Tainted

Chapter 2 - Whispers from the Past

Her heart skipped a beat at the deep voice coming from behind.

She eyed the iron gates ahead wistfully with a murmured swear word and tore her gaze away.

Her eyes were met with the familiar tall figure of Sebastian when she turned.

His face and the way he questioned her would be the perfect description for the word 'amiable', if not for his glinting eyes and the seemingly serene smile which reeked amusement and tad mockery.

"If you're already running around like then, then you must be ready to meet the master of the manor then."

Annoyance struck her. "And as I recall,I'm pretty sure I said no."

She threw a stubborn glare and spun back back to the gates, only to be brushed past by a sudden, curt breeze.

To be met with...Sebastian again?

What? She gazed behind her to find the spot behind was now empty.

She blinked and rubbed her eyes. And blinked again.

A suspicious glare fell onto Sebastian.

"Seriously Mr. Butler, what the hell did you put in my food? How-"

"There, I hope you understand now." Sebastian's lips curled with a smirk. "Escaping, sorry, attempting to escape, is simply a waste of time."

"A foolish way to waste time," He pulled out his pocket watch and gazed disapprovingly at it. "Yours and mine."

"Certainly not mine, Mr. Butler." She fought.

"Oh yes, it is." Sebastian snapped close the watch with a sigh, "Please proceed back into the manor; the master is waiting."

When he saw that the girl was still not showing a sign of moving, he sighed again and c****d an eyebrow in amusement when the girl narrowed her eyes at him.

"Make me." The girl continued glaring, now, challengingly, daring him to try making her see his master. c*****g his eyebrow even more in amusement, a low chuckle emitted from his mouth.

"Oh? Okay then, if you say so..." He then dived forward and scooped her up in bridal style effortlessly before strolling towards the porch of the manor, causing the girl let out a small shriek of surprise. Realizing the situation, she started struggling and throwing a colorful string of profanities at him.

"Hey, put me down! I said put me down, you bastard!" Glancing down at the struggling girl in his arms, a smirk cracked across his face.

"Why would I? You were the one who said, "Make me.", isn't it? I'm just simply granting your wish. And as a lady, you should not be cursing." He gave out another low chuckle when the girl stared up at him with a dumbfounded look. That dumbfounded look soon turned back into a glare.

"Ehh...You are the obedient kind, aren't you? Then, I order you to…PUT ME DOWN!" She growled and continued struggling. Caught up trying to free herself from the butler's arms, she did not notice that they had already reached.

Her eyes widened when Sebastian uttered an "Alright.", and the next thing she got was a sore butt. Finally realizing that she was no longer hovering over mid air in the butler's arms, her head snapped up to glare up at Sebastian.

Oblivious to the glare, Sebastian only stared at the girl that was now sprawled on the floor with a glint of amusement in his eyes while he continued straightening his coat from wrinkles that the girl had made while struggling.

"What the hell did you do that for?" She snarled at him in annoyance.

Sebastian done straightening his coat, stared at her as though she had asked something stupid.

"Well, you asked me put you down, so I put you down and because we are here."

Looking around in bewilderment, she realized that they were in a spacious room that seems to be a study. The sides of the study were up with shelves of books and there was a large window behind a big desk with piles of papers sitting on it behind her. Snapping her head to the butler, she scampered to stand and rubbed her still sore butt.

"Okay, that's fast…And by the way, you didn't 'put' me down, you dropped me and my butt still hurts, you bastard."

Sebastian sighed and said sternly.

"Again…Language."

'Che. You are annoying. Enough with that already, do I seriously look like a lady to you?" She said in a bored tone and rolled her eyes. Folding her arms, she stared at him with a look of boredom and drawled, "….And so, where's your master?"

Her eyes widened when an unfamiliar voice replied.

"Here."

She snapped her head towards the direction of the voice to see a boy that looked at about her age, leaning against the frame of the door with his hands clasped together on a cane, behind Sebastian, with a cold and serious look plastered on his face. Hair with a unique hair color of the mix of teal and black framed his handsome porcelain-looking face but an eye-patch on his right eye which was a mismatch to his left violet blue eye ruined the perfection. He was clad in a button-down shirt with a black jacket worn on the outside and black shorts with knee-high black gartered socks and boots.

"Good morning, Young Master." Sebastian turned to the boy with a bow. The boy only grunted as a response before strolling past them to sit down behind the study desk.

When he settled down on the leather chair behind the desk, he spoke again.

"Sebastian, bring us some tea."

With an utter of "Yes, my lord", Sebastian bowed and moved to the door. Before he was about to step out, he paused and turned to the girl that still stood there watching him, with a smirk, "Oh and by the way, I only take orders from my master, as you can see.", before closing the door behind him. The girl snorted and rolled her eyes at the door before turning to the boy sitting at the desk behind her.

"Bring that over and sit down." He jutted his chin towards an expensive-looking chair sitting at the corner of the room. Starting towards the chair, she lifted it up and carried it over to the other side of study desk, opposite him before settling down on it.

Once she settled down, she looked up to see the boy resting his head on the knuckles of one hand, studying her with an emotionless face.

…..

His visible eye followed the girl as she carried the chair over to opposite him. His eye moved to study her face when she plopped down on it. Her hair was a fiery shade of red; it adorned her creamy porcelain-like face as it trailed down to her chest. A bunch of hair, her fringe, hung across her forehead. Her straight delicate-looking nose was well matched with her high cheekbones and her full lips looks soft and pinkish but it also looked a little chapped. The one that caught his attention were her eyes. Her eyes, framed by long lashes, were a mesmerizing color of ice blue. However, the one thing about them that caught his attention was their resemblance to his own.

Studying her from between his fingers, he sighed and leaned forward to prop his elbows onto the desk. Clasping his hands together, he leaned in to rest his chin on it while his eyes still fixed onto hers. Violet blue to ice blue as the girl slumped on the chair stared back, not wavering from Ciel's intense gaze. She then c****d an eyebrow at him.

"Is this the reason why you wanted to see me? Just to have a staring contest with me? " She drawled, still not breaking from the eye contact.

Breaking the eye contact, he snorted at the comment and leaned back on his leather chair.

"No." he snapped at her and folded his arms before continuing, "…Okay, so….tell me…who are you?"

He watched the girl mimicked his action and glared at him.

"Why not you tell me who are you first?" She shot back coldly.

Cocking an eyebrow at her, he stared at her for a brief moment and snorted before shooting back a glare.

"Ciel Phantomhive. Now yours. "

She then narrowed her eyes at him and sighed.

"Che. The name's Estella Blancbaston. Happy?"

His visible eye widened at the name as it struck something at the back of his mind. "Blancbaston…?"

"Yes. Blancbaston…so?" She shrugged indifferently at her surname, wondering why the boy would make a big deal out of it. Ciel stared back at the girl, who was now with a raised eyebrow shot at him. His eyebrows moved down to form a frown as he thought hard trying to figure out the nagging at the back of his mind. His thoughts were then interrupted by a knock on the door.

Snapping out of his thoughts, he grunted as permission to enter and the door swung open to have Sebastian entering with a tray balanced on one hand which held teas. When Sebastian was done serving them teas, he spoke.

"Edinburgh tea is served." Sebastian bowed and stood at the side.

"Blancbaston…" Ciel absentmindedly tapped his fingers on the desk, asking to no one in particular "…Why does that name sound so familiar?" Sebastian who stood at the side noticed that the girl's face darkened at his master's question.

"I am sure that I can help you with that, Young Master." Not waiting for his response, Sebastian strolled across the room towards the shelves at the other side of the room and scanned across it before reaching out to slide one folder out. Flipping open the folder, Sebastian expertly flipped through the pages and pulled out an old-looking piece of news article before snapping the folder close and slid it back to its shelf. He then head towards Ciel with the article in his hands and placed it on the desk before him.

Ciel's eyes instantly fell onto its headline.

"BLANCBASTON m******e"

His eye lingered onto the headline before moving down to read further.

"…Lord Alexander Blancbaston and Lady Lucia Blancbaston murdered along with all the servants…pure, cold-blooded murder….only one survivor…case still under investigation…police-"

A hand suddenly appeared onto the article interrupted his reading and it swiftly snatched it away from his view. He snapped his head up at the owner of the hand and glared.

"What-"

"Don't read any further." The girl glared back with the article clutched tightly in her hand.

"Why you…" Ciel growled.

"There's no need for you to read any further. Mind your own business, this does not concern you." The girl snapped back.

Ciel narrowed his eyes at the girl and sighed.

"Hn. No need for that. I know enough already. Now, let's move on to my next question, answer all my questions obediently and I'll consider letting you go…" When the girl snorted at this, he took it as an agreement and continued, "…From what I know, SIGMA experiments….so tell me, what experiment did they perform on you?"

He took a sip of his tea and watched the girl hesitating, as her mouth opened and closed, he smirked inwardly when she sighed in resignation.

"Fine. They were working on their project of what they called 'Project Nemesis' on me. From what they told me, it's a blood fusion experiment. Somehow, they managed to obtain the blood of a demon from the Black Market…"

She paused to look at Ciel and Sebastian to see the look of shock written on their faces with their eyes widened before composing themselves back. She continued when Ciel gave a nod to ask her to carry on.

"…And so when SIGMA obtained the blood, they started injecting the blood into many victims like me which mostly consists of children, but many died and even if they did manage to not die, some went into comas. And somehow, I managed to not die or fall into coma after the injection. They mentioned that they were aiming to create an army of this experiment if it's successful. But for what reasons? I'm not sure…maybe for the lame 'world-domination' thing or something else….Hmm…" She shrugged and looked at Ciel.

"Now that I answered with a very long answer, I'm thirsty, no thanks to you."

Ciel c****d an eyebrow at her and scoffed. "Then drink your tea."

"No thanks, I hate teas." The girl eyed the cup of tea in disgust.

Ciel snorted at the irony. He had met her father before, Alexander Blancbaston, once in a party. Of what he knew was that her father runs a company, The Blancbaston Empire, well known for the production of teas and cocoa powder. And now the daughter of the man who ran a company for the manufacturing of teas and cocoa powder, said that she hate teas.

Hn. Talk about the irony here.

He watched the girl shoot the cup of tea a look of grimace before gingerly hooking a finger around its handle, and he snorted again, watching her in amusement.

Seriously…

"What?" The girl snapped, the cup of tea hovering over mid air in her hand.

He sighed. "Nothing. So a blood fusion experiment...Did they mention anything about their hypothesis of the 'after' effects?" He turned to Sebastian and gestured at his empty cup for a refill and when Sebastian nodded, he averted his attention back to see the girl take a sip of her tea and watched her face changed into a face of grimace before putting it down and pushing it away as though it was plague.

Her eyes lingered on the cup of tea for a moment before flicking up to meet his.

"They told me that I didn't die or fall into a coma right after the injection probably because it has yet to start taking effect, either that or they manage to inject the right amount to let me not die or fall into a coma from it. And if I didn't die or fall into a coma, the blood would probably start fusing with mine. These were all they told me because it seems that they themselves were also unsure of what will happen after that…." She leaned back on her chair, eyes still fixed on his face.

"Interesting….What do you think of that, Sebastian….?" Both adolescents turned to the silent butler that was standing at the side of desk when Ciel asked.

"Hmm…Sorry, Young Master…..I'm not sure what will come after as this is the first time I had ever heard of this kind of thing. However, I presume that she would probably….I'm not sure, probably…start developing some demon's abilities..." Sebastian trailed off as he rested his chin on the knuckles of his hand with another arm supporting under the arm, deep in thoughts.

Ciel then turned back to the girl and narrowed his eyes at her before reaching out to his cup of tea to take a long sip.

"Okay, never mind. Now, let's move on to the next question…Were you the one that set the SIGMA hideout on fire?"

The girl sighed and leaned in to prop an elbow on the desk before resting on her head onto her hand with a bored look.

"You sure ask lots of questions, huh. "

"I only asked you three questions so far…this is what you call 'lots'? Hn… Now, answer the question." Ciel took another sip of his tea before leaning back on his chair.

She rolled her eyes and did what he told.

"Yes."

"Alright…Going back to the experiment…Since you didn't die or fall into a coma…means the blood is probably fusing with yours, so now….do you feel any different?"

"Nope. Everything feels the same to me."

"Hmm…" Ciel ran his hand through his hair and paused before turning to Sebastian. "Do you think you can train another maid? Training another one, should not be a problem for you, right?"

Sebastian c****d an eyebrow at his master and answered, "Of course, Young Master."

Ciel nodded and turned back to the girl. "Alright. I'm hiring you as my new maid."

He watched the girl stared at him with a look of bewilderment and before her eyebrows moved down to glare at him.

"No." She scoffed, continuing to glare at him coldly.

Oblivious to the glare, Ciel slowly took a long sip from his cup and set it back down before looking up to meet her glare with a bored look.

"Why not? Even if I let you go, surviving out there would be quite impossible for you since you have nothing at all. You will probably already die of starvation even before you can even find a roof over your head. Plus, there might still be SIGMA survivors from the fire and they would most probably try to track you down and take you back since you're their prized experiment…and you wouldn't want to go back to them again, right? And…So, if you work under me, you'll be provided with protection and accommodation…so think about it…"

Ciel smirked in triumph when he saw the girl deep in thoughts with her fingers tapping on the arms of the chair in a rhythmic manner; he knew that he had partly won. Gulping down the rest of his tea, he set it down before gesturing at his now empty cup for another refill.

Averting back his attention to girl when she leaned in, he could see that she had thought through what he said.

"One condition and then maybe.. I'll consider."

Ciel snorted and narrowed his eyes at her before giving her curt nod, "Alright, then state your condition."

….

Estella frowned when she realized that the Phantomhive boy was right. There could have SIGMA survivors from that night and they would most likely track her down and try to take her back. Glancing up at the boy, she pondered for a while before she made up her mind.

Estella then leaned in to prop her arms on the desk and watched the butler refill the boy's cup again. When she got the boy's attention, she spoke. "One condition and then… maybe I'll consider."

She narrowed her eyes back at him when he snorted and narrowed his visible eye at her. He then gave her a curt nod. "Alright, then state your condition."

Slumping back on the chair with folded arms, Estella jerked up her head slightly and looked at the boy through her half-closed lids.

"I want you to bring me to my manor."

When the boy just stared at her, not responding to what she said, she continued.

"You know where is it, right?"

"I don't but Sebastian does. Okay, I'll fulfill that condition and you'll…." Ciel snorted before continuing. "….consider right?"

Ciel turned to the butler and ordered after she nodded. "Sebastian, prepare the carriage and inform me when you're done, we'll be waiting here."

Estella watched the butler utter a "Yes, my lord" and her eyes followed as he bowed and slipped out of the room, before turning back to the boy.

"Why do you want me to work for you?"

She raised an eyebrow at him as she watched him toy with his cup before stopping to look up at her.

"I'm interested in your development." He stated nonchalantly and picked up his cup to take a long sip.

Estella watched him take a sip before setting it back down, with a bored look.

"You sure love drinking teas…."

He only grunted in response as he leaned back and closed his eyes. Estella rolled her eyes at his response before mimicking his action, and so, the two adolescents sat in their own chairs, waiting in silence for the butler's return.

…..

-End of Chapter-