A Mere Child {Sebaciel} ON PAUSE

Chapter 9

Ciel sat on the alley floor. He looked at the broken glistening pieces of glass that lay under him. Was he really going to lose Sebastian?

A slim black strutted up to Ciel. It looked up into Ciel's face with curiosity. Ciel sneezed, and the cat jumped back, its curiosity startled away. Ciel looked up at the cat and reached for it. The cat looked torn between letting itself be petted or hissing at Ciel and running. The cat touched Ciel's extended hand with the tip of its nose before turning and running.

Ciel lunged for the cat, "Wait!"

Ciel struggled to his feet and ran after it. The cat did not pause or look back. Its body extended and compressed in long lunges. It zipped down the alley and disappeared around a corner into the shadows. Ciel followed it only to find a dead woman lying on the floor. Her face was twisted into an agonized scream. A fake engraved laughed was slit into her face, but the fear and her screams stained her opened dead eyes. Her stomach had been ripped open. Her insides draped out of the wound and tumbled over her sides. Something glistened and caught the light within the gaping bloody hole in her stomach. Ciel stepped closer only to find a glittering mask like those worn in masquerades,

Ciel stumbled back. Memories whirled in his head, and the sickening, putrid, odor and sight of them made his stomach churn. Blood. Blood. Blood. Everything splattered and soaked in blood. His blood. Haunting stomach-wrenching laughs and his own desperate screams. Cold steal. Masks. Beautiful terrifying masks....

"Meow."

Ciel looked up startled and wide eyed. The memories' filthy claws left vile marks and the haunting melody of all the racket from the past resonated so that Ciel was still dazed in it, trapped.

The slim black cat sat perched on a stack of wooden boxes. It looked down at Ciel with shimmering knowing glint in its eye. Then, it simply licked its paw. Its small tongue came away stained red. Ciel stepped over the woman and reached for the cat, "Sebastian?"

The cat set its paw down and looked down at Ciel. It blinked once. Then it slowly stood with complete peace and sauntered away with all the amused boredom and conceit cats carry. Ciel watched it leave, giving up on the fact it may have been Sebastian. He turned to look on the woman on the floor.

Long ago on that night, Sebastian had killed everyone present in the room they tortured Ciel for the last time. Not a single person was spared. There was no reason why there would still be some living. Unless, it had begun again. The show finding a new home to fester and revel in the bloodshed.

Ciel stood and left. He had no doubt it had been Sebastian who had killed the woman. The real question was where Sebastian was. Ciel began walking through the streets once more, braving himself to walk through the glittering glass covered alleys.

His shoes crunched as he walked, whispering to him a warning to turn back. Ciel was determined though, he kept walking forward with firm determination. That was until, he heard a scream.

He saw a flicker of what entangled in blank rush by in a blur through the alley ahead. Ciel ran to it to find Undertaker standing with his back to Ciel. His coat flapped around him like an excited shadowy beast. When the beast shifted to its owner's side, a small form lay in front on the floor.

Ciel's feet skidded and slipped off the glass as he stomped his feet in a clumsy rush to reach. He fell to the small forms side. Glass tore his pants and cut into his palms. The glittering gems staining and drowning in the blood of Ciel and... Sebastian.

Undertaker looked down with curious eyes, "Heh heh, look at this. The master groveling at the level of the vassal. Ciel this thing will only cause you trouble. It will cause you pain, for its only purpose is to destroy."

Undertaker's scythe was stuck in Sebastian's back. Sebastian's small form shivered and convulsed in a fit of wet, blood-soaked, coughing. Ciel ignored Undertaker's words and fell upon the weak form. He grabbed hold of the scythe by the blade. The metal cut into Ciel's palm, but he paid no attention to such a frivolous thing, when something so great lay in risk.

He pulled the blade out of Sebastian's back, and his small figure fell to the side. His face was pail and his eyes distant. Ciel cupped Sebastian's face. "Sebastian," he pleaded. "Sebastian snap out of it."

Ciel shook Sebastian gently as if the child on the floor was made of shattered glass and wasn't a demo.

Sebastian blinked. His eyelids were weighted, closing slowly and opening slower. However, he looked up at Ciel with dead eyes. The minute his eyes met Ciel's, it was an impact. An explosion that set off a thousand flames that burned bright and vengeful in the eyes of the dying child.

Sebastian glared at Ciel. Unable to stand, he writhed backwards in hopes of distancing himself from Ciel, "Stay away from me! I don't need you! This is my fight! I won't die until I fulfill my end of the contract! That is what I am working for! To get you your revenge, so I can eat your soul and be done with you once and for all!"