After seeing Ciel's ashen face and subtle trembling of his hands, Snake felt compelled to take back his words and bite his tongue, in order to prevent other similar phrases from escaping his darn mouth. He knew that informing his master about his knowledge of the contract between him and Black would (in some way or another) arouse fear in him. And, unknowingly, he had also informed him of the upcoming process of the removal of the contract mark, which was probably aiding his master's imagination in conjuring up the most painful of experiences. He had stated something that invited a lot of misunderstanding, and he had not a semblance of an idea of how to fix it.

If Oscar or Wordsowrth, or even Emily, would've been there, they would have never let him relay such information to his master. But because of the cold air in the attic, his friends could not slumber there, even though he could (with no theory as to why that could've been).

"Is…there any way to numb the pain? Or any way to stop it?" The reluctance on Ciel's face was palpable, but Snake was still grateful for the master's inquiry.

"As far as I know there's no way to stop it, but I would think that the pain you'd feel would be no more than an unpleasant pressure on your eye. Pain is always worse for the ones who terminate the contract, as a sort of punishment, perhaps."

"But how can you be sure that I didn't terminate the contract?"

"It's not exactly the easiest thing to do—break a contract, that is—but it's possible. You'd probably still be thrashing in your room if that were the case, though."

Ciel still seemed a bit wary of the situation, but it seemed as if all of his previous worries had been assuaged.

"But the pain would still be too unpleasant for me to go to sleep?"

"That depends. Right now I don't think it would really be preventing you from getting some sleep, but if it does become troublesome, I could just wake up the oth—"

"Do they know about the contract, too?" Ciel had quickly adopted a suspicious nature, his tone abruptly becoming tense.

"I don't think any of them know about it. But why don't you want me to wake them up? If you're going to start feeling worse, then I'll have to let them know and—"

"I do not wish for them to see me this way. I thought I had made this clear a long time ago," Ciel said. He spoke slowly and in a low voice, almost as if he was reprimanding a child much younger than him. Even so, Snake could not feel anything resembling petulance towards the young master. What he felt was more like pity, although he knew that were he to express this emotion, his master would be infuriated by Snake's brittle "version" of himself and would almost certainly do something rash to prove Snake wrong. So Snake figured that to avoid saying any other aggrieving things, he would keep mum for the rest of the night. Or maybe…

"Well. Just call if you need anything," Snake said, reopening the door which he so hastily closed not a few minutes ago. "I'll be sleeping in Finny and Bard's room." He did not mean to sound so spiteful, but without his snakes it was difficult to ascertain what was gauche and what was not.

He wasn't the most gregarious of types.

Ciel lay down and turned his back towards the door, opting to stay silent as Snake left the room.

He waited. Not for the pain, because it was already pervading his previously violet eye, but for something else. Trepidation filled his lungs, daring him to breathe. Ciel didn't cease his regular inhalations and exhalations. He could at least be victorious in this confrontation.

In the dark room, he waited. He did not close his eyes; although he could not see, he knew that once he closed them it would come for him—lumbering past the night table and slowly enveloping him. Not in a warm embrace, but in a cold grasp.

Catatonic, he waited. His ears wary of any odd sound, he lay there on his servant's bed, stock-still, making sure that there was not one person in close proximity. When his ears confirmed his complete solitude, he finally loosened his muscles, also letting loose a small drop of water from his dark teal eye. Following the solitary tear came a choked sob which Ciel tried to conceal, instead forcing copious whimpers and deplorable sobs to be pulled out of his dry mouth.

Ciel pulled the sheets over his head, wishing desperately to disappear from existence. No, he told himself. Don't think like that. You're just tired—and confused. You'll be fine by tomorrow. You'll be the strong Ciel everyone wants to see, and you'll figure something out. You always do, don't you? Now just stop crying. You're not an infant, for pity's sake, so stop crying. There, just wipe your tears and—oh just STOP CRYING WILL YOU?!

The young earl let out a shuddering breath and wiped his sore eyes with his already drenched sleeve. He wasn't weak. There wasn't anyone there to witness this, so he wasn't weak. As if to prove that, Ciel raised the hem of his nightshirt to expose his undershorts and many wrapped stab wounds. Snake had not inquired about the reason for their existence.

With great care, he unwrapped his bandaged abdomen, expecting to see a gash, possibly still leaking a bit of blood. What he got instead was unmarred skin, devoid of any kind of blood or vestige of his many suicidal attempts. For the umpteenth time that night, his eyes widened, his breath suddenly catching in his throat. Ciel lowered his nightshirt, concealing his freakish body.

When had he become a grim reaper? And how could he have overlooked such a momentous fact?

How could Sebastian overlook such a fact?

"It seems I have arrived a little later than expected. My bad." Ciel started, surprised. He hurriedly wiped his eyes and any remaining remnants of tears on his pale cheeks before pulling the sheets off his body and coming face to face with the intruder. The boy started again, surprised to see the flamboyant grim reaper in his manor. He got out of bed in a mere two seconds, bumping into a tall figure as he took a few backward steps. For the second time that night, Ciel dared not move.

Grell chuckled, looking Ciel up and down. "Or maybe I've come just at the right moment."

A/N: Okay, so here it is! Sorry for taking so long on it (I wasn't sure where I was going with this chapter until I started working on it), but the next chapter should be coming soon (I hope). Again, mea culpa for the belated chapter.