Disclaimer: Kuroshitsuji doesn't belong to me.

Chapter Ten

The boys disappeared late that night, leaving me in the house along with the servants. I could care less about the stupid prince's servant or about how he was involved with the deaths of the nobles and because of such I found no reason to follow them on their little game of chase they set up after they discovered Agni leaving the mansion late at night.

I also got away with not going because of being a woman, one of the few perks I received as being such.

I sighed and flipped over the stray chess piece on the board, watching as it tipped over and rolled around the white and black checkered board before settling into one position. To my amusements I found it was the black king, now wasn't that the piece I saw Ciel fooling with earlier? What was going through that boy's mind?

For once I couldn't tell.

He was the first mortal I'd encountered who I couldn't guess his motives. His actions and words took me by surprise, more often then not actually. I liked him, not only was he fun to tease but he was interesting. A one of a kind, as most mortals would call it. He didn't want fame or fortune, both of which he already had, but rather bloody revenge. Certainly not something I would have suspected from a small child like him. And it wasn't like that was the only area of his life that he differed in. Ciel was just an entirely different human. He wasn't childlike as his age might suggest and he certainly was even more mature then some adult mortals.

I smirked and looked to the fire blazing in the hearth that lay opposite of where I sat with the coffee table separating the space between us. The crackling of the burning wood was the only sound in the manor at the moment. The noisy servants were asleep and everyone else was still gone. I growled to myself and lifted my legs up onto the love seat I'd curled up in, tucking my feet underneath me. Ciel would probably have murdered me if he had seen me do this to his furniture, but he wasn't here. I chuckled to myself at the thought of his expression and this turned into into full out laughter at the thought of the expression his face would wear if he saw what I was clothed in, or rather whose clothes I was wearing.

My legs were clad in a pair of black breeches I borrowed from his closet, finding it amusing that I was slender and small enough to be able to fit into his clothing. They ended just below my knees in bunches and left my calves bare. The loose white blouse was from Sebastian's closet, which I'd also taken the liberty of taking. The only reason it was loose was because it wasn't at all made to fit me and the sleeves had to be rolled up to my elbows so that they didn't swallow my arms whole.

A woman dressed as a man, fortunately I was only looking for something comfortable to wear while the men were gone. When they did return they'd be heading straight for their chambers and if Sebastian did happen to come find me, I was reassured with the fact that'd he'd certainly seen me in a lot more revealing clothing before and even no clothing at all. What could I say, the fashion changes with the time.

I let out a huff of breath and glared dryly at the fire before standing, well there was no use in me remaining here bored out of my mind. I stood up and padded my way out of the room and down the stairs. The lower floor was completely dark, but my eyes were accustomed to the lack of lighting and I wondering easily through the empty corridors.

I was craving some tea.

"It's called Samadhi," a dry voice floated to my ear as I passed the dinning room. "Anyone with it has that power."

I paused in my tracks and listened.

"Samadhi?"

"It's to do with their religion. It's like entering a type of trance, isn't it?"

That velvety voice I'd know anywhere. Sebastian. But when did they get back. I hadn't heard them enter...Maybe I'd been too lost in thought.

I pressed my ear to the door, listening to their low conversation but it was a while before I could understand anything more then a few mumbled tones. It was Soma's outbreak that caught my attention accompanied by the loud crashing of china shattering as it hit the ground. I happened to step back at just the right moment; a second before the foreign prince burst through the doors in tears and raced off down the hall.

I stood watching him for a moment before turning to look at the others inside the dinning room, who now noticed me in the doorway.

"I'm not even going to bother asking why you are dressed like a man, Tessa," Ciel sighed angrily as he stood up from his seat rubbing his forehead as was his habit when he got annoyed with everyone around him. Personally I thought the action made him look adorable, but there was no way I would admit this to him.

I smiled and bowed my head jokingly, "Thank you for that because honestly I hadn't been planning on answering that question either."

"Tch'," Ciel muttered under his breath.

"I suppose the trip did not go as planned?" I asked, turning to look at Sebastian.

Lau smirked, drawing my attention to him, "It appears our Earl has quite the competition in servants."

I chuckled at this, "That's nothing entirely new to me, Lau. That servant is no normal mortal after all. His hand has been blessed by the gods."

Ciel looked at me wide eyed as Sebastian looked at me merely in shock. I suppose he hadn't noticed the hand yet. I smirked, looking off down the hall into the darkness that the prince had vanished into.

"How else would a simple servant like him be able to match Sebastian?" I asked lightly, a teasing smile finding it's way onto my face. "After all we know that they were evenly matched this morning in that duel. If I hadn't stepped in it would have been a tie."

Ciel looked stunned, while realization was slowly dawning on Sebastian's face. Once he seemed to come to an understanding on this knowledge I'd unloaded onto him he looked a me with a clear question burning in his eyes. I gave one short nod, before turning my back to them and looked down the hall.

"Is anyone going to deal with the brat?" I joked, my tone playfully inviting.

"I guess I should teach him some manners," Sebastian smirked, bypassing me and heading up the hallway.

I giggled and followed closely behind him, hoping for some entertainment. Sebastian gave me a stern look out of the corner of his eye and my grin broadened by that much more. This should brighten up the evening a little bit.

We entered the prince's room unbidden and Sebastian crossed right to the bed, ripping the sheets and blankets off in one clean swipe. I leaned against the doorway and smiled broadly as I watched the show unfold before my eyes.

"Why you rude-," Soma yelled when he was thrown from the bed.

Sebastian just cut him off in an even, yet scolding, voice, "Who here is rude? Tossing things around all over as though it's nothing...How troublesome."

"Eh?"

"We are in England, not your palace back home," Sebastian said sternly and maybe even slightly snide. "I do not have to follow your orders here. You're just a spoilt brat."

I smirked, knowing that the insults were only just beginning. Yet the prince already appeared thrown off by the rough treatment he was receiving. He had no idea that Sebastian was just beginning his fun. Then again he had no idea he was dealing with a demon, who only followed the laws of polite society because he was ordered to.

"Without Agni you are just a powerless baby and your last ray of light, Agni, betrayed you."

"That's it...I have nothing," the prince said quietly, looking down in shame as Sebastian looked smug. "I've lost everyone."

"Lost, huh?" Sebastian asked, lifting a gloved hand to his chin in what would have been a thoughtful manner if he hadn't been wearing a smirk. "What a persecution complex you have."

The prince looked up shocked, his eyes widening at Sebastian last words. He looked overwhelmed and lost, knowing the words spoken by the demon were nothing but the truth. It was a sad sight, but he had it coming to him. Karma, a terrible thing to mess with indeed.

Very sticky business.

Sebastian's smirk grew devious, a demonic edge creeping into his features, "You didn't lose them. More like they were never yours in the first place."

"What?" Soma's voice was completely flat, beyond emotions now.

Yet, Sebastian didn't quit there. He kept going, pushing the mortal to his breaking limits even though the mortal already was broken to begin with. There was not much more he would be able to take before he cracked. Sebastian knew this and so did I. The poor boy was already on edge, Sebastian was just playing the part of the last thing that would tip him over the edge of the cliff he was clinging to desperately.

And unfortunately Soma was too weak to take a stand for very long.

"No," he cried out as he tried to approach the door to escape. I quickly side stepped out of the way, just a Sebastian slammed a hand against it. The door swung shut, trapping us all inside the room.

"But it's true," Sebastian continued, leaning in closer to the emotionally unstable mortal and tilting his head to the side slightly. "Even now in this situation you are playing the hero in a tragedy, but you really are just a spoilt brat."

"No one ever loved you."

Those last words cut through Soma like knives. I saw him visibly flinch as he cowered in on himself, beginning to tremble. He had the appearance of a tortured animal, one that never knew the words love and kindness. He looked beaten down and broken beyond repair.

"I...I...," he stuttered as he stumbled back and away from the door, followed by Sebastian who was advancing slowly.

"So that's how it is, eh?"

I turned my head over my shoulder to see Ciel leaning in the spot I had been occupying before. His eyes were closed and he looked slightly annoyed if not exasperated.

"Young master," Sebastian turned greeting him as if nothing had happened.

"I may have turned out like him," Ciel spoke softly, yet with a bitterness and coldness that even I, as a demon, wasn't able to understand.

"If...," he paused opening his eye to look at us, or rather through us as he recalled something specific to his memories. "It hadn't been for that month."

I frowned, I hadn't fully heard his story yet. Sebastian hadn't privileged me with his master's full detailed story of how he contracted him and Ciel never seemed willing to submit any information on his past. All I knew at this moment was from my time spent in high society and their gossip that his family had been killed in a terrible fire, but that seemed normal.

Almost too much so.

I didn't want to pry, nor did I want to witness it. Which is why when I began to feel the familiar numbing sensation creep over my body slowly I tried to fight off the memories. This time they weren't mine. I could feel the essence of Ciel in them, bitter and cold, and smell the scent of him. It wasn't a terribly bad smell, in fact I could understand why Sebastian kept an eye on his master. Ciel smelled absolutely ravishing.

My mind couldn't put up a fight for long though and the memories broke through my carefully built walls, crashing into my mind like a flood. Only strongly felt memories from mortals were strong enough to be able to do this to me. To send me collapsing to the ground unconscious as wave after wave of their most secretive memories assaulted me.

I gasped in pain and sunk to my knees slowly, shutting myself down so that I would assume the least damage when they finally took over. Which second by second they were...The voices saying my name were becoming duller and soon I heard nothing of the existing world at all.

When I finally did open my eyes I found myself laying on the ground. My body felt numb and detached, as it usually did when I found myself sucked into others' memories. I wasn't physically there and neither was I viewing it from their perspective. I was just a third party viewer watching the memories play through around me, like watching a play in which you sat dead center of the stage while the actors ran about around you.

Slowly I pushed myself up off the cold ground. Beneath my hands the ground, or flooring rather, was grimy with all sorts of filth that I rather didn't know what it consisted of. The taste of metal was heavy in the back of my throat as I sucked in a breath and took a look about myself.

I was in a cage, similar to the cages nobles kept canaries or other small birds in just three times larger. A dark red drape was slung over the top, falling down around the arching metal bars where they met at the top. I sat at the metal bottom dead center of the circular shape which wasn't large enough for me to stretch my legs out in. There was a door directly opposite of me, but it was locked with an intimidating padlock that was rusted over in places. For a mortal it would have been impossible to escape.

As my senses began to become in tune with Ciel's memories, I began picking up on the noise and smells of the place he was remembering so bitterly. The noise was the first thing to assault my senses. The sounds of a large group of people gathered in the area made me cringe as their voices blended together and echoed around the room, or rather arena. I glanced about to try and see the people, finding myself placed off to the side surrounded by a circular seating arrangement that encased a small center where two cages sat; the one I was currently locked in and the one across from me. Small figures were huddled in the other one, dirty children that looked to be nothing more than skin and bones now.

Even my inner demon recoiled at their appearance.

A desperate cry of pain caught my attention, along with the most revolting scent that could ever be smelled. My stomach churned and I felt like curling over and releasing the contents of my stomach as the horrid smell of burning flesh assaulted my sensitive nose. I gag and looked over to where I heard the cry, already having a clue as to what I was going to see.

The long stone table about the length of a full grown man stood directly in the center of the main circle in the arena. A group of people in darkly colored finery and white masks, surrounded it, holding onto the fragile figure of a young boy. One was pulling away a red hot iron with a brand, while the boy cried out struggling to get away only to be kept in place by the arms of many humans. I winced as I recognized Ciel's face, though much younger and twisted in pain.

He looked so innocent, like only a child could, and slowly I realized that this is exactly the reason why he was the way he was. He'd been different before this, but his happy life had ended when this had happened. He'd been humiliated and lost everything all in one night, all right in front of his eyes.

I bit my lip to keep myself from breaking the line of memories, if I so much as uttered a word the world around me would shatter and I would be back in the mansion with the older Ciel, the one who was scarred and broken. And while this vision was gruesome, I found I didn't want it to end until I knew the boy was safe.

I needed to know that even though I already knew he was alive and breathing in the real world, but I needed to see this version of him saved.

"I see, you became cuter," one of the sick bastards within the group closest to Ciel cooed, causing my stomach to churn. I thought humans were supposed to be naive and innocent, but obvious they could be just as cruel as demons.

"Father, mother...God please...Why?"

I jumped at the voice floating through the air, recognizing it as Ciel's though he didn't open his mouth to speak. Disembodies voices weren't abnormal in visions of the past, they represented the thoughts of whoever the memories belonged to. Whatever the person had been thinking during the time the memories took place would act as a narrator's voice overlaying the scene.

"Why is there no one? No one comes to our rescue."

His voice sounded so broken, desperation leaked into his words coloring them darkly with loneliness and a deep sadness.

I watched on, expecting the worst, knowing that it was soon to come. Most humans had to die to contract a demon, or at least be on the brink of death, and seeing the scene around me I knew Ciel's case was going to be no exception to this.

One of the men closest to Ciel had him laid out on his back and gestured for Ciel to be held down by four others. Two clamped his hands down over his head, while the other two held down his ankles securing him to the table of marble. Now that I could see it more clearly through the throng of people I grimaced at the sight of dried blood coating it.

They were having human sacrifices to entertain guest? How sick were these mortals? And how many children had they done this to before? They were monsters, worse then even demons who had excuses for our actions. Humans didn't, if they were cruel it was because they wanted to be, not because it was a part of their nature.

The man who was clearly in charge stepped closer and raised a glinting thing into the air. My breath caught in my throat as the rest of the crowd watching on let out low murmurs of excitement. This was absolutely horrid.

Ciel's small body squirmed about as he struggled to get loose from the tight holds on his arms and legs, but he was held fast as the leader brought the blade over his head. Slowly, as if the memories were in slow motion, the blade was brought down to be buried into Ciel's fragile chest just as he thought his last thought.

"There is no such thing as God."

I gasped, covering my mouth with my hand, just as the lights in the arena started to flicker and a cruel presences churned the air. I could barely feel the familiar presence brush against my skin, it being too faded with the memories for me to feel the fullness of it as a dark figure stepped into the room from seemingly nowhere.

One minute there had been no one standing at the outer edge of the circle the next there was a shadowed figure standing there. All I could really see of the figure where the sleek boots with spiked heels that looked even sharper than the blade that had been buried into Ciel's chest. Wisp of black smoke swirled around the figure making it hard too tell any definite features, but I didn't need them to know who this was.

"Oh?" The chilling voice question, as two red orbs appeared. "Well aren't you...a very small master."

I smirked as I watched the humans blink and turn pale with fright. They were rooted to the spot with fright, but even if they did try to run off as soon as Ciel commanded his demon what to do they'd be done for.

And they did deserve to get served their justice.

"You have summoned me. This fact will not change for eternity, what has been sacrificed will never be returned," a demonic smile appeared within the swirling black fog, showing a mouth full of sharp fangs. "Now...choose."

Ciel opened his eyes and I clearly saw the contract glowing brighter in his right eye, "This is an order, kill them."