Chapter 33: Her Fears Were His Resolve

                                    

                                          
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Her Fears Were His Resolve
                          
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Snow crunched under their heavily padded boots as the two made their way down the cobblestone path towards the apartment building, not a single word was spoken to each other ever since they started moving. The sound of their footsteps and heavy breathing were all that kept the air between them from falling completely into silence. They did not feel the need to talk. Investigation was all that mattered at the time being. When they finally reached the lamp post that was rooted in front of the bricked building, both raised their heads to look at the towering building.
                          
Ciel snorted at the news report he recalled reading two days after he received the Queen's letter regarding the case. It was ridiculous how the residents could give up their homes so easily.
                          
The dark windows and the stillness that indicated complete abandonment of the building was something that failed to surprise Ciel as he had already expected this. But it seemed the opposite for the red head who blinked in puzzlement at the building.
                          
"They'd left to live somewhere else." Ciel said in a bored tone when he saw the puzzled look on Estella's face, and started his way towards the building, pushing his way past the tape the police had put up.
                          
Estella slowly dragged her gaze away from the building above her and rested it on the back of the boy who was glancing around the out-of-bound place he entered. "No wonder." She went under the tape his waiting hand held for her, muttering a 'thanks' under her breath which didn't go unheard by Ciel who brushed it off with a lazy flick of his hand.
                          
….
                          
"Filthy." His disgust took its form on his face as a grimace with a scrunched nose at the cloud of dust that greeted them as soon as he pushed open the door to the stairs. Ciel raised his eye disdainfully from the dusty floor which he clucked his tongue in annoyance at, to the flight of equally dusty stairs that was waiting for them.
                          
Estella scrunched her nose in agreement as she tried to block off the stench of alcohol in the air of the stairs passage which rushed into her nose the moment she breathed in. "It stinks too." Another cloud of dust kicked up as she moved to follow Ciel who had started climbing the stairs.
                          
Already so much dust after one week? Ciel thought with displeasure, hating the uncontrollable twitch of his irritated nose. As they tread up the steps, Ciel's eye darted up to the flights of stairs above them and pinpointed the one that stopped at the eighth storey where the fire broke out on.
                          
The girl beside him quirked an eyebrow at the steps ahead of them and blinked at a smoking cigarette she caught onto. Estella nudged his side with her elbow for his attention. "Hey Phantomhive."
                          
Ciel glanced over at her with a questioning look.
                          
"Look…"She pointed at her discovery.
                          
"What?" He tore his attention away from her face to the direction her finger was pointing at. Ciel's eye widened at the cigarette almost instantly, following the thin trail of smoke that escaped from it.
                          
Silence stretched between them as they paused at the steps to peruse the stick which sat innocently in front of them.
                          
Ciel clenched his jaw solemnly at the realization of a possible danger. He raised his head to glare at the flight of stairs above. "Someone's here…"
                          
Estella followed his gaze and looked back at him with a frown. "That's what I thought. Now what?" She watched as the boy peered up at the tiers above for the other trespasser.