Chapter Text
Ciel awoke groggy with a splitting headache. He could feel already it was not going to be a good morning. With a heavy sigh and an outstretching of limbs the boy shook his head and rose up out of the less than comfortable bed. Looking around, he realized that he had not been sleeping in his own room. He was in a room with hardly any decoration; plain and almost sterile looking. Possibly he was in a hospital, he thought.
Walking around the bed and finding an open door to the right of the room, he stepped into the in-suite bathroom. He felt so blah and groggy and thought a splash of water on his face would do him good. Reaching around with his eyes closed, face dripping with the fresh water, he found the soft towel hanging to his left and grabbed it to wipe his face. It was then his eyes opened and he looked at his reflection in the square mirror above the sink for the first time.
A scream broke the silence of the small in-suite.
The face Ciel was expecting to see in the mirror was not the one he saw. He recognized the small boyish features and slate hair. The pink plump lips and small nose, yes those were all his too. But the eyes, the eyes were not his own. Instead of the expected beautiful blue left eye and a violet tinted right eye, he saw a pair of large piercing green eyes staring back at him. The sight took him aback and he stumbled on his feet, falling backwards into the rear wall.
The boy’s face went pale as he lifted his hands to touch around his face, watching his movements in the mirror from the far wall. His thin, pale fingers poked and prodded his face, making sure he wasn’t dreaming. He moved his eyes and those in the mirror moved too. The stark green eyes were defiantly his; they had to be since he was moving them when he looked to the left and right. Moving closer to the mirror, he opened his eyes wide to see the white around the green irises. In awe and without thinking his finger went to his right eye and he touched the delicate orb.
“Ow!” He yelled as he drew his hand back. Apparently he touched, more like poked, his eye a little harder than he meant to.
Ciel heard a door opening from the far side of the main bedroom and he marched into the room to see just who was interrupting his pending meltdown.
“Phantomhive, what are you doing in here screaming and yelling?” The man in a crisp suit said with a heavy sigh. “Honestly.”
“Spears!” said Ciel as he moved closer to the reaper.
“What in the hell is wrong with my eyes? These aren’t my eyes!” Ciel asked in a worried but demanding tone.
The stoic reaper rolled his own eyes. “Phantomhive, firstly, you are not in hell. You would know it if you were, trust me. Secondly, think of the last thing you remember. It will all become clearer when you remember what happened.”
The earl just stared at the reaper as he thought hard about the last thing he remembered. What was the last thing he remembered? Think…think…
Blood, he remembered a lot of blood on his hands. And…and pain, yes, there was a lot of stabbing pain. Maybe he was stabbed when he was on assignment? No, Sebastian wouldn’t have let that happen. Sebastian…hmmm , he thought. Suddenly his shocked green eyes flicked up to meet the same bright green eyes of the reaper’s.
“Fuck, I…I…killed myself! I killed myself to screw Sebastian over!!!” Ciel said in an almost shout as the realization of what had happened dawned on him.
He was a reaper. He was a reaper just like Spears. A consequence of suicide and a consequence Ciel laughed at as he sat at his desk and slit his own throat to keep his demon butler from taking his soul.
Normally Ciel would never go back on his word but after the sick and twisted torture Sebastian had put him through, he decided the demon would never have the pleasure of consuming his perfectly seasoned soul. And so he hatched the quick and dirty plan of requesting his favorite treats as a last request and during their preparation, he would end his life. Sebastian never saw it coming. Even at the young earl’s worst, he wasn’t one to go back on his word, except for this one and final time.
William was not amused by the sudden realization, nor the ever growing smirk on Ciel’s face at that very moment. “I wouldn’t be so smug. You need to watch your back as you are still weak. Michaelis may very well be out to get you.”
Ciel just shrugged his shoulders like he didn’t have a care in the world anymore. “So, let him try. I’m a reaper now and just as powerful as him!”
Spears took a step forward, getting a little too close for comfort. “You are an idiot.”
That statement irked the former young lord.
“Don’t you dare call me an idiot! I’ve seen demons and reapers fight and I know…” Spears put his hand flatly up in the air to halt the looming tirade.
“NO, you do not know anything. You are weak. You have nothing on me or even that nuisance Grell. You aren’t even trained yet and you think you will be just fine if that damn demon does come after you?!” The elder reaper was getting a bit aggravated at the haughty boy in front of him.
“I know what he’s capable of!” Ciel shouted, having to look up in order to lock eyes with Spears.
William gritted his teeth and bent forward, as if to scold a naughty child.
“You only think you know! You think it was bad when you were human? He had to be careful. He couldn’t let you die so he didn’t cause any severe wounds. Just think what he’ll do when you have a body that can heal itself! You have no idea the almost mortal wounds we can endure. He just has to make them just short of fatal and you’ll keep healing over and over again!”
Ciel started to laugh right in the other reapers face.
“Ha! ‘Mortal wounds. Fatal.’ We are already dead, or have you forgotten that?”
Spears sighed and straightened his glasses. “You are trying my patience boy. We cannot die as a human dies but what do you think happens to our souls when our divine bodies fail to heal?”
Ciel was silent. He never thought of that before, about what happens. He remembered that Grell was terrified of Sebastian killing him but never thought of why he was so afraid. William took the earl’s silence as a queue to go on.
“We go to hell.”
“What!?” the younger questioned.
“Yes, Phantomhive, reapers go to hell if their divine bodies cannot heal and in a sense die. Our souls cannot stay attached to our current form if it is damaged beyond our healing capabilities. We go to hell because we committed a grave sin, suicide, and this was our one chance to redeem ourselves; if we can’t do that then…” The experienced reaper trailed off. He didn’t need to go into detail; the boy got his point.
“I…I…didn’t know that.” Ciel said sheepishly.
“I know you didn’t, that’s why I’m telling you. You had a sad life and you get this chance for redemption. I want you to use it. If you die in this life you will go to hell where that demon will be able to torture you, to own you, for all eternity. Do you want that?”
“Of course I don’t want that! I killed myself to deny him my soul and I don’t plan to just handing it over in this life either.”
Spears put his hand on Ciel’s shoulder and nudged him toward the door of the room.
“Good. Now it is time for you to get your suit, glasses, and training scythe. You have a few months of training and a final to work though before you can receive your custom glasses and upgrade your scythe. I’ll direct you to Administration to get started.”
And so it begins. Ciel thought to himself. It was going to be a hard few months but this was going to be his new life now. He knew what he was getting into, or he thought he did when he slit his own throat, so he may as well man up to it. The former lord put on his determined face and walked out the bedroom door with Spears. He could do this; he didn’t have time to worry about his ex-butler. He needed to learn and get stronger to do his job well and maybe just maybe receive redemption one day.