Butler's Apprentice(On hold)

Chapter Ten--Kidnappers and Mice

"Geeyah!"

Amber flinched and glanced at Mey-Rin, who was cowering against the wall.

"What's the matter?" Amber questioned, walking up to the trembling girl.

"M-mouse!" She pointed. Amber turned to see a small, grey, and furry form scurrying across the kitchen floor. It disappeared in the shadows in the corner of the room.

"Bah, damn critters!" Bard muttered around the unlit cigarette in his lips. He crossed his arms.

"They chewed a hole in my hat." Finnian displayed the straw gardening hat he always wore, tears prickling the corners of his eyes. Amber rubbed her chin, elbow cupped in her palm.

"Hmm....I think I heard something in the walls last night. The mice could be a very serious problem." Bard nodded.

"I 'eard that they are stealin' food and spreading sickness all over London." Amber frowned, thinking of Johnny. It wouldn't do for him to get sick. With the lack of proper food most of his life, even the slightest illness could kill him. Her heart shuddered at the thought. 

"We need to do something, but what?"

Bard grinned and held up a finger. "Declare war, of course."

Mey-rin cocked her head. "War...?"

"That's right."

"How do we do that?" Finnian asked, puzzled.

"Simple." Bard grunted, removing his cigarette. "We just--"  Johnny suddenly barged in, disrupting him, and ran to Amber, throwing his arms around her waist. Surprised, she did the same.

"Sis! Ciel wants to see you." He smiled up at her, as if happy to have delivered the message.

"Ci--Master Ciel wants to see me?" She corrected herself. Johnny nodded.

"Yep!"

The corners of Amber's mouth tugged downward. Why did he want to see her all of a sudden? And why did he send Johhny and not Sebastian?

"He said right away."Johnny added, pulling on Amber's sleeve.

"Oh! Right...." Distracted, she planted a kiss on his head and headed out of the kitchen and upstairs. A terrible thought struck her, halting her in her tracks. What if he knew? Knew that she was, in fact, a girl? She swallowed hard and, heart racing, started forward again. As she neared Ciel's study, she glanced up and gasped. A man held a limp, prone Ciel in his arms, a cloth pressed to her young master's mouth and nose.

 The stranger whipped his head around to stare at her. Before she could understand what happened or react to what she saw before her, the man snaked toward her at an intense speed. He encircled her in his embrace--not in a very gentle or good fashion-- and clamped the cloth in his hand over her face. Amber gagged as a sickeningly sweet smell invaded her senses. Her eyes rolled back in her head and the world vanished.

....................................................

Amber groaned and her eyes fluttered open. Her shoulders ached and her hands and feet were almost numb. She surveyed the room. Where was she? She didn't recognize it; it didn't look anything like the Phantomhive manor.

A still form hunched a few feet from her caught her attention. She gasped. It was Ciel. Blood trickled from his mouth and nose, staining his already soiled and torn clothes.

"Ciel!" Amber called, struggling to free her bound limbs. He didn't look her way. Was he unconscious?

A sharp blow to the ribs sent all the air in her lungs out in a whoosh. She gagged and gasped, trying to fill her empty windpipe. She could already feel a bruise blooming on her side.