Blood dripped onto the marble floor as the man clad in black stared back at his master's smiling look-alike. The grinning doppelganger's umbrella protruded from the butler's side as he gripped it, having swiftly redirected it so that his heart was saved. Ciel looked on in horror as his counterpart glared at Sebastian with firey eyes. The sad twinge to them was gone and replaced with the ferocity of a wild animal.
Hearing a squelch, Ciel's eye darted down to the butler's wound. The blood spurting on the floor turned black and stuck together in globs. Looking toward the butler again, something was off. Ciel squinted, but couldn't decide what.
Tightening his grip on the umbrella, the butler smirked, pulling the weapon out of his body and forcing more of the gnarly black liquid on the floor. The smiling man pushed back, trying to keep it in place. His face contorted as he tried to press forward, but his arms began to push toward himself. Eventually, Sebastian managed to force it back completely, jabbing the look-alike in the gut with the handle of the umbrella before using it to hurl him across the room. The smiling man hit the wall hard, knocking off decorations before hitting the floor with a loud thud.
"Pesky fellow, isn't he?" observed the butler, gripping his side. His gloves were stained black as the liquid seeped from between his fingers. "We should go before he recovers. Come, master. Onto the next stage."
"I…" Ciel hesitated, looking up at the other man with a baffled expression on his visage. Much to the butler's surprise, he slowly took a step back. Then another, and another, all while shaking his head. "I… I don't take orders from you." The bluenette said. "The way you're talking to me… It's not like you…"
Surprise was prominent on the butler's face before it became a grimace. His brow furrowed and his lips formed a frown. Sweat trickled down the back of the Phantomhive's neck as Sebastian took an imposing step toward him. Eye widening, what he had suspected somewhere in the back of his mind had come to the forefront and he realised what was happening.
"You're not Sebastian…" he said breathlessly. "What… What are you?"
"Let's just say, I'm simply one hell of a bad dream." The man quipped. The colour drained from his visage, rendering him black and white. With a flick of his wrist, his signature utensils appeared between his fingers. Casually, he began to walk toward the bluenette, practically gliding along the floor.
This prompted the Phantomhive to turn tail and head toward the door that his own counterpart had pointed out to him before. Panting, he shoved his hand forward, gripping the door handle as the monochrome bastardization of his own servant clicked its tongue in disapproval. Shaking its head, the monochrome butler spoke.
"Ah, ah, ah…" it tsked, raising its arm. "Can't have you going that way, now." With that, the knives in its hands propelled forward toward the Phantomhive.
One stuck deeply into the wooden door, but the rest fell to the grounds with a clatter. Whipping his head around, Ciel saw the smiling man. He stood between the Phantomhive and the nightmare with his umbrella open, acting as a shield. Ciel's grip on the door handle loosened as he stared at the figure in astonishment. The knives had bounced off the shield and rendered the Watchdog completely unharmed. Closing the umbrella, the smiling man peered over his own shoulder, their eyes meeting. Now, the doppelganger's bared teeth no longer frightened the Phantomhive, but rather, confused him.
"Why must you make things so difficult?" questioned the nightmare. "Just give up. Give in. There's no escaping this place. You're in my world now."
Wordlessly, the smiling man pointed past Ciel, and at the door. He paid no mind to the man clad in black behind them, and failed to even bat an eyelash. Then, the faux-watchdog flicked his wrist, as though he were saying to the Phantomhive: "Go, I'll handle this."
Understandably, Ciel was not sure what to think of this. There was no way he could trust the man just yet, especially after what he had seen. Eyes could not be trusted. The question was: What exactly could one put their faith in while in this world? Perception was faulty and logic was meaningless. The smiling man did not look trustworthy, and gave the Watchdog a deep-set sense of unease, yet he had no choice.
Opening the door, he almost stepped through, only to stop dead in his tracks, as he almost stepped out into a void of pitch blackness. The only thing visible was the door, and Ciel didn't dare step out into the abyss, as when he tried to put out his foot and touch floor, there was nothing. There was nothing at all beyond this door, and Ciel could not go out there.
He stood there, looking down and tried to see any sign of there being a bottom, but there was nothing. He held the doorframe with a deathgrip as he kept himself steady. He couldn't move forward. He couldn't move back.
"I can't go!" he shouted, hearing the sounds of combat behind him. A thunderous roar erupted, shattering glass and shaking the building. The noise forced Ciel to let go of the doorframe and cover his ears, scrunching his face in pain.
Then, he felt a foot strike him in the back. He opened his eyes, and began to fall, screaming as he cursed anyone and everyone involved. Looking over his shoulder, he could see the smiling man grinning down at him as he fell before shutting the door.
There was nothing but the feeling of weightlessness as the watchdog fell, reaching out for anything—anything at all that could save him. Nothing.
Even in Ciel's head, there was nothing. His brain was trying to pick everything up and process what exactly was happening, but everything was happening so fast, that he couldn't. He was spinning as he fell, becoming nauseous and adding to his disoriented state of mind.
Suddenly, there was something. Some brown was appearing from within the black, as were greys and other colours mixed into an ugly conglomerate. As he continued to fall, they became clearer, and clearer before his foot finally hit something, forcing him to spin further. His head was knocking against the wall as he tumbled. It felt as though he was being drawn toward its cold, hard surface.
Soon he was just rolling along it like a log rolling down a hill before smacking against the ground with a loud cracking noise. He then fell again, however, this time against the wall, and he stuck. Opening his eyes, he had to wait for the world to stop spinning for him to process anything at all. He made an attempt to get up, rolling over and trying to put his feet on the ground, but he stayed attached to the wall. His attempts to stand on the wall when much better, although the dizziness caused him to fall to his knees. As his eyes focused, however, he found himself sitting in the floor of a large, ornate hallway.
"Which way is 'up' again?" he asked aloud to no one in particular. He could have sworn that the floor was too his right just now, but that appears to be a wall, and what he is sitting on is the floor. Looking to his left, he should have been able to see the black abyss he had fallen from, but it was just an empty, adjacent hallway. There were hardly any lights on aside from a few dim electric lamps that were fastened to the walls.
This was certainly not the Phantomhive estate with its tacky red wallpaper and gold trimmings and knick-knacks. Since that was the case, where exactly was it? Ciel squinted, trying to adjust and figure things out, but he was a tad uneasy, still. After sitting in the hallway floor for what felt like ages, the bluenette was finally able to stand, picking up his eyepatch off of the floor and tying it back around his head as he did. It was a hasty knot, but it would have to do, as Ciel needed to figure out where he was.
"What's that smell?" he wretched, wrinkling his nose. It smelled like filth, perfume, and old cigars all at once. What kind of place was this that it had this kind of stench?
With no other choice but to wander, he did just that. After following the hallway that he stumbled upon initially, he eventually made his way to what appeared to be a foyer. The sapphire eye of the Watchdog scoured the area for a coat of arms that might give him further information as to where on earth he was. He checked above the doorway first, making a revolted face at what he found.
"What kind of mansion allows spiders to live in them?" inquired the man as he stared up at the spider's web. As he stared at it, his look of disgust fell into one of horror as a possibility presented itself.
Whipping his head around, his eyes fell to the floor. On it, was a family coat of arms with a spider. A diabolical seal for a diabolical family. The Trancy's. Shock became anger as the Phantomhive stared at it.
"No…" the man said. "Not this…"
