A/N: Chapter two ^^

Since it was already written, it should have been out faster, but... I was lazy with the proofreading. And I had to proofread even more than usual because I kept adding bits for clarity -_- I added a total of 200 words.

Anyway, a lot happens here, and a lot happens in the next chapter, too. Enjoy! ^^

Warning: High Voltage

Chapter Two - Flesh

Stretching, Ciel stood up and followed Sebastian to the bathroom. As soon as they were in and the door was locked behind them, Ciel was able to ask the question that had been burdening him since his return from the morgue.

"Did you conduct the investigation like I asked you to?" he demanded as Sebastian untied his cravat. He found it somewhat ironic to use the word 'conduct'.

"Of course, Young Master. I'd been meaning to speak to you about that," Sebastian verified as he removed Ciel's shoes. "And I suppose you have your own analysis regarding the corpse?"

Ciel nodded, and stepped into the tub of hot soapy water. "Indeed. We'll trade information, then."

"Sounds like a brilliant idea, Master," Sebastian agreed, running a wet, soapy cloth over Ciel's bare back. "I'll go first, shall I?"

"Start with alibis."

"Very well. Each victim has at least one alibi for every hour of the last week of their lives, up until approximately fifty-six hours before their corpse was discovered," Sebastian recited while running more hot water over Ciel's small frame. "Anything to construe from that, my Lord?"

Ciel frowned, thinking. "Yes. Dates and times are related, are they not? The first murder occurred on the eighth. Fifty-six divided by eight equals seven. I wonder if that has any significance."

"You've been working well with numbers today, my Lord. I wonder if a new arithmetic tutor is really necessary," Sebastian joked, rubbing soap into his master's hair.

"I wouldn't mind in the least if I didn't need one, I hate numbers. Are there any other similarities between the victims?"

Sebastian smirked. "I've found that they all attend church proceedings at the same place."

"Oh really now? And what church is it?"

"Saint Paul's Cathedral. It's a renowned place, so I took the liberty of visiting to do a little research," Sebastian said mischievously.

Ciel leaned back, closing his eyes and enjoying the feel of the hot water on his fatigued skin. "A demon in a church? Ironic. What is it you have found?"

Sebastian stood and dried his hands. "One of their head bishops is currently offering a new service, of sorts. It is called 'Purification'. I was unable to gather any more information about it, since I would have to become a member which takes a week at the least. Their security is very good, too."

"Suspicious. I suppose it's safe to list this bishop as a suspect," Ciel mused, stepping out of the bath, where Sebastian slipped a towel over his shoulders and began to dry him and dress him in his nightshirt. "Did you get a name?"

"Yes; I have written a full report including details about proceedings and anything I thought to be suspicious."

"Good, I'll read it tomorrow," Ciel said haughtily, then ruined the effect by letting out a yawn and a few harsh coughs.

Frowning, Sebastian scooped Ciel into his arms. "Well then, Young Master, it's time for you to rest."

He rolled his eyes, but didn't protest as his servant carried him to his room and placed him in bed.

Ciel was almost convinced that no nightmares would befall him that night, and for the most part, he was right. His mind's eye stayed peacefully blank. Until...

"Are you going in then, boy?" said a gruff voice from behind him. He didn't have time to reply before he was pushed roughly through the large, elegant doors. He turned to reprimand whoever had shoved him so rudely, but there was no one there. All he saw was the other side of the large doors, shut behind him.

He turned back to face the room; a large Cathedral, lit up with multicoloured light from the many stained glass windows. Rows of pews stretched the length of the floor, and at the front on a raised platform sat an extravagant altar, seemingly glowing in the soft light. The room was filled with people, some wearing long white robes. It was silent as they prayed.

Curiously, he walked forwards, his heeled shoes clicking on the stone floor, the sound magnified by the echoing dome ceiling. Despite the unusually large noise he was making, no one paid him any mind. They stayed eerily still.

As he slowly approached the bishop, whose head was bowed in a prayer at the altar, an uneasy feeling built in the pit of his stomach.

When he was nearly ten feet from the bishop, he was finally acknowledged.

"Ciel Phantomhive," said the bishop in wonderment, causing him to stop in his tracks. "We've been waiting."

The bishop clapped his hands twice, sharp and clear.

He heard movement from behind him, and spun around to see the people who were sitting in the pews making their way towards him. As they drew closer, their skin turned dark red with sticky congealed blood. They stumbled forwards, dirtying the white stone floor with trails of blood and burnt flesh.

His eyes widening in horror, he stumbled backwards into the bishop, who simply pushed him into the piles of wretched bodies. Disfigured hands grabbed him and held him down on the bloody floor.

Suddenly, the scene transformed, and he was once again looking up at masked, jeering faces, holding him down on the stone as he struggled.

Before he was able to grasp what had happened, the scene flickered back to the cathedral.

"Let go! Get off!" he yelled, pulling away. Despite their strong grips, their decaying arms came off easily, and he ran towards the bishop, who had his back turned, reading the bible as if nothing was happening. He grabbed his shoulder, as if to turn him around, but a hand shot out from under the robe and hit him in the stomach, sending him flying off the raised platform, coughing and spluttering.

He landed on the carpeted floor next to his bed.

Ciel continued to let out hacking coughs, his eyes still shut tight. He heard a faint sigh, and an arm slid behind his back and helped him sit up, while a cold gloved hand was placed on his forehead.

Eventually, the coughing ceased, and he slackened against Sebastian's arm, his breathing still irregular.

"Is there something wrong with me, Sebastian?" he wheezed.

"Could you be realising your weaknesses, Young Master?" Sebastian joked.

"Shove off..." Ciel said weakly.

Sebastian frowned slightly as he lifted his master back onto the bed. "The time is seven twenty-four. Would you like breakfast now or do you wish to rest some more?"

"You fool! Of course I don't want to rest more. Bring me my tea," Ciel snapped, straightening up. His normal ego had returned at full force.

Sebastian bowed, and retrieved the trolley from just outside the door. "Today's tea is Lady Grey with added citrus and milk. For breakfast, I have prepared Eggs Benedict with a side of toast and a light soup." You could say that Sebastian had also returned to normal, but he had never been anything more or less in the first place.

"Good. Any new information?"

"The Yard called earlier. The final cause of death was indeed cardiac arrest, as you had deducted yourself. You've done a very good job, Young Master," Sebastian praised.

"Of course I have, I'm the Queen's watchdog," Ciel put in.

Sebastian continued; "I have put the full autopsy report along with my own report of findings on the desk in your study."

"Good. I'll look through them later. I expect the next murder to be today, so keep an eye out for any news."

"Yes, my Lord."

As Ciel entered the dining room, he was approached by Soma, who bowed deeply. "I'm sorry about last night, Ciel! I was just worried!"

Ciel rolled his eyes. "It's fine, I was just tired, so I snapped. I'm sorry."

Soma looked up, his eyes watery. "Aww, Ciel!" He reached out to hug him, but Ciel had already sat down in his seat at the head of the table.

Breakfast passed by without a hitch, other than Soma's continued chatter. As Ciel finished eating and Sebastian took away his plate, Soma leapt up enthusiastically.

"Right! Let's play Hide and go Seek!"

Ciel simply stared at him as if he was crazy. "What? Don't be stupid, I have work to do."

"Oh come on, you're so uptight! If we play a game you'll feel happier!

Not having any particular desire to feel happier, Ciel remained seated. How could playing such a juvenile game make him happy, anyway?

Prince Soma sighed, but all the same, a slightly evil grin crept onto his face. "Alright then, I'll just have to hug you until you agree!" he said happily, making his way towards him.

Knowing that Sebastian probably wasn't going to help, Ciel gave in. "Fine, fine! I'll play with you! One game!"

The immature Indian prince clapped happily. "Yay! You can hide first; I'll stay here and count."

Rolling his eyes for what felt like the thousandth time that morning, Ciel got up from his chair and walked into the hallway, not really caring whether he was caught or not. As he passed the door to the cellar, he caught the oh-so-familiar scent of burning flesh. He stopped in his tracks, and walked back to the door, no longer able to smell it.

Strange...he thought to himself, pushing open the door and slowly descending the narrow, winding staircase.

He caught the smell again as he approached the bottom, and continued carefully. The cavernous cellar came into view, and though the smell was incredibly strong, he could see nothing wrong.

Until his foot met with something soft.

He froze, and looked down slowly. There, beneath his foot, was the next murder victim, as charred and bloody as the past victims had been – if not, more so.

Yelping, Ciel scrambled away from it, his foot hitting the bottom step and causing him to fall hard on his back.

"Sebastian!" he gasped as he rubbed his head.

The sound of footsteps down the stairs became apparent. "Yes, my Lord? What is–?" Sebastian's sentence was cut off as he spotted the body. "Oh. Well that's just disgusting."

Ciel pulled himself up, still rubbing his head. "I was right about the time of the next murder, then..." he mumbled. Sebastian stepped past him and examined the corpse.

"The same as all the other times, from the description we were given. There's this, too," Sebastian reached into the man's chest pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper, somehow unstained by blood.

Trying not to breathe because of the foul and horrifyingly familiar stench, Ciel took the note and unfolded it. In the corner of the page was a small, regal-looking cross. The note was written with pen, which, Ciel thought, was very stupid of whoever had written it. He then read it over once, his scowl deepening, before handing it to Sebastian, who read it aloud.

"'To my Dear Earl Ciel Phantomhive'," he read. "'You've done very well in your deductions so far. I would expect nothing less from someone as brilliant as you. However, I am also a brilliant person. The yard will suspect you if they find that there is a corpse in your manor, won't they? Though only an idiot would leave the evidence lying around like that, the Yard aren't all that bright themselves, are they?' My, he's very full of himself," Sebastian commented.

"Just keep reading," said Ciel impatiently, starting to feel nauseous. It was either that or light-headed from breathing as little as possible.

"Very well. 'This little beauty isn't going to be the first, though. However, it's not really necessary what the Yard does or doesn't do. You're going to die unless you do what I say: Kill the Queen. Either do it yourself or get someone to do it for you, it doesn't matter. As long as she ends up dead, I'll turn myself in. If not, you and every other living person involved in this case will end up dead. God bless, the Purifier.'" Sebastian finished reading with a puzzled expression on his face. "If it doesn't matter what Scotland Yard thinks, why did he go to the trouble to plant this corpse, and possibly another?"

"I don't know, but it's annoying. If the Yard does suspect me, it'll make more trouble. He's bluffing about killing me," Ciel remarked.

Sebastian raised an eyebrow. "What makes you so sure, Young Master?"

Ciel looked up at his butler. "Is it your job to protect me, or not? He can't get anywhere near me as long as you're around."

Smirking, Sebastian placed a hand on his chest and bowed. "I am honoured, my Lord.

"There's probably an intruder either inside or outside of the mansion, so don't leave my side until we find them," Ciel commanded. "That's an order."

With the little space there was at the bottom of the stairs, Sebastian knelt before his Master. "Yes, My Lord."

"Good. Now let's get out of here, I feel sick."

When they reached the top of the stairs and exited into the hallway, they were practically run over by Soma and Agni.

"Hah! Found you, Ciel!" the Prince cried triumphantly.

"Cut it out! Now's not the time for games!" Ciel snapped.

Soma looked hurt. It was not an unfamiliar expression. "What do you mean? You said you would play with me!"

"I sense that there is something wrong," Agni speculated.

"You're quite right about that," Sebastian confirmed. "We believe there may be an intruder either inside or outside of the manor."

The two Indian's expressions turned shocked.

"An intruder?" Prince Soma gasped. "Why?"

"To kill me, probably," Ciel sighed casually. He had long ago decided that lying was mostly useless against these two.

Soma's eyes widened further.

Sebastian smiled pleasurably. "Since I am currently in charge of the Young Master's protection, I cannot search the grounds and manor myself. If you were to do it for me, it would be a great help to the both of us."

"O-of course!" the Prince stuttered, still shocked. "Agni! Go recruit the other servants! I will start searching the manor!"

"But Prince!"

"Don't worry, I'll be fine!"

Agni looked to Ciel and Sebastian for help. He obviously didn't want to leave the Prince on his own with a possibly murderous intruder on the loose.

"The only one they want to kill is me, and possibly Sebastian, but you needn't worry about that," Ciel clarified impatiently, feeling as if he was about to throw up.

"A-alright." Agni took off down to the kitchen, while Soma went to search the ground floor.

Sebastian turned to Ciel, who was almost sure he looked green. "Well? What now, Young Master?"

"To my study, I think. By now we can be fairly certain that the Bishop is the culprit, but I don't think he's alone," he explained. "I may have overlooked something, so I think reading through the reports would be a good idea."

Sebastian bowed, before following Ciel down the hall. "Yes, my Lord, it is a good idea."

When they were only a few doors away from the study, Ciel stopped dead, and Sebastian instantly knew why. "Ah, I suppose Mr. 'Purifier' wasn't lying about that part, then."

Ciel moaned in resignation, then, despite that he did, in fact, have a slightly green hue, he had the audacity to march up to the study door and push it open.

Sebastian quickly followed behind him. This time, the corpse was propped up in Ciel's chair behind the desk; it's bloody and distorted hands rested on top of the reports. Tsk... I worked hard on those. He thought.

Ciel quickly covered his mouth with his hand in an attempt to stifle the waves of nausea that crashed over him.

Looking at the corpse, he noticed that the Bishop (probably) had left the eyes open, and pulled back the mouth in such a way that it looked as if the boy (who looked only a bit older than Ciel himself) was wearing a maniacal smile.

Seeing this, Ciel's stomach lurched, and he retched, clutching his stomach with his free hand.

"Young Master!" Sebastian grabbed his shoulders and pulled him out of the study, kicking the door shut behind them. "You shouldn't have gone in!"

Ciel didn't answer, but retched again.

Sighing, Sebastian dashed to the nearest broom cupboard just down the hall and returned to his master with a bucket.

Given up trying to resist, Ciel removed his hand and threw up violently into the bucket. Sebastian kneeled next to him, his hand on his small Master's back, watching him wretch. Did burning flesh still affect him that much? Sure, it was never a pleasant smell, but most people wouldn't need to regurgitate their breakfast over it. He'd worked hard on that breakfast too. Now that, and not to mention that the documents he had so meticulously written and laid out for his Young Master were now useless. How annoying.

Finally, the stream of half-digested foods gushing from Ciel's mouth ceased, but he remained knelt on the floor, shivering tremendously.

"Se… Sebast… Sebastian…" he panted. "Get… get the note."

"Note, my Lord?" Sebastian enquired gently.

"It's on… on the papers."

"Yes, my Lord." He stood and opened the study door just enough to slip into the room, just in case the Young Master still felt sick. He crossed to the desk and examined the papers in front of the ruptured corpse. There was, indeed, an unfolded note on the only part of the papers not soaked in blood.

"What does the note say?"

Sebastian looked up. Ciel was standing in the middle of the room, wiping away some vomit that had dribbled down his chin with his sleeve. He was still shaking, and his cheeks were flushed in comparison to his otherwise grey-hued skin, but he was no longer stumbling over words, and looked perfectly serious.

"Young Master, you don't need to come in here if you're uncomfortable with it," Sebastian offered.

"I'm fine. Now tell me what the note says," Ciel insisted.

Sebastian smirked, and read the short note. "It says 'To my Dear Earl Phantomhive; this is just to prove that I'm being serious. Make your decision now. Live or die. God bless, the Purifier'."

Ciel frowned. "How annoying…"

"So what will you do, Young Master?"

Ciel's stiff gaze flickered to him. "I thought I already explained it? There's no way I would ever have the Queen assassinated, and long as you're here I'm safe anyway." he repeated.

At that moment, as if to contradict him, the study window suddenly smashed, and a shower of broken glass rained upon Sebastian so that, for a moment, he couldn't see anything but white dust and shards of glass

When it cleared, he turned to Ciel, who looked shocked.

"Young Master?" Without warning, the boy suddenly collapsed. Sebastian dashed forward to catch him, and noticed the dart in his neck, a folded piece of paper skewered at the base of the needle. Ciel's shaking hand reached up and wrenched the dart out, wincing as he did so. "Young Master, are you alright?"

"I'm fine…" he said faintly, before his whole body slackened as he passed out.

"Tch…" Sebastian removed the dart from Ciel's hand and he raised it to his nose to sniff it. It was as he had thought; it was coated in tranquiliser. With one hand – as the other was supporting the unconscious Young Master – he pulled the note from the needle and unfolded it.

To my Dear Earl Phantomhive,
As you wish. You may reconsider, but proceed with caution, because I will kill you.
God bless,
The Purifier.

Sebastian solemnly re-folded the note and slipped it into his coat pocket, before readjusting his grip on the Young Master and lifting him. This is a problem, he thought to himself. I didn't even see that coming. I wonder if the bishop is inhuman. Or has an inhuman subordinate, maybe?

With these thoughts in mind, he left the study, Ciel in his arms, and looked at the bucket of sick on the floor. He decided he would take care of it later, or get one of the servants to do it. His master was, of course, his first priority, as were the orders he was given.

As he thought this, Ciel twitched slightly in his arms, as if he knew what Sebastian was thinking and wanted to comment on it. However, he had the barrier of being unconscious.

Chuckling mentally, Sebastian carried the young Earl to his room, and had just thrown the covers over him when Agni burst in.

"Mr. Sebastian! We have caught the intruder! They've got her in the entrance hall!"