A.N: Oh my dear God....... Guess I can't make excuses no more. And I'm seriously behind on everything else too! This is why I wish I've kept up with all the good fanfics in fanfiction.net. (sigh)
Disclaimers: Everything here belongs to Toboso Yana. If it didn't, I would've added vampires a loooong time ago. And werewolves. And witches. And....(Goes off on a ranting list of every supernatural creature ever created)
~
Of all the things Estelle expected to find when she left her lover's room, a demon's body was not one of them.
Immediately, the vampiress' eyes looked for the elderly caretaker; he could not in all conscience leave this alone for long. But Tanaka was gone.
The Phantomhive servants were utterly distraught. Mey Rin and Finny were sobbing their eyes out, a step away from outright bawling. Estelle was slightly pleased despite her sympathetic exterior, for they had at least learned to control themselves.
"Wh-What do we tell... t-t-the Young Master?" the red-headed maid asked no one in particular. The vampires could hear two distinct pairs of running footsteps, announcing the incoming master of the house with his guest. Estelle and the males carefully angled themselves, disguised as the lady turning away from such a horrible scene whilst her cousin and retainer try to comfort her, so that they could perfectly catch the young Earl's performance.
"Young... Master," Bardroy breathed out reluctantly, as the boy entered the scene barefoot and in his nightshirt. His face looked as though he had awoken into a nightmare.
Breathing hard, Ciel's eyes widened in disbelief, looking upon his butler's corpse, stabbed to death with a rapier. "Sebas...tian?" he asked himself, and took a shaken, hesitant step forward. Immediately, Mey Rin held him back. He struggled to regain his freedom (and what looked like his composure), and successfully cowed her and Finny enough to stand before his butler's 'dead' body.
"Sebastian... stop fooling around," he ordered tonelessly, though he thinned his expression to portray his nerves and staunch denial. "Sleeping on the floor doesn't look all that comfortable to me. Exactly how long are you planning on pretending to be asleep?"
Unable to stop the tremors from stifling her laughter, the black-haired woman turned her hair to Francis' chest and released her near soundless guffaws. The Death Dealer in question put a hand on her back 'soothingly' while inwardly cursing the social expectations that prevented him from doing the same. It took some time to get herself under control, but she managed to turn back to the scene with suspiciously moist eyes and a demeanor that drew attention to the fact that she hoped no one saw them. Ciel's finale was simply delicious.
Ciel raged at his demon butler until he was told to stop by the brave cook,
"He's already... dead," he said with a shadow on his face.
"You're... kidding, right?" the boy asked incredulously. "Are you... dead? You, my butler, only you... You were supposed to be by my side until the end." This seemed to have prompted Mey Rin's newest round of mourning, and all three vampires could tell that Ciel had deliberately placed his angry face by Sebastian's mouth, to catch the inaudible whisper about their plans. Some days, that demon could be bloody annoying, he was.
"If we leave him here he'll rot, it'd be better if we moved him quickly," Grey suggested. The cook reluctantly agreed, as Mey Rin went to take the master away.
It garnered an instant reaction.
"No! Let go!" he cried despite the maid's attempts to gain his reaction with calls of 'Young Master'. "Don't you dare leave me behind Sebastian!! It's an order!" He grasped the Phantomhives' butler watch, "An order..."
And with a final shout, he finally stood, tall in bearing but still quivering in repressed tears. Estelle wished she could applaud.
"Hmm..?" Lau quietly interjected to the similarly undressed Wordsmith, "It would be impossible for the confined Earl to have committed this murder right?" Ran-Mao and Estelle looked at each other as the realization -and fear -crossed the writer's face.
"Things just got interesting," Lord Cain agreed, a dark look on his face.
"What the hell is with this mansion!?" Keane raged, holding Irene close to himself. "To have two murders overnight...!"
"M... Moreover, with that -!" the opera singer started, then refused to continue. "He was stabbed with the poker alright," Bardroy finished grimly. "How brutal." Then, the writer's eyes, which had been intently searching over the body for clues, widened.
"There are also traces of being hit in the head," he pointed out, lifting Sebastian's head to examine the patch of blood under it. "He must have been hit from behind while collecting ashes."
Estelle took a large, shaky breath, stealing Bard's next lines. "You're saying that wasn't enough to kill him... So they gave him the final blow by stabbing him in the chest?" Her voice was slightly hysterical as she voiced the theory.
"Either that or they just continued attacking without checking if he was already dead..." were Grey's two-bits, though the Romanians glared at him for the bland tone. "Two hits would be more likely to kill than just one." He then took a thoughtful expression, ignoring the vampires' ire. "...Strange," someone interjected.
"Hm?" It was the Wordsmith who broke the Queen's butler out of his thoughts, as he still examined the butler's body. "Even if he didn't die from the blow to the back of his head," the man mused, "why did the killer go out of his way to stab him from the front?" That certainly got the audience's attention.
"It certainly makes sense to attack from the same angle a second time," Bard agreed.
"Perhaps... there were multiple culprits." The staff was especially shocked by the information. "For example, one would start chatting to attract his attention," the Wordsmith theorized, "Meanwhile, the other snuck up behind him and hit him over the head. Then in a flash the one up front gave him the final blow by stabbing him."
"Well, no matter how, it's certain that this killer feels no mercy or hesitation," Lau lightly theorized, Ran-Mao uninterestedly nodding along. "To have killed even the butler, the culprit must be extremely--"
"Stop it already!"
All attention was drawn to the straw-hat wearing gardener, hugging Ciel to his chest. "Why are you have this conversation in front of the young master?! Think of his feelings!"
"Finny!" Mey Rin admonished, then quickly bowed to apologise to the guests.
Charles Grey looked admittedly bored as he decided that yes, they should move the body to the basement and discuss the incident along with some foo. I pity the woman who becomes his wife, the vampires decided. No human in this era could possibly tolerate that level of apathy in another. Woodley interjected, "Isn't that just a little too easygoing..."
"Indeed..." Lau agreed. "No point in being hasty." Estelle could see Francis sweatdropping just a bit in front of her.
"It's decided then; so you guys are in charge of cleaning that up." Grey paused and said over his shoulder, "Oh, and the preparations for breakfast too." The he walked out of the door as though there hadn't been a murder scene in the room. Well, technically there wasn't, considering that the vampiress could detect the slightest smidgen of a twitch somewhere on the butler's neck (must have been a crick-- served the stupid demon right), but the others were suitably unnerved.
"We're going too." Keane decisively pulled Irene with him, the opera singer reluctant to obey.
Lord Cain nodded and motioned for Francis to escort Estelle out behind him. They walked far enough down the hall that they would not be heard by anyone either before or behind him, before ducking off and shedding a portion of their masks.
"So, any objection to using Earl Grey for a blood bag?" Francis inquired. The vampiress snorted, but admitted, "With that apathy, one could certainly mistake him for a vampire..."
"But he's seen this before," the eldest vampire finished, "working for his Queen. I find it unlikely that he would switch his loyalties so quickly, even if it is to his benefit. Whoever sires him would be obeyed out of obligation; he will not truly join our ranks."
"What say we gift the House of Saxo-Cobourg an eternally-loyal retainer?" Estelle mused, lazily hovering her fan near her face. "With the right sire, he could easily overthrow them and swear fealty to Prince Albert's line instead, of which there are only mortals. If they die out, he will have the illustrious career of royal babysitter long enough for him to be fully welcomed into the fold." She flickered her midnight-blue eyes to his, briefly allowing her sclera to turn black.
"Hmmm... That can be arranged," was all Cain said about the idea.
They went and rejoined the other three guests who left the room, now joined by all the other house guests. Luckily, breakfast hadn't arrived yet, so the vampires arranged their seating positions. Estelle could only place herself beside Irene, who was directly across from Ran-Mao. How unfortunate that she couldn't wink salaciously at the girl!
As always, the Earl Grey was entirely too enthusiastic with consuming more than his body weight in food, though Irene wasn't even pretending to touch her food. Estelle asked after her, feigning concern.
"Hey, since there's some left, is it okay if I have it?" Lord Cain, surprised at being addressed at the table, wordlessly offered his plate. "I didn't mean yours," the silver-haired man said, "the one next to you." And he pointed with his fork.
"Huh?" Indeed, right beside the vampire lord, there was an empty place with a full plate of food on it. "Oh my," he replied, "Indeed, there was one too many. Perhaps the chef got the numbers wrong."
Ciel intoned solemnly, "The one who prepared breakfast was Sebastian. He wouldn't mix up the numbers."
"Then whose is it?" Estelle pretended to think, then mentioned, "Oh yes, Mr. Phelps isn't here, is he?"
"Ahh," Lau expounded. "He's always so inconspicuous, I didn't notice, hahahaha. Now that you mention it, I haven't seen him all morning."
"Looks like he slept in a little too much, haha," Woodley laughed along.
But the Wordsmith seemed to see the man's absence as something ominous, looking at the chair Phelps should have occupied pensively.
"Excuse me!" he suddenly exclaimed, launching out of his seat. "Shouldn't we go have a look in the Earl's bedroom?" Frowning, Ciel obliged, leaving his seat also. "I'll take you there." The guests suddenly had a very bad feeling about the quiet young man.
As a crowd, they rushed upstairs, Ciel shouting directions to find the right door. For the first time since she came hear, Estelle mentally cursed the handicaps of a large, swishy, hooped skirt falling around her feet and tangling in her heels. The Wordsmith knocked desperately upon the door, calling out for Mr. Phelps. With no answer, he tried the door, finding it locked.
"Earl, where's the key?"
"I don't know, " Ciel replied.
"What!?" He explained, "Sebastian took care of the key to my room. No one knows where he kept it except for him."
"Get out of the way." At once, the door to the master's bedroom was cut to pieces by Charles Grey's rapier. Lau clapped appreciatively. "We need to be quick, seeing as there's still dessert." Keane looked a bit queasy at the nonchalant display of lethality, while Lau clapped childishly. Estelle sweatdropped.
The main doors opened quickly, and the Wordsmith was ahead of the pack as he called out for Mr. Phelps.
And stumbled on the dead young heir, face frozen in fear as he loosely gripped the carpet on the floor.
The vampires sniffed curiously, and their noses told them, snake.