You woke up to blinding sun shining directly in your eyes. Grabbing the covers, you turned over and buried yourself in the plush pillows. What an annoying way to start the day. Not feeling tired at all you had no alternative but to get up, when your eyes adjusted you looked around to see an unfamiliar room from the one you went to sleep in the night before. Panicking you grabbed your shoes and noticed your clothes were changed into your nightgown. Grabbing your clothing you shrunk back into yourself wondering who the hell changed your clothes and moved your whole body while you were asleep. You're a deep sleeper but even this should've startled you at some point in your sleep. Checking the door only to find that it was locked you ran to the window peeked through the curtains. Shielding your eyes from the unnecessary sun you saw the garden of the Phantomhive Manor. Cursing mentally, you knew it was only a matter of time before Sebastian was ordered to bring you back. The door clicked and swung open revealing the young lord and Sebastian both as livid as you expected them to be.

"You're fired I want you out of here by the end of the day."

"Wait, my Lord I can explain-" He cut you off immediately not caring what you had to say.

"Because you've been a competent servant up until now, you're lucky I'm giving you leniency by not killing you. Sebastian, if she's not gone by the end of the day, throw her out. And that's an order," he glared at the butler and left the room slamming the door behind him.

"Sebastian... you wouldn't."

Oh but he would. His orders come first and you knew. 

"But Corbin- "

"You should've thought about him when you decided to run off like that," he hissed, his eyes glowing with anger.

Tears clouded your vision and drowned out anything else he was saying. You could hardly breathe as you felt suffocated by your own tears, as if you were actually drowning. 

You awoke with a start from your fifth nap that day. Covered in cold sweat and tears, your nose was stuffy and you couldn't breathe, hence the drowning feeling in your dream. Well... more of a nightmare really. Taking tissue from the tissue box you blew your nose to clear your nostrils so you could breathe properly. You sulked over to the mirror.

Damn near a week in bed and your condition only got progressively worse. Your skin had become dull and sunken in to your face a little. Your breathing was shallow and you were always so tired. Not as tired as when you would work all day at the manor but your body felt drawn to sleep all the time. Forming coherent thoughts seemed immense work. Laying low wasn't helping you out, Undertaker had yet to show himself. You cursed under your breath. What if this was all for nothing? 

Bed rest was all the doctor kept insisting. After Bravat dropped your food off for you as he did each meal time, you decided it was time to go against doctors orders, it's doing nothing but making you worse and probably on purpose. Slipping your shoes on, you poked your head out the door and heard the commotion of Bravat's attendees enjoying themselves. He'd be out there entertaining his guests with his fortune telling.

Drawing your cloak around you from the cold hallway, you made your way randomly. Gently rattling every door handle, inspecting every room you could find. Finally coming to a room you heard voices. Pressing your ear against the wall, you strained to listen. A gentle, almost sad melody was being played. The mournful song was strumming your heartstrings like a violin hearing the velvety voices of the former P4.

"Rest your head upon my arm, 
I'll wrap around you like honey, 
A blanket like lavender,
So throw off- "

You gasped and jumped out of the way sensing someone behind you. A blade was sticking out the wall right where your head was a split second ago. 

~

'She's still here' 

Sebastian tensed up, suddenly feeling your heart racing through his own veins. Are you in trouble he asked himself biting his lower lip, wondering if he should step in. 

'Should I- no. There's a reason, there must be... Y/n would call if she needed help.'

"Earl Phantomhive's butler?"

Sebastian turned around at his title being called out. 

"Oh my, you're from Scotland Yard aren't you? Mr. Underline was it?" He asked annoying the inspector. It wasn't Sebastian's place as a butler, but how could he remember the name of someone he so rarely interacted with. Sebastian grinned, it could be an honest mistake for all anyone knows.

"It's 'ABBERLINE', " he shouted in frustration. 

Sebastian grinned at his animated reaction, "I'm only kidding. It's a bit after hours for you to be on the clock. A damper on your current investigation?"

He furrowed his eyebrows and looked up and down the crowded street. Making a hasty decision in his head he leaned in to whisper, "You didn't hear this from me but peculiar corpses have been turning up all over England. Not a scratch on the bodies and they're all pale. They just look like they're sleeping! We found a prostitute, a shoe maker's assistant and a post office worker. But the other day a certain nobleman's daughter went missing and now the Yard is in a tizzy."

"So, up until now the corpses were dismissed. Because a member of high society may be among them it's suddenly a priority? I never pegged the Yard for being discriminate how interesting," Sebastian remarked making Abberline go red in the face.

"You didn't have to put it like that..." he shook the embarrassment off. "When someone you care about goes missing it's always a priority, these people weren't even reported missing."

"Or they were dismissed because of their profession," Sebastian said smugly. 

"Anyway, the Yard would appreciate it if Earl Phantomhive could contribute. If you know anything or find anything out, contact me directly. Randall wouldn't approve of my asking you."

"As you wish, I will relay your message," Sebastian bowed to the leaving inspector.

Intrigued, Sebastian ventured to a nearby forest, allured by the sickening sweet scent of death. He digs up the earth under painfully obvious placed leaves and finds two corpses and full body skeletons. Whether they were buried by the same killer was unlikely.

'Not a scratch on them. How interesting, they are too lovely to be dead'

~

"Y/n...?"

Lady Elizabeth stood there in a white nightgown and no shoes. She looked like she'd been crying all those weeks she was missing. Puffy eyes and pale skin didn't suit her normally cheerful self, even the sweetest can have their moments.

"Lady Elizabeth? You look pale what's wrong?"

She yanked her blade out of the wall and gave you an apologetic look. Wait, forget apologetic it looked more like pity in her eyes.

"You know they're looking for you at home, right?"

"I refuse to go back there," she jabbed her blade in your direction suddenly acting fierce. Like the thought of being home was repulsive. You grabbed her wrists bending to her height and looked in her icy glass-like green eyes. 

"I'm not here to take you home if that's what you think," you reassured her softly. Her behaviour was puzzling, but you were sure it wasn't her fault.

"I can't go back; I refuse to go back to a house of liars. I've run away twice now... I'll do it again." Tears dripped from her eyes and you sat her down on the floor next to you. You felt too weak to stand any longer.

"If it's any solace, I ran away too. We didn't do it for the same reasons probably, but I need to figure out what's going on here. Nothing's making sense."

She sniffed, wiping her face refusing to budge. 

"Please, my Lady."

Lifting a single finger, she pointed towards a door at the end of the long hallway.

You gave her a silent thank you before pushing yourself off the floor and stumbled down the hallway feeling light-headed. Rattling the door gently it didn't budge. Pondering if they would hear you bust down the door you shrugged your shoulders and tried to kick it in. Either your condition weakened you or it was a damn highly durable door. Rattling the knob again, still nothing. 

"Damn English Oak..."

"Hello Y/n," Undertaker poked his head out from the door that bested you. The door swung open, and you walked inside the absolutely empty room. No doors except the one you came through and one ceiling to floor window with a sheer curtain that tinted the moonlight flooding in a pale blue. His normal black shroud and hat were gone replaced by plain black clothing and his hair now brushed away from his eyes. The heavy door slammed behind you, and you jumped, hastily reached for any weapon you could grab first but he raised his arms in surrender.

"I come here unarmed dearie," he said, and you flinched at the familiarity. Stepping closer, his cold hand reached out and touched your cheek making you flinch again, his thumb smoothing the skin under your eye. His face grew solemn, flicking his eyes down your arms. "You look terrible, are you feeling well?"

"You're behind whatever's going on here too. Everything lately has been tied to you," you backed up with every step he took even more close towards you nearly closing the already close gap between you. Your own clothing betrayed you and tangled your footsteps making you trip, your back hitting the wall.

"Hehe, people do lose their manners once you have a disagreement, at least I asked how you were. What makes you think something is going on?"

"Bravat is an adorable puppet you've recruited. You should've gotten someone who could lie better, he leaves too many loopholes." He towered over your figure leaning onto the wall behind you, his arm directly above your head as if mocking your height. As if he heard your heart beating out of your chest in panic he laughed, "I come to you as the man you once knew me to be. Honest and true. Would I ever mess with a married woman?"

Your breath hitched as his hand slid behind your waist and gripped a doorknob you could've sworn wasn't there before. He swung it open and chuckled as you nearly tumbled in the next room, breathing in cool air that balanced the temperature of your flustered cheeks. Laying there on the bed with needles and tubes protruding from his tiny fragile body, was the young lord covered by a robe only.

"What sick joke is this?" You breathed out not wanting to believe your eyes.

"Go a little closer," he said, giggling at your disbelief.

His skin had patches of blue and purple everywhere and under his hair, the same scar that every bizarre doll marred across his forehead. You gently touched his skin, as if you were afraid to break him. Cold and clammy. All the feelings of death lingered in his skin. 

'Not the young lord himself, but a mirror image of him. A twin? A replica?'

"H- how?"

"Hehe. Rachel and Vincent had two children. Two children who survived the fire."

"If they both survived the fire then..." you whipped out a blade pointing it at Undertaker. "You killed him?!"

"I don't remember you always jumping to conclusions," he yawned lazily. "You've been relying on that butler too much."

His remarks stung but did not deter you. Giving him a reaction satisfied him, it wasn't always about getting a laugh. Since he underhandedly pointed out you were wrong, you racked your brain for any other explanation. If he didn't kill him to be apart of this experiment then what is the point? The young lord was never hostile with Undertaker before so he can't know about this.

"Give up?"

"I'm not playing your little games Undertaker, what happened?" You jabbed the edge of the blade under his neck.

"What happened? Hehe, the price is free since I came to you, but not right now the show is about to end. That pretty little demon you found yourself engrossed in, did he tell you how he came to be here?" He was suddenly gone, his voice only a whisper on the air. You looked over to the bed to see the body also gone. Suddenly everyone wants to play hide and seek.

~

Sebastian waited outside the venue after his little nature walk. Sensing the young lord was asleep inside he stood there bored as ever. There must be something to do, it's nearly midnight. Scanning the crowd of humans finding nothing that interested him. He suddenly did a double take whipping his crimson eyes back to something he overlooked.

'My my~ who is this pretty lady?'