CHAPTER 24 - "BETRAYALS"

For the first that he could remember Ciel Phantomhive felt genuinely alarmed, and even a little dumbfounded, and even a little angry at himself for not expecting a betrayal like this. But he had wondered when Lukas's amnesia lifted what would he be like? And apparently this was his answer.

Sebastian wasn't the only trailer as he stared across the room at the muzzle of the pistol his brother was pointing at him, threatening to kill him. And his demon protector was no where in sight.

But he wasn't worried in the slightest, and with one call his demon butler would come to his aid. He had come in every other instance when summoned.

Sebastian had saved him when he was caged at Vincount of Druitt's mansion, showcased to masked masses, and prepared to be auctioned off when he pretended to be a girl to lure Vincount out when he was thought to be Jack the Ripper. The man was a criminal in his own rite, just not the serial killer of White Chapel. Ciel had also been saved by Sebastian when Grell Sutcliff, a grim reaper masquerading as an inept butler, threatened to kill him after it was learned his own aunt was in fact the killer.

And there were countless other times too.

But what did Lukas mean by "Judgment day"?

"Explain yourself!" Ciel demanded. "And put that pistol down! You're scaring Elizabeth!"

Suddenly there was a heavy thud on the floor and Ciel looked around to find Lizzie laying at his feet unconscious. He turned, knelt down, and cradled her in his arms. "Lizzie? Wake up, Lizzie!" He felt her neck for vitals and luckly she was still breathing. Had she fainted?

"She'll be fine, brother. I slipped a sleeping potion into her last cup of tea. It was time released."

Ciel turned back to his brother, his teeth gritted with anger. The pistol followed him closely. He stood up and faced Lukas.

He was afraid of this. It was obvious Lukas had regained his memory and it had changed him. The confidence he had seen in Lukas earlier; the amnesia had been lifted even then. Did something happen when he visited the Undertaker? Did he tell Lukas something that opened his mind to make him remember certain things, even the programming by the Inner Circle to kill him and assume sole heir of the Phantomhive lineage? Even after all these years, it would seem that the Inner Circle would win after all.

"Why?" he simply asked.

"Why? Revenge! It is the truth in this uncaring world we live in. The very path you indeed have chosen to wrought against those who did you wrong. The Inner Circle, Bryon Kelvin, and anyone else. Tell me dear brother about the callous, heartless bastard that dared call himself our father! Hmm? Did you truly know him or have you been carrying a pre-conceived, puppy-dog notion of who you thought he was?"

Ciel sneered. "You dare insult our father? Explain your actions this instant, Lukas! Or so help you - "

"Oh what? You will bark for your dog to come rescue you? You truly do have one hell of a butler."

Ciel frowned but eyed Lukas carefully. "What are you implying?"

"My mind has been awakened. So many secrets revealed. Truth of it all. Bryon Kelvin may have kidnapped me, lied to father, said I died on the operating table to correct certain deformities on my face, then brainwashed me for sinister purposes, but he is not the true enemy here, there is an even heftier devil. Vincent Phantomhive was Lucifer incarnate. And even two years after his death, he is still wroughting destruction and evil in his wake. And it all started by a selfish desire. The desire of perfection.

"You see, I know the real truth about my "deformity" now. The Undertaker helped open my mind. He cast me to the brick of death and I saw my entire life play before my eyes. All of it. Everything I couldn't remember. The mind doesn't lie. Even if we can't remember, it remembers for us. And not even Tanaka knew the full extent of the sin our father did to me. He was only told what our father wanted him to know. You were always mother and father's favorite. You were their little perfect, angelic boy."

"They loved us both, Lukas," Ciel said, faking sentimentally. "We are twins, now more so than ever. I may not remember what you looked like before, no photographs survived after the mansion burned down, but -"

"Quiet! I am not finished the story."

Ciel's upper lip twitched with annoyance and his right eye narrowed. He crossed his arms across his chest, no longer fretting this fate. He had been involved in so many other confrontations like this that it didn't faze him. The time when he was kidnapped and forcefully tied and beaten by an Italian drug trafficker came to mind. Sebastian had easily penetrated the man's massive defensive perimeter of gunslinging mercenaries and punished him for his transgression. And he was sure the demon was listening somewhere, watching how this played out. "Go on, then. Finish it."

Lukas looked annoyed. "Ever stubborn to the last, brother. But you have a right to hear this story. And after you know the truth about father, you will never appease good notions about him ever again."

"That will weigh on what you say. Continue. Have it out."

Lukas smiled skeptically. "You really don't know? Has that elderly butler been feeding you lies as well?"

"Tanaka is an honest man. He has served my father for most of his life and I respect him. I keep him on because of this, but Sebastian is head butler now."

"You mean that demon masquerading as a butler just to appease your gratitude of revenge?" Ciel's right eye widened with awe. "Yes, brother. I know about Sebastian Michaelis. And how the Inner Circle planned to sacrifice you to summon demonic forces for secrets beyond human comprehension. You were to be a blood sacrifice along with countless other children kidnapped by Bryon Kelvin. But instead, you made a contract with this demon and ordered him to kill everyone in the amphitheatre. You then installed him as you butler in lieu of finding everyone else who did you wrong. And that even meant Bryon Kelvin, who started it all. But you can't find him, can you? That is why Sebastian made the deal with the Fallen Reapers. He plans on giving me over to them and then stealing information of his own from Mathu Kelvin of his uncle's whereabouts, to murder him, and then devour your soul. But that is where he is mistaken. There were more involved that night when our parents died than you know."

"Who?" Ciel demanded angrily.

"Even I don't know everyone, but I do know Bryon Kelvin was not the only one responsible for our parents' deaths. He was but a pawn himself, controlling puppets, as in the children he brainwashed and ordered to do unspeakable things. There were a higher men than even him and I am not speaking about the Inner Circle. They were but a lower tier in the so-called Dante's Infernal I spent the last seven years of my life experiencing.

"After my face was carved up and made to look like yours, I was trained as an assassin and sent on missions by 'father' - Bryon Kelvin - to murder members of our father's secret sect of aristocrats. I killed all but one. And you know who. You spoke to him this morning while searching for me."

Ciel reached into his pocket and brought out the leg stocking. Lukas was not wearing the other one, wearing only britches that exposed his knees and leg straps that held up his socks. He had probably originally wore the leg stockings for the night cold when he left during the night. "I knew you were there. But I did not tell Sebastian. You heard us?"

"I even saw you, watching you through a peephole in the wall I was hiding in, in a secret wall, as you snooped around the backroom, and while your butler told that lame joke."

Ciel nodded. "It was pretty awful. I did not find it laughable."

"I don't understand why the Undertaker enjoys that crass humor."

They both struggled their shoulders.

"To each his own, but let us return to the original story," Ciel said. "You mentioned deceit by the hand of our father towards you? I was told by Tanaka I was taken to a Medium and my memory erased of you. I was very distraught by your death that I would not stop crying. I was only five years old at the time."

"That is where our father's good nature ends. What I learned is when since you were very young, you had asthma, a trait inherited from mother. She suffered from asthma all her life. But I for some reason did not inherit it. The medicine father and mother gave you seemed to make all your pain go away. Curious, I chose to try some and had a very adverse reaction to it. My face broke out in hives and bumps. What made you better, caused me sickness.

"The doctor I was taken to said I was allergic to the medicine and the symptoms would subside. Unfortunately, the damage had been done, and my face was scarred when blisters broke out in an even worse reaction to it. In the end, my face was deformed. However, that was not the beginning to father's stronger affection of you. While we were twins, fraternal twins, we did not look exactly alike. While you embodied beauty, I embodied ugliness. I had a "plain" face, and the deformity gave father purchase for cosmic surgery to be had upon me. Little did he know about Bryon Kelvin's other affairs."

Ciel recalled Tanaka's story of his parent's on one of their missions to catch the mastermind behind the children kidnappings; it was when they first learned of the children's brainwashing. He told Lukas everything he could remember of the story, even the involvement by the twins Sasha and Samuel Ironstadt. But they never did learn the identity of who was behind the children kidnappings. And now Lukas had filled in more of the story. The reason why he had been kidnapped. For blood sacrifice. Children were pure. And to sacrifice pureness to a demon was as good as gold.

Lukas then explained why Vincent and Rachel Phantomhive were possibly murdered. Simple jealousy by Bryon Kelvin that they would not allow Bryon Kelvin to be a member of their elite aristocrat sect.

"So our suffering it all father's fault!" Lukas accused. "If he were not so conceited, our family would still be complete! The so-called noble gentleman of London, a wolf in sheep's cloth!"

Ciel gazed hard at Lukas. "We are Phantomhive's, we bow down to no man. If we are done wrong, we seek retribution in blood." He yanked off the eye-patch covering his left eye. "The covenant with Sebastian I have is my way of retaliating against those who dare oppose me. And I seek redemption upon those who murdered mother and father, and I will not stop until all those involved in their murder are put to death!"

Ciel saw Lukas's stunned reaction as he felt his covenanted eye glow hot with hatred.

He continued. "We are of the same coin. You have sought revenge against me for father's suffering he wrought upon you, so does my blood thirst for revenge against those to tried to kill me. And you will not stop me."

"Then you are a fool."

"The only fool is you for thinking you could threaten me with that pistol." Ciel reached behind him and whipped out its twin and pointed it at his brother. And it was loaded. Lukas blinked stunned. "When Tanaka told me one of the pistols had been taken, it didn't take a scientist to figure out who. In foresight, I took the other one for protection in my own rite. Yt appears my assumption was warranted."

"So what now? We both are pointing loaded pistols at the other. Why not just kill ourselves and let the suffering end?"

"Because that would be too easy," Ciel said. "And I would highly doubt someone would allow my death by another." He chinned behind Lukas, and Lukas turned to see Sebastian standing behind him. The demon smiled. "In fact, I was never in any danger from the start."

Lukas backed afar, swinging his pistol from Sebastian to Ciel. Then his back hit a wall. "Don't come any closer!" he demanded of Sebastian. "I swear, I will kill him! The son of Vincent Phantomhive must pay for the sins of the father!"

Ciel kept his pistol on Lukas, as his brother's pistol again focused on him.

"But you are also a son of Vincent Phantomhive," Sebastian said.

"I know longer consider myself his son, not after what he did to me!"

"Stop whining!" Ciel said. "We have all suffered. Others more so. Let me tell you a little secret. When I was brought to die at the hands of the Inner Circle, they branded me with the Mark of the Beast." He kept the pistol posed on Lukas while he lifted up his shirt, and turned slightly to show a brand burnt into the left of his back. Then dropped his shirt. "Like a stupid cow, they burned my flesh with this emblem. In hindsight, it was my saving grace. For without it, Sebastian would not have been drawn to me and the contract made. Everyone else, including the other children who were in the amphitheatre to be sacrificed to demonic forces, as you say, were all killed that night. I, Ciel Phantomhive, was the sole survivor."

His eye glowed. "So you see, you would not have killed me anyway. But," he lowered his pistol, "let us make anew of things. Let the past be forgotten, and together we can forge a better future together. I have accepted the curse of our family," he kissed his ring on his thumb, a piece of the Hope Diamond inherited from his father, "and it is unavoidable. We are damned notwithstanding our efforts. I embrace all that I am. Can you?"

"I don't trust this demon. He will turn me over to the Fallen Reapers at the slightest moment."

"So the Undertaker told you of the Fallen Reapers as well." Sebastian mused with a hand on his chin.

It was obvious he had been watching and listening to everything being said, Ciel thought.

"I never thought he would," Sebastian continued. "To give privileged information to a human goes against Reaper policy. Nevertheless," he lowered his hand, "this gives purchase to a new plan I have forged. I will not hand Lukas over to these Fallen Reapers as I agreed. Instead, let me offer another solution?"

Sebastian gently took hold of Ciel's hand, noting the Hope Diamond. Ciel looked at him queerly.

"There is an old human saying that I believe has providence here: 'In darkest times, there is always hope if you know where to look.'" The ring seemed to sparkle with the slightest touch of his hand, as if reacting to his dark, demonic energy. "And in this case, your family curse may be your salvation."

Mathu Kelvin was feeling restless.

It had only been yesterday that he and the other Fallen Reapers had crossed-purposes with Sebastian Michealis and struck a bargain with the demon to retrieve information from Lukas Phantomhive's mind. The demon had agreed to summon them if and when he found the boy, and if when obtaining the information they needed could spare the boy's life, he would weigh that option.

And he was already wondering if he should've made such a deal and not just go out hunt for the boy himself.

But Sebastian Michaelis's main concern was Ciel Phantomhive and their covenant. The demon only cared about safeguarding his master's soul so it can devoured it later. Lukas Phantomhive, he had said, was truly no use to him, since his soul was "pure". Sebastian Michaelis had been with the Phantomhive family for a little over two years and he had cultivated Ciel Phantomhive's soul to be as dark and sinister as Sebastian. That's what he wanted.

But I know the truth, Sebastian Michaelis, he thought. I know you want both their souls. You're just like a child, you can not have just one cookie from the jar. Lukas Phantomhive is not so pure after all and I believe you know this.

He lain on a black couch with his arms behind his head in his uncle's study.

His uncle had vacated his large house in the Brighton countryside for some time and had fired all the servants before moving elsewhere, and Mathu had taken it over, buying it outright from the bank when the deed was about to be foreclosed for non-payment of dues. Where his uncle was now, not even he knew, but one thing he did know for sure was the sick, twisted, perverted old man was still alive somewhere and probably playing with his "toys".

He looked towards Savannah, his wife, dressed in a long, golden dress and jewelry fit for a queen. Even Helen of Troy would be jealous of her striking beauty despite in the body of a filthy gypsy. He could see past her façade and gaze deeply at her spirit. It was her spirit that he originally fell in love with when they were both Reapers, almost ten thousand years ago before they fell. They had been cast down for abusing their powers in experimenting with humanity at Atlantis. They were scientists, and they wanted to test a hypothesis of how long would it take for humanity to become corrupt with power before they destroyed themselves. In this island continent, the old axiom power corrupts absolutely was never more true.

There was another part to their being cast out of "paradise", and that was no Reaper was to have relations with another. It was against policy and would corrupt the very fabric of the reaper code of solitude. But they didn't care. Like power, love conquers all. Reapers were not absolved of having human-like feelings. It was merely frowned upon, and despite several warnings and probations, he could not stop loving her. And because of their constant violation of the rules and interfering with the natural order of things with Atlantis, they had their Reaper licenses stripped and their bodies taken, to wander for all eternality as punishment. His brother was also punished when he began to rebel against the Reaper establishment.

They had floated in a sea of despair and nothingness unable to touch anything or anyone for eons, until they heard the calling of Ciel Phantomhive summoning a demon to save his life. The call was so strong that it sent vibrations throughout the spirit realm. And it was at this time they discovered an opportunity to live again. And after the demon murdered all those who attended the demonic sermon in the secret amphitheatre the Inner Circle were using for their gatherings, they stole the bodies of four humans before the Reapers could arrive to retrieve each one of their cinematic records for the Hall of Records.

While he took the body of Mathu Kelvin, and his wife took the body of a gypsy woman who was only there as an observer as a secret lady of one of the I.C. members, his brother took the twins Sasha and Samuel Ironstadt because he had such a massive spirit that it needed two bodies to contain it. Then they slipped away and borrowed the lives of those they had possessed. And they soon realized they also had the experiences, skills and memories of each of their trapped hosts. Their hosts were still alive as well, but pushed down into the depths of darkness in their subconscious, so they would not be any trouble. Once they retrieved their own bodies, the humans could have their own again. Shortly. Until they were killed.

His brother was terribly vexed. Sebastian Michaelis had found a way to defeat him during their battle in the back courtyard of the Phantomhive mansion using the small veils of nitroglycerin against him, burning parts of his hosts' bodies. It had been a distraction to keep the demon at bay while Ciel Phantomhive was confronted and his brother Lukas demanded. With dark magic the healing had begun, but it would't heal his brother's want for vengeance against the crafty demon. And in having a double ego possessing both twins, his anger was twofold. Parts of Bryon Kelvin's house were beyond repair.

Savannah was seated at what was once Bryon Kelvin's desk. It was cleared of everything except for Tarot Cards for which she was reading to predict the future. He didn't quite understand the usage of the cards, but apparently, because of her host, Savannah did know how and she used them quite often.

He lifted himself off the couch and went to her side, looking over her shoulder. There were five cards in an triangle form on the desk in front of her, all varying from spiritual figures to demonic beings and sacred structures. They were just pictures to him, he had no idea what any of them meant. But they seemed to have importance to her, so he humored her interest. "What do they say?"

Savannah was momentarily silent as she read the cards. "They predict a period of confusion and turmoil."

Mathu furrowed his brow, narrowed his eyes, giving glances at each card wondering if he could see the same thing. But the cards apparently only spoke to his wife. "For whom?"

"The cards don't say. They are untelling in this regard." She took another card from the deck and turned it over, and then gasped frightened. The card had a picture of THE TOWER being struck by lightning with two souls jumping for their lives. "An ill-omen!"

"Calm yourself, my dear," he said, taking hold of the card. He quickly examined it. "This is your host's fears you're reacting to. This medieval superstition is nonsense. There is no otherworldly force affecting our fate." He tossed the card down on the desk upside down. "Now what were you doing a reading on?"

"I had asked the cards about Lukas Phantomhive, whether we will be successful in our plight."

"Well?"

Savannah shook her head. "I am uncertain now. The Tower card symbolizes ruin and catastrophe."

"What do you mean now?"

"I had conducted similar readings of our plight before we confronted Ciel Phantomhive at his home. The cards told of confident tidings. Something has changed since yesterday."

"Lukas Phantomhive is missing. That is something we had not foreseen. What if what you are seeing has to do with Sebastian Michaelis? That demon can not be trusted."

"I do not know. But he has agreed to help us retrieve the boy, correct?"

Mathu turned to look out a large bay window that was behind the desk that showed a grand view of the countryside, and in the distance, the city of the London. He crossed his arms. "He told us what we wanted to hear. He will betray us, like all demons do. They are selfish creatures."

"Then why did we leave?" Sasha Ironstadt started.

"If you knew we would be betrayed?" Samuel finished.

Mathu turned to face the twins. His brother in two bodies. Their faces were partially scarred with burns and they had discarded the white suits for black. "To bide our time, brother. We will let the demon do our work for us, then strike him and the brats down. No one will stop us from getting what we desire!"

"Even a demon can be killed," Savannah said, and the twins agreed.

"Quite right."

Mathu reached into his left vest pocket and pulled out a small blue diamond shard that he balanced in his fore finger and thumb. History told it was part of a thousand or so blue gems that were sold to King Louis XIV in 1672, but this shard was later cut from a specific larger one called the French Blue when it was stolen from France during the French Revolution. Smaller pieces were cut off from this larger diamond as well and given as gifts to family members of a certain family but have been lost to time - except one. The original larger diamond was later returned to France where it was later forged into a priceless necklace named after its owner and now resides in a secure location.

He eyed it preciously as it glinted in the sunlight that basked through the window glass of the bay window. It seemed to speak to him as if it had been vomited from the belly of a demon and was attracted to his own dark energy.

"And the ring Ciel Phantomhive cherishes so much that he wears around his left thumb that he inherited from his dead father, a piece of the Hope Diamond, and this diamond shard I hold in my hand that my host found years ago in a bizarre at an antique dealer also cut from the Hope Diamond, the so-called most cursed diamond in the world, will soon deliver the house of Phantomhive's its more tragic downfall and end."

He smirked. "And once we get what we want, the sons of Vincent Phantomhive will die at the hands of Sebastian Michaelis using these pieces of the Hope Diamond as the catalyst, then he will parish, and not even the fiery depths of Hell will be able to prevent it!"

To be continued…