The Last Night at Beaumont

[toys_with]

Characters: Ciel Phantomhive and Grell Sutcliffe
Date: April 2nd, a few days after the Labyrinth ordeal.
Summary: Ciel Phantomhive is moving out of Beau
Warnings: Talk of murder.

Comments

[esoteric_rose]

Grell had not spoken to Ciel since she had come out of the Labyrinth. The words still haunted her-nobody, pretender...and the lack of Ann burned. Even though it was ridiculous to think this, she dwelt on the idea that Ann had been a hallucination, a trick of the world in order to pull out her pain.

Slamming woke her from her reverie, and rising, she left to go see what was occurring and making that noise.

"Countess? Are you all right?" How she wished she could call her "Ciel" or "child" like she was, instead of bowing her head to her in mock obedience.

[toys_with]

Ciel's hands froze above her suitcase, knowing she'd been caught in the act. There was little chance of hiding her intentions now, with all her belongings sitting on her bed and in that case for all to see. She hadn't wanted to deal with this confrontation just yet (or at all, really), but now it was here. It would be best to just get it over with.

Her hands began to move once again, although they were a bit slower and more mechanical. With a voice as cold as ice, she said, "I'm fine. Go back to bed, would you?"

[esoteric_rose]

"If I should be asleep, so should you."

Grell said nothing about the things she saw strewn about, it only made sense. With Ann gone, there was no reason for Ciel to stay in this house, Grell's house, a woman she would never trust, likely.

"Besides, it'll be better for you to move in the morning."

[toys_with]

"As if I would stay one more night with--," she started, but stopped herself before she could start screaming. Her voice had already risen too high for her liking.

She refused to turn, finding it easier to speak to the items in front of her than to Grell's face, "I have an appointment to keep."

[esoteric_rose]

"Say it."

The challenge was dropped into the silence, what would soon be so constant around her, what she knew she would hate. "No one will hear but me. Say it to my face, and quit lying."

[toys_with]

"...You want to hear it so badly? Fine, then," she turned halfway, enough to look Grell in the eye.

"I won't spend another night in the same house as the one who murdered Madam Red," she hissed, her words a challenge to match Grell's. Her expression practically dared the reaper to deny it.

[esoteric_rose]

"I gave her my loyalty, my mercy, far more than you would ever have done." Her eyes stayed locked on Ciel's. "If what I did is murder, so be it. I was committing penance by her staying here unknowing as to her fate."

[toys_with]

"You think keeping quiet about all that was enough to make up for what you had done?"

Her hands twisted into fist, gripping the layers of her skirt as if for support.

"At least with me, she would have lived. Whatever chance she had for penance is gone because of you."

[esoteric_rose]

"No. There was so far I still had to go, I'm not that stupid that I think silence was redemption."

She glared, folding her arms.

"You would have shamed her in front of the English public. I let her die with her name intact."

It meant nothing, with the object of conversation gone.

[toys_with]

"She would have paid for her crimes, but that doesn't mean everyone would have known. The world of the Watchdog and the world above aren't meant to coincide. That includes the identities of people like Jack the Ripper," she glared, defiant.

Madam Red would have lived, and that was the important thing to Ciel. She told herself that keeping quiet about who had committed those murders from even the Queen didn't change a thing.

[esoteric_rose]

"How do I trust that? How was I to know that was your intention? How do I trust a child and a demon with a woman I care for that deeply?"

It was an honest, open question. Grell couldn't read minds, and she wanted Ciel to prove to her that she had erred in believing the Madame would have died.

[toys_with]

The countess slammed the top of the case down, still facing Grell. It's all your fault, her expression said, but what her voice came out with was, "She would have believed me. Now we'll never know what would have followed, because you killed her for sparing me. She showed me mercy, and you wouldn't do the same for the woman you claim to have cared for."

She makes sure that Grell hears the distinction she makes between 'wouldn't' and 'didn't'. Ciel didn't believe this inhuman creature capable of such a feeling as love. She barely understood it herself.

[esoteric_rose]

"We might have, was she here now. We had a chance, and we wasted it." Mercy was not the object at stake here. "You know nothing of my reasons, as I know nothing of yours. I killed her because I feared for her, and saved the scraps of her dignity you would have destroyed."

[toys_with]

"This is not about how you were 'saving' her," the girl's eyes could have lit the room on fire, her gaze was so fierce.

"Fearing for someone is not the same as being afraid that they will leave you."

And with this, what Ciel truly suspected was revealed. The reaper had been terrified that Madam Red would leave after being unable to kill her only remaining link to her sister and brother-in-law.

[esoteric_rose]

Her hands clenched into fists, her nails bloodlessly cutting into her arms, as she quickly tried to keep her neutral façade. It wasn't fast enough, not with the shock of now Ciel hitting on the exact point of what had been so driven into her a few days ago. No, no, the child couldn't see her weak point, she didn't want her to see the slashed wound in her heart that had only been torn deeper by those unknowing words. Stay blank for now...show her nothing. It should be easy, that's what you are, right?

"Indeed it isn't."

[toys_with]

The lack of denial was enough for Ciel. Feeling bittersweet victory, she grabbed the handle of the case and moved toward the door. She called back to Grell, with her back turned to the former butler, saying, "If that will be all?"