A week had passed since my second bout of kidnapping horror and I was still under constant supervision, trapped in my bed. Sebastian had been strangely insistent that I follow the doctor's orders, but then again he probably had his reasons for that. My soul was hanging in the balance after all. If I went and died on him I would imagine he would be rather devastated.
My laptop had been my only access to the outside world. Facebook however deemed only to make me depressed, having found hundreds of new pages about myself along with a barrage of messages on my wall. On Friday I had gotten extremely irritated and posted an angry status, essentially telling everyone that I was fine and that they should piss off and leave me alone. While I was there I also changed my profile name from Jasmine M Dionysus to Jas Phantomhive. Nothing passes time better than spending countless hours staring at a screen after all.
Sebastian knocked quietly on my door.
"Come in." I answered bored. The raven butler entered the room, carrying a sealed envelope. "What's that?" The envelope had sparked my curiosity. He handed it to me then stepped back, eyes glinting dimly in the sunlight. Carefully I peeled the envelope open, trying as hard as I could not to damage it. Inside there was a single official looking piece of paper. I scanned over it quickly then handed it to Sebastian to read.
"To Miss Jasmine Dionysus. On behalf of the King and Queen of Greece I would like to express my deepest apologies for your unfortunate situation. The Queen in particular was very distressed to hear that someone had been mistakenly identified as a member of the royal family and kidnapped purely because of their name." He glanced up at me, eyes amused. "She also wishes for your forgiveness for getting dragged into issues that don't concern you. I sincerely hope this letter reaches you, and you are welcome to reply to put the Queen's mind at ease." The raven handed me back the fancy page, embellished with the symbol of the Dionysus family. I let it fall to the floor.
"Get me THAT box Sebastian." I demanded impatiently. He raised an eyebrow at me.
"Do you plan to reply then mistress?" Glaring at him I folded my arms defiantly, wincing as the bandages pulled against my skin. "I understand." Bowing almost imperceptibly he swept out of the room. I shoved myself up against my pillows until I was sitting straight up and pulled my laptop onto my lap. A pale shadow settled across the bed, warning me that Sebastian was back. He placed a shoebox beside me on the mattress.
"Thanks." I muttered, not looking up from the screen. There was a blank word document sitting open on the screen as I tried to think of what to write. Reaching out with one hand I picked up the box and placed it in on the keyboard. Hesitantly I took the lid off the box. It hadn't been opened even once since that fateful day. Inside was an assortment of documents and pictures. Reaching in I rummaged around for a minute before bringing out several items. I handed them to Sebastian.
"Get this photocopied will you?" He gently removed the pages from my grip and walked silently out into the hallway. I put the lid back on and dropped the box on the floor, getting it out of the way. "To the Queen of Greece, Thaleia Dionysus." I typed slowly into the document, thinking of how best to put the things I wanted to say. "I thank you for your concern and I believe it is time you knew the truth. My father's name is Baltasar Dionysus, although he always went by Janis. You know it is entirely plausible. He left the palace in Greece almost 20 years ago and never returned. Did you even know that he got married? To prove to you that I am not lying I will include with this letter photos of myself, my brother, my mother and my father. Dad always used to say that I had the same eyes as his own mother. He told us stories about his life at the palace, and he taught us Greek from a young age, although he only told us why when I was 10. When we were older he said that he would bring us to meet you, our family in Greece. I don't blame you if you still don't believe me grandmother, but I just thought that you should know. From Jasmine Mariabel Dionysus. P.S, letters are rather slow, don't you think? If you want to reply to this letter then email me at jasmine..com." Sighing I leant back and hit ctrl s, saving the letter. Slow cautious footsteps echoed down the hall, approaching the door.
"Erika, is that you?" I called. The footsteps stopped and there was a moment's pause before the door swung open. Erika stepped into the doorway, blonde hair partially covering her face. "What's up Erika?" She looked up.
"Oh, I was just wondering how you were doing. I saw Sebastian leaving before so I figured I would see if you needed anything." I smiled at her.
"Do you think you could take this bandage off?" I pointed to my forehead. "It should be healed enough by now and it's getting kind of annoying." She came over and sat on the edge of my bed.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I narrowed my eyes at her in frustration and she seemed to get the message. She carefully pulled away the tape holding the cloth in place before gently taking it off. Dropping the bandage she clasped her hands over her mouth in shock. I frowned at her odd behaviour.
"What's wrong Erika?" she shook her head vigorously, unable to utter a sound. Rolling my eyes I got out of bed and hobbled unsteadily to the bathroom, planning on using the mirror to assess the situation. With my hands gripping the edge of the sink for support I looked into the mirror, using one hand to brush my hair out of my face. My lips curled into a dark smirk when I recognised the shape. The knife-wielding idiot had carved an upside-down star on my forehead. It was surprisingly similar to the pentagram in Sebastian's contract seal. The only problem was that it didn't seem to be healing properly. The skin had healed, meaning that it wouldn't bleed again, but it was still ragged and didn't look healed at all.
"What the hell?" I muttered, letting my hair fall back over it. "Hey Erika, can you print that document for me and bring it here along with an envelope?" I called over my shoulder before I started to walk back to my bed. She was gone by the time I made it back to the doorway, walking painstakingly slowly to avoid reopening my side wound. Sebastian drifted back into the room with the photocopied pictures just as I reached the bed. He picked me up and placed me on the mattress before handing them over to me.
"Did you finish the letter?" he asked, moving the laptop to my bedside table.
"Yeah, Erika printed it for me. I sent her to go and get it from the study. She's getting me an envelope as well."
"I see. Is there anything else you want me to do?"
"Yeah. Could you put that box back? I don't need Erika seeing what's inside."
"Right away my lady." I rolled my eyes as I was left alone once more.
Eventually Erika returned with the letter and a blank envelope.
"What took you so long Erika? Was it really that hard to find an envelope?" She nodded, breathless.
"I looked all over the place, but I had to dig all the way to the bottom of the draw in the study to find even a single envelope. I must say that the rooms aren't very well organised for finding things like that." Sighing I held my hand out for the paper. She placed it in my hand and gave me a pen.
"Thanks for all the trouble Erika." She smiled.
"Isn't that my job? You don't have to thank me. I know you would have done it yourself if you weren't bedridden." I nodded absently, looking for the address on the original envelope. When I couldn't find it I examined the paper the letter was written on. After a few minutes of scrutinising I found what I was looking for in small print at the bottom of the page. I carefully copied the address onto the blank envelope, making sure not to make any mistakes to save Erika from having to find another one. Folding my reply in half I slipped it, along with the photos, into the envelope and sealed it.
"Erika, I'm going back to school tomorrow. If I don't start moving around soon then I'll never heal properly, I can feel it. That and I'm starting to go a little stir crazy." Erika looked up, surprised by my sudden announcement, then looked down at her hands again.
"I understand. Will you tell Sebastian or do you want me to do it?" I shrugged.
"If you see him on the way downstairs then you can tell him, otherwise I'll do it." Erika nodded and stood up, taking my sealed envelope with her so she could post it.
The next day
At school everyone was looking at me with pity in their eyes. Seniors, juniors, teachers, everyone. Even people who I didn't know and who I hadn't spoken a single word to in my life were looking at me with those same eyes. It was almost more than I could bare, but I knew I had to stay put and endure their stares or they would never stop.
"You're wearing your hair differently." Emma commented, trying to break the tension at lunch. I had my fringe hanging down over my eyes in an attempt to hide the shocking pentagram scar, not wanting to add more fuel to the staring fire.
"Leave her alone. She can do whatever she wants." Mary elbowed Emma in the ribs, making me laugh before grabbing my own side as it ached from the movement.
"Jas are you okay?" They both asked me. I looked at them with one eye open.
"Don't make me laugh!" I complained, grinning. They both smiled but gave each other a look. My grin disappeared since I knew what that look was for. "Seriously you guys?" When they turned to look at me they had guilty expressions on their faces.
"What's wrong?" I glared at them, curling a strand of hair around my finger in frustration.
"Look, it's been over a week since I've been to school, I get that. What I don't get is why everyone feels the need to treat me differently. And no, I haven't forgotten the reason why I haven't been here. It's really annoying me!" Mary cringed and started toying with the edge of her kilt.
"News spreads like wildfire in schools, you know that Jas. Considering how few people actually know your name there was a ton of people whose parents recognised you on the news. We can't help how people react." Emma pointed out bitterly. I frowned, picked up my bag and padded inside.
"Jasmine, thank you for seeing me." Miss Henderson was sitting in the big chair in her office across the table from me.
"Sure thing." I mumbled my response. What was I supposed to do? When the principal wants to see you the one thing you can't do is ignore it.
"I understand you've been having some issues over the past week, since that news broadcast." One of my eyebrows shot up. Was she serious? She acts like it was some big misunderstanding.
"Miss Henderson? I have a request to make."
"Well what is it? I'll see what I can do."
"I want you to change my name on the school register." I stated bluntly. She dropped her pen in shock.
"That's a tall order Miss Dionysus." I sighed, holding in my frustration.
"That's exactly my point. I want my last name changed to my mother's last name. From now on the school roll will say Jasmine Phantomhive." She stared at me and I met her stare with a glare of my own. Holding her head in her hands she sighed, submitting.
After School
I had told Sebastian that I was going to try to walk home today so I heaved my bag on my shoulders and headed off in the direction of home. A man in a black top-hat peeled away from the fence and started following after me.
A/N: I spent some time looking up Greek names today for later on in the story. They're pretty odd. It's not a very good cliff-hanger BUT next chapter is where one of the exorcists will show up! I know, you were all about to complain that I was lying when I said it was a crossover, but here's your proof (almost).