That Butler, Peerless


I own nothing but my OC.

≤speech in Indian language≥

'thoughts'

"speech"

{setting/stage directions?}

SOUND EFFECTS

An entire sentence like this, without quotes, is narration for dreams or stuff like written letters.

=†=†=†=†= scene shift/time shift

—^—^—^— change of perspective/area of action within one specific time frame/location


Previously:

"The mark of the bird..." Snake said.

"!?" Ciel said when he turned his head and saw it too.

"… There are lots more of them over there. —says… Oscar," Snake finished. There were rows and rows and rows of coffins hanging in the hold. They all stared at them with wide eyes.

"Aah… Uu..." the loose moving corpse groaned as it continued to make its way toward them.

'No… It can't be… Every last one of these is—!?' Ciel thought, disturbed, as the coffins began to rattle and creak, as if something was trying to break out of them.

RATTLE. RATTLE. RATTLE. RATTLE. RATTLE. RATTLE. RATTLE. RATTLE.


'Don't tell me… these are all—!?' Ciel thought, disturbed, as he stared at the rows and rows and rows of coffins hanging in the cargo hold. They were all rattling and creaking as if something was trying to break out of them. The lacing on one of the braces binding one of the coffins broke.

SNAP!

Ciel, Lizzie, and Snake all paled a little as a hand reached out from within, pushing it open. The brace broke completely, and the coffin dropped to the floor.

CLINK.

It wasn't the only one. More laces snapped and more hands reached out from the coffins, opening their doors with a bang. Ladies in corsets and undergarments and men in formal suits, all of them blindfolded, spilled from the coffins and slowly turned their attention to the living. They moaned and groaned as they staggered forward in an undead mob.

=†=†=†=†=†=

{First-Class Smoking Lounge…}

VREEEE!

Ronald skidded across the floor on his lawnmower death scythe and ducked when Sebastian threw more knives at him. The knives only missed the Reaper by a hair.

"You're as good as they say!" Ronald told him.

"Why, thank you," Sebastian said, suddenly behind him in a flash. Ronald's eyes widened as he flinched in shock.

"Oopsie!" Ronald said, managing to dodge the demon's fist at the last second, glancing at his watch. "It's almost time!" He rolled forward, away from Sebastian. "I can't be playing' around now!"

"!?" Sebastian said, surprised.

"I don't wanna get stuck writing a letter of apology because I was late. No, sir. Work's gotta get done efficiently!" Ronald said, riding his death scythe towards the door. "So on that note, see ya laaater… Sebas-chan! " He winked and waved goodbye, and then he disappeared around the corner.

"…..." Sebastian said, still frozen in a fighting pose. "Eh?" Wasn't that too abrupt? Not that he was complaining, but… How arbitrary could a person be?

=†=†=†=†=†=

{Orlop Deck, Cargo Hold…}

"Run, Lizzie!" Ciel said, holding her hand and pulling her along, as they ran, followed by Snake. Fortunately, the moving corpses shuffled towards them very slowly. Unfortunately, they were blocking the escape route. "They're at the exit as well..."

"!!" Lizzie gasped, horrified, when the one that ate the cake tried to eat her again.

BANG!

Ciel put himself between her and the corpse and shot it in the head. It fell to the ground, immobilized, but there was still the rest of the undead mob to be dealt with.

"Kuh…!" Ciel said, furrowing his brow as he looked for another solution to their problem. He looked at a tall stack of crates. That should do. "Snake, take Lizzie and get on top of the crates!!" he ordered. "Hurry!!"

BANG! BANG!

Ciel fired more shots while Snake helped Lizzie climb the crates.

"Damn! There are too many of them..." Ciel said, taking a step back. Lizzie gasped and paled when she saw movement in the shadows.

"Ciel!! Behind you!!" Lizzie yelled when one of the moving corpses came at him from an unexpected direction. For a moment, Ciel thought he was a goner, and he squeezed his eye shut, but the attack never came. The corpse froze in place. Ciel opened his eye and saw that it was because it was being restrained by Snake's snakes.

"!" Ciel said, looking around to see that the other corpses nearest to him were being restrained as well.

"Smile!!" Snake called down to him. He held a hand out to help him up. "Come quick while we've got them tied up!! —says Oscar."

"—Right, thanks!" Ciel said, grasping his hand. Snake's ability to handle snakes really did come in handy. Ciel finished climbing up the crates with Snake's help. He looked down at the moaning mob below them. "It doesn't look like they can climb up here."

"What are they? Not only is our venom ineffective against them, but they reek something awful. —says Webster," Snake said with a furrowed brow.

"I'm unclear on the details, but they're corpses that are somehow being made to move," Ciel replied.

"Corpses…!?" Lizzie said, paling again.

"They don't seem to possess anything even resembling intelligence. And likely also neither vision nor a sense of pain," Ciel said.

"How can you tell? —asks Oscar," Snake said.

"They had not the slightest reaction to your snakes. If they were able to see and feel pain, they would've tried to rid themselves of the snakes first," Ciel replied. "And..." He glanced at the stairs. "… If they had even a shred of intellect, they would know to leave us alone and make for the upper decks. They'd find much more food there, after all."

"By f-food, you don't mean..." Lizzie said anxiously, turning white as a sheet.

"Ahem!" Ciel cleared his throat. He didn't intend to upset her. "That leaves their hearing. If they're dependent on their ears, we may be able to distract them with sound and make our escape from here." One of the snakes tapped the plate Snake was holding with its nose.

"What do you say we test their ears by throwing this?—says Emily," Snake asked, holding up the plate.

"Right, try giving it a toss," Ciel said, a little surprised he still had it. Snake tossed the plate and it smashed into the floor and shattered. Ciel watched the moving corpses. No reaction at all. "Well, so much for that..." 'Then what exactly are these things using to pursue us?' Ciel wondered, holding his chin. 'Some among their number are without noses, and in this putrid stench, it seems unlikely that they could sniff us out...' "!?" Ciel exclaimed as they were all jolted.

"Kyah!" Lizzie cried. The crate was moving beneath them.

"What's going on!?" Ciel asked with a furrowed brow while the three of them held on for dear life. "!?" he gasped when he saw that the moving corpses were all clawing and bitting the crates they were on, stripping the wood away. "They're using their teeth and nails!? Snake! Can't you stop them with your serpents!?"

"No way, not that many! —says Oscar," Snake said anxiously.

'How much longer are you going to play around, Sebastian!?' Ciel thought urgently, gritting his teeth.

"C-Ciel!" Lizzie cried, holding onto him.

"…! You will be fine," Ciel told her, holding her in a protective embrace. "Lizzie, you, I'll protect without fail… come whatever may!!" he promised, squeezing his eyes shut as he wracked his brain for a way to save them.

"How admirable of you, Young Master," Sebastian said. Four knives pierced the heads of four of the corpses, making them drop dead for a second time. "That is just how an English gentleman ought to behave," he praised Ciel from the stairs.

"Sebastian! Don't just stand there! Hurry up and take care of them!!" Ciel shouted.

"As you wish," Sebastian said and dashed forth to carry out the order. "This is none too refined a method, but… if all that is required is to destroy their heads—" Sebastian jumped and grabbed the head of a corpse and smashed it against the floor. Rotten blood splattered all over the floor and his hand. "This way… is by far the most expedient!" he finished with a dark smirk.

"!!" Snake gasped, paling. Ciel furrowed his brow and gritted his teeth as he quickly made sure Lizzie's eyes were covered. Sebastian took out several at once with a powerful kick. Ciel's eyes widened slightly as he watched the savage display. The way Sebastian grinned while destroying the corpses with such pitiless brutality was just like... 'The cascading crimson of freshly spilled blood and… the dancing devil in black,' Ciel thought. 'This… is the same scene I saw that day.' He was suddenly behind the bars again, watching as Ciel was dragged away to the altar. Chêne was screaming at the cult members to stop. 'No, it's not the same.' He had taken the demon's hand. Chêne was safe upstairs, blissfully ignorant of their dire situation. 'I'm outside the cage. The ones being killed by my butler are not those who defiled me… and Ciel is here no more.' He remembered Ciel covered in blood on the table. How his eye bled from having the contract mark applied to it. 'I am Earl Phantomhive, and...' He remembered holding the Phantomhive ring in his bloody hand. '… I… am me. And I—'

"Ciel!!" Lizzie called, snapping him out of it. Ciel gasped. He was dripping in sweat.

"Hah…! Haah!" Ciel breathed deeply, trying to calm himself. "Liz…" He realized his hands were shaking, and he was probably gripping her arms tight enough to leave bruises. "… zie." He made himself loosen his grip. Sebastian stepped forward.

"All done, Young Master," the demon butler reported with a disturbingly refreshing smile. His face had blood on it.

"Hah! Haah!" Ciel breathed, glaring down at him.

"Is something wrong?" Sebastian asked. "Now." He held his hands out to him. The once white gloves had been dyed red with blood. "Here, please let me help you." Ciel stared at his butler's hands.

"Don't touch me with those hands," he said calmly as he climbed down to a lower crate. "You'll get me dirty."

"My apologies, Sir," Sebastian said, looking at his hands. "I shall change my gloves right away." He quickly swapped his stained gloves for a new pair, taking care Lizzie didn't see the mark on his hand. Ciel let him lift him from the crate and set him on the bloody floor. Some of the blood splashed up on his shoes.

"….." Ciel stared at his soiled shoes. "Couldn't you have gone about it a little more gracefully?" he asked while Sebastian helped Lizzie down. He glanced back at his butler. "You were like a beast," he said coldly.

"… Please do forgive me, Sir. It was a matter of some urgency, after all," Sebastian said with the ghost of a smirk. "Moreover, their bodies appear to be frailer than even that of the average human. They were quite fragile."

"But why are so many of them on this ship?" Ciel asked.

"I believe..." Sebastian said, withdrawing knives from his coat and throwing them in one smooth motion. The four knives embedded themselves in a crate inches from Rian's face. "… We had better put that question to him."

"Rian Stoker!!" Ciel said, surprised to see him still skulking around there. Rian's face was pale, and he was covered in sweat. He seemed terrified.

"N-No!! Their absolute salvation was incomplete, and… I never intended for them to reanimate in such unhealthy states..." Rian blabbered nervously as Sebastian stalked towards him. "Please just hear me out! We must hurr—yeow!" he said anxiously as Sebastian twisted his arms behind his back to restrain him.

"There is no need to rush. We have plenty of time until we put in at New York, so we shall listen to your story at leisure," Sebastian said with a smile.

"P-Please wait!!" Rian begged,

"For what?" asked Sebastian. "I have gotten rid of them all..."

"No, you haven't!" Rian insisted.

"Come again?" Sebastian said, his smile falling.

"This ship utilizes the latest reciprocating steam engines, and they and their massive boilers are installed at the center of the vessel," Rian explained anxiously. "So this place is divided in two with the boiler rooms in the middle."

"So what of it?" Ciel asked.

"In other words, this ship has two cargo holds… one in the bow and the other in the stern!!" Rian said.

"Wha—!?" Ciel said.

"And the hold in the bow… has ten times as many test subjects… as the hold in the stern stored within," Rian said with wide eyes and a furrowed brow.

"Did you say ten times as many!?" Ciel exclaimed incredulously, appalled.

=†=†=†=†=†=

In the bow, in the cargo hold, scores of coffins with the phoenix insignia on them stood empty.