To Be a Mother - Chapter Twenty-Five
Ciel was lazing about the manor's library, immersed in the ensnaring pages of Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson when the sensation arose without warning. It was a sharp squeezing in his lower abdomen, a tightness so shocking that his frame jerked with the surprise. It did not administer any pain on his person in any kind of fashion, but it discomforted him and the fright he suffered as a result seemed far more turbulent than any kind of anguish that could have taken its place.
Upon feeling it, the book slid from his jittering fingers and tumbled to the rug-lavished floor with a somber thud. Convulsing, he hunched over himself, clutching at his stomach with the urgency of a child clinging to its mother. A flush of cold doused his veins, his skin instantly growing bloodless, his petrified gaze becoming infatuated with the ground below. The seconds ticked by, and he didn't dare breathe, waiting on the brink of madness for the unbidden feeling to subside. When it did not, a thunder shrieked through his ears.
"S-Sebastian!" he wailed, an animalistic fret veiling his wavering tones. When nothing but loneliness answered, Ciel cried out again, this time with greater vigour, his bulging eyes beginning to water. "SEBASTIAN!"
"Right here, my Lord," A voice, with icy breath that blossomed upon the shell of his ear, cooed in the din. The unexpected presence caused Ciel to rear up his head, his vision coming to swim with his butler's lustreless hues. Upon analysing Ciel's inexcusable state, the demon immediately knelt down in front of his withered being and took Ciel's vibrating shoulder blades in his imperturbable grasp.
"Do not be frightened, Master," he stated with notes unruffled and completely collected. "These are merely Braxton Hicks Contractions. I shall explain in a moment, but for now, deep breaths, Sir."
Sebastian inhaled insistently, and Ciel was obliged to follow, a shaky gasp filling his starved lungs with much needed oxygen. It rapidly became a dance of slow, sufficient breathing, with Sebastian the lead and Ciel the pursuer. Once the sensation had been almost entirely stifled, Sebastian ceased the exercise.
"Now, can you still feel movement?" Sebastian queried with a flash of intensity in his vermillion irises.
Noticing how the infant rolled almost playfully in his stomach, Ciel winced, nodding, his voice fleeing from him.
"A good sign, than," Sebastian replied, his fingers loosening on his shoulders, but never releasing entirely. "Braxton Hicks Contraction usually are quite common at this stage of the pregnancy. Their simply function is to prepare the muscles for childbirth. Nothing more."
Ciel did not utter a sound in response to those words. He still refused to believe the inevitable, and had instead grown accustomed to becoming mute whenever anyone dared to speak of it. It was the only way he was really coping with the truth anymore; if he didn't react, than perhaps it would become a subject too bothersome to talk of.
Clearly aware of this, Sebastian sighed in a manner that could be described as almost wearisome. "I shall run a bath for you, my Lord."
XXX
Hey guys!
A short chapter, I know, but I feel like it's still important to the story. Just bear with it for a little longer; there'll be more action soon!
HeartElyse