A/N: I know, I know. *guilty look on face* Who is the lazy author here? *raises hand* Who hasn't updated this story for monthsss? *raises hand, sheepish smile*
AHEM! Hereeee is the next chapter (after a decade)!
#38 - Warped Smile
Screams.
He could hear them loud and clear, travelling from the blocks of dull grey buildings his attention was centered on. To his demonic ears, they sounded as though someone had placed a microphone next to the agonizing person while she, clearly a female from the sharpness the sufferer emitted, was screaming her lungs out.
His crimson eyes left the buildings to study the details around it. The bird's-eye view from the highest branch of the tall tree beneath offered him a clear and panoramic sight of SIGMA's headquarter that he noted to be surrounded by high barbed wire fence and sentineled by guards.
Every crooks and corners was dangerously littered with the guards. They were all over the compound, clad in the same dark leather robes and red cloths tied around their left biceps. Sweeping his gaze across, he noticed that all four corners of the rectangular perimeter the headquarters was within were guarded by one watchtower each, with three guards stationed on them respectively, and found two heavily guarded gates at north and south.
Security was troublesomely tight, he thought with a sigh as he turned his gaze back to the buildings and focused to pick up more sound.
Shrieks and...A voice full of naked hatred spitting obscene words beyond imagination at the tormentor.
A ghost of a smirk flickered across his lips. That must be her. His lips which were once a smirk crumbled into a frown as he narrowed his eyes in concentration.
Now, where exactly in the buildings was she held in?
....
Her eyes snapped open as she let out a loud gasp, her heart thudding almost painfully against her ribcage. It did not take long before realization that she had passed out entered her sluggish mind.
Inhaling sharply, Estella slowly raised her head with a weak groan, only to grimace with pain.
Everything was rushing back, coming back so fast that she felt suffocated — the cruel smug smirk, the sharpness when the whip came in contact with her skin, her screams and swearing, and the burning stings which were currently making her grit her teeth in pain and her eyes water.
"Urgh..." She hissed between her teeth."...That bastard." Blinking her tears away when the stings had settled, she glanced down at the bloodied gashes peeking out from her torn tightsuit and made a face. Lowering her head back onto the plank below, Estella blew out a long heavy sigh while taking a glance around.
How long was she unconscious? She wondered when she realized that she was alone again. And how long has it been ever since she was seized from the Phantomhive manor? Estella stared dully into the ground as the familiar sinking feeling from the conversation with the Demon returned, but this time, more awful.
"It seems that the subject has regained consciousness, sir."A meek voice snapped her out of her stupor.
Estella turned her head to the door and glared at the two visitors. "A174, I see you have woken up," Victor Blair was sauntering into her cell with a nervous guard trailing behind him. He met her glare with eyes twinkling back at her, seemingly looked like he was amused about something.
Refusing to waver under those pair of unnerving eyes, Estella cocked her head at him with a smug smirk. "Hmm, I guess..." Her eyes reflected boldness and defiance. "...I'm one of the 'unbreakable' ones you were babbling uselessly about earlier, huh."
Under the tough demeanor she was putting up, her heart felt like it was beating a thousand mile per minute. The moment those words left her mouth, it felt like she had just signed her own death warrant. Even the guard behind him who flinched almost instantly at her sardonic comment and gaped at her, looking like he was wondering whether she was that brave or just stupid.
Then, as though he was told a humorous joke, Victor abruptly threw his head back and laughed. Hard.
Her eyebrows shot up immediately in surprise, taken back by that unexpected reaction. Estella was clearly not the only one, from the way the guard flinched the second time.
"You are fearless, aren't you?" The man who had ceased his laughter, quirked an eyebrow upwards curiously. "Even...death?"
Every nerve in her body was screaming 'danger', but Estella raised her head anyway and looked Victor dead in the eyes. "Yes," She said to him between her teeth. "So go ahead, you can try." Her icy blue went as hard and flat as glass.
She did not regret her words — she rather choose death and go to hell than to be prisoned as a weapon in this sickening place.
"Kill me, you vile bastard."
....
The Phantomhive manor seemed uncharacteristically still without its servants rushing around, fortuitously causing a racket from their pitiful attempts to carry out their mundane assigned chores. It had already been one day, almost two, ever since the servants had left for Brixton.
A single robin blue eye stared into the coppery liquid held in the teacup, listlessly peering down at the face of a pensive young Earl casted on the reflective surface. The evening was so silent that it was almost possible for the boy's thoughts to be heard.
Ciel Phantomhive had been sitting on the window seat for the past ten minutes, mulling over his plan and every other things by the wide-open window with a cup of white Darjeeling tea while waiting for Sebastian's return. It was about time he did.
The quiet surface in the tea cup was then disrupted as soon as the boy moved to hook his fingers around its dainty handle and lifted it to his lips, somehow feeling content and relaxed in his manor's rare moment of tranquility after he had finally broken away from his train of thoughts.
Ciel leaned back against the window frame with a sigh, turning his head to the window. The lush courtyard was completely cleared of debris from the attack, so as the rest of the manor. His manor was back to what it was — prim and proper, a comforting sight that he was very used to.
"You shouldn't be leaving the window so wide-opened, Young Master, you're exposing yourself to danger." Out of the blue, a familiar deep silky voice remarked with a hint of concern.
Ciel's eye sprang wide at the intrusion. "Sebastian!" The boy spun around and glared at the amused butler standing by his desk. "Why didn't you knock?" Ciel hissed irritably.
"I did." Sebastian said lightly. "But it seemed to me that the Young Master was too deep in thoughts to hear the knocks." He mused. "How careless. What if it was someone else?" There was a spark of amusement in his red eyes.
"Then I would have ordered you back." Ciel said flatly, before lifting the cup up to take a long sip. He was clearly not intending to bother entertaining the demon's amusement. "That's enough. This is getting us nowhere." He set aside the piece of emptied tableware and turned to face Sebastian, all business. "Report."
"As you wish." Sebastian bowed, hints of amusement on his face from earlier completely wiped away. "SIGMA has certainly tightened their security, like what you expected. There are thirty of their men standing guard around the building. There are three guards on each of the four watchtowers stationed right at the two gates. The gates are located at north and south of SIGMA's headquarters, guarded by two watchtowers each."
A tiny line appeared between Ciel's eyebrows.
"It seemed to me that Estella is currently held underground. And interestingly..." The butler glanced up at Ciel and shot him a meaningful look, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "...that place reeked of demonic essence and something else which couldn't quite place my finger on, but it was disdainfully unpleasant."
A grimace flashed across Sebastian's face, as though he had just tasted something bad. "It appears to me that SIGMA has managed to advance in their project."
There was silence the moment the demon butler was finished with his report.
Ciel remained quiet even after the report had ended, but the way he was gripping the edge of the window seat and the tight-lipped expression on his face said it all.
SIGMA has grown to be more dangerous than he had ever imagined.
....
"We'll see how well the Queen's Watchdog has trained you." She felt the hand on her back gave her a rough shove and that was all she knew before she took a tumble down the small stairs and landed harshly between the foot of the stairs and the cold, hard ground.
The metal door she entered from slammed shut with a loud 'clank' sound.
Wincing at the door at the top of the stairs, Estella hissed loudly in pain at the sharp intrusion the edge of the stairs that has grounded into her back when she landed. The wounds left by the whip from earlier were acting up again. Crossing her right arm over her other so that she could sooth the throbbing area on her back, she rolled herself over into a half-kneel and shakily stood up, looking around her curiously.
Where was she?
She found herself in an empty room only slightly smaller than the training room back at the manor, with cavern walls like her cell but and grey concrete floor. The spacious room was lighted by round wall lamps. As her eyes continued to glide over the area, she caught another metal door with a flight of steps leading down to the place where she was currently on, right across the one she was pushed down from.
When her curiosity had been satiated, Estella whirled around and looked up sharply with a blazing look.
Directly above her, about two storey higher, was a long window panel which was stretched across the breadth of the jagged cavern wall.
Many pairs of eyes were peeking through the glass at her with a look of curious interest that awfully reminded her of the way the audience looked at the crew back at the Noah's Ark Circus. Among the people there, she spotted the sponsors Victor Blair had introduced to her carelessly earlier, peeking down at her. Crowded around them she could clearly see people in stark-white lab coats — the researchers with their usual expressionless faces.
She snapped her blazing look particularly over to Victor who smirked cruelly back at her, with a microphone held loosely in a hand.
"You bloody dolts," Her breath hissed through her teeth in exasperation, "I thought you wanted to kill me? Pushing me down the stairs was obviously not going to kill me. And seriously, sorry to burst your bubble in case you think that was cool," Estella shook her head and rolled her eyes in the most absolutely mocking way possible, "but that was the lamest way to murder someone. I reckon you to research on more creative ways to do so."
She didn't care that she might anger her captors. Since she was stuck here as their weapon anyway, she was going to make sure she was the most difficult weapon to put up with.
Oh, she will be the 'unbreakable' alright.
Then much to her amusement, protests and outcries about her insolence and to 'teach her a lesson' were the response she received the moment she stuck a finger into the air.
....
"Shit!"
Her heart nearly stopped when she saw his leg only a few inches away from her, but she was a second too late.
Estella felt the air knock out of her when his leg slammed into her stomach and in the next second, she found herself flying back and hastily braced herself for the impact when she saw herself heading for a wall. She felt the breath puff out of her in a gasp when she crashed hard against the wall and dropped onto the hard ground below like a dead fly. She swore she heard something cracked when she collided with the wall.
Her head was spinning as she tried to pick herself up off the ground, groaning as she fought to stand up properly. Then she felt something slid down her forehead and instinctively reached up to touch her sore head to find a cut on her forehead. Blood? Estella's eyebrows rose at the sticky red substance on her fingers.
"Go on, A174, feel free to use the demon." Victor Blair's voice entered the room airily through the broadcast. "Don't keep us waiting~"
"Tch." She cut her eyes over to her opponent. The purpose of sending that bastard down here was for this? Just to get the demon out?
She made a faint sound of disgust as her eyes bore into him with a look of hatred. To them, she — no, both of them — were nothing but some animals placed together to fight each other for their amusement.
She felt more disgusted than ever.
"Dream on, like I will." Estella finally on her feet, staggered away from the wall, shot a glare over at the window panel across the room before turning her attention back to her opponent who she realized was approaching.
Brandon Christensen raked a hand through his messy hazel brown hair, his mouth twisting as he continued to take a long, slow walk toward her. He had an air of arrogance around him.
"Weak little Blancbaston, only three punches and one kick on me? That's all?" His voice gave a little dip of condescension. "This is the outcome of the training Phantomhive gave you? Pathetic."
"Fuck off, angel freak." She met the pair of amethyst eyes across the room, eyes dark with anger. "It's good enough to kill you.
"Are you sure?" Brandon blinked, stopping in his tracks before suddenly bursting into a humorless laughter. "You are fearless, aren't you? All barks, but no bites." His eyes suddenly darkened, along with his voice."I hate types like you. So foolish. You have no idea how much I want to kill you. To finish off the Blancbaston once and for all."
The intensity in his voice made her shiver. "But I want to fight that demon inside you even more, and they..." He jabbed a thumb behind, at the spectators watching from the window panel."...need it as well, so I'm being very patient and tolerant of you."
His eyes gleamed murderously at her. "So bring it out now."
She crossed her arms. "You-"
"That's right." Estella's eyes widened fractionally at the sudden voice in her head. "Bring me out so I can rip his throat out!"
It was the Demon, she realized.
"I would like to see his throat get ripped out too, but no thanks." She said mentally, with firmness. "Shut up and go back to wherever you come from." She injected fiercely.
"After what he threatened to do, you fool? You can't be serious!"
Estella tensed as the brunette strode closer to her with narrowed eyes directed back at her. She kept a caution eye fixed on the brunette, watching him stop a few feet before her. "I AM serious." With that, she blocked out the voice and turned her attention back to the brunette, taking a step forward with a glare.
"So," Brandon tilted his head curiously at her. "Are you the demon now?" His eyes raked her up and down.
"Unfortunately for you, angel boy," Estella's voice dripped sarcasm. "There is no way I'm going to let that beast out." She snapped, jaw clenching with determination."Keep dreaming, you and that bunch of imbeciles over there."
Brandon smirked amusingly."No wonder you are so weak." The smirk widened. "I killed all of them. Your stupid parents, grandparents and servants. Vulnerable like little lambs." He let out a happy sigh, as though he was recounting about Christmas. "I could still remember that the looks on the corpses you call 'Father' and 'Mother'." His mouth twisted. "But where were you? Hmm?"
"...Stop it..." Her hands flew to her ears. "J-Just...shut up already." Hot angry tears ran down her face.
There was a spark of dark amusement in his eyes."Cowering somewhere like some coward while they were all killed. By me!" Her chest was rising and falling with rage as he continued, despite her pleas. "You were weak back then, and weak...even now-"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" She scrubbed fiercely at the tears that had spilled out of her eyes. Her ice blue eyes met his fiercely with fury. "I'LL CRUSH YOU!" A wave of rage swept through her.
Her throat was tight, her nerves were singing and her muscles were clenched and ready. Icy eyes blazing with naked hatred, a sound, almost like a growl, tore its way out of Estella's throat.
At that, Brandon broke into a grin. It was an unsettling grin, less a flash of amusement than the gleam of an unsheathed blade. "Do it."
Then she sped forward.
....
She moved so fast, almost a red blur. Her speed driven by adrenaline, anger and every ounce of emotions she was feeling right now.
In a second, she was dashing toward him, and in the next, she was in mid-air, her fist sending a deftly punch into his face. Before the surprised brunette could recover, Estella dropped and landed in a crouch, swiftly swiping him off his feet. She pounced on the fallen boy the moment she sent him sprawling to the floor, straddling him as she pinned him down by the neck.
Rapid breaths were puffing out of her, raspy and loud, as she drew back a fist and brought it down to deliver him another blow, but only to be surprised when it met a hand which had itself wrapped tightly around her fist.
She snapped her eyes over to Brandon in surprise to find him grinning devilishly up at her. The irony, a thought passed her at the sight of the grin.
"So making you angry was the way to make you more interesting, huh." The boy under her shook as he laughed without any humor. "I had let you have your short fun, but sorry, it's my turn now." His body tensed under her fingers, every muscle tightening.
Then suddenly, he was on her.
The ground below dug painfully into her back as she stared up at the pair of amethyst eyes that seemed to be smirking down at her, clawing desperately at the hand clamped painfully on her throat.
"Get...off me, fatso." She choked out at the hovering boy, and with as much as strength as she could muster, she pulled back her legs and kicked out at him, gasping for air when she was freed from the weight his hand pushed down on her air passage.
Quickly scrambling to stand, she watched Brandon stagger backwards from the force of her kick. For a moment, he was still staggering, trying to regain his balance.
If she was fast, he was even faster, because she found his leg ramped into her side in less than a split second. There was a sickening crack sort of noise as she was sent tumbling across the ground, with blood spewing violently out of her mouth.
Landing sprawled on the dirt ground, her hand shakily made its way to her torso and clutched onto it as an intense wave of pain swept through her — something inside her seemed to be broken. Blood was dripping from the sides of her mouth and on the ground below her, decorating it with spats of her blood, a pattern of red and brown was all around her.
Slowly, she sucked in a breath through gritted teeth as she tried to sit up. It sounded like a sob. However, just as she was about to succeed, a foot struck her squarely, knocking her back into the dirt in the midst of her struggle to get up.
"Not yet, little Blancbaston."
Black spots were already starting to dot her vision as Estella weakly raised her eyes from the foot on her to its owner who flashed her a toothy smile of savage humor before digging his foot harder into her ribs. An agonized sob that was as raw as a scream tore its way out of her mouth when his foot hit the spot he broke from the kick which he used earlier.
The black spots seemingly multiplied at the engulfing pain and the increased pressure on her. She could feel her badly battered body slowly submitting to unconsciousness. Her head was spinning, her throat was dry and her face felt stiff with her own blood. Her arms she had been repeatedly trying to move so that she could push away him were unresponsive and felt very heavy, like gravity was weighing excessively down on them.
With the last bit of energy she had, Estella gave a weak glare up at Brandon, the devilish-looking angel hybrid who was gradually disappearing from view behind her closing lids.
"I...will not be broken..."
Her body went limp.
....
Hovering over the headquarters of SIGMA, the pale, round full moon high up in the darkness of midnight sky glowed mysteriously behind shrouds of tiny wispy clouds that were barely noticeable in its magnificent presence. The thick, dark vegetation circled around the grey buildings SIGMA called their headquarters like a protective tall fence, was as quiet as the night.
However, the vegetation did not seemed as protective as it appeared to be. Hiding among it, five figures crouched in the thick shadows casted by the trees, had their eyes on the headquarters.
Most of them tried to be as quiet as possible — tried.
Except for the one with a pair of odd green eyes who was fidgeting around, in the way of someone who didn't much care why they were where they were or what they did there.
"Sebas-chan, why are we here again?" Its pouting owner flipped its red long hair over his shoulder, whining as he turned to the said demon. "And why are there always people with us on our date~?" The person cross his arms haughtily.
Instead of the said demon, the one with the eyepatch slewed a glare over at the redhead and hissed. "Keep your voice down. Do this and I'll let you have a real date with Sebastian, okay?"
There was a short pause.
"No..." Sebastian started in a voice colored with horror. "....Young master-" Only to be completely unheard.
"Sounds yummy~ How exciting!" The redhead cheered almost too loud for their activity, rubbed his hand gleefully and turned happily to the one with eyepatch who was glaring at him for his outburst. "You wonderful little brat-"
"Shhh!"
"Ciel, Ciel..." Another voice from the one with purple long hair called in a hushed voice to the severely annoyed person who just shushed, "...Who is that again?" He asked curiously, gesturing at the redhead.
"An idiot..." The one with the eyepatch he called 'Ciel' turned away from the redhead and back to the buildings, answering without giving much thought to it. "...like you." He muttered the last bit under his breath.
"Pardon?"
"Nothing."
"My Prince, are you really sure about this?" A calm, deep voice interjected in concern before the purple head could ask any more questions.
"Of course, Agni!" His voice had a little jump of impatience. "How can I stay back at the townhouse knowing my best friend is risking his life here?" Still completely oblivious to how Ciel was shaking with anger. "I, as a prince and a gentlemen, will help save the poor maiden in there!"
That was his last straw.
The glare and the threatening look he shot through his visible eye at the babbling prince were obviously useless in making him shut up.
Visual communication apparently did not work on idiots, Ciel thought.
With a sigh, he rolled his eye upwards exasperatedly and a smacksort of sound could be heard when his palm met his forehead. Why did he even ask them along?
"Shut. Up."
....
Author's Notes
I am really not happy about how this chapter was written, something about it just isn't very satisfying to me but I don't know what. This is the best I could write, and I can't anymore for this chapter. Maybe I can but not at the moment.
Leave me a review and tell me what you think. Vote too, as well. Thank you!