The colour of devil eyes (Black Butler love story)

Chapter 38 - Monster

"I'll be right back to get you, Lady Serena.", he said to her and then disappeared with her victim on his shoulder. Serena's gaze was still on the chair Wyrodd had just been sitting on. Her fingers clawed tightly into the flesh of her arms and without really noticing it, she tore small, narrow wounds in her upper arms with them. Not much separated her now from the information that would finally reveal Hyder's whereabouts and Serena's body tightened more and more with every passing minute.

But as expected, she didn't have to wait long for her butler. Only shortly after he left, Sebastian was standing in the door frame again and held out his hand to her. Only now did Serena notice how hard she had dug her fingernails into her flesh, but she barely noticed the small, stabbing pain. Without a word, she took his hand and then let him take her back to her current shelter.

When they stood next to each other in front of the door of the abandoned homestead, Sebastian put his hand on his lady's shoulder again. He looked at her with slightly narrowed eyes, as if to gauge what was going on in her head.

"Are you all right, Lady Serena?", he asked in a hushed voice and Serena immediately nodded.

"It's okay, Sebastian.", she answered honestly and took a deep breath before she turned her head to him, "Let's start.". Slowly he took his hand from her shoulder again and nodded curtly. Then he opened the door and let her go ahead.

Sebastian had set up a couple of oil lamps inside and lit them so that the room was shrouded in a subdued light. In the middle of the room, Wyrodd sat, well tied, on a chair. His head was still hanging limply, but Serena knew that Sebastian certainly knew one way or another to wake him up. Briefly she glanced at her butler again and then nodded weakly to him.

As she had assumed, Sebastian could actually get her hostage to regain consciousness in no time. As in his own house, he looked around the room with wide open eyes before his gaze wandered fearfully to Serena and her butler.

"Do you remember the day when you had the Sinister family mugged and kidnapped?", she asked him directly and stood in front of him. With her arms crossed, Serena built herself up in front of him as much as she could and looked down at him from narrowed eyes.

"The ... Sinister family?", he asked stuttering, his voice not quite as thin as it was before he passed out, "I ... I don't know anyone with that name.". Again Serena's fingernails dug into the flesh of her arms and her teeth gritted audibly against each other.

"Is that so?", she asked him and took a step towards the man who was tied up. He winced briefly at her movement, but held her gaze astonishingly long before he lowered his head, trembling.

"I ... well ... maybe there was someone with that name.", he now mumbled without looking at her and Serena sucked in a sharp breath. She practically clamped her arms to her so as not to scratch the face of the man in front of her. Full of hatred and disgust, she looked down at the person in front of her and had difficulty in being able to breathe evenly at all. For years she had lived through hell, had seen her family die in front of her eyes and now the person responsible was sitting in front of her and thought he could remotely remember her name.

"Lady Serena.", she heard Sebastian's voice suddenly in her ear. She felt how he gently put a hand on her shoulder and bent his head down to her so that their faces were level.

"If you allow?", he whispered to her and for a moment they stood completely rigid, before Serena nodded very weakly and took a small step back. Even if it pained her that she had been able to achieve so little with Wyrodd, she still watched with great satisfaction as he got smaller and smaller in his chair as soon as Sebastian took even a tiny step towards him.