Memories of Murder:
Chapter 2:
Sebastian blinked. He had not been sure what the ghost Ciel wanted from him, but to find out it was something impossible like that was a surprise.
"Shouldn't you know?" he asked.
Ciel looked annoyed. "The only thing I know is my name."
"Then how do you know you were murdered?
The boy rolled his eyes. "Don't you know anything about ghosts?"
Supernatural things like ghost weren't something Sebastian had ever had an interest in. He preferred factual non-fiction books not story books, especially after being constantly accused of being a demon at a previous school.
"Obviously not," he snapped.
Ciel sighed dramatically which reminded Sebastian of a sulky child that couldn't get their way. He would have said teenager if Ciel didn't look so young.
"Why is the only person that can see me an idiot!?" he griped.
"I am not an idiot!" Sebastian complained a little too loudly as he drew strange looks from the group of girls. He dropped to a whisper. "It's just that I have never believed in ghosts."
Ciel's gaze softened slightly. "I'll insult you after explaining things. I think this place is too busy though. The study area of the library is usually quiet at this time."
On their way to the library Sebastian encountered Finny who was with another boy with darker blond hair who reeked of smoke and looked unshaven.
"Have you made your decision about joining the club?" Finny asked hopefully.
Sebastian cast a look at Ciel who nodded at him.
"...I will join your club," he said a little reluctantly.
Finny clapped his hands excitedly. "We were looking for someone really clever to help us with the latest mystery. You're perfect for the club."
Something felt wrong about that statement and Sebastian worked out what it was.
"How do you know I'm clever?"
Finny winced guiltily. "It was passed around sixth form before you came here. Someone overheard the head of sixth form discussing information about you with the admin staff. We also know who your parents are."
Sebastian sighed and Ciel pointed at his watch, clearly not wanting to lose any time standing around gossiping.
"I will see you later," he said and followed Ciel down the corridor.
He was led straight through the almost deserted school library and to the study area at the back by the computers. Ciel perched on a beanbag whilst Sebastian opted for a comfier looking armchair.
"If this is going to be an hour long epic, warn me in advance. I have not been here long enough to start skiving lessons."
Ciel levelled him with a nasty look. "I told you, I have no memories- it's not an epic story."
Sebastian gestured for him to continue and Ciel did, but not without a displeased glare first.
"I have been stuck here as a ghost for at least six years. I do not have any memories of before that or how I died."
Sebastian waited for him to explain how he knew he had been murdered.
"I hope you understand the next part with your limited imagination. Try to live up to your new reputation."
The living teenager began to rethink acknowledging Ciel's presence. He was proving to be a brat. If he continued with that attitude, he would be considered as being one hell of a brat.
"Ghosts will haunt places they have a strong connection to. I actually cannot leave the school grounds."
At least it meant Ciel would not be able to follow him home. Sebastian cheered up slightly. The thought of having a ghost living with him in his apartment felt disconcerting.
"Ghosts will not cross over if they have unfinished business. Therefore, I think I was murdered on school premises six years ago."
The hairs on Sebastian's arms stood on end. To think that someone had been murdered here and was now haunting it was not a pleasant thought. That was if Ciel was right about his own death.
"Are you absolutely sure it's murder and not just an accidental death?" he made sure to ask.
Ciel was silent for a minute. "It feels like the right answer."
Sebastian arrived at an important question. "Will finding the truth help you pass on?"
"I believe it will."
Now came the most important question of all. He did not give out favours for free.
"What incentive is there for me to find out the truth for me?"
He leaned back in satisfaction at the look of sour annoyance on Ciel's face. The response was not one he had been hoping for.
"Are you an idiot? If you don't do it, I will haunt you for the rest of your life."
Sebastian smirked, sure that he had caught Ciel out. "You told me that you are confined to school grounds. If I don't turn up, you can't haunt me."
It was Ciel's turn to smirk.
"From what I have heard, you have strict parents that are fairly well known around here. You would be an embarrassment to them if you skipped lessons."
If this was a chess game, Ciel had just put his king in check. Would he surrender? He considered it.
Solving the mystery of Ciel's death would be a nice distraction from the other activities that he was obligated to do. He was under pressure to get good grades and socialise with potential clients and their children. He needed something else to do that was not connected to school work or schmoozing.
"All right. In return for peace, I will help you."
When he said that he witnessed the first real smile from Ciel. It was actually quite blinding.
"That is wonderful. Do you have any conditions that I should know about?"
One came to mind very easily.
"Do not try to talk to me in crowded places. People will think I am insane if I start having conversations about death with thin air."
"That is a fair condition."
As he spoke the bell rang and Sebastian hastily stood up.
"I will see you at lunchtime."
He raced over to his first lesson which was English Literature and found the room just in time for the start of the lesson. From then on it was double Maths, something that he actually enjoyed.
He came out the classroom, intending to head to the common room and was confronted by the sight of Ciel standing outside. It was going to take a while to get used to seeing someone that no one else could see.
"How did you know I was here?" he hissed as quietly as he could.
"I looked through all the sixth form classrooms until I found you."
He gestured at Sebastian to follow him and he reluctantly did so.
"Where are we going?"
"The library is busy at lunchtime. We cannot have a conversation there. The stairwell in the language department is quiet at the moment," Ciel explained.
Much to his distaste Sebastian had to stand in a stairwell decorated with posters about learning Kanji. He chose to focus his gaze on Ciel instead. Ciel was better looking than a poster about Kanji.
"You said you have been here for around six years. That means you died in 2010," he said.
The boy looked pleased at his effort to start investigating. He tried to work out his age from how he looked. Those round cheeks and wide eyes still made him assume was he was 12 or younger. The lack of height did not help either.
"...Do you have any idea how old you are?" he probed awkwardly.
Ciel had a thoughtful expression. "I think that I am 15 or 16. I remembered content from the lessons taught to the younger years which makes me think I have already covered the topics. I have a school uniform so I cannot be a sixth form student. After noticing that I only knew half of what was taught to the final years, I formed the hypothesis that I died in my final year."
That made Ciel 15 or 16 in 2010. He considered a way to use that information. Important things about the school were that it was an international school based on British schooling and that it placed an emphasis on students socialising via after school clubs.
"What club here do you feel an affinity for?" he asked. "If that makes sense."
"...The mystery club. I don't know if that means I was actually a member or that I feel like that because I want to solve my mystery."
If the school liked clubs so much it was easy to assume that a record of previous members was kept. It was worth a try even if Ciel had not actually been a member.
He returned to the common room in hunt of Finny. It was unfortunate it was not a day that the club was in session. Finny was intrigued by his question about documentation of previous members and took him to the classroom that acted as a clubroom.
"There is a club photo taken every year at the start of the academic year- it's taken then so it shows the maximum amount of members- people start to drop out throughout the year," Finny said as he rifled through the club's cupboard. "There's also photos of activities that club did. What year did you want to see?"
"2010."
Finny pulled out a thin black book with 'Mystery Club 2010' written on the front in gold lettering. Presumably the Japanese characters below it were the Japanese translation.
"The club can't have done much in that year as it is such a small book," the blond commented.
He showed Sebastian the 2009 yearbook which was much thicker.
Sebastian opened the 2010 yearbook and turned to where the club photo should be according to the contents page to find that the page had been torn out.
Ciel must have been a member of the club and someone had wanted to hide it.
He shared a look with Ciel who was peering over his shoulder. They had found out that he had indeed died in 2010. The strange cover up suggested that Ciel was right about being murdered.
"The photo is missing. Did you ever notice that?"
The surprised look on Finny's face told him that he had never noticed. Finny walked through Ciel to have a closer look. Sebastian was never going to get used to the sight of people walking through Ciel.
"I never noticed. There's not much in the book so the lack of a member photo didn't seem significant. The member list is missing too," he said. "After the photo there is usually a member list."
Something must have happened in 2010 that led to death of the Ciel. Whilst Finny was distracted he dropped the yearbook into his bag. He could examine it much closer when he was alone.
"So you are definitely interested in joining?" Finny asked tentatively.
"Of course. I will certainly turn up tomorrow," he answered with as much enthusiasm as he could muster.
From the way that Finny beamed at him Sebastian began to suspect that the mystery club was not popular this year. He hoped it was not going to be used a promotional material to entice other people to join the club.
Due to the fact that he did not have a free period that day he was unable to discuss anything with Ciel until after his last lesson. It was practically impossible to find anywhere to have a discreet conversation because all the study areas were full. It wasn't like in England where everyone cleared out within ten minutes of school ending. They ended up on the edge of the woods that the school backed onto. The trees looked to be blossom trees as the ground was covered in a thin layer of pink petals.
"Could my murder be linked to the mystery the mystery club were looking into?" Ciel wondered out loud. "The act of removing the photo and member list suggests it was tied to the club."
Sebastian agreed. The destruction of the yearbook was also going to make it hard to work out what the mystery club was working on at the time. Additionally the lack of a member list was going to make it impossible to track any members down. There was one thing that the surviving photos had been able to tell him.
"You died more than halfway through the 2010- the photos without you were after April. The school uniform also changed the year after."
Ciel nodded and gave him an unexpected compliment.
"You are surprisingly good at deductions."
If Ciel had been alive he would have poked his round cheeks. A roll of his eyes would have to suffice to show he was not mollified by the minor compliment.
"I don't really know where to go next. If it was someone representing the interests of the school that ripped those pages out the yearbook, it would raise a red flag if I went to reception and started asking about a boy named Ciel who was a member of the mystery club in 2010."
Ciel stroked his chin. "I agree. We don't know enough to risk asking this early on. I have a feeling the school is a little shady if they want to cover up that I was a student here."
There was a silence between them for a few minutes which was more relaxing than awkward. Sebastian rearranged his windswept hair and shivered. It was starting to get uncomfortably cold standing around in the wind.
"You can go home now. I will think of something. At least we have more information now."
They agreed to meet in the library before first lesson the next day and Sebastian returned home a lot later than he had intended. Trying to find a quiet place had taken up a lot of time. Upon entering he was confronted by the sight of his mother in one of her designer evening dresses and his father in a smart suit and tie. He recognised the signs of them attending a dinner party. If he was fortunate he wouldn't have to go.
He was not fortunate enough.
"Where have you been? You need to get ready. We are going to a dinner party as a family," his father informed him with a dry look at his jeans. "It has a formal dress code."
Sebastian groaned and walked off to make himself presentable and to find his smarter clothes. No matter how many parties he went to he never felt comfortable. His mother gave him some good news when he got in the car.
"It's a buffet dinner, not a formal sit down dinner."
Perhaps he could get away with hiding in the corner. There was nowhere to hide at a dinner table.
"You are getting too old to continue lurking. Some students from your sixth form will be there too. You can talk to them," his father reminded him.
Sebastian sighed. He had known the older he became, the less he could shirk his familial responsibilities, but he had thought his father would allow him to reach eighteen first.
The car stopped outside a hotel on a quiet street. The outside did not look ostentatious, it was the inside that showed the hotel aimed for richer clientele. The lack of Japanese architecture inside and the prevalence of chandeliers and wallpaper suggested it accommodated international travellers best.
When they entered the ballroom Sebastian recognised the signs of a business function. The men were mostly overweight and old and their wives were grouped together in a cliques that seemed to be separated by amounts of jewellery and thickness of make up. He could feel that he and his parents were being given curious looks.
"Are we noveau riche?" he whispered to his mother. "That group of women are giving us snobby looks."
"Kind of," she smiled. "We're sort of upstarts here. Their opinion doesn't matter anyway. We aren't doing business with them – it's their spouses."
"I bet you are going to greet them anyway," he predicted.
She winked at him. "Nothing disarms bitchy women more than politeness."
He watched the group of women's expressions changed as his mother headed in their direction. There was nothing his mother loved more than baiting people.
"The people your age are by the buffet," his father pointed. "If you talk to them, I will not make you greet anyone else."
That was unexpectedly merciful of his father. Keen to use the opportunity he made his way to the buffet. The selection ranged from English teatime fare to Japanese cuisine. Sebastian picked out a crust less cucumber sandwich that was triangle shaped. Japanese interpretations of foreign foods varied, but the sandwich seemed to be standard as it did not contain cream, but was to be expected as the hotel seemed to cater towards a more international market.
He looked surreptitiously at the people around him. He did recognise a few people from sixth form. One boy was in his Japanese class that was always drawing and looked like he enjoyed the class as much as he did. It was hard to recognise him without his customary eyeliner and hoodie. Another boy he could recognise was in his History class and the other he had seen around in the common room before.
He continued looking around. Standing by the window at the other end of the hall were a couple that looked out of place. Granted they were smartly and expensively attired, but they looked tired and had no interest in socialising. They also looked a little too young compared to their counterparts and the woman was not wearing any jewellery aside from a wedding ring.
What caught his attention was how familiar they looked. He couldn't place it. He had never met them before, but they sparked a feeling of familiarity.
The man's hair colour was blue grey and he had a mole beneath his right eye. The woman had lighter hair. He knew who the male's hair colour reminded him. It was the same colour as Ciel's.
"Who are they?" he asked the closest person who was named Violet if he remembered correctly.
Violet looked in the indicated direction and his face turned unreadable.
"That is Earl and Lady Phantomhive. He is the CEO of Funtom- it's quite big in the UK."
Funtom was a major company in the UK that manufactured toys and confectionery and was known for high quality products. He had been unaware of a Japanese expansion though.
"They look out of place," he commented.
"They only seem to turn up to events like this out of politeness. They only have one line of Funtom toys in Japan and they sell well without them doing anything."
"Why are they still in Japan then?" he asked curiously.
The answer provided him with the very information he had been looking for.
"Because their son disappeared six years ago. They are still hoping he will return to them. That is why they stay."
Now Sebastian knew why the couple had seemed so familiar.
They were Ciel's parents.
He knew Ciel's full name.
Ciel Phantomhive.
