Wrong Turning

Chapter 1:

Late in the afternoon of a summer's day, Ciel Phantomhive alighted from his aunt's car and stared at the imposing building in front of him. It looked like any average student accommodation building with separate blocks, posters on windows and a traffic cone somehow precariously balanced on the roof as well as empty alcohol bottles half concealed in the bushes.

His main reasoning behind finding such an ordinary sight so intimidating was that it was his first time mixing with other people as he had been homeschooled for all of his life until now.

Being a university student meant that he would be one small person in a mass of students that were probably going to be drunk off their faces half the time and he was going to have to interact with these people and the more contact he had with people, the more chance there was that someone would see the cut marks on his wrists or ask him questions about his eye patch.

His aunt, who had accompanied him, dumped his suitcase on the ground next to him.

"Stop staring into space, Ciel," she complained. "You need to move in as soon as possible so you can make new friends sooner."

Ciel tore his eyes away and resigned himself to the task of lugging his suitcase into the building with his aunt behind him, dragging a small matching suitcase.

Their first hurdle was trying to find out which block was actually Ciel's as they weren't arranged alphabetically and working out how to use the key fob they had been given.

Eventually, after several flights of stairs, they reached Ciel's new room and deposited the suitcases on the floor.

"Why do I have to be on the top floor!?" Ciel huffed, already exhausted from the short journey.

"Think of it as improving your stamina," his aunt suggested. "Your route to campus also involves a hill which should improve it further."

Ciel sat down on the mattress to recover his breath and took note of his surroundings which were a desk, chair , wardrobe and a pin board.

"At least I don't have to share a room or bathroom with anyone," he conceded. "I refuse to clean anyone elses' hair out the plughole."

"Are you less nervous now that we are actually here?" his aunt enquired curiously.

Ciel shot her a cold glance causing her to lapse into silence. He gave her an answer a few moments later.

"I have accepted that I have to stay here and I don't have a chance of persuading you to take me back home, do I?"

He attempted a manipulative puppy dog look just for the sake of it. His aunt had stopped caving into it years ago.

"No, you don't have a chance at persuading me." she softened slightly and attempted to hug him. "If it's university work you are worried about, you don't need to be so concerned- you're the most intelligent person I know and I'm a doctor."

"I suppose you are right," he agreed reluctantly. "I'm not exactly stupid."

She continued on. "If it's the socialising side, remember to smile and be friendly in the first week. After that, you can act more like yourself. Remember that you can hide your eyepatch with your hair if you don't want it to be seen."

"Of course I don't want it to be seen," he snapped at her. "Everyone will never stop asking questions if they noticed it and if they found out the truth; they would pity me and I would hate that."

His eyes inadvertently dropped to his arms where his long sleeves were pulled over his wrists. He couldn't let anyone else find out about his habit either.

"I know," she said. "I'm just not used to the idea of you being around people that don't know the truth about it."

The only people that Ciel interacted with on a regular basis were those that were related to him and knew what had happened to him all those years ago.

"Lizzie started her university last week so you can ask her for advice if you desperately need it," she reminded him. "My university days were a long time ago- Fresher's week didn't even exist then, though stealing a traffic cone has always been a classic."

Ciel envisioned a younger version of his aunt stealing a traffic cone from a set of roadworks and placing it on top of a statue. He found it a little too easy to imagine.

His aunt checked her watch. "I have a shift at the hospital in a few hours and I need to drive back so I should leave now."

She pulled him in for another awkward hug and left him there alone, wondering whether or not her advice about smiling was valid since his smile had been known to scare people which was usually very useful, but not in his current situation.

He occupied himself with unpacking his belongings and arranging his books in alphabetical order. When he had nothing else left to unpack besides his kitchenware he knew he couldn't put off entering the kitchen and meeting his flatmates. He had been hearing loud voices coming from the other end of the flat for a while.

He picked up as much as he could and summoned up the courage to leave his room. He pushed open the kitchen door and cautiously peeked inside. Sitting around the kitchen counter were three males. Two were blonde and were happily taking, one with an unlit cigarette at the side of his mouth and the other blonde had red hairclips pinning back his hair and looked at least ten years younger than his conversation partner. The other male present was dark haired with glasses and was perusing a heavy looking book silently.

The cigarette toting one caught sight of him first. "See Finny, I told you the fifth person wasn't going to be a girl. It's unlikely that a flat would consist of four boys and a girl."

"Are you sure it's a boy?" Finny whispered, or thought that he was whispering as Ciel had no problems picking it up.

"I'm not a girl," he restrained himself from saying it too sulkily. "If there is five of us, where is the other person?"

"He arrived on the first day and I've only seen him once, I think his name is Sebastian," the older blonde explained. "I'm Bardroy, this is Finny and the person over there is Will."

"It's William T. Spears," Will corrected brusquely, finally looking up from his book to glance at Ciel. And you are?"

"Ciel Phantomhive."

Will acknowledged him with a tilt of his head. "I hope you are not a pyromaniac or break things easily."

Ciel was confused as to the source of that statement until he noticed the guilty expressions marring Bardroy and Finny's faces. Assumedly, one was a pyromaniac and the other one had trouble estimating his strength.

"No, I am not overly fond of fire and neither do I smash things easily," he answered.

"Then we shall get along. Someone has already set off the smoke alarm three times and someone else has smashed half their crockery."

"They were accidents," Bardroy protested.

"I still don't know how you managed it," Will sighed. "I haven't met the other person to work out what their shortcomings are."

"He likes tea," Finny informed them. "I peeked into his cupboard."

Ciel decided that he would always lock his bedroom door as Finny seemed to be very curious and he didn't want anyone to find his razors.

"Ciel, do you need help with your stuff?" Bardroy offered helpfully. "It will take ages if you do it small amounts."

"I am fine," he answered hastily, extremely unwilling to let anyone in his room.

He located an empty cupboard and made several trips to finish moving his kitchenware into the kitchen. When he had finally finished he rewarded himself by making some tea and sat down next to Bardroy.

"Are you coming out tonight?" Bardroy asked.

"Where to?"

"To a club or two," was the answer.

Ciel only considered the prospect seriously for a second. Clubs meant lots of people, dancing and alcohol. He was terrible at dancing and even if he tried to someone would be bound to notice his eyepatch.

"I am quite tired after moving in, perhaps another time."

Bardroy sensed his unwillingness and didn't push it or try to persuade him further.

"You can just do predrinks with us," Finny suggested happily.

Ciel found this new term more confusing than Bardroy's question about going out. Clearly university students used a lot of slang that he needed to catch up on.

"...Predrinks?"

"It's when you drink before going to the club. Buying drinks at a club is really expensive," Finny said.

Ciel could appreciate the logic behind the concept. Students were known to be poor and it was a sensible way to reduce costs. There was one obvious disadvantage though.

"Doesn't it mean that you get drunk before entering a club?"

"Some people overdo it and get refused entry because they are too drunk," Finny agreed. "You can get drunk freely today since you aren't going anywhere."

Bardroy took the opportunity pull out an array of bottles and cans out of his cupboard.

"I spent a lot of my maintenance loan on this so I won't have this much available ever again. I'll be on the cheaper stuff next week."

Ciel raised his eyebrows at that. He had done a little research before coming to university and had assumed that the stereotype of people spending their student finance on alcohol and drugs instead of rent and food couldn't be true as no one could be that stupid. Now he had the proof right in front of him.

"Take your pick," Finny said to him.

"I don't know," Ciel said unsurely.

"Finnian," Will interjected."He has obviously never tried alcohol before. Give him the weakest one."

For a moment Ciel was grateful for Will's intervention until he was handed a glass of the weakest alcohol and he had trouble swallowing it as it tasted so horrible.

"Beer takes a while to get used to," Bardroy commented. "I'll give you something that should taste better."

He mixed the contents of various brightly coloured bottles together in a glass and passed it to Ciel who found that much to his surprise that he did like it. It would have been a wise decision to stop at the first glass, but Ciel's alcohol tolerance was so low that common sense evaded him and he ended up having another glass.

He stopped drinking when he felt nauseous and he sprinted out of the kitchen when he felt vomit rise up his throat. He stumbled into what he thought was his room and into the bathroom so he could throw up in the toilet.

It only became evident that he had run into the wrong room when he had finished throwing up and his senses were clearer. His bathroom didn't have a cat patterned towel hanging on the rail, neither did he have a cat shaped toothbrush holder or small boxes of beauty products along the wall. His door had been locked too and he had been able to enter this room without a key. The cat themed items didn't match with the flatmates he had met so far so he guessed that it must be the one he hadn't met yet.

His suspicions proved to be correct when he walked out of the bathroom to find someone waiting for him outside that he didn't recognise.

"I think you took a wrong turning."

Ciel took a closer look at his new flatmate. He was tall with long black hair that partially obscured his face and scarlet eyes.

"Are you Sebastian?" Ciel asked.

"Sebastian Michaelis. Who are you?"

"Ciel Phantomhive."

"Nice to meet you. I'm guessing that you aren't good with alcohol. Wait a second..." he paused and looked down at Ciel's wrists.

Ciel followed his gaze and realised that his sleeves had hitched up when he had been throwing up so some of his cut marks were visible.

Sebastian took hold of his arm without asking and pushed his sleeve up further to reveal a set of slash marks criss crossing his arms and wrists. The older marks were faded compare to more recent marks, but all the marks were easy to make out due to the paleness of his skin.

Ciel snatched his arm back, angry at being touched and at being caught out so soon.

"You're very interesting, Ciel," Sebastian murmured silkily. "I was wondering if I would find anything to amuse myself with here."

"It's none of your business," Ciel spat and stormed out of Sebastian's room, noting as he did that Sebastian was smirking at him which did not bode well for his future.