Chapter I.

Awakening

Well then, young master…

Darkness…shards of light erupt from the shadow, shrouding his form within a veil of burning shimmer. He's shaken by each touch, his soul drenched in the agony of fierce pain. The pain that makes his senses burn, the torment that forces his being to burst into anguish, only to be pulled back together and suffer the merciless ordeal of being pierced by the same blades of burning hell anew. Blind to the poisoned glow that the shards give out, he only sees the darkness, the maddening emptiness of everything surrounding him, while his agony is ongoing, his suffering and torment eternal…

……silence, tranquility, no more anguish nor pain…peace……

……darkness turns into light, poison into nothingness…no more suffering…nothing more to feel….

And yet he opened his eyes. Staring at the dried up soil underneath his feet, Ciel blinked and raised his eyelids slowly as if he were in a dream, he himself being just another dazed figure in an endless space of empty shells. He could feel how the air was sucked into his lungs and held in his chest for what seemed to be an eternity before being released and captured again. He breathed it in and let it out, he blinked again, dreamlike, unaware of anything except the dust on which he stood.

He then began to realize, to remember the pain that he had felt just moments ago. Or was it an eternity ago? He recalled the agony, the suffering, the darkness and began to understand the difference. The difference between then, the eternity in torment, and now, the unknown space drenched in a dry yellowish light. He began to realize that he is not in shadow anymore, or rather, that he had reached another world, where hell could pierce through him in a way he had yet to experience.

But the pain didn't come.

Something was out of place. He was supposed to burn in perpetual agony, but he could feel nothing of such nature. Instead he could perceive his body, he could breath and he knew a name: Ciel Phantomhive. …a name that, he remembered, was his own.

He took a step forward. He stood still and followed his own breathing. He could sense his heart beat and wondered if it was possible to have a beating heart in hell. Or better yet, if it was normal for a soul to be able to breathe once it had been devoured by a demon. Ciel took another step before halting. Why was it that he was alive when he distinctly remembered dying by the hands of a demon. By the hands of the demon to whom he had given his soul in return for taking revenge. A demon he had known by the name Sebastian Michaelis.

He remembered a second name…Sebastian Michaelis. How was it possible for him to remember these two names? Why was he able to feel and walk?

Taking one step after another, the boy began to pace, without knowing exactly if he had a target in mind or not. He probably didn't have anything similar to a target in mind. The only thing occupying his thoughts at the present moment was his existence, which for all he knew, shouldn't have been anything but terminated.

Ciel halted again, wanting to see if he could move his arms as well. His fingers twitched slightly before he could slowly raise his arms and place his palms on the soft flesh of his cheeks. His face felt warm. Why was it that he could sense warmth? As he pressed his fingers tenderly against the smooth skin surrounding his eyes and mouth, he felt his lips brush lightly against his palms as he released his slumbering voice from its imprisonment.

"Where am I?" Ciel whispered in his palms, as he finally began to comprehend. He was alive and he was not in hell any longer…

He let his gaze roam through his surroundings after he had managed to lift his eyes from the ground, and was unable to distinguish anything but endless fields of barren wasteland, grey soil underneath a sickly colored yellow sky. He had picked a random direction and was walking slowly, tracing one gentle step after another, taking his time in feeling the dust on his bare feet. It seemed like an eternity since he had felt anything but pain, allowing Ciel to relish this apparent rough stroke as a most gentle caress.

A caress was the last thing he felt before falling into the abyss of agony, Ciel remembered. A cold yet soothing caress that let him experience the blissful content state of peace before the thundering pain that had violated his every sense came down upon him. He wasn't sure if he held any remorse against the demon. He probably didn't. He had wished that anguish upon himself. Sebastian had nothing to do with it. The demon had just granted him a wish, a wish that was ended with a gentle caress.

The boy did not stop his sluggish movements, until he sensed a slight difference in the distance. From the grey plateau that was laid before him he could distinguish a black object resting on the ground.

Ciel had been remembering the feelings he had experienced during his life but was yet unable to produce new ones in this morbid reality, so the newly appeared object brought no manner of surprise or curiosity to him, nor any other sensation for that matter. He walked towards the black object in the same way as before, and with each step he recognized the object to be a small bird-like figure. Slowly, he noticed that the bird was, alike him, walking in his direction, its movements as lazy as his.

Ciel was for the first time experiencing a new sensation. It was that of surprise, as he looked into the blood-red eyes of a crow, their brilliant color capturing his entire attention in one swoop, as if he had seen them before.

The crow then suddenly began to rapidly flap its sleek wings as it took off into the air, hovering just above Ciel's head before landing on his shoulder, gripping his tender skin with its sharp claws, piercing the white layer of skin and allowing a thin streak of blood to trickle onto his chest. Ciel didn't feel any pain nor did he mind the blood, his eyes lingering on the red substance for a short while, before he continued heading towards an unknown target.

"Aren't you a sight for sore eyes?"

The silence that had reigned heavily up until then was abruptly broken by a girlish voice, its sudden appearance overwhelming the boy, as his entire body began to tremble as if in shock. Ciel had to turn his entire body to see a ghostly figure standing in the same place where the crow had been standing just moments ago. A girl with unearthly glowing skin, piercing blue eyes and golden hair watched the trembling boy with a tender smile gracing her lips. Ciel had to take a deep breath to calm his overpowered body before taking the time to examine her figure, unable to shake the feeling that he had met her before. The only thing keeping him from pinpointing her exact person was her voice that seemed completely misplaced.

"Who are you?" Ciel whispered, the crow on his shoulder giving a loud cry at hearing his voice but remaining at his side.

"Once you remember, you will know." The ghost spoke gently, "But that is not important right now. Tell me, Ciel Phantomhive, what do you feel?"

Ciel watched her speak, her lips barely moving as her voice carried her words to him, his senses taken anew by surprise of her knowing his name.

" I feel…" he began, his lips dry and heavy, but with a rising eagerness to speak awakening in his heart, " I feel dry, empty…"

"What else?"

"I feel lonely and …hurting, bleeding…"

Only once he uttered these words did Ciel realize that he was truly feeling these emotions and that his body was aching. It wasn't the slight prickle that the crow had given him, but a stronger, more painful ache that caused Ciel to choke on his breath for an instance.

"You do feel, don't you?" the ghost said, her gaze warm and friendly. "Do you know why?"

Ciel was absorbed by her gaze, just like he had been with the crow, only that the pain was making him feel aware of his surroundings this time around.

"No,…why do I feel?" he asked, his voice growing stronger with every word he spoke.

"Because he feels what you are feeling and you what he is feeling." At this the ghost slowly raised her arm, on of her pure white glowing fingers pointing over the crow on Ciel's shoulder.

As the boy turned once again to finally see the cause of his pain, he felt his body freeze at the sight of a demonic figure being pierced through his entire body by numerous spears and blades, its dark blood dripping from all over his body. Ciel could not see the figure clearly for the thick fog that was surrounding his tormented body, but his senses could tell without him seeing the face of the demon, that it was Sebastian.

Panic and a sudden rush of energy claimed Ciel's body, like nothing he had ever felt before, as he recognized the aura of the tortured figure to be that of Sebastian. His body acted on his own as Ciel started running towards the bloody silhouette only to feel the crow on his shoulder take off into the air. He was forced to stop in his tracks as the crow gave an excruciating cry before bursting into thousands of black feathers that sunk into the black fog surrounding the demon. Suddenly, he heard the voice of the ghost echo in his head, his knees giving in at the sudden pain that was piercing his body.

" You have yet to fulfill your role Ciel…You and the demon are bound to each other and must finish that what you have started before moving on… Ciel…"

Ciel gasped for air as his eyes burst open, his head and body aching whiles he felt his chest rise and fall in a frantic pace. He was staring at a grey sky, specks of darker grey shaping the rain clouds that were about to release heavy drops of rain onto his frail body. Slowly tilting his head Ciel's eyes widened at the sight of Sebastian's bruised silhouette lying next to him.

"Morning sunshine, slept well?" a familiar voice called, making the boy flinch.

Turning his head, Ciel had to stare in bewilderment at Grell Sutcliff's toothy grin joined by the stern gaze of a second figure. Her skin was more humanlike than before and her voice seemed more natural, but the face of the ghost that had somehow brought Ciel back to life had not changed in any way, except perhaps that her warm smile was gone.

"I've got a job for you and your butler." She said, her gaze now shifting towards Sebastian's still figure. "You've got a lot of nerve trying to leave this world just when I was about to find you guys."

Ciel couldn't help but stare at her, watching as she finally managed to give him a rather shifty smirk." You've still got a lot of work to do, Ciel Phantomhive."

A/N

The first chapter is up.:) hurray!!!. I will probably finish the second one at the end of the week but I'd rather not promise anything. Suffice it to say that I really want to write this fic and up-date as quickly as I can.

Notes: The fic. is anime-based and takes place right after the grand finale of ep.24. This is going to be a romance/mystery/and maybe slight drama fanfiction, which I dearly hope you will enjoy. Of course there's going to be Ciel/Sebastian...but I will try to keep them as much in character as possible, and hope you'll bare with me while I develope their "fragil"relationship. Besides, I couldn't just squash it all into one measly chapter, now could I?

Reviews are welcome! No flames please.