Comforting Darkness

Chapter 9: The Tutor, Given a Second Chance

The end of May was very close now and the Phantomhive manor's staff was working in quite a frenzy. In a few days the 4th of June would come and that meant they would travel to Weston school to watch their master participate, for the first time in his life, in a team sports event; the school's annual cricket tournament. Everyone was excited for young master's success and that made them even more careless than usual, making it really difficult for Selina to keep them in order and do their job, so that they would leave the manor in a good state, and for the master to be satisfied in case he returned home soon after the tournament.

Lady Lizzie was also very excited and had informed them she would watch the tournament with them, instead of her parents, because she wanted to cheer up Ciel... to her brother's dismay. Therefore, the picnic the household had decided to have while watching had to be more elegant, presentable and... cute for her sake. Mey-Rin informed Selina that Mr. Sebastian had stored some blankets of higher quality in an air tight closet in the cellar, but the maid did not seem willing to go down there and so Selina had to do that too.

She went down the winding stairs thinking it was quite natural for the young maid to be afraid of the cellar. Not long ago there were some dead bodies in there; one of them the "murdered" Sebastian, who "miraculously resurrected" shortly after his burial, as Mey-Rin had told her one night – while sewing and patching some clothes – during the narration of the horrible murders that had occurred in the manor after a party. Selina smiled at this memory, since she could not tell her why the butler had been resurrected and had to act as surprised and amazed. She was really fond of the red-headed maid and did not want to ruin her crush on the so amazing demon butler.

She was told the closet was in the often chilly corridor outside the cellar, so she found it easily. There were actually two closets, one across the other, but the key Mey-Rin had pointed to fitted in the keyhole of only one closet, the newer one. The key turned with some difficulty and then Selina grabbed the handle and pulled lightly, the door did not even budge. She tried again, and again, and again with no results. With every try she put more strength and effort, but still nothing.

In the end she pulled really hard and finally the door unstuck and opened suddenly. Selina tried to keep her balance but it was in vain since her momentum was quite strong and she crashed her back on the older closet. The rotten door immediately gave in and Selina found herself on the ground with things tumbling over her. When she managed to open her eyes and lower the hands she had lifted as a shield, she saw... guns. Many guns, heavy guns, very few rifles, more machine guns and lots and lots of dynamite scattered around her.

"What the hell? What are these doing here?" She managed to get on her knees and looked inside the closet; there was still a flamethrower leaning on the closet wall... she immediately knew. "Baldroy!"

She knew the chef was weird – who exactly was not weird in this household and she was the last one to speak – but nothing had prepared her for this. When she had first seen Bard with a flamethrower, she supposed he used to be a worker that had something to do with that stuff and was difficult for him to let it go, or that he could not get used to the new lifestyle of a patient chef. But this situation here was beyond what she had ever imagined. She had to have a serious talk with Bard. A talk that Sebastian had not done? That was really unusual for the demon.

She got up and started towards the stair but then remembered the reason why she came down here. She went to the second closet, looked through the blankets and chose the pinkest she could find, knowing it would please the young lady, even if she did not sit on it. As she took the blanket in her arms a sweet aroma wafted around her making her breath deeply to fill her lungs. It was lavender along with other flowery scents in a perfect combination, like the best bouquet of flowers she could think of.