Tainted | Kuroshitsuji ✔️

Chapter 5: The Seed of Resolve

Ciel

Watching as Estella spun to face the flight of stair at the right, he followed behind her as she gingerly took each step after step up the stairs. Giving a last glance at the late owner of the manor in the portrait, Ciel sighed before turning back to Estella in front of them. He watched her sucked in large handful of air as her shoulders rose in a big heave and then drooped down. Raising an eyebrow, Ciel watched the girl gave a curt nod to no one and quickened her pace up the stairs into quick strides, marching up the remaining steps of the stair.

When they finally reached the top of it, Ciel spun around to Sebastian behind him.

"Sebastian, go ahead to make sure it's safe, leave everything untouched for investigation."

With a curt nod, the butler uttered a 'Yes, my lord.' before brushing past the girl to get down to his task.

Eyeing the figure of his butler, it grew smaller and smaller as Sebastian disappeared down the hallway. Snapping his head down to the girl in front, he saw that she was too staring after his butler. Ciel stepped forward to stand beside the girl to study the hallway. The floor of the hallway was carpeted with a worn out-looking lavender carpet and the either walls of it were stretches of golden-ish yellow.

"Phantomhive."

Ciel looked down at the girl beside him. "What?"

"Let's get going..."

Staring back at her for a moment, he grunted in response before starting forward to move down the hallway. Glancing from photo frame to photo frame which hung on the either side of the hallway, Ciel briefly studied their content. Eye widened when it landed on a faint red patch on a bare portion of the wall, his eye narrowed itself to a frown at the patch. He jumped when a 'thump' sounded from behind him.

Spinning around, his eye widened again. The girl who was following behind was now kneeling on the floor with hands gripping tightly at the either side of her head. Lips were trembling as she whimpered some unrecognizable things under her ragged breath. Her ice blue pupils were moving about wildly as her face was distorted with a very familiar expression that he could instantly recognize. It was utterly...clearly... Fear. Fear about what? He could not tell. However, he noticed the faraway look in her eyes. He gazed down at her sadly when he realised the reason for it.

Moving towards the kneeling girl, Ciel hunched down on one knee while his eye continued to study the expression on her face. Frowning at her with a glint of concern in his eye, his hand reached out to rest itself on her trembling shoulder.

"Blancbaston..." He called out to her softly. When the girl was still caught up in her trance, he softly called out to her again. His eye snapped wide opened when he felt some liquid dripped onto his hand which was still resting on her shoulder. Ciel grew rigid as he watched tears leaking out of her eyes which still held the faraway look – she was crying. Then he heard it. The whimpering growing louder, making the unrecognizable things said under her breath, recognizable.

"N-No...Please...No..." Her ragged breath hitched as her head shook frantically from side to side at some unknown source of her fear.

His eye on her softened as the hand on her shoulder tightened its grip reassuringly. He called out to her, this time more forcefully, hoping to break her out of her nightmare.

.......

Estella

Watching as the boy started forward to move after he grunted in response; Estella gulped in one deep breath before gingerly taking a step forward to follow him. But actually, she wished that she really could just call off this whole thing and obligingly takes up his offer to work under him. In fact, she had already made up her mind to work for him earlier in the carriage. However, Estella felt that it was her duty to take revenge as a Blancbaston, for the victims of that night. Frowning at the retreating back of the Phantomhive, she sighed.