((Thanks for the positive feedback, you guys! I'm sorry this chapter took so long, but I hope that you like it! Tell me if there's anything I should change or anything so that you guys will continue to enjoy the story!))
Kimberly couldn't believe the words Sebastian had just whispered to her. But the were heard and could not be unheard. Demons could love, or so he said. She pushed away from him, just slightly, so that she could look up at him in the eyes. She looked confused, biting her bottom lip gently.
"But… Sebastian, I thought demons couldn't love? That's why you and all the other demons I've ever met were so cold…" she said, still looking up into his crimson red eyes and feeling like she could melt into his arms at any moment.
He just smiled at her and shook his head, "No, in fact, we have stronger emotions than even humans. Our needs and our urges not only cause us to be extremely sinful, but also emotional." he explained a bit, and wrapped his arms a bit tighter around her, keeping her held close to him, "We don't show that we have emotions because it is easier to prey on souls that way. How can one become obsessed without first being in love and then becoming passionate about something? I know many demons who are obsessed with the soul they make a contract with, me being one of them," he said as though he was proud about being obsessed with Ciel's soul.
Kimberly slowly nodded and kept her own arms wrapped around him tightly. She wasn't very tall, her forehead came to his mouth but she still had to put her head in the crook of his neck instead of on his chest. She took in his scent, holding onto him as if she was afraid if she let go, she would blow away. The room around them gradually grew darker and lighter whenever clouds passed over the moon. Kimberly didn't want to move from that spot, loving the feeling of his arms around her. Though she still wasn't sure why she was so susceptible to the love and affection he was showing her. Yes, she had thought of him to be very attractive and very kind towards her - when she wasn't being scolded - but she didn't think that those feelings toward him, especially after merely two years, she could fall in love with the demon. But she decided to give it a try and sighed softly into his shoulder. She liked the feeling, even if she was confused by it.
After quite some time, they finally broke apart and Sebastian smiled down at her and held his hand out for her to take, "Shall I escort you back to my lord?" he asked, pulling her a bit closer when she accepted his hand and moved to hold the door open for her.
Kimberly smiled at him and nodded to him as a thank you and quickly walked out of the room, though she knew she would have to visit the room again, for it would be a while until she forgot the exquisite beauty of the room. She followed Sebastian closely as they walked through the maze of hallways once again. Though the only thing that could be heard was the clicking of their shoes on the floor, Kimberly still felt that the silence was welcoming, until something urged for her attention in the back of her head.
"Sebastian, we can't let Ciel know about any of this. Agreed?" she asked, not wanting to be told off by her brother. She found that it was none of his business what she did outside of being his sister. Besides, this would simply be one more secret she kept from him, not like she wasn't used to making up random excuses.
He nodded, his smile becoming more and more artificial the farther they moved through the halls and towards Ciel. But something made them jump, something that bounced off the walls and through the hallway that made Kimberly's heart speed up from surprise and Sebastian become much more alert.
It was a scream.
Immediately, Kimberly and Sebastian both took off down the hallway, Kimberly moving with him the best she could, but he was much faster than she was. She lost him when they rounded a few more corners and she tried to pick up on where she was in the labyrinth of corridors, but she had been taken to an entirely foreign part of the mansion by Sebastian. She had yet to explore this part of the manor. She turned around quickly to see if she could recognize any landmarks. A painting. A statue. A window even. But there was no way for her to tell where she was. She tried to run down the hallway again, to pick up on Sebastian's tracks but by then, he must have been long gone.
She jumped when she heard another scream, like the one she and Sebastian heard and tried to rush towards. This time, it was much louder than the other one. She knew she had to be close. She ran into a room she was sure the scream was coming from and stopped in her tracks the moment she arrived in the room the scream had been coming from. It was merely a sound recorder. She didn't even know they owned one. ((A/N: I checked, cylinder sound recorders were invented in the late 1870's))
The door snapped shut behind her and she whirled around, expecting to face someone pulling a prank on her. But no one was there. Immediately, her heart began to race and although she was sure this was a simple joke, she was still becoming gradually more and more frightened. She backed away from the door a few steps and felt her back hit something strong and big. She tried to twist around to see who it was and was surprised by a large sack being shoved over her head. She tried to scream but a hand clamped over her mouth. She struggled and tried to escape the terrifying grip. She was being more and more scared and hysteric. Ideas of who on Earth would pull a prank so cruel, or trying to figure out whether or not this was no joke and actually someone kidnapping her. She tried to cry out for help but the only sound that escaped was a muffled cry. She could feel tears stinging at her eyes as she struggled, kicking, punching, shoving, clawing at anything that she could reach and was soon restrained. She felt her arms being forced behind her back and she was pushed against the wall, a deep voice she didn't recognize growling into her ear.
"Stop struggling or I'll blow your brains out, girl." the voice threatened, she felt a cold, hard object she recognized as the barrel of a gun being pushed into the back of her head.
She whimpered and tried to stop struggling, biting her bottom lip and tried to cry out again but felt the gun pushing harder into her skull.
She tried to collect her thoughts. Trying to find out whether or not she was being targeted because of something her brother did. Or maybe it was something she did when she went out in town. Or it could be something entirely different. No. She had to stay calm. She will never escape her captors if she remains panicked and foggy-headed. How can she escape? She could always wait for them to let their guard down and flee as fast as she can, but that might not even work. She couldn't believe any of this was happening.
She could hear her captors speaking to each other in a language she recognized. It was French. She tried to listen the best she could to try and translate their conversation. But with her head pounding and the sac muffling her hearing, she could only make out a few words. From what she put together, their mission was to kill Ciel Phantomhive, but they need her as bait. She was surprised she put that much together, but was at least glad that she did. Then she could at least know why she was being targeted.
She could feel the barrel of the gun being lifted from her head and almost sighed in relief, glad that she wasn't being held at gunpoint any longer. But the sigh got caught in her throat because she felt the gun coming back down and smashing into her head, and that was when everything went black. It all became dark.
The next thing Kimberly knew, she was lying on the ground, tied up with the bag still over her head. She tried to sit up, but it was no use. Her legs and arms were tied together with her arms behind her back. Her ankles were tied together so she couldn't make a run for it. The bag seemed to be tied on from around her neck. She whimpered and wished she could cradle her head as it began to throb when she tried to move.
"Oh look, the Phantomhive girl is awake." she heard a voice say, the smirk practically audible in their voice.
"Finally, I thought I might've killed her," another voice said, the same one that told her he would kill her if she didn't stop struggling.
"Whatever, we need to get this over with," a woman's voice said, "I want to go home and if we don't kill the boy, the Boss will kill us for sure."
That voice… It sounded so familiar. Like she had known in from a long time ago. She didn't want to try to think about it, though. It made her head hurt worse to think too hard about something.
She felt the bag being ripped off of her head and she was being picked up by her hair. Well, more of dragged by her hair. She squinted her eyes at first, the light from the candles in the room almost blinding. Kimberly whimpered and cried out a bit as she was dragged but was pulled into a wooden, unsteady chair. She glanced around the room she was in. It looked old and worn down. The curtains were drawn at the windows, which suggested being in a town or at least not wanting people to see the light from the candles through the windows. It smelled disgusting, like feces and urine. She gulped slightly when she actually glanced at the people who had taken her. They wore black masks over their faces and the men were tall and well built, though a couple of them looked freakishly strong. There were a few women, but they were much more narrowly built and didn't seem to have much muscle on them at all. She whimpered slightly and glanced sideways and saw a field telephone on a rickety old wooden table right beside her.
One of the women grinned maniacally and walked over to the telephone. "I think she's finally figured it out boys," without the sac on over her head, she could tell that the woman was clearly French, the accent, although well hidden, was still there. She picked up the telephone and put in a number and turned to Kimberly, "You are going to call your brother and talk to him for us. But you are to say exactly what we tell you to say, or lights out for you. Got it?" she asked, smirking down at her.
Kimberly nodded slowly, though she tried to seem like she wasn't intimidated by the woman, she was. She waited for someone to answer the phone as it was held up to her ear by the woman and a script was held in front of her face. She trembled slightly in her seat, afraid of what will happen to Ciel if she didn't warn him. The phone was answered and Sebastian's voice, sounding agitated and upset, answered.
"Phantomhive residence, how may I help you?" he asked, sounding annoyed.
Kimberly tried to make her voice sound strong but the fear of getting Ciel killed filled her with dread and her voice cracked and made her sound vulnerable. "Ciel Phantomhive is to meet in town square. He is to come alone," she winced at the cracked and squeaky sound of her voice and choked on a sob when she heard Sebastian's voice again.
"Kimberly? I mean, My Lady, what are you doing talking over the phone?" he tried to interrupt her, but she couldn't stop talking. If she did, she would get Ciel killed and herself killed.
"He is not to bring any protection from danger and will comply to every demand we have. Demands are: he is to come completely alone to the maid part in town, the square. He is to enter the carriage there that it pitch black and do everything he is told. He will comply to giving his captors a large sum of money, which will consist of no less than one million euros, and will then be free to leave. With him, he may have his sister, Kimberly Phantomhive. If any of these demands are not met, Kimberly Phantomhive will be killed," she choked a few more times on her own words and then began to sound more monotone when she herself was brought into the subject, "Ciel Phantomhive will be killed as well and every person connected to him will also be murdered." It sounded as though she was done, and she wish she was.
"My lady…" figuring out what was going on, Sebastian sighed and was about to say something else to her before she continued talking.
"The last day to comply to these commands is one week from now, on Sunday before midnight. Don't you worry either, we will provide plenty of evidence that we have miss Kimberly Phantomhive." she said and glanced up at the woman holding the phone to her ear and said quickly, before she could get shot for it, "Sebastian don't let him do it, it's a trap! They'll kill him!" and that was the last thing she could say before she was hit hard with the butt of the gun the woman held in her other hand and fell down with the chair to the ground. The compact of the gun hitting her jaw and her body hitting the floor shuddered through her, but the only noise she let out was a sudden, sharp cry.
"My lady?!" Sebastian could be heard through the phone, as the woman hadn't yet hung up. She growled and said into the phone, "Unless you want your darling, 'mistress' to remain alive, you might want to meet our demands quickly." and with that, the telephone was slammed back down and the woman walked over to Kimberly and sent a sharp kick to her stomach and grinned when she gasped slightly.
Kimberly growled and knew it would be a long week. She just hoped Sebastian listened to her when she said it was a trap. She knew she would be fine even if she was shot in the head. Yes, she would be badly wounded, but she would live just fine. She was, after all part demon. But Ciel is fully human, he would never live after getting shot, if Sebastian even allowed him to go alone.
She became numb after that. All she knew was that she was tied up and placed leaning against the corner of the room and a sack was once again placed over her head. She barely moved, breathed, or talked, not that she was allowed to talk anyways, she was being held at gunpoint again. It was frustrating on her behalf if her captors never rested, never slept or aimed their guns at something else. She might be able to get out of her situation if they did, but alas, there was no chance anything like that was going to happen any time soon.
((Thanks for reading again you guys! I'm sorry that this chapter is short but I'm actually writing fanfiction in secret at school. I'm not even allowed to roleplay either so I have to do that when my parents aren't looking too. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed and review please! It would mean a lot, of course you don't have to if you truly don't want to.))