That Butler, New Face

That Butler, Stalwart

SHAAAA.

The rain poured down harder than ever on the Phantomhive earldom. Water roared through the dams, and trees were felled by the inclement weather left and right. But inside the manor was no less dangerous. In Ciel's bedroom, the young earl, his servants, and the other remaining guests stared in shock at the body of Phelps on the floor while Arthur examined him.

"..." For the first time, Grey seemed truly startled.

"... How..." Ciel asked the question they were all wondering.

"..." Arthur closed his eyes and shook his head. There was nothing he could do to help Phelps. He was long gone. "Quite some time has passed since rigor mortis set in."

"Are we all having a bad dream or something...?" Grimsby asked. How could it be that so many people just kept dying?

"There is no external trauma as in the previous two..." Arthur reported. "!" he gasped. "He has what appears to be puncture wounds on the neck!! Perhaps he was injected with poison from a needle or the like."

"A needle?" Ciel asked. His eyes slid over to Lau, who was currently ransacking his closet with Ran-Mao.

"Oh, I saaaay! Lord Earl lives in a most wonderful room!" Lau said lightly while he examined his suits. Ran-Mao was having fun trying on his top hats.

"Don't rummage around through someone else's quarters as you please!!" Ciel snapped at them with a vein mark on his head.

"Ah! Ha!" Lau said, pulling out the short qipao from when they were having fun forcing Ciel to crossdress during the Jack the Ripper case. Ran-Mao looked at the Chinese dress with interest while wearing the pink hat that matched the dress he wore to the viscount's. "You've held on to the dress I gave yooou! Have you worn it?"

"I certainly have not!" Ciel yelled angrily, paling at the thought. "Listen when I'm talking to you!!"

'Oops...' Chêne thought, studiously looking somewhere else. That was partially her fault. The dress was actually made with a high quality silk, so it seemed a shame to throw it out...

"Ugh..." Ciel groaned quietly, but his expression hardened again as he recalled how he had seen Lau attack a man using needles as a weapon during the case they met Agni and Soma. Chêne remembered that as well, but... something about the wound seemed familiar for a different reason.

"They could also be said to resemble the tooth marks of some beast or other..." Arthur said.

"Oh, that's it!" Chêne said, remembering where she had seen it before. "This wound looks similar to when one of my friends was bitten by a snake on her ankle before." Ciel was willing to bet good money that she was talking about Lacey.

"A snake? In here?" Grimsby asked dubiously.

"Bite marks on the neck... brings to mind Carmilla, doesn't it?" Irene said, looking pale.

"By that, are you referring to Le Fanu's vampiric Carmilla?" Ciel asked.

"Yes. Are you familiar with it?" Irene asked.

'Is she talking about that early lesbian vampire story?' Chêne wondered. She hadn't read it herself, but Lacey had given her the highlights. 'I guess since Dracula hasn't been written yet, that's the most famous literary vampire at this point... But I don't see how that's any more plausible than a snake?'

"So you're saying he was killed by a vampire!? Preposterous!" Woodley said. "Such occult and unscientific occurrences have no place in the nineteenth century!"