If you want to know why it's taking me so long to update, I have two words for you... SENIOR. THESIS. It has consumed my life! And since I'm a double major, I have TWO of them! (The horror!)
Fortunately, I have decided to be productive in regards to this story, and I already have the next chapter halfway written. I will be finishing it and editing it during this week, so it should be out...soon. According to my muse, that is all I am allowed to say. :)
A noise which sounded like elephants storming through a forest of saplings had been rumbling from an increasingly shrinking distance for the past few minutes. Inside the safe room, no one was making a noise. The air around them felt thicker than solid stone.
"What the bloody hell is that great racket?" Bard muttered nervously, shocking everyone out of their self-imposed silence.
Lydia bit her lip and thumbed the trigger on the pistol currently tilted upward in her hands. She had another one tied onto her hip, and a bevy of short knives around the clutch on her other hip. Everyone inside the safe room was armed to the teeth, and even so, there were still more guns inside the ornate safe which Ciel had opened than there were people to tote them. Lydia, her father, and her brother were currently crouched behind an overturned table, guns trained on the sealed entrance to the room. Finnian and Bard were flanking them on either side, hidden by their own pieces of furniture. Finnian had not been able to find Tanaka within the huge manor before the intruders had come smashing in and he'd had to retreat, a fear which Lydia was currently fanning in the back of her mind. Tanaka, too old to run or fight…. She thought of Meirin, Aunt Angelina, and Sebastian. At least her group was keeping the assassins busy here so the others could escape and head to London. Meirin had a chance to be saved. Now the rest of them needed to see to their safety as well. Speaking of which….
"Ciel, what is all that noise? It sounds like they're tearing the mansion apart!" Lydia whispered, glancing nervously at the floor.
"It's probably Sebastian's traps. He will have springloaded them before he left," the small boy murmured softly, leaning his head against the side of the table. His eyes raised up nonchalantly to meet his sister's. "That demon normally cannot sleep, as you know. He has quite a bit of free time at night, when there is no one to wait on. I have him put it to good use by constructing elaborate traps, so the Phantomhive household can properly greet uninvited guests who seek to harm us. They're very effective. If the traps can take them out, we may not need to fight these miscreants at all." Ciel glared at the solid floor. "However, Sebastian did say that these intruders are more skilled than the others. So keep your guns prepared to fire."
"Is there a back way out of here?" Lydia whispered, eyeing the steel door.
Ciel nodded toward a miniature brown rectangle tucked into the wall behind them. "That doorway leads through a false passage out into the Western hallways, but I'd prefer we only use it if they manage to break in here. Once outside, we will be fully exposed to their attacks."
Aberlaine cleared his throat. "If they do make it in here, everyone, be careful not to shoot until you can actually see something of them. The last thing we want is to run out of bullets. This isn't the army, we don't have a supply train to back us up." Lydia nodded, closing her eyes softly as she felt her father place his hand on her shoulder. Being a police detective's daughter, she was no stranger to the art of cleaning, loading, and firing a pistol or even a rifle. However, she had never had to do it in a real combat situation before. Would she be able to actually fire upon another human being? Her body tingled; she couldn't decide whether she felt too hot or too cold. But she knew for sure that her equilibrium was off, and she was afraid of what was coming. She glanced down at the bandages which wound around her arm. Although it frightened her in an entirely different way, if it was to protect her family and her brother's household, she knew that she would use that power.
The clanging and rumbling suddenly stopped. They waited, breathless, in the enveloping silence of the cement-fortified room. Softly, down the corridor like an insidious, creeping fog, they began to hear voices moving closer. At first all Lydia could hear were the sibilant, lisping s sounds, and then gradually whole words and sentences became audible. "-bloody madhouse down there, it is!" came the irritated cadence of a male voice. " 'Ow the 'ell do these blokes e'en walk around this bloodly mansion with arrows flyin' an' axes fallin' down, chandeliers an' lockin' doors an' what else?"
"It's a right death trap down there," agreed another male voice. "Seems like they were expectin' us. Little good it'll do 'em- oy! Why'd ye stop?"
A rounded moment of silence overtook the outside hallway, broken when a soft, sibilant voice tuned in, colder and lighter than the other two. "They are beyond that wooden door….says Goethe."
"This one right here? How many inside?" broke in yet another voice, this time female, thick and direct.
There was a pause again. "We do not reason in numbers….says Wordsworth. We know they are there; we can smell them, says Emily."
"Wordsworth? Goethe? Emily? How many bloody folks d'they have out there?" Lydia heard Bard mutter to himself on her right. She swallowed and shared a tense, silent glance with her brother. The way things were stacking up, it seemed as though they were outnumbered. However, she reminded herself that they still had the fortified walls and steel door of the safe room to protect them. Ordinary guns would not get through those.
The next moment, she heard someone leaning heavily against the door, and then a surprised grunt. "This ain't wood 'ere. Some kinda metal, innit? Smells like steel."
"Bloody aristocrats," said somebody else, "always takin' it o'er the top with everythin'…."
There was the muffled noise of mumbling as their assailants seemed to confer with each other. The sound of a gunshot made everyone jump; Lydia heard a yelp from outside as the bullet, instead of passing through the wall, shattered and fragmented on the fortified cement slabs which made up the walls' interior. More muttering, longer and lower this time. Then a male voice called loudly from the other side of the door, "Helloooooo in there!"
The inhabitants of the safe room traded highly skeptical glances. No one spoke.
"We know yer in there, so it won't do ye nothin' to keep quiet. Listen up, all of ye. There's somethin' that we want, an' if ye'll be so kind as to give it o'er to us, we promise we'll leave ye be in peace an ne'er trouble ye more."
Crouched beside Lydia, Aberlaine lifted up his head, running a nervous hand through his wavy red hair. "And what is this thing you want so much?" he called out to the door's monotone features.
"We want the bastard daughter of the Phantomhive line. We know yer in there, ye unlucky wench." The tone of the voice became singsong, mocking. "Give us the girl, an' we'll gladly spare the rest of ye."
Her father's face became ten shades darker, and Lydia's heart stuttered as he brandished his gun reflexively at the door. "You'll never lay a finger on my daughter, you hell-damned murderers! I'll see you locked in the darkest corners of the Yard's prison just for thinking of it!" It had been years since Lydia had heard him use the voice which he reserved only for the most vicious of criminals he dealt with.
More muttering outside. Raised voices. Then: " 'Tis unfortunate an' tragic, but we 'ave a mission to fulfill, one we cannot turn away from no matter what. We're offerin' ye the best option we can. Send the girl out to us an' we'll spare the lives of the rest of yer company. Only one 'as to die today. If ye won't…." the voice became deeper, more brutal. "My companions are right now fixin' dynamite packs to the side walls of yer little hidey-hole. If ye won't do like we say, we'll set 'em off an' kill all of ye in one! So think about that real careful afore ye go an' tell us what we won't do."
Lydia's neck jerked back as she staggered up from the floor. "I'll come out! I'll come out, don't kill them!" she shouted through the steel doorway. A moment later her father and brother had seized both her arms and dragged her back down, which was a blessing in itself as Lydia wasn't sure she could have kept her feet a second longer. Her knees were shaking madly. From emptiness, she suddenly heard the flowing sound of Psalm 23 being recited in the back of her mind, as if her mother was speaking to her. Yea, though I walk beside the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for thou art with me….
The voice of the intruder was talking again from outside the door, but Lydia couldn't hear him- she was busy being wrestled with inside the constricting arms of her male relations, both determined to keep her firmly on the floor beside them. "You're not going," Ciel hissed in her ear. "Absolutely not," Aberlaine growled. Lydia blinked and swallowed down a concoction of overwhelming gratitude and mortal terror. "But- he said-"
"We don't know if they're bluffing, but even if they aren't, we're not going to hang about here long enough to be caught in the blast," Ciel murmured so quietly that his lips were almost soundless. "We'll take the back way out." He beckoned to Bard and Finnian, and the two crawled out from behind their makeshift barriers and joined the huddle around the capsized table. "Inside that passageway, everyone must be absolutely silent. It will lead us to the West end of the manor. We will need to exit the passage in case these people detonate the safe room. Once outside, I want everyone to follow me without a sound toward the servants' hall. I know of several other secret passages which will lead us underneath the manor grounds, where we can safely hide until Sebastian returns." Ciel rubbed his forehead with his knuckles, the Phantomhive ring glinting coldly upon his thumb. "If by any chance we should become separated, we shall attempt to regroup in the- in the kitchen. Everyone knows where that is, yes? It has plenty of places to hide and windows to make an escape if needed. But do bloody try to stay together. If we are cornered, we shall stand and fight, but only a fool walks willingly into a gunfight of unknown variables."
Everyone around the table nodded curtly, and the young heir patted the gun attached to his hip. It was only when they began to rise and whisper over the floor toward the small rectangular exit that Lydia realized her hands were clenched just as tightly to her family as theirs were around her. The narrowness of the passage obliged them to let go and travel single-file. Ciel went first into the darkness, then Aberlaine. As Lydia prepared to duck into the opening, there came an impatient demand from the other side of the main door. "Miss, are ye comin' out or not? We 'aven't all day to wait for ye to make yer peace. I promise it'll be quick, just a moment an' then nothin'. Hangin' about o'er there in between'll only make it worse on yer 'eart."
Lydia whirled around and strode to the middle of the room, completely galled that these shameless creatures had the nerve to give her advice on how to best be killed by them. "I'm coming!" she shouted at the door, then pressed her fingers over her lips and hurried into the passageway after her father's waiting hand.
Bard worried the door shut after himself, and then they were completely in darkness. For such a small entryway, the passage was surprisingly spacious on the inside. They had to duck down from the low ceiling, but Lydia could not touch the walls on either side of her body to navigate herself. Luckily Ciel, at the front of the line, seemed to know where he was going. They held onto each others' right shoulders as they forged ahead through disturbed rustles and thick clusters of scuttling sounds. Lydia had never been particularly afraid of bugs or rats- she was studying the environment, after all- but now they were the furthest thing from her mind. They had to get away from these people who were standing outside the safe room door, waiting to kill her. They had to get away, and they had to find out why.
Fear had tampered with Lydia's sense of time, so she had no idea how long they had been tiptoeing through the pitch-black, stale air when they suddenly pressed together in a halt. She heard clicking up ahead, and then a tremulous line of light peeled itself out of the darkness before her sensitive eyes. Once her pupils adjusted, she could see the square back of her father as he helped Ciel to push the door open. Grabbing Finnian's hand behind her, she whisked them both out of the passage and into the cold hallway lit with rain-filtered glow of the dying afternoon. Bard stepped out of the blackness last, brushing cobwebs out of his rugged hair. Without a sound, all four of them turned to Ciel for an indication of where to go next. However, no one had time to do more than look before two silver arcs careened out of nowhere and knocked away the pistols held by Lydia and Finnian. Behind her, someone gasped. Lydia's head sprung upward as she beheld the stuff of nightmares; near the top of the long window, bracing himself against the indent in the wall, a black-coated figure hung seemingly in midair. More daggers were gripped in between the spaces of his ten full fingers. Upon his head was no human face, but one of the classic masks of the ancient theater tradition, its painted lips swooping upward in a vulgar smile. "Got ye."
The next thing Lydia knew, something hard and fleshy hit her and she found herself tumbling across the hallway. Everyone was shouting now. There was a body on top of her, black-clothed and masked like the first, but she could clearly tell this one was a woman from the extremely large bosoms pouring from her chest. The assailant had one hand around Lydia's throat and was reaching with her other back to her hip, having some difficulty due to her victim's thrashing. Lydia's vision sparked in different colors, but she managed to get her wits about her and drive her right fist up into the woman's abdomen. She choked and collapsed around the fist as Lydia spun her off and lunged back to her feet in time to see her father brandishing a revolver and attempting to keep back another black-coated assailant with a strange, thick cord around his neck. Finnian and Bard with tangling with the tallest of the lot, a happy-faced masked man who was dodging and darting around them with acrobatic ease. She couldn't see Ciel. She began to dash toward her father, reaching for the pistol on her other hip. "Father! Father!"
Aberlaine half-turned, and his entire body spasmed in alarm. "Lydia, look out!" he roared, and the next second Lydia felt a small body lean into her and drag her to the side. She found herself on the floor again with her brother fallen beside her. Panicked, she glanced over her shoulder to see a knife embedded in the wall where her chest had been moments before. The black-clad figure with the daggers was bending down over the fallen shape of the woman, carefully tilting her into a sitting position. Lydia could hear their voices as she scrambled to her feet, lifting Ciel up with her. "All right there, sis?"
"I'm fine!" the woman's voice cut back harshly across the hall. "Stop fussin' over me and focus on the mission! You always- ah look, they're gettin' away!"
Another knife pierced the doorframe beside her ear as Lydia ducked her head and ran pell-mell down the hallway, her younger brother at her side. She had no idea where they were going and she did not have the luxury to look around and consider. Whatever turns cut them off from their pursuer were good enough, whichever hallways offered the most protection were the ones they took. Everywhere around them the air was full of flying knives. Where in hell did he keep all those knives? Their assailant was a skilled marksman, but Lydia kept her head half-turned so she could see the approaching daggers and used the quickness of her right arm to sweep them out of the air. Even so, she could feel her brother slowing down, beginning to shake and wheeze as the strain of his condition latched its painful claws around him. She knew he would not be able to run for much longer. A flying dagger nearly rammed into her skull, and she barely managed to knock it aside with a powerful thrust of her arm. The blade bounced harmlessly against the invulnerable limb, releasing a tiny bead of golden light as it pierced the bandages on the surface. Lydia bit her lip till she drew blood, and kept running.
She knew when they had come to the end of the line. Ciel was gripping the waistline of her dress in order to hold himself upright, and his shoulders were heaving unstoppably as he gasped for air. He amazed her when, in one final burst of energy, he planted his feet valiantly on the floor and whirled around, flintlock pistol in hand. Lydia's head rang as he fired five shots toward the menacing figure approaching them. But the spasms of his oncoming asthma attack compromised his aim, and the figure leapt nimbly behind a marble statue and out of harm's way. On a strange wave of calm, Lydia stepped in front of him, drew her own loaded pistol, and aimed it at the body of the statue.
"I wouldn' be so bold if I were ye, miss," a quiet voice came from the adjoining hallway. Lydia whirled to find another black-clad figure just yards away, pointing his own gun directly at her head. It was the tall, acrobatic attacker from before. Lydia instantly recognized his voice as the one she'd been speaking with through the safe room door. The happy mask upon his face contrasted with the somberness in his tone. "Ye should 'ave let us end it simply back there instead of dragged it out like this. I guess it's all the same, no matter where ye go….a 'uman bein' will always struggle an' fight to stay alive." The voice behind the mask laughed bitterly. "But we 'ave a mission we can't help but carry out." The finger of his gloved hand clicked upon the trigger. "I won't ask for yer forgiveness."
Lydia lowered her pistol and inched her left hand surreptitiously toward her right. She didn't want to make any sudden movements, but she wasn't sure she would make it in time. "If you're determined to kill me, then, I suppose there's nothing stopping you from firing that gun," she swallowed and listened hard to the sounds of the manor. Loud clangs and pistol reports in the distance suggested that the battle still raged on elsewhere. "But call off your henchmen, and leave my brother be. You said I'm the only one who needs to die."
"No! If you kill my sister, I will destroy you!" Ciel's voice raged from behind Lydia. The small boy's arms clutched against her side as he panted in impassioned bursts of air. "I will hunt you- to the ends of the earth- I will break apart- everything that's good to you- I will- make sure your names- are never spoken- without contempt- you cowardly- sons of a- gutter whore!"
The tall figure did an unexpected double take at the sound of Ciel's voice. From behind the marble statue, the other attacker stepped out and stood still. Lydia couldn't see through their masks, but she got the feeling they were both staring fixatedly at her brother. The tall one sucked in his breath. "Blessed saints in 'ell, it's really Ciel Phantomhive!" he exclaimed loudly to the other. "I never thought he'd be hangin' about 'is mansion while we came roarin' through it! I thought he'd be runnin' away for sure." His first clenched around the handle of his gun as he lowered it slightly. "Tch. Guess we wasted good manpower sendin' the others out after that carriage. Can't mind it now."
"Your friends may not survive the attempt. I hope you said goodbye to them beforehand." Lydia could hear the smirk in Ciel's voice as she carefully positioned her body to make sure she was still shielding him. The shorter figure swore and drew back the daggers in both of his hands.
"NO, DAMMIT! 'Ave ye lost yer 'ead? Don't let 'im rile ye up!" the taller figure roared, turning sharply on his companion. "Remember father's orders. The girl we kill, but the boy 'e wants in front of 'im un'armed. He'll 'ave our 'eads if we get e'en a scratch on 'is spoiled skin!"
Ciel's body gave another spasm that Lydia sensed had nothing to do with his asthma. "You'll never take me alive, you swine! I'll kill you or I'll die!" The young heir stretched his arm out fitfully for Lydia's pistol, and the brunette was actually forced to wrestle him back from it and grip him tightly in her arms. Ciel did not know this, and she had no way of explaining, but she had finally managed to work loose the covering of bandages around her wrist. What she was about to do would not come with a second chance, and she needed her brother to be right next to her when she-
"I've 'ad it with this, ye pampered little brat! If it 'adn't been for ye, ye an' yer bloody father, none of this would've e'er happened!" the tall man screamed, wheeling back around and pointing his weapon directly at Lydia's forehead. For a moment she thought he was screaming at her, until she realized the wild eyes barely visible through the holes of the mask were looking at Ciel. "Swine, ye call us? Ye 'ave no idea what we've 'ad to go through while you've been livin' up here like a king! I ain't gonna hear ye whine like yer in pain! Ye think yer the only one with siblings ye want to protect?" He was panting now, almost harder than Ciel himself. Lydia could feel his panic interlacing the room. "I ain't gonna hear this. No, I ain't gonna hear another word! Yer comin' with us, ye little wretch, if I 'ave to pry ye from yer sister's dead arms!"
He raised his hand and drew back the trigger for what Lydia knew would be the last time. She heard her mother's voice again, Psalm 23, the final line: And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. She heard Ciel gasp and someone yell- maybe it was her- and then, with a desperate wrench and an almighty force of will, she dug her fingers into her right arm and ripped the bandages clean away.
Author's Note: If you're someone who has only watched the anime version of Kuroshitsuji and therefore does not know who these new characters are, that's okay! None of the regular cast knows who they are at this point either, so you can discover their identities as the story goes along. And hey, this might just be a good time to skip down to your local library and see if you can't order the manga version. Because Kuroshitsuji is awesome!
Till next time! :)
