A/N: I combined chapters 5 and 6 of ABNAM since chp. 5 was kinda short. I have no idea why the bottom half came out bold. I'm trying to fix it.

XxxxxxX

After they called some physicians to take the boy away, my young master became very quiet. I assumed that he was upset that a guest had become injured on his property.

I wanted to speak to him, but I knew it was best to leave him be until he called for me. I remained close by, but invisible. I watched him with worry as he barely touched his evening meal and spoke quietly to his parents before announcing that he was retiring for the night.

I eagerly followed him to his bedroom. I was eager to explain my actions. Surely he would be understanding when he learned I was defending his dignity.

I waited until he sat wearily on his bed and called for me before I appeared.

"Yes, my lord?" I said with a bow. "What is it you need?"

To my surprise, he did not speak, but instead opened and closed with mouth a few times , resembling a fish. How odd. It wasn't like him to hesitate.

"Is the young master still hungry?" I pressed. Maybe his hunger was bothering him. "I noticed that you did not eat much of your dinner. How about I make you some hot milk?"

He only nodded in reply. How worrisome. This was not like my demanding master at all.

I admit I may have sneaked a little something into his milk as I heated it. As I was cleaning earlier, I came upon a bottle of tablets that promised to help a person sleep. The young master always had trouble sleeping when he was upset, so I thought it was best he had some assistance. I crushed one into a fine powder and added it to the warm milk before transferring it to a pot. I then took that and some honey to my waiting master.

He was still sitting in the same spot. I silently poured the milk into a delicate cup and handed it and the honey to him.

"Thank you," he murmured quietly. Well, at least he was speaking now. I watched as he quickly drank it. It must have helped his nerves, for he then turned to me with a determined look in his eye.

"Sebastian, I want to talk about what happened to Alois earlier," he stated.

I could not help but flinch a little. He did not sound pleased. "Yes, sir, what about it?" I asked, keeping my voice calm.

"I'm going to ask flat out," he said with determination. "Did you cause him to fall down the stairs?"

"Yes, I did," I responded. Is that what this was all about?

"What?" he gasped. Had he been expecting a different answer? "Why would you do that? You could have killed him!"

I was surprised at how angry he sounded. I wondered why he seemed so concerned for that boy. "But, my lord, he and that other boy were bothering you,"I reminded him. "I cannot have people coming into my master's home and blatantly insult him. I normally wouldn't interfere, but you weren't making any move to defend yourself. I decided to teach them what happens to those who insult the Phantomhive name."

"You're insane!" my master snapped. "We always talk to each other like that! If it was really bothering me, I would have given them a piece of my mind! You presume far too much!"

I couldn't help but smile at that. I was always happy to see him reverting back to his old self. "It is good to see that you have not changed too much over the years, young master," I said fondly. But I quickly realized that was the wrong thing to say.

He stared at me with something again to shock before he began to scowl at me. I instantly felt unworthy to be in his presence. Evidently, he thought so, too. "Get out!" he demanded. "I don't want to see you in the mornings or any other time of day. Leave my sight permanently."

I took a step back in shock. I could not believe what I was hearing. I finally had my master back, and he was ordering me to leave? After all I did for him? I wanted to protest, but one look from those cold blue eyes silenced me.

I could do nothing but utter my acceptance and leave.

XxxxxxX

I never thought that anything would be worse than the years I spent alone in this manor. I became accustomed to loneliness, overtime. But it seems I was wrong. Having a master in the house, but being unable to come in contact him was excruciating. Once again, I was a butler without a master to serve.

Like my previous master, I suspected it would take him a while to calm down. So, as ordered, I stayed out of his sight for the rest of the week. It was, admittedly, a bit painful to watch him go about his days without any assistance from me. It made me feel worthless. I felt like a true spirit, haunting a now occupied house but remaining hidden. I do have to say, though, it did give me some satisfaction to see that he was considerably slower in his tasks when he did them alone.

I couldn't help but keep searching for some sign that he needed me for something or that he was going to call me, but that never happened. As the week progresses, I felt more and more anxiety. I cursed myself for my rash actions toward the boy I harmed. Of course I should have asked my master before I acted!

I finally could not stand it anymore and appeared before my master one afternoon. He had slept half the day, and I hoped that he would be well rested enough to be in a good mood.

"What is it, Sebastian?" he sighed. I almost flinched at his tone. He sounded annoyed.

I bowed low before him. "My lord, I want to apologize," I said. "I acted quite atrociously toward your guest. You are right, I should never have acted without permission. From now on, I shall only act on your orders. Please allow me to continue serving you. I promise that I'll be your faithful dog."

He looked at me closely for a few moments before answering. "Fine, but I want no more incidents like what happened on Monday," he said sternly.

My heart leapt for joy at those words. He was going to give me a second chance! Somehow, this master taking me back seemed more special than if my previous one did it. I doubted my old master would be this forgiving. He most likely would have slapped me a few times by now.

"Of course," I replied eagerly. "Now, I have prepared for you a light lunch. If you wish, I can show you the grounds after you have eaten."

"Sounds good," he relied.

I smiled. I was afraid that my efforts were going to be thrown back in my face. After he had dressed himself and ate his lunch of bagels and lox and apple cake, we set off outside for a long overdue tour of the grounds.

After wandering the immense lawn for a bit, we came upon the old, dilapidated stables. It was once a good-sized building of oak wood that could hold up to twelve horses. My young master's riding horse was a large black stallion named Henry. It had made an excellent hunting horse, as I recall. But all of the horses had long since perished. The stable itself was falling apart, and I could spy several birds' nest inside. I could see the young master quickly losing interest in the stables, so we moved on to the garden.

Although some of the plants had managed to regrow themselves, a good portion of our once grand gardens remained dead. "The gardens were once very grand," I informed my master. "Though I must say, that was mostly my doing. Our gardener unfortunately didn't know his own strength. He was also an idiot. In fact, all of the servants were incompetent."

"If they were so bad, why were they working here?" my lord asked as he examined a long dead rose bush.

"They were mainly hired to protect the manor from intruders," Sebastian explained. "I did try to teach them how to be proper servants, but they just never managed to learn." I inwardly sighed as I thought about those four. I had to say, my "life" had much less stress once they were gone. And yet, I seemed to have developed a certain fondness for them. They were a bit like the annoying dog you didn't like until it died.

"Hn," my master replied.

I noticed that the sky had become considerably darker in the past few minutes. "Young master, it looks as though it might rain. Why don't we return inside?" I suggested.

"Yes," he agreed. We quickly returned inside. I do believe it started to pour the moment we shut the door behind us. Glancing at a clock, I realized that it was close to tea time.

"Young master, is there anything else you'd like to do? If not, I shall go prepare your afternoon tea," I said.

I could tell he was thinking carefully about something. "Actually, Sebastian, there is. There's a room upstairs that has it's door locked. I want to see what's inside of it."

I suppose I should have been expecting that. Before this week, I had been waiting for my lord to demand to see the room. But in light of recent events, it had been pushed out of my mind. I decided it was best to play innocent. After my earlier behavior, he might suspect something if I easily allowed him access to the room. "Young master, that's a rather odd request," I said. "Why the sudden interest in such a trifle of a thing?"

"It simply makes me curious," he replied. "That should be a good enough reason. Do have the means to unlock it?"

"Yes, I do," I answered slowly. "But maybe the young master should wait until later?"

"Why?" he asked, raising a brow. "I think now is a perfect time. Or is it that...there's something you don't want me to see?"

"Of course not!" I replied quickly. In truth, a part of me did not want him in the room. I did not wish to scare him. "As I said, it's almost teatime-"

"Don't lie to me!" my master demanded. "You're obviously trying to hide something from me. What sort of butler lies to his master? So tell me, what's in that room that you don't want me to see?"

I couldn't help but laugh of that. He was so sharp. "How very perceptive you are, my lord," he said. "That's one thing that hasn't changed after all this time. You are correct, though. A butler should never keep things from his master. Of course I will show you that room. Please follow me."

Judging by the wide-eyed look he then gave me, he did not expect me to comply so easily. Perhaps he questioned what went through my head?

He silently followed me to our destination. Pulling out my set of keys, I easily located the one I needed. It was the one I used most, after all. I put it in the lock and then turned to my charge.

"I had wanted to wait until the young master had been here longer before showing him this," I informed him, continuing the show. "But since you insist, I will do it."

I then opened the door and stood aside to allow my master access. I suppressed a smile as he obvious tried to hide his eagerness. Young boys did enjoy these sorts of thing, after all.

I could see the shock come over his face as he spotted the portrait of my previous master. An appropriate reaction, in my opinion. They did look very alike, after all. The only differences were their clothing and my first master's eye patch. He stepped closer to it and gazed at it closely.

I see that you're observing the portrait of my previous master," I said as I approached him "You look very much like him. You often act like him, too. Though you have a more cheerier disposition than he had. I might say it's an improvement." And it was.

"This was made over a hundred years ago," my master stated as he observed the date on the portrait. I felt a pang of sadness go through me at that. Even after all this time, it still hurt to think that my master has been dead for so long.

"A hundred and twenty four, to be precise," I added. I gently touched the painting with my gloved finger. "This was made four months before the fire. He died exactly a month before his fourteenth birthday." It was hard to keep the frown off my face. This was not an easy thing for me to talk about.

"His birthday was December fourteenth?" my new master asked quietly. "That's my birthday, too."

Ah. That wasn't surprising. It further convinced me that this boy was meant to be here. "Is that so?" I asked softly.

I watched as he explored the rest of the room. I explained that they were all things I collected because they reminded me of my previous master. Each one held fond memories for me. The bookshelf held his favorite books and some company records. I remembered how he would avoid his tutoring sessions and work when he found a book he favored. And I remembered how he slaved over the little details of his company, from how much sugar to put in our chocolate to what was a fair wage for the factory employees.

The old wardrobe held a few signed outfits. I recalled the tailor fussing over each one. I had to insist that she make my lord something dignified to wear. He was much too old for the sailor suits of his youth.

He played his chessboard whenever he could. He played against relatives and enemies alike. He had considerable skill for someone of his age. As I recall, he was undefeated. I've lost count of all the times I polished the set and put it away.

"It looks like you've a built a shrine of him in here," my young master suddenly stated, startling me out of my memories.

"Hm, I've never quite thought about it like that," I replied. A shrine? Really, of all the ridiculous...Well, I supposed I could see why he would think that. When I was alive, I would have never believed I could sink this low. "I suppose you could look at it that way."

"Do you come in here often?" he asked me.

"I do from time to time," I answered. Truthfully, I did a bit more often than that, but he did not need to know that information.

He was quiet for a bit before he suddenly turned to the covered coffin. "What's under here?" he asked.

Oh, dear. The moment I was waiting for was finally here. I still was not completely sure about what I was going to do. But I did have my orders..."That's something the young master may not want to see," I replied. "Of course, you can if you want to. But I do not believe it's wise."

And, of course, he marched right over to the coffin and pulled the tarp off of it. As expected, he recoiled at the sight of the rotting coffin. Perhaps he thought it was a mere table. I was simply grateful that it had no holes in it.

"What is this?" he whispered, obvious shaken. A part of me was upset at seeing him in distress, and another part felt a sadistic pleasure from it. There always was fun to be had it unnerving my usually composed master.

It was a bit unorthodox, but I squeezed his shoulders in an attempt to soothe him. It seemed to work, for he relaxed against me. "Relax, young master," I cooed. "Nothing is going to hurt you."

"Why is there a coffin in here?" he demanded.

I sighed. I knew that no matter how I explained it, it would come out sounding odd. "After this manor caught fire and burned down, they scavenged for the body's of everyone who resided here. And they found the bodies of the servants - including mine – but...not the body of my young master."

Again, I felt pain flow through me at the memories. "Apparently, the flames had trapped my young lord in his bedchamber," I explained. "Not knowing what else to do, he hid in a secret compartment in the wall. The smoke from the flames came in through the cracks and suffocated him. Since nobody except him and I knew about the compartment, they never located his body and he never received a proper burial. After everyone was gone, I used some wood that was still in good condition to make him a coffin and put him in here. It is not much, but I like to think that he would appreciate my efforts." I had not meant to say that last sentence. But I did mean it. It always make me happy when I knew I had pleased my master.

I could not help it when I started to remember every painful thing that had happened over the years. Even though I was dead, I was not immune to despair. I clutched my master tighter to remind myself that I was no longer alone. "Forgive me, my lord," I said. "I should not have been so forward. If you are done here, I shall prepare you some tea."

"Alright," he said, eager to leave the room.

"Do it now, Sebastian," I heard a familiar voice say.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, making sure to sound like something had just occurred to me. "If you wait just a moment, my lord, there is one more thing."

I went over to the coffin and gently lifted the lid, much to my new master's shock. I quickly procured some cleaning supplies and went to get the ring. I was especially careful with it, for the band was fragile. I had wrapped it in a cloth to help preserve it.

"Please come here, young master," I requested. He slowly walked over to my side and watched as I cleaned the ring.

"This ring has been in your family for generations," I informed him "Naturally, I thought it would remain in the coffin with my previous master for the rest of time, but since there is a new Phantomhive here, it should be given to you."

I held the stone into the light to get a better look. There was indeed something different about it. It was almost as if there was a light within it. I then gently grasped my lord's hand and brought it toward it's new adornment.

"W-wait-" he stammered. He evidently did not want to wear it. But I had my orders, and as much as I liked this master, I wanted my old one back. I

quickly but carefully slipped it onto his thumb. I could see a change instantly come over him. He relaxed and straightened his posture. A certain coldness came into his eyes. It seemed as though my previous – no – my master was right.

"It suits you quite well, young master," I complemented. As well it should have. It was made for the family.

"Thank you, Sebastian," he said with a smile. I doubted that would last very long. "Now, how about that tea?"

"Yes, my lord," I answered. I was looking forward to the days ahead.