Chapter 3

I awoke to the dark night sky. All the stars shined down upon me,, and a full moon glowed intensely white. I felt still very drowsy so when I tried to turn my body slightly into a more comfortable position, I finally noticed that my face was against a piece of bloodstained cloth. "are you awake, Young Master?" Looking up I found Sebastian's face. Then I realized he had been carrying me. "What happened? I asked softly.

"We're out," Sebastian replied simply.

"So they're dead, that's good. They were extremely bothersome," I sighed and slowly let myself melt comfortably into Sebastian's arms. Slowly now, he put me down and knelt in front of me. This is when I realized that his clothes had me been ripped. Traces of blood remained in areas where cuts had been but healed, but some large gashed remained on his chest and arms. The dress shirt he wore as part of a daily uniform had red blotches all over it. Looking into my eyes he said, teeth clenched, "He's alive," then slowly re-bowed his head to me.

"You imbecile," I muttered, knowing he was a tool I could not waste, "What happed?"

"A lot," he replied.

"I would like to know now. Don't be so vague about it." Sebastian paused for a while, staring at my face, and then gave me a smile that chilled every last bone in my body. The butler himself is not what truly made my reaction to be this way; it was how his smile was, and how much of his sadistic side it showed. His smile was worse than that of a Cheshire cat, not only playful but sinful as well. Life had come back to him and he was now his normal demonic self, not just my servant.

In a swift motion, he moved towards me and scooped me up in his arms. Ignoring my protests he continued walking forward without hesitation. "Stop!" I shouted, "Let me down!"

"Young Master," he said, "Please take another nap. You seem tired and were easier to carry while unconscious."

"Let. Me. Down!" I said again stubbornly. I began to smack his chest even though I knew I couldn't injure him in the slightest. Among my attacks, on had accidentally hit a deep gashed halfway down the middle of his chest that had not yet healed. He flinched and as he did this a sudden pang of guilt hit me. As a result, he dropped me in the nearest muddy and kept walking on.

"Oi!" I shouted after him.

"Young Master, I believe you asked me to put you down and this is precisely what I have done. I also believe you have said before that you do not take back your orders." Sebastian had said all this without turning back to face me. Ever since I was little many used to tell me that a stubborn attitude like mine was bound to get one into trouble someday, but as I am, I did not listen. Even with my body sore from being used as a rag doll and thrown from wall to wall of a room, I got up and staggered after Sebastian without saying another word. He walked swiftly and silently up ahead of me. His strides were not that of a man who had just been to battle but more likely of one just coming from a banquet even though one like that wouldn't be out walking this time of the night.

In following him I fell many times as I tried to keep pace. By the time we reached the mansion I had been covered in mud and Sebastian had specs of mud on his back from when I fell a bit too close and splashed on him. Sebastian had not even glanced my way after I accidentally punched his wound. Not even as he opened the door did he face me, but rather bowed his head and quietly said, "Please wait for me in the bathroom, I will be up shortly."

Silently, I walked up the stairs leaving footprints on the red velvet carpet. When I reached the top I turned around and looked at the trail I had left. Sadly enough, somewhere at the back of my tired mind, I had one thought, "These marks had better not be there when I awake." When the thought passed, I turned back around and kept slowly walking towards the bathroom. My vision was blurred and it was hard to see but somehow I managed to fins my way in. Lazily I slumped my body against the tub and waited. I looked down at my dark blue coat and shorts when I tilted my forward to let my neck have a long needed rest. They were covered in mud and my top hat had been lost. The wetness from the clothes was getting uncomfortable so I began to fiddle with the buttons. For some reason all buttons was this hard to use. Never in my life had I won to the silly button.

That night I slept soundly, but not for long. While darkness was still among me, the bruised I had sustained on my back sent pains all over my body, forcing me to get out of bed`. The sun had not risen and the only light I received was from the moon. It was freezing so I pulled a blanket over myself as warmth.

As I got downstairs I heard murmurs coming from the sun room. Was it Sebastian? There was a glow that showed me a crack had been left in the door. Quietly, I tip-toed towards the door and peeked inside, "So he escaped?" Sebastian was asking another man. The other man had blue eyes the color of sapphires. He had black hair but It was cut shorter than Sebastian's. He wore a black dress shirt and black dress pants. Black smoke fell from his shoulders down his back and wrapped around his legs, enshrouding his feet in darkness. Through the smoke I got glimpses of his shoes that seemed to be tattered and old, not matching with the rest of his attire.

"Yes. And now he's made a contract with that boy, so by our laws we can't bring him back," the man replied to Sebastian's earlier comment.

"Can you not break a contract?"

"You know he is as powerful as any one of the other six of us."

"What can I do about this, sir?"

When I heard the word "sir" reveal itself from Sebastian's mouth I began to believe this man had connections with the Phantom Company, but one look at the swirling mass of smoke around his feet threw the assumption away from my mind. The sheer surprise of the word from the word "sir" also made me suck in a small breath. I had two pairs of eyes suddenly flick towards me suspiciously then quickly return to one another.

"It seems we are now sorely interrupted," the man said, "I'll take my leave now, Aethon." Sebastian nodded a silent farewell. The other man snapped his fingers and instantaneously he was engulfed by the dark smoke. When the smoke dispersed he was gone. I sighed and drew my eye away because the entertaining scene was now over. In my mind Sebastian still didn't know I was there.

I turned ready to leave when suddenly the door to the sunroom was flung wide open. I could see light illumination the floor around me but I myself was standing in a large cast shadow. When I turned around I saw Sebastian, now tidied up, smiling down on me once again. It wasn't a kind caring smile. This smile gave me the meaning of, "Get in here now!"

Slowly I let my feet move forward and Sebastian slid out of the way for me. I walked until I reached the point in the center of the room where the mysterious man had once stood. Behind me I heard the door shut but it did not bother me. I could only stare at the spot he had stood thinking, Did he sunk down or flow away? I knew the answer immediately but it still stayed with me.

"I want to know," I said, my back now to him.

"Why?" he asked simply. For some reason, and none that I could rationally depict in my mind, anger welled up inside me and exploded in that instant. It could have just been the sleepiness but no matter, out it came. I spun around and forcefully yelled at Sebastian, completely unaware of others within my mansion," You must tell me! I am your master!"

"Hmm," Sebastian hummed slightly. A smile played on the edge of his lips as he stared at my angered expression in amusement. When he had come to a decision about what to do with me I was huffing and puffing, tired from the outburst. Slowly he glided towards me and lifted me up by the waist like a child. Frankly I was tired of being carried today so I flailed around my arms and legs trying to get a shot in. Many did make contact with his now smooth and completely healed appearance but as before, he took no damage. "Let's put you back in bed, Young Master," he said after throwing me over his shoulder as one would to a sack of potatoes.

"No! I don't want to!" I cried like a child. I swung my limbs again but all my efforts were wasted. Smoothly he caught my legs and held them with his other hand. All I could see was the light from the sunroom get smaller behind us.

Suddenly Sebastian stopped and every muscle tensed. "Young Master," he whispered to me as he stuck me in a chest at the side of the hall, "Please stay in here for a bit." I hated being shoved out of the situation but this time Sebastian ran out of luck. He had stuffed me in a chest with wood carvings that ran fully through the wood of the chest. Light from a bay window illuminated the scene in front of me. The holes were small but I could clearly see what was going on, and I just could believe it. It was Sebastian.

He seemed as if he was leaning against the wall next to a painting. This painting was odd and I had never seen it before. To me it seemed like a ripples in water from a bird's eye view but it gave off a pink hue so I knew I couldn't be right. Only a few moments later did my butler Sebastian step far enough into the picture so I could see him, and I realized it looked like he was in two places at once! This time they were, exactly the same, not similar but to the last mark, identical. It was a mirror image.

There was only personality difference that I could detect. The Sebastian that had put me in this miserable box was standing calm cool and slightly angry. The Sebastian standing next to the newest work of art hanging in my hallway was having the time of his life. He wore a wide smile that spread out across his face but the glistening red color of his eyes told me he was thinking evilly.

"You called?" the other Sebastian asked playfully.

"No. I didn't," my Sebastian replied flatly.

"Don't be like that Aethon!" he said still chuckling to himself.

"Oh goodness," Sebastian sighed, shook his head, and rubbed his temples. "I say once to Him that Lord Mammon is causing troubles here and he sends you?"

"Of course. We work well together, brother."

"Eh?" I accidentally let the noise escape from my lips. To a mere human one would have thought it away as the wind, but these were demons. Demons could have heard that noise 10 kilometers away. Reactions to my slip of the tongue consisted of a small sigh from Sebastian and a raised eyebrow from the one claiming to be Sebastian's brother.

Sebastian walked over and let me out of the chest, muttering under his breath, "Must you become so impulsive when tired and even refuse to sleep?" I knew he did this only to let me hear so I met him with a short lived glare. He helped me up as I stood to my feet and we stood facing the intruder.

"Heh. So this is our young master is it?" the man said to me with the smile plastered on his face that I hate so much now.

"What do you mean by our, Adelphos?" Sebastian's voice sounded slightly annoyed.

"Hmm," I hummed cocking my head to one side to stare at the man, Adelphos, "So this is your brother, Sebastian?"

"Sort of," Sebastian replied gritting his teeth.

"Ooh! So you got named Sebastian this time!" Adelphos said acting giddy.

"What do you mean by sort of, Sebastian?" I asked in a demanding tone.

"Now listen here brat, since he hasn't told you would you like to hear the unbiased truth from me?" Adelphos offered.

"I don't enjoy being called a brat! But I will listen to what you have to say," I replied and heard silence from Sebastian's direction.

"Ok. Aethon-ahem- I mean Sebastian and I are not exactly brothers in the sense that we are really mirror opposites, though we do have some of each other's characteristics." Adelphos stopped here for a short chuckle which made my insides burn with impatience. "So anyways," he continued, "You see this mirror here. Well we live in two separate worlds because as you can see it's fairly hard for us to coexist with one another. We can visit through these mirrors though, thanks to your stupid human inventions."

"So why are you here then?" I asked only understanding a little bit more.

"Oh my, my. He hasn't even told you that much? What a bad person." The tone in Adelphos' voice here made me smirk. They really are polar opposites, I thought as I looked from Sebastian's cold stone face to Adelphos' smirking glowing evil one. "You see, Lord Leviathan, one of the seven princes of hell ,the prince of Envy, told me to come help out you butler here."

"Mm. So you're here to take out Mammon."

"So you do know a bit! Yes, but take out is to strong. We can't really do that, it's impossible! We're only going to capture and confine him for the rest of his days." Adelphos had a cheerful voice as he said this.

"Good riddance," I growled out the window to my right.

"Oh Aethon, you have found the perfect little master! He could almost be one of us. No real compassion for lives and bratty. He could be just like me."

"What did you say to me?' I questioned Adelphos straight to his face. Only a moment later did I hear a soft laughing sound coming from Sebastian. Had Sebastian laughed before? Not that I could remember. Slowly he stepped up next to me and glared at Adelphos. "Adelphos," he said solemnly, "You can help but just leave now."

Rolling his eyes Adelphos replied with a, "Fine," and walked through the mirror on my wall. After he left the ripples disappeared and all was calm.

"Now for you, Young Master, you must go to bed." Obediently I followed behind Sebastian as he took me to my room and put me into the bed. Right as Sebastian was about to walk through the threshold of my door to leave, I said quietly, "Good night, Aethon," in the mocking and sadistic voice that Adelphos used naturally.

"Don't do that, Young Master," he replied through gritted teeth. That night I fell asleep with a smirk on my face.