Ashes to Ashes

England to Paris

Moving on.

xxx

Dear Earl Phantomhive,

The Funtom Company Chair wishes to discuss urgent financial business with you… Letter tossed in the trash.

Dear Earl Phantomhive,

I am interested in purchasing your home for a reasonable sum...Another letter tossed in the trash.

Dear Earl Phantomhive, Dear Earl Phantomhive, DEAR...EARL...PHANTOMHIVE...

Another dull, repetitive, aggravating letter demanding financial resources or marriage reconsiderations after the other. Ciel skimmed their contents, his brow knitting tighter and tighter with each line, and crushed them into a ball he shot perfectly into the trash bin across his study. His eye was beginning to dry out from reading the trifling letters. Broken records these people are. Money, marriage, social engagements, politics - a vicious cycle with no end in sight. He's starting to wish he stayed in his coma and left Alliahnna to do the work.

Alliahnna...Discomfort squeezed his chest. Come to think of it, he hasn't seen Alliahnna all day. She wasn't in her room. Probably left with Esmeralda to show her the town. The days before, however...Alliahnna hasn't spoken to him, or Sebastian. When he thought about it - about her - she was different. Melancholy. Honestly, the whole manor was dampened by some sort of grey cloud. Ever since...that night...'The sword wielded in a blind rage, slicing Alliahnna's cheek open...a fist fueled by the same rage striking her face again...Ciel at the helm of both attacks.'

Ciel slammed his elbows down, burying his face in his hands. Harsh breath shook past his grinding teeth. His hands pressed and slid to his scalp, stretching his skin. 'YOU CAN'T KILL HIM LIKE THIS!' Her voice pleaded. She was helping me. He moaned in his mind. She only wanted to help me. And I...I...Throbbing drummed on his skull. He wished it was the work. The migraines set it well around noon. He tried to drown himself in work to make him forget what he'd done. By the time Ciel realized he was down to his final note, the hour struck midnight on the dot.

"It's already that late?" He gasped. He was baffled by how he let time slip by. Sebastian is normally finished with his duties by ten. That's when he usually enters to remind Ciel to go to bed. "SEBASTIAN! I am ready for bed!" He bellowed, pushing up from his desk. Sebastian's usually on cue response didn't reply. "SEBASTIAN! Where are you?" He impatiently bellowed. "I am ready for bed!" Still no response. Ciel wasn't in the mood for this. He stormed for the door, ready to pry it off it's hinges. A strong burning scent stopped his fingers. Ciel paused to study the smell. He groaned irately. "I swear, if Bardroy's burned another midnight snack…"

The lights died in the study. Ciel emerged in the dark hallway holding a candlelight. It irked him Sebastian had yet to heed his beckon call. His impeccable hearing stretches from one side of the estate to the other. Even more bothersome was the pungent burning smell making his eyes water. Sure wasn't helping alleviate his headache either. Hovering the candle toward the stretching night hue, Ciel marched to investigate the source of the smell. Hopefully he will find Bardroy and Sebastian so he may scold them both.

The full moon's luminescent rays illuminated the hallway's ebony shade. Ciel eyes adjusted and readjusted as he walked past window panes. The burning smell growing less bearable by the second. It was starting to get a little warm as well. Sweat bubbled to Ciel's forehead. He'd wipe it away, only for more beads to swell in their place. He rounded a corner that would take him to the foyer stairs. He was able to taste the stagnant air. The thick starchiness of gasses and fumes. The temperature literally increased 10 degrees hotter by that one corner.

"Bard! Sebastian! What the Hell are you two doing?!" He roared. Then he stopped, attention grabbed by an odd anomaly. The ceiling was wiggling, moving inward. Ciel swore his eyes were playing tricks. Lifting the candle to it, he was dumbfounded to see black streaks running along the ceiling. "Smoke?" He followed the stream. Smoke was wafting from the last adjacent hall. Ciel quickened his pace, peering around the corner. A horrifically familiar strobing orange light flooded the last stretch of corridor. "No…" Ciel broke into a dead run. The candle, unknown to him, had left his hand, dying on the floor. Or so the dully lit wick perceived.

The heat coagulated to a thick, must bog. Sheets of hit hitting Ciel and baking his skin. The air around him devoured. The ominous orange light glowed brighter...brighter...the heat intensifying. Ciel thrust himself to the foyer stairs railing. He gasped in absolute terror, petrified to stone. A monstrous inferno scaled floor to ceiling, consuming portraits, the inner walls, and staining the tiles. Paper and plaster peeled like dying onions. Chunks of ceiling weakening and shattering to the floor.

"NO! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!" Ciel staggered. The floor at the stairs was gradually being swallowed by the fire. Heat prickled at his buckled shoes. Ciel shook in disbelief. "This can't be happening...not again?" He turned on his heels to run for his room. Another fire raged out of darkness, blowing Ciel off his feet. The entire hallway was consumed by the blaze. Soon the manor will go with it. Again. "Alliahnna!" He gasped. Her room is on the other side of that fire. "SEBASTIAN! SEBASTIAN WHERE ARE YOU?!" Ciel's voice cracked. Sebastian never came. The two pronged fires closed in around him, driving him toward the only open hallway available. Leading him away from his sister. The first fire...almost stole Alliahnna. This one was going to try and do it again. "Allie...ALLIE!" He crawled to his hands and feet, ready to leap headfirst.

A darting shadow downstairs halted Ciel's brash act. The shadow ran out of the foyer to a hall leading to the east wing. "WAIT!" Ciel scrambled to his feet, escaping to the untouched hallway. "COME BACK!" The fire closed behind him, chasing him like the scared mouse he was.

The manor's halls overlapped and lead to one another. Stairs going front to back, first to third floors. Whoever he saw will have to cross Ciel's path. He ran as fast as his tired legs would carry him. The fire was well behind him. He cast a glance down the hallways he past, thinking he'd spot Mey-Rin, Finnian, or anyone. Ciel was coming to the end of his run. Sebastian...Alliahnna...where- Fire roared in his face, throwing him against the wall. The sole remaining set of stairs disintegrated. Ciel shielded the scorching fumes with his arm. He squinted hard to see in the flames. Twin shimmers like eyes pierced the flames. A mass leapt from the blaze, evolving to a shadowy figure running deeper inside the manor.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Ciel gave chase. The newest fire closed in.

Ciel clawed the wall on a sharp turn. He saw the mystery figure duck into another hall. He grabbed an ornate poker off the wall, sprinting at top speeds. Going ignored was the fire that caught up to him. Ciel threw his back to the wall. Cautiously, quietly he slid his toe to the corner. Thud...thud...thud...thud...Someone was in the hall. Quite the ruckus maker. Ciel held the sword parallel to him. He inhaled and exhaled quietly. Squeezing the poker he spun with a mighty roar. Ice replaced his blood.

"No...please...god...no…" Bodies. A trail of blood drained bodies riddling the floor. His legs quaked. The poker dropped from his trembling hands. Tears gathering in his eye. Mey-Rin was the first. Then Finnian, Tanaka, Bardroy...Elizabeth. "LIZZIE!" Ciel slid to his knees, cradling her corpse in his arms. Her dead eyes frozen open. Emerald green sullied to a haze. "Please...Lizzie...speak to me…" He whimpered, burying his face in her cold chest.

The fire reached his location. Streams snaked the hall. Escaping embers combusted the bodies. Elizabeth erupted to ash in his arms. "NNOO…!" He clawed at his scalp, yanking his hair. He shook violently, swiping at flames and ashes to retrieve his betrothed. "LIZZIE! PLEASE! NOT YOU…NOT-" Ciel had forgotten all about the fire. Behind him was barred by a wall of flames. Ahead of him was no better. He was trapped in a smoldering vice. The fire closing in. Another body was amid the flames ahead. His stomach launched into his throat. Sebastian's cold, dead eyes were looking up at him from those flames. A gash ripping his body practically in half caked in blood. "Se...bas...tian…" He staggered away. Lifeless limbs swaying as he tried to run. This wasn't happening. It can't be happening. Sebastian...can't die. Not...unless…

A familiar green sword sprouted from the flames. Ciel jumped out of his skin. His mind shattered as he recognized the Legendary Laevateinn. Claude's sword. The mysterious shadow figure emerged amongst the fire. "Claude…" He snarled. Rage, grief, sorrow - Ciel's body quaked as it was torn in half by a torrent of emotions. "I swear...I will make you pay for this! YOU! ALOIS! EVERYONE IN THAT MANOR WILL BURN!" He roared murderously. The figure turned to him. Twin pink shimmers serving as eyes broke past the flames. "I'll leave your corpses for the vultures to devour! Alliahnna will not be there a second time to stop me." The eyes narrowed. The figure approached him. A boot stepped to the clearing. Ciel was caught off guard by the boot. Then stocking scaled a leg. Claude wears a suit...Long navy hair, white uniform...Ciel's whole body went numb. "It can't be…"

The mystery figure confronted Ciel. Flames washing off the body in a swell. Laevateinn in pristine condition...and within Alliahnna's hands. A bloodthirsty smile splitting her face. "Alliahnna…" He saw her with his own eyes, but his heart was screaming he's wrong. The blood on her uniform, the ashes staining her skin. Evidence...her presence… "Why…?" He whimpered. Tears fell down his cheek. "Why would you do this?"

Alliahnna's grin widened. A step forward and the gap was closed, her hand grasping his shoulder. Her mouth went to his ear, "Your sole is all mine…" Her whisper turned him to stone. Laevateinn impaled his heart… …

xxx

"AAAHHH…!" A tea set shattered on the floor, tea soaking the carpet. Ciel, doused in sweat, panted heavily with his hands planted firmly to his desk.

Sebastian was off to the side, gaping startled at the tea being knocked from his hands. "Master…?" He warily approached. Ciel jerked to him. He's alive? "Are you alright?"

Ciel's haze slowly cleared. He scrolled a sapphire eye, identifying he was in his office. By how brightly lit it was, it's some time in the morning. Possibly noon. He looked at his calendar. Friday. It's Friday morning. It's a friday morning...in his office...with Sebastian standing right there. Bardroy, Finnian, Mey-Rin, and Tanaka poked in, curious of the noise. Sebastian motioned a hand that all was well, and on their way they went. And the only smells touching his nose came from the breeze carried through his window, and the wasted tea.

"Young Master?" Sebastian pressed.

"YES! Ahem...Sebastian, yes! I'm fine." He choked, slouching with relief. "Just...tired." A dream...He placed a hand to his eyepatch. It was nothing but a dream. Alliahnna was in that dream. "Where is Alliahnna? I must speak with her." Immediately, by his tone.

Sebastian grudgingly cleared his throat. Ciel's yet to be made aware of what's transpired, or has dissipated - given the circumstances - between him and Alliahnna. Hence the awkward grunting. "Forgive me, My Lord. Lady Alliahnna does not seem to be in at the moment."

Ciel tensed. "What do you mean?" He hissed. "Is she out with Esmeralda again?"

"Lady Esmeralda departed this morning on a return barge to Paris."

"The where the Hell is she?!" Ciel hollered. Alliahnna's been leaving at the drop of a hat for days. The only time Ciel has seen her is in the morning at breakfast - when she's not throwing up. Other than that it's as if...as if...she's gone. She wasn't at breakfast the current morning, however. Ciel's misery at her absence weighed him down. He never realized how greatly he missed her presence until it suddenly stopped. "Where is she?" He moaned. Sebastian shook his head. Inwardly, he wished he knew.

"I think I can answer your question, Master." Mr. Tanaka reentered the room, holding a letter in his hand. "Upon waking this morning, I found this on my pillow." He set it on the desk. "It is a letter from Lady Alliahnna. It is addressed to me, but the contents relate to you, My Lord." Ciel adamantly opened the letter, almost ripping it. His eyes barely began skimming the contents when Tanaka continued, "I am afraid Lady Alliahnna is no longer here. In England, that is." Ciel and Sebastian's jaws slacked as they gaped to the elder butler. Mr. Tanaka released a somber breath. "In the company of Lady Esmeralda, Lady Alliahnna has returned to Paris."

To be continued.