"Look at the sinner who stands before you! This is the man who befriended the impure!" A wizened voice boomed.
An ancient-looking shaman and a young priestess stood before an altar. Kneeling between them was a gagged Michaelis, who had his hands tied behind his back. The man's gray eyes were wide and frantic as he searched his audience. They found the back of the room, where Ciel, Akuma, and all the others were huddled in their cages.
The shaman continued. "He tried to leave this holy temple! He wanted to return to the world outside, full of sin and hatred!"
The priestess looked down on Michaelis.
"If he so wishes to be tainted and unholy, so be it, but we cannot allow such impurity to dwell under our roof!" She yelled.
The crowd below was beginning to rally themselves. They jeered at Michaelis and shouted encouragement to the priestess, who was pulling a long silver sword from a sheath at her hip. The gleaming blade had peculiar runes and symbols etched into it.
Michaelis, upon seeing the blade, began to struggle and writhe desperately against the ropes that tied his wrists to the floor. He yelled against his gag. Muffled pleas that fell deaf on unforgiving ears.
"No!"
Akuma threw herself against the bars of her cage, reaching her arms through the gap in a useless attempt at reaching Michaelis.
Only a few people in the back of room paid any attention to her. Most of them were calling for Michaelis' death as they watched the sword hover over his head. The preistess continued to speak, but neither of them were paying attention to what she was saying anymore.
Both Ciel and Akuma screamed as the sword flew down and buried itself in the man's chest with a sick thud. His eyes rolled up into his head as he slumped over onto the Shaman's feet. The priestess pulled the sword out and returned it to its sheath.
"Never turn to sin," she said as blood pooled around her feet. "It will only drag you straight to hell."
She walked off the altar. The shaman stepped forward and swept the crowd with his eyes.
"Disperse!" he yelled.
"Ciel!" Loss called, "You need to stop zoning out on me like that!"
The two were resting under a huge tree somewhere on the north bank of the River Thames, only a few miles from the old sentry tower Sebastian was being kept at. The black horse had run as fast as she could for hours on end, and she was truly exhausted. Now, she was stretched out over a sunny patch of grass, dozing peacefully and letting out an occasional snore.
"Sorry." Ciel mumbled while looking at the ground.
Loss stared at him with mild concern.
"What are you even thinking about anyways?"
Ciel didn't answer for a long time.
"Things..."
There was a long silence between the two of them.
"Is it Sebastian?" she suddenly asked in a hushed voice.
"No," he answered honestly.
He raised a hand to the cloth that covered the damaged seal.
"I don't want to think about that..." he murmured.
Loss sighed as she watched the river bubble along at a peaceful pace. Ciel's gaze was following a raven soaring through the air.
A raven had dived in through an open window, and it carefully landed in the pool of blood left by Michaelis. It looked down into the crimson liquid, as if it was trying to see a reflection of sorts. It dipped its beak into the pool and scooped up a few drops. It dipped its head back and swallowed, then did the same thing again.
Ciel watched with disgust. He yelled at the bird to fly away. The raven cocked its sleek black head in his direction, then spread its wings and flew straight into the boy's cage.
Ciel yelled in surprise as the bird landed at his feet. It gazed up him with unnaturally intelligent eyes, and in that moment Ciel realized that this thing probably wasn't normal. The raven stared at him as if he were some sort of meal.
"Hey!" a voice screamed. "Get away!"
Both the raven and Ciel turned to Akuma, who was the one that yelled. The bird swooped into her cage and gazed harshly at her. It opened its beak and let out a shrill call before turning and flying back out through the open window.
Ciel sighed and leaned his back against the bars of his cage, closing his eyes and letting his head fall back in a seemingly relaxed gesture.
"The gift of flight is granted to the most useless creatures." he said more to himself than anyone else.
The sound of running brought both children to full attention. A group of about six people suddenly burst into the room, the shaman and the priestess were among them.
"There they are!" one of them said, pointing at Ciel and Akuma.
"You're sure?" the shaman asked.
"Positive," he replied, "I saw Michaelis feeding them last week."
"Tch," the priestess said, "Those two always were a bit of trouble." she sneered, "Emon!" she yelled.
"Yes, Lillium?" the shaman replied.
"Get the boy and kill him." she said coldly, "Take two templars with you. I'll take the other two and handle the girl."
"No..." Akuma breathed.
Emon approached Ciel.
"NO!" she screamed. "CIEL!" she slammed into the side of her cage. "GET AWAY FROM HIM, YOU BASTARD!"
Ciel backed into the corner of the cage as the old man came closer. He couldn't say that he was surprised by this. He knew his death was looming over him since the day he was thrown into this hellhole, but he still couldn't help being gripped with terror as he finally stared death in the face. Akuma was in hysterics, while Ciel was trapped in something of a silent panic.
The cage door opened.
"RUN!"
it only took one that one word from Akuma, and Ciel was suddenly acting like a rabid bull let out of its pen. Despite his pitiful condition, he was able to charge down the Shaman and make a beeline towards the door. For the briefest moment, he thought he had been able to cheat death.
If only it were that easy.
Two of the warriors suddenly broke away from the group and tackled the boy to the ground. He screamed and writhed and struggled uselessly. Emon was able to pick himself up, and harshly kicked Ciel in the face.
"There will be hell to pay for that, boy." He snarled.
Akuma had broken down into a screaming mess. Ciel met her eyes for the briefest moment. She was reaching one arm through the bars of her cage, her hand opened wide in a begging gesture. Her face had the saddest look Ciel had ever seen.
The contact broke and Ciel was dragged from the room. The last thing he saw was Lillium coldly smiling at him.
Time seemed to slow down as he was thrown onto a blood-stained altar.
The air was suddenly torn in two by Akuma. She had let loose the most agonized, heart-breaking scream Ciel had ever heard. The scream was cut off by a sick ripping sound.
Hatred.
That's the only thing he knew. The only thing that kept him alive until this point, the thing that refused to let him die now.
"GOD," he screamed, "WHAT A LIE! WHERE ARE YOU NOW!? MY PROTECTOR? YOU WERE NEVER THERE!"
The Shaman raised a sword.
"SOMEONE HELP ME!" Ciel pleaded, "ANYONE!"
A raven's cry rang through the air.
"Ciel, the horse is ready." he heard Loss say.
She hadn't noticed that his mind was far away, trapped in some awful memory.
"C'mon Ciel," she said while tugging on his arm. "It's getting dark. We need to get going if we want to make it by midnight."
One half of Ciel's mind was still lost in his past, but the half that was in the present responded to Loss.
"Sorry," he murmured, pushing away her open hand and dragging himself up.
"Hey," she said softly with a hand on his shoulder, "Sebastian's gonna be fine, okay?"
He looked at her with eyes that shined with tears he refused to let fall. He was too proud, too strong to cry.
"Okay," he whispered.
Loss pulled him into a gentle hug, which Ciel didn't fight, though he didn't accept it either. She pulled away and took his hand, leading him to Agro, who was quietly drinking water at the river's edge. She mounted the horse and helped Ciel up. She flicked the reins, and the horse set off away from the setting sun.
"Demon," the boy said while wiping the blood away from his newly marked eye, "what is your name?"
The dark butler stopped and looked over his shoulder with a slight smirk on his face. "Whatever my master wishes."
"Then..." The boy thought for a moment, combing his mind for possible names. His beloved dog came into the view of his mind's eye.
"Sebastian" He decided, "From now on, your name will be Sebastian."
The boy looked into the setting sun, smiling slightly.
"Certainly," The newly named demon said, "Well then, please call me Sebastian. Was that the name of your former butler?"
"No," the boy said to the ground, "It was my dog's name."
Sebastian looked heavily offended.
"You need a last name too, don't you?" Ciel asked.
The demon said nothing.
Ciel suddenly thought of Michaelis. A lone angel who had somehow ended up in his hell. The man who died because of him. Ciel felt that he needed to honor him in someway.
"Michaelis," he murmured, "Sebastian Michaelis." he let the name soak in. "I like it."
The butler bowed. "Of course. Give me an order, my little lord."
Have you ever had one of those really intense self-hate moments? I had one of those when I read this chapter. I wanted to shoot myself in the face. Hmm, maybe I'm getting depressed again.
Oh guys, guess what! minus the AN, this chapter is 1,669 words long. Hee hee heheheh... Your Guardian Demon has a dirty mind.
And really? only 1 review last chapter? Some fans you are. I should discontinue this story right now as punishment. I'm letting you off the hook this time, but let me just lay down the law here
NO REVIEWS, NO STORY!
Have I made myself perfectly clear? I hope so. If you didn't get it, let me try again.
NO UPDATES UNTIL UNTIL THIS STORY HITS 30 REVIEWS! I'm serious about this guys.
I'm a review whore, so I'm allowed to shamelessly beg for reviews.
PLEASE, PLEASE PLEASE! PLEASE REVIEW! I don't care if you do anything else, you can leave a total troll/hate message, as long as it's still an honest review! Reviews feed my endless imagination and allow me to come up with more crappy ideas for this crappy story.
alright, now that's over. GO VOTE IN THE POLL IN MY PROFILE
READ AND REVIEW ALL MY OTHER CRAPPY STORIES!
REQUEST YOUR STORIES BY PMING ME!
ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS STORY IN THE REVIEWS! THEY SHALL BE ANSWERED IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!
You get to do whatever you want with Sebastian for a full 24 hours if you do.