I do not own anything but my plot and my characters. This story will only loosely follow the anime/manga, so be prepared for deviations and only snippets of events we have all seen and read a million times. Please enjoy and review!
"Zacerie, I...I Can't," the young woman cries. Tears run down her cheeks, her dark brown hair is matted to her sweaty forehead. Her mouth is open in a silent scream as the doctor urges her to push one more time. She huffs after she pushes again. "Somethings wrong," she pleads with her husband who is clutching her hand. His own face is pale and sweaty, blue eyes widened in panic. There's so much blood, he thinks. Too much.
He wasn't at all surprised when the doctor looks up at him, all disapproval from earlier wiped from his face. The doctor had said it was very improper for him to remain in the birthing room, but the raven haired man would not leave his wife's side. They'd already lost three babies in their marriage...he was going to see this one through. Nevertheless, the doctor looks sick when he informs him that he would need to cut the baby from the mother's womb or they would both die.
Zacerie couldn't handle the news. How much heart ache could one man take? Never in a million years would he have thought that he would lose his wife to something so natural (besides old age). She was so strong...unlike him. He would never be able to raise a child on his own...especially if they got a girl instead of a boy. The man brushes a dazed kiss across his wife's lips and stumbles from the room. In his blurred state of mind and vision he knocks over the expensive glass vase they had received as a wedding present 5 years ago. It shatters and he trips over his own feat in shock, hand slicing open on the glass.
He grunts and holds his bloody hand to his chest as he stumbles to his knees. "Please, please...I'll do anything to save them." He wasn't sure who he was praying to, but at the moment he didn't care. If someone divine...anyone with the power to change their fate could hear him...so be it. He meant what he said. Sure enough, as he sits and cries, the darkness presses in on him and all the oxygen seems to be sucked out of the air. His breath becomes visible in the summer air from the sudden cold.
"Anything, you say? You humans never choose your words carefully."
Zacerie looks up from behind his bangs as Elena screams again in the other room...though weaker than before. There is a woman...or at least he thinks it's a woman, standing in the blinding void of darkness. Her dark blonde hair floats around her as if she were in water instead of the air. Her red eyes dominate her face, glowing supernaturally. Fear instinctually claws up his spine as she grins at him, revealing sharp, pointed teeth.
"Anything...I swear I'll do anything...just save them...please!"
The woman chuckles darkly and approaches him, leaning in. "Stay very still." And he does as he is told. The demon presses her cold lips against his own and a searing white hot pain rips through him. He gives a strangled scream and feels his breath leave him...his vision going blurred...and eventually fading out to nothingness.
Meanwhile in the bedroom...
Elena can't explain the small bout of strength she feels returning to her. The doctor looks at her with wide eyes as her own brown eyes flutter open. Blood is everywhere, and a baby is screaming in the doctors arms. Her stomach is in immeasurable pain, causing more tears to flow down her cheeks. The doctor shakily hands her her daughter, congratulating her bemusedly.
The instant the baby is laid against Elena's chest she calms, her screams dying out to a tired yawn. Brown eyes stare at each other in wonder and love, before the smaller pair gently closes as she falls asleep. A tuff of black unruly hair is atop that small head, matched with her fathers nose and ears.
"Where's Zacerie?" Elena asks quietly.
"He had to step out. Not that I blame him; seeing your wife be cut open is not a pleasant sight."
"Oh," she sighs, worry settling in her stomach as the doctor hurries to stitch her up, muttering about miracles.
"I'll write up the birth certificate as soon as I am finished. What will you call her?"
"Aylee," she answers immediately. "After my own mother."
The doctor nods and threads the stitching through Elena's skin, the woman barely flinching.
1888-Phantomhive Estate
"Young Master, after your lessons for the day perhaps you should go out and get some exercise. Your legs are getting rather chicken like."
Ciel Phantomhive looks up in shock at his butler, a flabbergasted expression smacked on his face. Sebastian simply looks back at him with a pleasant smile.
"Are you seriously suggesting I go outside and play?"
"It is a rather nice day out and physical activity is very important for my young masters health. I cannot in good conscious allow you to whither away in that chair as is befitting a 30 year old man and not a 13 year old boy." Sebastian still wears that same sly smile, going over and pulling the drapes back for the second time that day. The sun shines through the large windows, bathing the two of them in sunlight and making Ciel wince in pain and distaste.
"Put them back down, Sebastian! I do not need to go out!"
"My, my, what a spoiled brat you have become," the butler drawls as he bends to present a crisp envelope to the boy. Ciel glowers at him hatefully, but it soon melts away as he takes the envelope and opens it with a letter opener.
"I don't know who you think you're talking to, but don't forget that I am in charge here. Until the day you consume my soul you do what I say and behave the way I prefer. Is that clear, Sebastian?"
"Yes...my lord," Sebastian gives another shallow bow and takes his place by the edge of the desk, watching disinterestedly as Ciel reads over the queens letter. He'd already read it, and the case itself was interesting, it was the tediousness of allowing Ciel to feel in control that irritated him. What a bother, he thinks.
Ciel sighs heavily and tosses the letter in a bin at his feet. "Bodies keep dropping dead with no apparent reason. This makes number five this year. The only connection they have is this mark. It looks supernatural...have you seen it before?" They boy slides over the photograph he had pulled from the envelope and Sebastian barely looks at it.
"No, I've not seen it before. Though that is very definitely the mark of a demons contract."
"It keeps popping up and this year isn't the only time it's shown up." Ciel pulls another larger file from his desk and plops it on the surface. "The past fifteen years have recorded similar cases, all unsolved. If this is the work of a demon there must be even more than that."
"Hmm, indeed. What to suppose you'll do about a rogue demon on the loose?"
"Don't play stupid. I'm going to let you take care of it. Find out why all of a sudden are they serial killing in London and dispose of the problem."
"Yes my lord. In that case, I shall return by dinner. I do so hope Bardroy doesn't attempt to cook."
Ciel waves him away, looking out the window in deep though. Maybe I will go out.