They arrived at wherever-they-were-headed-to at a very late time. They had left the city—and any other towns—hours ago and were now being driven through miles and miles of open country until they reached a huge gate, where the cab dropped them off.
Sebastian finished paying the fare and waved as the cab left. Then he opened the gate and they slipped inside.
Ciel looked around.
"Where are we? Where are we staying?"
Eleanora suddenly had the horrible idea that the butler was planning on killing them here, where their bodies would never be discovered.
"You can't see it yet," Sebastian said, grabbing the suitcases, "it's a bit aways from here."
"You mean we have to walk?"
"No, nothing says that you have to walk," Sebastian said cheerfully. "You could run if you want to."
Several more hours later, a huge house came into view, which only got bigger the closer they went up to it. It was enormous, larger than Phantomhive, larger than Buckingham Palace, larger than anything either Ciel or Eleanora had ever seen before. The architecture was just as ominous as its size; both of them would have cheerfully turned around and walked back to the city to stay in a hotel, but Sebastian just entered as if he owned the place.
There was a man waiting for them in the door. He was handsome in a statuesque kind of way; his face had exquisite features but was entirely blank.
"Welcome home, my Lord," he said in a monotone voice. "They have been expecting you for hours."
"Why didn't anyone come to meet us?" Sebastian asked, which was odd, as the man had said "my Lord" and the only lord around was Ciel. "We've been walking for hours."
The man acted as if he hadn't heard him; he picked up the suitcases.
"They're waiting for you," he said, "in the Main Drawing Room."
"Then that's where we have to go, I suppose," Sebastian sighed and walked down the hallway, going up stairs and then turning into another hallway, with Ciel and Eleanora following closely behind him. They didn't want to get lost in such a creepy house.
Sebastian entered a room and shut the door; it was pitch black. Ciel fought the childish urge to grab someone's hand.
"Hang on; I know the light switch is here somewhere…" Sebastian said and they could hear him feeling the wall for the electricity…
He found it, turned it on, and there was an explosion of lights and shrieks and people.
People everywhere. They surged forward in one giant wave and they grabbed Sebastian and began kissing him and hugging him and tousling his hair and they never stopped talking in that bizarre language which sounded like Latin, leaving Eleanora and Ciel on the side, staring at the scene with their mouths open.
Suddenly the people quieted and released Sebastian, parting like the Red Sea to allow another person to enter their midst. Eleanora's eyes widened. She recognized the woman. She was even prettier in real life…
She was the woman from the photo album.
Her hair was golden and still curled in ringlets. Her eyes were a beautiful sunset pink; her skin glowed and her cheeks were always blushing. Her bust was just the right size—not too large, not too small; she had the perfect hourglass figure; her posture was upright without seeming snobbish…She was perfection itself.
She smiled upon seeing Sebastian; her smile was just like his, only far kinder and lovelier. Sebastian smiled back at her and bowed. She presented her hand and he kissed it. He straightened up and then she kissed him: a kiss on the left cheek, a kiss on the right cheek, a kiss on the lips…Then they hugged. The woman whispered something into his hair and spat three times over his right shoulder. She held him closer and he was hugging her back; both of them were looking rather teary…
It was ridiculous to be jealous. Eleanora bit it back and tried to regain her usual bored face, only this time, she tried to add a little politeness too.
Sebastian released the woman and they began talking to each other in their language. Sebastian then gestured at Eleanora and the woman gasped. Her hands flew to her mouth and then sank back down; she was smiling.
"Eleampra," she whispered and then took Eleanora's face in her hands. She kissed her in the same way: kiss on left cheek, kiss on right, kiss on lips. Then she whispered another incantation and spat three times over her right shoulder, and then she hugged her.
She was so soft. She smelled like rose soap and some kind of spice. Then Eleanora was released and the woman turned back to Sebastian, talking eagerly with him. Then she seemed to remember something and turned and shouted at the crowd.
"Jen!"
There was a muffled explosion somewhere in the house and then a man burst into the room, coughing and shouting. Eleanora recognized his voice; never mind that he was speaking in a different language. He was still the man on the telephone.
He was extremely tall, taller than Sebastian, with his medium-length black hair tied back with a bit of dull red ribbon. His skin was unnaturally pale, whiter than white, his green eyes gleamed, when he smiled, he showed off his two teeth that looked quite a lot like fangs.
He sauntered up to Sebastian, who bowed and kissed his hand. Then the man did the kissing routine and then he grabbed the butler and began whirling him around in a hug, shouting and stopping every ten seconds to kiss him. Then several arms sprouted from the man's sides and he was able to squeeze the butler practically to death.
Sebastian gasped out some things and the man set him back down. His arms shrank back into his torso and he turned to look at Eleanora, still smiling. He approached her; the temperature dropped several degrees. He was freezing!
He slid one of his fingers under her chin and forced her head up, examining her from all sides. Then he nodded, grinned, and whirled onto Sebastian, yelling at him. The people in the group laughed and Sebastian looked embarrassed, but he linked his arm through Eleanora's and they went to every person, where they were then kissed and conversations were discussed.
Things were happening far too quickly for Eleanora to truly comprehend, but she realized that there were two kinds of people in that room. For convenience's sake, she mentally referred to them as the pales and the healthy. The pale people were all like that first man: too-white skin, freezing cold to the touch, incisors that curved backwards. The healthy ones were like Sebastian and the woman: rosy skin, warm and soft, not quite so bony. But despite their physical differences, they all seemed to have several things in common: they enjoyed teasing Sebastian and making him blush; they liked touching her and smiling at her; they liked being hugged and kissed and laughing.
Eventually she had "met" everyone in the room and they were pushed down onto a couch. The young Master was pushed into a chair and the woman brought out snacks on trays and then several people brought out instruments and then they started to sing and dance. Some of the older ones—who Eleanora could only assume were Sebastian's grandparents—didn't dance, but they were the main ones who played the instruments and sang.
The two different groups of people had two different types of dances. The pale ones' dancing was more erotic and chaotic; the healthy ones had very elegant and organized dances. Every now and then another song would come up and they would all dance together. The pale ones would snap their fingers to the music while the healthy ones clapped. Sebastian also clapped, but Eleanora just sat there. She had absolutely no idea what was going on or what they were even celebrating.
Then the tall man grabbed Sebastian's arm and pulled him into the center of the room and forced him to dance and then he went back and grabbed Eleanora and then they were all dancing.
Suddenly an alarm went off and the woman jumped. She said something to the group and ran out of the room; several people followed her. Sebastian and Eleanora were allowed to sit back down on the couch, but they didn't remain there long because the woman returned quickly.
She announced something and everyone cheered and then they all streamed into another room—a huge dining room.
"What's going on?" Ciel whispered to Sebastian as they passed.
"We're going to have dinner now," Sebastian whispered back.
"Good! I'm starving."
"Don't let them hear you say that," Sebastian said, "and don't let them kiss you."
"Why not?"
"Because if they kiss you, it probably means that they're tasting you."
Ciel's mouth dropped open in horror, but he couldn't say anything else because they had all sat down and the woman brought out the first course.
Sebastian and Eleanora were sitting on the far end of the table. Eleanora had lost her appetite, so she was mostly poking at her food, but she still realized that the woman was giving her the choicest parts of the courses. Everyone was talking and laughing and eating—she didn't know that such people could eat so much food. Even the butler next to her could eat as much as them. Every sixth course, the green-eyed man would stand up and make a toast. Eleanora drank as well, only the wine was very strong and very sweet, so for every toast, she mostly just allowed the wine to touch her lips. It didn't taste alcoholic at all.
She was starting to get full, even with her meager mouthfuls, and the courses still kept on coming, becoming more and more elaborate: whole roasted swans swimming in lakes of butter, a huge sow complete with cooked piglets, a peacock with edible feathers, fish caught in the act of jumping out of ice. Eleanora was starting to get a little sick.
"How many courses are there?" she whispered to the butler. He shouted something at the woman, who shouted something back.
"Six hundred and sixty-six," he said calmly and agreed to another glass of wine.
"Six hundred and sixty-six?" Eleanora gasped. "Why so many?"
"This is a party; 666 courses is the traditional amount."
Eleanora reduced herself to just tasting each course as it came; if she had attempted to eat as much as the unholies around her, she would have burst. One of the grandmothers started frowning at her and whispered to Sebastian, who said something back to her.
"What is it?" Eleanora whispered. "What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing," Sebastian said, helping himself to some of her food. "She wanted to know if you were feeling alright."
"Of…course I am. Why would she ask?"
"Because you're not eating anything."
"Well I can't damn well fit in 666 courses, now can I?"
"I can," Sebastian said, and cheered with the rest as the woman brought out the next platter: a fish that looked a bit like a baby whale, only it had several horns and shark-like teeth.
The foods just got more and more exotic. Ciel was also feeling ill and was able to politely reject some of the stranger meals. Eleanora didn't have that luxury; she had to try everything, from the gelatinous thing that looked as if it was still squirming to the giraffe-like monster with several hundred legs.
The meal dragged on. The company grew louder and merrier. The food kept on coming.
Finally they reached the desserts, and there were only six of those. Then everyone rose up; the dinner was finally over with. They went back to the drawing room, where Ciel was again deposited into a chair with a platter of food and forgotten. All the attention was on Sebastian and Eleanora.
Shot glasses were distributed and then another bottle of wine was brought out.
"What's happening now?" she whispered to Sebastian, weaving a bit from her full stomach.
"There weren't enough toasts at dinner," Sebastian whispered back. "We have to compensate."
"You mean we're playing a drinking game?"
"Try to keep up," he said and winked.
Ciel was bored, bored and tired and sick. He was pretty sure that he wasn't allowed to eat so much, especially when recovering after an illness. He wondered if he was going to throw up. Maybe if he did, they would cram more food down his throat. He listlessly watched the party as they threw back shot after shot. Eleanora was looking a little pale; she constantly had to grab Sebastian for support.
She didn't know where she was or what was happening. The room was spinning around; everyone was laughing and talking which abruptly stopped as she staggered from the group. She was feeling ill, so, so ill; she knew that she shouldn't have done whatever-it-was so much; she couldn't remember how she had gotten this way, but something in the back of her mind told her it was due to that candy-red liquid that she kept on drinking.
She staggered down the hallways; constantly falling but someone would always stop her before she hit the floor and then she was turned into a bathroom and she fell before the porcelain throne and the room spun around several more times before she finally vomited.