CHAPTER 2 - "THE TRICKSTER CAUGHT"

"Forgive me, my lord, but I am unfamiliar with this story," Sebastian said.

Sebastian had followed Lukas down to the basement storage area and watched as the master rummaged through a pile of items Ciel had collected over the years that had apparently been forgotten. Lukas said he was after a few specific things that would give him purchase to make Ciel to change his "miser" ways.

Even Sebastian was astonished at just how much Ciel had collected in their time together, that even he had forgotten about. In fact, he could say that the basement was nearly full of junk. However, there was a saying that one man's junk is another man's treasure, but by the level of dust, in Sebastian's eyes, it was all junk!

"The premise, Sebastian…" Lukas struggled in a tiny alcove to reach what he wanted, pulling out a length of rope, "is simple. I intend in duplicating the story written by the author Charles Dickens about an aging, stickler miser who detaches himself from his fellow man because he feels society itself has befallen him. In creating a ghostly atmosphere with smoke and mirrors, I want to draw the old Ciel out. The happy Ciel."

Sebastian held up an old table cloth that will eventually be cut with eye sockets, looking at it skeptically, to make believe to be a ghostly phantom. "But how will frightening your brother out of his melancholy during this time of year help him? I normally find to scare someone has the opposite affect."

Lukas coughed, stirring up some dust. "When was the last time this basement was cleaned?"

"Forgive me, sir, but your brother doesn't leave me much time for gratuities, I am very busy with cleaning above ground levels."

Lukas nodded. "A lot of this stuff can be thrown out if it has collected this much dust."

"You may want to ask your brother for permission as all this is all his he has accumulated over the years." Sebastian put down the bed sheet on a stack of dusty boxes, dusting his gloves off. "Frankly, I find it junk."

Lukas smirked. "Well, not everything here is junk." He dragged out a large and heavy portrait of his parents from a half-moon alcove. Ciel was in it, smiling, and was without the eye patch, sitting proudly in front of Vincent and Rachel Phantomhive. Obviously this family image had been painted before their parent's murder and Ciel's torturous ordeal. It was a reproduction of an original, Lukas knew, because everything had burned in the fire that took the original Phantomhive mansion.

"Your brother had that taken down only months before you arrived, my lord. He felt it brought back bad memories, as he, at the time, was the sole heir and head of the Phantomhive family."

"I would like it hung in my bedchambers if possible. Perhaps it will remind me of happier times."

Sebastian bowed. "I will instruct the servants to do so," the butler said. "Now, to further inquire about the story. Did it work?"

"Did the spirits succeed in making Ebenezer Scrooge change his miserable ways, do you mean? Well, not at first. It took the Ghost of Christmas Future to show him the true meaning of his ways - death - and henceforth, Christmas morning, he was a new man. The Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present were only a prelude to his fate if he did not change. His past he could not change, but the present was accumulative." Lukas rummaged through another cramped corner of the basement, kicking up dust. "Basically," his voice a little muffled, "the story relays to the reader that there's still good in all off us, even if we have been stuck in our ways for a long time, or have lost our way. Scrooge reminds me of Ciel."

"And where did you come by this story?"

"I remember reading it when I was with…" He stopped himself, he was about to call Bryon Kelvin father, "with him, and I spent a lot of my free time, when I wasn't killing people or obeying his orders, reading. I've come to believe that it may have helped me break free of my programming, that it helped trigger a sense of morality that I was lacking then." Lukas came back out into the open, dusting himself off. "But that is only supposition. I am not absolutely positive what helped me break free of Bryon Kelvin's grasp."

"You are a strong-willed individual, my lord. This I have observed since you have come to live us with, and I am honored to serve you."

Lukas nodded. "You are also my friend, Sebastian. Please don't forget that."

Sebastian smiled. "I have made a few friends since the covenant was made with your brother. He is elsewhere at the moment - you have not met him yet, but I know you will someday - but Prince Soma Asman Kadar of Bengal, India, and his man-servant Agni, also consider me a friend. Your brother and I came by their acquaintance purely by accident when we were on traveling through the East End of London filled with desolate Indian immigrants who demanded we pay for passage through. They attempted to curry us in a battle, but the fates were in our favor that day, and the Prince sided with us against his own people. The events afterward were exhausting, I must say. He invited himself to the mansion and took up residence as payment for his kindness. We were told, he had come to England to search for his maidservant Menna, who vanished but later admitted she had had enough of Prince Somo's selfish ways. Events ensued, and your brother battled Agni for a Royal Warrant in a Curry contest, for which I won, and judged by Her Royal Highness, Queen Victoria. The Prince was an arrogant, self-absorbed young child, age 17. Suffice it to say, in the end, even a child, like a dog, can learn new tricks, and he left with a new outlook in life."

Lukas chuckled. "I wonder where I was doing all this comical happenstance, more business affairs, I imagine. My brother has me swamped with Funtom Co. He believes I have a very savvy business nature."

"As do I, my lord. Your efforts have entered Funtom Co. into a multitude of different merchandise markets, and I know for a fact, that your brother is very pleased."

Lukas frowned. "He doesn't show it to me. In fact, he makes it a point to indicate what needs improving, as if grading me like some sort of school child. It infuriates me!"

Sebastian smiled. "I must say, that you have indeed helped me, Master Lukas. In the past, I was your brother's sole business adviser and marketer. You have taken that task off my shoulders. And I thank you."

"If I have alleviated you of this burden, then why is this basement such a mess?"

Lukas stood straight, eying Sebastian with a straight face. Sebastian appeared taken aback. Then Lukas smiled, before Sebastian could respond. "As you have come to know, I am blessed with a sense of humor unlike my brother. I know this place will find cleansing in due time."

Sebastian bowed shortly. "Indeed." Sebastian put a hand to his chin, curling a finger, a momentary muse. "Master Lukas, may I try my hand at what you impose? I may be able to 'scare' your brother more efficiently than tricks with smoke and mirrors. But I will be kind. I remember once, your brother had a nightmare after he read poetry sonnets from Edgar Allan Poe - the Tell-Tale Heart and The Raven. He awoke in quite a fright. Perhaps I can generate similar imaginary in his dreams and also incorporate similes of fright to 'alter' your brother's ideals about this holiday season."

Lukas put a hand to his face in abashment. "Why am I such a fool? Why didn't I consider this? You can craft a much better 'nightmare' than all these things I have found. You have been entering my dreams on a frequent nightly bases to help restore some of my lost memories; I thank you. Perhaps, this method can be used to also help my brother, better than all of this junk." He gestured to the rope, mirrors and other items he had pulled out to enact his wicked performance of The Christmas Carol on Ciel. "Be my guest, Sebastian. But don't be that kind." A sinister, crooked, but playful smile crept onto Lukas's face.

"I shall endeavor to do my best, sir. And it will be my pleasure."

Knowing a little fright might just be a good dose of medicine for his master for the childish way he has been acting.

That night, when the entire household was asleep, Sebastian walked quietly into Ciel's bed chambers. He was a demon, so he rarely slept. On occasion, he did need nourishment and rest to regenerate himself without gorging himself on a soul - since he was saving that pleasure for when he was able to throw off this butler creed and partake in his master's soul. But that would only happen after the covenant was complete, until all those that did Ciel Phantomhive wrong were punished. Until then, he had human food.

As the days rolled on, Sebastian grew hungrier, but he knew when the day finally arrived, his master's soul would taste ever more sweeter. The best things were those that you waited for.

What he and Master Lukas had concocted, to frighten Ciel, was a variance on the Christmas Carol story. Sebastian had planned out what he supposed to do to Ciel, but Lukas had some input and suggested he read the Charles Dickens story to fully understand the message of the author. While it partook more to a religious meaning - that there was 'good' in everyone - Sebastian would heed to own methods of fright.

In educating himself on the human mind, he found in a dream state, everything appeared absolutely real to a person, and could, if intense enough, harm them physically, even if it was merely a mental experience. Perspective was everything to a human, what they think they knew didn't necessarily mean it was real, in the case of Lukas Phantomhive, of whom which with the help of the Undertaker, was able to dwell into his own past, forgotten, brought on by amnesia, viewing his cinematic record, to watch his parents, seemingly, cast him afar because of his plain-face, then was glad when an opportunity arose to correct a secondary deformity brought on by a bad reaction to asthma medicine that was not his to take. He soon realized that his parents only wanted to grant him a chance at life, as those with deformities were seen as outcasts. It was tragic that further events unfolded that then took Lukas away from his family for seven long years.

But that was the past and this was the present. He was a butler with two masters, but he didn't mind. His covenant with Ciel Phantomhive held true and even after he devoured Ciel's soul, he could have desert in the form of Lukas Phantomhive, as he had no contract with him. It was the perfect situation. He was a demon, he devoured souls, and to gorging himself on two souls of the same family will be delightful!

Sebastian crept to stand next to Ciel's king-sized bed. The bed was much too large for the small thirteen-year old, but perhaps that was the point. Ciel saw himself as head of the Phantomhive household, in spite of Lukas's return, and indeed, it was symbolic of its nature.

Sebastian pulled off his right, white glove, and hovered his hand above his master's head.

Ciel was sleeping sounding on his right side, curled up against his favorite pillow, if persa, snuggling with it. In fact, he couldn't sleep without it. It was much like a safety blanket to a scared child. Sebastian didn't know the attachment Ciel had with the pillow, but it seemed to put him directly to sleep like a sleep tonic would an insomniac.

But before he could begin, he sensed something different…

"What do you think you are doing?" the boy demanded, his eyes still closed. He then turned over, looking at the butler, demanding an answer. "Well?"

Sebastian's eyes widen with surprise. "My lord, I thought you were sleeping. You looked so relaxed, snuggled up to your pillow."

"I was not snuggling!" Ciel protected defensively, as if the mere idea was embarrassing. "And this gives your just cause to enter my bed cambers without permission? What were you going to do? Have you decided your hunger for my soul is much too strong to stand anymore?"

Ciel's right eye glowered, as his anger fueled the covenant embedded in it.

"Perish the thought, my lord. Our covenant still stands true. I sensed a disturbance in your sleep and I was checking up on you," Sebastian lied.

"A disturbance? What kind of disturbance?"

"A nightmare, sir. Much like you had after you read the Edgar Allen Poe poems."

Ciel's eyes narrowed. "I see. Is our covenant that strong that you can now read my thoughts?"

"No, my lord."

"Then why are you lying to me?"

Sebastian sighed, lying was not his virtue. "Forgive my deception, my lord. In truth, I came here to scare you."

Ciel quickly sat up. "What in God's name for?!"

Sebastian laid out the entire 'plan' devised by Lukas, that he asked Sebastian to frighten Ciel into changing his mind to keeping the Christmas decorations and to become a happier person.

Ciel scowled.

"Please forgive your brother, my lord, but he only wants to - "

"I don't give a damn what he wants! This reinforces my conviction of abolishing Christmas from this household forever!"

"But sir, what about Lady Elizabeth? She so enjoys this season."

Ciel gazed over to the small gift box on the table next to the right side of his bed that he purchased the other day. He had hoped to invite her to the mansion on his own terms to give it to her, but now this deception by his brother infuriated him about the whole gift-given season. It would have to wait.

He glared at Sebastian. "If Lukas thinks he can trick me into giving him everything he desires, let us turn the tables on him, attune to his own medicine."

"Not to question the young master, but would that be wise, sir? Your brother's mind is already fragile with what he has gone through sustained by Bryon Kelvin."

Ciel nodded, but didn't seem to care. "Indeed, but this trickery can not go unchallenged."

"Unchallenged, my lord? Your brother did not mean any malicious intent."

"And neither do I, however - "

"With all due respect - you are the heir to the Phantomhive family, my lord. In this childish notation of abolishing Christmas because of acerbic feelings about the past, you are critically damaging your reputation in social circles. A person of your status should be seen attending social events to improve your image."

"Are you quite finished?"

"My lord?"

"I see that some of the pugnacious nature of my brother's influence has befallen you. Your job is not to question my orders but to follow them without vacillation, is that clear? Do not argue with me!"

Sebastian found himself taking a mental step backwards. In all his years, he had never been frightened of anything, especially a human, but Ciel Phantomhive was no mere human - the venom he possessed in his revenge seeking heart had originally drawn Sebastian, as he lain near death, about to be sacrificed by a secret group of men who called themselves the Inner Circle, wanting to call upon a demonic entity to seek secrets of the universe. But he found it amusing that Ciel Phantomhive had no fear of him whatsoever.

He crossed an arm across his chest and bowed. "Your wish is my desire, my lord," he said to humor the boy. "Forgive my impertinence. I shall indeed follow your orders, as my master…until the end."

"See that you do. Now, as for my brother's scare… What I wish is what you intended for me, but with a twist. Instead of acting like Jacob Marley and have Scrooge change his ways, I want you to scare Lukas and bring him over to my way of thinking - that Christmas is indeed a humbug."

Sebastian frowned.

"Is something wrong with that?"

"Without arguing, my lord. Your brother only wishes to enjoy the holiday with you in this gayful season. While I am your servant and as long as you hold the covenant, I will, on occasion, express my opinion on issues for which I disagree with you, albeit within our contract. And this is one of those times. I do not recommend this, it may do irreversible damage to your brother's mind."

"I will take that under advisement. In the meantime, use your imagination."

Sebastian sighed, knowing he had lost. "Is this an order, my lord?"

"Need it be?" Sebastian looked at Ciel straight-faced; Ciel tilted his head slightly, as if he would need to make it an order. "Make it one, notwithstanding."

To be continued…