"Phantomhive? Sir? There's a letter for you."
The voice of his fag, Lawrence Bluewer broke him out of his concentration with what could've almost counted as a start had he not caught himself in time. The younger boy set an envelope down on the table next to him with a small smile before which Astre returned in a manor most charming as he let out a small bemused laugh. It was late in the school year, far too late to be receiving letters in the Phantomhive hair's opinion, all the boys were too busy preparing for the Christmas holidays which were starting the following week.
Still he picked up the envelope, turning it over curiously. The front bore only his last name and not in any handwriting he recognised.
"A letter? At this time?" He let out another laugh. "Perhaps it's simply another Christmas card! I do seem to be acquiring quite the collection of them." He gestured to the neat rows of them that Bluewer himself had been tidying earlier. The sixteen year old still had no idea how he had possibly obtained so many; and not just from his family and varying political connections who wanted to stay on good terms with his father but from some of the younger boys in the school too. Some containing almost sordid fantasies in their interior...some of the first years were rather poetic little things and he had to wonder if he had ever been that bad at eleven. Surely not! And the older boys while less poetic were no less carnal at times, the blue house prefect had near blushed at some of the things written.
"Afraid not Sir," Bluewer replied, hiding his mouth behind his hand in what Astre was certain was an attempt to hide a smile. "No, this came from the Headmaster and were he to start sending cards to students, there may be some sort of enquiry."
A fair point Astre thought to himself as Lawrence went back to his work, tidying up Astre's bookshelf and leaving the sixteen year old to muse over this mysterious letter some more.
It had to be from his mother, he concluded. Wishing him well and once more expressing regret at the fact that he had once more missed his brothers' birthday. The twins were ten now, quite the young gentlemen. He did rather regret missing Ciel and Lune's birthday, he should've liked to see the look on their faces as they opened their gifts from him. But he couldn't leave the school until term was over, not unless he wanted a sound beating and detention.
He sighed. Finally giving in to his curiosity with a muffled. "Bother...what can they want with me now?"
Bluewer lingered in the background, most likely wondering if he would be needed to run a reply back to the Headmaster, given that it was his job to perform such tasks.
For a while there was silence as Astre lazily skimmed the contents of the letter with his gaze. Then he stilled. Frozen as a sculpture of ice in his seat. His already pale complexion paled further until it took on a sickly grey hue and he looked almost as though he were about to lose his supper. Green eyes widened in horror as they darted back up to the top to reread what he was certain was just some sort of terrible misread.
He slammed the letter down on the table top, chair pushing backwards and clattering to the floor with a crash that the Phantomhive heir seemed not to hear. His hands leant on either side of the letter, head hung between trembling hands as his heart beat seemed to pound in his own ears. His world narrowed down to the words on the page. He let out what could almost have been a choked sob.
It wasn't possible...it just...it couldn't be. No...
The normally unflappable prefect was beyond shaken at the words he'd read. To the point that he barely registered he was being spoken to.
"-stre? What's wrong? What can I do?"
"They're...Bluewer...Lawrence...they're dead..." There in his aunt's writing was an account of how the manor and all its inhabitants had been burnt to corpses by a raging inferno not two hours ago.
"What? Who?" His fag replied anxiously, not understanding the situation in full. Astre wished that could be him.
"My...my parents. The servants. It...the entire manor has burnt to the ground. It seems only Old Man Tanaka made it out of there alive and even he's fighting for his life in hospital as of right now." There had been no mention of his brothers' bodies however, it seemed as though they'd both disappeared into thin air, although he had no time to ponder the question.
The sound of a breath catching behind him told him that his fag had finally realised the situation at hand and this made it all the more real to him. This had truly happened. His whole family. Mother. Father. The twins. They were gone. He was the only one left.
Another choked sob wracked through him though he still did not shed a tear. There would be time for that later. He couldn't fall to pieces now. Even if his whole world was collapsing. He turned to face his fag, no longer looking like the confident young man who turned male and female heads wherever he went but more like a lost child who'd been abandoned in the middle of the woods and knew not where to go or what to do. He was lost. A world of responsibilities had been thrust upon his shoulders now, ones he'd not expected to have for another decade at least.
Suddenly it seemed as though the walls of his room were attempting to close around him, threatening to suffocate the very life from him even as he half listened to Bluewer telling him that he should go to his aunt's and sort things out from there. His aunt...
"I need to tell Edward..." He said suddenly. His cousin needed to know, the poor boy couldn't be left in the dark about this. "Bluewer...prepare my suitcase...please?"
The last word came out as a small plea before the Phantomhive boy steeled himself and strode out of the dorm, making his way to the green house dormitories with a heavy heart and a burning sensation in his eyes that he refused to give into.