Hi guys, last chapter was a cliffhanger…I guess. In response to the note that Ciel gets captured a lot (especially for someone with a demon butler at his beck and call) I realized that he does and that I don't think that I had had him kidnapped yet so that's that. Thanks for the reviews I need it and am very thankful for all of you. As a side note, I am pretty sure that after this chapter I am going to get a lot of hate mail. Please please please don't be mean to me. You can be mad, but please not at me. This chapter is pretty sad near the end. With that in mind I am really really really sorry. Please.
Sebastian ushered all of the party goers out of the house. Lizzie was hysterical, and we only just barely forced her out of the house. She was crying mascara running down her cheeks. Sebastian only offered a few words of comfort before pushing her pushing her out of the door as well. As soon as everyone was out. I took the time to freak out. If I had done so in front of the guests I was positive Ciel would have scolded me. "As a Phantomhive you must show no weakness, that will give them way to harm you, and we are stronger than that." And I would have agreed and Sebastian would bring us a piece of cake to share before I went to bed, or Sebastian whisked me away to lessons: my body was wracked with sobs. So much tragedy in one day. Ciel…could he really be gone? No. That…That wouldn't happen to him….would it? He was a noble, and while there were plenty of threats Ciel was not ever in any danger. Even working as the queens guard dog, I had never thought he was in real peril. He just went for a walk. That's all, and he'll be back soon, to come and play a game of chess with me, or to shoo me to bed if I was up late while he was working. It'll be just like normal. My brother was not kidnapped. My brother was NOT kidnapped….MY BROTHER WAS NOT KIDNAPPED. There was no way in hell that this was happening to him too. It couldn't be those people who had taken me captive, their leader had been killed, or so I was told.
"Catherine." Said Sebastian. Then the truth I had just denied, by mere seconds ago came crashing down on me. I don't know if he was yelling at me, or trying to get my attention, it was muted. Like my entire head was enveloped in cotton. I was sure I had stopped breathing too. I didn't know what to do. I felt like someone had pushed my head under water, and I wasn't being let up for oxygen. I was drowning in air.
"He's gone." I whispered. He put his hand on my back making me jump and jerk away from him. "Don't touch me!"
"Catherine, I need you to calm down."
"NO! I SURE AS FUCK WON'T 'CALM DOWN'! HE'S MISSING! DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?! HE'S MISSING!" I gave sob and crumpled to the floor sobbing with grief. "He's missing…." Sebastian knelt down and put his arms around me protectively, and I sank into him. "Why wasn't it me? It should have been me…." I breathed in.
"No, Catherine, it shouldn't have been anyone. Let alone you, who has only just recovered. How long have you been on your legs since the hostage situation you were in?"
"How can you be talking about me right now? This isn't about me at all this is about him, who is out there lost and afraid! Who knows what he's going through right now? He could be dead or dying as we speak!" I yelled pointing at the door. How can he be so calm about something like this? He hadn't even raised his voice at me. Not one bit. "Do you even care? DO YOU!?" he was speechless and I was a mound of raging hormones. I was not going to be deserted again, and I didn't even know the reason. Everyone who loved me left me. Everyone! Clara, the gang, and now Ciel. Was Sebastian going to leave me too? "I can't stand for this happening again! Aren't you going to leave too? Like all the others?! GET OUT! YOU NEVER CARED ANYWAYS!" that was the wrong thing to say. He drew himself up to his full height and I saw a small red tear in the corner of his eye. He yelled at me, to this day the most terrifying thing.
"HOW DARE YOU SAY I NEVER CARED!" I got up and ran up the stairs. "Catherine! I didn't mean to yell at you! I just….." I could sense the regret about him but did I really care? Not particularly. I threw myself on my bed. My shoulders shook, and my frail body was heaving. I could barely get to the restroom before I up heaved the contents of my stomach. Washing my mouth out with a wash, I looked at myself in the mirror. My eyes were stained a bloodshot red from all the tears and my hair was hanging limp.
I sat in my bedroom that night continuing to cry my eyes out. Whenever one bout ended another one started. I thought I would have been out of tears by now. I had to do something to get him back. Anything! Why would anyone want to take him away from me? I knew he had more than one enemy; he was the Earl of Phantomhive for Christ's sake! There were dozens of boys that would gladly give him a pasting but this! This was going too far, breaking his nose was one thing, but actually abducting him was another thing entirely. Who would go this far just because of a petty jealousy? My brother had never wronged anyone. As straight faced as he may be, he was not cruel. In fact, when you got to know him he was probably one of the sweetest people anyone had ever met. And he gave me the one thing I had never truly felt before. Love. He was my only brother, no parents, just him and me. How could I get him back to me? Back home where he belonged. With me, and Sebastian, and Finny Bard and Tanaka. And Erik…ERIK! He was missing too, not that that plagued my mind for very long as my BROTHER was missing, but why if someone had kidnapped him (I concept I was still learning to deal with.) Would they take the cat with them? Sebastian told me to go to bed. But how could I? How could ANYONE! The last thing I wanted to do right now was sleep. When I had gotten captured how had he reacted? He had gone out looking for me diligently. Was I not repaying the favor when put in the same situation with him being the captive? This was just enough to push me over the edge, Ciel was gone, kidnapped by some creep, Sebastian had yelled at me, and I was just sitting on my arse not doing anything to help him. What did they want? Was it money? Was it the company? I just didn't understand. I felt something rubbing/ scratching my leg. I looked down to see my black midnight cat. I scooped him up in my arms his fur soaking up a few of my tears. He bit my finger. "You've turned on me too?" I looked at him trying to get something around his neck. It was a scrap of what looked like parchment; there was scraggly handwriting, to be compared to grotesque chicken scratch. I moved my candle closer to be able to read it. It read;
"Ciel Phantomhive, I have been taken somewhere to lower eastern London. The top floor of the Queen's inn, I don't know who's kidnapped me. I don't have a lot of time- I love you." but what is this written in I whispered to myself. Why would Ciel have access to ink? I held it even closer to the candle to see the color of this 'ink' it was reddish brown…
"SEBASTIAN!" I yelled after falling out of my chair and scrambling back in fear, frightened out of my wits that this was written in my brother's own blood. "SEBASTIAN!" I yelled again, where in the world was he, he couldn't have been mad at me still. My hands were shaking, and even more tears ran down my face. I heard the sound of legs running quickly down the hall. Sebastian burst through the door and got down to where I knelt wrapping his arms around me comfortingly.
"Shhhhh….." he crooned in my ear. "Shhhh….it'll be alright, now tell me what's happened." I was blubbering and therefore incapable of telling him clearly.
"Ciel!" I cried pointing to the letter with unsteady hands. He took it from me, his eyes scanning the paper for its content quickly. "it's his!...it's his!"
"What? What's his?" he asked urgently, trying desperately to get me out of hysterics.
"b-b-b-blood!" I exclaimed pointing to the vile paper. "It's Ciel's blood! They've hurt him! What do we do?!" he pet my hair soothingly and rocked me back and forth, I held onto Sebastian as if he was the last thing on Earth, an anchor keeping me here and safe. The door opened again and in came Mey-rin, Finny, and Bard.
"What's going on?"
"Is everything alright?"
"We heard screaming, yes we did!" I sniffled.
"I'm fine." I confirmed, standing up from where I had been on the floor, "But we just found out where Ciel's been taken, and I was…." How can you describe how I had felt, finding out that note was written in blood? Terrified? No. Terrified didn't even begin to fathom how I felt. I was scared, that's for sure, but I also was disgusted and appalled, but relieved to know where he was, angry at whoever did this to him. It didn't matter, they needed to know where Ciel was.
"The young master?" Bard asked when I mention after I told them that he had told me his location. "Where is he?"
"The Queen's Inn." Sebastian responded smoothly. "We are going to leave as soon as possible. I don't have time to waste." With that he turned and almost exited the door after giving me a kiss on the forehead. "Everything will be fine. Go and prepare." He instructed Bard and Mey-rin, Finny made to leave too, but Sebastian stopped him. "No, you should stay with Cat." As they exited, I collapsed into Finny's arms that wrapped around me enveloping me in care.
"Everything will be fine." I looked up into his lovely turquoise blue eyes. "It's just like Sebastian said, we'll get Ciel back, and everything will go back to normal."
"Promise?" I asked my voice quavering.
"I do." He said and smiled at me. "I don't know if you know this, but I care for you…a lot. And we're both young, but even if we don't get married, even if you forget me, I hope it'll be till death do us part." I smiled at him, took his hands.
"Me too." Another tear slid down my cheek leaving a trail of moisture, he ever so gently, wiped it away with his thumb. He hugged me tight and for a moment I almost forgot about the problems at hand. Almost. Sebastian was calling for all of us to be at the ready. The two of us went down the stairs, practically joint at the hip.
"Finnian, I would have preferred for you to stay here with Catherine, but…" he trailed off. "We need you with us to get through any barricades." He nodded.
"I'm coming too." I said firmly, without quaver. He didn't object, though he looked like he might. Tanaka didn't come, I actually dot know where he went but I think he was still not in his real form. Finny ran ahead, after getting the location from Sebastian, to go and see where he was and maybe take out a few guards before we could get there.
"I'll see you again." He promised, and then ran off towards the Queens Inn in lower eastern London where Ciel was. The cart was already ready and we piled in, Sebastian taking the reins and quickly moving us towards our destination. "There!" I pointed, to a large inn. "That's what the note told me!" he's up there! On the top floor." I was shaking. He didn't say that they wanted ransom money. He claimed he didn't even know who they were, but that they kept him blindfolded, which is why Sebastian couldn't tell immediately where he was.
When we got there Finny was already waiting for us. "He's on the top floor? Is that what it said in the note?" he asked. He had circled the perimeter of the house, and deemed that the back entrance would probably be the best. There weren't many locks either. "I think that we should siege it like last time." He nodded.
"Yes, as soon as you can clear the way I want you to get in the cart and go back home." They were about to object but stopped, and ran to the back where they entered and began to try picking them off.
Sebastian looked up seemingly able to tell that something was wrong. I felt it too. There were ravens perched on the roof. The symbol of death. The scent of a heavy rain was penetrating, and a dark aura hung in the air. "What do I do?" I asked Sebastian apparent signs of fear and fatigue on my face.
"You are staying here; I am going in to get him. I only hope we aren't too late yet." Something in his eyes showed fear, it seemed like it would be a foreign look on his face. Confident perfect Sebastian, he was perfect to the point of it being unworldly. I never thought Sebastian could experience fear.
"You can't make me stay here! He's my brother, I have to help him!" I yelled at him for being so inconsiderate. He blocked the door and said with a fire in his eyes.
"I told you no Catherine, this is enough. It's dangerous-" I didn't hear him completely though. I swung myself under his arms and past his strong legs sprinting into the house before he could stop me. He ran after me though just as fast. I ran down the hall, dodging past the few guards' line of vision. If they heard me they just brushed me off. I turned and ran straight into Sebastian who had appeared out of nowhere. He grabbed me harshly by the wrist.
"What the hell were you thinking?! You are in so much trouble young lady!" He embraced me but the look on his face seemed absolutely livid. "Coming into the place of a killer without being armed!"
"I have a revolver." I said, but was cut off by a scream. Ciel's scream. The two of us looked up to where the wretched sound had come from. It was blood curdling, the scream of a terrified child fighting for his life. My heart jumped up into my throat.
"Ciel!" Sebastian yelled. I hit the ground running, fighting my way up the stairs and killing the guards with the butter knives he always seemed to have on his person. I fought my way through, shooting anyone and everyone I saw. At one point a hooded figure knocked the gun out of my hand, and I stabbed him in the eyes, gouging one of them out as he screamed in agony, until Sebastian finally killed him. On the second floor the guards seemed to get more advanced. I had to take the knife out of my dress; the next man who jumped out at me caught a knife to the stomach. Blood quickly filled his lungs. I guess I aimed too high. The blood bubbled out of his mouth, though I felt no remorse for the life that I had just taken. I pulled it out of his ribs moments before he died, and he screamed so I knew he could still feel the pain. I didn't see anything I just saw red, oh yes, lots and lots of red, not just due to my anger, but I saw it splattered all over the walls and on my hands, a spray of it on face. A hulking man came from my line of sight, and assumed that I was not armed when he tried to take me from behind. He didn't meet a pleasant end either, but it was the way that many in that business go, with a knife in your back, and blood gushing out of his nose. There were many others, and I can't say I didn't get banged up in the process. I think I may have broken my nose, as it had gone numb. I had my blood and the blood of others on me. I felt horrific.
And yet, it didn't faze me, I just went on killing remorselessly like some kind of monster, it wasn't until I had already gotten to the top room when I saw the man standing above Ciel, before bashing his skull into the wall, that I even realized that I had really killed anyone. I saw red, red red this time. I could see nothing but. The man before me glowed with an unearthly tone. He saw me and smiled gleefully, my brother was extremely weak. A pool of his own blood already surrounded him. With one last hit the blood ran down his neck and he was dead. He closed his eyes, and tried to die in peace. I yelled out looking at him and then to his murderer, who was advancing towards me. He grabbed me by the throat, and attempted to pin me against the wall.
"What do we have here?" he asked calmly as if I had only just walked in while he was working, not on him killing my brother. "Another soul impure. Hmmm. I'll just have to dispose of you." His hand twisted tighter on my neck, and I heard my knife clatter to the floor. He squeezed his grip and I squeaked out and kicked him. He dropped me, clutching his abdomen in pain. "You little witch!" what was this man? His strength was stronger than any man I had ever seen before.
"Me? You just killed my brother!" I yelled as he advanced at me again.
"Don't say it that way, I was doing a service to the world by ending that little brats life. And now, I'm going to end yours." I tried to turn and run, but he got the back of my knee causing me to fall. I crawled backwards, my bangs falling into my eyes, escaping the blue ribbon it had been held by previously.
"What do you want with us?! What have we done?!" I begged.
"Haven't you guessed yet? And here I thought you were bright." He said with mock disappointment. "Nine entire years you managed to evade capture and then three months ago when we were oh so close to finally having you dead, those incompetent fools I had employed were virtually all killed by HIM." He said him with a loathing that dripped venom. "I refuse to let a job go unfinished, this one should have ended eight years ago." I computed…eight years ago.
"You set the mansion on fire?! But that other man…"
"I was his employer obviously. You didn't expect me to do it myself did you?" he laughed evilly. I crawled back on my hands just a bit more, hoping he didn't notice. Maybe if I could just keep him talking I could get out of here, and find Sebastian. "It's all your fathers fault. If he wasn't so impure I wouldn't have done anything, and your sweet mother, well….your parents just couldn't keep their nose out of my business could they." He cocked his head sadistically. I felt up the door quickly trying not to make too quick movements, or have it be painfully obvious.
"m-my parents? No human in their right mind would kill someone for something like that!"
"They were going to replace me as the Queen's aide, and I just couldn't let that happen." I don't know if he meant that to be addressed to me or if he was talking to himself. "I NEVER trusted your father, and your brother is just like him!" he yelled and then made a leap toward me aiming for my neck with my knife that I had dropped earlier. I opened the door, kicked him hard so that he fell and sprinted with him following behind after he had gotten up. Finny was rushing towards me from the edge of the hallway.
"I came back to get you, Bard and Mey-rin already left." I cut him off.
"RUN FINNY!" I yelled. I looked back to see him even closer than he was before. I stopped and faced him though there still was a possibility for me to escape, but I had to know where he was. He growled and threw the knife I cringed and waited for the thing to enter my body, only to be pushed out of the way instead. I fell to the ground as did the other white clad man. He had a pair of gardening shears impaled and sticking straight out in his head killing him instantly. I looked at Finny who stumbled to the wall, and slid down it. "No. No! NO! NO NO NO!" I ran to him and fell to my knees wrapping my arms around him.
"Catherine." He tried to say, though it was hard for him to bite through the pain.
"No. You're going to be fine." I said, trying to stay calm. I pulled the knife out of his stomach, almost feeling a bit dizzy from looking at his blood loss. He touched my hands gently putting the knife down.
"I'm not going to be able to make it. I think this is it for me." He said, but tried to smile. A tear slid down my face.
"No Finny! It was supposed to be the two of us! Together!" I cried my voice cracking, I hugged him tightly. He looked up at me, his turquoise eyes looking into my cerulean blue ones.
"Till death do us part." He said. "It's just a bit sooner than we thought." He coughed, and was sweating a little bit. "I just wish I could have spent a little more time telling you I loved you." He coughed again. I cried silently the tears just continuing to roll down my cheeks. "I've loved you since the very beginning Cat, you were so lovely, even when we first found you. You were perfect." He shuddered, even though the sweat was still beading down his face.
"I want to go with you Finny! I don't care if this ends my life! I want to be with you!" I said.
"Romeo and Juliet ended in tragedy. Promise me….promise me, you won't do that. You have to keep living." I shook my head. "You have too. I want to see you grow up, to be beautiful and happy, and have lots of beaus. I want you to be happy. Don't end your life because of me." I sniffed.
"Fine only for you." I said. He smiled, the life slowly draining from his face, there wasn't much time left.
"I only have a bit to tell you everything I've ever wanted to. You're so beautiful to me. Even when you were insecure, all I wanted to do was get to know you." He grasped my hand. "I wish I had time to show you how amazing you are. If you could see yourself in my eyes… You were made to be wonderful." I shook my head no. "If you looked you would be amazed at what you find."
"And you." I said. "You've always been there and you're sweet and kind and caring. I love you, from the first time, you've been a picture of perfection. You're beautiful to me." I sobbed and clutched him to me. His life was fading fast.
"Out of my entire life….you are the thing I will remember and cherish the most Cat." He gave me a kiss, gentle sweet and loving, and also with passion. He closed his eyes, "live your life Cat, and be happy with whoever you need, but I will always love you. I don't want you to mourn me, I want you to go and be with your brother and Sebastian, celebrating life and not death. You are beautiful to me." With those last words on his lips he passed on to the next life. I kissed him and listened, laying him peacefully, I would be sure to take him to Undertaker. Finny, the boy who had been experimented on, to be the next super-soldier had died in the way he never thought he would. Like a hero. I walked with an ashen face, taking his advice and going to see my brother's body. Seeing it again, I was faced with the painful agony, that I had lost two of my people. Finny died a hero, Ciel died a victim.
My older brother lay on the floor of the building with blood running down his pale face. He looked so sullen. Almost more so than he had in life, and yet in a way, he was beautiful. Like a fallen angel with his ash hair, and his blood, scarlet red, so startling against the whiteness of his skin. If only I could see his blue eyes, alive and breathing, here to play chess with me, and eat with me, and to go on walks with Sebastian and I, but now he was dead. We had gotten to the room too late. He was gone. My only family member was gone, just like that! Like a puff of smoke taken away in the wind. Never to be with us again. I wrapped my little nine-year old arms around him, the salty tears burning my eyes and rolling down my cheeks in fat drops. I wanted to be Ciel's little sister again, I felt hopeless, so… lost. We had become so close. Why did this have to happen to me? My tears dripped onto his forehead, making the blood swirl. I heard the sound of Sebastian's shoes come up behind me. I looked over to him.
"It's too late….he's gone." I said my heart wrenching as I said those words. He gulped, as he looked at our forms, merged together by embrace. "What do we do? What can I do to save him!? I'd do anything to save him!" …. Sebastian looked at me in a cool manner, but gulped as if saying something he really didn't want to do.
"Would you like to make a contract with me?"
Yes yes I know that it's kind of short and I left you with a cliffhanger and it wasn't that good. Please don't be too mad at me for killing Finny, I am being completely honest here, I really really REALLY didn't want to kill him, but it was important to do something to the plotline, as well as having Ciel die. PLEASE review and PLEASE be nice. I'm SO SORRY! I really appreciate reviews, so that's all for now folks.