The Indignity of Mortality (Sebasclaude)

19. Sebastian

Sorry about the chapter being half published, I have a lot of problems with syncing stories across devices, so Wattpad published the half finished version from my phone. This should be the full chapter. If anything like this happens again please tell me and I'll fix it.

I stood in Ciel's study, a headache dully pounding on the inside of my head. "What do you suggest we do about Lady Midford, My Lord?" I asked, prompting Ciel to sigh, and lean into the back of his chair.
"I suggest that we say that you are out running an errand, and she doesn't know Claude, so she won't guess he's any different from normal. If she asks about the Trancy's... I suppose I can tell her I forgot to mention they were coming. I can just tell her about the case, and that Trancy is working with me. Whilst Lady Midford is here, you can stay in your room or clean the servants quarters, whatever you please, really," Ciel stated dismissively, before his face briefly softened. "Just please eat something whilst you're at it - I can't have my servants falling bellow standards." I smiled slightly - I would, right after-

I heard the door to the manor be flung open downstairs and Ciel's name be squealed from the entrance hall in an all too familiar voice. "Oh, and where possible, keep those Triplet Demons away from Elizabeth - I don't trust them." I nodded, as Ciel got up from his desk and I held the door open for him. For as much as I didn't dislike Elizabeth - she was a sweet girl, and I suspected there was more to her than Ciel entirely accounted for - she could be taxing to deal with at times, purely because of the sheer amount of energy she had. In my opinion, her parents should just let her run around a field once a day and she'd be a lot easier to be around, but of course that was no way to raise a future noblewoman.

I walked out Ciel's office, and spotted the Triplets whispering down the hall. With a sigh, I made my way over to them - if Ciel wanted them kept away from the Elizabeth I figured the best thing to do would be to keep them busy. "Timber, Canterbury, Thompson." All three turned to face me, their whispering briefly stopping. "Since you all seem to like working together, the windows in guest bedrooms are needing cleaning. The floors also need polishing, which is what I'll be doing, so if you think you'll be able to slack off you're sorely mistaken," I stated, making eye-contact with each of them in turn, especially Thompson - I'd figured out he seemed to be the leader of the three. It would be better to let them work together - if there was anything I'd learnt from dealing with young Demons, it was that it was often better for your energy levels and their liking for you to work with them rather than against them. There was a general grumbling of agreement, before all three followed me to get supplies.

"Timber, you're supposed to be cleaning the windows not admiring your own reflection," I stated, sitting up from polishing the floor. My back hurt considerably, but it was important that I gave myself the harder task - they'd never have any respect for me otherwise.
"I'm not Timber, I'm Canterbury," replied the Triplet that was most definitely Timber.
"You're not Canterbury, you just switched your partings round. Canterbury stands with more weight on his left leg, whereas you stand leaning slightly to the right." All three turned to face me, before whispering amongst themselves for a few seconds.
"And what about me?" Asked Thompson.
"You have a weak left shoulder." All three looked slightly stunned. "What was it? A Reaper?"
"A Hell-hound," Canterbury replied.
"Came out of nowhere," Thompson elaborated
"We had nothing to fight it off with," Timber concluded. I nodded -  I'd had my fair share of experiences with Hell-hounds, not that it was unusual - you'd be hard pushed to find a single Demon who hadn't been mauled by one at least once, but I had been more than the average Demon - bad luck, I supposed.
"Venomous?" All three nodded. Not all Hell-hounds were venomous, but a little under half were, and their venom was bad enough that you generally avoided taking your chances with them anyway. It would kill the skin around the bite, turning it black, and you'd have a high fever and thumping headache for well over a day, and nausea for the best part of a week; it was horrid, especially if you were too young to understand what was going on. What's more, they only really had one weakness. "They're scared of fire, though; I've only ever met one that wasn't." All three raised their eyebrows imploringly, and I sighed. "A Hellhound owned by a Demon I... used to live with, I suppose. She was called Hatshepsut. She was completely evil though, even in comparison to most Hell-hounds - she took both of my wings and one of my arms off, and got very close to doing a lot more." All three Triplets were silent for a few seconds, before Thompson briefly left, only to return with a second cloth. He knelt down next to me and grabbed some of the floor polish.

Polishing the floors of all the guest bedrooms was exhausting, needless to say. By the end of it, I wasn't sure if I'd ever stand straight again, and what had started off as a mild headache had evolved into a migraine that felt ready to split my skull in two. There was also this curious sensation that, if I stared at the floorboards or the walls too long, it started to look like they were moving. Still, it was made a little more tolerable by the Triplets, who, after I showed that I knew who was who, helped with polishing the floor once they were done with the windows, and worked surprisingly diligently.
Regardless, I'd sent the Triplets to go and change the sheets on Ciel and Alois' beds, and I was just going to change my own sheets, when I caught my own reflection in the mirror. I'd been far too concentrated on getting things done on time that morning to bother paying too much attention to my appearance, or at least not any more than I usually would - I looked presentable by all accounts, but I hadn't had the time to fuss over things.
I walked a little closer to the mirror and ran a finger underneath my eye - there were dark markings underneath them, relatively faint ones, but they were definitely there. I could vaguely remember seeing them on Ciel after he hadn't slept well, and guessed it was to do with that. They looked ever so unseemly. I groaned and rested my head against the wall, closing my eyes for a few seconds. I looked terrible as well as feeling terrible, apparently. I was quite close to just nodding off where I stood when someone opened the door, and I jerked awake. I stood up off the wall and turned to see who it was, and wasn't terribly surprised to see Faustus. "She's gone," he stated, grabbing one of his pillows so he could take the pillow-case off it.
"Who? The cat's mother?"
"What?"
"It's an expression, Faustus. Do you mean Lady Midford?" Claude gathered up the blanket off his bed, before pulling the sheet off it.
"Obviously."
"No, not obviously. Besides being an incredibly rude way to address the daughter of a noblewoman, it's also highly unspecific," I snapped. Claude sighed, and gathered up all that needed washing.
"Will you stop being so damn irritable? You're not the one who was woken up at half past five in the bloody morning." I could feel one of my eyelids twitching.
"No, I wasn't the one who was woken at half past five. You know why? Because I never got to sleep in the first place," I spat, glaring at Claude. I turned away and busied myself with stripping my own bed. To my frustration, when I turned round, Claude was still stood leaning against the door frame, his gaze locked on me. "Now, I have a splitting headache and the Devil knows how many chores left to do, so if you could just cease with your complaints for five minutes, it would be greatly appreciated." I stormed past him and into the hallway, already wishing the day was over and I could just sleep.

*Busts open coffin lid* guess who's not dead, bitches?! Anyway, what's up, I finally decided to update this, I don't know if updates will be any more regular, but you never know.