Bounded By A Seal (Ciel X F!OC)

The Demon Hound Of Barrymore Castle

~Chapter~

That night, Ciel and I sat in his guest room for a little while just to talk about the future of the resort. I lean on the arm of the chair, and place my chin in my hand, "so, what do you think about this curse lord Barrymore spoke of earlier? Sounds rather exciting" Ciel smiles as he sets his book down, "it does sound rather exciting. But do you really think it's a curse? Or just some silly superstition to scare off anyone who threatens the Barrymore family." He repeats what Barrymore said earlier. I smile back, "maybe. But curse or not, it's a mystery that I've been dying to have. So I'm excited to say the least" I look over at Irene, who was watching Sebastian set up Ciels room for the night, "don't you think so, Irene?" She looks over at me, giving a closed eyed smile, "it is a rather interesting thing. Whether its true or not though, we'll just have to interfere with the peace of the Barrymore family and find out" Sebastian looks over at her and nods, "I would agree."

A sudden knock on the door causes us all to flinch, "come in" Ciel calls out. The door opens, and Angela walks in, "Angela, hello. How are you feeling after earlier?" I asked her. She smiles my way, "much better lady Goldesbury, thank you for asking. And thank you for the help earlier." I nod her way, "what is it that you need?" Sebastian asks, "the lord and lady are going to retire soon." Angela looks over at Sebastian, she bows, "I'm so sorry. But I have a request to make"
"A request?" Ciel asks. Angela nods, "yes. You must leave the castle, leave the village completely, you mustn't stay here" she suddenly says all panicked. I blink a few times, sitting up in the chair, "what?"
"And why should we leave, Angela?" Ciel asks her. Angela frowns, "I'm sorry, but I can't say." A sudden howl echos outside, making us all jump.

My eyes scan around the room, "what was that?" I ask in a whisper. Angela gasps, shaking in fear, "no! The demon hound! It's coming!" She screams, "the what?" Ciel asked while he stands. Angela's eyes widen, and points to the window. She screams again. We all turn to look at the window, a shadow of a giant dog was on it, "what the hell is that?!" I shout, now standing myself, "Sebastian!" Ciel calls. Sebastian runs to the window, and pulls the curtains open. Nothing was there.

Ciel and I exchange weary looks before we run over to the window by Sebastian to look, "what was that thing?" I ask. Ciel frowns, "I'm not sure.." he mutters. Sebastian points ahead, "Master, Lady Goldesbury, over there." Ciel and I follow his finger to see a dog made of bright green dust running down the road to the village. My eyes widen, "it's going to the village!" I turn on my heel, taking Ciels hand, "uh- Rosalie!" I run towards the door, Ciel tripping all the way behind me, "Irene!"
"Yes my lady!" I open the door and run out, Irene and the rest following behind.

*************************

Outside, we find the same green dust from the dog on the ground. It lead from the mansion all the way to the village. Ciel and I kneel down to examine it. He wipes his finger in it, and rubs the dust together between his fingers. I frown as I stare at the dust.

'This kinda looks like..'

My eyes widen upon realizing what the dust looks like, "Ciel-"
"I know." He mutters.

'From up close. This looks an awful like phosphorescent dust.'

I turn to Irene and wave her over. She walks over to me, and bends down to my height. I lean in and whisper, "could you take a look around lord Barrymores property and belongings and see if you can find something that looks like this? If that fails, please test this dust and return it to me and tell me the results" Irene nods, "if it's any better my lady, I can do both" I nod back, "thats fine as well, thank you." Irene gets up, and goes back inside to get started on the order.

"Master!" Ciel and I turn our heads to see his servants run out as Irene runs back in, "Angela!" Finny calls out.

'Just Angela?'

"What's going on here? What's all the fuss about?!" Bard shouts in a tired confusion. Angels places her hands together and shakes her head sadly, "the demon hound is here." She says, "Demon hound?" The three of them ask confused. Tanaka on the other hand was just looking around like it was the best day of his life.

"It brings great catastrophe to the village," Angela explains, "anyone who dares to defy my master...will be punished by the demon hound. That is the law, there is no way to stop it!" The servants gasp. I look over at Ciel, "so this must be the curse lord Barrymore talked about earlier" Ciel hums, "it appears so." I prop my elbow onto my knee, placing my chin on my hand, "but why would a demon hound trail around phosphorescent dust?" I ask. Ciel shrugs, "guess we'll have to find that out once Irene gets back."

"Angela!" Ciel and I stand as we watch a group of villagers run up, they had torches and pitchforks in hand.

'It's like a scene from a monster book'

"Please wake lord Barrymore at once! The demon hound has come again!" A villager tells her. Angela gives a worried look, "who was punished this time?" She asks. The villager frowns in response, "it was James."

*************************

The group of villagers take us to the boy they called James. It was the guy we saw earlier when we arrived in town, training a dog. His clothes were ripped up, and he was covered in bite marks, a collar was tied around his neck.

Ciel bends down to examine the man, while I stood over him to look over the body, "poor guy, I wonder what did this to him." Ciel picks his hand up to look at the bite marks as he replies, "well, apparently it was the demon hound." I hum, "right, but is it really?" Ciel glances up at me, "Why don't you take a look yourself?" I raise a brow as I kneeled down next to Ciel to look at the bite marks he was referring to. I tilt my head, confused, "I know it's meant to be the bite marks of a demon hound, but.." I trail off. Ciel hums, "It looks rather similar to the bite mark structure of one of those skulls lord Barrymore has around his house, right?" He says. I nod, "it does. How odd.."

"Stand back! Don't touch it!" We snap our heads back just as we see the crowd part to make way for lord Barrymore.

'Finally joined the party I see'

"I see it was James who was the bad dog." He says with a sigh, "yes, he broke the legal restriction on dog ownership. He had six dogs, one more than is allowed." A villager confirmed, "a sixth dog? Then it was inevitable." Lord Barrymore replies, like this was totally normal. I blink a couple of times in disbelief, I scoff, "I'm sorry? So you're telling me that this man died because of a dog number restriction? How is that a justification to murder?! It's just a dog!" I shout at him, "this village is under my rule, and no other! The demon hound protects that rule. As the guardian of the Barrymore family, it punishes anyone and everyone who dares challenge me!" Barrymore retorts. I stand up, "that's bullshit! That's not fair at all! Who cares if he has one more dog than he's supposed to? Demon hound or not that isn't a reason to be killed! It's obvious this guy just had a big heart for animals so why was he killed for just being kind-" I get pulled back by my arm, causing me to gasp. I turn my head to see Ciel, he just shakes his head, "that's not going to help anyone, and you know it." I frown, "but it's unfair." I reply. As if that would make a difference. I can say how how unfair it was as much as I'd like to, but James was already dead.

Ciel hums, "I know. But the only way we can help now is solving this case" he gives me a small smile, "so just calm down, okay?" I scan Ciels face for a moment before sighing. Ciel drops my arm, "fine."

The crowd then starts to chant the same song the old woman we saw earlier today sang as they collected James' body, "the white dog is a good dog a good dog good. The black dog is a bad dog a bad dog bad. He'll eat your flesh to the bone to the bone. He'll gobble you up till your gone till you're gone." The villages song gets quieter and quieter the farther they get, "lullaby the sun sets, lullaby goodnight." Then, they repeat the song.

Lord Barrymore looks back at us, a frown on his face, "I was sure you outsiders were going to be its next prey. You were lucky to have escaped." After that rather ominous sentence, Barrymore and Angela followed the villagers to go bury James' body. I ball my hands into fists and scoff, "jackass. If anything he's the one whose lucky I don't bitch slap those ugly chops of his off." Ciel pats my shoulder, "now now Rosalie. You're not wrong but he is still a lord, don't say stuff like that out in the open." I fold my arms and roll my eyes, "I know.."

Sebastian looks over at us, "what now master?" Ciel looks back up at him and says, "now, we fix their demon hound problem."