Chapter Text
“Are thou a monk?
“Fais ce que voudras.”
Eat, don’t resist.
If you don’t eat, you’ll die.
If your eyelids feel heavy, don’t go to sleep. You won’t wake up.
Mind your own business if you want to stay alive.
She was older than the ones they brought here. She was often seen following one of the watchmen when it was time to make their rounds. Her legs and arms were bruised, her hands were full of cuts, and her face was always swollen. She was shackled by her neck, as if she was someone’s pet. During “mealtime,” she was always the one carrying the pot of slop. During the nights, she was seen sleeping in a cage next to the watchman’s chair. During the in between, the kids would close their eyes and pretend that the guttural screams echoing around the cellar weren't hers.
Many were confused about her as she was the only one who was able to be out of the cage outside of the times of defilement, but they soon found out that she was being kept around for other additional reasons. A slave. A pet. A toy. A complimentary “sacrifice” when the time came. A back-up plan for whatever the kidnappers were keeping them there for.
For that reason, she wasn’t allowed to die, and perhaps that was the one reason why no one envied her.
The two boys weren’t sure why she offered the children advice. She risked injury every time she did, but she never seemed to care. It wasn’t until she extended that risky behavior to them that they understood.
“Here,” she muttered, passing a bottle between the metal bars of the cage to the boys cowering in fear after the old watchman came by to shout obscenities at them. One of their cries awoke the watchman that night after he had his drunk fun. The boys were lucky he didn’t do anything else but curse and rattle their cage.
The twins hesitated as she looked at them with listless eyes, their eyes darting between the bottle in her hand and her face.
“Why?” one of them asked her. She stared at them. They weren’t even sure if she had registered their words until she finally spoke in a hoarse whisper.
“It’s alcohol. I heard you complaining about your burns,” she said. Her free hand unconsciously moved and hovered over her own scar on her back. “I know how much it hurts. If the blisters have opened up, you’ll need to disinfect it.”
“But why are you doing this? They’ll kill you,” the boy whispered. They hadn’t been here long - only for 10 days - but it was long enough to know who she was and what had happened to her so far.
She smiled bitterly.
“I hope so.”
The boy frowned.
“You're lying.”
After that, the two boys watched her carefully. When she was alone, they’d call out to her. To be more specific, one of them, the one named Ciel, called out to her. His brother always cowered behind him, glancing around the room in fear and wondering if anyone had heard them. She wondered why they wanted to talk to her after being so hesitant to accept her help last time, but she quickly found out why. They wanted to find a way out, but unfortunately for them, she knew as little as they did.
After she revealed she knew as little as they did, she assumed they’d leave her alone. However, it seemed like the boy, Ciel, had an interest in keeping her around. She wasn’t sure if it was because he thought she would be useful in his “escape plan” or if they just wanted company, but either way, she refrained from talking to them.
It took days until she finally cracked, turning to look at them with annoyance when they wouldn’t shut up.
“You’ll get killed,” she hissed.
“We won’t,” the boy fiercely replied.
Eventually, she found herself talking to them. The boy was persistent, and it wasn’t like she had any better company. The twins would talk about things of the past, something that clearly brought them both comfort and anguish. She had nothing to contribute to those conversations, but she listened and made small comments. It was the only few times she saw them smile.
“We’re nobles, y’know,” one of the boys said one day.
“Yeah, so you’ve mentioned before.” she whispered. The watchman was snoring loudly in the corner. She eyed him for a minute before turning back to the two in the cage next to hers.
“Phantomhives, wasn’t it?”
The boy said nothing. Instead, he looked down at his fists and scowled.
“We’re the Phantomhives, yet we’ve been reduced to rats in a cage,” he gritted out. His brother scooted closer to him, his eyes sorrowful. “Once we get out, I’m going to make sure everyone here suffers for what they’ve done.”
She stared at him, feeling sad that there was so much hurt, anger, and hatred in such a young boy. Not that she could blame him though.
“I hope I’ll be there to see it happen,” she muttered, drawing her knees up to her chest. The boys stared at each other, then at her.
“You will be. Come live with us,” the other twin whispered.
“Live with you?”
“Yeah. Our family…” the boy trailed off. She didn’t know what happened to their family, only that they were dead. She didn’t find it necessary to prod.
“We can start a new family. Ciel and I, and you.”
She felt herself smile, but she knew better than to have hope.
“That’d be nice, I suppose.”
Their conversations were the only thing that gave them a sense of normalcy out of the horrors that occurred over the next month. In the middle of the night, when everyone was asleep, she would ask them about menial things, like what kind of dog they had, if they liked cats, and if they were good at chess - things that distracted them. She felt like it helped them hold on to the hope that they were going to get out of here alive, and if she was honest, it helped her too. She didn't expect to grow fond of the two.
“When do you think we’ll be able to get out of here?”
She turned around in her cage, careful not to bang her shackles against the cold metal bars. Her eyes met with one of the twins. They looked exactly the same, so she never knew which twin she was talking to, but guessing by the tone of his voice, she was sure it was the one named Ciel.
“I don’t know.”
“If I don’t make it out… If we don’t make it out…” he whispered. His breath hitched and there was another silence before he shakily continued. “If I don’t make it out, bury me with my parents. Take care of my brother.”
Her shoulders tensed. She wondered when he started thinking this way, especially when it felt like it was just recently that he and his brother had been talking about escaping.
“You have to promise me, okay? We don’t have anyone else, and he’s…” the boy muttered. His brother shifted next to him, whimpering in his sleep. When he quieted down, Ciel continued.
“You have to look after him like he’s your own family.”
“You both will be fine.”
She knew she was lying, but she hoped he couldn’t tell.
“Promise me. After this, even if I’m not here, you’ll be with him.”
“Alright, alright,” she sighed. “I promise.”
He gave her a weak smile and nodded.
“But you shouldn’t be talking like that," she admonished. "We’ll be fine, we’ll get our chance to escape.”
He was silent for a moment, his blue eyes piercing into hers. The corner of his mouth lifted just slightly.
“You're lying.”
She overheard them saying something about how the lambs were plumped for slaughter the day before, but she thought nothing of it. It was something she heard in passing, but had she known this is what it meant, she would’ve said something or even tried something.
She wasn’t sure what was going on. She swore that she had fallen asleep in the cage next to the watchman like always, but when she woke up, she was in the same cage as the twins, and in a completely different room. This wasn’t the cellar anymore.
She was in a large room, an amphitheater, she realized, trapped in a cage that was placed in the center. A rather large group of people wearing black hoods and the signature feathered-looking masks she came to fear, were seated in large benches that encircled the center stage of the room. She felt their eyes staring directly at her. A chill ran down her back as she tried to figure out what was going on. She couldn’t make out what they were saying, but some were watching with a blank expression, while others were watching in anticipation. They were only watching tonight.
That’s not a good sign.
“Hear me, my devout monks and nuns!” a loud voice boomed across the hall. An older man stood in front of the cages at the marble counter laid in the center of the room. Drawn on the floor was a strange symbol, inscribed with words and letters she had never seen before.
“A month has passed since the full moon, and the vessels are, at long last, full,” the man announced. She couldn’t follow what he was saying.
“Let us begin the noble mass once more this evening,” his lecherous smile widened as he turned to gesture behind him. “The stars of this memorable day will be these three!”
The crowd clamored excitedly.
“Are they going to hurt us again?” one of the boys asked. He turned to her and his brother with a despondent look in his eyes.
“Maybe,” the other twin answered, his eyes watching the crowd warily.
“Something’s wrong,” she muttered. Her eyes darted between the old man at the center of the room and the crowd. “If they wanted to hurt us like they have been doing, we wouldn’t be waiting like animals trapped in a cage right now.”
The two boys frowned, inching close to her in worry.
“She’s right. These people are only looking on tonight…” Ciel muttered.
She tensed as she noticed the old man finish his speech and approach the cage with light steps.
The three of them moved to scoot back as far as they could as the man opened the cage. Her stomach dropped when she saw him examine the three of them behind his mask.
I have a bad feeling about this.
She watched his eyes carefully, her eyes narrowing when his stare stopped a little too long on one of the twins. Her hand darted out to grab Ciel’s arm. He didn’t notice her iron-like grip as he was busy holding his twin close, but his brother, confused as to why she’d grab one of them so harshly, turned to look at her in confusion.
“Wha–”
“Pitiful offerings… The destined time has come,” the man announced. “The first glorious lamb whom we offer to our king…”
He paused and smiled wickedly.
“...Is this one.”
His arm darted into the cage, grabbing Ciel by the arm. Expecting this, she moved fast to push the other twin aside and tighten her grip on Ciel’s arm. The weak boy slammed into the cage with a whimper. Ciel, eyes wide, shouted in pain as both his arms were yanked roughly.
All of the sudden, the conversation they had once in the middle of the night came rushing back to her.
“When do you think we’ll be able to get out of here?”
…
“If I don’t make it out… Bury me with my parents. Take care of my brother.”
Something told her that if she let go, he wouldn’t come back.
“Ciel!” the other twin cried as it became a game of tug-o-war between the older girl and the man. She groaned in pain as the man lifted his leg to kick her down. “You’re going to break his arm! Let go!” the small boy begged.
“Insolent brat…” the man muttered. “Wait your turn!” he shouted at her, kicking her in the head. Her grip on Ciel loosened as the world spun. She fell back into the cage with a thump and the cage clanged closed.
“Ciel!” the boy cried again, this time running to the front of the cage. He screamed his brother’s name relentlessly and begged them to let him go. She was still on the floor, head spinning and black splotches appearing in her field of vision.
“Now, let us offer our prayers to the devil!” Voices filled the room, drowning out the boy’s pleading.
Stay awake, she urged herself. Her head felt like it was going to crack open. She felt the boy rattled the cage violently and heard him scream, but everything seemed distant. She forced herself up, clutching her head in pain. When she slowly regained her sight and the ringing in her ears disappeared, she made out a small figure on the marble table, a knife in his chest, and blood dripping onto the pristine white floors.
Her heart dropped to her stomach. The world suddenly went quiet and she couldn’t take her eyes off of him. His eyes were open and his mouth was agape. His blood dripped and pooled at the base of the offering table. She only broke out of her trance when she heard the boy next to her scream.
The floors shook as black liquid and shadows burst out from the center of the room. Her eyes snapped to the monstrosity that appeared in front of her.
A demon.
“ Answer me.”
That’s what they’ve been preparing for.
She felt herself tremble in fear.
“Who has summoned me?”
That’s what they meant by lambs for slaughter.
Eyes bubbled up from the dark liquid.
“Yours is no small sacrifice, in the pursuit of pleasure and wealth, calamity and tragedy.”
We’re the lambs.
She found herself grabbing the boy’s arm in fear, but he sat frozen.
“Where is the fool who spits upon God?”
The room erupted in chaos, both men and women screaming and shouting. She could barely keep up with the situation.
“It has really come!”
“This is a dream! We must be dreaming!”
“Help!”
“God forgive us…”
“We’ve finally done it!”
“Grant me eternal life and wealth!”
“No, me!”
Bodies were thrown across the room as the shadow slithered around and muttered, “Not this one…” and “This one is wrong as well.”
The boy cried out in shock as a body landed close to the cage, head smacking hard against the cold floor. Blood splattered onto both of their bodies. She felt like she was close to a panic attack, if she wasn’t going through one already.
“Aha,” the demon hummed. “This is the one.”
It approached the cage, slithering and creeping with the shadows.
“Well, well, what a tiny master this is. It was you who called me, hm?”
The boy fell back as it came closer, bumping back into her shoulder as he scrambled away from the shapeshifting demon.
“I have no idea what you mean,” he stammered. “I never called for a thing like you!”
“No, no, it was most definitely you,” it said, sounding amused. “You, human, have denied God, cursed this world, and in exchange for this poor sacrifice, earned the right to your heart’s desire granted.”
The boy blanched. His body shook as he turned to his brother’s body.
“Sacrifice…? You don’t mean…”
“Indeed I do,” the demon leered. “The price you have paid to summon me is your elder brother’s soul! Going to such drastic lengths as to sacrifice your own blood… Now I comprehend how you managed to summon me.”
The demon, wrapped in shadows, dragged Ciel off the counter and held him up for all to see. Ciel's blood dripped down his skinny legs and dripped onto the floor. He was handled like a rag doll. She felt like she was going to suffocate at the sight of the dead boy.
“Rejoice! By virtue of the ‘sacrifice,’ your ‘wish’ and our ‘covenant,’ I shall become your slave until the day your silly wish is granted and I can claim your soul.”
The boy next to her was wheezing, clutching his chest in fear. She could say or do nothing in response. All she could do was sit and watch in terror.
“You’re lying,” he shook, “I would’ve never sacrificed Ciel…”
“I’m afraid I speak the truth,” the demon rumbled. The shadows took on other forms as it encircled the cage. A lion. A snake. A wolf. “I would not be here had the fare for the crossing not been paid.”
Something seemed to snap in the boy as he wrenched himself from her tight grip and moved forward to scream. She couldn’t even muster the strength to grab him back and push him further away from the monster.
“This isn’t what I wanted! Give Ciel back!”
The demon thought nothing of his outburst. The shadows set Ciel back on the counter and moved closer to the cage.
“You have summoned me. That fact will not change for all eternity and the sacrifice that has been made will never return. If you wish to be rid of me, that is also a wish I can grant. You have made a great sacrifice. You are free to decide whether to make a covenant with me and have your wishes granted or not.”
The boy’s breathing quickened. He started muttering gibberish under his breath as he spluttered for air. The sight of him floundering for air seemed to snap her back into reality.
He’s going to have a panic attack.
She gritted her teeth.
“Take care of my brother.”
Move.
She moved closer to him, her arm extending shakily.
“Promise me.”
MOVE.
“I promise.”
Her hand fell on his shoulder roughly, making him jump fear. He looked at her with wide eyes. Her face was sticky and wet from blood and tears. It must’ve looked like she was going to say something because his lips stopped moving and for a second, she thought he stopped breathing too. She wanted to say something, but her voice wouldn’t come out. Even if she could say something, what could she say? Don’t do it? If she told him not to do it, perhaps they’d be sacrificed next. Do it? How could she tell a child to enter a contract with a demon?
She fumbled to find the words. Meanwhile, a look of realization dawned on his face.
“Now, make your choice,” the devil said. He glanced between her and the demon waiting. When he looked at her for one last time, his eyes were resolute. He shrugged her hand off his shoulder and turned back to the demon.
“I want power… power to take vengeance upon those who put us through all this!” he shouted. He slipped one hand out of the cage. She saw the demon smile wickedly behind the shadows.
The ones who were watching in fear broke out of their stupor and began to shout.
“Someone shut him up!”
“W-wait–” she heard herself say.
“---Devil, I’ll make a covenant with you!”
The shadows began to whirl again, this time more furiously than before.
“So, you will cast off light and choose the road to hell… Fine. Then let us carve the mark of the covenant onto our bodies. The more conspicuous its location, the greater the power you will be able to wield. Now, where do–”
“Anywhere will do!” the boy snapped. “I want more power than anyone else!”
The boy that she always saw cowering behind his brother was becoming a completely different person.
“Your small frame belies your immense greed,” the demon grinned. “Well, then!”
The figure seemed to appear right in front of the cage. An arm reached out and grabbed the boy’s head, palm covering his right eye.
“The mark shall reside on that great big eye of yours, which reflects a hopeless world!”
CRACK.
The room rumbled with light as the boy screamed in pain and fell backwards. She reached out, trying to catch him as he tumbled back. Blood was gushing out of one eye, tears out of the other. She managed to catch a glimpse of his eye before he was yanked forward again by the devil. A pentagram, a symbol of their contract, had engraved itself into his eye.
“With this, the power of the devil is yours. Never again will you be made to yield to another,” the demon smirked, letting go of the boy when he managed to get to his knees. “Now, with a pride of a kind and a howl of a wild beast, come! Let me hear you roar!”
His eyes never left his brother as he uttered his first command.
“Kill them all!”
It hadn’t even been a second before the chaos started again. Screams filled the air as the devil laughed. Limbs were ripped, thrown, and scattered across the room. When the scent of blood hit her nose, she threw up violently. The room that was once filled with noise was now silent.
“There. All done,” the demon hummed. The lock on the cage snapped off with a wave of the demon's hand.
“This way, Master,” the demon extended a hand. The boy took it shakily. There was a slight pause as he exited the cage.
“Oh,” the demon hummed. “My apologies, it seems I have missed one.”
She blanched in fear when she met eyes with the devil. In a blink of an eye, she found herself yanked from the cage. The devil held her by the throat, its other hand posed to strike the final blow.
“W-Wait!” the boy cried from behind the demon. The demon stopped, just an inch away from her head. She choked and flailed pathetically.
“Let her go,” he stammered, grabbing the demon’s arm. The demon paused, but didn’t drop her.
“I said, let her go!” the boy repeated, this time with anger in his eyes. She felt her vision blur. The demon looked thoughtful, then dropped her without a care. She slammed onto the cold bloody floor, wheezing.
“Did you not want them all dead?” the demon asked. The boy only looked at him angrily.
“Not her.”
The demon smirked.
“Perhaps you should be more clear," he hummed. The boy only glared, stepping around the demon to help her sit up. She clutched her head in pain, trying to focus on the boy's face through the blood running down her face.
"Are you okay?" she whispered, grabbing his arm. He looked at her with an expression she couldn't decipher.
The demon approached, smirking. It took a couple steps closer to the boy, extending its hand.
“What is your name?”
The boy stared at the hand, silent. He then stood up, pushing her hand away.
“I am–” the boy paused. His eyes looked faraway for just the briefest moment before he shook the devil’s hand. “Ciel.”
Her eyes widened. He turned to look at her, determined.
“Ciel Phantomhive, the successor to the title of Earl Phantomhive.”
TBC.