CHAPTER 19 - "CIEL'S SECRET REVEALED"
With a torch in hand, Abberline walked just behind Ciel, lighting the way for him, as the entire company strolled through the long, stone carved tunnel, with Ciel leading the way.
Oddly enough, the walls were completely smooth like marble. So perfectly shaped.
Salem felt the wall and could feel dark energy within the stone. Sebastian had obviously used his powers to make this tunnel, and probably with ease. Ciel had probably directly him exactly where he wanted it begin and end. It wasn't a straight tunnel, it curved a few times almost like the body of a snake. And whether it was intentional or not, due to harder bedrock deposits in the ground, it was symbolic in its own rite like the snake in the Garden of Eden, and the tunnel itself iconic: traveling from the living to a place of death.
But only a Reaper would get the irony.
"This is an extravagant tunnel," Lukas said, "quite remarkable. I assume Sebastian made it?"
"He did," Ciel said, as Lukas hurried next to him. Lukas now walked side-by-side with Ciel. "I issued him an idea of what I wanted and he made it happen."
"After everything is over, you'll have some major explaining to do, Ciel and Lukas," Abberline said.
"I thought Lukas explained it all to you," Ciel said. "Or were you not listening?"
"I still don't believe it. It's too fantastic to believe."
"Then I suggest you get over your disbelief," Ciel said annoyed. "Things happen in this world that are a mystery to others but are easily explained by another. Now that you investigation into Lukas Phantomhive is next to over, what will you do with the information you have learned?"
"I don't know," Abberline said. "In solving the case, I could destroy many lives."
"Indeed. And not the proper one. We, my brother and I, are the victims. Let us handle it in our own way."
"I can't do that, Ciel. Many other children have disappeared. I owe it to the people of London to give at the very least the prudent information to the press, so they can hunt down Bryon Kelvin."
"If you do so, you will not only be destroying our parents reputation and the Phantomhive name, but you will also be casting suspicion of nefarious deeds by Her Majesty - that she had London citizens policing down criminals working separate from Scotland Yard. This will completely undermine the monarch rule and authority of the Crown. She will be ostracized. And if Sebastian's true origin is revealed - that he is a demon - need I explain the full extent of what he might do to keep himself secret?"
"You have a point, Ciel."
"Of course I do."
"And we wish to keep these things from the servants," Lukas said. He momentarily looked back behind Salem, to find Finny and Bard, who were carrying Sebastian having a difficult time of it, forever balancing his dead weight. Mey-Rin and Tanaka were behind them. "They do not know about Sebastian. You are the only other human who is aware of all events we are involved in. Can we trust you to keep everything you have learned a secret, at least for a little while? You are a credit to your profession. We know you a trustworthy man, but we need this promise from you now, so we can have time to avenge our parents and take revenge on Bryon Kelvin for everything he has done to us."
"Revenge isn't the way to go about getting justice, Lukas," Abberline said. Then he sighed. "But I promise to keep your secret for now. After this is all over, however, all three of us will sit down and have a very long talk."
"Agreed, Inspector. And thank you."
When they reached the end of the tunnel, it reached several hundred meters, there was an iron rung ladder hammered into the stone wall that lead up into a trapdoor of sorts.
Lukas had never seen a trapdoor or anything else indicating a secret tunnel inside the crypt, so he assumed there had to be an "invisible" removable panel in the floor somewhere. Inside the crypt, the floor had lines running diagonal and vertical to act as tiny crevice lines for water run-through if needed, or structure maneuverability when the ground itself shifted to prevent foundation cracks. The crevices could also act as art design for the floor of the crypt and could hide a trapdoor. Brilliant, he thought. No wonder I had no inkling of a trapdoor. If I wasn't looking for it, I would never know it was there.
Lukas climbed up the ladder and tapped the trapdoor, and was shocked. "Ciel, this is stone. How can we push this out?"
"Let me give it a try," Abberline said.
Lukas climbed down, Abberline handed him the torch, and climbed up and attempted to shoulder the stone door out of its housing. But it weighted a ton. "It won't budge," the inspector said. "It's much too heavy."
"Yes," Ciel muttered thoughtfully to himself. "If Sebastian were awake, he could move it easily by means only he has. I failed to recall this fact. Like I said, we have never used this tunnel. I was unaware it would be much too heavy to move."
Lukas rolled his eyes in disbelief. "Now you recalls this very important detail?"
"I provided a manner of escape from Mathu Kelvin!" Ciel said argumentatively. "It is more than you did!"
"But now we are trapped in this tunnel. Renfrew sacrificed himself for nothing!"
"It is not my fault if that damn ghost ended his existence by a useless gesture of self-sacrifice!"
"Hold on, you two," Abberline said, still standing at the top of the ladder. "If this avenue of escape is cut off to us, then we must go back. This is no time to be arguing amongst ourselves."
"He is always contradicting me!" Ciel said. "Always beginning an argument because he thinks he is right!"
"I do not begin arguments!" Lukas rebuked loudly. "It's your pugnacious attitude that starts our heated discussions! And I am not right all the time. I just believe we can seek alternative solutions from your narrow way of seeing things."
"And what does that mean?"
Abberline sighed.
Tanaka stepped forward. "Forgive them, Inspector," he said, standing between Ciel and Lukas. "I'm afraid, they are always like this. They are constantly at each other's throats on almost every issue of importance."
"Sibling rivalry is an ugly thing," Abberline said. "I also have a brother, and we don't see eye-to-eye. The last time we saw each other, we had an awful argument and haven't spoken to each other since."
"It is clear what is happening. The young master has been alone since Vincent and Rachel Phantomhive died, and Ciel has had to remain strong. But when young Lukas returned, Ciel, who considered himself the sole Master of the household, now has to share it with his brother, and like all spoiled children, jealousy rears it's ugly head, and one brother wishes to remain on top."
Ciel gasped. "How dare you say that, Tanaka!"
"The truth is hard to swallow, young master, but the air must be cleared. And I am tired of you two bickering like animals for territory. I am an old man, and I do not wish to spend my remaining years listening to you two gripe over the smallest thing just because you disagree on the outcome. I almost wish the duel you two had did 'settle' things. It is horrible thing to say, but the truth must be told. The Inspector is correct, sibling rivalry is an ugly thing, and it can destroy entire families. And you two are the only one's left of the proud Phantomhive family line."
"Bravo, Tanaka," Lukas said lightly.
"You should not boast, Master Lukas. Despite your hardships, you are in the same boat. The weight of the family no longer falls directly on Ciel's shoulders any longer. You must also take hold of the reigns. Your skill in business affair is impressive, you have your father's savvy. But you continuously preach that your brother must learn independence and self-reliance, away from the help of the servants, but have you, in truth, done anything less since you returned that does not cater to anything other than a young boy privileged?"
Lukas gasped, but he didn't have time to respond before Tanaka continued.
Tanaka looked at both boys in turn. "We provide a service to you, young masters, and we do it, not out of servitude or forbid slavery, but because we enjoy what we do." He turned back to Lukas. "Your brother may treat us badly sometimes, but you both must come to terms with our place in the household, as well as your own role as master of the house. It is the way of things, Master Lukas. It is the way society is aligned and beckons to social standing. The Phantomhive must keep the status quo."
Lukas looked downcast. "We are sorry, Tanaka. We did not realize our arguing was affecting you this much. I have tried to keep it to a minimum and walk away when my blood boils but..."
"You have a point, Tanaka," Ciel said. "You were my father's butler - our father's butler - for many years. And respect is duly noted to you by the many decades of servitude you have provided the Phantomhive family, and hopefully for years to come."
"Young master, you sound like this is our last hoo-ray. I do not believe it is so. The Phantomhive's have always found a way to survive, even in the most adverse times. It is said adversary defines a man's character in his darkest hour. We are not defeated yet."
"But what do we do, Tanaka? This is when I would ask Sebastian for advise."
"Sebastian can not help us right now. So we must think for ourselves. And fight our own battle this time." Tanaka then leaned over and whispered into Ciel's ear. "I know who and what Sebastian is, I have know for a long time, and I have kept your secret. I know you had to do what you felt was best at the time. If I were in your shoes, I would perhaps have done the same. Your father and mother kept secrets the alike as well. Perhaps someday I will reveal them to you, you will be surprised. But now is not the time."
Ciel gasped, Tanaka winked at him. He quickly composed himself and nodded. "We are not defeated yet," Ciel said with new determination. "If we must fight Mathu Kelvin alone and above ground, then so be it."
"I agree. Now that we have that cleared up. How do we leave this place?"
Suddenly a very loud explosion was heard, and then the stone trapdoor was ripped from its housing and a bright, blinding light filled the tunnel.
Abberline was yanked up and through.
Then Mathu Kelvin peered down into the tunnel. "Don't make this anymore difficult than it needs to be," he said. "My time is limited. Your ghost was no match for me. I absorbed him like skin absorbs sunlight."
"Murderer!" Lukas shouted.
"I put him out of his misery. How could I kill something that's already dead? Now, climb out of there."
They did. Finny pushed Sebastian by his legs while Bard pulled him up through the hole of the trapdoor and then laid him on the floor of the crypt. Or what used to be the crypt. Half of it had been obliterated by the very loud explosion heard, done by Mathu Kelvin. The crypt was now exposed to open air.
Despite Mathu Kelvin's destruction of more than half the symbolic crypt to his parents, there was a plaque on one wall he had put up to continue to remind him to never give up no matter the adversity. He momentarily glanced at it, as the others were still filing into the crypt. And it infused him with an even stronger determination to beat this Fallen Reaper.
It was an excerpt from one of his favorite poems:
"We are not now that strength which in the old days
Moved earth and Heaven; that which we are, we are
One equal-temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
Lord Alfred Tennyson (1842) "Ulysses"
When each of them were through, dusk began to broach the grave plot. The sun began to sink over the horizon in the west. And it gave rise to an eerie atmosphere that silhouetted the shadows of other gravestones and statuesques of dead family member plots.
Mathu Kelvin causally lifted a hand and levitated Sebastian into the air and out into the open, where he gently laid him in the dirt near a cross gravestone. He examined him closely.
"Wake him, now!"
"You know we can't do that," Ciel said, his hands on his hips in defiant stature. "You absorbed the only being that could have."
Sebastian's eyes began to flicker, as he dreamt.
"What in the hell could a demon possibly dream about? I wish to see," Mathu Kelvin said.
He knelt down on one knee and then put a hand on Sebastian's forehead. With his Fallen Reaper powers, he had the ability to see into the a human's subconsciousness. The instant he touched Sebastian, he was whisked away into an inner darkness generated by Sebastian's mind...