Bloody Mary

IV: The Manor of Red

"The time is coming soon, unfortunately my fun will end." I said as I jumped down from the rooftop with death scythe in tow, my red hair flowing before the nearly-full moon. I sighed, overlooking the to-die list again.

"Her name is confused; it appears and vanishes at will, what a conundrum." I said. Angelina Durless. Her name would put men into frenzies as she arrived at the scene of an elaborate gala. Those parties she always hated, but came to love, as they blocked away the pain.

"You are a one of a kind woman, I wonder if she knows that." I said, sighing. Her name is on the list for tomorrow night at the current moment. I wonder if it was always truly meant to be there. I think so, her curtain call was always meant to be this way, with the death of her final target, the Queen's Guard Dog must be destined to catch us in this act, with his devilish butler at his side!

I killed the woman in cold blood, just as instructed by the Madam, while she maintained an alibi at the party at Count Druitt's Manor. She deserves her own manor, a mansion giant and red just to honor her.

A wonderful red woman does not appear often. I am not even a true red woman, but I will be a close as I possibly can be.

Why do I fell like it will be me who kills her?

I laughed. I couldn't do anything like that to her, as long as she stayed as wonderfully cruel and red as she is now; she'll be safely under my protection! Well get a manor painted in the most vivid crimson reds on the countryside, away from the prying eye of an injured puppy whose found its way under the feet of a pure black Great Dane; in which it can never be harmed, until one day it falls and that very Dane that protected it will feed on its corpse as if it had never known who it was in life.

That is how a demon works; that is how they will always work.

I returned to the townhouse and changed back into the butler disguise, prepared to act feeble and pitiful. As I returned to the party, Sebastian was putting on a show for the people, as the suspect drug away the injured puppy, the Aristobrat, into the farther depths on the room, convinced the boy was a young mistress just of the age in which to begin… socializing.

It doesn't matter to me.

I looked at Madam Red and went to her side, acting again as her butler. I cannot help but feel pity and the urge to protect her, for now, as I have faced pains that I could not do anything against; and being alone in such a situation is so difficult; one wishes to die. I only stayed alive, as my boss required it. Only for me to fall in love like that again.

I ran from that situation, I didn't want that horrible cycle of pain to repeat itself, and thus I came here. I found a woman in the act of murder, and while a normal reaper would have paid no heed to the sinner, her reasons spoke to me; spoke to that I could not have children as I so desire; and that love that I secretly am aware I will never obtain; as she experienced the same thing. She fell in love, just as I have, with someone who would never return it, with someone who would never even recognize, in her case know, that he is loved.

I suppose I am a demon to her, as the dreamy devil is to the boy. He held out the thinnest strand of hope and the boy grabbed it. I did the same for her, she was gone, but I pulled some of her back, but not all of her, just with the boy. The Madam and the Puppy are so similar.

While she may be a black widow; she is also the Bloody Mary. And she will likely die tomorrow, by whoever's hand, the Bloody Mary we've made her out to be.

This black widow, who never had that true love, who's actually husband, and child, died, along with her beloved and her sister, taking her happiness with them. When her so called beloved nephew returned from the dead, it was a miracle to her, but as recently I have come to know of the butler he appeared with. IT was not a miracle. It was a sin that brought him back.

But I suppose that's how it was meant to go for him, as this is how it is meant for it to be told, for the Madam. She will be a killer, but because of her involvement with me, and inevitable capture at the hands of the Guard Dog of the Queen, she will never be known for it. With her death at the devil's hands, it will be as if she simply died in her sleep that night, with no one but us three to know her true story. That is unless they decide to kill me as well. Now, I would accept it, but I'm sure in the wake of the moment; I would be frantic and panicked; it is not a thing a reaper has to deal with on a normal basis, being immortal and only truly vulnerable to a death scythe's blade.

"Surely, there must've been… Another way for you to live, one that didn't involved you becoming the Underworld's Watchdog. …. I'm certain that my elder sister – your mother – would've wished for it too." Madame Red said solemnly as she spoke with Ciel after a losing game of chess. She wore only her sleeping garments; but still wore make-up. A woman obsessed with looking beautiful, if it can be consider an obsession if they all are that way nowadays.

"Despite that, here you are….. Have you returned, after all, to the underworld…" She continued, giving her beloved Nephew a sober look. One that she wished with all her might would convince him to take a different path in life.

"…Because you wish to avenge my murdered sister and her husband?" Madame finished with a question that startled the boy. He was silent for a moment.

"Neither my sister and brother-in-law… Nor Lizzie and I would want that." Madame said.

"I…" But Ciel interrupted her. With this attitude that so irritates me to no end.

"Have never once thought to avenge my parents or anything of the sort." He said, finishing the statement that interrupted the Madam. He was clearly telling the truth, that he did not care to avenge his parents. All along, I could tell clearly, that he only cared to avenge himself.

"Were I to avenge them, the dead still would not come back to life… Much less be able to enjoy the sweet taste of revenge. Calling it 'vengeance' or a 'battle of revenge' is just glossing over the truth. Such utterances amount to nothing more than selfishness of the survivors, after all…" Ciel said. "A luxury of the living, wouldn't you say?" As he did so the butler gave him an ever-so slight glance. The secrets these too hold together. Nothing holds a union together stronger than secrets. Nothing.

"I… Did not return to Phantomhive for the sake of the previous head. I returned for myself. All I want is to give those who betrayed and defiled the name of Phantomhive…" The Madam looked tense. She has finally realized something I realized the moment I met this boy, he is broken beyond repair.

"… A taste of the humiliation… and pain, that I suffered." He finished as he won yet another game against the madam. She played it off, commented on the number of losses in a row, then with remarks that trekked her down her memories, of Ciel's birth and they feelings she had. Mostly that she could not bear children.

Don't give yourself off woman! The prostitutes lack uteruses, if you cannot have children, your jealousy may cause them to suspect you! They would be absolutely correct in that suspicion too, isn't that dandy?

"You're like my real son, and as a mother to her son, I want you to wash your hands of the underworld." She said standing and putting her hand gently on Ciel's head. She has endless reasons to want him to stop. He has the demon, one of the only means in which to realize how we have pulled off the inhuman string of kill. And I'm sure, she does not want to be captured, let alone have to decide between herself and the brat. I also can tell that she truly does want him to leave this bloody work and take on a legitimate stance, in normal society, out of the underworld.

They spoke for a brief moment, before he excused himself, giving the Madame a goodnight kiss on the cheek as the butler filed paperwork. She spoke as he left, him walking directly towards me as I stood in the doorway.

"I won't lose next time, Ciel."

I highly doubt the existence of a next time, but I will let her enjoy her deluded affairs. I made to offer her tea, but she began to speak with Butler Sebastian. The storm brewed as she asked a demon to keep her precious child safe. That demon intends only to do very that for his own selfish reasons. He wants nothing more than that safe soul to drop into his stomach. I looked at her as the butler bowed before her, agreeing to do as she requested. She had such seriousness in her eyes as she looked at the storm outside.

Maybe she can sense it too.

That this will probably be her last night.