Fade

Fade - Chapter 15

The fire that night is warm, searing it's imprinted light onto Ciel's cold eyes. He sits with Sebastian, his head resting sweetly in his lap. The carpeted floors offer a safe haven of warmth and comfort from the ice and snow now raging outside the foggy windows.

"Sebastian?"

Ciel asks, his fingers lazily reaching up to trace the line of the man's face gingerly... watching as the flames dance within his ebony eyes.

"Hmm?"

Sebastian''s glassy gaze drifts down to the male in his lap, surveying the child's soft features and doe-like eyes. He can almost see the world in those eyes, for just in the short time the boy had lived on earth, he'd seen fires destroy families, vermin worse than rats scavenging on the streets for some form of love and abuse... often ravaging the bodies of others just to get their fill.

"What was your life like, before me?"

Ciel's glowing eyes look up to the man in the look of wonder and curiosity that only he can display.

"It wasn't pleasant, I can assure you that."

Ciel stays quiet for a long moment, his gaze focusing somewhere in to a different time. Sebastian had never said anything about his past before. He'd never thought Sebastian to even have a past... until he'd realized that his butler was more than just a demon void of emotion.

"You can tell me more, you know?"

He looks back to him, his gaze soft and inviting... a smile hinting at the corners of him mouth.

"Yes."

Is the reply.

"I can."

Ciel waits for his response, eager to drink up his words so he may delve deeper into his extraordinary character.

"Where would you like me to start, my love?"

Ciel shrugs his shoulders slightly, entwining his fingers in the hair of the male above him.

"I suppose you can start with your contract before me, then."

"Ah, I see."

Sebastian seems to look off into an imaginary distance... one full of the darkness now swimming in his eyes, and pooling like the blood in the streets he must be seeing now.

"It ended in a haste, but the woman's soul was not ready to be taken, I should say."

"Whatever do you mean?"

"Let me start from the beginning. Her name was Abigail Johnson. She was a pretty lady, I suppose... but her soul was dark and troubled. She was secretively psychotic, in her own twisted way. She was insane, and knew exactly what she was doing when she summoned me. She was odd, regarding most humans, whom instantly cower at the sight of my true form."

For a moment, his eyes flash a sneaky red, before quickly shifting back to a dark obsidian.

"She asked from me one thing: to destroy England."

Ciel smirks at this, though anyone would be able to sense his dark curiosity and slight amusement, or even disturbance in is demeanor.

"What did you do, then?"

"I did what she asked... as best I could, before things got out of hand. And they did get out of hand quickly. I started out by going to Melan Oceanus. You see, about a hundred years or so ago, there was a certain virus that was spreading around the beaches in hell. And although demons were immune to the disease, it was quite fatal to humans. The bug was being transmitted by various animals who, at the time, would drink from that sea. So I took the biggest rat I could find in the sand, and planted it in London's sewers. This created the epidemic humans call, 'the black death'."

Ciel's bicolored orbs widen at the statement, wavering in their sockets.

"You... started... the plague?"

"I did."

Ciel' expression then changes as his lips turn upwards in to a dark kind of chuckle, his eyes swimming with his still undying hatred for the human race.

"How foolish of her... what happened next, then? Did she order you to stop it, too?

"Well, the plague spread across England quickly enough, and soon it spread to other countries, as well. But there was one problem. Humans started changing and evolving, setting up the building blocks for an immunity to the disease. Abigail was not pleased with this fact, and ordered me to kill them, myself. I slaughtered most that had been evolving in England, but before I could get too far, Abigail fell ill.

He continues looking into the burning fire, as if he had made all of the evils in the world double in that moment, and Ciel notices a glint of regret in those eyes that makes him snuggle closer to his mate.

"Ah, what a ravishing story to tell; a woman killed by the very disease she sold her soul to create!"

A hint of a smile plays at his lips before he looks down to the boy in his lap.

"A bit dark, don't you think, Sebastian?"

"Indeed."

"But I suppose it's not all bad. Darkness ins needed, otherwise there wouldn't be lightness. And visa versa, of course."

Sebastian nods fondly, running his hand along the child's chin and lips.

"Please continue, Sebastian."

"As she fell ill, she soon began to die. There was nothing I could do, then, but to consume her soul before it completely disappeared. It was bitter, full of regret... she was nothing like you."

There is a pause, then

"But the rest is simply history."

He chuckles nonchalantly at that, closing his eyes for a brief moment.

"Did you love her?"

Sebastian looks away from Ciel and back to dying fire at the question, his expression unreadable.

"No, I did not."

Ciel leans up to cup than man's face in his pale hand, turning it to face him once more.

"Do you love me?"

Ciel then asks, their eyes locking. In Ciel's eyes, Sebastian can see the boy's past laid out before his eyes. The boy would never admit to being defined by time gone by, but Sebastian can see through the mask that though he is in the body of a child, his mind is aged beyond his years.

Ciel however, can not simply gaze into Sebastian's eyes and access a past that has been hidden for as long has Ciel has known. There are walls built up in those eyes... walls that were forged centuries ago by some ancient curse.

"Yes, I do."

He leans down to plant a small kiss on his forehead.

"Sebastian... how do you know so much about the depth of souls?"

"It is the instinct of a demon. I suppose you will discover that soon. Demons can go a millennium without a single could to consume, but there are still places from one can harvest cheap souls for sustenance."

Ciel nods, closing his eyes as Sebastian looks at the embers of the fire. It had died down, though warmth never left the pair.

"Will I ever have to eat a soul, Sebastian?"

"I suppose you will... one day."