His Butler, Faithful

The True Story of April Phillips

“Oh, ‘Bassy, if you only kissed me like that!”

Sebastian turned around, laying eyes on none other than Grell Sutcliff, standing in the middle of the room dressed in his usual outfit: his red suit with his glasses strung with a small chain. His chainsaw dangled at his side as he grinned at him. “And just how long have you been there?” Sebastian said coolly, standing up to face the Grim Reaper.

“Long enough to confirm a devil really can love, hmm!” He brushed past Sebastian and knelt at April’s side. He looked up at the demon and smirked. “Curious to find out what your precious April’s past was like?” Sebastian bit his lip and flicked his gaze to her lifeless body. “Let’s have ourselves a peek, shall we?” He revved up his death scythe and drove it into her body, and Sebastian was soon overcome with shivers as her voice rang throughout the room, images from her life playing in front of him on movie reels that flowed out of her.

 

Many a time I pitied my own existence, but I promised myself to never become bitter. I was destined to be born to a whore and a drunkard. I was born on April the Third, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-one. I was raised on the filthy streets of New York, amongst prostitutes and gamblers. I spent the majority of my childhood running away from sinful and drunk men who wanted to take advantage of me. My father spent his days with liquor bottles in his hands. My mother was too preoccupied with tending to her customers to take care of me. So I took it upon myself to scavenge for food.

I never had any friends, except for literature. My first story was Cinderella, and I taught myself how to read from it. After that, I read any book that anyone discarded, or thieved books from the local stores. Reading all this fine literature taught me to talk differently, and the people around me condemned me for it- saying I was pretending to be upper class.

I dreamed of escape, and found my outlet when I was ten years-old. A train offloading supplies for the general stores had collapsed, and its contents had scattered everywhere. I packed a suitcase full of food and fled my from my life.

Even still, though, I was assaulted by lustful men. The remains of my food were taken by starving children. And I was in the middle of nowhere with nowhere to go. I had lost all hope at that point in my life. I thought I was doomed to be poor and dirty and tormented forever. Until, that day I met him.

That boy was no older than me. He had these mysterious red eyes that reminded me of the vampires I’d read about in my books. But he was more than a vampire- he was a devil. When the boy spoke to me, the first thing he said was that he could get rid of my pain. Right then, he’d produced my drunk father, and murdered him like it was nothing. I was frightened of the boy, but I saw he meant it when he said he could eliminate my pain.

But something within me said that was wrong. Killing the people who ruined my life was no way to make it better. I turned away the demon boy. I wanted to forgive and forget my painful childhood and create a better life for myself, rather than exact revenge. Then, when he disappeared with my father’s corpse, I hoped his soul would move on to a better place.

I survived by stealing food and sleeping in alleys of various towns I passed through for four years, until I heard of an orphan ship that was leaving for London. Supposedly, they were transporting girls to families who needed maids or helpers of some sort, or even to adopt them. And although my mother was still alive at the time, I sought out that ship. I travelled all the way to Boston in order to find it.

I snuck onto the ship when it was ready to sail, and thus pretended to be an orphan girl like the others. It was there that I met Ling Shun, Anna Washington, Charlotte Stewart, Arielle Kelley, and Justine Duffy. They could not read, and found my literacy skills to be magical. They called my their mother, because I would read them their favorite stories every night before they went to sleep. I was also their escape, because the sailors were cruel to us. They starved us and struck us if we did something “naughty.” Because I was so experienced at stealing food, I would take whatever was left in the kitchen and bring it to the other girls. It was my care for them that they trusted me and survived the trip. I never saw them again when they were taken to their families.

When we arrived to London, I was discovered. I wasn’t sent to a family as a result, but was left on the streets. I was fifteen by then, and was once again fending for myself. I was sixteen when Wallace Bullfinch caught me stealing a book from his shop. Instead of reprimanding me, he hired me as a clerk, and gave me a place to stay as payment.

He was a kind man, but soon after I’d taken up residence with him, he began drinking heavily outside of store hours, and grew angry as a result. He flung pots and pans at me for dropping a book. He’d call me a bitch and told me he regretted taking me under his wing. And then, once the store opened the next day, he never remembered the things he did to me and acted like nothing happened.

His grandson was horrid. Whenever he visited his grandfather, I had to act like his maid. He constantly spilled hot tea over my dress and grabbed me inappropriately. If I resisted, he would tell Wallace, who’d already resorted to drinking by then, that I was being mean to him, and I would be punished.

One day, I began regretting not taking the demon boy’s offer. I began to hate my life. At a young seventeen years-old, I had already gone through too much to handle- or so I thought. When I began contemplating summoning him, that was when Ciel Phantomhive and his household came into my life…

 

Sebastian closed his eyes when the image of him approaching April kneeled on the floor with her book showed on the reels, and Grell finished collecting the remainder of her soul.

“Well, ‘Bassy?” he crooned.

Sebastian smiled to himself. “What an extraordinary girl. I now see why her soul was so strong.”

Grell giggled, walking past him and opening a window. The storm had died down, and now the lonely sound of a soft wind could be heard. “I shall take my leave now.” He turned around and cracked him a wide, shark-toothed grin. “I do hope we meet again! The sight of your lovely face gives me tingles!” As he hopped over the sill, Sebastian turned to the doorframe. Ciel was standing in its threshold, staring down at his maid’s body.

“We should do something about him,” he said.

The butler’s gaze travelled to Lord Blackwell’s now unconscious body. “Hmm, yes, but something tells me you don’t really care about him.”

“I don’-” Ciel’s voice broke as he fell to his knees and sobbed uncontrollably over April. His small shoulders shook violently, and he tore off his eyepatch to allow his eye more freedom to cry. Sebastian knelt beside him, slinging his arm around the boy’s shoulders.