Ciel left the fire glowing for he hated to sleep in the dark. In the dark your mind will play tricks on you and all the shadows start to look familiar…too familiar. They become tall, slender, with reddish eyes, and a dark tail coat. Ciel crossed his legs and decided to read a book left on the nightstand next to the chair. A business book of course but to him it was riveting; it gave him many tips on how to further his business and of course save money. His soulless blue eyes scanned the pages eating up the words with no sign of glee.

Suddenly and without a trace there was a sound like a moan that echoed from the fireplace. Ciel wasn't one to get scared so he easily shoved it off as the house settling. Then the fire from his fireplace flickered as if it was dancing. Slow and sensual almost then it roared upwards causing the whole room to glow orange and red as if he was trapped in hell. But he was always trapped in hell. It scared him but only the slightest bit for he assumed that the fireplace was just broken. Then the light just blew out completely leaving the blue-eyed earl alone in the darkness.

The darkness cloaked him, enveloped him like the dark arms of a man with dark hair. He shivered as his room became cold and suddenly he felt a presence behind him but he always did. This house always gave him a feeling of never being alone. Partially he was comforted and partially he despised it. All he wanted was to be alone but these memories wouldn't let him be. He curled up his legs onto the chair holding himself together as if there was a monster lurking in the shadows that would eat his legs if they touched the darkness.

"T-Tanaka," He called, his teeth chattering from the chill.

Why was it so cold? Even with the fire out it never would get this cold. He felt a breeze and saw a ghastly, white glow that could only be the moon emanating from behind him. The window was open and the curtains were ripping through the harsh winter's air. All the gay festivities had stopped; it was dead silent and then again came that persistent moan. The earl dared not go and close the window for he distinctly remembered shutting it and locking it tight yet he told his small legs to walk over there, fighting this fear.

'Come on you dolt, there is nothing to fear but fear itself. The wind is strong tonight and perhaps you didn't shut the window all the way.'

Ciel was a logical boy so no matter what happened he would approach it scientifically and always pick out which seemed most reasonable. However on this night all reason would be thrown out the window and his journey would start with the sound of…

Chains. Rattling chains and a heavy thing dragging across the floor accompanied with labored footsteps and a grizzly moan. Ciel's skin turned pale and goose bumps found their way to the surface of said pale skin but as pale as he was what he saw made him turn whiter than is sheets. When he gulped down some courage, persuading himself that there would be nothing there and finally turned his small self around he was confronted with something he had tried to hide away for so long. It wasn't something it was the memory of someone and that someone, as abnormal and illogical as it seemed, was standing right there. The someone let out a moan before clearing his throat then smiled.

"Sorry…being dead for seven years can do such damage on ones vocals. Good evening, my lord."

"S-s-s-sebast-sebastian?"

The figure smiled once more. He was ghostly pale, like the moon, with a glow about him yet his eyes burned redder than the coals that had been in Ciel's fire place. His hair had once been black but now it was silver and his once limber movements were now weighted down by several chains, shackles, and metal spheres but even still with a cloth wrapped around his head and jaw he was still as handsome as ever. Even as a specter he could sweep any woman, any woman at all, off her feet or make even the stuffiest of prissy high borns swoon at his smile. All that didn't seem to factor into what Ciel felt at that moment. There was a dead man in his bedroom!

"H-How…N-No…I'm dreaming!"

He slammed his fists up against the side of his head, screaming at himself to wake up but was stopped by the utterly cold yet all too real grasp of the satin gloves Sebastian always wore. Ciel looked up, pupils wavering back and forth inside his eyes as he was unable to cope with seeing the deceased walking and talking.

"This is no dream but do not fear, My lord."

Sebastian always called him that. Before they were business partners they were friends and before that he was the family butler. His voice, though a bit foggy, was still soft and warm and gentle as if he was talking to a…well a child. He put his hand upon the young boys head and laughed slightly.

"Are you ever going to grow, My lord, or will you forever be so puny?"

"Dead or not you will not insult my stature! Be gone, spirit! Torment me no longer!"

Sebastian laughed, silky and seductive as it always had been but his laugh had some deep sadness in it. It was the laugh of a ghost with unfinished business.

"Always so offended of someone putting you down. Honestly, how can one be put down when you are so down to the ground already?"

Ciel snarled. If there was anything he hated more than Christmas it was rude, impolite, improper, and disrespectful people who dared to mock him. He tried to slap the ghost of his former partner but instead his hand went right through him.

'How could that be? He touched my hand not too long ago and yet I go right through him like he's air.'

"Try as you might I will not leave until I am done here."

Ciel settled down and sighed heavy, relaxing his tense muscles and getting used to the fact that he was conversing with the deceased.

"Alright. State your business."

"Business, business, always business. You are consumed by greed and one day that greed will end you."

"Is that all you've come for? To chide me like some school boy on my behavior? Tch. If that is all then you go the way you came."

Sebastian tried to fly closer to Ciel but was restricted by the heavy chains he bore causing him to jerk back yet he accomplished frightening the boy as he stood there face to face with him.

"Mark me, My lord, if I could go back the way I came I would of done so long ago. My only wish is to pass onto my eternal resting place but I, like so many spirits like me, am stuck here wondering this earth forever mourning my foolishness when I was alive. These chains, though as appealing as they look on me, are not here just for show. They are the chains that I bared in life but now are made real. Each soul I tormented, each person I taxed, each innocent life I took for your sake is now weighing on me."

"But you were such a good business partner-"

"BUISNESS! You call stealing from the poor a business! A business better suited in hell. I reside in limbo now because of this…business and when my work is done I can pass on into hell where I belong and will forever bare these chains that reduce me to little less than a shell of the man I once was. All because what you call good business."

Ciel shivered as the apparition quivered with anger in front of her, so close to his face that he could smell the death on his lips. Sebastian sighed outwardly before removing the eye patch that the one he called master wore. The boy was blind in that eye now and what was once a lovely blue eye was now white, pink, and light gray. Sebastian stroked his thumb around the eye.

"I love you, I have always loved you and it is because of that love and devotion that I have come here to do unfinished business by warning you. Tonight on the eve of Christmas you will be visited by three spirits; Past, Present, and Future. They will come whether you invite their presence or not and with hope they can spare you the torment I must endure."

The words melted into the mind and chest of Ciel as he knew it must be true for Sebastian was never a liar but was what he seeing true? Was this really happening? Ciel pushed logic on a separate table for now. Spirits existed, there was living proof right there stating that it loved him. Ciel chose not to even think about returning the feeling. All feeling had been put away for good a long with any memories that could provide access to such feelings.

"Even now I can tell you are bitterly cold toward the whole idea but I shall let the spirits in to change what little soul you have left. I must do whatever I can to save that precious soul of yours. My lord, forgive me but I must mark you or else the other spirits will drag you down to hell before the deed is done."

Ciel had no time to ask as Sebastian's hand drove through his blind eye and suddenly what was eternal darkness turned into blistering light and his vision soon faded into red. Left on that eye which was now blue was the pentagram-the sign of a demon. Sebastian had said if all went according to plan the mark would fade away but however if it didn't he would be branded with it for life and afterlife. Then the man started to evaporate right before Ciel's eyes.

"No…do not leave me alone again Sebastian," Ciel pleaded, feeling helpless for the first time since he couldn't remember

"I must go back to the in-between where spirits like I and those with unfinished business go. Goodbye, My lord."

"You idiot! Don't you dare leave me! You fool! I hate you! Cursed creature!"

"Cursed, creature…yes, my lord, I am…but if all becomes right then one might say I will also be…one hell of a ghost."

With those last words he vanished into thin air leaving the gloomy darkness again and Ciel alone once more. Ciel was far too old, or at least he thought he was, to cry so he merely slugged himself into bed pretending it had all been a crazy dream, a wish in the deepest part of his heart acted out by the imaginative part of his mind. He gazed into the fireplace starting to fall asleep as the hour struck that would summon the first spirit; The Spirit of Christmas Past.