Eternal Damnation [Black Butler]

~ Chapter 24 ~

~Cecilia's POV~

I snuck out of the manor in the morning when Claude left to wake Alois up, my fever hadn't gone down through the night and I still felt weary, but I wanted to see Sebastian, I wanted to know more about him, more about how I knew him. The forest looked even more ominous than it had the day before as I darted through the trees hoping to catch a glimpse of Sebastian. An upturned root snagged my ankle and sent me sprawling to the ground with a cry.

"Cecilia, are you alright?" His voice, like black velvet, spread warmth through my body and made the butterflies in my stomach flutter about like epileptics.

I looked up into breathtaking crimson orbs and found myself smiling as he held his hand out to me. "Sebastian." I placed my hand in his and gasped at the electric jolt as our skin made contact and then my skin began to burn. I pulled away from him with a whimper of pain and looked at my hand, it was raw and red.

Sebastian's eyes went wide at this, "Cecilia, what happened?"

"I don't know." I whined, it wasn't healing like yesterday when the stick had impaled me, or had I imagined that? The ring on my finger suddenly felt constricting, not only on my finger but in my chest and I fell to my knees with a gasp as a wave of excruciating pain washed over me.

"Cecilia!" Sebastian dropped down beside me but refrained from touching me, "What is it, what's going on?"

"I don't know." I choked as my oxygen supply felt like it was being cut off and suddenly, everything stopped, I could breathe again and the constricted feeling in my chest let up and the pain subsided. I slowly sat up while trying to get my breathing under control. "Tell me how we met."

Sebastian looked at me worried for a moment before smiling softly, "The first moment I laid eyes on you, you were being helped out of a carriage you were pale and so fragile looking, but your eyes were full of strength and determination, you were absolutely beautiful, though I wasn't sure how I felt about you at first. When I first met you, you hadn't seen your brother in over two years after a horrific event, and I couldn't believe that someone would abandon their younger sibling after something so traumatic, but when you spoke of him you had tears in your eyes and I could see how much you truly cared for him, and later that night you fell asleep with him in your arms, it was like you were shielding him, you looked like a guardian angel it was absolutely breathtaking."

I could envision it all in my mind so vividly, and I could feel all the emotions stirring inside of me that I had felt at the time, this was nothing at all like the memories Claude stirred within me, these felt more real, like I could actually reach out and grab them. I could see a boy with dark hair wearing a black eye patch over one eye, but his other eye was the same brilliant blue as my own, I could hear his voice as he cried my name and I felt tears well in my eyes, "Where is my brother?" My head felt like it was splitting open and I tried to ignore the pain and focus on recovering more of these very vivid memories.

"He's at the Phantomhive manor, he's alive and well though he misses you, terribly. Are you alright, Cecilia, you look like you're in pain?"

"I'm alright, just a headache."

Sebastian looked down at my hands thoughtfully and I followed his gaze to my wedding ring. There was a miniscule crack in the stone that had not been there before. "Don't tell Claude about our visit, don't bring anything up that we've talked about." He said quietly.

"Why?"

"For your safety."

"He's my husband, he wouldn't hurt me." I didn't know if I believed those words even as I said it, "There's something going on that I'm not aware of, isn't there?"