14 Bonus Chapter -- Thirteenth Floor

This is not a real update, not really, but it does go with the storyline. The real next chapter will resume in the morning after the fashion show. Thank you for reading!

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Ciel woke suddenly. There was no reason, no storm or creaking floorboard, but he felt immediately that something was wrong. He stripped of his pajamas, slipping on the black clothes he typically used in his assassinations. They were easiest to move in, should he have to fight something or flee with Jaeyline over his shoulder.

Ciel moved to the door between Jaeyline's room and his, opening it carefully, his Desert Eagle in his hand. Nothing was out of place, and Ciel knew no one was in the room. But... what was making Ciel feel like he was being watched.

Ciel almost fired as the door opposite him opened, but he flicked the safety on when he recognized Laksa. Ciel frowned. If both he and Laksa, sons who'd been trained very early to sense when something is about to happen, then what could be going on?

Laksa shut the door behind him and with barely a whisper of boots on carpet, he moved quickly to Ciel's side. "You felt it, too?" he whispered, leading Ciel back into the room, keeping the door open so they could monitor Jaeyline.

"Yes," replied Ciel. "It feels almost as if..."

"Someone's watching us," they finished together.

"But I already scouted the hallway. Nothing. At this point, it's almost as if they're looking at us thought the walls or something," said Laksa.

Ciel shuddered. "Don't say that," he said.

Laksa grinned. "Why? You afraid of ghosts, Ciel?"

Ciel flinched. "Yes,' he said, checking the laces on his boots. He stood and walked over to the wardrobe.

"Ooh! Fearless Big Brother is afraid of little ghosties--"

"Shut your mouth," Ciel said, spinning in a back kick so fast all Laksa could see was the blade on the bottom of Ciel's boot sink into the wood. He freed his blade with a pull, tapping the toe of the boot against the ground, the blade sinking out of sight.

"That's is very surprising. I didn't know you were bringing such professional gear. If I had, I would have brought some of mine. It sucks to be outshone by my Big Brother," Laksa complained.

"Silence. Something's coming," Ciel whispered. He kept his senses on high alert, ears picking up on light footsteps on the carpet beyond the rooms.

"This is our place. Who dares to disrupt our play?"

The hair on Ciel's neck and arms stood on end as a high-pitched, childish laugh echoes around them, the mass of it from the hallways beyond, but also sounding as if it was echoing through the walls.

Ciel shivered. He dug in his bag for a long strip of cloth, dropping his glasses and tying the fabric around his eyes, blocking off sight.

"Hey-- what are you doing?!"

"Shut up! I can shoot on instinct even more accurately than I can with my sights, especially close range. I can't afford to see something I don't want to and lose concentration. Not with yours and Jaeyline's lives on the line, which they very well might be."

Laksa bit his lip. He hadn't seen Ciel shooting live before, so he didn't know for sure, but he had a feeling that Ciel was better by far, even blindfolded. "Very well. Stay alert."

Ciel opened the gun case blindfolded, grabbing the outline holding his handguns and pulling it out of the case, setting it on the bed, hands feeling for the pieces of Hecate. With an expert's ease, he snapped and locked the pieces together, until his sniper rifle was assembled. He pulled back the slide and turned the safety off, standing and pacing, the rifle held against his shoulder. His footsteps were silent, his ears still catching the shuffling of the carpet, the light taps of someone setting their feet down.

"It sounds..." he started.

"Almost like they're walking in the same spot," agreed Laksa.

The sounds hadn't moved any closer, making Laksa and Ciel tense.

That silly, childlike laugh sounded again, this time louder than it last had been, as if the child was laughing just beside the siblings.

Ciel resisted the urge to open fire. He didn't sense anything, but that sound and closeness was really starting to wear down his composure. "I think we need to take Jaeyline and run," he said quietly. "I have a feeling my constitution is going to falter very soon."

"Hold on. Just a bit longer. Whatever's happening might just be some sort of trick, or even a figment of our imaginations."

"Your imagination. I'd never have something so terrifying in my head," Ciel corrected.

"An assassin afraid of ghosts," Laksa muttered. "Classic."

"I'm glad you're amused," hissed Ciel. He put his finger on the trigger, only to take it off and repeat. Damn, this was much too nerve-wracking.

"Are you afraid you won't be able to protect her?" Laksa asked.

Ciel snorted. "Not hardly." He flinched as the laughter echoed around him. "It's the things I can't kill I'm afraid of."

Laksa realized he meant two different things. Yes, the paranormal, but also... his mother. Before he could say anything, however, Ciel startled. "What is it?"

"What floor are we on, again?" Ciel asked.

"...Um, I think it's floor thirteen. Why?"

Ciel started muttering to himself. "I haven't stayed in many hotels, but why can I never recall the number thirteen...?"

Laksa snapped on to what Ciel was saying. "I never saw a thirteenth floor before, either. It all started in America, where thirteen is seen as a cursed and unlucky number. There's a legend that there was a school bus full of children heading somewhere for a field trip. The occupants of the bus stayed overnight in a hotel. The next morning, they set out again. But the bus broke down on train tracks. The train driver tried to stop the train, but it was no use. Everyone in the bus died, and it's said they haunt the floor in the hotel they'd stayed. The thirteenth. From that, it traveled around that the thirteenth floors of all hotels are like gateways into the spirit realms."

Ciel twitched. "That... is incredibly disturbing as well as interesting. If we were here under different circumstances, I'd be happy to verify. But at the moment, I am trying my best not to either jump out of the window and hop on the next flight back to London, or go into the bathroom and start hurling my guts up."

Laksa didn't have time to reply as a childish voice called, "We're coming for you, trespassers. You should never have stepped into our world. Now you will suffer for it."

Ciel's temples throbbed, the headache sudden and painful. He almost fell to his knees, but just barely managed to remain on his feet. "Are you okay?" he called out to Laksa. It was no use keeping quiet.

"Bloody hell," groaned Laksa.

"You're fine. Come on, grab as many guns as you can carry. We're getting out of this place." Ciel moved through the doorway into Jaeyline's room. Or, what he thought was Jaeyline's room.

Instead, a couple steps in, he ran into a wall. Hissing in pain, he ripped the blindfold from his eyes, leaving it around his neck. He was in the hallway, though he knew he'd walked through the door for Jaeyline's room.

"What the hell is going on here?" he muttered.

More giggles.

Ciel backed away from the sound, glancing around. The room numbers around him were nowhere near the ones he, Laksa, and Jaeyline were in. How had he gotten that far away?

"Ciel?!"

Ciel started running where he heard the panicked shout, but as he turned the corner, he appeared right back where he'd started. "What the devil is going on here?" he cried, trying once again.

This time, he ran smack into a door. He swore, rubbing his forehead, as he struggled to get his bearings. It appeared he was on the other side of the hallway from his and Jaeyline's rooms. He started forward this time, at a steady, calm pace.

More giggles and laughter sounded, but there was another sound buried in it, something Ciel couldn't quite hear clearly yet.

Something was very, very wrong with this place.

"Laksa!" Ciel shouted.

"Where the hell are you?" Laksa's voice barked back.

"Ciel?! Where are you?" Jaeyline cried.

"On my way! Stay put, and don't walk through any doorways!" Ciel shouted back. He moved slightly quicker, wary, until he made it to Jaeyline's door. He opened the door, but this time paused before walking through. He tsked as he saw the scene inside was of the hallway he'd just come from, closing the door an opening it again, this time displaying Jaeyline's terrified face and Laksa pacing in the room.

"The hell you go?" Laksa demanded.

"Long story. Don't walk through any doors. It'll just transport you somewhere else."

"What's going on?" Jaeyline asked. "Where were you?"

"I was trying to get back here. It seems that I was unprepared to deal with spirits. We're on the haunted thirteenth floor."

"Wha--?"

"I know it makes no sense. We'll explain as soon as we can get out of this place," assured Ciel.

"Are either of your hurt?"

"Other than a slight bruise on my forehead, no," Ciel replied, scanning the room. The only ways out were the front door and the side doors into his and Laksa's rooms. His eyes drifted behind them, past the bed. No... there was one more.

"What's the plan?"

Ciel glanced at Jaeyline. "Hold on," he said, picking her up and swinging her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "Follow three seconds after me, just to make sure you don't land on me."

"Roger."

Ciel started running, jumping onto the bed and using it as a springboard to sail into the air, flipping and driving his heel into the window, using the blade to shatter the glass. He freefell for a few seconds, before he reached out and hand, catching the ledge of a balcony, careful to twist so only his side hit the wall, keeping Jaeyline from the impact. He winced, but only held on a second before letting go, this time landing on the ledge of a window, hopping down one floor at a time. On the last floor, something light smacked him in the head, causing him to flinch. "Watch out!" he called, jumping the last floor, careful to shift Jaeyline's position over his shoulder so her spine didn't get too bent as he landed on his feet.

"Wah!"

Ciel winced as he heard a heavy thud, then another as something hit the ground. "Are you okay, Laksa?" he asked, putting Jaeyline on her feet. Just as he was about to walk over to Laksa, he swung his Hecate around, using the long anti-material rifle's barrel to knock the flying object away. He jumped back, picking Jaeyline up under her armpits and swinging her around like a kid, barely avoiding the next.

"God. First they disturb us, then they throw our luggage out?" Laksa groaned.

Ciel's lips twitched slightly. "At least we have our stuff."

"Can one of you please explain this to me?" Jaeyline asked.

Ciel laughed. "Yes. Once we find somewhere else to stay, we'll tell you everything. Just be prepared to never sleep in a hotel again." He glanced up again, shivering slightly, before extending the handles of his and Jaeyline's suitcases, pulling them behind him. "Let's get out of here."

"Please," agreed Laksa, wheeling his own suitcase behind him.

"I assume you saved my life yet again," Jaeyline said. "Thank you."

Ciel just smiled.

"You know... that gun on your back looks familiar for some reason."

Ciel just laughed under the moon.