14
Hello lovelies! Thank you all for being so very patient and understanding. I would like to express my sincere gratitude by publishing this here chapter for all y'all. I'm sure you'll love it! We are getting ever closer to wrapping up the Jack the Ripper Arc. So exciting.
Thanks again for the support from all my reviewers as well as the people who read/follow/favorite my work.
Enjoy
Majix
Silence prevailed. Though only for a fraction of time, it held. Sapphire eyes darted wearily from face-to-face as the demon and the reaper remained still, the calm nature before the storm making both humans in attendance hold their breath.
A bolt of irony seemed to strike as the clouds finally gave in to the weight of the rain. Small droplettes of water poured from the sky and Ciel shivered as the icy drops glided down over his exposed flesh. The flimsy wool did little to protect his body from the weather and within moments, he could feel the material of his clothes sticking to his skin.
The flamboyant redhead was the first to break the silence, "Well, well Bassy~ Looks like it's just you and me this time."
His eyes glowed with mischief and the godly being licked his lips, "I don't mind. I'm not really.. one for sharing. If you catch my drift~"
The demon simply sighed at the innuendo as he shrugged out of his heavy coat and turned his back on the reaper to address his Master. The elder contained a smirk as he felt a wave of irritation coming off Grell at being disrespected in such a blatant manor.
He kneeled before the bluenette and wrapped the boy up in his coat, "Hopefully this shall offer you some protection from the rain while I take care of this minor inconvenience, my Lord."
He stood and looked down into the face of his shorter companion, "When we return to the manor, I'll go about fetching you warm milk and perhaps a sweet treat if time permits."
Ciel nodded as he held the coat tighter around his body, barely able to concentrate on the ravenette's words as the radiating heat from the demon's jacket enveloped him, effectively driving out the cold.
As the butler stood and turned to give his full attention to the matter at hand, Ciel spoke up, "Sebastian."
The older male looked back at his contracted with silent aknowledgement, "I order you to win."
A coy smile curled the dark haired male's lips in a malicious grin, his eyes showing the true nature of his being as the contract beneath his glove burned for a brief moment, "Of course, my Lord."
Sebastian turned on heel and narrowed his gaze on the flirtatious reaper as the redhead beckoned him toward with his pointer finger, "Come on now Bassy~ don't keep me waiting."
The chainsaw reved ominously as the butler stepped forward and rolled his sleeves up to the elbow, "Mr. Sutcliff, I'd appreciate it if we could move this along. Rather quickly perhaps?"
A cool giggle penetrated the darkness as the reaper laughed above his roaring weapon, "We can do it however you like, dearest."
Anticipation broke as the obscene male charged him, bringing the spinning blade down towards Sebastian faster than possible, but the demon easily side stepped it. However, the ravenette was caught by surprise as the death god changed course the moment he missed the butler. Before Sebastian could think to move, Grell was already arcing the deadly weapon his way, driving the demon to the wall behind them.
Maroon eyes flashed dangerously as the shinigami began to close in on him. The raven haired male longed to release the monster behind the flesh. Delightful shivers raced along his cortex as he imagined the look of fear that would play so beautifully across the reaper's face. But he couldn't. Ciel had forbidden him from showing his other face.
The beast growled in warning at the binding reminder before Sebastian cast his eyes over to Ciel. The boy was standing almost perfectly still, silently watching them, but the elder caught the sight of Madame Red making her way up behind him.
Before he could call out to his Master, Grell swung the machine forward, forcing the demon's back against the wall. He growled angerly as he held the whirling blade at bay, keeping it from slicing his shoulder apart.
Ciel was anything but unaware of the approaching woman. He feigned ignorance, keeping his eyes focused on his butler as his senses reached outward, grasping at the sounds of quiet footsteps. The boy gripped the small blade in his palm, a victorious smile catching his lips as he heard the tell-tale click of a heel meeting cobblestone.
Gottcha.
Without warning, the Earl spun and lashed out towards the direction of the sound, only to be startled when he caught nothing but air. Confusion clouded his vision before a swift set of fingers wrapped around his throat and shoved him back against the unyielding brick wall.
He looked up at his aunt and she glared down at him with a hatred so deep and wounding that it was all he could do to keep from flinching. Her fingers dug into the soft tissue of his neck and he gasped as she forced him higher up the wall, making him stand on his tip toes, "Tell me, nephew, what does your name mean now?"
She sneered and pulled him forward before slamming him back into the wall. Stars exploded into his line of sight as his skull met the heavy stone, making him sway slightly, "Oh yes. You were so eager to be just like your father."
She leaned in and squeezed his throat for good measure as their eyes met, "How do you like it, Ciel?" Her voice dropped to a hiss, "Is it everything you thought it'd be?"
She captured his eyes and he stared up at her, his vision swimming as she gazed deep into the contract. The tense silence lasted a moment longer before the viscious grind of the death scythe caught his ear.
Ciel snapped his attention towards Sebastian and his eyes widened. The demon was losing. His back was pressed submissively against the wall, similar to his own position, and the elder was battling against the reaper's continuous force. Cold, calculating eyes darted across the butler's face and Ciel realized with a start that the man couldn't focus properly while the bluenette was so intertwined with danger.
Merciless metal dug into his gut, dragging his attention back to Angelina, " Now, now. Didn't your mother teach you that it's rude to ignore the person speaking to you?"
She raised the gun to his view and the boy's eyes widened in alarm, "I finally have your attention now, don't I?"
She slammed him furiously against the wall and pressed the barrel to the bottom of his chin, "You're nothing but a brat, Ciel Phantomhive. Why should you have survived when my beloved didn't?"
Her eyes hardened as she stared down into the teen's face. He met her resentful glare with eyes glazed in confusion. Beneath the desire to understand, his resolve strengthened and his pride flared. Though he said nothing, the boy's aura screamed defiance and his eyes narrowed as she clentched her teeth.
"You should've died with them." She cocked the gun and let her finger caress the trigger.
Panic burned through the contract and the monster behind the beauty bashed through the barrier, "MASTER!"
Red slits consumed the relaxing maroon as his canines lengthened in warning and he looked to Grell. He was caught in a trap and the boy was in immediate danger. Seconds or minutes, it mattered little. She was touching his contracted!
Ciel was his!
Despite the guaranteed damage, Sebastian released the death scythe, hissing in rage as he felt the heated metal cut through his flesh with practiced ease, shredding the taunt muscle without mercy. The avian demon grit his teeth as the metal met the bone, barely missing the socket.
Ciel didn't let his eyes waver from his aunt's. She dug the metal into his flesh as her eyes searched his face.
The red haired female stared down at the boy in her grasp. The way he faced her without fear drove the memories home. He was so like this father, and why shouldn't he be? Vincent's only son idolized him and made his memory immortal within his conscious.
Angelina could see the traces of her love within his face; the strong underlining of his jaw, the way his hair fell in his face and refused to be tamed. But there, within his features, was the face of her sister, Rachel; the gentle curve of his cheek and the depth of those eyes, the same gemstone blues that she'd revealed her secrets to as a child.
Mere seconds remained frozen, seeming to continue on for hours as life around them pushed forward. From the corner of his eye, the Earl could see Grell shove the death scythe deeper into the shoulder of his butler before the man exploded with an inhuman howl.
Darkness wrapped affectionately around the demon's core, flooding to life as he let his power consume the air. Particles raced with electricity and the contract burned against his skin as he disobayed. Ciel was in danger, and the butler was powerless to help, but despite what the bluenette liked to believe, he was far more than a butler.
He was a fallen, and he would protect his master at any and all cost.
Wings ripped from his flesh, brought to life only by the darkness. The nightmares of their world, fear itself, stitched together, binding the light absorbing feathers and Sebastian let the full demonic aura pulsate around them as he appeared behind the woman holding his master captive.
He could see the blood rising to form a bruise where she'd gripped his throat, and the sticky wetness in his hair where he'd connected with the wall. The scent of cold metal caressed his senses and he growled lowly in the back of his throat.
Freezing cold water continued to pour down upon them and the Ancient prepared to wrap the never ending darkness around the woman who dared to harm something that belonged to a demon.
Her hold on the gun slackened and Ciel watched as the hate and the anger cracked ever so slightly before bursting apart at the seams. Her hands trembled and she lowered her weapon, her voice faint, barely above the wind, "I can't."
The cackle of power made the bluenette look over his aunt to catch the eyes of his butler.
The boy's stomach clenched painfully as he met the two pairs of glowing red eyes narrowed with absolute rage. Brain waves short circuited as Ciel caught glimpses of the fires beneath humanity; as he stared into the dark aura, screams of the damned whispering against his thoughts.
He finally snapped from his fear as Sebastian reached for the woman in front of him, exposing his elongated canines in a hiss.
"STOP! Sebastian, Stop!"
The street lamp flickered out for a brief second and as it illuminated the alley, Sebastian stood beneath the glow, crimson soaking through his black vest, "Master?"
Ciel took in the butler's appearance with startled eyes. His normally pristine black and white clothes were torn across the collar, and though it was hard to spot, Ciel could see the faint glitter of blood within the blacks of the man's uniform. Carmine soaked cotton clung to the exposed flesh but the bluenette could see no evidence of a wound. Pale white skin stretched flawlessly across muscle and Ciel swallowed heavily.
Just another of his many perfections.
The attention he held for his companion splintered as Madame Red stumbled backwards away from him, dropping her weapon in the process, "I can't, I can't hurt this child!"
"What are you going on about, Madame~?"
Servant and master both looked to the sudden appearance of Grell as he strutted towards Angelina with set purpose.
She turned to address the former butler, "I can't bare to harm the child of my belov-"
Her sentence cut short in a cry of surprise.
All three sets of eyes widened as the reaper drove the death scythe home within the chest of the woman in the red dress. The air surrounding them turned surreal as Grell doubled his exertion.
Ciel flinched and grabbed his butler's tail coat unconsciously as the chilling crack of the woman's sternum was heard. Air refused to meet his lungs as the insane reaper grinned just as the burst of memories surrounded them like a fog.
Various shades of the past twined around their figures like a loving pet. Memories longing to be seen and understood. Ciel looked around in wonder as the swirl condensed and began to slowly focus.
The woman in front of him was no older than the Earl himself. She was on the smaller side with two licorice red braids. Scatters of freckles draped over the bridge of her nose and she looked utterly shy as she stared through him.
The boy turned around only for his eyes to widen as they landed on his late mother. She held an angelic glow about her, just a soft warmth that seemed to radiate from her. He looked between the two women and realized with a start that the little redhead was Madame Red as a teenager.
The words of their conversation blended together as they playfully argued back and forth over who was prettier. The walk through the garden seemed like a very generic memory to the bluenette but as a deep voice sounded across the foliage, his attention snapped to the visitor.
He hardly noticed that, like himself, Angelina was staring at the new comer in wonder. Dark blue hair fell across his forehead and a steady aura of calm and sophistication surrounded him. Like all nobles, he was wearing a suit of sorts, and the deep gray made his pale skin stand out even more.
Vincent Phantomhive.
Ciel felt a thrill of excitement race through him that he quickly determined wasn't his own. He turned to Madame Red and his suspicions were confirmed as he caught the soft sparkle in her chocolate brown eyes.
"I'd always hated the colour red."
The bluenette practically jumped out of his skin as Angelina's soft voice echoed within his own thoughts.
"I didn't inherit the lovely golden blonde hair that my elder sister had. I had red hair just like my father and I hated it."
"Until he showed up."
Ciel looked back over at the younger version of his father as he talked to Angelina, a soft smile set in his features, "You should be proud. Red is lovely, it's the color of passion and rose petals. The dazzling shade of licorice."
The memory suddenly became hazy around the edges and he couldn't completely make out either of their faces. The colors dulled and he stood idly intrigued, "It was easy to fall in love with him. He was charming and handsome, not to mention kind."
Pieces of fallen memory slowly stitched themselves back together and Ciel found himself within the parlor, viewing his mother and father announcing the wedding contract.
"However, he was not for me."
An overwhelming blanket of sadness snared his heart as he watched the happy couple interact. Spikes of jealousy stabbed at his exposed heart but he pushed them away with flimsy promises of happiness for them.
Though the emotions were not his own, Ciel couldn't help but to understand them, and more importantly, to embrace them. It added to the experience, as well as to the knowledge being gained.
Brief flashes of medical schooling streaked before his eyes. Countless patients and grueling hours of paper work and case studies.
"I threw myself into my work, and the social spotlight."
The scenes of her professional life dissolved, only to be replaced by dazzling parties. He watched as his aunt embraced the color red and made it her trademark.
However in this particular memory, a handsome man approached his aunt for the third time that evening and asked her to dance. He was tall and held an air of sophistication as he guided them both across the dance floor.
"Eventually, I met a man. He was charming and I enjoyed his company. He showered me with endless affection."
As her life continued, Ciel suddenly found himself on a high balcony as the Baron confessed his love and asked Angelina for her hand. She stared down at him with shock and slight hesitation.
The bluenette could feel her excitement, he could see the longing within her heart and unconsciously he knew that she desired a family. But in the back of her mind, the love she still held for her sister's husband remained.
Ciel watched in silence as she reached out and took his clasped hands, "There's something you must know.. There is a man I cannot forget."
He stood and pulled her close, "That matters little to me, Angelina. Can we not share your heart?"
Memories blurred together as she accepted his proposal. His own birth at her hands. The Earl watched with a heavy heart as she reimagined all the times she'd chased the happy boy around the yard as his parents watched with obvious amusement.
Ciel remembered those days, when he chose to think of happier times.
The feeling of pure unadulterated joy swallowed him whole as she recalled finding out that she was pregnant with her own child. A family of her vary own. She cried with joy for the first time in her life as he kneeled before her pregnant stomach and expressed his own excitement.
"And then he was killed."
Colors bled with sadness and the memories her life drew forth were no longer as bright as they had been. However she still remained heavy with child, and the promise of motherhood made each passing day barable. Life went on. Days passed. Things seemed to be looking up.
Her recollections jumped forward with shocking speed and all Ciel could feel was radiating pain. Confusion spread through his thoughts like wildfire as he tried to take in the scene from her point of view. The darkness was encompassing and she laid trapped within it.
Heat spread across her abdomen and in that moment reality returned. The Earl could feel the exact moment she remembered that she was pregnant, and the immediate flood of sheer panic and desperation.
Time jumped forward and the boy found himself in a dimly lit room. Tears streaked his aunt's face and bandages marked various parts of her body. Numbness and depression clouded his conscious and the hopelessness of it all dragged his heart down like an anchor.
"I lost the child, along with my womb. I would never be a mother. I was forever cursed to love other peoples babies."
He felt the ghost of hurt echo through his thoughts like a silent master and faint flickers of suicide flitted across her consciousness.
As the memories melted away to blackness, a huge weight lifted itself from his shoulders and he gasped, the very feel of air flooding his lungs bringing him back to reality.
"But that wasn't the end."
Fear ensnared his heart as he looked up through her eyes and caught sight of Phantomhive manor being consumed by the merciless infero.
Heat bloomed in his chest and Ciel couldn't breathe. Memories of smoke choked the bluenette as he recalled his own version of that night. The confusion of awaking in the middle of the night and having the house feel uncomfortably hot. He remembered the way his eyes burned as he sought out his parents, only to be forgotten as he peered into their open door and glimpsed their broken bodies.
Emotions flowed uncontained between the two of them before the fire disappeared. The darkness lingered, shock and sadness turning to unbridled anger and scalding jealously. Ciel opened his eyes, gazing into the neutral features of his aunt as she stared into the face of a prostitute asking for an abortion.
"She didn't want it!"
Her voice exploded across his conscious, driving his thoughts out by the sheer emotion in her voice.
"All I wanted was a child! A family of my own and she was CASTING IT AWAY!"
Fury whipped back and forth within him as she raged silently behind her perfect mask. She did what was required of her, but with each termination, her hate grew and her heart died.
The first woman, Beth, was an accident. A outburst of pure anger at the woman who so carelessly cast aside the life of a child. The power of freedom intoxicated her as she stabbed the woman over and over again, coating her snow white skin in the crimson of her filthy blood.
"Well, well, well. What have we here~?"
The ring of his voice held stark in her thoughts as she recalled seeing the reaper for the first time. The way he lept from the impossibly high building and landed before her, pulling her up from the blood soaked ground.
"You look dazzing, Madame."
He took in her soiled appearance and grinned wickedly, "My, your passion DOES run deep~ Red suits you, just as it does me."
He brushed the dripping hair from her face, "I've never seen a more beautiful woman."
The memories of her time with Grell was a whirlwind of never ending speed. Time jumped from place to place, face to face, victim to victim. The blood lingered at the corners of each memory, tainting it with even more violence.
A warmth flooded the watcher's body as he stared down into his own face as she held him against the wall. Through her eyes he could see the soft reminders of his mother's grace, and the sharp contrast that was his father. They were both there, staring back at her as she dared to harm him, silently shaking their heads in disapproval and overall disappointment.
Slowly, the edges began to haze as they drew to the close. Her thoughts were blurred and lacking in direction before stopping all together.
The warm glide of memory suddenly escaped him and Ciel found himself standing in the relentless down pour of rain. He stared down at the empty shell that'd once been Madame Red, Angelina Durless.
Her life had been laid out for all present to see; all the things she deemed necessary to prove her life, and to express who she'd been. And now she was gone.
There was no glimmer of consciousness in her gaze, no hint of recognition behind the eyes that'd begun to glass over, and Ciel Phantomhive once again found himself staring into the face of all that'd been taken from him.