"Uh…Care to explain to us how this all happened…?" I asked in disbelief.

Sebastian hopped from one of the ledges of his cage to the other, getting closer to us. I could tell the way he flapped his wings desperately in an attempt to gain altitude that his flight-feathers had been cut off. He really was trapped… "Why should I?" He responded, his beak opening and closing rapidly, as if to mimic that of a human mouth forming words. "After all, it's all your damned fault I'm like this now."

Alois stuck his tongue out at the crow and spoke in a voice that mimicked a parrots. "Look at me! I'm Sebastian! Gimme a cracker!"

"Al, don't." I said, fearing that even in his bird form Sebastian could still rip out heads off from our shoulders. "I'm just curious, that's all…Maybe I'll even help you out!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What are you talking about?! You realize that bird-man is my enemy right? As in, I can't be friends with him and rescuing him!" Alois yelled, his fists clenched and a big ol' frown on his face. "Leave him in this cage and forget about him for all I care! Let him rot!"

This time it was my turn to get angry. "No! Sebastian has a right to be heard, demon or bird!" I turned my head back to Sebastian, who was giving me an intense stare with his beady little eyes. "Sebastian, please tell me what happened to you. I promise I won't use the information against you. I'll even let you go if you promise to be good, alright?"

Despite Alois's pissed off face and my own intelligence screaming NO, the crow nodded. "Guess I have no choice in the matter…Trancy, block the door and make sure no one comes in for the time being. If anyone saw me saying more than 'hello' the damn news would be all over in a matter of minutes with all your fancy Tweets and Book of Faces."

"Got it." Alois said with a sigh. He then produced to lean against the door, making sure no one could open it from the outside. "Now, let's hear this little explanation of yours…"

Sebastian nodded his little head and began telling us his tale of woe. "Well, after you and Claude disappeared, Young Master no longer had a reason to get revenge, as Ash was dead, and you were good as it. Young Master refused to give up his search for you, and traveled to America in a vain attempt to seek you out. Instead he found the love of his life…"

I rolled my eyes. "Lemme guess…He realized that revenge wasn't the answer and instead stopped his search for Al and I. Thus you were stuck as his butler forever, right?"

Sebastian gave (what looked like a shrug) and continued, "Well, I suppose you could say that. I urged him to carry on with the fruitless search, but after the children he gave it all up."

"Ew." Alois stated, "The thought of Ciel having and then raising kids just creeps me out. Like, did torture them every day or something?"

"No, Young Master was rather proficient with his roles as father of the household. Sure, I had to help a lot, but it wasn't anything too bad." Sebastian said, shaking his head slightly to fix some of his head feathers that were sticking out of place. "Soon, the Young Master's wife, Lady Kiera, began growing suspicious of me. As a result, Young Master ordered me to turn into my animal version of myself, and to hide until he called me out. He even went as far to explain that if he ever did pass away before his part of the contract was finished to go to his children, as he would pass the contract from generation to generation."

"That uh…makes sense…I guess." I said slowly, trying to sort out what the heck he was explaining. "Anyway, keep going. I want to know how you ended up here with clipped wings and a scruffy attitude."

"Oh, yeah…" The crow replied, his voice sounding extremely proud-hurt. "Well, what went down was I wasn't as careful as I should've been and was caught and sold in an auction. Apparently I'm the biggest crow in this stupid nation…Regardless, I was bought by this place and off went my flight-wings. Next thing I know, I'm stuck in this prison cell, with only the dumb parrots in the room next to my golden cage as company."

"That must be awful. Parrots can only repeat things, so your conversations must be more boring than watching white paint dry on a beige backdrop." I stated, beginning to feel really bad for the poor demon. "But, uh, why can't you just use your powers to teleport out?"

Sebastian lowered his head in defeat. His current existence was so depressing it actually made me want to pet him like a cat or something. "Oh, that's Young Master's doing. See, his orders are absolute, and I cannot go against them, no matter what. He has not called me out, nor his any of his children…"

"So basically you're stuck there…?" Alois said, finally joining in on our conversation. "Like a caged bird…haha, that's funny."

"Yes, so hilarious." Sebastian squawked, his tone bitter like an old man who couldn't fit his motorized scooter-thing into the elevator. "So, now that you've heard my story, what will you do? Have I just wasted my breath on you, telling you my tale?"

I thought for a split second, and then quickly placed my hand lightly on the cage's door, which could only be opened by a human hand from the outside. "Sebastian, listen to me very well. I want to make a bargain with you. This little contract of ours will consist of no soul-eating, just so you know. Instead, I'll let you out and I will help you track down Ciel's family. You, on the other hand, will stay with me and Alois until then, helping us keep a low profile and helping Hannah keep the police off our tails. Got it?"

Sebastian's small body shook with anticipation as he listened super intently to my words. "I see…This deal seems fair on both sides…"

"W-Wait, are you not even going to consult me over this!?" Alois stuttered, his face something straight out of an internet meme. "To be completely honest I am rather offended!"

"…That blonde is still as much of a brat as he was two hundred years ago, huh…?"

"More or less." I replied, opening the cage's door and extending my arm into the cage. Sebastian hopped onto it and gently dug his claws into my skin for support. I brought him out, and he stretched out his giant wings as far as they could go. "Now, how are we gonna sneak you out of here…"


"This is the most degrading idea in the world." I said, fixing my hair to the front of my shoulders.

"Speak for yourself…" Sebastian mumbled, trying his very best to not squirm too much as we exited the bird house. "Let's just get me out of the main park and at the entrance, then we'll be safe…"

Alois walked in front of us, keeping as close as possible. "Yeah…According to the map we still have a bit of a way to go..."

I will leave it up to your imagination what our plan was to sneak Sebastian out…


Thankfully we got to the entrance rather quickly.

"Okay, get out now…please…" He was a really uncomfortable piece of clothing.

Without being told twice the bird quickly scattered out from under my shirt and landed with a FLOP on the dirt below him. "Alright…well the, tell me where to wait, and I will. So long as you keep your side of the deal that is…"

"I will, I promise…" I said, and then knelt down to lightly pet his head. What? He's a bird right now, it's not weird! "Now go wait by our rental car. It's the green Jeep that has obviously seen much better days."

The crow nodded and skipped off on his way to the path to our car, looking perfectly like a regular dumb crow…that was two inches larger than a regular crow…oh boy.

"I still don't trust that butler…What if he is making it all up to make us feel bad for him! I bet it's that! He's probably really scheming against us and knows exactly where Ciel and Claude are! It's all some big set-up or something." Alois said, his face spelling R-A-G-E. "I refuse to let the person who murdered my brother in the same car as you and me!"

"Al, we've been through this: it was not Sebby, it was Luka himself, with the help of Hannah and the triplets." I rolled my eyes as I had to explain this to him for the thousandth time. I was like a broken record player. "Now, come on! If we don't hurry back, my dad will skin us alive!"

Then (doing something without his consent again), I grabbed his hand and we both high-tailed it back into the deeper reaches of the Zoo. We were both out of breath by the time we got back to where my family was, and you know what? They didn't move at all. They didn't even know we were gone…