Title: The Summoning
Fandom: Kuroshitsuji
Author:
silenttaiyoukai Rating: M
Words: 1172
Universe: Pre-canon
Characters: Hannah, Sebastian/Claude, Hannah/Claude, the triplets, Ciel
Summary: Mirror, mirror, who's soul is the tastiest of them all?
A/N: X-posted from
kurohedonism .
One thousand…
One thousand and one…
The Mother Demon leaned back her head and sighed as one of her identical darlings ran a comb through her hair. She had lost track of how long she had been sitting there in this old house in some forgotten corner of her world. Enough for a thousand and four brush strokes to go by, but as far as hours, days, weeks…..none of that mattered enough for her to care, and time flowed differently in Hell anyway. It moved slower, more agonizingly than it did in the mortal realm.
She had all the time in the world, and so little to fill it with. One could only find so much amusement in toying with the souls of humans. At their heart humans were all quite similar, despite their outwards appearances. Cruel and selfish cowards, all of them. Delicious yes, but quite dull.
After so many centuries, days upon days with meals as identical as the faces of her children, even a demon could begin to feel bored, restless, desolate perhaps. Even the antics of her companions did not amuse her anymore. They had been biting at each other's heels for so long that the intrigue of their relationship had grown quite dull for her.
She yawned and glanced across the room where the Spider and the Raven were putting on quite the show for her. As they took from each other what she refused to give them, blood was drawn in amounts that would have killed them had they been but mere mortals. She watched their writhing bodies with a bit of distaste touching her brow. So much anger, jealousy, so much lust flowed through them as though it was fresh in their minds instead of carried on through the centuries by their stubbornness.
She often thought they would have killed each other long ago if it were not for the reality of the loneliness that would follow. She had been with them and had watched them vie for dominance as far back as the time of the pharaohs. Without each other to bicker with, the two of them would have been lost. And if not for that same reason, that inevitable loneliness, she would have disappeared from their sides long ago. She loved the company of her darling children, but her boys often left her carrying on conversations by herself. At least the Spider and the Raven had a certain wit about them.
She was brought back from her musings by the Spider's hand, his black nails creasing the smooth skin of her thigh. He laid his head on her knee and she growled as his tongue snaked out, slowly creeping its way across her flesh, up and up her thigh.
"Get that thing off of me," she said, and he only smiled. Once she had played their little games. It had given her three dear progeny, but she had to admit that more often than not she felt inclined to rip off all eight of their sire's spindly legs. She no longer had an appetite for such things.
Before his wandering tongue could reach between her legs, she drove her boot squarely into his face, flattening his nose. He fell away and landed squarely upon the reclining Raven, who was not happy to be disturbed. Their violent session resumed and she sighed as she watched them, holding out her boot so the second of her darlings could clean the Spider's blood from it.
The Spider had somehow managed to pin the Raven down, and she noticed that her third child was staring rather strangely at the Spider's hand as it came down upon the Raven's backside with a fleshy smacking sound, leaving behind an ugly red welt. She nudged him gently with her elbow and he turned his attention back to filing her claws. She took her mirror from the table and brought it up to her face, using it to adjust the blue flower that sat behind her ear.
It was then that she heard them. First a single voice in her head, then a chorus. She smiled to herself. The mortal realm was calling to her again.
Her reflection rippled in the mirror until it faded away into a scene from another time and place. The Spider and the Raven could sense it too. They crowded behind her to see it for themselves.
Hooded figures stood chanting to any otherworldly thing who would hear them. Then there were the children. Small creatures with frozen souls and empty faces, hollow eyes that shed silent tears. Unfortunate beings caught in a cage within a cage. There, all hope was lost. Their own kind had made them into nothing but sacrifices to lure a demon from its shadows.
She could have laughed at the naivety of humans. They lusted for a demon's power, but none of them could imagine the consequences they would bring upon themselves in doing so. So little foresight, so much hollow bravery. They would all scream and writhe, begging for mercy when it came time for their souls to be devoured. None of those pathetic humans was deserving of her time. They never were. She had never answered the call to any of these useless summoning rituals.
Except, perhaps…
They were dragging another child up upon the tablet in the center of the room. He struggled as they tied him down, the straps they put across his wrists and ankles cutting sharply into his flesh. His soul was tainted with hatred and the horrors of humanity, but not broken like the others.
"Ciel Phantomhive," the Spider said, and a chill went down her spine. Yes, that was his name. She could see it written on his spectacular soul.
When the knife was driven into him, his soul separated from his body ever so slightly. His presence was so vivid, so deliciously pure even through its corrupt coating that she could almost taste it across the realms. She realized very quickly how hungry she actually was.
When no demon appeared, the humans tossed him back into his prison to die. She could taste it so very clearly now, with his soul floating so precariously on the brink of life and death…
She licked her lips. The Spider's tongue was lolling so far out that it nearly fell upon her shoulder. And the Raven…
She looked up from the mirror, surprised to find that he was no longer at her side. The Spider then did the same, and the change in the room's atmosphere was immediate.
A crack appeared down the center of her mirror, and she saw that Death had befallen many of the mortals in the broken scene. The last she saw was the Raven driving his talon into the boy's eye.
Along the wall of her house, the Spider's shadow loomed dark and angry, crackling with rage. The Mother Demon smiled. For the first time in a long time, things were about to get very interesting.