Sebastian spent his Sunday alone. He kept looking over, to the closed guest room door. That cat that had followed Ciel all the way home was laying in front of it. He couldn't bring himself to throw her out, even though she was against the rules. So he left a tray of water on the kitchen floor for her and a window open, in case she left.

Ciel wasn't in class on Monday; Sebastian stared at his empty seat. He looked down at his laptop screen. Ciel's group had turned in their paper, early. He took one glance over it. It was pathetically obvious that Ciel had written an outline, and the others had tried to fill in the blanks.

Demons are, to humans, everything they have ever wanted. If they did not appear as such, nobody would ever have fallen to them and their evils.

He closed the tab. He couldn't even think about Ciel, or his demons. He glanced out the window. He should've been able to see his car from where he was, but he had remembered Grell's instructions. He'd sat for nearly an hour, trying to decide if he would follow them or not, and finally, he did. As he'd been leaning back to unlock the rear door, he'd looked down and seen something on the floor. He had reached down, and picked it up. He had held Ciel's inhaler in his hand. It was in his desk drawer, now.

He looked back to Ciel's usual seat.

The student next to him had dropped her bag into the chair.

Sebastian swallowed heavily and looked away.

He got into his car and closed the door. It snapped trimly. He let go of the handle, unaware of how hard he'd been gripping it.

Sebastian didn't even look into the backseat. He buckled his seatbelt, locked the doors, and drove home. Not once did he look into the backseat.

He sat in the driveway. Part of him thought about how, if and when he got his own actual house, he would definitely get one with a garage. Most of him thought about the rear cup holder.

Finally, he unbuckled and turned around.

For the first time in years, he began to cry.

One hand pressed to his forehead as he sobbed, his other closed around the little chunk of plastic and metal and the note stuck to it. He could barely read the posty note through his blurry eyes.

Scrawled hastily in red ink on a white square of paper, it wasn't hard to guess whose handwriting Sebastian was reading.

I sincerely hope that you're actually going to be able to watch this.

I sincerely believe that you can help us.

I won't ask forgiveness for what I've done, but please understand what I risk giving you this. Please understand what I've done, I had no choice in doing.

Sebastian clutched the note and drive to his chest. He leaned into the wheel and gasped for air weakly.

He was in very, very deep.

Ciel wasn't in class again the next day. Alois wasn't there, either.

Sebastian thought about asking Elizabeth if she'd heard anything. She was careless as ever, it seemed, phone out on top of her textbook. He turned back, to the calendar behind his desk.

Finals were in two weeks.

He worried.

Class ended. He sat at his desk in the darkened room, not sure if he could go back to an empty house.

He'd left the drive on his counter, unable to do anything but just look at it, which was all he had done.

Sebastian's hands shook. He took the inhaler out of his desk drawer and stood.

He went home.