"Falling in the black,
Slipping through the cracks,
Falling to the depths can I ever go back?
Dreaming of the way it used to be
Can you hear me?
Falling in the black
Slipping through the cracks
Falling to the depths can I ever go back?
Falling inside the black"

A young teenage girl sat in front of a window. Her head rested on her desk with her fingers tapping a rhythmless beat on wood nervously. She had tired green eyes that darted to the telephone beside her every so often, seemingly hoping it would ring.

Her position unchanged, the girl sat there for what felt like hours on end, gazing out the window with a faraway look in her eyes. When the sky finally began to darken, there was a soft knock at the door. She turned her head a bit at the sound, causing her curly blonde hair to ripple down her shoulder.

"Come in," she said softly.

The person behind the door seemed to hesitate a bit, but the door opened after a short pause. A young woman with dark brown eyes and long mousy hair stepped inside. Her eyes searched the room, and her grip on the small bells she held in her hand tightened. Before she could ring them in an attempt to cheer the girl, the blonde's voice cut in.

"Put those ugly bells away, Paula. I'm not in the mood."

The maid's hands dropped to her side. Her eyes found the floor as she spoke in a falsely cheerful voice.

"Dinner is ready, my Lady. Your parents would like to see you at the table tonight."

The girl was silent for a moment.

"Tell them I'm not hungry." she sighed.

Paula tapped her foot on the floor.

"That's the same thing you've been telling them for three days. You need to eat, my Lady!"

The girl did not reply, so the maid walked up beside her. She carefully set her bells on the desk and rested her hands on her mistress's shoulders. She stood there for a moment, completely silent. She looked down at the girl, at the sad frown that appeared so out of place on her normally cheerful face. Paula took in her unwashed appearance. Her dirty hair was out of it's usual pigtails and just sat on top of her head in an unbrushed mess. The bright colorful dresses she usually donned had been replaced by a darker outfit of a simple blouse and skirt. She was beginning to grow thin, and the gray lines under her eyes contrasted harshly with her pale skin. The maid bent down and whispered in the girl's ear.

"My Lady, acting like this will not bring your fiancé back home." she told her gently, "He's went missing for a month before. I'm sure he'll come back safe and sound soon."

The girl continued to sit as if she hadn't heard her maid.

"You haven't slept or ate in nearly a week." she continued, "Ciel certainly wouldn't like to see you like this, would he?"

Again, no reply. The maid decided it would be best to leave her alone, so she simply added one more thing before she left.

"If anyone finds him, you'll be the first to know."

The maid dropped her hands and left, and the girl turned her eyes to gaze out the window once more.

The demon stood over the angel, watching with a satisfied smile as the life flowed out of her in crimson waves. He tilted his head slightly, examining her the way a carpenter would study a block of wood before carving it. For some odd reason, he felt a small pang of regret stir within him. The emotion felt almost foreign, and it was quickly pushed aside. He descended to kneel down on one knee and he brushed her cheek with his thumb. It could have been a loving gesture of sorts, if it wasn't for the sadistic grin stretching across his face. His hand moved to her neck. The fingers stretched open then closed around her. Blood began to bead up from where his claws broke her skin. It would be so easy just to kill her now. All it would take is a crush of hand or a fling of the wrist. He wasn't sure why he was being so hesitant.

There wasn't much he could remember. He didn't know of his name or his age, and while he had the feeling he had been asleep for a while, that was about it.

He did remember the terror he felt. He had woken feeling frenzied with fear. His eyes had opened, and he saw her. He saw her and instantly hated her. He hated her and wanted nothing more than to kill her. He had the chance to kill her now. Why wasn't he using it?

He didn't know exactly why he wanted to kill her. It wasn't even a personal thing. Maybe it was the strange energy she seemed to give off. He just hated her. Whatever she was. Some deeply driven code within him declared that her continued existence wasn't something he could not allow.

He remembered the sudden pain that washed over him, drowning out the fear and giving rise to rage. The all-powerful instinct inside him told him that she had caused this, that she was the only one to blame. Whatever had happened to him had happened because of her. She had to die. The booming voice in his head decreed so.

With this logic instilled in his mind, all hesitation vanished. His hand tightened, and he stood, dragging the limp body up with him. He held his arm out at full length above him so that her feet dangled over the ground. The heat of the moment had begun to ebb away, and the pain he had managed to ignore was screaming for his attention.

He jumped when he heard a yell from behind. It was a child's voice. A boy's. He sounded angry.

"Sebastian!"

The startled demon dropped the unresponsive angel in surprise. He whirled around to find the voice's source.

What he saw almost made him burst out laughing. Standing there, at the bottom of the hill, was the most pathetic-looking human he had ever seen. He was just a child. Small and thin. He was covered in scratches, his clothes and hair were ragged and he had a dirty rag tied over his right eye. His face was contorted with shock and fear, but his fists were clenched at his sides in rage.

The demon looked the boy up and down. His mind was racing with things he could do to him. After all, the child would have to pay for interrupting him. Perhaps he could just kill him outright. It would be quicker after all, but where was the fun of that? Or maybe he could just tear him apart slowly, make him plea for mercy, but the demon would only laugh and watch the life leave his eyes. He was sure the boy's drawn-out screams would be rather enjoyable, and he purred a bit at the thought.

He crouched slightly, preparing to attack him like a lion would its prey, but then the boy did something that utterly shocked him. The child ripped a the rag away from his face, stood tall and shouted at him.

"Sebastian! I order you to stop this immediately!" he shrieked.

The demon blinked. Did this worthless thing just attempt to command him? Sebastian... the boy had called him Sebastian. Was that his name? He couldn't remember. Did he even have a name? It frustrated him to no end.

He glared at the boy, but his lip twitched in a slight smile. It was very amusing indeed, the way the foolish child challenged him. He had to commend him for his bravery though. Such courage was an admirable quality. The boy must have had a fine soul. Maybe, just maybe, he could contract him.

As if on cue, a slight breeze blew from the bottom of the hill, wafting the boy's warm scent up to him. He froze, and an agonizing pang of hunger swept through him, along with a longing feeling. The soul, the energy, the very life force he gave of teemed with the perfect flavor, a dark purity of sorts that sent the demon into a starved frenzy. A burning thirst ripped through his throat, a flame that would only be quenched by the consumption of that boy's soul. He was still for a moment, having been stunned by the sudden onslaught of senses. He closed his eyes for a bit and let himself bathe in the scent. A moment later, when he was finally able to recompose himself, he tensed. Then he snapped.

He flew down the hill at such a speed the boy hadn't even a moment to brace himself. All he could do was blink before the weight of the demon rammed into him at full force. The child was knocked to the ground and his head slammed so hard stars swam in his vision. He couldn't breath, the demon's knee digging into his chest made it impossible. In one swift movement, the boy's arms were pulled from his side and pinned above his head by the demon's one working hand. The other arm hung rather uselessly at his side. He noticed the jagged stump of a wrist was still bleeding slightly.

The boy looked up to see his once-butler's eyes less than an inch from his own. He could see his own terror mirrored back at him from the glowing slits. Hunger and power and unbelievable want swam beneath the demon's cold gaze. The earl tried to turn his head away but found that he couldn't so much as move a muscle, no matter how hard he tried. He wondered if he was literally paralyzed with fear, or if this was something of Sebastian's doing.

There wasn't a chance to wonder much else. In the span of a second the demon had driven his teeth deep into the child's neck, and the boy had let out a scream louder than one would have thought was humanly possible. He felt pain he didn't even know he was capable of experiencing. The flames of the manor were like tickles, the agonizing hunger nothing more than a stomach ache. The cuts, the lacerations and stab wounds at the hands of his captors, even being branded with a hot iron was nothing in comparison. He would have lived it again, lived it a thousand times over, and he would have been grateful if it meant he could get away from the present pain he was feeling.

The boy screamed and cried and pleaded, all of which only served to entice the demon further. Blood rushed out the child's neck only to be selfishly swallowed by a starved demon. The boy squirmed helplessly, completely trapped under the demon's weight. He could actually feel himself growing weaker. He could feel the life leaving him, the memories, the emotions and feelings, all of it was fading. He could feel is very soul being dragged from the depths of his heart for the demon's consumption.

He was Ciel who?

His birthday was when?

He was where he was because of what?

In his fading consciousness, he struggled to hold what he had left closer to him, but even the simplest things were slipping.

That's when his veins began to feel icy. He had never known true terror until that moment. It was as if every bit of fear he felt over his thirteen years of life had been added together then multiplied by the thousands, only to be unleashed on him in a wave that literally paralyzed him with terror. He couldn't move, he couldn't blink, he could hardly even breathe as he was drowned in fear so potent is was actually painful. He didn't scream, the fright had ripped his voice from him. He couldn't even cry. He could only tremble.

He could feel the demon's lips smile into his neck when he had stopped moving. After all, it was the job of a demon's venom to completely incapacitate their victim, and what better way to do that than to strike them dead with terror? A common ideal with demons was that the soul was best eaten when the emotions were most intense. Fear was an intense emotion, was it not? Nothing set a human's heart pounding and mind racing the same way pure, undiluted terror did.

The demon could already feel the effects of the blood. His pain was growing slightly more bearable. He was feeling stronger. He could feel his wounds beginning to mend themselves. It was such a relief. Or so it was until he heard an enraged scream and a strong force flung him backwards.

He flew back a good distance, his back landed on the ground and skidded until he came to a complete stop. He simply lay there for a moment, too surprised to do anything else Then he began to pull himself up. He didn't make it very far however. Before he could even stand fully straight he was knocked back down again by what felt like the same force.

He growled and sprung up. His head whirled around trying to find the source of whatever kept hitting him. He looked behind him and saw a strange black wave of pulsing energy riding towards him. Instinct took over. His body acted on it's own accord and jumped up. His hands caught on to a tree branch and he hoisted himself up. He scrambled up the tree like a frightened squirrel. The wave passed harmlessly underneath him, though the tree did shake a bit when the pulse went through its trunk.

Making himself as flat as possible against a branch, his eyes scanned the foliage. He was going to find whatever had disturbed him and he was going to kill it.

The trees rustled slightly as a slight breeze passed through them. In the clearing at the base of the hill where Ciel lay emerged a girl. She had messy, shoulder-length black hair that fell on her face. Her pale had faint scars in many places. What stood out most about her were her piercing blue eyes that glowed with a purple hue. She was completely enveloped in a black, intimidating energy. Hints of purple and blue aura swirled around in the dark energy. Her body was almost completely shadowed by it, making her eyes seem to glow even brighter than they actually were.

She confidently steppedinto the middle of the clearing, stopping an arm's length away from Ciel. She gazed at him for a moment, her face relatively expressionless. She nudged him slightly with her toe. He didn't respond, and she simply shrugged and continued walking, not caring when one of her bare feet splashed in the blood that had pooled from the injury on the boy's neck. She looked up into the branches of the tree in which the demon was hiding.

She saw him.

He saw her.

And suddenly, her aura whipped up around her, forming itself into shadowy tendrils that snaked through the air towards the demon. They wrapped around him and before he could resist they yanked him out of his hiding place and threw him at her feet, landing with a soft thud.

He looked up into her face and saw something disturbing. Her face was absolutely devoid of expression, but her eyes said it all. They seethed with an emotion he couldn't even describe. It was better to describe it as insanity than an actual emotion.

He rapidly pulled himself to his feet and backed away.

He felt threatened by it, by her. He realized a fight with this seemingly harmless girl was inevitable, but she probably wasn't as harmless as she looked. In fact, he was willing to bet she was brutally powerful, judging by the energy she gave off.

That was another thing: Her aura confused him. He couldn't tell what she was. She couldn't be human. Humans had an aura, but they weren't able to control and manipulate it at will like she was doing. She definitely couldn't be a reaper; they didn't even have an aura to begin with. She could have been an angel. Her aura held some traces of an energy unique only to angels, but at the same time it was heavy with a demon's power. Most of it was something he had never even encountered to begin with. If he had known what she was, he would have had a better chance of winning his fight against her. Not knowing put him at a disadvantage.

he could feel his anger beginning to rise. Very quickly too, at that. His own aura began to condense around him, swirling around in a green-black mist. It was a good thing he had the boy's blood in his system, otherwise he probably wouldn't have stood a chance. If he was at full power, he was sure he could have taken her out easily. If only that were the case.

His aura now a full-blown field of energy surrounding him, he cautiously made a stance to jump so he could get away quickly from any attack she had planned.

"Now just who in the hell are you?" he asked with venom.

The smallest hint of a smirk found it's way onto her face.

"My name is Akuma." she said casually, "My mother wants you dead, and I'm going to make it happen."

Ciel's world was fuzzy. His vision swam in and out of focus. He turned his head slightly and caught sight of Akuma, or at least someone he thought was Akuma. He could hear talking. Sebastian and Akuma were talking. He couldn't understand a word of it, though. Everything sounded as though he was under water.

His head pounded painfully. The icy feeling in is veins simply turned to numbness, and in turn his entire being went numb. He turned his head again, and he found a path out of the clearing he was in. A small, desperate thought formed in his hazy mind, one telling him that he needed to get away now.

He was far too dizzy to stand and walk, but maybe he could crawl his way out. Though he felt to weak to even move, he dragged himself up on his hands and knees. The ground swayed beneath him. He felt like a drunkard trying to walk on a tightrope. But his persistence won out, and he somehow managed to force himself to keep going.

He didn't stop once he was out of the clearing. Oh no, he kept himself going for quite some time, the only thing motivating him were the crashes and shrieks of the two demons fighting behind him. He eventually happened upon a very large black mare, the same horse he had ridden into this mess with. She was grazing idly quite a distance from the fight.

Ciel had forgotten her name, but he decided to stay with her. He curled up between the roots of a huge tree. The horse glanced at him occasionally, but other than that she didn't acknowledge his presence. The boy would have liked to think he could stay there.

Night had fallen, and he was beginning to nod off to sleep when he heard three, possibly four sets of hooves thundering towards him. He jumped awake, noticing the world was a bit clearer than before. He looked around and realized that the fourth set of hooves had only been his horse galloping away in fright. He had no way to follow her, so he just sat and waited for whatever was coming for him.

Three horsemen came onto view, each wearing a uniform. He knew that had seen him, because one of them pointed at him and they all turned to go to him. He knew he should have been scared, but he was so relieved nothing else mattered. These men looked like police, and if the police were in these woods that meant that they must have searched for him.

He barely remembered to close his marked eye as the horses skidded to a stop in front of him.

"Hell, look at his neck!" one said, "Looks like he's half eaten!"

The other two generally ignored him. One who was holding a piece of paper quickly dismounted. He knelt in front of the boy.

"What's your name, son?" He ask rather loudly.

The boy swallowed before he spoke in a voice hoarse from screaming.

"Ciel."

"Ciel who?" the officer asked again.

The boy tried to grasp it, tried to force it into a word that he could speak, but he couldn't.

"Ph... Ph... I don't know." I said pathetically

The officer looked from the boy, to the paper, then back to the boy. Finally, he just held it up for the boy to see.

"Is this you?" he asked.

One of the officers spoke up behind him.

"For Christ's sake, Dan, stop asking stupid questions! That's obviously the kid we're looking for, and he looks like he's probably in shock. Let's just take him home already!"

The officer folded the paper and put it in his pocket. He stood and held his hand out for the boy.

"Stand up," he said, "You're going home."

The child gratefully took the officer's hand, but the officer pulled him up a little to quickly. His head spun and his vision went completely dark. The last thing he remembered was the feeling of the ground hitting his face before he blacked out.

BOOM.

You thought I wasn't going to update anymore, didn't you? You probably thought that I had abandoned this story and left it to die so it could rot and a bunch of other disgusting stuff, right?

WRONG!

I have no intentions of abandoning this story anytime soon. I just needed a little break from it due to what I would like to call 'end of school year craziness.'

Don't get your hopes up though. My updates will be no where near regular anymore. I've been writing for other fandoms and I've been working on a lot of other original stuff for myself.

Oh, and just for the record: 3500+ WORD CHAPTER THAT ONLY SORTA SUCKS!

My new laptop arrived May the 22nd and it has been running fabulously. That is a very good thing because I think the librarian would have shot me if I went back there one more time.

On another note, I finished 'The Wanderer's' One-shot request. If you didn't already know, she asked for a story about Ciel killing himself because I assume she is heavily disturbed. It is titled When the Spider's Thread Fails. I would really appreciate it if you all took the time to read and review it. It is one of my better written stories, and it means a lot to me.

I've decided I need to interact with you readers a bit more, So I have a question for you:

Who should win next chapter's fight?
Bassy or Akuma?

I have two different scenarios planned for whoever wins, so your input is very important. Just tell me who you want in the reviews. You have control over the story now, use it wisely.

So, that's all for now. Until we meet again,

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Slender man is scaring the shit out Ciel for your amusement.

BYE! ^_^