The Haunted House

April 15th, 2023 - 12:30AM
OPEN

It was quiet. The sort of quiet that was to be expected under the blanket of night when most things slumbered and rested, but in this sprawling place, the quiet felt a little bit amplified. Even the persistent creaking under each step in the hallways wasn’t enough to pierce the hefty quiet submerging the air. Each soft step absorbed by the carpet and released with a muffled belch of creaking made movement through the house’s halls seem… traceable.

It was dark. Through the halls on the second story, very few of the heavy, closed doors had weak light leaking from underneath. On the ground floor, some of the lounges had their mood lighting lit, the lobby was illuminated by the soft chandelier and some of the more main hallways were guided by wall sconces emitting amber light.

Every… other stepped creaked a little bit longer than its pair. Someone following along behind the trail, trying to contain themselves within the already existing sound?

Light! Around the bend, the spill of light seemed extraterrestrial in this world of dimness and shadow. It toppled from the open kitchen doorway. The wooden floor inside was recently polished for the night, leaving a piney scent. A rhythmic, soft and dull tapping noise preceded the scene.

A foot, with nicely painted nails in a dark red shade, swinging back and forth from the barstool and brushing against the counter backing on each swing forward. The source of the sound.

The leg casually swinging the foot was bare, smooth and shapely. It ended at the curve of hips, where fabric of a large, white t-shirt veiled any further luxurious skin. A brunette woman was sitting at the counter with an uncovered cake tier tray and a fork, helping herself to the formerly stored item. Beside the sweet snack was a magazine, which she idly flipped through while she ate.

Ciel had wandered from his bedroom after a terrible nightmare, and decided to search out the cake that Daniel had suspected was in the kitchen, have never been served due to the bloody accident during dinner. Ciel was a sucker for sweets, and was often scolded by his devilish butler when he would sneak around to get some. Ciel knew Sebastian wasn't here at this time, so he was confident.

Although, despite this confidence of knowing he wouldn't be caught by that damned demon, he did feel unsettled by the creepy place. He usually wasn't easily alarmed by stuff like this, but the dinner incident and now the nightmare, had him alert.

Ciel even glanced behind himself a few times, feeling as if he was being followed. But he was disproved each time, as there seemed to be no one there. 'Get a hold of yourself!' He thought, furrowing his brows, feeling stupid for being so wary of everything.

That's when he noticed the light flooding from the kitchen doorway. His eyes widened softly and quickened his steps, had he found the kitchen? He approached the doorway and peeked into the room, hiding behind the wall, and to whoever was inside, would slowly see Ciel's head pop from behind the door frame, his hands gently holding at the door frame. For once, he didn't look like he suffered through a rough time and had made a deal with a demon. For once, Ciel looked like an innocent little kid.

He saw the woman sitting on the counter, and then he saw the cake tier tray. "Oi!" His voice was quiet, barely above a whisper, but it was definitely a tone of a shout, no matter how quiet he was. "Share it, would y'?" He frowned, a tiny pout on his face as he took a few steps forward, revealing the rest of him, dressed in his white nightshirt, to whoever was inside, no longer hiding behind the wall.

Oddly, Christy did not startle when Ciel called out from the doorway.

She turned the page of her magazine, the oval tip of her nail dragging softly audible over the crisp, shiny paper material with the motion. The other arm extended and she patted the seat of the empty stool beside her, inviting Ciel over.

Then, she slid the cake tray nearer to him. It was a beautiful cake with wickedly thick, yet light and airy frosting and a layering of thinly sliced fruit laid overtop. Two slices were missing from its shape.

“Sweet tooth?” The brunette inquired, flipping another magazine page. “Me too,” she sighed, as if it were a burden.

Ciel stepped inside the kitchen and then got onto the stool to sit down. The cake was beautiful, Ciel knew it would taste magnificent. He grabbed a nearby knife and carefully cut a piece for himself. "I wouldn't say that, but I am called that often, so maybe I am and I'm just not admitting it." Ciel snickered. He slowly began eating the cake, and after a few small bites, he looked to Christy. "What are you doing up so late?"

Ciel stayed silent for a moment. "As for me, I couldn't sleep, and heard there was cake here, so I decided to find it."

He paused. "Oh, my apologies, I.. suppose I should introduce myself?" Ciel said, a bit of embarrassment in his voice.

"I am Ciel Phantomhive, owner of the Funtom Company. We make toys." Ciel told her.

Christy finally closed her magazine and turned to face Ciel. She looked him up and down, her black coated eyelashes like two twin fans, flicking down once then back up with the motion of her gaze.

“Nothing better to do,” she answered somewhat coolly. Christy didn’t look like she had recently been asleep nor like she had really tried, despite the oversized night shirt attire. Her makeup was pristine, freshly touched-up perhaps, her luscious hair unmessed.

She cocked a thin eyebrow, a devious smirk curling one corner of her big mouth. “What's a toymaker doing here? Come to make a doll house replica of the old mansion?” The dark haired woman teased. It’d probably sell for thousands of dollars, this place was extraordinary, and a true collector would probably kill for their own.

“Anyways… Call me Christy - housekeeper, insomniac, admitted sweet-tooth, bombshell.” She gingerly plucked a slice of strawberry from the top of the cake and popped it into her mouth.

Ciel rolled his eyes, taking another bite of the cake. He swallowed and replied, "Dollhouses based on real buildings would be pretty interesting, but I'm afraid I'm here for other reasons."

"Her Majesty, of England, sent me here to help with the repairs of Montgomery House." Ciel said, not even noticing a bit of icing on his nose, which made his business talk seem a little funny and adorable than serious. "I have a whole schedule to be attending to, noted it down and everything." He added.

Ciel then proceeded to look her up and down, as she did him.

It was kind of ironic, they were wearing similar night attire.

The oversized, baggy night shirt aesthetic.

Except Christy had a bunch of nice makeup, while Ciel only had an eyepatch.
And visa-versa, Ciel had an eyepatch and Christy didn't.

The bit of sharpness Christy had kept melted with a soft scoff and chuckle.

“Oh, is that right? The royal highness herself sent you all the way over the pond for repairs and midnight cake in Montgomery Manor… Isn’t letting them eat cake a french thing?”

She reached over to him, swiping the smudge of frosting off his nose with her index finger and then bringing it to her lips to nonchalantly suck it off. He had one of those faces that was hard to gauge the age of - boyish in his features, but the harshness of the eyepatch aged him. Christy leaned back, crossing her arms over her chest.

“So what’s with the eyepatch? Poke an eye out playing sword fight?” She asked unabashedly.

Ciel snickered. "Well, my name does stand for 'sky' or 'heaven' in French."

"But yes, she did. Her and I are a lot closer than one would think." Ciel said, referring to his Queen's Guarddog status, but not saying it out loud. Ciel then watched Christy put her index finger on his nose to wipe the frosting off of it, making him close his eye for a second in a squint-y way. He opened his eye again and then continued eating the cake, before the question caught him off guard. He stopped for a moment, lowering the cake and then looked at her. "Sword fight? Not at all."

Ciel furrowed his brow, losing his childish look that he had a few moments ago. "It's not really something I want to talk about. Besides, it's a very long story." He said, before going back to the cake slice he was eating.

“Booo,” Christy jeered, but there was a playful undertone to it. She rolled her eyes dramatically and as she did, they got caught somewhere past Ciel in the kitchen. Her expression immediately looked puzzled, her brows knitting together pensively. Her lips had pursed and she suddenly looked incredibly uncomfortable.

She was looking across the kitchen at the counters and cabinets lining the opposite wall. Oddly, three silver forks dangled by the tips of their handles from the bottom of the hanging cabinets above. Nothing in sight adhered the handles to the bottom of the cabinet, and the forks shifted lightly in the draft like windchimes. They hung there, unassuming and discrete, as if that's where they rightly belonged instead of tucked away in the silverware drawer.

Christy’s mouth dried and despite the dessert she’d been eating, there was a sour taste left on her tongue.

Ciel looked at Christy for a moment, a confused look on his face, before following her eyes to glance and see what she was staring at so uncomfortably.

And soon, Ciel joined Christy in the staring, slowly eating his last bite of cake.
(Just because he was confused and uncomfortable doesn't mean he's going to waste the last bite of cake he got.)

"Why are they bloody doing that?" Ciel furrowed his brow, speaking in a concerned whisper. He was used to seeing Sebastian use silverware as weapons, throwing them around and such, but this was a bit absurd in Ciel's opinion.

He wondered if there was some kind of glue attached to them that Christy and he couldn't see, but also didn't really want to approach the three silver forks dangling there either.

Christy slowly stood from the stool, glancing at Ciel then back to the dangling silverware.

“Magnetized?” Christy offered, knowing it was a weak one. Her face had changed from uneasy to daring. Excitement, at the prospect of something spooky, glistening in her big eyes. She took a step in that direction, tipping her head to peer up underneath the hanging cupboards. She couldn’t see any strips or hooks or rails. “So bizarre,” she muttered to herself, quickly closing the distance between her and the far counter. Upon closer inspection, she still couldn’t tell. She lifted a hand and gently ran her fingers over the prongs of the suspended forks.

“They’re pretty sturdy,” she noted to her kitchen companion.

Ciel stared, before getting off his own stool and taking a few steps closer. He didn't get as close as Christy was to the 'magnetized' forks, but he did want to try and get a closer look. "But how could they have been magnetized? Surely if it was that, if someone happened to just have a magnet in their pocket, they would lose their magnetism by now. I'd like to think?" Ciel grew suspicious of these three forks.

More and more strange occurrences. Ciel really didn't like where this was going.
First, the man and the knife. Second, the breathing and the bruises back in Ciel's bedroom. Now, three forks as a third strange occurrence?

Christy was wholly intrigued. She ran her hands over the three forks again, watching them sway a little more fiercely this time, clattering lightly into each other but remaining suspended by their handles. It was so strange.

She glanced over a shoulder at Ciel, an impish grin spreading her lips over her teeth. Heavy with anticipation, her hand lifted to the knob of the cupboard. The look she gave Ciel said, ‘dare me?’

The girl didn’t wait for a response, she yanked open the cupboard door, and screamed!

Nestled on the shelves were neat stacks of plates. Christy looked back at Ciel to gather his reaction to her joke, once again grinning madly. Still, the forks hung, unphased by their spectators.

Ciel went to speak, as if to tell her that he didn't think it was a good idea. But he didn't have time to even reply, as she opened it anyway and let out a blood-curdling scream, Ciel nearly jumped out his skin, grasping his hand to his chest and stumbling back a few ways, his other hand catching the end of the counter.

"Oh, you bastard—" Ciel stuttered, his voice cracking. "Ha ha, very funny." He then added, sarcastically.

Christy laughed, a free and beautiful sound, that seemed to contrast the darkness that waited just outside their island of light here in the kitchen.

She leaned in and playfully swatted his shoulder, the laughter easing into chuckle laced words.

“Ah, c’mon, we gotta have a little fun out here, right? Lighten up!” Christy beamed, flipping the door shut again with a muted bang. The forks beneath swayed. She was happy to chalk it up as a weird happening and move on.

“If oddly organized cutlery is the extent of our bumps in the night, I’ll be let down.” She sighed, and wandered back toward her magazine and the cake.

Ciel furrowed his brows, his cheeks flushing a bright red from embarrassment from being so startled by the fake scream of terror.

He glared at the forks one last time before wandering back with Christy to the cake. He took another slice and sighed, "I wouldn't doubt the staff did it. The cutlery." Ciel glanced at the forks, taking a soft bite out of his second slice of cake. "The staff back at my manor are constantly doing absurd things, yet I can't bring myself to fire them." Ciel snickered. "They aren't good at their jobs."

"Oh well, at least they are good at sniping." He said, so quiet that Christy could have missed it if she wasn't listening carefully.

Ciel took another bite of the cake.

“Oh, don’t act like you’d be any better at doing their jobs - that's why it’s their jobs, so you don’t have to do such a thing.” She blew some hair from her face and swiped her magazine off the counter. “Have you always been wealthy?” Christy asked, bluntly. “I assume you’re the heir to the family toy-making business, huh?”

Christy had grown up washing her and her siblings' clothing in their shallow, tight bathtub with hand soap on the best of days. Any money Christy had, she’d worked for.

She’d been so dramatically offended by the first statement, she hadn’t heard his snide second.

Ciel raised a brow at Christy. "I didn't say I'd ever be better at doing their jobs, but there is certainly better people out there."

"I've been wealthy always, yes. And pretty much." Ciel said, there was more to it all, but felt it was a bit complicated, especially for a conversation like this, and figured he'd leave it out for now.

Christy blew some hair from her face. She shrugged, dismissing her own outburst.

“Sorry for being snappy, I guess I’ve kinda been feeling on edge lately. I haven’t been sleeping well.” She sighed, then pursed her lips contemplatively. “My room faces the woods out back and if it’s not the coyotes out there yapping, it’s the crickets. There’s gotta be hundreds out there by how it sounds some nights… I’m surprised they haven’t infested this old place.”

Above their heads, a sharp blow reverberated the ceiling. It sounded as if someone had dropped something small and dense like a damn bowling ball onto the floor above. Christy flinched at the sudden sound. Her dark eyes reflexively darted up to the ceiling, before quickly dropping back down. She swiped her magazine off the counter.

“Maybe that’s the cue to retire to our private chambers,” she muttered.

Before Ciel could even apologize for being a bit on the rougher side too, the sound occurred above them.

Ciel jumped, startled by the ceiling noise, just like Christy did, flinching. "I.. think so too. It should be for the best, I'd assume." Ciel said, setting the plate of the finished, second cake slice, down on the counter. "It has been a good talk, and I hope to meet you again soon." Ciel held out his hand, for a formal handshake, something he did out of habit. Whether Christy would take it or not, was unknown. Either way, Ciel left afterwards, wandering back down the dark hallway, feeling watched again, and when he felt watched again, he picked up his pace and headed quicker to his bedroom.