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First- for what seemed like both forever and a split second- it was completely dark. Wave after wave of heat, stronger each time, pulsed through me as I attempted to feel for a wall, some sort of support. These few minutes- or hours- were terrifying, only because of the silence. In my studies I'd learned to fear it: we were told that demonic forces wait so that the fear of the unknown, the ideas that arise in that silence out of the fear, is an invitation for them in itself. It weakens the mind without them having to waste any energy. So of course, trying not to think about it only made it worse.

The stupid dress feels like waterlogged wool, weighing down my whole body as I struggled to emptiness at my left. Just focus on finding the wall. Maybe Sebastian will know how to get to me. Or Pluto. He knows my scent. Maybe they're both on their way and I'll be saved in a few minutes.

My hand hit brick, and just as it did a dim red light fell from somewhere overhead, as if it had always been there. The faint light illuminated what I had originally thought was a tremendously large room. Instead the other wall was only about four feet from my face.

There's no way I can defend myself from this. I'm a nobody demonologist in a long line of nobodies exactly like me who have failed (and therefore DIED) trying to do what I'm about to be forced to do. There is nothing I can do to prevent a demon from stealing my soul.

Those were the last coherent thoughts that passed through my mind. From then on it was as if conscious was working, still alive, but it was being thrown around in the body of some crazy person and only getting glimpses. Soon I had ripped off huge chunks of my dress because it was just SO HOT. Then I paced back and forth to focus on something other than my imminent surrender to a bunch of demons. So I paced, back and forth, counting the distance between the walls.

Four feet.

Four feet.

Five?

Four.

Five.

Three.

The next thing I knew, I was under the remains of my torn up dress, shivering.

Five.

Six feet.

Four.

Pluto's coming. He's coming. I know it.

Four

Eight.

Is that someone outside?

...Six.

The red light is gone. The whispering is getting louder.

You don't have to be afraid...

Three.

I've always thought you were the most beautiful creature-

Ten.

Seven.

Nine.

You'll never be sad again.

Nine.

We're here for you-

The vivid memory of drowning emerges through this haze of exhaustion and words. My brother's dark brown eyes are just above the surface, watching me.

It's so hot.

Twenty.

Nineteen.

Twenty.

Love the demon...

So many love songs rip through my head, sung by so many voices in a tumultuous clamour of harmonies and keys that shouldn't fit together, but they so do. And it's lulling my weakening brain into a thick and alluring sleep, attacking me with lullabyes and the sweetest words I've ever heard.

I love you.

It was then, staring up at the place the ceiling should be, as I fought for my consciousness and against the frozen, unmoving, traitorous limbs, that I did the only thing my brain could think to do in that moment. I bound myself to the one demon I knew wouldn't devour my soul.

"Testes hoc facio contracta cum adstantibus," I whispered. My voice scared myself, low and airy and uneven and barely heard over the silent chaos taking place inside my head. "Canis Plutonem inferno animam meam pono."

Everything went quiet. All of a sudden I could hear and focus on my low breathing. The other presences in the room had disappeared. Of course there was no point in staying when my soul was already in contract. Saying it in Latin had made it much stronger. I'm sure even Pluto felt it.

My limbs- although with a ton of effort- became mobile again. I struggled into an upright position, feeling beads of sweat roll down the freezing skin of my reeling head.

There are noises from outside. Screams, crashes... Strange how they sound so different from the ones I'd been hearing only moments earlier.

Loud, vicious barking and growling caught my limited attention. Pluto. Oh my God. My bones creaked and rebelled as I forced myself to stand, but I didn't care. Once up I pulled myself to the door and banged on it with whatever strength I had left, which was about as much as that of a super strong mouse's. I could barely focus on what I was saying, my mind had deteriorated so much. "Pluto," I whispered. Man, I sound like I've already died. "Pluto boy.. I'm here..."

And seconds later the door is busted and my crazy, beloved, naked man-dog is holding me and licking me and I was just kinda falling asleep standing up while holding him too, and Sebastian was standing there with the accent guy in some sort of headlock and I hear the police throughout the house and I'm so TIRED and mentally drained and I just wanna sleep with Pluto's warmth mixing with mine.

"Pluto," I whispered, squinting my eyes at the bright light of the hallway as he practically pulled me from the abyss of my room. "Pluto I love you."

He licked my face eagerly nonstop as we walked behind a furious Ciel and obnoxiously loud French cursing and maids and butlers wearing confused looks and shouting policemen, so that I almost didn't hear Pluto. He whispered three gentle words more lovingly than any other demon on earth or in Hell ever could. "I love you."