The manor was dark, and the darkness had brought with it a cool blanket, making Baldroy wrap his arms around his chest. Surprisingly enough, the tiles on the floor were warmer than he had expected, and they felt good underneath his bare feet.
He looked at the doors of the rooms he was passing, wondering what guests that they had held behind their doors before Ciel took over. Had they housed a Phantomhive at one point? Or had they never been used at all?
Lost in his thoughts, he stopped when he caught sight of a figure in the main living room. Baldroy went to take a step closer, then stopped, blinking.
It didn't look like a normal person; as in, it didn't seem to have a definite form. Smoke wrapped around the figure, and the chef thought he could make out horns on the top of the person's head. In a fleeting thought, Baldroy wished he had brought his gun with him.
Like that would do a lot of good against a ghost...
The figure seemed to turn, and for a split second, burning sepia eyes bored into him. Then they widened, and faded, turning to a burnt-orange color he knew all too well. Sebastian.
"Baldroy?" the butler's voice was quiet, like he didn't want to disrupt anyone sleeping, though no-one would hear them talking. "It's past midnight. What are you doing up?"
"I-I couldn't sleep. Those nightmares...again.."
"So that is who I heard talking earlier. You were calling for a medic." Sebastian's voice had faded slightly by the end, and he was resting a hand on the small of his back. After a quick observation, the chef realized Sebastian had gone from the smoky figure he had seen to flesh-and-bone.
"I-I was talking in my sle-" Baldroy paused as he saw Sebastian's face turn into a grimace, his body seeming to tense up for a second. The butler stayed like that for a second, with his other hand wrapped around the prominent swell of his stomach.
When the pain seemed to pass, Sebastian collapsed against the couch next to him.
Baldroy felt at a loss for words. He had seen a demonic-looking figure that turned out to be Sebastian, and now that same butler was in pain. Come to think of it, it looked a lot like how his sister Natalina had looked the day Baldroy acquired his young niece, Lorrie.
That struck fear into Baldroy's chest, but he tried to keep his expression as calm as possible. If he was right about what was happening, he couldn't stress Sebastian out.
"You alright, man?"
"No. My back and stomach have been spasming for the past hour, and it hurts." Sebastian conceded.
