The next afternoon, while Yvon was having tea in his study, Ciel appeared again, much to Yvon's annoyance.
"What do you want?" the older brother asked.
"I don't understand how you know to recognize a demon on sight. Or even where you came from. I'm having difficulty believing that my long-lost brother happened to fall out of the sky right as I was abandoning my estate."
"I do my research. And... you and your butler aren't the first demons I've met. I am your real brother. You see, before either of us were born there was a maid who worked here for your parents. She was young, but an accident left her barren; cruel of fate, really, as all she ever wanted was a child of her own. She was the midwife at my birth, and she fell in love with me on sight. She proclaimed me to be born dead, and stole me away to her home country of France, where we lived until she recently died of... illness. Officially. She told me the truth before she died; I had always thought... she was my mother..."
"A fantastical story," Ciel answered. "I don't believe a word of it."
"But you see, with a little help from the supernatural, even the fanatical is reasonable. Here's the truth: My moth... the woman who raised me, anyways, was desperate to have a child. So desperate she'd sell her soul – which is exactly what she did. She entered into a contract with a demon: He would help her steal a child of her choice, and allow her to raise the child into adulthood. She chose me. I never knew until... until she got sick, and he came for her.
"She had been bedridden for a week, and the doctors couldn't do anything for her. I was only ten. I remember standing by her side, in my light-pink dress (I had been a girl back then, you see) hearing her weeze as she struggled to breathe. She was beautiful, even then; even as the sickness aged her beyond her youthful years, and her skin paled with the anticipation of death. I held her hand, smiling through the tears. 'You'll be ok,' I told her, sounding more confident than I felt. 'I know it. You'll be better real soon!' She smiled at me, her eyes half closed. Just then, a man came into the room; I don't remember the door opening, I just looked up and he was standing there. He was tall and expressionless; his golden eyes stared out coldly from behind his spectacles under his straight black hair.
"'It's time, Alexis,' he told the woman in the bed simply.
"'It can't be,' Alexis insisted. 'She's not old enough yet!'
"'It looks to me as though Yvette has grown into a fine young woman,' the man replied, speaking of me. 'Besides, you will not live through the night. Nothing I can do will change that. I've already intercepted one reaper who was on his way here to double-check why your soul wasn't in the ledgers.'
"'Maman, what's happening?' I asked her. The conversation confused me, and she was the only family I'd ever known. I feared what would become of me if she died like the man said.
"'Hush child,' she comforted me. 'It'll be alright. Don't be scared. I'm gonna go away now; but it's alright.'
"'But what'll I do?' I whined, tears streaking my face. She looked at me seriously, as if she would cry.
"'Yvette, I'm sorry...' she spoke to me softly. 'I lied to you. I told you I was your mother because... I wanted to believe it was true. I was jealous, because I couldn't have children, so I stole you away. Go... go to London. Find... your real parents. They'll take good care of you, I'm sure of it.' The man handed me a brown briefcase.
"'These are your documents,' he told me. 'They prove your birth.' I looked up at him, suddenly filled with anger.
"'No!' I screamed. 'I'm not letting you take her!'
"'Shh, Yvette; it's alright," Alexis assured me, shakily unbuttoning the loose blouse that covered her chest. 'I agreed to this long ago.' She stopped halfway down, before she became horribly indecent, and I saw a dark yellow pentagram marked across her breast bone. The man took off a glove – the same mark was tattooed on the back of his hand. His fingernails were black. He placed his hand over her chest so that the marks lined up.
"'You're running out of time,' he said. 'Say goodbye.' She looked up at me, and smiled through her tears.
"'Goodbye, mon petit ange.' I saw the man's mark glow faintly in a burnt orange, and the light in my Alexis's eyes went out forever. The man smiled with greedy satisfaction; a smile that would make any child cry. He lifted his hand, replaced the glove, and turned to leave the room. I was frozen in horror.
"'What...' I squeaked at last, 'what are you?!'
"He looked at me with that same horrible smile: 'I, am a demon.' As he spoke, a huge, death-black spider crawled out from between his lips and perched on his cheek. I gasped, and he left the room without another word. I did the only thing left to do: I began my long journey to England.
"I never knew his name, but I swore to myself if I ever met him again, I'd make him pay for taking Maman away from me."
"Golden eyes, and spectacles..." Ciel remarked, "that sounds like Claude Faustus. You don't have to worry about him anymore. Sebastian killed him."
"So you can die," Yvon replied with a smirk. "I'll keep that in mind."
"So when did you start calling yourself Yvon and dressing like a man?" Yvon inhaled sharply and clenched his fist, fighting down a memory he would give anything to forget.
"It's... it's easier to travel as a man. A lone girl is... an easy target. It wasn't very long before I figured out I liked being a man better." Yvon took a deep breath and looked at his brother crossly. "Don't you have anything better to do than to stand here asking personal questions?!" Ciel shrugged and left the room. Yvon sighed, emotionally worn, and halfheartedly sipped at his tea.