Mute - Revised (A Black Butler Fanfiction)

Chapter 9

The door opens. A familiar voice fills the room. "I can walk on my own."

Dana's POV

"Sebastian, you don't need to do this," I protest as we walk (he walks, I limp) down the hall to the breakfast room, his arm around my back to support me.

"I know, but you were shot, and I don't expect it to heal immediately." He gives a guarded smile.

He pushes the door open with his free hand as I frown, "I can walk on my own."

A small body slams into mine, knocking me out of Sebastian's grip. I stumble backward, trying to keep my balance. I look down to see MC, her face buried in my stomach and her arms wrapped around me. My shirt starts to soak up water.

I push her an arm's length away, squatting so I can meet her tearful eyes. Ice shoots through my veins, "What's wrong? Why are you crying?"

She smiles and signs something that melts the ice.

I love you.

MC's POV

I love you, I sign, feeling so light I could have floated up through the air.

A white-hot fire pierces my arm as sharp nails dig into my bandaged wound, yanking me to the ground. "You filthy ass, you think you can punch my daughter and get away with it?" I try to get back up but my muscles won't cooperate.

"MC, are you okay?" Dana frets, rushing in to help me, "You haven't eaten anything at all, not for days," she gently grabs my good arm, starting to cautiously pull me up. "Come here, we'll go into the kitchen and -"

Mother lifts up her skirt just enough to drive the sharp heel of her shoe straight against the bandage covering Dana's bullet wound. Her grip on my arm falls away as she braces herself against the floor, inhaling in shock. A desperate desire to take her pain away - to make her wound heal - overcomes me. I want to take my gun and give it to her in the hopes she'll feel the same comfort I do.

"What kind of butler are you?" Mother questions. "My daughter is going to get a bruise and you're worried about what that bloody thing had to eat? Get off the floor and get her some ice."

I freeze, waiting for Dana to walk away. She has closed her eyes and seems to be struggling with something. The silence stretches on. Her bandage starts turning red.

Dana mumbles something. My breath catches at her tone.

"What was that?" Mother asks, her voice daring Dana to repeat it.

Dana's head snaps up and locks onto Mother's eyes. "I said no. Your other daughter will pass out from malnutrition and dehydration if we don't get her something to eat or drink. She has had a traumatizing weekend and desperately needs some relaxation and comfort and the knowledge that she is safe. She won't get that in this mansion. Here, her friends are the horses, her family the servants! She is one of the loneliest children I've ever met, and what's worse is she feels she deserves all the terrible things you do and say to her because you've warped her brain into thinking it's all true. She is kinder and sweeter and more thoughtful than anyone I've ever met, and you are too superficial and self-invested to see it. To appreciate it."

Mother's entire demeanor has shifted, from one of taunting to true rage. "I never gave you leave to tell me your opinion on how I run my house. I am her mother, you're just her butler, and I have more than half a mind to fire you right now."

Fire races through me, enough to get me up on my feet and in front of Dana. I signed something and pointed to Dana. The air near my right ear disappeared into her sharp intake of breath.

"She - what did she say?" Mother snarls.

Dana's gold eyes bore into mine. "She said I'm her mother."

I turn to face Mother, meeting her crazed ice blue eyes, so piercing they could have stabbed a hole right through my head. Her hair has strayed from its bun and floats around her face in a wild mange, and her bright red lipstick stands out like blood against her lips, twisted into a grimace.

I feel many things right now. Fear is not one of them.

Until her hand shoots out and digs deep into my arm, sending me straight back to the moment with the wolf. Acid enflames my wound, scorching the nerves and burning the blood. I pinch my eyes shut, trying to stop the flow of tears leaking from my heart and out my eyes. My thoughts go straight to my gun, but there is no doubt I could ever use it on her. She may hate me, but she wouldn't try and kill me.

"I am your mother, but you are not my daughter. You are a freak born, unwanted, into this otherwise perfect family. If Cole was still alive then we might be truly perfect. You, you are useless, and a runt, and a freak, who does not know how to even simply communicate, running off to waste your life and ruin our reputation as the Autumnvales, without a thought for anyone else but yourself!"

She throws me backward, the sheer force slamming my head to the ground. Black crawls into my vision, eating at my sight, stripping me of consciousness, of any chance of fighting back. The last thing I recall is a pair of arms cradling me.

Maybe I don't have to fight back. Maybe I could just sleep in my mother's embrace and listen to her heartbeat as my wounds heal and my eyes dry.