two of them back into town.
The place hadn't changed since they last visited. The Undertaker inhabited a very weather beaten old shack. The windows were boarded in and it smelled of damp, rotting wood. Ciel shivered. He did not like visiting this place very much. Just the sight of it gave him goosebumps.
"Ladies first," Sebastian chimed pleasantly, winking.
The young master glared at him and went inside.
The room was terribly messy, old tomes strewn across the floor; worn paperwork stuffed every which way, crooked book shelves lining the walls, with cobwebs hanging in every nook and corner. The walls and ceilings were grey and sullen with age, coffins pushed up against it. Dim lanterns swayed along the walls.
Sitting crudely behind a rotting ink stained desk full of old pens and botched parchments, was none other than the Undertaker himself. With a cheeky grin on his scarred face mostly covered by his scrunched black hat and long silver hair, he peered over at the young master and his butler, though the tilt of his hat hid his eyes. He snickered and rubbed his hands together, his long nails shining.
"So you've finally decided you're ready for one of my coffins?" He cackled with glee.
Ciel glared daggers at him and declined the matter immediately.
"No, quite fortunately I am not here for that purpose," He replied flatly. " - I am here to request information upon-
"-Upon the murders of the workers in the Queen's medical department...?"
The young master shivered. How was it that he always knew exactly what he wanted...?
The Undertaker snickered to himself and gave Ciel one of his creepiest grins.
"Ciel Phantomhive. There is no need in asking me why I always know what you want. I always know what each and every one of my customers want. It's part of my job description," He whispered slyly.
"Yes, well, so will you tell me-
"-Ah, Ciel, dear boy, don't you remember my policy...?" He chuckled boorishly.
The young master sighed heavily. Yes, he did know, alright. And he hated it. It was terribly inconvenient that the Undertaker had such a twisted sense of humor. You could never tell the same joke twice. And most of the time when you weren't trying to be funny he would randomly burst into hysterical laughter and you could never quite figure out what exactly it was that made him laugh so hard. Was it your joke or was just the way you were...?
"Making you laugh is tiresome and I don't have much energy at the moment. Sebastian," Ciel commanded.
"Yes, my lord," The butler smiled politely, placing a hand over his heart. "-please go outside. And if you peek, you're innocence has been warned..."
"Don't worry about it. I wouldn't dream of listening to what kind of things you have to say to make him laugh..."
With that, the young master left and waited outside the door. He knew that to protect his innocence he shouldn't look, but due to his curiosity or maybe his unclear mind, he found himself peeking through tiny cracks in the boarded windows anyway. Ciel was terribly disappointed when he saw what Sebastian was doing. It wasn't entertaining or even mildly funny. He looked like he was just telling a story with his fingers and occasionally grinned suggestively. The Undertaker looked like he was about to laugh, but then he suppressed his laughter and poof it disappeared like that. It was like watching a balloon deflate. A very creepy balloon that had white hair growing out of it. Ugh. He just ruined his own appetite.
Ciel began to get impatient. If Sebastian couldn't make the Undertaker laugh then he would have to do it himself. Ciel looked around for any hints on a funny joke. There were bushes, a stray banana on the road and a half-eaten watermelon slice, but the young master didn't have a wrong mind like a lot of us do so obviously he couldn't think of a single crude joke from those objects while we could think of thousands. (If you know what I mean...)
Anyway, finally his eyes strayed back to the Undertaker's shack and Ciel noticed that he didn't completely fix the sign on the entrance. Instead of Undertaker, it was missing some letters. Ciel chuckled darkly. Yes. He had the perfect joke now. It wasn't even funny. Well, the fact that he actually had a joke that might actually make the Undertaker laugh was pretty funny. He sighed. He needed someone to remind him to never sign up for stand-up comedy. Ever.
Ciel opened the door and stepped in calmly, but a look of pure determination shone in his eyes. Sebastian grinned, amused. The Undertaker looked surprised, wondering what was going on.
"Sebastian," Ciel spoke irritably. "- you were unsuccessful in your endeavor to make him laugh...?"
The butler looked deeply disheartened. He shook his head and sighed heavily.
"It is my deepest apology. It appears my crude sense of humor has gotten under par over the last few months..."
"Don't worry about. I have...a joke I would like to try on the Undertaker,"
Sebastian looked over at the Undertaker and the man grinned so wide his smile could probably fit that half eaten watermelon slice Ciel saw lying sadly on the road. He motioned for Ciel to proceed.
"Please continue, Ciel Phantomhive. It interests me that you have a joke in mind..." He chuckled creepily.
Ciel coughed bitterly and cleared his throat. Here goes nothing. He looked around. If the windows were boarded nobody would hear him right? He spent years perfecting his flawless image and if anyone outside of this room heard what he was about to say, it would be the end of his life. Well, his public one anyways.
"Uh...What do you call a man who takes care of dead cows...?"
"I don't know..." He spoke, grinning furiously.
Ciel was silent for several moments. Then he couldn't take it anymore.
"An Uddertaker,"
The man stared at him for two seconds and burst into hysterics so hard that the walls shook and paintings fell and shattered, the boards on the windows ripped apart explosively and he kicked his poor desk so hard it broke in half and all the pens and papers scattered all over the floor. He was literally rolling on the floor laughing. Ciel could not comprehend what he had just done.
"I don't get it. It's not even funny. But seeing that what I don't find funny, you find funny-
"-You took advantage of that and created a perfect joke...Ciel, dear boy, you are a genius...Ufufufufu...you are astounding…"
Ciel grinned. Even Sebastian had coughed with what sounded like a suppressed chuckle.
"Not bad, my lord…And here I thought you did not have a crooked sense of humor..."
"I don't. I didn't think it was funny. I thought it was stupid." He deadpanned.
The Undertaker continued to hiccup with chuckles until he finally stopped himself. Then he smiled happily at the bunch.
"So...what is it you'd like to know...?"
Ciel didn't miss a beat.
"We would like to know more information about the murder of the women..."
"Hmmm...Be more specific please,"
Ciel grumbled and shook his head.
"We would like to know how they were killed,"
The Undertaker sighed dramatically and took a strand of his long silver hair between his fingertips.
"See, unfortunately for us, I only received their corpses yesterday night, quite late, and I was bothering myself with some other things so I did not have time to check upon them...You're welcome to take a look at them, though,"
Ciel nodded and then stopped.
"Wait. You said that you only received the corpses last night. But I also received the letter from the Queen regarding this case last night as well. That's an impossibly short notice. I feel like there are certain things that are being kept from me..." He muttered quietly.
"Well, unfortunately, the Queen is not one of my customers so I don't know what she wants. If she is hiding any information, I will not be able to help you with that..."
Ciel shrugged and waved it away. He motioned for the Undertaker to show him the corpses.
Sebastian rushed to his side.
"Are you sure about this, my lord? The sight may scar your delicate eyes,"
Ciel snorted and glared at him.
"My eyes have witnessed worse sights than what I am about to see, that I can assure you..."
"Very well, my lord,"
The butler followed the young master as they walked over to a trap door. The Undertaker grinned at them.
"I keep my lovely but yet uncleansed corpses underground so they can maintain their condition and not dry up. It is quite troublesome to clean a shrivelled body as I am sure you can imagine..."
Ciel shivered.
"And thank you for making me imagine it..."
"You're very welcome. Anyhow, here we are. Ah- Be careful! Corpses are beautiful but very fragile...!"
Ciel moved to the side and Sebastian slowly lifted the lid of the coffin. The young master nearly hurled and complained the stench was making him swoon with nausea. He doubled over and the butler supported him with his arms. Ciel glared and pushed him away. Sebastian seemed a bit hurt for a moment but then quickly recovered his usual unreadable face of serenity.
The woman's face was heavily shrivelled and the skin folded over itself so many times the features were completely hidden, the skin ridden with hundreds of shapeless bumps of every size. It was a sickening yellow color and the shape of the face itself was very much distorted. It was a faceless monster.
Sebastian took a piece of the skin and lightly rubbed it between his fingers but even the lightest movement made the tenderly wrinkled skin roll effortlessly away, revealing the stark white of a cheekbone. Ciel slapped his hand away and the quick jerk caused the large sliver of skin to tear completely and it flew up into the air and landed into a dark, unlit pile of bodies near the back of the room.
"Sebastian...! Why did you do that?!" Ciel screeched, covering his eyes. He could never unsee what he'd just saw. What a horrible, horrible sight. And now thanks to that butler he would be scarred for life.
"I needed to check the elasticity of the skin. It can give us information on how the skin was tortured,"
"I need a break from you and your information..." Ciel muttered, still hiding his face. He was almost tearing up from how disgusting it was.
"Young master, when solving a mystery, sometimes we will have to do things that threaten to push out our usual morals." He explained calmly.
"Or the food in our stomachs for that matter..." Ciel grumbled, put out that the butler explained it so calmly.
Sebastian grinned and nodded.
"Anyhow, I have discovered how they murdered these women. They smell clean other than the usual rotting smell of decay. This simply means a tub of boiling water must have been poured onto their faces. They must have overheated to death,"
"Why are their faces yellow?" The young master demanded.
Sebastian smirked.
Ciel glared at him.
"I'm not trying to be racist. But I highly doubt the British Queen secretly employs Oriental Asian women to work in her private facilities, especially because there is a severe distrust between them and us at the moment. Plus, even Eastern women do not have skin of this kind of yellow. This is an unnatural color, it is almost green..."
"Yes, my lord, I do agree. It is the color of preserved vegetables. This case is even stranger than I thought,"
The three of them went back to the ground floor of the shack and Sebastian turned to the Undertaker.
"We thank you for the information you've given us. We will be taking our leave now,"
The Undertaker, yes, you guessed it, he grinned so wide you could fit three tennis balls into his mouth.
"Anytime,"
With that, the young master left with his butler helping him with their means of returning home. Ciel thought now they had more questions than answers but he believed anything could be solved after a good night's sleep.
