Silence.
It fell throughout the household as I stared at him. He lay there, bloodied, ruined-completely unlike the pristine butler I knew so well.
Unliving.
Unmoving.
Unspeaking.
"Quit playing around!" I barked angrily, forcing myself to believe that it was a cruel joke. "Get up!" He didn't even twitch. He just laid there, blood barely trickling from his lips.
My other servants stood behind me, crying, horror stricken. None of us could perceive the horrible, sickening truth. No-it wasn't that we couldn't. It was that we refused to. The almighty Sebastian Michaelis-the demon who gloated about being "one hell of a butler"... He couldn't be dead... He couldn't! I stood in place, staring wordlessly at the person who was to stay by my side until the last bell tolled. My Sebastian. My butler.
"S...ebas...tian...?" My voice fell out as a soft whimper, completely unlike me. I felt my heart lurch the way it had when I saw my father sitting calmly as the flames licked around him. Engulfing him. Ending him. And here I was, reliving the horror in a different fashion... Sebastian... He couldn't be gone...
'Once you lose something, you can never truly get it back again...'
My own words sliced through my mind and a sob erupted from my lungs. No. No! No, Sebastian!
"Sebastian!" I screamed, stepping forward with an arm outstretched. Small arms flew around my waist and Mey Rin cried out, "no, young master! You mustn't touch him!"
Before I realized what I was doing, my hand flew out and connected with her cheek. The harsh sound of the slap reverberated along the walls, and horrified tears slipped down her cheeks. Finnian and Baldroy were even crying, but it was softly. Quietly, as if even now, in the utter worst moment of my life-the moment that surpassed my parent's deaths-they didn't want to appear weak to me.
I barely stepped to the black haired man lying on the floor, red eyes staring up into mine, though I knew they couldn't see. I sat on his chest, touching his bloodied cheek, stroking endearingly in a way I wouldn't have dared tried to do in his living state. My eyes stung dangerously as I stared down at the still inhumanly beautiful demon I called Sebastian Michaelis.
"Sebastian... Are you dead...?" I whispered. More sobs came from Finnian and Mey Rin.
"You...only you..," My voice cut off and I choked down a sob, "you were supposed to stay by my side until the very end..." I felt my cheeks dampen, and a tear fell onto his bloodied cheek. "My butler..."
I lowered my chest to his and pressed my face into his shoulder, a long silence falling in the room like it had when everything had occurred-when I had found my black haired demon lying lifeless on the floor. My Sebastian... My beloved butler...
My immortal...
