The Demons Bride (Black Butler)

chapter 9

This type of text is normal.

This is thoughts and cinematic records.

This is demonic speech.

This is thoughts and demonic speech.

[This is functions for the start and end of cinematic records.]

                                                               Butler, Training. Bride, Exposed

Staring into the empty prison cell, Marianne wasn't sure what to make of the situation. It seemed they still had a killer to deal with, especially when their prime suspect had disappeared and left only a hole in a solid brick wall and a large pool of blood on the floor.

"He's gone..." Bard whispered. "Bloody Hell..."

The girl could only nod her head in agreement.

It wasn't long before Ciel and Sebastian joined the others in the basement. The demon saw Marianne, immediately noticing she was without her bindings and stood as a barricade between her and the others. 

She glanced up at him out of the corner of her eye and folded her arms over her breasts more tightly. Angela then came up behind them.

"Where is Lord Barrymore?" she asked.

Marianne glared at her.

If we knew the answer to that, we wouldn't be in this predicament!

Sebastian couldn't resist smirking at her thoughts.

Just then, they heard someone banging on the front door. The occupants of the house made their way up to the main hall and welcomed their late night visitor as he burst through the door, drenched from the rain and bundled up in warm clothes. On his knees, he spoke.

"The Demon Hound... The Demon Hound is here."

They all gasped at those words.

At the dog fighting arena, a long howl echoed through the town's gravestones and mingled with the villagers' chanting.

"The white dog is a good dog, a good dog, good. The black dog is a bad dog, a bad dog, bad. He'll eat your flesh down to the bone, down to the bone. He'll gobble you up until you're gone until you're gone. Lull-a-by sunset, lull-a-by goodnight."

When the household arrived, properly attired, and in Marianne's case bound, Bard was unimpressed with their behavior.

"Snap out of it! All of you! What are you doing?"

Lightning flashed over their heads and cast an eerie glow over Barrymore's cooling corpse. This was followed by the screams of the servants.

Ciel, Sebastian, and Marianne looked at one another before the demon stepped forward and took a closer look at the body. He examined the man's right arm, noticed how the hand had been bitten off and left a bloody stump behind.

 Around them, the villagers were pleading for the Demon Hound's forgiveness. Marianne saw Angela faint beside her and was forced to catch her; she was surprisingly heavy for such a slight woman.

"Why do you have to faint now, damned woman?!" she snapped. She looked at Finny and gave him an order. "Hold her."

Passing the maid off to the gardener, Marianne returned to Ciel's side and placed a hand on his shoulder.

When they returned to the house, Ciel, Marianne, and Sebastian were gathered in the drawing room along with the others. The girl had happily left Bard, Meyrin, Finny and Tanaka to tend to Angela for the night, and was far too energized to consider going back to bed again, so she stood beside Sebastian with her arms folded over her chest. She still hadn't had enough time to get her bindings on.