Okay, just as I said, my story won't follow the manga, so don't hate me! Somewhere in this chapter the story will take a different route then the anime did. I'm glad I could update today, I hate having no time to write. Thank you all for reading/reviewing!

Oh, and BTW: I don't own Kuroshitsuji!

XxX

Chapter 5

'Sebastian, you've been acting strange ever since dinner,' Ciel said, not looking up from his book.

A smile crossed the butler's face. 'So it would seem,' was his vague answer.

'It has something to do with Barrymore's daughter, hasn't it?' Ciel then said, knowing it was true. He did not need to ask.

'Perhaps,' Sebastian answered.

'Sebastian,' Ciel said sharp, almost as if he ordered Sebastian to do something. He would order him to answer if he had to and Sebastian knew that.

'I was just thinking about how absolutely delicious Clarissa would be if I broke her,' Sebastian said. 'Her pureness, her honesty. It's a quite extraordinary soul for a human soul. Once broken, the black void filling her heart and mind will consume her soul. A soul that's so desirable for someone – no, something like me.'

'Are you saying that you consider breaking our contract so that you could lure her into making one with you?' Ciel asked, not really interested.

'Perhaps,' Sebastian answered amused, only half-joking.

Ciel accidentally dropped the book he was reading as he heard that. He looked at Sebastian with fear on his face. Sebastian couldn't leave him. Not before he got his revenge! He was this close to getting angry, but footsteps in the corridor made him pick up the book again. While he opened it on a random page and continued reading, he tried to calm down and keep the thoughts about being left alone again out of his head.

XxX

Clarissa's POV

'Come in,' I heard Ciel say through the door before I even had the chance to knock.

I tried to look calm and composed as I walked in, but I knew that there was a look of fear still in my eyes. And there was a lot both Ciel and Sebastian had to do to make that disappear completely. But I didn't even know if they wanted it to disappear or not. Ciel seemed like the kind of person who was rather feared than loved.

'I apologize for the lateness of the hour.' Not, but I wasn't going to say that to a fourteen year old Earl who was presumably a psycho, sociopath or just an ordinary murder. As far as 'ordinary' goes for murders.

Sebastian looked at me with a strange look, as if he was trying to read my mind. 'My master was just about to head to bed, so if you don't mind-'

'Please leave,' I said, completely ignoring Sebastian. I heard the despair in my voice, but I didn't care. 'You mustn't be here.'

Ciel was sitting in the big chair in the guest room and reading a book. I wasn't sure he'd heard me until he said 'and why not?' without looking up. Gee, that guy really had a problem with looking people in the eye, hadn't he?

I opened my mouth to answer, but then I remembered what my father had said the night I found out. I couldn't tell Ciel. My father would kill me. And I'd rather die at the gloved hands of Sebastian then the hands of my own father. Because, in the end, he was still my father. And also, I didn't think that Ciel would order Sebastian to kill me over something like this… 'I can't…' I started, but then the familiar sound of a dogs howling told me that it was already too late.

I shivered as the howling went on, didn't want to hear, didn't want the know. I heard a soft scream leaving my throat and I put my hands over my ears, didn't want to hear the dog nor my own screams. I wanted to block everything - the whole world - out. Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop.

'Clarissa!' I heard Ciel and for the first time since I'd met him, he actually sounded truly worried. Not politely worried or worried because the situation asked him to be worried, but worried as if he was worried about me. As if he actually gave a damn.

That gave me courage. 'It's not what you think,' I said, shivering and trembling with fear. 'The demon hound-' I stopped, because the barking had stopped. And I knew what that meant.

Ciel, on the other hand, didn't. 'Demon hound?' he asked, not as confused as you'd think he would be.

I closed my eyes for a while. Now I had to go play my part. I had no time to explain everything. I had to leave. Right now. 'Just…' I wasn't sure what to say. 'Just come with me.'

XxX

As we walked through the town, you could hear the people of the village talk. They were leaving there houses this late in the evening, only to go search for the bad dog.

As we walked through the town, I explained: 'The villagers believe that this town is cursed. Those who cannot live with the dogs, or are treating them in a way that is against the ways of the village, will be punished by the demon dog. The ones to get punished by the demon hound are called 'the bad dogs of the village'. These people are usually brutally murdered.' I shone my flashlight upon the path we walked, but it wasn't really needed. The street lights lighted the whole town.

'You talk about this "demon hound" as if you don't think he's the one who murders the villagers,' Ciel said, as observant as always.

I considered it for a while, but then decided that I could just tell him the truth, considering that if I didn't, he would probably figure it out on his own. 'That's because I know he isn't.'

'What?' Ciel said, frowning. But I knew that it wouldn't take long before either his butler or him found out. And I wasn't sure if I should be happy about that or not.

I heard people scream and the most screamed question was: 'Who's been punished?!' I closed my eyes for a second. We were about to find out.

We left the light of the village and walked up to the hill that made our village invisible for travellers. Unless you were close enough, you wouldn't be able to find it. And on this hill was a wall. An left-over wall from the times that there was a wall protecting the once big village. Now it was just a pile of bricks that sort of looked like a wall.

It was also the place where the 'demon hound' brought the 'bad dogs' to kill them.

There lay a young man in the mud. I didn't know him and I didn't care that he was dead, but I did care that he was murdered. His clothes were ripped and he had bite marks – fake bite marks – all over his body. For any stupid person it would be obvious enough. This man was slayed by a beast.

People gathered around me as I walked towards the corpse. I had been the 'priestess' of this village for a while now. The one that had to confirm that this was indeed the demon hound's work. In reality, it was just a cover up. A way to get more time so that my father could-

'So James was the bad dog,' I heard my father say. He was standing behind me and the look of sadness and grieve on his face looked almost real. But I knew that it wasn't.

'Yes,' I heard a woman from the village say. 'I heard that he had a sixth dog. I tried to tell him that he wasn't allowed to have more than five, but he wouldn't listen to me. And now it's too late.'

My father closed his eyes, pretended to grieve. I even thought that he was going to cry, but my father wasn't that good of an actor. 'I see. Then this was inevitable.'

'That's awful,' I heard Baldroy say. I didn't even know the house staff had followed us, but I could hear Finnian and Mei-Rin mumble something, clearly agreeing to Baldroy's remark.

Ciel pushed my father aside so that he could walk closer to the corpse. He even sat down to observe the wounds up close. 'I see,' he said and I knew from those two words that he already understood. He knew what was going on. It didn't surprise me. What did surprise me that this fourteen-year old could look at such a hideous corpse and be so calm about it. Then again, he was a murderer, so I really shouldn't have been surprised.

'Don't touch!' my father then screamed, immediately alarmed by the way Ciel was looking at the corpse. Immediately scared that he would get caught. 'This village has laws and those who don't follow the rules will be punished by the demon hound that protects this town!'

I hated this moment of such a night as this one, in which all the villagers just nodded. They were completely brainwashed. But who could blame them? Sometimes I thought I would lose my mind, living in such a strange and messed up place somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

Me, Ciel, Sebastian and the remaining Phantomhive house staff could only watch while James was carried away by two men, who were immediately followed by the villagers, who walked after by father while parying soft prayers. We just stood still in the mud in the night and I closed my eyes, trying to get this mental picture out of my head and move on. There was nothing I could do about it. The only thing I had to do was forget and move on.

I could feel Ciel looking at me even with my eyes closed. 'I see,' he said again, but I was sure that this time he wasn't talking about the demon hound, but about me.

XxX

The next morning, we had breakfast in the large dining room that we almost never used. But the house staff wasn't in such high spirits the next morning.

'What a horrible trip,' Baldroy said as I put the bread on the table. Sebastian was in the kitchen to make breakfast for Ciel, who had 'very specific preferences', as Sebastian had said it. I doubted Ciel was even awake yet. He didn't seem like a morning person to me.

'Yes, yes,' Mei-Rin agreed, looking down at the table.

'What's the matter?' I asked, trying to find a way to cheer them up. I did understand their mood, but I also knew that they had been in such high spirits yesterday. I wanted that energy again. It somehow made me… happy.

'Well, we came here thinking this was some sort of vacation,' Baldroy explained.

'But there's nothing fun here,' Finnian said, finishing Baldroy's line.

'And that horrible demon hound!' Mei-Rin added.

I smiled a sad smile, had no idea what I could do to cheer them up. That didn't mean I didn't try. 'We have a swimming pool in the garden, if that's something you guys are interested in,' I told them.

And the smiles that appeared on their faces told me that that was enough to cheer them up.

After I cleaned up the kitchen and the dining room, my father went back to his office and the house staff went to enjoy the pool. Ciel was up and about by then and he sat down at the side of the pool in one of the big wooden chairs. He had his laptop on his lap and was looking at something that seemed to interest him deeply. Sebastian was standing beside him and both obviously weren't planning on getting into the water.

I went to sit next to Ciel with my own laptop so that I could start doing homework, but the loud screaming from the three idiots in the pool made it almost impossible to concentrate.

'Do you need the WiFi-passcode?' I asked Ciel when I gave up on making homework and closed my laptop.

Ciel clicked on something that I couldn't see and said: 'Your father seems way too out-dated to install a WiFi network, which means the network and its password was yours. It took me about ten minutes to guess what the password was.'

I frowned. My password was the name of my mother. I really didn't know how Ciel could know the name of my mother. Unless his butler had done some stalking again and stole my birth certificate… Wait, now that I thought about it, that actually wasn't a bad explanation. With everything that was going on, it certainly wouldn't surprise me.

'Don't you want to swim, Ciel?' I asked him and judging from the look Sebastian gave me it was something that he'd wanted to ask as well. Well, too bad for him, because I asked it first.

'Dull,' was the only thing he said. Then he closed his laptop and looked up at Sebastian. 'About the true form of the demon hound,' he said, 'I wanted to ask you something.' He made a move with his hand that meant that he wanted Sebastian to lean over, so he could whisper in his ear.

Oh, great. So he didn't trust me? I had done nothing to him that could made him doubt me. He on the other hand, had done more than enough…

'Clarissa!' I heard the three members of the house staff scream.

I looked over at them, which made me lose focus of Ciel and Sebastian. Not that I could hear what Ciel was saying anyway, but I was still trying to get something out of it. I waved at the three before looking back and Ciel and his butler.

But their conversation had already ended. 'Yes, my Lord, I shall do it right away,' Sebastian said, his hand on his chest. He then straighten himself and walked away.

But Ciel stopped him before he could get far. 'You're awfully motivated today. I thought you hated dogs?'

'Yes, I do. That's why I want to leave this place as soon as possible.' When Sebastian said that he didn't look at Ciel, but at me. As if he was saying that I was the reason he wanted to leave as soon as possible.

This time I didn't hold back. 'Oh, don't go looking at me as if this is my fault, because that is total bullshit,' I let him know.

Sebastian completely ignored my remark and looked at Ciel: 'This should end before everything goes to hell.'

Ciel laugh a short, cynical laugh. 'You think you're funny, don't you?' he asked his butler.

Sebastian only smiled in response.

'Leave,' Ciel said, suddenly angry.

'Yes, my Lord.' Sebastian bowed one last time and then left the garden silently and gracefully.

I sighed. 'Is that a thing your guys do? Like a running gag or something?' I asked Ciel, sounding tired for some reason.

'Huh?' Ciel said confused, frowning as if I'd said something in a different language.

I pulled up an eyebrow. 'One hell of a butler, going to hell, what the hell? The hell puns are kind of obvious.'

Ciel looked at me as if he thought I was stupid and genius at the same time. 'I guess. It's more Sebastian's thing, though.'

'Ah,' was my only reaction. I guess it made sense that a murderer like him would have some connection to hell…

The nice little moment was ruined by the sound of the church clock. I sighed, knowing this meant that the villagers were going to celebrate as they burned James' body. I never attended. Neither did my father.

'It's time,' Ciel said softly.

I frowned, looking down at him as I stand up. 'You knew about this?' I asked surprised and confused. I was sure neither my father nor I had told him about it.

Ciel shook his head. 'No. But I can hear the villagers gathering. If we are to take out mayor Barrymore, it's best to do it now.'

I froze when he said the words. Take out mayor Barrymore. Maybe if he was from the police I wouldn't have worried, but I knew Ciel and his methods by now and was almost sure that 'taking out' meant killing him.

Well, at least he was honest about it.

'I'm sorry, Clarissa, but your father is someone that I will have no mercy for. Not only does he kill innocent people, he also hurts you, his own daughter.' Ciel stood up, leaving his laptop on the wooden chair and walked towards the door of the house, that was left open so that we could leave and enter the garden easily.

I followed Ciel, but didn't really say anything. What could I say? I was quite sure that I couldn't convince him not to kill my father. I wasn't even sure I wanted to.

As soon as we walked into the dining room, Ciel got attacked. I saw how my father grabbed his hair and pulled the boy close. I could also see that he had a knife in his hands. And he was now putting that at Ciel's throat.

I would have worried accept the fact that I knew that Ciel was kind of used to it by now and obviously really didn't care.

But then I saw Sebastian standing there, not even looking at his master. He just looked at me, his head was tilted to the right a little bit, his eyes narrowed, as if he was trying to understand me.

No, not trying to understand me. He was testing me.

'How do you like that, Earl?' my father said coldly. 'I can't let you leave now. If I do, you will run to your Queen and tell her all about the real identity of the demon hound.'

'Sebastian!' Ciel said and I thought I could see the panic in his eye. Panic? Did Ciel Phantomhive evenknow that emotion?

'Yes, my Lord?' Sebastian said, still staring at me.

'Help me!' he said and I could hear in his voice that, this time, he actually was scared. 'Don't look at her, help me! You have a contract with me!'

'Sebastian!' Even I now started to beg him for help. Even though I wasn't a huge fan of him, I didn't want Ciel to die. Certainly not by my father's hands. 'What are you doing? HELP HIM!'

But Sebastian didn't move. He only said: 'Helping him would mean killing your father. Is that something you want, Clarissa Barrymore?' he asked, using my father's last name instead of mine, the same as my mother's.

I shivered. 'No, of course not,' I answered in all honesty. 'But if one of those two has to die, it's my father.' He was older, after all. And he never helped me, never cared for me. Ciel tried to give me the idea that he didn't too, but I wasn't easily fooled.

Sebastian looked at me as if he wanted me dead more than he wanted my father dead. 'But you won't kill him yourself, will you?' he asked.

My father now started to laugh. 'My own daughter kill me? She can't even scream when I hit her! Hell, she doesn't even have the guts to leave me!'

Gosh, even my dad made Hell-puns now. What was that with the men in my life and their psycho-ness and their inability to stay away from the word 'hell'?

Sebastian walked up to me and handed me something. 'I refuse to decide for someone like you, always depending on someone else to make the tough choices. You'll make the choice.'

I frowned and looked at what he handed me, since it didn't feel familiar in my hands at all. I froze when I saw what it was.

Sebastian had given me a gun.

XxX

Cliff-hanger (sorry)!

I wasn't really happy with this chapter, but I think it worked out fine in the end. I'll try to update tomorrow, but I'm not sure if I'll make it.