CHAPTER 3 - "TO KEEP A SECRET"
Tanaka knocked on the guest quarters door. He didn't need to as it was locked and its occupant couldn't flee and Tanaka had the key, but it was customary to knock first to announce one's presence.
Unlocking the door, he let himself in, pushing in front a trolley of food and drink for Liec. "I thought you may be hungry," he said.
He found Liec sitting melancholy on the love seat in front of the bay window overlooking the back property gazing outward as if lost in thought.
"Am I prisoner here?" Liec muttered.
He lazily looked back at Tanaka, and the old butler sighed. Tanaka placed an open plate of cheese and crackers on a near by table.
"Don't think that," Tanaka said. "Master Ciel is only judging the situation accordingly for your well-being."
Liec put up a hand as if to silence a servant. "Spare me," he said. "I know my movements are being watched. I've been a prisoner before."
Tanaka cocked his head slightly. "Have you now? Do you remember something of your past?"
Tanaka thought he caught a flash of remembrance from the boy, but the moment quickly faded. But the boy continued to stare at him as if trying to squeeze out a memory from his subconscious to the surface. His eyes narrowed.
"Please leave," Liec said.
Tanaka bowed slightly. "Please call if you need anything by pulling on this rope next to the bed. It will alert the servants and someone will attend to your needs."
Liec turned and looked at the rope as Tanaka made his way to the door. Then turned back. "No, wait. Please stay."
"You've changed your mind about having company?"
"I want to ask you a question, if you know the answer, that is."
"I will try to be of any assistance if I can provide it."
"Who is that 'other' butler? The younger one who acts all superior? Are you not Head butler of the household?"
"His name is Sebastian Michealis. He and the master are very close."
"That did not answer my question. You have been in service of the Phantomhive household for many years, have you not?"
"I have. But I am too old to properly conduct the day-to-day duties of a younger man. Therefore, I conduct what I am able."
"So you are kept on out of respect for your years of service?"
"I am a butler of the Phantomhive household because I can teach the young master much still. Ciel is still a mere child and needs schooling to become a healthy adult."
"I hear the Michealis takes care of that as well."
"And where did you hear that?" Tanaka asked with firm inquisitiveness.
"The servants. They've come to visit me as well."
"I was unaware of that. But let me reiterate: you are not a prisoner."
"Can I go too and fro as I please?"
Tanaka sighed. "No."
"Then leave me please, I wish to be alone with my thoughts. And take your prison food with you!"
"I will leave, but the food will stay as per my master's orders. Young boys need nourishment to stay healthy."
Tanaka then left.
The moment Tanaka closed Liec's quarters' door behind him, Sebastian seemed to appear close by as if out of thin air. But what should have frightened him, didn't even make the old man twitch.
Tanaka turned to look at the tall, younger man, but said nothing.
"Is out guest fairing well?" Sebastian asked.
"Yes. A little bitter about his circumstances, but nonetheless well."
"Very good." Sebastian paused a moment before speaking once more. "Tanaka, my I speak with you a moment in private. It's an urgent matter. The Dining Room is empty."
But at the worse possible moment, Tanaka's energy evaporated and exhaustion demurred him.
Sebastian sighed. "Maybe later."
Some time ago, Ciel Phantomhive had asked, or rather ordered Sebastian, that he wanted the family portrait that resided above the stairs in the front vestibule of the mansion to be removed.
And he remembered what he had said when he made the order: "I am Ciel, son of Vincent, and I am the head of the Phantomhive household now."
He didn't see it, but he could feel Sebastian smile after he said those words. They were cold and bitter, and Sebastian, being the demon that he is, most assuredly enjoyed hearing them. It would fuel his hunger for Ciel's soul. Sebastian Michaelis, the demon who eventually devour Ciel's soul after his parents' death mystery was unraveled and their murderers brought to justice.
The portrait had been a daily reminder of what Ciel lost and had to look at it every time he retired for the night residing above the stairs in the front vestibule, it like salt in an open wound. So he had it taken it down and put in storage in the deepest depths of the mansion's cellars. He would've preferred it be destroyed, but he couldn't drum up the courage to do that. It was, only, a reproduction of the original painting that burned in the original Phantomhive mansion fire two years ago. But there was a certain sentimental attachment to it. So his servants placed it in a dank, dark cellar, devour of light and life.
It was the very same cellar he found himself now. He was holding a three arm wick candle holder and it's light danced demonically across the walls, as he stood staring at the faces of his parents who seemed to stare back at him from the grave. Their faces joyful and happy.
And so was his face in the portrait. He had a wide smile and big, blue happy eyes. A far cry of now.
"I can't smile, I've forgotten how," he once told Sebastian.
This was not weakness coming down here, he told himself. He wanted answers, and he thought staring at the portrait might evoke inspiration as to why his parents may have separated their twin sons at birth, or was Sebastian's explanation of twin children being born to different parents but within the same family line be true?
But what little he knew of biology, twin children being born to different parents was absurd.
Maybe Liec has something to do with those people that night…
Ciel felt the mark that was branded on the side of his torso - "the mark of the beast", they had say it was. The beast referring to Lucifer, the devil. Did his parents really worship the devil and with this mark they wanted to bring him into the fold when he was old enough? Perhaps if it wasn't for the fire, he might have found out. And if he hadn't made a contract with Sebastian on that night, as well. Maybe Liec was truly his twin brother and not acting? Maybe they were separated and Liec was raised by one of those people? Maybe he finally escaped after twelve long years? So many what ifs, however.
Ciel shook his head. It all seemed so preposterous and demented. But on the other hand, Liec looked just like him, and unless Liec underwent some sort of medical scientific procedure to make himself look like Ciel, (and that medical science didn't exist as far as he knew), then there were two surviving Phantomhive children - twins. The foremost question was why, why did his parents separate them?
His mind raced with so many questions…
"So here you are," a voice echoed through the cellar, momentarily startling Ciel. His whole body jumped. Then he saw the tall, dark figure of his butler, the white ghostly pale of his face illuminated with orange candle light.
"What the hell do you think you're doing! Do you want to give me a heart attack?"
Sebastian merely smiled. "Come, come, sir. You're too young for that. But a good scare never hurt anyone." His tone bordered on mockery. "But forgive me, my lord. I was concerned I couldn't find you."
Ciel turned back to the portrait. "Don't insult me with that excuse. You know where to find me at anytime. Our contract is like a leash around a dog's neck."
"An acute analogy, master."
"Woof," Ciel said mockingly, knowing Sebastian hated dogs and referring to his position as the Queen's guard dog. "But I hold your leash, and don't you forget it!"
"Indeed," Sebastian said. "May I ask why you are down here? Ruminating?"
"Solving a mystery," Ciel said. "Like Dummont's story The Man in the Iron Mask. It appears, whether I like it or not, I do have a twin brother who was hidden from the world and me for whatever reason."
Sebastian went straight-faced. "So you have decided Liec is your twin brother?"
"The evidence speaks for itself. He looks like me; there is no other explanation. My parents had twins, and for some reason kept my brother from me. Now he has surfaced and I am at a lost at what to do with him."
"How about welcome him?" Sebastian suggested. "But I will say this: You are my master and no one else and that will not change regardless of Liec's presence here. I also serve the Phantomhive household."
"So, what you're saying is to release him from his gilded cage and accept him?" Ciel put a hand to his head as if a sudden headache came on. "If this scandal would to get out, it could ruin the Phantomhive name."
"How so, my lord?"
"It would say my parents abandoned one of their children for the other. It would deem them horrible parents. Fantom Co. that makes children's toys would be black-marked as an unfriendly child moniker. Liec's presence here is nothing but a nuisance and a complication for my family reputation."
"Not if the correct information is disrupted to the masses."
Ceil looked at Sebastian and the demon smiled. "Such as…?"
And Sebastian explained his idea.
First and foremost, they would keep Liec quiet for now.
To be continued.