Treachery

CIEL SAT on her couch in her pajamas watching the clock. It was already almost midnight and she hadn’t heard a word from her dad. The TV was playing some stupid late night monster movie that she wasn’t trying to pay too much attention to. Resigned, Ciel sighed and turned off the TV. She go up and turned to go upstairs but right when she was about to walk up the first step she heard a loud boom! from outside that seemed to shake the whole house. Now she wished she hadn’t sent Lys home early. She tip-toed over to the window by the door and looked outside. “What. The. Hell.” She said to herself. On her yard was a boy about Johnny’s height, if not taller, and about the same age. She couldn’t see his facial features from her angle but she could see the silver the wind was blowing from under his hood. The tips of his hair looked red in the night. But that wasn’t what shocked her. It was the huge shadows he was facing. There was about seven of them, all twisting and changing shape. One shifted until it resembled a bear, another into the shape of a lion, other changed into snakes and other small animals but one, the biggest one, shifted until it resembled a faceless person. The boy got into a position that said he was about to fight the shadows. Ciel didn’t think, she unlocked the door and rushed outside to help the boy. Hearing the door open the boy and all the shadows turned to looked at her. Time seemed to freeze. Ciel saw what looked like glowing violet eyes from under the boys hood a split second before he raised his hood higher. Something about his eyes gave her an odd feeling, the same feeling she got when she was told lies, but she never got the feeling while she was looking at something. It made her wonder if she had imagined the color. Ciel glance at the shifting shadows. The faceless shadow was now smiling a sinister smile at her. The shadow raised its hand, pointing at her. Its smile grew as a string-like shadow shot out from its finger. It was heading straight at her this time. Ciel closed her eyes and screamed, expecting pain any second. Except it never came. Slowly, she opened her eyes and saw that the boy had thrown himself between her and the faceless shadow. The string-like shadow now ran from the faceless shadows finger to the boy’s chest. The shadow flicked his finger and what looked like electricity began surging through the string to the boy’s chest. He cried out in pain and fell to the ground, groaning. Ciel couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She ran to the boy and knelt down beside him. Her hands hovered over where he had been electrocuted, unsure of what to do. A sound like two boulders scraping against each other rang out and it wasn’t until Ciel saw the faceless shadows shoulders shaking that it occurred to her that he was laughing. “S-stop!” She screamed. “Why are you laughing?” “Oh, you’ll find out soon enough.” The shadow laughed. He pointed his finger at her and again a stringy shadow shot out. Ciel raised her hands as if to block the shadow. But once again it didn’t come. She opened her eyes to see that the boy was now sitting up with his hand stretched out and around the two of them was a…force field? The boy stood and even though he only stood half in, the force field stayed in place. “Lady Ciel, please stay here where it’s safe and please close your eyes.” I didn’t tell him my name. Ciel thought, And what with the ‘Lady’? Ciel shut her eyes as hard as she possibly could. “I warned you to leave.” She heard the boy say. “I warned you not to lay a hand on Lady Ciel.” “And I wasn’t going to.” The shadow said, brazenly. “That wasn’t my hand.” Ciel couldn’t help herself; she opened her eyes in time to the boy shift. He grew silver hair all over his body, his nose and mouth elongated, sharp feline teeth replaced his human ones, his spine got longer until it formed a tail, and his whole body doubled in size. He had just transformed into a panther with silver and violent fur. Ciel sucked in a breath of surprised. The boy, now panther, heard her intake of breath and turned. Ciel had been right, his eyes were violet. The panther leapt on the faceless shadow. Ciel closed her eyes as strangled screams and panther yowls filled the night. When the screams finally ended, Ciel opened her eyes and saw the boy walking towards her. What looked like sparkles were now floating in the breeze where the shadows used to be. She took an involuntary step back. When the boy was at least a yard in front of her, he dropped to one knee and said, “Princess Ciel, I, the demon Styx, am here to escort you to your father and replace your previous housekeeper, the demon Lys.”