Happy new year! A bit early, I know, but since I'm updating today (geez, I really have no life XD) I say it now. I'm probably updating tomorrow as well. Not sure yet.

Anyway, I don't own Kuroshitsuji. I love to own little Ciel and Sebas-chan, but I don't. I do own Clarissa. Oh, and I'm sick, so it wouldn't surprise me if the typos are worse than ever. Anyway, let's start the chapter!

XxX

Chapter 24

I woke up screaming, not surprised to see that I wasn't laying in my bed. I had fallen asleep on the couch in Ciel's office. I'd sat there because I didn't want to be alone, so I hung around him and Sebastian as they did some stuff. Sebastian wasn't good with technology (what a shocker), so he was reading through papers as Ciel was typing stuff on his computer.

They both stared at me as I shot up from the couch, breathing as if I almost drowned. 'Elizabeth!' I said, covering my face with my hands. 'Oh my god.'

Ciel sighed. 'Sebastian,' he said and that was enough for the butler to walk towards me, ready to do anything to comfort me.

'Clarissa,' he said, grabbing my hands and pulling them off my face. 'It was just a dream. Calm dow-'

A mobile phone rang. And since I didn't recognize the song, I knew it was Ciel. I highly doubt that Sebastian owned a phone. Or knew what they were.

Ciel answered the phone. 'Yes?... Paula?' he sounded surprised. 'Elizabeth vanished?' he asked, surprisingly calm now, but with a frown on his face. 'Islington, you say?' He hung up. 'We're going there immediately,' he said, getting up from his chair. 'What is she thinking?!'

Sebastian turned back to me. 'My lady?' he said, frowning when he saw that he stood there with panic written all over my face, frozen into something that wasn't entirely me.

'I know where she is,' I said, because I knew. Islington. Drossel. The Hope piece. Everything had fallen to place in my dreams.

Sebastian and Ciel both looked at me with a strange expression. 'How do you-'

'I know where she is!' I screamed it now. 'Just trust me for once and let me give directions. If Elizabeth is with him, it means that there's a big chance that we might already be too late.'

'But master, what about the investigation?' Sebastian asked, clearly talking about something that I didn't know anything about.

I somehow managed to ask a question, but I sounded like a crazy person. 'What investigation? Did you get another task for the Queen?'

Ciel sighed. 'Young girls are getting kidnapped. Bodies aren't found, but…' He stopped, clearly irritated. 'Shit,' he then said.

My eyebrow rose and I knew that Sebastian's rose too. Ciel never swore.

'All the girls got the Hope piece before they were kidnapped,' Sebastian said, 'meaning that the one that lady Elizabeth found might not be a replica.' A wicked smile appeared on his face. 'It seems like everything is connected.'

Ciel twitched. 'Sebastian, you will go and investigate the kidnappings. Question those who knew the victims and come up with a suspect list. I'll go with Clarissa to wherever she thinks Elizabeth is. If she's there, the other girls might be there, too.' He looked at me. 'Are you sure you know where to find her?'

I wasn't sure if I should be happy or not. It seemed that he trusted me, but the fact that he sent Sebastian out on almost the same mission made me question his trust. 'Yes, I do,' I said, trying to sound as convincing as I possibly could.

Ciel nodded. 'Okay then. Let's go.'

XxX

Sebastian dropped us at the point that Paula, Elizabeth's maid, had given Ciel, the point where she'd lost her lady.

It was the same. I knew exactly which alley I had to walk to and Ciel followed me without saying all that much.

'How do you know where to find her?' he asked me after a while. We'd been walking through alleys for a while now. I was actually surprised it took him this long to ask.

'My grandma used to own an antique shop,' I began. 'It closed down when she died.' I swallowed. 'Drossel loved the shop. He loved all the antique dolls. He used to tell me that dolls are attracted to human souls, because they are empty inside. And humans aren't.' A sad smile appeared on my face. 'He used to tell me that a dolls eyes were their souls and they should be the most beautiful part of the doll.'

Ciel clearly didn't get where I was going with this. 'And what does this have to with finding Eli-'

'He always said that he wanted to turn me into one of his dolls,' I said, not looking at Ciel anymore as we walked towards an alley without light. 'And the night that he lost his mind, he tried to do exactly that.'

'I still don't get it,' Ciel said after a while.

There, at the end of the alley was the familiar light. And the light in the shop were on. It didn't look closed down at all. 'I knew it,' I said, though I wasn't sure how. 'I knew that if Drossel escaped, this would be the place where he would go. Not because of the fact that it was his home. Not because of the fact that he was looking for me.' We reached the shop and the door opened itself on its own. 'But because Drossel Keinz loved his dolls.'

'I spy a gorgeous man!' someone yelled, making me jump, but now scaring Ciel at all. Ciel immediately looked up, so I just followed his gaze.

A flash of red before my eyes revealed a familiar face, though I was quite sure that I'd never seen the man before. 'Huh? You're not a gorgeous man. You are a ugly girl,' he said, lifting me up to see if there was anyone else. 'No, no, no! Where is Sebas-chan?!' the man screamed in despair.

'You are-' Ciel began, but he couldn't finish.

'After the Madam Red incident I was temporarily demoted,' he said and I was sure that I'd heard that voice before. But where? 'Now I'm only a lowly assistant. That brute Will told me he won't give me my old post back until I collect some truly troublesome souls. That rotten sadist!' He sounded angry up until now, but then his voice became thoughtful. 'Though it's true that food tastes better when it's rotten…'

No, it does not.

Then the man hugged himself and started to sound like an upper fan girl when he said: 'And those cold eyes do give me a thrill!'

Ciel twitched and made an angry sound, making the man stop hugging himself. What was up with this weird creature? I mean, I had seen man with long hair before, but his hair was…. Really long. And bright red. And those eyes… too familiar. 'Dear me. Were you planning to avenge your aunt?' he asked, making me finally got who the hell the guy was.

'Grell?!' I shouted, pointing at him in horror. This was Grell? Talk about extreme make-over. What was with the sudden personality change? He acted almost comically gay.

Ciel and Grell looked at me, totally shocked. I could see in their eyes that they both couldn't believe that it took me this long to realise.

And then they were over the shock and I got ignored again.

Grell turned back to Ciel and said: 'Well, I don't see Sebastian anywhere around here. So what can a little brat such as yourself do?'

'Shut up!' Ciel said, sounding really angry.

Then I got it again. 'You were the one who killed Madame Red!' I shouted, pointing at Grell again.

Grell sighed, clearly annoyed. 'If you hadn't had an immortal soul, I would have killed you right now,' he said, confusing both me and Ciel.

'What?' we said in unison.

Then Ciel saw something in the display window of the shop that distracted him. He froze completely, as if he'd seen a ghost.

I looked to see what he'd seen. Only to see a doll that looked way too much like Elizabeth. Oh, for the love of God, what did Drossel do?

'Lizzie!' Ciel then shouted, sounding scared now.

'To-Die list,' Grell then said. He had a brown book in his hands, 'butler and puppeteer to the house of Lane.' Then he looked at me with those familiar eyes. 'Drossel Keinz.'

I wasn't sure why I felt like my heart died. It felt like I died. All these years I'd wished he was dead. But now…? I wasn't sure. It seemed like he was the only one I had left. 'How do you know?' I asked him, grapping the red coat he was wearing.

'Well, I'm a Reaper, you see,' he said, smiling a really strange smile. 'I'm a butler to die fo- Hey, where did the kid go?'

'What?' I turned around, only to see that Ciel was gone.

'Dammit!' I said, entering the shop after him. But Ciel wasn't in the shop anymore.

I noticed that Grell had followed me. 'Huh? Where did he go?'

I smiled. Good thing I used to go here often. I walked towards the back door of the shop. 'I think he went towards the old house behind the shop. Let's follow.'

Ciel was indeed in the garden behind the shop, staring at the house. I have to admit that the house was indeed impressive. Like a baby-castle. But it was nothing compared to the gigantic estate of Phantomhive.

'Goodness, what a delightful estate,' Grell said as he looked at the house. He went to stand besides Ciel, who had been staring at the house until now. Now he was looking at Grell, clearly thinking about something.

Then he spoke words that were so ridiculous that I was convinced that I heard it wrong. 'Grell. Protect us,' he said, sounding like it was the logical thing to do.

'What?' me and Grell both asked. Grell asked it with a disrespectful tone, I asked it with a confused tone.

'I'll grant you any request,' Ciel said, sounding like he thought he himself was the voice of reason.

The attitude Grell then put up reminded me of the teenage girls that had rich parents and acted like they were better then you. 'Don't be insulting. I'm not the sort of cheap girl –' last time I checked you weren't even a girl – 'you ca just pay-'

'You can have Sebastian and do whatever you want with him for one day,' Ciel said, interrupted the rather annoying Grell. Geez, and I thought he was annoying when he was clumsy and silent all the time.

To my surprise, and disgust, Grell started to fan girl. 'A day with Sebastian means… I can kiss him?!' he seemed too happy with that, which not only confused me, but also made me angry. Okay, Ciel had a contract and all, but he couldn't just do with Sebastian whatever the heck the wanted and—

Wait. Why couldn't he? He had every right to, I mean, Sebastian did only protect him because he wanted to kill him someday. I would be pissed off to. I probably would do even worse things. Then why did it bother me to know that Sebastian had to be harassed for a day by this bastard.

Oh, geez. I was really falling for the guy, wasn't I?

Ciel even had an arrogant smile on his face, as if he thought he was being super clever. 'Do whatever you like.'

Grell wasn't done with being a fan girl just yet. 'With tongue?!'

I think I'm gonna puke.

The worst part was that Ciel didn't even seem to mind. 'Whatever you order him to do,' he said.

That made Grell happier then I had ever seen anyone. 'Suddenly my Fired-Up Meter is maxed out! I'm deadly serious.'

Ha. Ha. He was a reaper. Deadly serious. Ha. Ha.

'All right! Here we go!' Grell said, running towards the house and me and Ciel running after him. Geez, Grell was really fired up all of the sudden.

Grell swung the door open and the first thing we saw was the entrance hall. It wasn't any different then I remembered except for the fact that there as a different doll in the middle of the hall then there used to be. This one had blond hair and wore a dress that was clearly meant to be worn by actual people, not by a doll.

We ran towards it. And with 'we' I meant 'Ciel'. I just followed him.

'Oh my,' Grell said, 'doesn't that ring look awfully like yours?' He asked, making both me and Ciel look at the ring that the ring was wearing on her thumb.

That looked like a Hope piece indeed.

Just as I was staring at the doll before me, the blue doll eyes turned to look at me, but then her eyes looked at Ciel. I didn't have any time to warn him before the doll's hand reached out and grabbed Ciel's throat.

'Grell,' he said, clearly being suffocated by that doll's hand.

And I just couldn't move. I just stood there frozen, too scared to move. He found a way, I thought. He found a way to turn humans into dolls. And he's coming for me.

Something fell on the dolls head and it let go of Ciel, who fell on the ground.

That made me move. I looked up to see that Grell was in the chandelier. 'Reapers have the tool to harvest souls,' he said, sounding really proud. 'Yes! Death scythes!' And even though that sounded threatening, the things he pulled out were just normal scissors.

Ciel got up, looking surprisingly okay with the whole situation. 'Those are… just scissors,' he said. My thoughts exactely.

Grell didn't like that comment. 'I can't help it!' He sound angrily and if I didn't know Sebastian I would be surprised that he could be so energetic without falling down. 'Will took my custum death scythe away!'

And the only thing I could think about was: Who the fuck is Will?

'I'll chop her into pieces!' Grell then shouted, jumping down the chandelier.

Both me and Ciel protested, reaching out our hands to Grell and the girl doll. 'Wait! Don't kill her!' I screamed. 'She's no doll!' Ciel added.

But it was too late. The girl fell on the ground, looking lifeless once again.

Ciel came closer and looked at the girl. 'Was it a doll after all?' he said. He didn't understand what it meant. He didn't understand that this girl was both. She was a girl and a doll.

Drossel turned her into a doll.

The big door in the entrance hall opened and a spooky, yet oh so beautiful and familiar voice, came closer as soft footsteps rang in our ears. 'Wood and clay will wash away, wash away, wash away. Wood and clay will wash away, my fair lady.'

Then the familiar face with the familiar voice came into the hall.

Well, at least he was wearing a hat. But why was he dressed like he was auditioning for the circus? 'That doll was a failure,' he said. And when I heard him talk like that, I full sentence, I almost cried. Yes, his voice was still the most beautiful voice in the world. Sebastian couldn't win that competition. Not for me at least. 'So I thought to myself,' he went on, '"I must make them much, much, much stronger".' Then he raised his hand, as if he was going to conduct us while we sang. 'Build it up with iron and steel, iron and steel, iron and steel. Build it up with iron and steel, my fair lady.'

Ciel leaned towards me. 'Friend of yours?' he asked, clearly not needing an answer. He knew exactly who he was. Dammit, Sebastian. You just couldn't keep your mouth shut, could you?

Then he sang again, and as he sang, large dolls appeared from everywhere. They were almost Ciel's seize. 'Build it up with iron and steel, iron and steel, iron and steel. Build it up with iron and steel, my fair lady.' Then he went forward, grabbed my waist, and pulled me away from the entrance hall, leaving Ciel and Grell to be killed by the dolls made of iron and steel.

'Let me go, Drossel!' I yelled as he lift me up the stairs that would lead to the old music room. It was empty now. Then he tilted me up, to the balcony. He sat down there and put me on his lap, stroking my hair as if I was his favourite pet and looking at me as if I was the most beautiful thing in the world. I did noticed that he wasn't warm at all, he was cold, like he didn't have any body heat left inside of him. Like he was as empty as he dolls he loved so much.

'Let the demons fade away, fade away, fade away. Let the demons fade away, my fair lady,' he said and as he said that, I heard footsteps on the stairs, coming closer and closer with every step that was taken. Please let it be Sebastian, please let it be Sebastian, please let it be Sebastian.

Of course it wasn't. I should've stopped hoping by now. It was Ciel who walked into the music room.

'Ciel Phantomhive,' Drossel said, still stroking my hair.

Ciel noticed us, but he didn't look at me. He looked at Drossel with a look that was simply murderous.

'You are very beautiful,' Drossel said and I swear to God I almost felt jealous, 'I must make you into a worthy doll.'

'Where's Elizabeth?!' he demanded, clearly not giving a damn about me.

He got ignored. Nice, now he knew what that felt like. 'Now, what shall I make you off? Clay is sure to wash away, but iron is too crude, I say.'

Wait, was he speaking in rhyme? Why was he speaking in rhyme? I swear he only did it to creep me out. And what was with the get-up? He knew I was scared of clowns!

Then I realised that Drossel had gone cray-cray and that this wasn't my Drossel anymore. I kept searching for a friend who was long gone.

That made me want to escape even more, but my struggles seemed to be useless. Drossel could handle me easily. But it wasn't only because he was stronger than me, it was also because he knew my reactions, my weaknesses, my strengths, too well. He could even speak normally to Ciel while holding me down. 'So I thought to myself: "Build it up with silver and gold, silver and gold, silver and gold. Built it up with silver and gold, my fair lady."'

The moment he started to sing again was the moment that Ciel decided that this was useless and he ran off, trying to find Elizabeth. Gosh, if only Drossel let me go! I knew my way in this mansion, I could help! I could for once be useful! 'Let me go, Drossel!' I tried to smack him in the face, but he didn't let me.

He looked at me with a strange look. 'Built her up with silver and gold, silver and gold, silver and gold. Built her up with silver and gold,' he pressed his forehead against mine and I could feel his lifeless breathe on my face, 'my fair lady.'

XxX

Heh, heh. I really love Drossel. I don't know why. Maybe it has something to do with my endless obsession with porcelain dolls… I don't know.

ichigoarerugi: thank you! I'm not going to change Sebastian, or at least try not to, since he is a demon and I want to stay true to his demon nature. I don't think he would change for anyone. Certainly not for a human. And I want Clarissa to fall in love with him because he's a demon. I don't want her to fall for him because he can be a nice guy every now and then, because that's simply not true.

BlackMoon901: thanks! Unless it's a negative 'wow'. Then I'm sorry.

promocat: ha ha, true! I once had to draw out an explanation for a friend of mine because of the time-travel stuff in Shinobi Life XD