Truth in Lies

Lies in Truth

Moving on.

xxx

"I'll fall off~ I'll do it~" The sing-song voice of Alois taunted. The voice carried as an ominous echo, tickling the ear of one roused from what can only be described as a forced slumber.

Heavy sapphire eyes fluidly opened, greeted by a baleful pitch blackness. There was no light. No defining mark to identify. Just an empty space, indiscernible if it was a mile wide or a foot. Mist slithering from blackness began to part from the figure it housed. The body felt weightless in spite of clearly being anchored in place. The air was cold, but taunted with a hint of humidity. Breathing was simple enough. Pressure compressed in the abdomen nonetheless. As the eyes adjusted to the darkness, and the mind began to process the current scene, an astonished gasp made the figure self aware of it's situation. Brought none of than Ciel Phantomhive back to his senses.

"What is this?!" Ciel cried. He studied his surrounding, baffled beyond comprehension. "How did I come to be here and why?" A space opened up in the abyss. Very clearly Ciel was able to see a twisting and winding hedge maze stories below. He followed the maze to the perimeter, scanned over the abundance of trees clustered together. Beyond those trees, standing idly at the wall of a courtyard, four people stood. The image zoomed in closer for a better perspective. Hannah and Claude were present. Ciel was indifferent towards them. It was the pair next to them that grasped his full attention. "Alliahnna? Sebastian?"

What in the world were they doing there? Sebastian was supposed to be gone from him. And Alliahnna was said to have left to return to the Phantomhive Estate. So why were they both here at the Trancy Manor? And why are they looking at him with such alarm?

xxx

Alliahnna planted her hands to the wall, preventing herself from kindling under her shaking knees. He was close. So terribly close. And yet he was far enough away that she would never reach him in time. Panic was ripe in her glossy eyes as she watched Ciel - Alois Trancy - play balance beam with a 12 story fall. She twisted anxiously, wanting so desperately to traverse the spanned acres between her and Ciel. Shackles fastened her to her place. The way Ciel bobbed back and forth tightened those bonds. The fear that Ciel - Alois - will make good on his threat and fall all the way down encased her feet in cement. She's never felt so restricted.

"Ciel…" She whimpered.

Sebastian diverted attention from the cackling boy, locking crimson daggers to the deceptive demoness standing behind him. The cards were plentiful in her dainty hands. Foreseeable trumps she was free to play at her disposal. Sebastian's hands were - in every sense of the word - tied. Claude shared a similar discontent for this turn of events. The same restraints have bound him to Hannah's thrall. The life of the Young Master hanging in the balance was a most clever of noose to rig. It may be prudent to strangle Hannah with the noose of her own making. An idea both Claude and Sebastian are quite capable of turning to action. For now, they will play her game.

"I must find some way to convince you to return my young master to me as himself." Sebastian stated as a fact. He absolutely refused to plead for a hand of mercy, or implore Hannah for any such boon. "Fortunately, I can be quite persuasive." He added hostilely.

"Forget persuasion!" Alliahnna snarled rabidly. She collected her waning composure, flipping her hair behind her shoulder and from her hard glare. "I'll just rip out her heart and eat it right in front of her!" She marched for Hannah.

"I wouldn't advise killing me." Hannah scoffed at the idle threats. "If you do that…"

"I'LL HAVE TO FALL!" The bellow stopped Alliahnna cold. Ciel balanced to one foot hanging halfway off the edge of the clock tower. He had his arms spread like a bird's wings. Doubtful they would help him to fly in place of falling. Sebastian and Alliahnna hissed through gritted teeth. Regardless if one remained to deal with Hannah, the danger of Ciel hitting ground was too great a risk. Not to mention there's not telling what will happen if Alois remains inside. Hannah may very well be the only one who can remove him.

"If you haven't noticed, Ciel Phantomhive's body belongs to my master." Hannah proceeded to elucidate. Her blank, dower expression riled Claude, Sebastian, and Alliahnna to a fit. Posturing because she has an effective barrier to hide behind. "Alois Trancy's soul was taken into Ciel Phantomhive - absorbed by him. It waited ever so quietly for the proper time to reawaken."

"The ring…" Alliahnna hissed. By the look Sebastian gave Claude, her suspicions were correct. Alois's soul was inside the ring. A play by Claude to corrupt Ciel. Consequently, Hannah beat him to the punch.

"The soul took advantage of a weakness in Ciel Phantomhive's heart." Hannah continued. "It used this weakness to steal Phantomhive's body using his own eye…" She trailed off with a dreamy whisper. The writing in the dirt was clear.

"The Young Master is Alois's hostage." Claude summed up the drawn out tale.

"And only our dear friend Hannah knows how to separate them." Alliahnna frothed.

"So our hands are tied."

"I'M GOING TO FALL!" Alois taunted again. He changed feet, still posing like a bird. "I'm going to fall right off Sebastian! Bet you won't be able to catch me, Alliahnna!" This was becoming too much.

"There's more to the situation than that." Hannah forewarned them. "Your hands may be tied, but your hearts aren't, are they?" The question baffled Claude and Sebastian. Then her motive was clear. She intended to test them. The prize being the young master atop the tower. "Prepare yourselves. I'm sending you on a journey. You may join as well, Alliahnna." Alliahnna pointed bewildered at herself. "Ciel Phantomhive is precious to you as well, is he not. He is your beloved brother." She grunted in the back of her throat. I haven't been Ciel's sister in over a year. She threw Alliahnna previous statement in her face. Twisted jubilation split into a smile on Hannah's face. She will thoroughly enjoy watching these three squirm. "The three of you are eager to retrieve Ciel Phantomhive. To do so you must journey through the labyrinth of Alois Trancy's heart, following the painful twists and turns that comprise it."

"What happens when we reach the end?" Alliahnna demanded to know. "What will become of Ciel and Alois?"

Hannah erected a finger before her smirking purple lips. "I am afraid, young one, that that is a surprise." Alliahnna bared her teeth. She's a butler of Alois through and through. Enigmatic and crazed to the extreme.

"Come." Sebastian's touch to her shoulder stopped her from acting rashly. "The Young Master is waiting." He meandered down the stairs to the forest. Alliahnna grudgingly trailed behind him. Claude soon followed. Hannah, in the meantime, utilized her own means of transport for the maze. A shortcut that will take her directly to Alois Trancy's side. Where she rightfully belongs.

xxx

The maze was indeed a gaggle of painful twists and turns. The maze seemed to go on endlessly, consumed by the night's horizon, appearing to vanish into the nearby hills. From the bottom level to the fifth where the tower is centered, the traps and obstacles undoubtedly set will prove to be more dastardly than their predecessors. They circled the designated tower in perpetual loops. From a bird's eye view, one path seems to bring the traveler so close to their victory. The end of the madness within reach. Suddenly an obstacle or turn presents itself, taking that weary traveler further away from what they desire. How reflective of Alois this labyrinth was. By first, superficial blush. The boy was habitual in coming close to receiving his rewards. Those slender fingers of his thirsting to wrap to his desire and squeeze it of every last ounce it had. But, as cruel fate would intend, his goal would be pried from those fingers and taken well beyond where he could never hope to reach them. Now, for the first time in his life, what he desires will have to come to him. It will have to claw, deceive, and prove itself before it may have him. Something he will take the utmost enjoyment of.

A stone arch marked the entrance of the maze. Winged statue guards lined the flowery walls. Waiting there on the ground were three note books. Opening them, there were eight blank circles marked with various symbols. Each one was connected by a line, forming a path from the top corner of the left panel to the bottom corner of the right.

"A stamp book?" Alliahnna tilted her head. An odd item. "I don't see a press or what we're supposed to use."

"Most likely they are hidden within the labyrinth." Sebastian clarified. He put a finger to his chin, glowering pensively at the winding obstacle. "We are to traverse this labyrinth in order to reach the Young Master. In tandem, we must collect several stamps before reaching our goal."

"We are to collect stamps hidden throughout the garden?" Claude scoffed loudly. "This is beneath our dignity!" Yet another perfect personification of the notorious Alois Trancy. Always eager to bring those who pride themselves in their station to their lowest point of humiliation.

"Not to mention it's all too easy." Claude and Sebastian were intrigued by Alliahnna's statement. "Collecting stamps...maneuvering in a maze...that can't be all." Her arms were folded tightly to herself. She was humming while staring hard to the ground. A miracle holes didn't appear. Her famed quizzical wrinkle in her brow brought a smile to Sebastian's face. "This is a labyrinth of his twisted heart. Alois has something else in mind for us." She shot her glare to Ciel. Hannah standing beside him pissed her off to no end.

"And we must collect the stamps to ascertain what that is?" Claude questioned skeptically.

"COME TO ME!" Ciel - Alois - dared. "UNLESS YOU FANCY THE BITTER TASTE OF DEFEAT!"

"I suppose we must." Sebastian acquiesced.

"The only thing I will be tasting is the sweet flavor of Ciel Phantomhive's young soul." Claude declared his premature victory.

"Must you be so utterly distasteful!" Sebastian huffed.

"You won't be able to eat anything if your tongue gets ripped out!" Alliahnna growled.

Claude chuckled at her declaration. Perhaps, in the spirit of competition, a little distraction to grant him an advantage. "Will you be biting it off, Lady Alliahnna?" He purred. Alliahnna and Sebastian were baffled by the out of place question. Sebastian went rigid as Claude snaked his fingers to Alliahnna's chin. His lecherous smile sent chills down her spine, coming so close that she could feel his hot breath. "It might be our last kiss before this match is over."

Alliahnna screeched mortified. Her face heated red as a cherry, stem shrieking out of her ears. Sebastian's brow quirked irately. He bit on the inside of his lip. He grasped Alliahnna by the arm, wrenching her free of Claude and into the snare of his seething glare. "Is-that-right?!" He rumbled.

"Um...that is...I…" Sweat beaded down her cherry skin. Her eyes leisurely scrolled to the side. She turned partially to see if Claude was lapping their drama like water. The spider demon was already racing inside the maze, heading directly for Ciel. "CLAUDE! YOU ASSHOLE! GET BACK HERE SO I CAN-"

"Not so quick, Young Lady." Sebastian's hand snatched her by the scruff of the collar. He dragged her, lifting her inches off the ground. She thrashed and flailed in a frenzy, demanding Claude get his smug ass back there. In her head, however, she was cursing the superior height of Sebastian Michaelis. Said demon pinned her to a hedge with both her hands above her head. He cupped her chin. Alliahnna's heated vulgarities froze as a lump when she met his terrifying glare. "A kiss, eh? You are cross with me, so you kiss another man?"

"CAN WE PLEASE TALK ABOUT THIS AFTER WE SAVE CIEL?!" She begged, stomping her feet like a child. "And for the record, HE kissed me! You know I hate spiders!"

Sebastian hummed with a note of skepticism. "I seem to recall a similar situation with a particular angel, and prince. Now this spider." If Alliahnna could sink below the surface, she'd like to drop to the bottomless pit and never be able to crawl out. "You seem to receive the affections of various men when I am not around!"

"Can you not make me sound so lascivious?" She pouted. She managed to slip her hands free. She shot to her tip toes and embraced Sebastian, drawing him into yet another warm kiss. Sebastian's anger quickly cooled on the night air. Alliahnna flashed him that charming, impish smile that makes him melt in her arms. "I only love one demon, and he happens to have a fetish for cats and stylish ties." She played with his tie. She was too adorable. Sebastian couldn't stay mad at her. He caressed her cheek. In his heart he was pondering how he was so blessed to come across an angel with demon wings. As Alliahnna cupped his hand, she wondered the same thing. Both would never take for granted what they were given.

The time for words and threats were passed. Claude gained a menial lead with his diversion, and Ciel's time is running out. Alliahnna and Sebastian got on their marks, and the duo raced to the right of the labyrinth. Easy enough was closing the gap to Claude. He was rather disappointed they were able to reach him so soon. No matter. They may journey with him if they so desire. Until the moment deems otherwise, they will stick together.

xxx

Visibility was all but nil in the abyss Ciel was trapped within. The exception of flashes from what he assumes are his own eyes, and the vague images replaying what could only be described as traumatic, Ciel was wandering blind. However, just because his eyes do not extend farther than what is currently being permitted, his ears were bionically augmented. Inane threats to harm himself, or the ludicrous declaration to fall from a tremendous height incessantly ricocheted in his ears. He would touch his mouth thinking those words were coming from him. They were not. Another was speaking for him. And he knew who.

"That's what happened?!" Ciel gasped with a look of horror. "Alois has taken over my body!" He should be feeling defiled, violated, and otherwise befouled by the manic boy's intrusion. He cannot explain why, but he was uncharacteristically calm. A piece of him silently denied the validity of what he heard. The evidence was overwhelming. "I have...his memories."

The crackling of burning wood popped in his ears. The smell of smoke was ripe in his nose. Shaping amid the darkness, an ancestral manor engulfed in Hellish flames emerged. No window, beam, or roofing tile spared the merciless onslaught. The radiating heat of the blaze baked to his skin.

"Our mansion burned." Though hypnotized by the flames, Ciel took notices of a ten year old Alliahnna weeping at his side. "No...wait…" The mansion faded in a ripple, reappearing a village being devoured in a mass blaze, "Is that a village burning?" The flames brushed the night sky. Every home was attacked and engulfed. "That's not right! I don't know this place! It was my mansion! Mine and Alliahnna's!"

The original home of The Phantomhive's that's what was burned. "We were...looking for our mother and father." He can see it as vividly as if he was there himself. The sound of his and Alliahnna's rampant feet in a mad sprint. A dark hallway that was stretching on for miles, taunting them as the desperately race for their parents. Ciel was leading Alliahnna by the hand, hanging onto her for dear life, refusing to lose her to the flames stalking them.

Twin doors parted at the end of the corridor. A bright light flooded the room. As Ciel and Alliahnna crossed the threshold, they left their home and stood in a burning village. The dead bodies of villagers riddled the ground. The fires cooking the corpses like meat of a spit. Ciel was drawn to the body of a young boy. He looked no older than five. Perhaps seven.

"A boy? Who is he? Did we know him?" Ciel pondered. The boy was so familiar to him. No. Not to him. To Alois! "No! This memory...this memory isn't mine!" It was Alois's memory. His infernal soul is interfering.

xxx

After a short run inside the winding maze, Sebastian, Claude, and Alliahnna came to an end in their path. To be precise, it was the fifth dead end they've come across since starting. This one was different from the rest. Towering hedge walls covered in roses. An arch stretched above a small space housing a table. An ornate box centered on the table grabbed the three demons' perplexed attention.

"What have we here?" Claude hummed. He opened the box, finding an envelope with a strange purple crest on the front. Sebastian and Alliahnna huddled in close as he opened the envelope. A greeting card decorated with a butterfly and flower in one corner, and a spider and web in the other was inside. On the card was a question. "Question," Claude read in bewilderment, "What is Alois Trancy's real name?"

"His real name?" Alliahnna repeated confusedly. "Isn't Alois his real name?" Claude and Sebastian pondered this as well. The question itself felt like a trick, though the situation was simple enough to decipher. Alliahnna breathed through her nose, folding her arms. She studied the area, discerning the significance this odd question holds. "If we answer this, I guess we get to proceed through the maze?"

"It would seem so." Sebastian confirmed.

"Still seems too simple." Alliahnna held onto her skepticism. Running through a maze, answering questions - there has to be more that Alois isn't revealing. "So what's the answer?" She's dying to know. Especially since Claude and Sebastian seem to be in on it.

"I believe I can recall the answer to that." Sebastian stated. "Alois's real name was Jim Marcken."

"Jim...Macken?" Alliahnna repeated the anticlimactic name.

BUZZ-BUZZ-BUZZ! Sebastian and Alliahnna were whisked off the ground. Vines sprouting from the hedges constricted their arms at their sides. Thick, serrated thorns tore through their clothing, puncturing their skin. Sebastian growled at the coils, cursing himself for being so easily captured. Alliahnna was thrashing as the vines held her upside down. The vines had more resilience than steel. Sebastian and Alliahnna flexed futilely, wedging the thorns deeper into their flesh, wiggling fervently for a chance to free at least one arm.

"I TOLD YOU IT WAS TOO EASY!" Alliahnna screamed, kicking her legs. She frothed at the mouth at Claude who was spared. He was living in their humiliation. "What the Hell is going on, Claude?!"

"The garden is enchanted. It will repel those who don't belong." He emphasised to the two Phantomhive demons in their snares. "I'm glad to see it works well." He purred complacently. Curses were about to flail from Alliahnna's mouth. Vines crept up her neck and gagged her. Claude turned to the dead end, beckoning to the labyrinth with his answer, "The answer Jim Macken is wrong. Alois Trancy IS his real name."

Ding-ding, ding-ding! A pleasant tone awarded Claude. Sebastian and Alliahnna were drawn by a rumbling in the hedges. The garden's dead end parted down the middle, revealing a flight of stairs leading to a desk. Alliahnna arched a confused brow. She doesn't quite comprehend the significance of the riddle or answer.

"Jim Macken was Alois Trancy's name by birth." Sebastian elucidated, reading Alliahnna's perplexed expression. He returned his attention to Claude, furrowing his brow heatedly. "The name Trancy was given to him by the former Earl who defiled him!"

"Quite true." Claude willingly admitted with a note of glee. "But however vile the old man might have been, Alois was still quite taken by his new name." He ended his educating by racing up the stairs to the stamp waiting for him.

"So that is how this game is played!" Sebastian hissed through gritted teeth.

Though Alliahnna was still baffled by how Sebastian came to learn this, she began to understand the rules of the labyrinth. She twisted her head, enabling her jaw to fly open. She bit into the vines, tearing into them ravenously. Sweet air passed her lips, but the taste of grass won't be so easy to wash away.

"Truths into lies, lies into truths." Alliahnna recited the very premise Alois Trancy built his life around. "The very montra Alois Trancy has immersed himself in. "

"Nothing is true only if Alois Trancy thinks it is! That complicates things!" Sebastian huffed with an irate smile.

"The boy is a pain in the arse even in death!" Alliahnna snarled. She tired to fight her bonds again. They only tightened. "How did you come by his real name in the first place?"

"While you were a guest in the manor, Grell and I ventured to the village Alois Trancy grew up in." A vein popped in her brow at the mentioning of Grell. So that Reaper did stick around. And he was privileged to alone time with her demon. Where has that man whore gone? "There is much about Alois we did not know. And that knowledge continues to shrink evermore!" Sebastian flexed to loosen his binds.

The vines sensed the struggle, aggressively responding by wrapping to his neck and legs to limit his movements. "Sebastian!" Alliahnna winced as her vines commenced squeezing her. She felt her bones bending, but not giving. Were Sebastian and Alliahnna human, they would have been snapped in two like twigs. If things progress as they are, Claude will reach the goal, and Sebastian and Alliahnna will be left in a miserable state.

"LOVELY! SQUEEZE HIS SUPPLE FLESH TIGHTER!" Sebastian and Alliahnna choked at the feminized man voice. The pair stiffly turned. From his famed place of nowhere, Grell Sutcliff has emerged to swoon over his beloved Bassy. The ridiculous camera he kept from Mrs. Turner, modified to fit his aesthetic, was loaded with fresh film and ready to snap photos of his precious. "OH YES! A perfect shot! A perfect pose of agony!" He was blushing like a schoolgirl, melting in the bliss of his man in his helpless state. He brought his eye to the scope, wolfishly scaling the lens over the perfect profile dangling before him. There was a puddle of drool at his feet. "So...so…" A swift kick to the back of his sent him diving head first into a bush. Alliahnna retracted her foot, huffing pleased with her kick. Sebastian was rather pleased himself. "MUST YOU BE SO VIOLENT?!" Grell breathed fire with twigs sticking out from everywhere.

"STOP DROOLING OVER MY MAN AND GET US DOWN!" Sebastian was taken aback by her decree. A light tint showed in his cheeks.

"Your man?!" Grell smashed his forehead to the upside down girl.

"YEAH! MINE!" Sparks surged between their eyes. The backlash was devastating enough to split steel. The two contenders growled like rabid females arguing over one male. Sebastian has to say, they are stroking his ego quite nicely. "Are you going to be of actual use to us, or just a burden Sebastian will inevitably get rid of?" A grim girl for a grim fellow.

"Oh poo!" Grell huffed hot air from his nostrils. He pouted his lower lip. That aggravating bond between the famed pair of demons was showing again. It was stronger than ever. "Don't tell me you're back together again!" He swayed a finger to both of them.

"We never broke up!"

"Stop lying! You two are on and off more than lights in the midst of a blackout!" Sebastian and Alliahnna grunted under their breath. They needn't glance at one another. Grell's words had merit. He startled her when he pulled her down farther, staring down at her with a toothy grin. "To be honest, dearie, I'm not quite done with my Bassy Alone Time. And let's face it, three is such a crowd." Grell began to move backwards, bringing Alliahnna along and stretching the vines out. With his other hand, he revved his chainsaw at a low setting, cutting through half the vines holding her, leaving a thread left. The vines were stretched to their maximum. The hedges holding firm, and refusing to give an inch. "Why don't you be a good little rat with wings and fly off."

A horrible realization sent shocks shooting through her spine. Sebastian gaped anxiously at what Grell had planned. "Grell! Don't-you-" Grell mocking waved and let go, "DAAARRREEE!" The vines snapped at their weakened link. "I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE!" Alliahnna was launched in a mile high arch, plummeting somewhere far away in Alois's demented maze. Grell and Sebastian strained their hearing. A mild, muffled BOOM signaled her landing. She was going to feel that tomorrow.

"Finally! We are alone!" Grell frees hs Bassy, cuddling his chainsaw as if Sebastian were pressed against him. The demon fixed his askew uniform, straightened his hair, and moved for the cooing Reaper with a dark expression. "Now we can-" As Grell turned to confess his plans, Sebastian smashed the back of his heel to his head. A familiar feeling. The lump forming brought on nostalgia. "BASSY!" He whined, holding his throbbing skull. "I've told you! I'm so dainty! I don't like being kicked!"

"And I don't appreciate you catapulting my lover like a cheap projectile!" Sebastian frothed at the mouth. Grell bounced his fingers together, moaning like a child caught in a lie. Sebastian ignored the reaper for the moment. He rifled in his pocket, pulling out his pocket watch. "Hopefully this works."

xxx

Alliahnna snarled and growled viciously, prying the dying vines off of her, and kicking her way to her feet. "Stupid...whoring...lack of standards...GRAH!" She howled. She violently smoothed her clothes out. Her previous predicament made her glad she was in pants in place of a skirt, but her modesty was not the issue. The issue here is she didn't have the first clue where she'd landed, or how far she was from Sebastian. She was sent flailing in a high arch. She might be on the other side of the maze for all she knew.

"Well this is embarrassing." Alliahnna admitted. She was catapulted like a cheap rock. Of all the stunts and situations Grell's pulled with her, this one wounded her pride. "Oh well. No sense griping about it." She climbed onto the hedge. She balanced herself on the unsturdy surface. She placed her hands to her forehead as a visor, scouring for any sign of Sebastian. An object reflected the moonlight. Alliahnna focused hard on that object. It was gone one minute, then was tossed into the air the next. It was Sebastian's pocket watch. "There you are!" She cheered. He wasn't too far away. 200 hundred yards at most. She can reach him.

Alliahnna pushed to jump. She stumbled on the launch. She sank up to her knees in the hedges. Soon her whole person was swallowed and then spat out on the path she landed on. "You've got to be kidding! I can't skip the walls?" A pesky maze Alois has concocted. Alliahnna lathered her lips and whistled loudly. When she stopped, she heard a whistle in response. That would have to do. Alliahnna picked the general direction of the tower and started heading towards it. On her mind was revenge. "First on my hitlist: Grell Sutcliff! Claude Faustus is second! Hannah, you are a strong third!"

To be continued.

Almost there.

Next chapter is up.