You Can't Hide Forever

His Butler, Phantom Image (part 1)

~~Claire's POV~~

It had been a few days since we had gotten back from Houndsworth. No new incidents had occurred yet and I wasn't questioned like I expected. Mey-Rin, Bard, Finny, Tanaka, and I were standing in front of Ciel's desk in his study. It looked like I was the only calm one there, besides Tanaka and Ciel.

"S-So, what did you want to speak with us about?", Mey-Rin asked nervously. Ciel looked up calmly.

"I have a job I want you to do", he said. Mey-Rin, Bard, and Finny's faces all lit up.

"J", Bard started.

"O", Mey-Rin said.

"B?!", Finny finished. They did a group hug.

"Thank goodness!", Bard and Finny said one after another.

"When he called us here I was so sure we were fired, yes!", Mey-Rin said. Ciel pulled out a camera.

"This is a camera said to have been in the famous Talbot's collection. It's got a story to it. It was missing for some time, but I heard it was coming up at auction and went to great pains to get it", Ciel said. The others looked confused.

"Talbot...?", Finny asked. Tanaka stepped up.

"William Henry Fox Talbot. He was an English scientist and one of the inventors of photographic technology. There were queer rumors about the last camera he used. Legend has it that when you photograph someone with this camera, whomever he thinks of most fondly will appear in the picture...perhaps", Tanaka said.

"Whomever he thinks of most fondly?!", Mey-Rin said happily.

"Can such a clever camera really exist?", Bard asked.

"Oh, no, no!", Mey-Rin said as Tanaka went back to his usual self. Ciel positioned the camera to face Finny.

"Shall we take a shot to test it out?", Ciel asked. Finny looked at him as Ciel put his head under the black rag to take the picture. "Don't move. Exposure takes ten seconds."

Ciel took the lens off and Finny stood as still as he possibly could. "Wh-What's 'exposure'?", Mey-Rin asked.

"To put it plainly, it's copying an image of Finny", Bard explained.

"If you don't stay still for ten seconds, the image will blur and we won't get a good picture", Ciel said as it looked like Finny was having trouble standing still. "8, 9, 10...done." Ciel put the lens back on the camera and came out from under the black rag as Finny let out a large breath and began to breathe heavily as if catching his breath. "It would have been all right to breathe."

Finny looked up like he didn't know that until that moment and we all followed Ciel to a small dark room to get the photo. Ciel lifted the photo out of the liquid as we all watched. Finny gasped once he saw the photo.

"Wow! It's my little birdie!", Finny said as we all looked at the picture. Finny was standing a little awkwardly, but he was also still. Right beside him in the picture was a little bird.

"Huh? You have a birdie?", Bard asked.

"It's so cute!", Mey-Rin said happily. We all headed back to Ciel's study and Finny told us the story of his little birdie while holding a wooden figure.

"I gave it food every day, and one day it started eating out of my hand! I was so happy I gave it a gentle pat, and...", Finny said as the head of the figure snapped and broke off the rest of the figure. "It stopped moving..." Finny stoked the now broken figure.

"Y-You mean...?", Mey-Rin said in shock.

"Ah, I forgot. The only loved ones that the camera will show are otherworldly beings...in other words, the dead", Tanaka said.