April nervously took Nathaniel’s hand when she and Sebastian returned from their dance. The strangeness of his eyes was reminiscent of Sebastian’s when she first met him- but they were also strangely familiar. As he led her out onto the floor, she looked back at her master and his butler. They looked at her differently now. When she first entered the household as head maid, Ciel and Sebastian regarded her with respectful indifference- now, there was concern in their eyes. Sebastian though, was a bit different. A part of her was hoping it was love, but a more logical part of her told her it was just her imagination. Why would he love her? She wasn’t anything special.
“You look ravishing, my dear,” said Nathaniel, twirling her before taking her hip. She cringed at his touch. Sebastian was far gentler and more graceful. Nathaniel was clumsy in his footing and held her too roughly.
“I am engaged, Lord Reuben,” she said, playfully swatting his arm. Her insides were crawling though, and she secretly wanted to smack him with a fire poker.
He chuckled in return. “What a shame he snatched you up first then. You are truly a gem.”
“You are too kind,” she answered.
He leaned in closer, his breath disgusting and hot as he whispered, “why don’t we go elsewhere, my dear? Where your watchful fiancé won’t see us, hmm?”
This is it, she thought. She tried her best to smile coyly at him. “Oh? Where would that be?”
“There is a secluded room near the back of the mansion. I stumbled upon it while looking for a room to rest in. There’s a large fireplace that’s already been prepared and rather comfortable arrangements.” He tilted his head away from her and winked.
“When shall we meet there?” she murmured.
“In twenty minutes. We shall leave the ballroom separately to not draw attention.”
“Of course.”
They finished their dance, and Nathaniel brought April back to Sebastian and Ciel, bowing slightly. “Your lady is truly a wonderful dancer,” he said. “Now, if you’ll pardon me…” He nodded at Ciel and walked away, in the direction of the room he’d pointed out to her.
When she turned to Sebastian, he was speaking to her. She read his lips: “What did he say?”
“I shall tell you,” she replied.
Outside of the mansion, a mysterious presence watched the throng of dancers through the floor-to-ceiling windows lining the walls of the ballroom. Angry storm clouds were gathering, and a roar shook the sky as fat drops of rain began to fall over the party. A flash of lightning revealed Grell Sutcliff, grinning devilishly, reading from a yellowed piece of parchment. “Ah, Bassy,” he clucked. “With you around, I don’t know if I’d be able to focus on my job for the night. But alas-” he dramatically touched the back of his hand to his forehead and whipped his head back. “-my work has yet again come in between our passionate rendezvous! Maybe once I’ve completed my task, I shall allow you to embrace me for but a moment! Ohhh! I just tingle at the thought of your lips caressing the hollow of my neck, your hands exploring my body, and…”
He babbled on, fully aware of the time he had until he reaped his next soul. He swooned, his chainsaw-scythe dangling from the branch of the tree he was perched in, and it swayed with his movement. It would finally claim a soul tonight, after a long time.
April inhaled deeply, closing her hand around the doorknob. “I have much faith in you,” Sebastian’s voice rang in her head.
She smiled to herself. “Thank you, Sebastian,” she whispered. “I have faith in you as well.” She swung open the door and stepped inside, instantly greeted by the roar of a crackling fire and Nathaniel seated on a chaise longue. “Hello,” he said, standing up.
April waited until the door shut behind her to step forward. “Uhm-”
He chuckled. “Shut up.”
“What?”
His face took on a darker expression, and Nathaniel stepped toward her. “Although I’d like nothing more than to ravage your body, that is not why I invited you here.”
April narrowed her eyes. “I know.”
He raised his eyebrow. “Oh?”
“You wanted to kill me, correct?”
Nathaniel laughed, placing his hands on his hips. “No, no. Not yet, at least. I merely wanted to talk to you.”
“T-talk?” she stammered.
He nodded. “Yes, talk. Let’s start with your whore of a mother, shall we?”
The violinist stopped playing, and Ciel and Sebastian chanced to remove their earplugs. All of the dancers were standing in the middle of the floor, staring off into space.
“What’s going on?” Ciel hissed, tugging on Sebastian’s sleeve.
“Hmm,” was his butler’s reply. The violinist’s eyes flashed red for a moment, and he raised his bow high. When Sebastian realized what he was going to do, he shoved Ciel under a table. “Get down, young master!”
“March, my underlings!” the musician cried. At that, Sebastian produced his makeshift weapons from his pocket and prepared himself as everyone turned to him with eyes filled with warlust.
“Do not kill them!” came Ciel’s order from under the table.
“Yes, master,” said the butler, smiling knowingly at his opponents. “May I kill the musician.”
“No. You must capture him though! And do it quickly! April is relying on us!”
April. Sebastian bit his lip and narrowed his eyes, becoming more serious about this battle now. “Of course.” He charged, raising his fist with silver knives clenched in between his knuckles.
April was collapsed to the floor, her skirts surrounding her as she looked up at Nathaniel, who was sitting at the edge of the bed. She tried her hardest to stop herself from quivering or looking at him in shock, but what he was saying was completely absurd.
“I am a devil, it is true, and this is not the first time we met. That devil you accompanied here is different from me though. He originated from Hell itself, while I was born from sin- just as you are!
“Demons like me are always spawning on those dirty streets. I am created from murder, lust, theft, bad thoughts, and unlike your darling Sebastian, I can procreate. It is destined for me to tempt other human beings into sin, to create more devils from their actions. But I am also destined to die, especially when the people we tempt end up back on the good path and redeem themselves. It’s disgusting!” He slammed his fist against the post of the bed, causing April to flinch.
After composing himself, he continued, “I was the one who whispered to your father. Look how beautiful she is, I said. How delicious she must be, I said! And, of course, you were then born.” He stood up and squatted to her level, taking her chin in his hand. “You captivated me, April. I watched you grow up, and the size and strength of your soul was astounding! I wanted you, but what comes with a strong soul like yours comes resilience tougher than a staunch Christian. I needed to break you, so I whispered to everyone around you. Ignore her, I said. She isn’t important! When you ran away, I followed you, and I whispered to the men around you! Isn’t her body tempting? I said. She’s a flower still waiting to bloom! I thought I broke you once, but oh, I was wrong. Remember what you said to me?”
That was him? April thought, remembering the boy with the mysterious red eyes. “You said you could fix it all for me. You could kill them all- you proved it to me by killing my worthless father in front of me. But I said no, because I believed in forgiveness. I wished for my father’s soul to be saved when I ran from you.”
“Such a good girl,” he clucked. “I needed to break you more, and so I left you alone. I waited until you formed your bonds with those girls on that ship. I waited for you to grow close to your employer and then whispered to him to start drinking again. I knew his past- Wallace Bullfinch used to drink himself into an angry stupor, and tried to quit out of embarrassment. Ha! He broke too easily. A weak soul!
“Then, I began killing your precious friends, and I watched as you became sickened by it. Thinking I had won, I was about to approach you- but then, that blasted devil and his master showed up. He took you away, and I had no way of getting to you. For if I tried, he would’ve sensed me and come after me.” He chuckled sinisterly, standing up. “It doesn’t matter now. I figured out a new way of eating souls.” His eyes glowed red and he produced a pistol from his inside pocket. “I can kill you and take your soul while you die, because now I know your weakness.”
April stood up and squared her shoulders, breathing in and facing him as if she was a man herself. “I have none,” she barked. “My soul is mine only.”
“Oh? So you deny you’ve fallen in love with a demon? You deny you’ve developed close ties with your fellow staff? You deny you’ve deluded yourself into thinking you were that child’s mother?” His evil gaze flicked over her shoulder, and April turned to see what he was looking at.
She gasped. “Ciel!” Lord Blackwell, with his eyes glazed over, was holding a wriggling Ciel Phantomhive in his firm grasp.
“April!” the boy choked.
April whirled back around, only to face the pistol pointed in her direction. She glared at him. “You will not harm that boy!”
“Oh? And what will you do about that, Miss April?” he laughed. “You only live in your stories. You’re not strong enough physically to fight me. You’re just Snow White, waiting for her prince to save her. You’re Little Red Riding Hood, lost in the woods. You’re Cinderella, unable to escape the nightmare of her own life. You can’t save your precious master, and you sure can not save yourself!”
April, who’d swiftly grabbed the fire poker from behind her, swung at him, crying out angrily. Because he was so surprised at her attack, she was able to bash in his skull with her weapon. She knew, though, that this wouldn’t be enough, for he was a devil.
As he fell, she stood over him, slinging her weapon over her shoulders. “My name is April Phillips, not Cinderella or Snow White,” she declared. “This is my own story, and you will no longer be apart of it!”