Hello! I'm back with an update, as promised! I really pushed myself to get this chapter out before I became too swamped in schoolwork, as is bound to happen. I nearly got distracted by something shiny, but I managed to re-focus myself just in time. XD Enjoy!
Two days later, the rain was coming down heavily against the windowpanes as Sebastian made his way up to one of the terraced rooftops of the manor in search of his master. Lydia had taken refuge somewhere in the shadows of the manor after a particularly disastrous incident earlier in the day in which Madame Red had tried to force her to wear a corset. Sebastian had been looking for her ever since, and was growing increasingly frustrated with the fact that without his seal on the girl, it was impossible for him to automatically pinpoint Lydia's location whenever she was out of his sight. This would be the eleventh rooftop he had tried. Pushing open the door, the demon gave a subtle sigh of relief as he saw the brown-haired girl reclining on the dais at the edge of the roof. She had positioned herself under the boughs of the peach tree, which he had caused to grow to outrageous heights back in the days when Lydia had still lived at the manor, in order to keep herself dry. Silently, he glided over to her and sat down as well. "Master, you hadn't ought to be going anywhere out in the open, especially without informing me of your whereabouts first."
Lydia sighed, gazing out over the rain-soaked gardens below. "No one could possibly see me up here, not with the branches of this tree all around me. I needed some fresh air."
"Air is a necessary thing when one has been inside a corset for any length of time," Sebastian agreed half-heartedly. "….I suppose it's all right, now that I am with you….but you still should have told me. Your safety is most important."
When Lydia did not reply, the demon leaned in closer and reached out a hand to smooth her tousled, slightly wet hair off her forehead. "Have you been disheartened by your etiquette lessons as of late?"
"I'm not good at being a lady, Sebastian. I never was," Lydia said forcefully, bowing her head over her knees. "Mother always tried to raise me in the aristocratic fashion, to be sure, but something was always getting in the way of me completing my lessons. Even if I was better at it back then, I'm five years out of practice. I haven't dropped a curtsey or used a salad fork or danced the Viennese Waltz since I left this place. Frankly, I haven't really missed it. There's just no place for that kind of finicky do-all in Camden Town."
"You are not entirely out of practice," Sebastian intoned sensibly, brushing a droplet of water off of his brow. "You still remember most of the dances reasonably well. And your violin playing is on par with what your mother hoped for you."
Lydia shook her head. "That's because violin practice is easy. You can just carry the instrument wherever you go and practice there. I'm woefully out of practice on the piano, though. You can't tote a piano around with you. And I'm terrible with dining etiquette. You were there this morning, you saw. I wouldn't know the right fork to use if you stabbed me in the hand with it. And that corset debacle just now….goodness gracious. I'm going to be traumatized for the rest of my life by that awful thing."
"Indeed, I would advise against the wearing of corsets in order to ensure the structural integrity of your body," Sebastian agreed, nodding firmly, "but in regards to everything else, you cannot expect to gain all of your old knowledge back in a week. It will take time, and patience."
"We don't have much time," Lydia protested, her frown like a dampened leaf on a grey walkway. "We have to get this done so the will can be finalized as quickly as possible. And I'm not sure how much patience I have left, either. I love my family, but I don't think I can ever be like them in terms of nobility or propriety."
"You will pull through. I have confidence in your ability to thrive under duress," Sebastian stated in a tone which did not invite argument. "If you are feeling less confident, let us practice the quadrille up here. I noticed earlier that it was your weakest dance in regard to technique."
"Well, all right," the dark-haired girl consented, standing up and offering him her unbandaged hand. The demon quickly ran his senses around the perimeter of the manor grounds once again, assuring himself that there was no trace of anything out of the ordinary, before he grasped the girl's hand and stood up, looming over her like the black opal which crowned the lintel of the main fireplace downstairs. He enjoyed the feeling of her hand's fragile flesh against his own, the way his moon-white skin slowly drew her light in, as if she were the sun and he was in perfect position to reflect her radiance. Slowly, he began to lead her in a simple quadrille, keeping time inside his own mind to a tuneless cadence of memory. Lydia kept glancing reflexively down at her feet, which threw off the timing of her steps; smiling mischievously, Sebastian pulled her closer until their chests were almost touching and she could not see her feet anymore through the tiny space in between. He expected her to retreat in haste, so he was rather surprised when the shorter girl instead reached out and laid her white-bandaged hand over the place in his chest where his heart should have beat.
"May I ask you a question?" she inquired. Her voice was soft and far away, as if she were speaking to him through water.
"Of course, master," he murmured in reply. Lydia pushed her fingers harder in his chest, although he could barely feel the pressure.
"I'm fairly sure I already know the answer," she mused, "but I've been wanting to ask, anyway. You….didn't eat my mother's soul, did you?"
Sebastian was honestly surprised by the question. How long had she been thinking of that? His fingers automatically tightened around her hand. "No, master," he intoned softly, "I did not. Although your mother lived and died with the contract mark upon her, in the end her soul….did not belong to me."
Lydia hummed a happy little note in her throat. "I knew she went to Heaven," she whispered, and leaned her head gently against Sebastian's black-clad shoulder. At some point, they had stopped dancing. The demon draped his arms over her and pulled her in gently, allowing his thoughts to pass like ghosts through the intervening years. Of all the masters with whom he had contracted, individually or generationally, Rachel Phantomhive had been the first to escape the hellfire of the underworld, despite his influence in her life. There was no way to deny it- the woman had been good. Not good to him, for sure, but then humans were not required to be kind to demons in order to be counted among the blessed. From a very young age, Rachel had failed to display the same attraction to his ability to grant humans' fantastical wishes that his former masters, nearly all men, had been ultimately corrupted by. She might not have understood his thoughts, but she had seemed to recognize the aura of a predator about him, no matter how he tried to disguise it with sweet words and obsequious obedience to her every whim. In the end, he had not been able to influence her enough to cultivate true evil in her heart. This was partially because he had spent the last third of Rachel's life, a time in which he would normally seek to complete his hold over his master's soul, being entirely distracted by her daughter. After Lydia had been born, Sebastian had not cared very much about her mother's lackluster soul. All of his energy had gone into shaping the child to his desires, binding her to him emotionally in order to preclude the bond of the contract which was meant to follow, the one which would give Lydia actual power over him. Years later, when Rachel had passed on, she had done so away from the manor; Sebastian had not been present at her side. Even so….
"Did you know she went to Heaven, Sebastian?" Lydia asked curiously.
The demon stroked her hair and replied lowly, "I did know it. I witnessed her depart on that evening."
"Really?" Lydia asked in great surprise, tipping her head back to look up at him. "You saw her- but you weren't even with us when she died! It was only Father and I there."
"I was bound to your mother through the contract," Sebastian stated matter-of-factly. "It is an arrangement that lasts until the end. I do not need to be physically present at that end in order to witness it. I saw your mother's soul come out in the evening air and….ascend."
They had stumbled onto uncomfortable territory, and Sebastian was very much hoping that Lydia would not press him further. However, her human curiosity was not yet satisfied. "I didn't know you could do that! What did she look like? Did she look happy? Did she float up into the sky? Was she-"
"Master, please, not all at once," the demon mumbled quietly, pricking her shoulder lightly with the edge of his claws. "This is not unusual for me. When a human dies and is taken to hell, their soul drops down immediately the moment it emerges from the shell of their body. The underworld is ravenous." He paused for a moment, and sighed deeply. "But when they are meant for Heaven, their souls….linger here for a moment, just a moment, before going up. She looked like herself, only….brighter, and without the pain and imperfection which the years had wrought upon her body."
Sebastian stopped, and pressed his lips together. He had answered her questions, but there were still things he did not want to tell her, things which he wasn't sure he could put into words, despite the silver-tongued abilities of his demonic nature. He did not know how to say that Rachel's soul, like every other Heaven-bound soul, had emerged from her physical cocoon in a wave of golden-bright light which was painful for him to look into. She had emerged with a wondering look upon her face, staring up into the sunset sky above her with such intensity that there was no doubt she was beholding something amazing, although he himself could see nothing. Her family mourning below her, still living in their bodies of flesh, could not see her; but he could, and he knew that she could have seen him as well, if she would have just turned around. But she did not; they never turned to look back at him, not once, not even if he had known them all their lives, and there was something about this which troubled him intensely, and frustrated him too, because the trouble was under his skin and he could not take hold of it. All he knew was that he did not like it when they emerged in their unfolding light and stared up into the sky, when that Spirit circled itself around them and for a moment everything was still inside that place. And the moment afterward they were gone, both vanished like a ripple through water, without paying any sort of acknowledgement to the demon standing down below. He hated that, and he didn't know why, aside from the knowledge that he would never be able to eat that soul, but all the same, there was something else, something horrible that came when he was left alone in the embittered darkness, empty, not breathing, his lungs filled with fire.
"Sebastian?" Lydia said; he blinked and looked down, realizing that he had tightened his arms reflexively around her to the point where he was probably hurting her. He let go and moved back a step, bowing gracefully. "My apologies, master."
"Come and sit down on the dais, will you? You suddenly looked….unwell just now." Still holding his hand, Lydia pulled him back over to the place she had been sitting before, and he obligingly settled down beside her. The world around them was quiet. Everywhere he could hear the noise of water rushing, sounds that seemed to blend into the quietness. Cold raindrops which had worked their way through the maze of leaves above occasionally fell to the stone around them. Lydia smiled at Sebastian and softly petted his hand, her face far away, no doubt lost in her own thoughts and memories of her mother. The demon tried to turn his private musings away from Rachel Phantomhive, but it was hard to do with her oldest daughter sitting right in front of his eyes. You are so different than she was, so much braver, so much more, and yet you are still human, my Lydia, still human and weak and mortal. Someday you too will die, and I will see you stand outside your body for the first time, the final time, before you lift up and move on, out past anywhere I could ever reach you. Will you look at me, I wonder, look back even once….?
He rubbed her hand slowly with the center of his thumb, cool light, air, and the sensation of dry, packed soil working itself loose under the first rains of the season.
You are….
Suddenly Sebastian's head jerked up and he stared in alarm into the rain-filled sky. Lydia was pulled out her reverie by the look on his face. "Sebastian, what's the-"
"The perimeter of the Phantomhive estate has just been breached," the demon growled, instantly on his feet. "Three people, approaching very rapidly in a horse-drawn carriage. I do not believe they have an invitation." The next second, he had seized Lydia's shoulder and pulled her to her feet. "Follow me, quickly. And keep your head down."
/
Hurried forward by the demon, Lydia dashed down flights of stairs and across lamplit hallways, panting tensely. "Shouldn't we lock the doors-?" she called ahead to Sebastian.
The demon shook his head, staring out the windows as they whirled past them. "Their approach was too rapid. They are already here, and are spreading out around the manor. I need to get yourself and the young master into a safe place before I go anywhere else."
"What about my father? And Aunt Angelina, and the servants? We can't leave them!"
"I will fetch them right away, master." Sebastian agreed. "However, you know that I cannot do anything until I am assured of your safety."
At that moment, they encountered Ciel walking languidly down the hallway. He looked up, startled, as the pair of them materialized by his side. Lydia took his arm and pulled him over. "Ciel, we have to move now, there's-"
Sebastian did not wait for her to finish explaining. Perhaps sensing more danger, he promptly picked both humans up, with extreme protests from Ciel, and darted down the hallway at such a speed that the pictures tore off the walls as they passed. One whiplash-inducing moment later, Lydia found them in front of an oddly-colored wooden door in a part of the manor which she did not remember very well. Sebastian set them down and herded them inside, where it was pitch-black. "Lock the door, master, and I will return very shortly with the rest of your company. As soon as you-"
He broke off as they heard a distressed, female-sounding shout from several hallways over. "Mister Sebastian! Mister Sebaaaastian!"
"Here, Meirin!" the demon shouted back, and then continued his instructions from the other side of the doorway. Lydia clutched her brother's shoulders fearfully. She could not see Ciel's expression. "Remove the guns from the safe and arm yourselves, young master will know the combina-"
Meirin shouted one more time, "Mister Sebastian, there's-" and then the air around them all exploded with the deafening sound of a gunshot. Lydia shrieked and Ciel grabbed her hand- the gunshot was immediately followed by several more. At the same time came the high-pitched, crackling sound of glass breaking, and Lydia could hear the air huffing between her lips and the sound of her heart rumbling within her chest. She could hear Ciel's breath as well, and the groan of wood as Sebastian's hand squeezed the doorframe, and the only thing which she could not hear anymore was the sound of the red-haired maid's voice.
Lydia pushed Sebastian aside and barreled out into the hallway, racing through several corridors until she skidded to a halt in front of the one running alongside a length of windows. Amidst the jagged shimmers of broken glass which littered the carpet was the still body of the young maid. Her hair had come out of its wrap and lay sprawled about her neck and shoulders, a pool of red, and from her chest bloomed a rose of deeper reddish hues. Her eyes were sagging closed, and she still wore a surprised expression upon her silent face, lips slightly parted as if to finish her warning.
Lydia made a garbled noise in her throat and started toward her, but a moment later she was seized from behind by a taller figure. "Master, you mustn't!" Sebastian insisted, and a second later another gunshot shattered the last window in the row, the force of it driving her backward into the demon. Lydia shook her head in a frantic attempt to dispel the horrific scenery as though it were a bad dream, but when her vision re-focused it was all still there. Yet another shot came through the window, and punched open the wall near the fallen body of Meirin.
"Sebastian, drive them back! Get them out of range!" Lydia shouted. The demon complied, gracefully stepping through the broken window and descending to the ground below. Out of her peripheral vision, she spotted the first of a barrage of fine silver knives and forks being flung into the surrounding bushes. Knowing that Sebastian would not allow the shooters time to aim again, Lydia flung herself across the line of windows and dashed to Meirin's side. Stifling her own breathing, the brunette flattened herself on the ground and placed her ear over the other's mouth, listening for breath. After a terrible moment she heard it, little gasps of air that sounded more like moans coming from Meirin's throat. Her chest had been pierced in the upper left-hand corner, about half a hand under her shoulderblade. The bullet wound looked too high to have struck a lung, but Lydia didn't know, she couldn't tell what other arteries or veins might be in there. "Meirin?" she called, grasping the girl's non-wounded shoulder. "Meirin!" The redhead did not answer, did not stir.
Time seemed to speed up as she huddled there on the floor, and everything grew louder as well, until Lydia was barely hanging on to her understanding of what was happening around her. Ciel arrived first, and joined her in trying to wake the injured maid, his eye patch falling to the side of his face with his efforts. Then Finnian and Bard came running up the corridor, toting a garden hoe and a flamethrower respectively. Lydia did not think she would ever forget Finnian's scream when he saw Meirin lying there, nor the baffled, tragic way that he and Bard came to kneel beside the two siblings, reaching out for Meirin and patting her on the head, the cheeks, the forearms, trying in their own way to rouse her. Lastly came Lydia's father and her aunt, running down the corridor at a dead sprint. Madame Red had actually taken off her high heels so she could run faster, and Lydia thought vaguely that her stockinged feet looked very strange indeed. Everyone was talking frantically; the crowd around Meirin promptly cleared the way as Madame Red knelt down and tenderly began to unbutton the maid's blouse, easing her hands into the material until she had cleared a space to where the flesh wound was. The hallway was silent as her fingers fluttered around the dark hole torn in poor Meirin's skin. At last, Madame Red took a breath. "The wound will not be immediately fatal. She would already be dead if that were the case. However, she needs to be taken to the nearest hospital and the bullet surgically removed as quickly as possible. We can bandage the wound now to slow the bleeding, but if the bullet remains in her body, it won't be long before lead poisoning will slip into her bloodstream, and that'll have her for sure."
"Confound it all," Ciel hissed, "the nearest hospital is in London. And what with these rain-soaked roads, it'll take even longer to go by carriage!"
Madame Red nodded gravely. "True, but it would take twice as long as that to bring a physician out here. And complicated surgeries must be done in hospitals. They have all the materials, as well as access to plenty of ether. I have enough tools here in my bag to wrap the wound and stem the bleeding, but certainly not anything like what's needed to perform surgery."
"Will you be able to make it in time?" the young aristocrat demanded.
Madame Red's eyes and her voice were tremulous. "I don't know," she said, covering her mouth with her hand. "It all depends on who's driving, and how bad the roads are. I can't predict something like that." Her words were muted by the sobbing of Bard and Finnian, who were bent protectively over Meirin, not listening to a word anyone was saying. Lydia's father was standing guard near the window, his pistol drawn and at the ready.
Ciel clenched his fists and looked around. "Where in hell is that demon?"
"I sent him after the shooters so I could get to Meirin," Lydia replied, her voice quavering. "He should be somewhere outside."
Ciel pressed a hand over the eye in which the pentagram was placed. "Sebastian! Come!" he called authoritatively, and the next instant the black-topped feet of the demon touched down on the carpet. "Well?" the young heir demanded. "Did you incapacitate the shooters?"
The demon bowed low. "Forgive me, young master, but it seems that it will take a bit more time and effort for me to secure these assailants. They are….not like the others. They possess some troublesome skills. However, I had driven them back to the perimeter of the manor when you called. If you will allow me to go and-"
"Nevermind them for a moment. Can you do anything about this?" Ciel indicated toward the still body of Meirin, whose chest was rising and falling ever so slightly.
The demon frowned. "That depends on what you mean. I can tend to her wounds in the traditional medical sense, but I do not possess the ability to heal. Such a thing would be counterintuitive for my kind."
"Damn," Ciel muttered distractedly. Lydia bent her neck and pressed her hands over the crown of her head, thinking very deeply. Her younger brother glanced toward Aberlaine. "I don't suppose Scotland Yard will be of much use. Even if they aren't already preoccupied dealing with crimes in London, it would take them hours to travel out here."
The red-haired investigator nodded grimly. "Even so, our priority should be saving this woman's life. I just don't know how the deuce we can go about it successfully. It seems we're boxed in here, and-"
"I know what to do," Lydia announced, raising her head up out of her hands. All eyes in the hallway turned toward her as she climbed shakily to her feet. What she was about to say needed to be said with absolute determination. "Sebastian, you have to take Meirin to the hospital in London. Aunt Angelina should ride along in the carriage as well, so she can bandage Meirin's wound and tend to her en route."
For a moment, the demon was utterly silent. The placid expression in his red eyes had suddenly turned to something much more severe. "I hope you are not suggesting," he replied, gazing at her intensely, "that I leave you here at the manor while a small pack of assassins is present on the grounds. You should know very well that such a thing is impossible."
"Sebastian, you've got to go," Lydia argued, standing her ground. "You're the only one who can drive fast enough to make it to London in time. You can lift the carriage out if it gets stuck in any mud ruts, and you can get around any other obstacles with your powers."
"Then you must go with me," Sebastian stated forcefully, moving a step closer to the huddle of humans.
Lydia shook her head ruefully. "I can't. My presence would endanger everyone else in the carriage. I'm pretty sure it's me these gunmen are here for. If I went with you, I would draw their fire toward the carriage, and then Aunt Angelina or Meirin could be struck and killed. I can't let this-" she sniffed, and quickly scrubbed her shirtsleeve over her eyes. "I can't let this happen again. Putting people in danger... And speaking of that, Ciel ought to go with you to London as well. It's too dangerous here."
"I'm bloody well staying right here, and I dare anyone to try to make me leave!" the smaller boy growled, glaring ferociously around the hallway in general.
Madame Red started to protest, but she was cut off by Sebastian. "I cannot do it. It is impossible. To abandon my masters in a time of danger goes against everything I am bound to by the contract."
"Damn it, Sebastian, Meirin will die if we don't get her to London soon, and you're the only one who can do it!" Lydia shouted, her face coloring into an odd mixture of fearful grey and angry blush. The other people in the hallway were watching the pair of them argue, their heads bobbing back and forth as though it were a tennis match, with the exception of Bard and Finnian, who were still crying, completely oblivious to anything except the unsteady pulse of Meirin's breathing.
Sebastian's eyes flickered toward the fallen figure of the maid. They were glowing red, hard as stone. "She knew what was expected of her when she accepted the position. The duty of all servants of Phantomhive is to protect the family with their lives. Her loss is unfortunate, but-"
Lydia actually stomped her foot. She wanted to smack his callous face right through the wall, but that would get them nowhere. "But what?! You can't just ask someone to die so nonchalantly! She only has one life!"
"So do you!" the demon roared, materializing right in front of her face and looming over her, looking exactly like the spirit of darkness he was. There was something feverish and wild in his eyes, like a hungry wolf that wanted to gobble up his prey and keep it with him, inside. Before she could think of what to reply, Sebastian had wheeled around toward Ciel. "Young master, are you hearing this?" He gestured furiously toward Lydia, for once appealing to the younger sibling to contest the orders of the older.
"I am," Ciel said, staring sternly at the broken windows. "She's right."
"What?" Sebastian looked as though the entire world must be playing a joke on him- him, a demon! "Young master, surely a servant's life is not worth-"
"Shut up!" Ciel barked, rising abruptly to his feet. "I'm tired of you telling me what is and what isn't! Don't you dare try to disobey my commands. You will take Meirin and Madame Red to London as hastily as possible. Use the brougham, as it's the lightest carriage and will travel fastest. You will safeguard them along the way. Once you arrive at the hospital, you will make sure the doctors have everything they need to perform a successful operation on Meirin. You will then return here at once, and come to me. Those are my orders."
The demon growled furiously and turned back to Lydia. "Master, please reconsider."
Lydia shook her head. "Sorry, Sebastian," she murmured, feeling a twinge of sympathy for the distressed creature. "You will obey Ciel's directions to the letter. That's an order." She spared herself from looking at his face by turning toward the huddle of people behind her. "Ciel, I wish you would go with him, though. I want you to be safe."
"I'm not leaving," the young heir replied, clenching his fists tightly. "I won't let anyone take from me what is mine. And I know the secrets of this manor better than anyone else."
"In that case…." Lydia nodded, accepting that she was not going to convince Ciel to go. She glanced over toward the servants; she knew that her father would never leave the manor as long as she was there. "Bard? Finnian?"
"Hmmmmmm?" the young gardener asked, tuning back in for the first time. They both still had tears on their cheeks. To her great surprise, Lydia found that her own cheeks were also waterstained, although she had no idea when she'd been crying.
"We're sending Meirin to the hospital in London with Sebastian and Madame Red," she explained, brushing the tears away. "Would you prefer to accompany them?"
"And leave you bunch in the lurch?" Bard asked gruffly, shaking his blonde, scraggly head. "No way! Our job is to protect the Phantomhive house, and we're gonna do it to the last! We'll find those bastards that hurt Meirin and pound 'em all to kingdom come!" Finnian nodded, still weeping.
Lydia swallowed back her emotions. "Well," she breathed out in eerie calm, "then that's that. Sebastian, take Meirin and Madame Red out to the carriage right away. Take the back way off of Phantomhive property. Whatever you do, don't let any harm come to them." She squatted down beside the still body of Meirin; Madame Red had pressed a pouch over her wound, and it seemed to be at least partially effective in stemming the bleeding. "Will it be all right to lift her?"
Her aunt nodded. "The bullet wound is not near the spine, so it should be fine. Oh, Lydia-"
The next second, Lydia was enveloped in her aunt's crimson embrace. Madame Red somehow managed to wrangle Ciel into her arms at the same time, and she squeezed her niece and nephew with the tightness of fear. "It will be all right, Aunt Angelina." Ciel declared, trying to wriggle out of her grasp. "We will definitely see you again. We can hold out here until Sebastian returns. We have enough guns for a small army, we have Aberlaine, and we still have them." He indicated toward the two still-conscious servants. "Not to mention the manor is not so easy to navigate. The intruders will have more than a few surprises waiting for them."
Lydia stepped back, and was yanked around so fast that she momentarily thought the gunmen must have returned. Sebastian was towering over her, his face shrouded in shadows. She had seen him look angrier in her lifetime, but not by much. Since there was really no way to salvage the situation at the moment, Lydia stepped toward him and perfunctorily wrapped her arms around his torso, leaning her forehead against the fold of his suit coat. The demon squeezed her back, although Lydia got the feeling that he was trying to cause her as much pain as possible; her body ached when he let go. "Take care of them, Sebastian," she whispered clearly. As she tried to turn away, she found Sebastian's hands back on her shoulders.
"You are to do nothing dangerous while I am away. Do you hear me? Absolutely nothing. You will not so much as pick up a sharp quill. You will stay hidden in the safe room, and shoot anything that tries to come in unless it is me. Do you understand?" he demanded, shaking her a little.
Lydia took a shaky step back. Just what exactly was out there? "I can't make any promises," she answered, smiling ever so faintly up at him. "Go now. There's not much time. And try to hurry."
The demon bit his lip. "The intruders are still out of range. You have a few minutes before they move in, master. Please get to somewhere safe."
As Sebastian passed by Ciel, the demon reached out and adjusted his eye patch, gliding it back over his contract eye before the young earl could react. Then he had picked up Meirin, helped Madame Red to her feet, and the three of them parted ways with the larger group, Sebastian glancing back until they were out of sight as if hoping one of the siblings would change their minds at the last minute and call him back.
Once they were gone, Ciel glanced around, making silent assessments in his mind. "Come," he commanded. "We need to relocate ourselves to the safe room. Bard, go to the kitchen and retrieve your weapons. Finnian, go and find Tanaka immediately. Meet outside the safe room door and we will let you in. Don't bother securing the other doors, it's not as if they couldn't get in through the windows if they wanted to. Above all, be absolutely silent."
As the two servants hurried off, Ciel led Lydia and her father back to the windowless room with the oddly-colored door. "This is our safe room," he explained grimly. "The walls, the floor, and the ceiling are all made of reinforced cement. The door is solid steel, painted to look like wood. We have quite a cache of weapons stored inside. Please, come in and take your pick."
"Both of you stay close to me," Aberlaine directed as the three of them entered the darkness, placing a hand on each of their shoulders. "It seems that we have quite a trial ahead of us."
Ah, a cliffhanger! :O
How will our beloved characters survive with Sebastian gone? Will they survive? Who are these people who are trying to kill Lydia? Will the Phantomhive household pull through? Find out the answer to these questions and more, next time! (Good Lord, I feel like I'm doing a TV commercial.) XD
And while you're wondering, please review! Reviews are my security blanket. They make me feel like I'm doing a good job of capturing people's interest. And they just may make me write faster. :3
