Living With Phantoms | Black Butler

Chapter 11: My Name is Samuel. Samuel King.

CHAPTER 11:

The next day, I was plainly blank.

Getting dressed into boy clothes of knee length pants and a simple mocha colored shirt with sleeves rolled up to my elbows and pinning my hair into a tight bun and under a brown cap, I was just staring at the floor, thinking of murder.

Looking at the mirror, I cringed at the girl standing in front. A girl with a too pale oval face, sudden dim blue eyes, too red lips thanks to the cold and the amazing shade of visible black eye bags- a result of me tossing, turning and falling off of bed.

"Damn, Sebastian. Why a circus? Why me? Why is this happening to me?" I hissed at myself as I wobbled to the door, seeing that everything around me was suddenly tottering like a metronome.

I didn't get enough sleep last night. Thoughts of what I should perform kept me awake and the high possibility of me dying on a tightrope walk was now getting all too predictable.

After a while, Ciel and Sebastian called me into the carriage and as we headed back to the circus, I fell asleep, probably with my feet pushing on an annoyed Sebastian's arm.

"Wooah, what cute companions." Joker hummed as he leaned down to get a closer look at me and Ciel.

Unlike my last ridiculous encounter with him, I held my ground and simply stared at him with my very heavy eyes. Honestly, the temptation to collapse onto Sebastian and make him throw me into the carriage and get some sleep was growing all too strong.

"Ah, you're the kid from...the other time, right?" he asked, looking slightly embarrassed too as he chuckled at me. I gave him a small smile in return.

"Yes, I'm..."

Ah, my fake name. I just remembered Ciel told me to pull up an alias.

...I never thought of one.

As the sudden crowd of circus performers suddenly grew around us, I stuttered out the name:

"S-Samuel."

They all oohed at me and Ciel glanced up from his lashes, giving me a look that said:

"Samuel? Really?"

The edge of my mouth twitched, and even though that tall black tree was standing behind me and I couldn't see his face, I'm positive he's rolling his eyes right now.

At the back of my head, I hissed: "What's wrong with Samuel, you bastards?!"

"Well, then Sammy, it's nice to meet 'ee!" Joker smiled as he made his way to Ciel and leaned further down, pulling his finger under his chin and looking thoughtfully at the small child before him.

"And you, what's your name?...are you really a boy?" he asked thoughtfully as he pulled his chin down just to see the (tiny) Phantomhive.

"Yes." Ciel simply answered, looking bored. "My name's Finnian, I was a pageboy at the manor." He said.

"Ohh, you both have such grand names. If you two join, we'll get you great stage names." Joker smiled.

"However." he added, turning his back to us then glancing from the corner of his eye, a sly and confident smirk on his lips. "Looks aren't enough here. If you can't perform, then that's it." he said, quickly crossing his arms over himself.

"So, what are your strong points?" he asked. Ciel and I blinked.

Right...strong points...

At the back of my mind, my consciousness kept tugging on me and saying: