The Phantomhive manor, like all british manors, had a series of catacombs and secret rooms hidden beneath its structure. Because why else would it be the setting of a gothic romance if not for having hidden compartments. For storage, and also for the safety of the inhabitants of the manor. Should anything disastrous happen, such as the fire which killed both of his parents (some good these passages did for that), they would be used as a shelter to house the family. They were impenetrable, dark, covered in spiders and god-doesn't-even-know-what-else. He was down there because he was bored and kind of drunk and wasn't sure what else he could do. To his mind, crawling down in these forgotten dust and centipede factories seemed like the most productive way to spend an afternoon. Ciel held up a lit oil lantern and descended down into the creepy depths that were even further below the ground than the basement.

He had never actually been down here but he remembered eavesdropping and hearing from his father about how to hide down here. This is where his father used to play hide and seek as a child, and Ciel wondered if his father wasn't just as creepy and melancholy as a child as Ciel himself. The passage way to the hidden rooms and halls was at the furthest point of the basement, behind a latch door hidden under an old dusty tapestry that they used for a rug despite it looking like it used to be way too nice to be a rug. Ciel wasn't entirely sure how he knew his, he just had that kind of feeling about it. Ciel pulled back the rug and after clearing the plume of dust that spilled into the air, he saw the heavy wooden door. He was too impatient to call Sebastian to lift the door. It was heavy and wooden and it looked like the old rusty lock used to be functional, but was smashed apart with something. Perhaps an ax. Ciel didn't want to know who would trying breaking down there and what they were looking for. It was probably something illicit. It always was.

The door opened with the ominous creak that one could expect of opening a door that had not been opened in quite some time. He could just feel the chill of the cool creeping up the black hole but Ciel held his lantern over it anyways. It was a staircase, not a ladder and so, he still wouldn't have to call down Sebastian. He'd be embarrassed to do so, since he was so creeped out by this anyways and only children are creeped out by their own basements. Ciel didn't want to lose face, and still, curiosity beconed him to move forward. Ciel didn't want to be immature, so he continued his journey to the depths of Phantomhive's catacombs out of sheer will and defiance to everything that his brain was telling him. Being, "No. Don't go down there. Turn back, you fool. It's not like anything good is down there." Ciel continued because fuck his better judgement, and fuck looking like a wimp in front of Sebastian.

Ciel could not see farther than his lantern's light would throw, but from what he could see, it did not appear ar though there was a complex maze of hallways and passages like he'd always thought there were hiding underneath the manor. Some of the glamor had really been lost. In fact, it was more like a single hall way lined with wooden doors. They looked old, at least two hundred years, if not older. This was a lot less fun than he thought it would be. Ciel decided he would go from side to side, opening every door and seeing the contents behind each. If he were lucky, there would other hallways and doors hidden behind these ones. The first door on the left- empty and nothing hidden, the one adjacent from that was also empty. The next few rows were just full of empty rooms. Ciel opened a fifth one down and realized that this one was not empty, but rather, he wished it were.

This room was larger than the others, the stone floor was covered with hay and against the walls, chains were put in. He could see remnants of dried blood splattered against the wall, and even noticed that someone had forgotten their whip on the floor. Ciel did not want to know what happened or who it happened to. He was starting to think that some things were better left secret, and this is why the lock was on that door. He closed the door behind him, making a mental note of the lock which was broken and how that was a sign that he should never go back there. The other rooms were the same empty rooms, with nothing particularly special or unsavory hidden in them. The last room at the end of the hall facing back was locked. This lock was old and rusty but would give way when Ciel pulled on it. Luckily, he could just shoot it open with his gun. He was sure someone upstairs heard the bang and shatter of metal.

Ciel opened the door to find yet another stone staircase carved into the ground. He stepped on the first step then pulled back quickly, noting that it set off a gate that would come down on you completely if you stepped on the lever. Now this was intriguing, indeed. Well played, ancestral Phantomhives! Ciel skipped the first two steps, and landed on the third. He carried on his trip down the flight of winding, spiraling stairs that led down further than should have been possible. Ciel laughed to himself thinking this door might lead to China. In earnest, he figured it led to worse things than the torture chamber he saw before. The joke was to keep himself calm. This was his home, his territory. He should have nothing to fear within the confines of his own domain. He will fear nothing here... no imaginary spectors or traps.

At the end of the line it seemed, was just another wooden door with barely enough space at the landing to open it. The door was locked, and having no key, Ciel took it upon himself to shoot the lock open again. It was his house, and he'll shoot open however many damn locks he pleases with in it. On the door was a metal slat for opening and closing, Ciel couldn't think of why but he probably could have just picked the lock through it if he wasn't so damned impatient. Ciel opened the door to find a room no larger than a broom closet. It was left bare with the exception of a plain wooden shelf and a few boxes. Ciel closed the door behind him, noticing that the back of the door was covered with marks that appeared as though someone tried to claw their way out of it. He could see a bit of human finger nail caught in the cracks, as well as blood smeared within the scratchings on the door. He did not understand why, and decided that this mystery was entirely unrelated to himself and should be ignored.

On the plain shelf was a row of nearly identical burgundy leather bound books. The only difference was the amount of wear and tear each of them had, some more, some would books be stored down here? The idea of discovering new secrets sent Ciel's heart beating. He was so excited to see what kind of mysteries he could unravel here. Ciel picked up the one on the far left with his free hand and set it on top of the volumes. The first page was purposefully left blank, the second page had some writing in it. On the old, weathered pages tinted sepia by decades gone by, Ciel reads a fine scrolling text written with black ink. The handwriting is familiar to him like the writing of an old friend, he immediately knew who wrote this.

"Dear journal, my name is Vincent Phantomhive and I am thirteen years old. I am always miserable and I hate being alive, and I would rather burn in the fires of hell than spend one minute near any of the people I am forced to endure on a daily basis. I live in my family's manor out in the wilderness of her queen's empire. The only people I like in this world are my butler, Tanaka and my younger sister, Frances. To everyone else, I am nothing more than an unwanted parasite. They can not wait to kill me..."

His father's penmanship had always been perfection. Ciel picked up the second large leather covered book on the shelf. When he opened it and carefully held his torch above it so he could read the text it read:

"Dear journal, my name is Vincent Phantomhive and I am still thirteen years old. I am still miserable and now it is certain that I hate not only everyone else, but also myself."

Going further down the row of identical looking books, he picked it up and read the opening cover, now understanding the pattern.

"Dear journal, my name is Vincent Phantomhive and I am twenty four years old. I now have a son, who is just an infant and I couldn't be happier in my life."

Yes... all of these books... were his father's journals. Ciel took the first three on the shelf and headed back upstairs. If anything information could be found about the person who killed his predecessors- it would be in the many volumes of Vincent's life. If he had made any enemies, Ciel would surely find out about it within these handwritten tomes. He didn't understand why they were locked away down here, but he knew that this was important to him and to what was left of his family.

"I heard gunshots, my lord." Sebastian said. Ciel jumped in the air and nearly dropped the lantern from the shock.

"Did I frighten you?" Sebastian suppressed a laugh at Ciel who turned around and glared at him, lantern still in hand.

"I was just exploring the catacombs beneath the house and I was not expecting company, of course you would surprise me."

"What are all these books?" Sebastian asked.

"They are Vincent Phantomhive's personal journals. I would like you to bring all of them upstairs and into my office so I may inspect each one thoroughly. I have reason to believe that this could pertain to our little revenge plot so you will handle them with your most gentle hand, do you understand, Sebastian?"

"Yes, my lord." Sebastian said. He could never understand the human idea of collecting journals. They only lived for about eighty years or so, that shouldn't be such a long span of time to remember without having to write it all down. Still, he never heard of something so trivial being hidden in such a way. Clearly, neither had Ciel or there would be no reason for him to suspect that it would have something to do with their important contractual obligations. "And bring me up some chocolate and your strongest brew of tea. I will be reading until the crack of dawn and I would like to be awake," Ciel added in before getting back to his literature.

I want this to be like prequel to the Kuroshitsuji canon. Though this is the story out of Vincent's journals, the narration is primarily 3rd person, because I loathe first person narration. So keep in mind that this is basically based off Vincent's journal entries and he's a bit of an unreliable narrator. It is not about his end so much that is about the life he lived, so please keep in mind that even though we all know how the story ends doesn't mean that I won't throw in some unexpected twists. I assure you, the life and times of Vincent Phantomhive may be even more scandalous and outrageous than those of his son.

All warnings are the same here as they are with the canon of Kuroshitsuji, save that a lack of censors allows me to get away with much more in the scadals department than Yana.