Burning. My body was burning. I parted my cracked lips to hiss at the man looming over me, only to release a shaky sigh of pain. I tried to claw at the man as he grabbed my bruised wrist to chain me with steel shackles, but was only able to weakly tremble in his iron grip. My legs twitched in attempt to the kick the man when he moved onto chaining my bloody ankles but again, to avail. With my limbs chained to the cage I limply laid in, the man turned his gaze to mine with a perverse sneer. His hand shot out to grip a handful of my bloodstained hair, relentlessly jerking at it so I would look up at him. My white, cat ears folded back in disgust as he breathed his breath that reeked cheap alcohol. The tangled mess of my tail stiffened as he leaned closer towards me, licking my cheek. A shiver of nausea ran down my spine.
"I can't believe we were able to make a freak like you," he crackled, shoving my body into the bars of the cell. "Injecting cat DNA into a embryo was genius."
"Yes, no wonder you didn't come up with it," I spat, narrowing my sharp, golden eyes at the man. Anger glared in his eyes as he slammed my skull into the floor.
"Fucking whore, we made you and we can do whatever the hell we want with you!" he screamed, jerking my head up by the hair again. "I think I'll have some fun with you before we sell you off," he hysterically laughed, reaching towards the rags of a white dress they had given me. My hands shook in terror as I held tears back from falling. Instead, I shakily glared at the man, trying to get my body to work against the pain.
"Please," I begged in my head. "Please, no. I can't let this happen. I won't!"
"None of that will be happening today," a calm voice interrupted, freezing the man in shock. We glanced over to see a handsome man gracefully making his way towards us. His tailcoat fluttered behind him as he casually clicked his pocket watch open. His pleasant smile twitched into a frown for a split second before reverting back. He casted his gaze to my own, his brown eyes staring deeply into my fearful expression. The man stopped right outside the cage, sipping his luscious, ebony hair out of his eyes before placing a gloved hand to his heart to bow. "Hello, my name is Sebastian Michaelis and I'm here representing the Phantomhive Manor. You see, the queen isn't pleased with your experiments and asked her faithful guard dog to … take care of the problem." The man calling himself Sebastian lifted his head to reveal scarlet eyes glowing in the darkness.
"You monster!" the man screamed, pulling out a gun. He glanced down at me and rammed the barrel into my temple. "I'll shoot her if you come closer!" he screamed, fear contorting his voice. He nervously let out mad laughter as he continued, "That is if you can make it in here. This cage is made of titanium and without the key, you'll never get in here! I can fuck or kill her right now with you watching and you wouldn't be able to do anything!"
The man hit my face with his gun to prove his point, and just like that, Sebastian suddenly appeared in front of me. Behind him, the bars of the cage were bent so that anyone could just waltz in. In his hand was the face of the man who hit me, screaming out to let him go. With each scream, it seemed the butler tighten his grip on the man's skull, making him scream more franticly. I was pulled out of my shocked daze when he spoke softly to me.
"Are you alright, Miss?" I stayed silent, eying him cautiously. His display of skill already proved him to be inhuman and he could easily kill me if he wanted.
"But he saved me," I reminded myself. Slowly, I nodded my head. The small answer seemed to delight him as his smile grew wider.
"Very good, Miss. Could I ask for your name?" I stared at him in shock. It had been over a decade since anyway inquired about my name.
"HA!" the man in Sebastian's grip laughed, hysteria dripping from his spastic voice. "She's just a science experiment! She doesn't need a name! She's no more then a number!" I kept my gaze on my lap as he screamed, reminding me of the pain I had felt all my life. At the end of his ramble, he suddenly went quiet, causing me to look up questioningly. The man had his face crushed and blood covered Sebastian's glove.
"Now, I'll have to wash this again," Sebastian sighed, grimacing at the blood covering his glove. "Back to what we were discussing before we were so rudely interrupted," he continued, turning his attention back towards me with his pleasant smile. "Your name?" I hesitated for a moment, desperately searching his scarlet eyes for any signs of future betrayal. Before I could even decide, my lips uttered the answer to his question.
"Lucille. Lucile Lennox."
Sebastian gently nodded, amusement sparking in his eyes. Slowly, he extended a bloody, gloved hand towards me. I stared at it for a second, shocked he was willing to be so proper with me when I looked less then even a street rat. He followed my stare and chuckled.
"Ah, how unsightly of me," he said, pulling his glove off to reveal a pentagon marked hand. Again, he offered it to me. This time, I accepted, holding back tears of joy and relief as he led me out of the cage I had been in for so long.