The Queen's New Pet (A Black Butler Fanfic)

Chapter Thirteen

Ciel hurried down the hall, yanking open door after door. This house was huge, it would take him forever to find the basement.

Don't worry Maria, I will find you.

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Sebastian landed another punch on the insane demon before him, rage fueling his entire body. With a growl William jumped forward to counter with a hit of his own.

"You are too late Michealis!" He hissed, blocking a kick from said demon. "She is already being taken over by Lyra as we speak!"

Sebastian's eyes narrowed as he faked a punch before kicking William in the face, making him stagger back a few feet.

"Shut up." Maria is stronger than that.

"Just admit that I am right already! There is no stopping the transformation!"

"And what if she comes back as Maria?" Sebastian mocked, dodging a blow from William.

"Then she will be with you until you take Earl Phantomhive's soul! You will have to care for her the rest of your existence!"

That is true, but would I really mind it?

Shaking away these thoughts Sebastian leaped towards William again, determined to end this now.

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"You... don't want to go back and be with William?" Maria was surprised, obviously. Lyra shook her head.

"He never told you how I ended up dying, did he?" It was Maria's turn to shake her head.

"His obsession for my soul grew until finally he killed me trying to take it. However, he had not yet completed the task I had asked him to complete in exchange for my soul, so I ended up here. He never got my soul, and it drove him insane."

"And now he believes you will return so he can have it?"

"It would seem to be that way, but if I returned as a demon I would have no soul for him to devour anyway. He would just kill me in his rage."

"So why are you still here? Why didn't you go to Heaven?"

"Someone had to tell you how to make your choice. It seems you've already made up your mind. Why are you picking to go back? You have had no one truly love you your entire life, and in Heaven you will be surrounded by love, peace, and perfection." Her wistful tone made it obvious she wanted to go there.

"I... have people who love me for who I am now. I promised I would stay with them."

Lyra nodded. "It is for eternity you do realize? Ciel won't live forever, especially since Sebastian will be taking his soul in the future."

"I know. Hopefully Sebastian will let me stick around with him. If not..."
An eternity of loneliness and emptiness.

"You are basing an eternity on an 'if''?" Maria nodded.

"I see." Lyra looked up to the sky, and so did Maria. The once white clouds were now darkening.

"Let's find shelter before the Storm arrives." Lyra stood. Maria followed suit. They started to walk across the meadow.

"Shelter?" Out here? She looked around the empty meadow. What was a Storm, anyway?

"This should be good." Lyra simply sat down in the grass again and patted the ground next to her. Reluctantly Maria sat.

"What's a Storm?"

"My term for the moving on of souls. A new batch of dead, or rather, their souls are brought here so they can move on to Heaven or Hell."

"Why did we need shelter? How is this shelter? We are still out in the open."

"There are still some souls who wish to remain on earth. They may attack us if they sense us, especially you, because if they win then they can go back to earth using your body."

Maria nodded. It made sense.

"As for the shelter... Use the energy here and see."

Maria blinked, not knowing what to do. She could feel the prescences of other souls gathering around the meadow, but she couldn't see them. She took a deep breath.

"Imagine drawing the energy from the ground." Lyra's whispy voice floated over her like the once white clouds had done before.

Maria did as she was told. She closed her eyes and imagined pulling energy out of the ground, out of the meadow itself. When she opened her eyes...

Humans were walking all around the meadow. Most were at the same peace Maria and Lyra felt. They looked around, momentarily confused, before they started heading towards a bright light at the end of the meadow. Had that been there before?

"So these are are the souls of the dead?" Maria's voice dropped to a whisper.

"Yes. All have the strong urge to go into the light. Most don't know that they could end up in Hell if they go through it, but some rebellious souls realize this and stay here as long as they can before getting sucked in. I have been attacked multiple times by these souls, and that has taught me to hide."

Maria looked around them, using her soul sight, and realized that they were in a sort of hazy circle.

"What are we in right now?"

"A vacuum. We survive in it because we are dead- well, almost dead in your case."

"Since a vacuum is nothingness and so are we, we survive." Maria connected the dots easily.

"Exactly. It looks like this batch has no rebel souls, so I think we can leave this circle. I don't like staying in them for too long."

The last soul walked into the light and the light shone brighter before disappearing altogther. Lyra stood and walked out of the circle first, Maria following.

As she stepped out of the circle, it felt like she was being splashed awake with cold water. She gasped at the strange sensation.

"You get used to it after a while." Lyra chuckled.

"That's right, you've been waiting for me for a generation." Maria realized just how long Lyra had been here.

"Yes. I had your mother at a young age before William killed me. I've been here ever since, waiting for someone like you to show up."

Suddenly Maria started coughing, the loud sound disturbing the peace of the meadow. When the coughing fit was over she felt much weaker. Placing a hand to her heart, she noticed it was much slower and weaker than before.

"The time is nearly upon us." Lyra said.

The time to become a demon.