Video; @cphantom | memory share

[sweetlies]

[The video starts in a faintly dimmed room, all the light coming from candles spread about. It's a large room, all made of shining white marble, a chandelier of gold hanging above and holding several of those candles. It's clear it must have cost a fortune.

Pillars make a circle around the room, behind them are stone seats for an audience, there are several cages filled with children in various conditions and all of them chains to the bars by their ankles. In the center is an altar, the floor around it painted with a pentagram, and around that are a couple dozen adults dressed in dark robes and masked as if it were a masquerade. They're all laughing, ignoring the caged children until one cage door is opened and a young boy is pulled out, no more than ten years old.

He's screaming and reaching back to the cage.]

"No! Don't take me away!"

"Ciel!"

[They lay him on the altar, hold him there, and one man holds up a dagger, a wild grin on his face, and brings it down into the child's chest. Blood spills everywhere, from his chest, from his mouth, there's a scream. Two screams. One from the boy on the altar as he dies, one from the boy in the cage.

They look alike, even while one lives and one dies. Like mirror images of one another.]

"There is no such thing as God!"

[And a black smoke filled the room, the candles are snuffed out, the cultists fly into a panic. And then red eyes appear and several of their panicked faces turn to delight, demanding riches, eternal life, petty desires one has every day but the eyes instead settle on the boy in the cage as he reaches out between the bars.]

"Oh. What a tiny master... You have summoned me, that fact will not change for an eternity. The payment to cross has already been made. Now... choose..."

"I... I want-"

"Shut him up!"

"I want power! The power to take revenge on the ones who did this to us! Demon! I'll make a contract with you!"

"So you're abandoning the light for the path to hell? Fine. Well then, let's mark our bodies with the contract seal. The more visible the place where your seal is, the stronger it's power. So, where do you want-"

[The child in the cage, Ciel, doesn't hesitate.]

"Anywhere is fine. I want a power stronger than anyone else!!"

[Through his tears, the smokey figure reaches out a clawed hand, wiping away a tear slipping from his right eye.]

"You're quite greedy, despite your small body. Well then, I shall put the seal on that big eye of yours, filled with despair."

[He grabs his face, another scream being torn from his lungs, and when he draws his hand away, one blue eye had turned purple, an inverted pentagram replacing any features his eye once had. Even his pupil is gone, and blood pours down his cheek.]

"Kill them all!!" [And all... goes dark...]

Comments

[sweetlies]

Halloween is fun. [He says softly. Really, the candy was always his favorite part, but it's one of few fun things that Sebastian hasn't really tainted.

He's up and at Undertaker's side in a few seconds, grabbing a light jacket after and hanging it over his arm.] Ready.

[somakemelaugh]

Oh, it is. Spooks and ghosts and creepy crawlies... [And to the door they'll go, where he'll open it first and gesture for Ciel to go first.] Milord.

[sweetlies]

Candy and costumes. [What? He's still only fourteen. It's doubtful anyone expects anything else from him anyway. And his sweet tooth has shown no signs of calming.

He pauses at the door, a little surprised, but smiles and goes through, glancing at the man.] You don't have to call me that, you know?

[somakemelaugh]

Ah, that's the best part. [He expected nothing less. Nothing less at all. In fact, he'd banked on it.]

[He followed Ciel through and closed and locked their door and then to the elevators.] You've said as much before, but I still must insist. You're still an Earl to me.

[sweetlies]

Even though it holds no weight here? [Even if the most he'll manage here is a successful business and keeping his soul.]

Someday, I'll convince you.

[somakemelaugh]

Maybe even because it holds no weight here. [He's not a creature of habit, not really. But in this instance, it's not about habit.]

I wish you wouldn't. I rather like it.

[sweetlies]

[That's actually a little surprising. On both points.]

I always thought nobles bothered you. Enough that still calling me 'milord' would bother you. [He can't help but be curious about it.]

[somakemelaugh]

[Down on the bottom floor, they exit the building and it's all well and good into the hallway.] Oh, don't misunderstand. They most certainly do bother me. But you are your father's son and I find you quite amusing.

[sweetlies]

Even though I'm rubbish when it comes to jokes?

[All those times he'd relied on Sebastian, and on a smaller scale Lau and Madam Red, instead of trying himself. Ciel does manage a smile though, at himself mostly but also that he at least manages to amuse the man in some way.]

[somakemelaugh]

It's not only jokes I find my humor in. I thought you would have known that by now.

[After losing his sides to laughter on the Campania when the device the Viscount thought would make him an emperor failed to go off? Classic!]

[sweetlies]

[He makes a point of trying to forget that Phoenix pose ever happened. Seeing Druitt make a fool of himself though? He could live with that.]

I haven't forgotten. I'm not great at other methods either though.

[somakemelaugh]

[Aww, but it was so adorably hilarious.]

So you say. I would beg to differ, but I think you'll argue it with me.

[sweetlies]

[It was embarrassing!]

Oh? I didn't think you'd gotten as much a laugh out of our jokes at the cafe as out of others.

[Look, not really... arguing. At least he's better than his aunt was. Or Lau.]