Kuroshitsuji- Out of Place 05

I looked at Soma and Agni for a minute.


"...Huh?" It hadn't sunk in


Soma waved the letter in my face, "This letter- it's from Ciel! We've been invited to some kind of party at his house,"


"Oh," I looked at it, not really reading it, "Soma, I'm pretty sure he only means you. Why would he invite me?"


Soma rolled his eyes and said, as though that were the stupidest thing he'd ever heard, "Why wouldn't he invite his sister?" He pointed to a place on the paper, "There, look. It says you're invited! See?" He grinned.


Well, what do you know? He was right. The letter was addressed: "To whom it may concern" and went on to say that Soma and I were invited to a social gathering of some sort (Agni wasn't mentioned, as it wasn't custom to give any consideration to servants when inviting people to such gatherings, but Agni would still accompany us).


I looked at them with wide eyes, "But, you guys, how should I dress for something like this?"


They seemed pretty clueless about that, but at least they tried to help. While I was hyperventilating they kept bringing out a random array of English dresses and Indian woman's clothing to see if I liked any of them. I ended up choosing a long, black, spaghetti-strap dress with lace at the bottom and a silver tiara. Showy, perhaps, but maybe the black would make me blend in.


The day of the "social gathering" we all took a carriage out of town. It took a while, but we eventually pulled up to Ciel's house.


Sebastian met us at the door, "Welcome,"


"Hi, Sebastian!" I smiled at him.


"H-hello, Sebastian," Soma said, peeking over my shoulder.


When Sebastian had moved away, I looked at Soma, "What are you hiding for? What's wrong?"


Soma shuddered, "He scares me..."


I looked to Agni for an explanation. He only shrugged- he didn't understand it either. So instead I looked back at Soma, "What's wrong with him?"


"There's just something unnatural about him. Like he's something really evil just pretending to be nice..." Soma convulsed again.


I began to shudder too, "Oh, stop it- you're freaking me out!" I pulled on his arm, "Come on, let's mingle,"


Most of the people looked at us as though there was something wrong with us. I only smiled in return; like I'd never seen THAT look before! I couldn't exactly blame them, either. After all, most people would look funny at two Indians and a goth chick.


Soon I spotted Ciel through the crowd. I kind of wanted to run up and hug him, but I was pretty sure that wouldn't be proper in this situation, especially since he was talking to a bunch of really official-looking people. I also wasn't sure I could look him in the eye after our last conversation. When those people had left him alone, I pointed Ciel out to Soma and he and Agni ran off to greet him.


Instead of following them, I hurried in the other direction. Bumping into people and apologizing quietly with my eyes lowered, I managed to make it across the room to a side room of some kind. It was empty but the door had been open so it was obviously meant for guests to use. Feeling depressed, I dropped down on the sofa. Right now I was kind of wishing I hadn't come. It would be rude to turn down the invitation, though, after he had been kind enough to let me live in his house. With a distressed sigh, I closed my eyes and leaned back.


After a moment I felt the slightest of drafts and then there was a voice speaking in my ear, "Alright, miss Riley?"


My eyes snapped open and I instinctively swatted at the place near my head where the voice had come from. The Undertaker caught my hand and leered at me. I gave him a dirty look, "Ya know, just because you can magic your way over here without being heard doesn't mean you should,"


He only grinned and said, laughingly, "I'm sorry. I couldn't help myself," I smiled involuntarily in response.


At that moment a commotion of some sort broke out in the main room. I got up to go look, Undertaker followed. The uproar seemed to be focused around a tall man with dark hair and glasses who was wearing a formal suit and carried a weapon of some sort. The people around him appeared alarmed at his appearance. It seemed he had quite suddenly appeared.


"What's with that guy?" I wondered aloud.


I thought I could hear Undertaker give an exasperated sigh, so I looked over at him. I couldn't really tell what expression he was wearing, I realized. His face revealed nothing about his emotions. His eyes were covered so it was impossible to tell.


He glanced at me and smiled in an amused way, "What is it?"


"Oh, nothing..." I looked away, suddenly shy. Out of the corner of my eye I could still see him smirking at me, it made me go red.


I tried to distract myself by looking back into the room at the strange man with glasses. He was now being led away somewhere by Sebastian. They joined Ciel in a secluded corner where the three of them began to have a heated discussion.


"Hm.... weird, what was that all about?" I turned to look at the undertaker, but he was gone. I looked around the small room to make sure he wasn't hiding- but it appeared he really was gone, "Wow- that was totally rude,"


Then I looked out at the big room. It seemed things had gotten back to normal- everyone had seemingly forgotten about that man's sudden entrance. That wasn't too strange, given that there was alcohol at this party, but there was something else not quite right. The room felt fuller now. There were several new people that I hadn't noticed before. Nobody seemed to be paying them any attention, though.


Which.... huh... now that I thought about it, struck me as really weird. Looking closer, they were all carrying some kind of weapon; shouldn't that be alarming to people? This was getting too freaky for me! I looked around for the undertaker. Ah, there he was at the top of the staircase! I started to walk that way, but nearly ran into someone. It was a man with long red hair, red clothes and very pretty make-up. He must have been a lumberjack, or something because he was carrying a chainsaw.


Hmm... another person who looked out of place in this time period. For a moment we stared at each other; me looking confused, him looking as though he wasn't feeling out of place at all. Then he said, "Oops, I've been noticed..." and looked at me as though I were a nuisance.


I backed away, "uhm... I didn't see nothing, mr. lumberjack!" and then I ran away. Looking up at the stairs, I realized undertaker was no longer there, "Son of a-!"


I didn't finish my curse because yet another commotion broke out across the room. There were screams, growling and the sound of running feet. I whipped around just in time to see someone being thrown through the air. People rushed past to get out the door, knocking me over in the process. When I sat up, there was a woman standing over me.


At first I thought she was one of the guests. She was dressed too strangely for a ball, though- her clothes consisted of a black midriff top; a short, black skirt, and tall boots. But there was something about her that was stranger than her clothes; on top of her head was a pair of short, black dog ears. This must have been the person everyone was running from. Weird, she was really more fascinating than scary... Then her eyes flashed red and I quickly changed my mind.


She grinned at me revealing sharp teeth. I stood up and backed away slowly, glancing around for some escape- there was none, I had backed into a corner.


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AN: uh oh!~ :O