CHAPTER 8 - "LUKAS PHANTOMHIVE - PART 1"

Sebastian rapped lightly on Tanaka's quarters door. He had wanted to speak with the elder butler for sometime about certain things that the Undertaker had passed down to him during a conversion in his shop, but had not been able to do so until now. And the majority of the conversion would be about young Liec - or rather Lukas - which was Ceil brother's real name, for which he learned during Lukas's dream.

He had to admit, however, the uncanny and dramatic story ability of the Undertaker; it underscored skepticism in what he had to say as slightly far-fetched. But the fact of the matter was he said Tanaka had been involved in something ominous in regards to the Phantomhive household - a few years back at the time Ceil's parents were murdered and Ceil being kidnapped by the Inner Circle and branded. And Sebastian wondered if Lukas's dream had anything more to bring light to it.

A few moments passed without acknowledgement of his knock.

"Tanaka, are you there?" he asked, then knocked again.

Without an answer, he wrapped a hand around the door knob, turning it. Normally the door would be locked, and Tanaka had the only key to his own quarters, but strangely, Sebastian was able to open it without restriction, and entered.

He had seen Tanaka's quarters only a handful of times, but it was of no surprise that it was immaculately clean and organized. Tanaka was a credit to his chosen profession.

It was a large room with an adjacent water closet. The bed was at the far end of the room under a tall and wide, half-moon bay window. Book shelves stood on either side of the room, filled top to bottom on a variety of subjects, and in one corner of the room, stood a modest, polished-to-shine, oak desk. The surface was empty at the moment except for one book - a daily diary Sebastian knew Tanaka liked to keep.

Sebastian respected Tanaka's privacy and knew he shouldn't be in here without the old man's permission, but he had an urge to look around the room hoping to find some clue to Tanaka's involvement with Lukas's disappearance years ago. But without rummaging through things, Tanaka would know that someone had been in here if even one thing was out of place. The man noticed things. Despite his chosen profession, or because of it, Tanaka was a notorious neatest.

Sebastian poised to leave, to ask Tanaka a few questions at a later time when he saw him, when he spotted the diary again, and curiosity got the better of him. He picked it up and flipped to a random page, and it just so happened to be of the date that young Lukas first appeared at the mansion.

He read it:

March 7, 1889

"I am taken aback at the turn of events today; I am equally aghast at the atrocity that I witnessed beyond what I ever thought anyone could do...

It has been more than two years since last I have seen him, but the young master is back. Lukas, Ceil's fraternal brother, has finally returned home. Where has he been, I wonder?

His face is changed. The young master was afflicted with a terrible disease that deformed Lukas's face when he was younger, and he was hidden from the public eye for a great many years by his parents. While the surgery I see is remarkable beyond anything I could have imagined for him - Lukas has a beautiful face - I do not understand the reason why THIS face! Why Ceil's face?

And now Lukas has no memory of his past or even of his own brother? What did the doctor do to him?

This is not what we wished for. We wanted to help the young master, his parents and I. We were told that the young master would receive the utmost care and civility; that BK would treat the master like one of his own children, with the most favorable plastic surgery available. As BK took a liking to the family, it was to be free of charge despite an expensive procedure, as he knew people with the skills to help Lukas.

Later we were told the young master had died when the surgery was unsuccessful, and Vincent took young Ceil to a medium to hinder his memories of his brother using hypnosis because the young master was severely crestfallen. With the process over a number of weeks, Ceil forgot everything about his brother, and I was told to hide all of Lukas's belongings and portraits of the family done with them all included.

Unfortunately later, they all were burned in the fire that took the original Phantomhive mansion, more than two years ago. So I am the only one left who remembers the young master.

Or so I was lead to believe. It seems that someone does know about Lukas's lineage; those men on horseback that Sebastian chased away off the property were obviously hired by someone to retrieve Lukas and return him from wherever he has been these last couple of years. Lukas explained he was drawn back to the mansion on instinct, as if he knew where his home was. So some of Lukas's original memories must still remain despite being erased by some reason only to those who did it to him. I just hope with time, he will remember who he is…

Lukas was stolen away from us, but now he is back, and I will make it my mission in life to keep him with us. I will not allow anyone to take him away again! But I cannot tell young Ceil or the others about who Lukas - Liec as they know him - really is. Young Ceil has already suffered so much, with his parents murders and being kidnapped and tortured by people unknown. The deception of his parents in erasing his memories of his brother would devastate the respect Ceil has for them. A time will come when the truth will have to be revealed, but hopefully only when the young master has acquired a respected relationship with his brother; then, maybe, young Ceil can handle what his parents had to do to him to help him forget the tragedy that we all thought had happened…

I still do not know the full extent of what Ceil experienced during his captivity by those who kidnapped and tortured him, and as a result his right eye was blinded - he has never spoken to me about it; he is tight-lipped - and how he escaped, and how he came to acquire the services of Sebastian Michaels as a butler; but in a way I am grateful that young Ceil has Sebastian. The man has helped the boy in many ways, in his greatest time of need - giving Ceil a parental figure that I could not give the boy, calming his anger against those who killed his parents and harmed him.

Perhaps Sebastian can also help Ceil deal with the return of his fraternal brother as well, like a father does a son. The happy boy that I once knew is gone, and in his place a bitter young man. Ceil stands strong in the face of adversity regardless of a boy's natural fears, but despite the young master's cold façade, Ceil looks up to Sebastian for guidance like a father, and in exchange, Sebastian helps Ceil to grow, and educates him, loves him, to follow in his father's footsteps. They seem to share a special bond that I could never achieve with the young master. When I am gone, I hope Sebastian stands by Ceil's side until the end.

But I worry for the young master. Ceil is alone in the world. No child should feel abandoned in this cruel, unfeeling world we live in. Thank God for Sebastian."

Sebastian mused over Tanaka's words for a few long moments. They were both shocking and revealing. He had never considered himself as a father figure to Ceil. Only eventual food to devour.

It is obvious Tanaka thinks a lot of me, Sebastian thought. But he had no guilt. What he was doing, his servitude to Ceil Phantomhive, was nothing more than to get what he wanted. They had a contract, and in the end, Sebastian would get Ceil's wicked soul as he sought out revenge on those who murdered his parents and tortured him. And the longer he waited, the darked Ceil's soul grew, and the more delicious his soul would taste as Sebastian lavished it up.

He flipped through future entries of the diary, but Tanaka never wrote of Lukas or BK again. But the entry did confirm one thing the Undertaker had spoken to Sebastian about, and that was Vincent Phantomhive and his wife had indeed had two sons - fraternal twin boys.

Fraternal twins did not necessarily look alike, and when thought of were normally a boy and a girl. Fraternal twin boys were very rare. They were similar in appearance, but not identical with only slight differences varying on the genes of their parents. And with this disease Lukas contracted at an early age -the exact age was undetermined, only that according to the diary entry, Lukas had been hidden away from the public for a number of years, before ten years of age - they obviously would not be anywhere similar.

Sebastian could imagine a multitude of diseases that would riddle a human's face, from boils to other ghastly deformities. In the millions of years it took for humanity to become civilized, the human gene pool has mutated, and some unfortunate souls are still subjected to the genes of their ancient ancestors, living with deformities or growths passed down by their parents by an unforeseeable gene now reactivated but are not necessary to the human gene pool.

Sebastian could only think of one reason to hide young Lukas from the public. Shame. Having a child with a deformity was an abomination, said to be brought about by the Devil, and that the child is considered cursed; that the child suffers because of something the parents have done to sin against God. The Phantomhive's had a reputation to uphold. They could not be seen with a deformed child.

However, do to the nature of the Phantomhive family, and what his master now has to contend with, in following in his family's undertaking as the royal guard dog, to eliminate threats to the throne - and his contract to a devil - Sebastian had no doubt that his master and the family name of Phantomhive was indeed cursed, but in a reverent sort of way.

Sebastian had lived for many thousands of years, and in his time, he had been heeded to many untruths about humanity's beliefs. People were afraid of what they did not understand, and if science could not explain it, it was religious chastisement. He would never know what afflicted Lukas's face, but as for him, he was not cursed, only unfortunate.

Tanaka's diary put to rest to Sebastian's suspicions that the old man had something to do with Ceil's parents' deaths; Ceil being kidnapped and branded; and the disappearance of Lukas, believing the boy had died during surgery. The old man was innocent. But he still believed Tanaka knew things that were not spoken here, and he still wanted to speak with Tanaka to clear the air of other things.

Sebastian had killed most of the Inner Circle when called upon by his master for what they'd done to him, kidnapping him, branding him with the Mark of the Beast. But he still needed to track the rest down. But in good time.

Lukas's dream had inconsistencies, he now thought. Vincent Phantomhive had been killed before Ceil was branded, and Lukas had supposedly died before weeks before. So Lukas's dream was…wrong.

The dream itself was therefore distorted with untruths.

Brainwashing, Sebastian concluded. And it was clear Tanaka thought it to, by the "doctor" he mentioned.

Could the brainwashing have affected Lukas's memories to a point that even his subconscious dreams were also affected? The mind was complex, but it also very fragile. What Lukas thought he remembered may be just a series of jumbled memories distorted together to form one because of the brainwashing, much like scrambled eggs; once whole, but then broken and re-blended to make the parts whole again.

But had Lukas been present for Ceil's branding two years ago? Had he been in that amphitheatre. And had Ceil been that boy who screamed, that Sebastian had heard in Lukas's dream? Or had it been someone else? And if Vincent Phantomhive was already dead, who was it that Lukas saw leaning over him while Lukas was strapped to the table who looked like his father?

Sebastian looked back into the dream. He had a photographic memory and could recall everything seen and heard. The doctor holding the small blade dressed in white garb, perhaps about to perform the cosmetic surgery on Lukas's face…the other man leaning over Lukas, the light momentarily distorted by shadow to bring his face slightly into view…

"Do be mindful with the boy, doctor. He and Ceil are my greatest creations. They will make the Inner Circle proud one day. Do what must be done."

No, this part is true, Sebastian believed. This was truly Vincent Phantomhive leaning over the table before the surgery, before he was told Lukas had died, and weeks before what happened to him, his wife, and Ceil. The parental feeling from Lukas was astute. In retrospect, what Vincent Phantomhive had said was nothing of a sinister nature, despite it sounding as such, instead it was of a caring one. With plastic surgery, Lukas would be able to enjoy social life again.

The Undertaker had mentioned the Phantomhive's were secretive in their personal lives.

The only person anyone really knew about was the socialite businessman, the good-hearted, kind and respected Vincent Phantomhive who organized lavish dinner parties and engagements for London's elite.

But everyone had secrets. And it was no surprise when Sebastian learned of the Inner Circle for which Vincent Phantomhive was a member and that his family was the Queen's guard dog, subjected to remove any unsavory interest towards the royal throne. This incidentally may have been Vincent Phantomhive's downfall by one or a collective few of the Inner Circle who sought revenge against the man for something. And then orchestrated the entire murder of his family, including Ceil, thus ending the Phantomhive linage, discrediting him by discrediting the Phantomhive name, that they were Devil worshippers. This he concluded by the Mark of the Beast the Inner Circle branded on Ceil Phantomhive.

But then Ceil Phantomhive called out to a demon, and the contract for his soul was signed in blood. And Sebastian murdered all those involved in the branding ceremony. He did not remember a doctor or a boy strapped to a table in the amphitheatre at the time, or he would have killed the doctor too. And maybe the boy…

He could not break through the fog of the dream. What Lukas remembered was all he could see and hear. His memories were distorted. And even if he attempted to dwell back into Lukas's mind while he was sleeping and find the dream again, it wouldn't help. He would see the same thing. Someone had really messed with Lukas's mind.

But, for what purpose?

To be continued…