I am telling you - this ship will be the end of me.

The cover image is by dbgus1 on tumblr who makes amazing Undertaker/Cloudia drawings^^

Prologue

Every of his days was built on certain basics: getting up, eating breakfast, starting to work. His daily basics had been the same for many years now, but that didn't mean that he was bored, that he wished for a different, more adventurous or thrilling life.

After all, he greatly liked his work, and all the excitement he needed visited him in the form of a young boy and his black butler from time to time.

But even without those visits and forgetting the fact that he enjoyed his work, his life certainly wasn't boring.

"Aren't you excited that he will pay us a visit today? Of course, you are. You always are."

After all, she was there.

She was sitting on his desk when he went downstairs to the parlour, her back facing him.

Sometimes, she was a child; sometimes, she was a young woman. But she was never an old one. After all, she had never lived to be older than thirty-six.

Today, she seemed to be around twenty.

"Say, Undertaker, don't you wonder if he will come with only his butler again, or if he will bring more people with him? He rarely comes in a group, but it would be so much more fun if he did! Don't you think so?" She chuckled. "Of course, you do. After all, I know what goes on in that restless head of yours."

"Not even you can know what I think, Countess," he replied, and Countess Cloudia Phantomhive turned around to him, smirking.

She had been beautiful when she had been alive; she was beautiful still – and her beauty would never fade because, for her, time stood still.

"Of course, I can, Undertaker. I am only a fragment of your imagination – my thoughts are your thoughts."

Undertaker shook his head. "We've discussed that. You are a ghost, Countess."

"We both know very well that ghosts don't exist. Demons and Grim Reapers, yes, but not ghosts. It isn't very healthy to lie to yourself – and to talk to yourself. It doesn't matter if you imagine talking to me. After all, I have already established that I don't really exist, that the only place I do is inside your mind. You are talking to nobody else but you."

"You haven't established anything."

"Oh – really? Then, Undertaker, try to convince me, try to convince yourself that all I've said is wrong. That you weren't thinking about the Earl's visit, that you weren't wishing for him to bring along more people – for him to socialise and live, and for him to let you be part of the life he builds.

"Convince yourself that I am not here because you still didn't get over my death and are desperately holding onto my memory because you are too weak to let go.

"Try it, Undertaker, but keep in mind that you have already failed the moment you made me say all these things to you."

Cloudia stood up and walked towards him. She raised her right hand to his face but didn't touch it.

"It is time to wake up, Cedric," she softly whispered, and Undertaker turned away.

And when he looked back again, she was gone.