Title: Stray Dog
Author: MyGhostJustYells
Fandom: Black Butler
Rating: M
Warnings: Objectionable content consistent with canon, including violence, manipulative demons, and mention of child sexual abuse. Hannah is not a hero. Author has WAY over-analyzed Black Butler II.
Disclaimer: I do not own Black Butler or its characters. They belong to A-1 Pictures, Square Enix, Yana Toboso, and other licensors and distributors. This is a not-for-profit fan work.
Summary: Ciel Phantomhive is dead. His contract with Sebastian completed, his soul taken as agreed. This upends the fate of one Alois Trancy. [What follows is a reimagining of Black Butler II focused solely around the Trancys.]
Author's Note: I have had this idea for a LONG time and now I'm finally getting started with it. I'm doing Black Butler II RIGHT, damn it.
Prologue
Blink of an Eye
He stared at his butler, openmouthed and speechless. "What did you say?" Alois Trancy asked in a low, quavering voice, as if he couldn't quite believe what he'd just been told.
Claude Faustus stood before him, as emotionless and impassive as ever. "Ciel Phantomhive is dead," the demon said again. Alois noticed the subtly clenched jaw that gave away the intense emotion the demon was experiencing underneath his usual stoic expression.
Alois slid down into the chair behind his desk, utterly in shock. The two of them were in the study, where Alois had been going over some boring documentation relating to his investments. He'd been struggling to get through a particularly dense paragraph, cursing how boring and annoying it was to be expected to read, when his butler had entered.
In an instant that boredom had vanished and a suffocating panic began to set in. He couldn't believe what he'd just heard. Ciel Phantomhive… was dead? "What happened?" Alois demanded when he found his voice again.
"Their contract was completed and Sebastian consumed his soul," Claude replied as if informing him of something as mundane as that day's weather.
"You imbecile! Why didn't you interfere?" Alois cried, feeling an intense flash of rage. He reached forth and slammed his palm down on the desk, an innocent piece of paper becoming the victim of his anger as he crumpled it into a ball.
"My apologies. I tried to reach them in time, but I was unable to."
Alois stood in fuming silence for several moments, looking down at the desk and trying to absorb this information. It was nigh on incomprehensible. His revenge gone in the blink of an eye, right along with the purpose he had so carefully crafted for himself to keep on living. And Sebastian Michaelis had gotten away with everything.
But beneath the simmering rage welled an even deeper sorrow. He felt empty, the return of a familiar feeling that terrified him down to his bones.
"This means that our contract is now unable to be completed," Claude continued on, sounding as though he had just eaten something incredibly bitter. "And therefore no longer in effect."
Alois had never been able to read his servants' expressions to know what they were thinking, something that bothered him like an insatiable itch. But his heart nearly stopped once what the demon said had processed.
"No, Claude. No, you can't!" he cried. "I'll make another contract with you! I'll think of another wish!"
Claude paused, as if not certain how to proceed. Alois imagined he wasn't.
Finally, the demon said, "Our contract is now void – there's nothing I can do to change that. However, given the circumstances I am willing to stay, for the time being, to see if any new… developments arise. Now, if you will excuse me."
He turned to leave. Alois wanted so desperately to stop him, but the only thing he could think of that would actually work was agreeing to make a new contract.
And he hadn't the slightest idea what he wanted now.
Feeling numb, as if he weren't truly alive or dead, Alois retreated to his room. The sun sat high in the sky, but he shut the curtains so only a small bit of light came through. Catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror, he was able to see for himself that the contract seal on his tongue was gone. He then curled in on himself on his bed.
For the longest time he simply lay there, not moving nor making any sound. It was only after the sun slipped below the horizon and that small sliver of light vanished that he began sobbing in cries that wracked his entire body.