In all honesty I have no excuse for not posting or in fact writing earlier, it's just that I hit a bad slump with my exams and such, but that's over now, and here's the chapter that so many of you guys deserved so long ago. I'm actually pretty nervous about this one, so as usual, please tell me how I did, and where I went wrong with characters' personalities and such. Thank you, and enjoy chapter ten of Outcast.
It took a long while for Sebastian to stir, but when he did, he realized that he was nowhere in Paradiso, or even in Heaven, for that matter. Instead he looked around, and found himself in Phantomhive Manor, or more specifically, in Ciel's study.
What the hell? He thought, then a he felt himself feel sickened. The contract…
"You must learn to let go of your other commitments..." Ash, or had it been Michael who had said that? Did they mean for him to kill Ciel before he could be accepted as one of them? Was this the sick and twisted form of initiation one of them had dreamed up?
He moved to get up, only to realise that he was stuck where he was and unable to shift at all. It was at that moment that he realised he was on the floor, and as he looked around, noticed that he wasn't even in his own body, stuck inside a small, minute, awfully pale and thin one instead.
He was inside Ciel's body, and the boy was crying. Or, more accurately, he was quietly sobbing, as sobs wracked his minute body, no tears flowed. Sebastian knew very well that the boy was unable to cry any more. Not since that particular incident years ago.
He also noticed, with a slight look of horror, that his vision, or what he could see, was tinted red. Blood red. And the same blood was now trickling slowly onto the floor as the boy clutched at his contracted eye in pain and agony, letting Sebastian's view dance between a sickening red and soothing black of the boy's hand blocking the light.
Soon enough, his desperate sobs and cries attracted the attention of none other than a passing Meirin, who softly knocked on the door. "Master?" She called hesitantly, sounding antsy and timid as usual. Sebastian would have rolled his eyes, if only he had been able to.
After an agonizingly long wait, Meirin finally worked up enough courage to push open the door to Ciel's study, though unlike Sebastian, she did not slip elegantly through the small opening she had made, instead she tripped and stumbled into the room, causing the door to slam open in a manner most unfitting of a servant of Phantomhive.
'M-Master!" She said in alarm as she righted herself, hurrying over to where the boy was lain, clutching at his eye in agony. "What happened?" She asked in worry, her hands fluttering about as she looked for a way to help relieve her master's pain.
"G... Get Sebastian..." The boy choked out immediately, curling up even tighter in response to the excessive noise. Immediately, Meirin quietened down. "H... He hasn't been here for several days already, master..." She reminded him softly.
Sebastian felt a strange sensation in what he assumed was his... Gut. Yes... That sounded like the right word to use. A horrible, empty feeling. He had heard of it before, but had been physically been unable to experience it before.
Is this what sadness is? Sadness and regret?
Sebastian was rather confused. How was it that he, Prince Malphas of the Ninth Interim of Hell, offspring of the Demon lord Lucifer, coldest of all, could be feeling such a weak emotion as sadness and fear? Of course, he was no stranger to inflicting such emotions onto others, but to be on the receiving end... It was quite a different experience indeed.
"M... Meirin..." A boy's weak voice drew him from his confused and scattered thoughts. "L... Leave me be..." He whispered hoarsely, curling up more. Though, in the process, he weakly managed to open his eyes.
Stunned at the unusual colour contrast, Meirin stumbled back. "M-Master!" she yelped. "Your eye is red, yes it is!" She squeaked, her trembling finger extending out to point at it, as if it was not already obvious enough.
"I said get out!" The boy shrieked at her, a brief moment of clarity making itself heard through his pain, channeling the brunt of his pain into a hate-filled glare aimed right at Meirin. The maid hesitated, biting her bottom lip as she nodded slightly and ran out of the room.
"Sebastian..." The boy's weak voice made itself heard to Sebastian, and he cursed his newfound human emotions as he felt his heart twinge. He had never really meant to involve Ciel in all this. the boy was an innocent in all this, but fate had been cruel and taken what innocence the child had and forced him to grow up. He, as a demon, had only came by and helped further him moving into sin.
Wait... He stopped himself mid ramble. What the hell was he thinking? Demons did not feel such weak emotions, certainly not guilt nor remorse? these were all foreign to him, and yet here he was, getting all emotional.
This certainly was turning out to be an interesting day.
It only seemed to become more so, as Mey-rin once again ran into the room, this time dragging a rather irked gentleman with her, one doctor Smithe.
"Mey-rin!" The teenager shrieked, curling up again in pain. "I told you to leave me alone!"
The maid shivered, at her master's harsh tone, but refused to let herself be cowed.
"With your butler absent," She said hesitantly. "It is up to the other servants... to... to make sure you're alright. We can't bear to see you in pain, n-no we can't," She said softly.
The doctor then stepped forward, introducing himself as Tony Smithe, and knelt to examine the agonised teenager.
"Yes," He said after a moment. "It seems he has very severe Glaucoma," he said seriously, his face impassive. "His eye is inflamed, and it seems to be the cause of the redness and pain. Bleeding might be another side effect."
Sebastian wanted to laugh. Glaucoma? That foolish doctor knew no more than a child. He honestly thought that a mere infection could compare to the pain that the process of breaking a contract would entail. Such a foolish man.
Yet, instead of feeling a sense of snide contempt, he was feeling a sense of worry, worry about how Ciel was going to survive all this, and worry about how the doctor was going to treat him. What about other humans who were laying in gutters, ill and unable to afford medical trea-
Wait a minute.
Sebastian blinked, jerked out of his increasingly nonsensical and confusing chain of thoughts as he saw the good doctor pulling a syringe and viciously, though precisely, jabbing it into Ciel's Carotid artery. Immediately, his eyes rolled back into his head and he slumped, falling back with a faint moan and very nearly hitting his head on the hard wooden flooring of his study if it had not been for Mey-rin, who rushed forward and caught him just in time.
Sebastian gasped as he saw that happening, then froze as he heard what the doctor said next.
"Clearly raving mad," He said quietly, scribbling something down. "Electro therapy might be the only thing that can help him now. The sooner the better. Who are his guardians?" he questioned, tearing off a piece of paper and handing it to Meyrin.
"H-H... His parents are dead, sir," Meyrin murmured quietly, lowering her gaze to the sedated boy in her arms.
Smithe had the decency to blush at the mention of Ciel's dead parents. "I see," he continued on briskly, trying to hide his embarrassment. "So who are his guardians?"
Meyrin hesitated again, thinking her answer through carefully before answering. "I suppose his aunt wound be the best one... Madame Angelina Durless... but she passed on as well..." She said softly. "I suppose... Well... the head butler we had, one Sebastian Michealis. B-But the young master said... he said... That he dismissed him, so I suppose he doesn't really have a guardian now," She finished lamely.
The doctor sighed quietly, at a loss of what to do. "Is there anyone who can stand in as hi-"
"Sir, I do believe that I may be allowed to fill in the role of guardian for now," A smooth tone rang out behind the puzzled doctor, and as he spun around, he saw an impeccably dressed elderly man, a carefully neutral expression on his face as he bowed with his hand lightly placed on his heart.
"And you are?" The doctor questioned, before he noticed the gleaming silver badge of the man's lapel. "You're a butler?" He questioned quietly.
The man nodded again. "My name is Tanaka, and in view of the current circumstances I feel it would be fair enough to say that I would qualify as guardian to Master Ciel, wouldn't you say?" he asked, a small smile on his lips.
Smithe nodded, glad to have found a solution to a most troublesome problem. "Miss... uh... Meyrin, was it? Could you please put the boy back to bed? I need a witness to see the paperwork being signed."
Meyrin nodded, then immediately carried Ciel back to his bedroom, gently tucking the unconscious boy in before leaving, casting one last, sad glance at him before leaving the room and closing the heavy ornate door.
"Sebastian..." The boy whimpered out quietly in a voice that just tore at his heart, which he hadn't quite realised he had until a moment ago.
I'm here, my lord...
Sebastian grew restless and uneasy as time passed and Ciel drifted in and out of consciousness. Meirin appeared every now and again, but for most of the time Sebastian was left alone with a broken teenager, with time aplenty to ponder about his ever uncertain fate.
Around the six hour mark after he had first regained consciousness in Ciel's body, a bright light flared up, slowly, from the center of the room. It was a nice warm light, supposedly blinding but irresistibly charming at the same time.
Sebastian and Ciel's half dazed attention immediately snapped to this curious new presence. As he felt the same sense of forced tranquility, he cursed. So it was the angels behind all this? Pathetically predictable.
"Malphas," A deep soothing voice called, seeming to come from the center of the glowing sphere, and Sebastian internally groaned, recognising the annoyingly holier-than-thou voiceof Ash Landers.
The gently smiling figure of Ash stepped through the portal, scanning the room briefly before his eyes settled on a very stunned Ciel.
"What the fuck are you doing here?!" Ciel shrieked, scrambling backward quickly and reaching for the handgun under his bed with trembling fingers, his breaths coming in shaky bursts. Unfazed, Ash raised his hands in a sign of peace, though his face still held the same expression or poorly veiled irritation.
"You are not the one I have come for," he said softly. "Though your time will come, you will not be following us to Paradise. For your soul, pure and wonderful it once was, has now been turned into a dirty, filthy soul not even worth the ground we walk on, can never enter the holy gates," He replied smoothly, his amethyst eyes narrowing slightly as he looked at him.
Mismatched eyes met his own, confusion and slight fear in them. "What do you mean?" He hissed angrily, trying desperately to mask his fear with a layer of anger and indignation. "There's no one else here, you idiot," He said with a roll of his eyes.
Ash looked irked, raising one hand to stop his quick retort. "I beg to differ," He said with a soft chuckle, the pointed to the one eye, the one with his contract with sebastian.
"There's someone always watching through that," he said with a soft chuckle, though it quickly turned into a dark laugh. "Your demon is stuck in that, and he does not care enou-"
"Stop!" Ciel shrieked immediately, childishly pressing his hands to his ears and curling up slightly into his covers, trembling slight. The slate-haired teen was slowly starting to lose it, his one last hope, his demon, hadn't helped him when he was in distress. At that moment, all thoughts of the circumstances surrounding this were lost as he focused on one sole fact.
He didn't keep his word. He didn't come to you when you needed him. You are nothing in his eyes.
"You're lying," Ciel hissed quietly, forcing the evil, malicious thoughts out of his head as he struggled to think straight. The throbbing in his skull had started again, making him see stars - and not in a good way.
"Am I?" The older man chuckled, before his eyes glowed brightly, the bright, blinding light quickly extending to cover his whole body as he started screaming out holy words, words the made the literal demon inside Ciel's skull cringe in fear, before feeling himself being forced out of where he had been, finding himself materialising, bit by bit, in the same bedroom he found himself observing only moments ago.
As that happened, Ciel let out a terrified shriek, feeling pain shoot through his body as his demon was forcefully exorcised out of his body. The pain, to a demon, was manageable, but to a human it was hell itself, feeling every muscle clench up, that faint moment of paralysis, it was all too much to bear.
The icing on the cake was seeing his demon, who, moments ago, he had been defending so vehemently, appear out of seemingly thin air, looking perfectly fine and well, his wounds had been masked so Ciel could not see them.
"Se... Sebas... Sebastian..." He whispered in shock, his eyes widening as he saw him, his muscles relaxing slightly. At least now, he had a familiar face in the room with him... Or so he thought.
In truth, Ash had locked his movements, leaving him able to do little more than stand there and look pretty as his master looked to him for some sort of explanation. For once, Sebastian Malphas Michealis failed an order given directly, albeit silently, by any one of his masters, save only once before - but he tried not think of that particular contract too often.
"He has given himself, body and soul, to Our Lord, greatest in the universe, for he created it himself," Ash said with a faint chuckle, appreciating the irony in that statement. "He now serves one much greater than yourself, Ciel Victor Phantomhive," he added with another hollow laugh. "To think a filthy demon would actually see his dirty ways and choose to join us and cleanse himself, it really is too much!" He said, almost doubling over in laughter.
On the contrary, Ciel's face darkened noticeably, his surprisingly delicate hands clutching his soft, feathery duvet in barely suppressed anger.
"You disgust me!" He shrieked vehemently, raising his hand and striking Sebastian across the cheek roughly, his eyes burning with a disgust that was normally only found in Shinigami.
Ash smirked and chuckled more, taking an obscene pleasure in watching this demon prince be punished by such a lesser being, a child, no less. He also enjoyed the very peculiar, demeaning scene that followed. It suited him, it honestly did.
"You... you filthy traitor!" He shrieked at his former butler, striking him again. "I let you leave because you needed to clear your name!" he screamed, "Not for you to turn tail and run to them instead! What are you?!" He snarled at him, anger pushing all notions of pain and hurt to the very backs of his mind. "You were a dog, yes, but to me, and only me! Even then! You were going to make me pay the ultimate price, weren't you, weren't you?!" He continued raging, his voice rising in octaves along with his fury.
"So tell me, demon, how could you give yourself to them?!" He shrieked, pointing a trembling finger at Ash, who stood with his constant serene smile, enjoying this little scene.
"Have you lost all pride?! You sniveling, mewling, pathetic excuse for a demon?!" He continued on, grabbing the demon's clothes and bringing his face less than a foot away, as blood red met with a deep cerulean blue. "You disgust me..." he spat at him, before practically collapsing onto the bed, his body now trembling with barely repressed pain as he bit his lip until it tore, needing something, anything, to keep the horrible, horrible pain away.
Meanwhile, Sebastian's eyes were wide open, both in shock and horror.
You don't understand! I didn't have a choice! If I didn't, I would have died! He wanted to scream these words at Ciel, to Ash, to everyone who had lost their respect for him because of this. Instead, he faced the worst torture, being forced to keep his mouth shut while his pride got even more stomped on than he thought was ever possible.
"You should have died..." Ciel whispered quietly, not even having the common curtesy of meeting his eyes, keeping them trained on the signet ring on his thumb. "I'd have rather you died than become what you are now..." He hissed bitterly, before abruptly falling silent, collapsing onto the bed.
Sebastian's eyes darted immediately to Ash, who held a look of faint annoyance as he cast a quiet charm to knock the boy out cold.
"Children can such a burden, hmm?" he said with a slight smile, before snapping his fingers and releasing Sebastian from his bondage. "Now do your last duty as his butler and tuck him in, would you?" he said quietly, though it was more of an order.
Hesitantly, Sebastian stepped forward and did as he was ordered, picking up the unconscious boy and laying him down in the center of his large bed, before gently, and with more care and love than ever before, he tucked him in, pressing a soft kiss to his forehead.
"Goodbye, My Lord," he whispered quietly, shutting his eyes for a brief moment before slowly, the boy's angry words still ringing in his head, following Ash through a portal to Paradiso.
And as he left, he took Ciel's last bit of sanity with him.
Actually there's not much to explain in this chapter, just that... well... electro therapy really was the standard practice in the 1800s, and sadly many people didn't quite survive it... Yes, yes, I know, and I can feel, everyone who loves Ciel going "You'll burn in hell for this!" But I thought it fitting... So, if you hate me, keep reading and see if I redeem myself, if I even try.
Now, others may ask what was with Sebastian kissing Ciel's forehead? That's not meant to be of much significance, really... Unless you decide for yourself.
really, not much explanation for this chapter, I just hope you enjoyed it, and thanks, once again, for bearing with my scattered updates.