🌙When the Lights Go Down🌙

Chapter 11

It was late morning when Ciel finally woke, his abdominal muscles protesting even the smallest of movements. It was the only proof that The Undertaker had indeed punched him last night and that it wasn't a dream. The pain was too real and Ciel pressed his fingers against the sore area tenderly, wincing slightly. His mind was hazy and Ciel couldn't remember how he made it home. His car was sitting innocently in the driveway and Ciel remembered waking up in it a few hours ago, but how he got there was still a blur.

Ciel moaned and dropped his head back onto the pillow. It hurt to think and it hurt to move, but Ciel was a glutton for punishment. His mind raced, despite the pounding headache between his eyes and Ciel groaned softly. "Think," he whispered and looked for his phone so he could check the time.

It wasn't in its normal spot and Ciel reached over the edge of the bed, fingers searching for it. They bumped into the coarse material of his bag and curled around it. Small trickles of a memory seeped back into his mind and his fingers tightened against the bag before he pulled it up onto the bed.

The bag was opened slowly and Ciel dug around for his phone before his fingers finally grasped it. It was pulled out of the bag, his knuckles bumping into something hard along the way. The phone was pulled out and set to the side before Ciel reached down again to grab the plastic thing in his bag.

It was light and thin, and Ciel's eyebrows furrowed. He didn't remember packing anything like this the night before. The words 'a little parting gift for you, to show you what you really lost tonight' filtered through his waking conscience and Ciel brought the object up for inspection, realizing that it was a DVD.

His name was scrawled across it in messy handwriting and Ciel set it aside for later as he checked the messages on his phone. The DVD nagged on his mind the entire time, keeping Ciel from focusing until at last, he tossed the phone aside with a small scowl and picked up the DVD case once more.

The more he looked at it, the more memories started to bubble and surface in his mind until Ciel's eyes widened. Last night's events came crashing back down around him with the force of a sledgehammer. His body grew numb as he remembered the anger in Master's voice, the way the older male had struck him after calling him 'Claude,' and the words that had been shouted after that.

A sour taste filled Ciel's mouth and his eyes screwed shut as he remembered how he had acted last night. The way he had so willingly tossed aside Sebastian in his mind at the first belief that Master was Claude. How could he do something like that after everything Ciel had told himself that afternoon after his lunch with Claude?

There had been a hope there, a belief that Claude was different in the shadows than in the limelight and Ciel scoffed at himself. That didn't make any sense at all. Claude would never abandon the light for the shadows. Even if DIE was famous, it was a hidden famous and Claude wanted to be known worldwide.

Claude wouldn't change; Ciel was foolish to believe that. However, he had believed it and it had led to dire consequences in the end when Ciel had called Master by Claude's name. He had been blinded by desires that shouldn't have been there anymore and Ciel felt guilt press down on his shoulders. Everything he had promised himself had been tossed away in one foolhardy risk, a risk that hadn't paid off in the end.

DIE's boss was furious at him for that stunt and would never see him again. Perhaps the only good thing that had come from all this was that it had been a clean break. Ciel would never know who he was saying goodbye to by leaving Master and wouldn't have any regrets that way. He had his regrets now at how he had acted but that was different.

Still, Master's words continued to ring in his head, claiming that Claude had ruined his life and they confused him. It seemed as though that was the third life Claude had ruined. First Sebastian's, then Master's, and now, Ciel's. Questions burned in Ciel's mind though and he wanted to know what had happened between Claude and Master, but now, Ciel was more than hesitant at seeing Claude again.