Chapter Thirteen

It had been a nice dramatic statement, turning his back on Agni and going his own way. Yes, nice and effective, he'd thought at the time. He'd made his point perfectly clear and left the moron to his own fatal devices.

Shame he'd forgotten the moron had the keycard.

Losing Sebastian had been bad enough, but now he'd gone and ditched his human key as well. Ciel had to grudgingly admit, it wasn't his brightest moment. He lingered on the top of the stairs, waiting despite himself for Agni to come lumbering after him.

The man was a soft touch. Surely he wasn't just going to let Ciel wander around defenseless and alone?

As the minutes crawled by in solitary silence, Ciel huffing and foldings his arms across his chest, he was starting to think Agni had actually grown a backbone. Tapping a foot in impatience, he waited a few minutes more. That was all well and good, but did he have to put on his Man Pants right now, when Ciel needed him to follow like an obedient puppy and open the bloody doors?

Goddammit.

With a low growl of frustration, Ciel abandoned his patience and stormed away.

Fine. If the man wanted to walk straight into a trap and leave him all on his own, he could damn well please himself. Nevermind that Ciel had been gracious enough to let the nuisance tag along in the first place, however reluctantly, and had even stopped himself from plunging the glass into his throat for daring to touch him.

Some people were so bloody ungrateful.

There was nothing else for it. Even though Finny was supposed to be first priority, because Agni was being such an arse, Ciel would have to put Finny on the back burner and find Sebastian instead. He should have put a lead on the man. How the idiot had gotten separated so early on in the game, Ciel had no idea.

He could feel his temper flaring dangerously quick, leaving no room to think, so he slowed to a stop, took a deep breath and counted back from ten.

Nine, eight. Ciel was currently on the third floor, he and Agni parting ways downstairs.

Seven, six. It had been at least an hour, probably two since they'd lost Sebastian. No doubt Sebastian had dutifully been searching the rooms. If his and Agni's progress was anything to go by, it took about half an hour to get through a whole floor.

Five, four. So, by that logic, Sebastian had had the time to do four floors. Ciel concluded he was probably on the fifth floor, if he hadn't by some miracle found Finny, been caught or worse.

Three, two. There was still the issue of whoever had been pursuing them earlier. What floor were they on? What was Ciel going to do if he crossed paths with them? It was hardly as though he could hide in one of the rooms. The only option was to run and hope he wouldn't burn his depleted stamina out entirely before he lost them.

One, zero. No lingering, no giving chances to be caught, fifth floor, find Sebastian.

Just having a plan in mind, no matter how flimsy and wrought with holes it was, calmed Ciel's thundering mind. Slowly, he continued walking, not pausing at any of the doors he passed. One flight of stairs, then another, and if anyone was watching him, they would have thought he hadn't a care in the world, seemingly at ease.

Good. That was exactly how he needed to be. Too often for his liking he'd been losing his composure, lately. Albeit, things were getting marginally more bizarre, and he wasn't completely irrational to be getting so freaked out. However, it simply wouldn't do. He had to collar his nerve and not let it escape him again. Once you let your emotions get the better of you, you were vulnerable, and Ciel could not afford to be vulnerable.

The fifth floor was visually no different than any of the others floors. Doors, walls and ceiling. No Sebastian in sight either.

Well. Fuck.

Ciel jumped out of his skin when a beep cut through the silence of the hallway, and footsteps reached his ears. A door behind him swung open and somehow he just knew that wasn't Sebastian. He wasn't even sure why. It could very well have been. But then the hairs on the back of his neck jumped to attention, his mouth was suddenly dry, and Ciel had long ago learnt that his instincts knew best. So he listened to them and ran.

He only got down half the corridor before an arm wrapped tightly around his middle, stopping his forward momentum painfully quickly, a clammy hand clamping down over his mouth before the thought to yell even registered, and this was all too familiar. The open door down the corridor was still open, and over the snorted breaths from his nose he could still hear those leisurely footsteps leaving the room. Then he was pulled into the darkness of Room 514.

"Oi, it's – don't kick – keep still!" As soon as the door was shut, Ciel was released, though that may have had more to do with his attacking limbs. He hadn't expected to be released so quickly, so stumbled into the wall. Even though he had been released, he could still feel the warmth of his assailant at his back, and pressed himself as far into the wall as he could go. That person was too close, Ciel's skin still crawling where he'd touched, and it was all Ciel could do to not scratch and claw that disgusting itch away.

"It's me," the person insisted from behind him and now that he was free of their grasp he started to recognise the voice. Squinting through the darkness of the oddly small room – what was this, a cupboard? – he tried to make out the person's features, and finally saw those eyes.

"Sebastian?"

The only response he got was an insistent "Ssh!"

Ciel shushed.

"It's Ash," Sebastian murmured, inclining his head towards the door. Ciel's eye was adjusting to the dark now, and he could see that they actually were in a cupboard, or at least a small store room. It was less than a quarter of the size of a normal room, but unlike those, it wasn't empty. Mops, brushes, buckets and shelves of cleaning supplies filled the compact space. Now that he looked, Ciel could see that Sebastian was pressing himself as far into the shelves as possible, trying to give Ciel as much space as he could.

Outside the door, the footsteps came and went, and the moment of dread didn't occur, the person not so much as pausing outside their hiding place. As the footsteps disappeared into the distance, Sebastian visibly relaxed.

"I've been in here for forty minutes," he sighed exasperatedly, running a hand through his hair. Of course it fell right back into place. Even in life and death situations, his hair gel prevailed. "He knew I was here. He must have. He just kept lurking around."

"Did he see me?" Ciel asked, frowning deeply.

Sebastian looked thoughtful.

"Hm. He was going in and out the rooms for a while. Luckily, he was already in one when you came up the stairs. Still, I heard you running from down here. You know you breathe really loudly? Seriously, how out of shape are you-"

"Could you please focus for five seconds?" Ciel snapped, rolling his eye. Honestly. If it wasn't his grooming, or lack thereof, then it was his fitness. The man was worse than his Mother.

"Anyway, I don't think he saw you. He was taking his sweet time leaving the room, that's for sure... Hey, where's Agni?" Sebastian suddenly switched subjects, squinting through the clouded glass of the door, as though expecting to see his friend wandering along.

Ciel avoided his gaze. Well, this was awkward.

Sebastian's brow furrowed.

"Ciel?"

"We... had a difference of opinion."

"...What the hell does that mean?" Sebastian demanded, and then saw red staining Ciel's sleeve. Christ, Ciel had gone and killed Agni, hadn't he? Fantastic. As if things weren't complicated enough, Ciel had killed his best friend. Because that wouldn't be hard to explain or anything.

Ciel scowled, "It means that your friend is a complete moron who decided to walk right into someone's trap, and expected me to go with him. Anyway, he doesn't matter. What does matter is why Ash, who is supposed to be sick, is wandering around the Institute-"

"No, let's go back to Agni. Let me get this straight; you acknowledged that there was a trap, so ditched Agni and left him to wander into it alone?"

Ciel sighed.

"Yes. That's exactly what happened. Now we've got that clear, back to Ash-"

"For God's sake, Ciel!" Sebastian snapped, resisting the urge to shake the boy, who either didn't see how serious this was or, more likely, didn't give a damn. "Great. So now we've got to go back and find him, yet again wasting more time we could be using to find Finny."

Sebastian checked that the coast was clear and threw the cupboard door open, stalking out. Ciel followed closely at his heels. With stealth a street urchin would have envied, Ciel snatched Sebastian's keycard from his pocket and began over to the stairs.

"You can do whatever you want. I, on the other hand, am going to do exactly what we came here to do-"

"That's your blood."

Ciel paused, glancing back over his shoulder at Sebastian, who was frowning down at his hand. Ciel followed his gaze and nodded. He'd forgotten about the cut, and as was usually the case, remembering the injury made him aware of the dull throbbing in his palm.

"It's fine," Ciel stated, shrugging and continuing on his way. Only to have his hand caught by Sebastian. Before he could lash out, Sebastian had snaked the pass out of his uninjured hand, pocketing it.

"Look, the next floor is the last floor. We both saw Ash go up there, Ciel. We can't go up there," as Sebastian spoke, he pulled his handkerchief from his pocket and wound it around Ciel's bloodied hand, "We've already wasted too much time. The last thing we need is to lose someone else. Finding Finny was a long shot anyway. We can still find Agni if we go looking now."

"I'm not arguing with the logic, Sebastian. Fact is, I have no interest in finding Agni. He chose to go wandering off. He never believed in Finny anyway-"

"Agni's my friend, Ciel. I've thrown myself to the dogs to help you find your friend. You won't do the same for me now?" Sebastian met Ciel's eye, and Ciel was startled by the intensity he found there, the already unusual red adopting an ethereal gleam. He found it hard to look away.

"You're clearly a better person than I am, Sebastian." With that, Ciel turned on his heel and walked away, knowing that Sebastian would follow him. Because Sebastian had come too far now, invested too much in him, to just leave Ciel alone in a situation like this.

And, predictably, Sebastian shadowed him all the way up the stairs.

Voices.

He curled as far as he could go, wishing that his knees could somehow pass through his chest and he could curl up into a ball so small he'd simply disappear. Disappear, and escape this. This black, this box, this empty emptiness.

Voices, more than one now, and he couldn't even cry any more. Foolishly, he'd used up all his tears all too quickly, and now the only thing he could do was wait. Wait for them to come for him and to do what they did best then leave, leave him in this black, in this box, with nothing but the empty emptiness.

Voices, getting louder, and he couldn't even be afraid any more. He'd used up all the fear, and all he had left was the dread, an empty echo of the bone-shaking terror he used to have.

Voices, and he was delusional now. The black held monsters, monsters that pulled the walls of the box tighter and tighter around him, threatening to crush no matter how small he tried to be. And the smaller the walls became, the less air there was, and that must be it. He couldn't breathe, and when you couldn't breathe, you hallucinated. And he was hallucinating now, because the voices sounded familiar. Not scary familiar, but warm familiar.

And then the emptiness wasn't quite as empty any more, and the black became a little lighter, and the walls retreated. His legs wouldn't work, but his arms would, and he dragged himself closer to the warm voice. Even though his arms hurt and his body didn't want to move, even though he didn't have nails to dig into the floor any more, he pulled himself towards the voice.

His own voice had been screamed away, but he tried, wetting his dry and cracked lips and shouting the name of the one who owned the warm voice. Not even a croak escaped him, but his scrabbling hands knocked into something solid and sent it clattering to the floor-

Sebastian's head snapped around so quickly his neck cracked and he knew he'd be feeling that in the morning, if it ever came. Ciel froze in front of him, eye darting around for the source. They both shared the same immediate thought; Ash. But he was no-where to be seen, had disappeared into a room somewhere on the sixth and final floor, the floor Ciel had insisted on going up to.

That noise hadn't been the electronic beep they'd come to dread, the sign that a door somewhere was opening, more often than not by itself now. It had been a crash, something hard dropping to the floor, and it had been near.

Ciel saw it first.

His single cerulean eye widened and he clicked the fingers of his uninjured hand. The sharp noise drew Sebastian's attention back to the boy, who pointed his chin down the hall.

Sitting innocuously between two of the standard electronic doors was one that stood out. Unlike every other door on that floor and all the ones beneath it, it had no clouded glass window, no number on its surface. It was wooden, not whatever industrial metal all the others doors were made of. Those things, although odd, were not what caught Ciel's attention.

The door had no handle. Moreover, it had no electronic panel for a keycard to pass over.

"This is it, Sebastian," Ciel darted towards the door, caution forgotten as victory was in sight, "Kick it in. Finny, if you can hear me, get away from the door."

Sebastian blinked, shook his head, "Wait. Slow down. Why are you so certain this is it?"

Ciel looked at him like he had asked why birds fly.

"Because Finny's claustrophobic, of course. If they were going to try and mess with his head, this is the way to do it. Hurry up and kick it in, Sebastian!"

Ciel was the expert in these things, and the sooner they either found Finny or admitted defeat, the sooner they could go and find Agni. So Sebastian readied himself, waited for Ciel to nod and give him the okay, then drove his foot into the unhinged side of the door. He'd taken kick-boxing back in the day, so of course the door splintered beneath the force of his kick immediately. It took another two for the wood blocking their way to be completely defeated.

Before he'd even had the chance to lower his leg, Ciel hopped over the debris and disappeared into the black of the room. Sebastian vaulted after him.

The sight that met them was not a pretty one.

Finny scarcely looked like Finny. His once-full head of blond hair was completely shaven, a train track of stitches trailing around the back of his bald scalp. His eyes, once a vibrant blue, were dulled and even the bright blue seemed to have faded. He usually wore shorts and T-shirts, light clothes for working in the gardens all day, but they had been traded in for the white sweat shirt and pants of the patients. The clothes hung from him and, even though he hadn't been gone that long, he had the haggard look of someone who had lost a lot of weight in a very short time. He was curled in on himself impossibly tight, his hands clutched over his head. His fingertips were encrusted with dry blood, his fingernails completely gone. Suddenly, Sebastian was back in The Room, standing before a broken and bloodied Joker, sobbing heartbreakingly. Finny did not sob, but he let out a soft mewling sound, like a baby would do before the big tantrum.

Ciel held up a hand to Sebastian, a silent order to stay where he was, then gingerly approached the crumpled figure on the floor. And it was like with Joker all over again, this gentleness that seemed so utterly foreign to the boy Sebastian knew, the boy who had left Agni to be captured and hurt, the boy who was now whispering soft and comforting words while laying his hand feather-light on Finny's shuddering shoulder.

However, unlike Joker who launched himself into Ciel's arm, Finny was unresponsive. It was as though he didn't even notice Ciel's present, just stared sightlessly ahead, pitiful whimpers breaking past his split lips.

When Finny continued to be oblivious to Ciel's coaxing, Ciel tossed Sebastian a desperate look, as though Sebastian could fix whatever had been done to his friend. Sebastian stepped forward and knelt at Ciel's side. Unlike Ciel, who had been impossibly gentle with his touch, Sebastian roughly grasped Finny's shoulder and gave a good hard shake. Ciel lashed him with an icy glare, but then Finny's whining abruptly stopped, and Sebastian felt him stiffen beneath his hand.

A response, however, minimal.

Although still empty, Finny's blue eyes dragged away from the wall he'd been locked in a staring match with and met Ciel's. Ciel didn't even try to hide his relief.

"We're getting you out of here, Finny," he announced, and his voice shook with barely suppressed emotions; mostly anger, but mixed with that was a deep worry and even pity. He then turned his attention back to Sebastian. Sebastian didn't even have to ask to understand what the boy wanted.

Carefully, in case there were injuries they hadn't yet seen, Sebastian gathered the unresponsive Finny in his arms. Ciel rose from the floor and made his way towards the door, stepping carefully over the chunks of woods, gesturing for Sebastian to follow him.

It happened so quickly, Sebastian didn't have the chance to call out to him. One second, a shadow moved into his sight, then Ciel was struck across the head and crumpled to the floor in a boneless heap.

Finny dropped from his arms, and if he'd have been entirely conscious the gardener probably would have cried out in pain. Sebastian paid him no heed, however, wasting no time in tackling Ciel's assailant to the ground.

A high-pitched scream pierced the air.

Sebastian and the attacker wrestled for control, the other person surprisingly strong, and a dirty fighter to boot. Yanking fistfuls of Sebastian's hair, elbows to the face, digs to the gut, even a kick aimed to the crotch, this person was taking no chances.

Unfortunately for them, Sebastian gave as good as he got, and for every hair-yank and misplaced elbow, he returned it tenfold.

"Stop!" the owner of the scream screeched and was instantly obeyed. Sebastian wasted no time in twisting the person's arm behind their back and forcing their face into the ground. Their weapon clattered to the floor.

A rolling pin?

Then he saw just who his opponent was.

"Bard?" Sebastian couldn't help exclaiming incredulously, almost releasing the blond's twisted arm from shock alone. A distant part of his mind noted that he was making a nasty habit of assaulting his friends.

And wherever Bard did go...

Meirin was knelt beside Ciel, inspecting the bleeding wound on the back of his head and nibbling her lip worriedly. She breathed a sigh of relief when a pained groan escaped the floored boy as he came around. She met Sebastian's eyes, for once not degraded into blushing and nervous chattering, and silently they met an agreement. Simultaneously, they abandoned their positions and swapped, Meirin rushing to Bard and rubbing his no doubt bruised arm, Sebastian darting to Ciel's side and helping him into a sitting position.

"A fucking rolling pin? Oh god, this whole thing has dissolved into a goddamn cartoon..." Ciel muttered groggily beneath his breath, leaning heavily against Sebastian's chest and prodding tentatively at the congealing blood on the back of his head. Ascertaining that Ciel was in no immediate danger, though he'd no doubt be suffering a concussion, Sebastian looked back to Bard and Meirin.

Only they weren't where they had been.

"Oh god..."

They were knelt in the doorway. Meirin had Finny gathered in her arms so tightly it had to hurt, but unlike before, Finny was responding, clutching her back just as tight. Bard stood over them like a sentinel, casting a suspicious eye towards Sebastian.

"What the hell is going on?" he demanded, his hands twitching, no doubt itching for a cigarette.

Sebastian didn't answering, instead making a demand of his own, "How did you remember? Everything I tried didn't work."

Bard motioned to Meirin and she untangled herself from Finny long enough to show them the blood-encrusted hat clasped in one of her hands. She looked on the verge of tears, fingers hovering over the stitches on Finny's scalp, and she carefully placed the hat on his head. Finny's nailless hands came up to clutch the sides of it before he dove back into Meirin's arms.

"She found it lying by the bins... came running to me all in a state, showed me it... Sebastian, who did this? And... And why would someone do this to Finny-"

"Leave."

Bard stopped abruptly, looking down from Sebastian to the boy leaning against him. It was more the tone of the word than the word itself that silenced him. It wasn't a statement, wasn't a request. This patient was giving Bard an outright order.

"I don't just mean Finny. All three of you, leave. If Finny was targeted, you two aren't safe either. Take Finny and go. It doesn't matter where as long as it's not here."

Sebastian looks down at him, surprised at the conviction in his voice, and even though he can't see the look on his face he can picture it. That firm set of the mouth, furrowed brows, the resolved look in his eye that didn't belong on someone his age.

Bard scoffed.

"We weren't planning on staying, kid."

With that said, Bard tapped Meirin on the shoulder and she pulled away from Finny, who still clung to her like a lifeline. Bard gently untangled his hands from the woman's dress then pulled him up into his arms, cradling him against his chest. Meirin fussed over Finny's hands, trying to position them against his chest in a way that would avoid knocking the raw and painful fingertips.

Sebastian and Ciel both had to look away from the trio, both feeling like they were intruding upon something intimate, seeing something they had no right seeing.

And then the moment was broke when Bard turned to Sebastian, shamefaced, and said, "Heh... er, by the way, we kind of ran into your friend along the way. Agni? And, uh... well, we left him in a cupboard on the second floor."

Apparently Sebastian wasn't the only one beating up his friends. Now they were beating each other.

The five quickly made their way back down the building, eyes and ears peeled for any unwelcome wanderers, picking a frustrated and mildly concussed Agni up along the way. Both his companions sporting head injuries courtesy of Bard's trusty rolling pin, Sebastian supported them down the steps until the six were outside the building.

The night air was a welcome change. The sky was lightening, dawn creeping in, and it was so very welcome. Bard, Meirin and Finny stood opposite Sebastian, Ciel and Agni, the group converging on part of the lawn in the gardens, unkempt in Finny's absence.

Agni broke the silence, still looking in wonderment at the slumped figure in Bard's arm. Sebastian couldn't really tell what Agni was thinking as he looked at the person he'd thought fictional, but he could see in the way that Agni's eyes were drawn to his bloodied hands that there was pity and more than a little fear racing through his friend.

"Where are you going to go?"

Bard shrugged, sharing a bemused look with Meirin, "Dunno. Probably crash at my cousin Aberline's for a while. Guy's got these great gardens, y'know."

There was little else more to say, words not really enough to encompass what truly needed to be said about the night's events, so exchanging goodbyes, Bard and Meirin turned to leave.

Only to pause when Finny began to struggle violently, suddenly more awake than he had been at any point since they'd found him. Croaks escaped him as he tried to speak, sounding so raw that it physically hurt to hear him trying. His head snapped up, hat falling back to reveal his searching eyes, which landed on Ciel. He threw out an arm, stretching towards the boy at Sebastian's side.

Ciel strode forward into Finny's reach and was pulled into a half-hug, Finny hanging out of Bard's arms to reach Ciel. Ciel tensed, looking plainly uncomfortable in his friend's grasp, but did not push him away.

Finny's lips found Ciel's ear, and he rasped, "I-I didn't mean to see anything... but I'm glad I did, even if they took outside away – you're in trouble, everyone is, but you... the Third Chairman..." and then Finny broke off, his face contorting into pure agony. Little sounds escaped his lips, half-words and broken syllables, but they couldn't be pieced together to form anything coherent. And then he broke off into sobs, "I can't say it, Ciel! They won't let me say it!"

Ciel shushed him, that gentleness seeping back into him, and he didn't even shy away from Finny's touch.

"You don't have to say any more then. I'll be careful, then when I get out, I'll come and see you, alright?"

The words apparently weren't enough.

"P-Pinky-swear?"

Ciel flushed, flicking an embarrassed glance behind him and looked ready to refuse, but then tears started swimming in Finny's eye.

"Fine! I swear," Ciel groaned, ears turning a dark red as he locked his little finger with Finny's and shook their entwined hands. Appeased, Finny gave a shaky smile and pulled Ciel closer to him. It was the first time Sebastian had seen Ciel in a real hug, and he could see just how much Ciel wanted to squirm away, the sheer effort not to evident on his face.

And then the hug was over, and the trio were gone, disappearing through the gardens towards the walls of the St. Victoria's Institute.

Sebastian, Ciel and Agni watched their retreating backs as they clambered over the wall and vanished from view for good. Sebastian noted the lack of security, no barbed wire atop the walls, no security cameras, not even a patrolling guard. Before, he'd have questioned it, but now he knew better, understood that there was no need for security to keep people inside St. Victoria's.

Everyone who was to be prisoner there would not try to run away.

Unconsciously, his gaze was drawn to Ciel while he thought this, taking in the overwhelming longing on the boy's face as he watched the three escape, that palpable desire to be going with them. He found himself saying, "I wouldn't stop you, you know, if you tried to run. It's not too late to catch up with them, to go with Finny to Bard's uncles, to freedom... I'd even help you jump the wall."

Agni began to splutter, to scold Sebastian, but Ciel cut him off. His gaze met Agni's briefly before turning to Sebastian.

"I know," he smirked, "don't think for one second that I wouldn't use you as a ladder to get over that wall if it was what I really wanted." The boy turned around to fully face Sebastian, sobering instantly, all trace of humour leaving him. "I won't run away, Sebastian, and I won't use you as a means to an end. I will get out of here. And on that day, it will be on my own terms, by my own strength, and most certainly not with my tail between my legs."