Ciel didn't know what the argument about, and didn't have the courage to ask. All he knew was that suddenly Madam Red was bursting into his room and telling him about how he was going to go and get a change of air and then he was at the train station with Sebastian and Eleanora, who weren't talking to each other—again. Ciel was really getting rather tired of all of their arguments; he was tempted to order Sebastian to get him to kiss and make up, but Eleanora probably wouldn't have enjoyed it at all.
They passed all of the trains until they reached the one on the very end: the big black one with the red 666 on it. There was some kind of checkpoint to get on the train; they stood in one of the lines and Sebastian removed a small black book with several papers tucked inside it.
"Documentation, please," the lady at the counter said once they arrived at her. Sebastian gave her the book; she opened it and examined the loose papers, glanced at each one of them in turn, wrote something down in another book and gave them their tickets.
"Enjoy your trip," she said and then they boarded the train.
Eleanora sat across from Sebastian and stared out the window, never looking at him. Ciel couldn't tell if Sebastian was upset at this, but he kind of growled when Ciel tried to sit next to him.
The train pulled out of the station and they were off.
"By the way," Ciel said, his voice hoarse from sickness, "where are we going?"
"You mean you agreed without knowing?" Eleanora said.
"Hell," Sebastian said.
"Hell? As in…as in…as in your Hell? As in…where the sinners go?"
"The very same."
"And why are we going there?"
"To get married."
"But I thought that you were already married?"
"This is the real marriage," Sebastian said and Eleanora groaned.
Hours passed. The train steadily continued. Ciel fell asleep on Eleanora's lap and she was just about to fall asleep herself when there was a sudden jolt and she fully awoke.
Where were they? They had just been in England. It had been the morning. Why was it suddenly so dark?
She looked out the window; it was all dark outside, but in the distance, she could see huge cliffs. England certainly didn't have those.
She turned to ask the butler what on earth was going on, but her fear froze her into silence and stiffness, as usual.
The butler had turned into a monster. Instead of feet, he had huge bird's talons. His legs had grown lanky and black. Black feathers sprouted on his arms and instead of hands he had claws. Feathers grew on his head instead of hair and they limply fell down around his face, mirroring his hairstyle in the real world. His face had grown black and leathery and his mouth and nose had been replaced by a beak.
"Don't scream," he said when he noticed her staring. "We're passing through the Threshold. All unholies turn into their true forms at this stage."
"The…Threshold?" she squeaked.
The monster nodded once, making his feathers rustle.
"The world between the worlds, if you will," he said and then the darkness outside vanished and light was again restored.
The butler shuddered and his feathers melted back into his skin. The ones on his head fell off and were quickly replaced by real hair. His skin turned white and the beak shrank back into a mouth and a nose and within seconds he was his normal self again.
Eleanora swallowed hard.
"What—How—Who—What?"
"That was my true form," Sebastian said, looking out the window again. "I haven't shown it to a human in a long, long time."
"Not even the young Master?" She looked at the sleeping Earl.
"No, not even him. He's seen my partial true form and thinks that it's my real form, and I would like to keep it that way."
"Your…partial true form?"
Sebastian sighed and shuddered again. Wings grew from his back, real, demonic wings; and horns rose from his head. The sight was still terrifying, but he still looked human. He neatly folded his wings back into his body and the horns retracted back into his head.
"That's what the young Lord thinks my true form is, and it would be much appreciated if you don't correct him."
Eleanora didn't answer; she went back to looking out the window. This scenery was also somehow different. It looked too…perfect. The grass was too green. The sky was too blue. Even the trees looked almost candy-like.
"Where are we?"
"I told you—Hell."
"Hell doesn't look like this."
"And I'm sure that you're the resident expert on what Hell looks like."
"But where's all the fire? The sinners burning? The screams?"
"Oh, that's all down in the tenth level. We're in the seventh."
"There's…levels?"
"Naturally. If we all lived on the tenth level, none of us would get any sleep."
Several more hours passed and the train stopped in a big city. Sebastian rose up and got the bags down.
"This is our stop; let's go."
Eleanora shook the young Master awake and they stepped out into the seventh level of Hell.
Just like in London, there were people everywhere. Children running around and screaming. Men chatting in groups. Women gossiping with baskets. There was even a group of angels waiting on the platform, trying to get the passersby to denounce their wicked ways and become holy.
They had to go through another checkpoint, the way that they did before getting on the train. Then they stepped out into the city and Sebastian hailed down a cab.
He gave the address to the cabman in a strange language, who gave him a horrified look, but didn't argue, especially when Sebastian gave him half of his fare in advance.
Ciel settled back into Eleanora and they watched the unholy city pass as they left it.