Comforting Darkness

Chapter 63: The Tutor, Truth and Nothing but Truth

Silence covered the blood spattered, filled with dead bodies, entrance hall of the Phanthomhive manor, as the long and painful narration came to an end. Streams of dried tears were visible on Undertaker's pale cheeks as he took a deep breath before speaking again.

"You know or can imagine most of what followed after that meeting. Vincent invited me in his house, in his family in a way, and I was happy watching him and his family grow... it was what was left of Claudia and I had every intention of keeping them safe..." His lips turned down sadly and his head lowered. "Of course, I failed to that too and could not bring him back... he was so horribly burnt... it would be impossible, even for me, to keep him alive, but... little Ciel." He caressed the cold cheek of the dead boy again. "My experiments had progressed so much, I was near absolute success so I had to save him! I just needed a large scale test and..."

"You simply decided to manipulate, use and fool an ambitious idiot that shared your vision." Sebastian's voice was heard in a matter of factly tone. "And then you continued harvesting blood by selfish idiots, who thought would reach enlightenment or whatever your puppet sold them." He said and threw a side glance to the absolutely terrified Blavat shivering on the floor. The demon smirked at the thought of how close to success Undertaker reached indeed... but did the mistake of underestimating him, his young master and his mate.

"I am also a selfish idiot... stepping over everyone and everything in my path to achieve my famous revenge, so I am not suitable to judge you, Undertaker..." Young master said with wooden voice and expressionless face. "But that does not mean what you did is not utterly sick or punishable." His voice turned to ice now.

"So... I guess that yer actual plan, after reviving the real Ciel, was to show us what Sebastian really is so that we would try to kill him - in case you failed - releasing young master from him and then...?" Bard asked suddenly.

Undertaker nodded and giggled. "There would be nothing separating the brothers, their brotherly competition would stop and... they could continue from where they left off." He shrugged with a smile like he was daydreaming.

"Right... Excuse my ignorance around supernaturals and yer points of views in relationships but... in my poor human opinion, that was too much to be considered a healthy brotherly competition. Brothers that love each other, usually compete on who runs faster, does this or that better... not framing or killing each other!" The chef seemed quite frustrated with how absurd Undertaker's plan seemed to him. Any fear or hesitation he might had, concerning the revelations for his co-workers, totally gone.

Undertaker's smile withered away as he turned to the only Phantomhive heir left alive. He furrowed his brows and tilted his head to the side confused, as he blinked in an effort to see the boy's face clearer - it seemed the effect of the dust the witch had sprinkled his eyes had already worn off. He attempted to lean closer, stick his face to that of the boy's, but the reapers pulled him back and Sebastian pushed him brandishing a knife on the scared throat, something entirely ignored even when it dug a little in Undertaker's skin.

"My lord, I cannot see your face... do you despise me? No, you understand why I did what I did, right? You must understand, you are the only one that can understand! You know how it hurts losing everyone!" He kept saying the same time Grell and Ronald pulled him back on his feet and away from the kneeled and bloodied group.

"Come on, it is time for us to go. You have a lot to answer for and be punished." William's voice was heard, calm and stable as always. The stern reaper did not even bat an eyelash during the narration; whether any of these touched him a little or not was impossible to know.

"My lord..." Desperation took over Undertaker as young master remained silent.

He knew the boy would not love and forgive him all of a sudden, but it seemed it was really important for him to know that he did not despise and hate him, at least. It seemed so out of his character, but then again... He had changed so much the last few months and now, during the hour his narration took place, many more sides of himself were revealed, making it almost impossible to claim knowledge of the reaper's true character, other than he was always an extremely sentimental man. That was what Selina could tell for sure and knew how it felt up to a point, but there was something she needed to ask.