Tangled Web (A Black Butler Fan Fiction)

Chapter Twenty-One

"Selena, I don't think I like Alois," Lizzie said nearly a week after the costume ball.

Join the club, I thought immediately.

"Why?"

"He was talking about me to me," Lizzie said. She was still shaken up about it. I thought she would be more shaken up that she had to dance with Alois.

"Yeah, I know," I said. I sat next to her. I didn't like seeing her so down. "We are twins though. It's always possible he couldn't tell us apart. We will meet people that just can't tell us apart."

She looked to me with a tearful smile. "Thanks."

"How was dancing with Alois? I've never got the chance to dance with him."

She just stared at me. I know she's gotten to dance with Ciel on at least one occasion because, like me, Ciel can't say no to her.

"He was an okay dancer but there is just something I don't like about him."

Yeah, I think I know what it is, I thought.

"What was it like dancing with Ciel?"

Instantly, my mind thought of what he said: "I promise, Selena." I resisted the urge to shudder. This time, his words sounded cold. Like he was determined to be victorious if they ever battled each other. But something deep in me tells me Ciel and Alois, if they do fight, will be to the death.

"He was fine," I said. "I think he was worried about you."

Lizzie turned a couple shades of pink. "Was he really?" she asked excitedly.

Way to turn your attitude around, Lizzie.

"Yes, of course he was."

Lizzie jumped up from where she was sitting and hugged me before running out of the room. I think she was going to write Ciel a letter. Mother and Father forbade her from spontaneously visiting Ciel since he has a business to run. I personally thought they stopped her because they found out Ciel helps Queen Victoria police the underworld. I'm just wondering when they'll forbid me from visiting Alois since he's the world's most evil boy alive.

I got up from the library couch where Lizzie suddenly left me and made my way to our gardens hoping no one was in there. I needed time to think. Mother and Father wanted what was best for Ciel and Lizzie's relationship. I think they're just giving me to someone without thinking twice. I know Lizzie and I are different people with completely different people. But once, just once, I would like to be treated like Lizzie.

The first time I noticed the difference in the way my parents treated Lizzie and me. Lizzie and I were five years old. Lizzie, Ciel, and I just figured out that Lizzie and Ciel would be betrothed to each other, leaving me without a suitor. At the time, I could have cared less. Neither of us really had any idea what the word betrothed meant. After they told us and dismissed us to play, I lagged behind to hear the adults talk.

"Are you sure you were right in chosing Elizabeth over Selena for Ciel?" Rachel asked with a concerned tone. "Selena is afterall the older of the girls."

I was beginning to like Rachel more and more. She sounded like my mother never did with me but did with Lizzie.

"Selena doesn't deserve someone like Ciel as a tutor. She's always reading or trying to achieve more on her studies as if that's all the suitor will like her for," my father said quickly and angerily.

Rachel and Vincent looked at each other. Apparently, there was something they knew that my parents didn't.

"You are sure you won't chose Selena? I thought it was a birthright for something like this?" Vincent asked. He had Ciel's black hair. Rachel had Ciel's deep, sapphire eyes.

"Parents can revoke the birthright. Selena isn't good for a boy like your son. She needs someone different."

Vincent and Rachel seemed taken back. I was too. I stepped away from the door and walked away, trying to brush it off. It wasn't until a couple years later that it really kicked in. Lizzie and Ciel were spending more time together, my parents purposely left me out. I started liking the solitude my parents forced me in. The only person who willingly came into my lonely world of solitude was Madame Red.

"What's wrong, Selena?" she asked as she sat next to me on the garden bench.

"Mom and Dad won't let me play," I said. It was a common complaint I had whenever the Phantomhives came over.

Madame Red smiled. "I know how you feel. To be honest, I have no idea what your parents' deal is."

Tears dripped down my cheeks. Solitude made me lonely and sad. Madame Red makes it better but it's still lonely.

Madame Red wrapped me in a hug. "Don't worry, Selena. I'll always be here for you."

She was until the Jack the Ripper incident. She ended up dying soon after Viscount Druitt's end of the season ball. Lizzie was devistated, and so was I. I just refused to cry. I didn't want my parents to see it. They already thought of me as low anyway. Lizzie and I went to the funeral. Ciel showed up with a red dress. Somehow, I knew he'd do something like it. Still then, I refused to cry until I was alone in the gardens. She was the only one who understood my world.

The gardens seem to be my only safe haven at this dreadful house. My room could be invaded by parents who don't truly care. The library has been close but Mother and Father could lock it and take the key with them. At least in the gardens I can easily avoid people by moving to a different place. It was times like this when I really missed Madame Red. Even though she was a doctor, she didn't let her parents stop her when she went to get her medical degree.

Maybe I should do what I want even if it makes my parents upset with me. It's not like they care enough to notice me anyway. They proved that when I was five when they revoked my birthright of getting betrothed first.

I looked to the sky. Even after yesterday's talk with Lizzie about Alois. This was my second time heading to the gardens to escape my homelife.

"Madame Red, please, help me," I whispered. "I need some sort of change in my world."

"Selena!" the voice of my mother called from the terrace of the manor.

I started running to the manor. Even if she doesn't think of me highly, she is still my mother and I still have to obey her. I stopped running when I reached the stairs that ascended to my mother.

"This just arrived for you," she said as she held out a letter.

I ascended the stairs quickly wondering who it was from. "Thank you," I said taking it from her. I didn't bother asking who it was from. She would proceed to tell me it wasn't lady-like and walk away like usual.

I opened the letter. It was from Hannah, one of Alois's servants.

Mistress Selena,
Alois would like you to accompany him soon. Please see him the day after tomorrow. He hopes you can make it. He would like to apologize for how he acted at the costume ball as well. You are all he talks about.
Hannah Annafellows, Alois Trancy's Servant

Something about that letter didn't seem right. Maybe it was just me, but part of me didn't want to find out the reason Alois really wanted to see me.