George was still sitting with Yue when he saw Ciel return to the lounge. Ciel smiled and greeted a few guests before going towards the grand piano on the stage.

When he saw the twins, he knew that Master Gin and Scarlet would not be coming that night. Since that was the case, the nightly entertainment which was usually Scarlet’s duty would fall onto Ciel’s shoulders.

A tiny chandelier above the piano bathed Ciel in a warm glow as his fingers danced on the ivory and ebony keys. The music was soft and the ambience was relaxing; it was different from Scarlet’s husky crooning but it still put the patrons in a good mood.

Yue was moody again. “She would be the one playing the piano if Scarlet wasn’t around…”

“Yue, stop depressing yourself or I’m going to throw you out. It’s been nearly a hundred years. I don’t even know her.” George growled.

When he had first started working in Sanctuary, he was told to leave the permanent fixture in alcove 15 alone. And it was true. Yue never seemed to leave the alcove, drinking and brooding in there alone.

Sometimes Scarlet or Ciel would go in to talk to him, sometimes it would be two men that resembled Yue. George guessed that the two men were his brothers.

Master Gin would look at Yue from time to time, a mixture of hatred, anger and sadness. But he would never say anything to Yue and just left him alone.

“Just leave me alone…”

George looked at Yue, gave another sigh since the beginning of the evening and left. He was still on duty anyway.

While the patrons were mostly well behaved, those that breached Sanctuary’s space sometimes were not. Demons, monsters with evil intentions or beasts without intelligence or awareness.

Those that had negative or malicious thoughts and wished to cause chaos and ruin in Sanctuary had to be kept at bay. So George went towards the west exit and stood there.

He leaned against the doorframe and with his back to the lounge, he closed his eyes and enjoyed Ciel’s playing. The soothing music had a slight sorrow in it, but only if you paid attention.

In George’s mind, the music was shades of yellow and green with a hint of blue. Don’t ask him why he saw music as colour, he just did. When Scarlet sang, it was tones of orange and red. If Master Gin decided to play, there would be hints of black and white throughout his piece.

He suddenly opened his eyes, the scar on his face stinging in pain. He looked up and saw a pack of four hyena-like creatures, eyes red and jaws agape, drool and what looked like blood dripping from their mouths.

Their bodies were covered in black fog, making them eerie on top of looking dangerous. George reached out behind him and took what looked like a walkie-talkie that was clipped to his belt.

“This is George, I see four dread hyenas at the western entrance. I also smell blood so a guest may have been injured. Requesting for a healer to standby.”

“This is Blanc. Noire and I are on our way.”

George returned the walkie-talkie and took off his coat. From behind the door he pulled out a silver sword and buckled it to his waist. For the sake of security there was a small arsenal hidden at every entrance, with a variety of weapons.

The aim was that security could use whichever weapon they were familiar with, instead of having to train with a new weapon. Guests also had to check their weapons at the entrance, in line with the no violence policy.

He walked out and faced the hyenas while assessing the situation. About five hundred meters away, he saw a body, lying in a pool of blood. George frowned. It looked like Anansi, the spider god but he couldn’t be sure.

Unsheathing his sword he stared at the leader of the pack. Amidst the growling, George launched himself at the hyenas. With a quick slash, he struck down the vanguard that had launched itself at him.

Avoiding the second hyena that had attacked at the same time, he turned and stabbed at its abdomen. There was a slight resistance but the sword went through the beast’s belly easily after that. George felt a hint of warmth as blood splashed on his arm when he pulled the sword out.  

“George! Duck!”

Obeying the command on instinct, he ducked as two shots were fired. In front of him, the two remaining hyenas in mid jump gave a twitch and fell lifeless on the ground. He looked behind to see the twins with revolvers running towards him.

“I’m fine. Check on the guest.”

The twins stopped and veered towards the guest instead. Getting up, George gave a flick and most of the blood on his sword and arm were flung away. He sheathed the sword and wiped the sweat on his forehead and rubbed his tingling cheek before walking towards Blanc, Noire and the fallen guest.

“How is he?” as he had suspected, it was Anansi. Two of his many arms had been ripped out and there were bite marks on his other arms, abdomen and thighs. Anansi must have nearly reverted to his spider form in his panic.

“He’s lost a bit of blood but his belief is keeping him alive.” Noire said as she used magic to seal his wounds. “We need to get him inside. The miasma is not helping.”

Space outside Sanctuary is different depending on the guests. Those with enough power could arrive directly outside the club, and those with less would arrive just outside Sanctuary’s protective barrier.

From the barrier to the entrance, the surroundings would be affected by the guest’s attributes; nature gods would have lush plants, water spirits would arrive via rivers or streams and so on.

Beings without attributes like George would just have a barren landscape in front of him. However, the arrival of the dread hyenas brought with them poisonous miasma that made the already barren landscape gloomy and suffocating.

George gently picked up the injured spider god and led the twins back into the club. Inside he saw an angel waiting for him. A quick spell later and Anansi was covered in a golden light, his wounds healing rapidly.

 George followed the angel upstairs into an empty guestroom and placed the wounded god on the bed. Seeing that he was alright, George turned to leave when he caught sight of himself in the mirror. He forgot that his hands was still bloody when he had touched his forehead and cheek, smearing blood all over his face. With his one white eye, he looked terrifying.

With a sigh he instructed “have someone cover me at the west entrance. I’ll be back down after I clean up.”

*           *           *           *           *

Ciel had already finished playing and was talking to the guests. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw George carrying someone and following an angel to the second floor. Blanc and Noire were standing near the entrance, discussing something in whispers.

Only security personnel and certain staff were equipped with walkie-talkies so he was not aware of what had happened at the western entrance. He had pleaded with Master Gin for one but his father had denied his request. A delicate flower like you doesn’t need to know the gory and dangerous details, his father had told him.

Ciel pouted when he remembered that. He was not a delicate flower! Even Noire and his elder sister Dawn were given walkie-talkies! But he had to admit, he would be useless in a fight so perhaps it would be better if he did not know anyway.

Looking at the serious faces of his siblings, he wondered how bad the situation was and walked over to find out. The twins stopped talking when they saw him.

“What happened?” he went straight to the point.

“Four dread hyenas infiltrated the barrier and attacked Anansi.” Blanc didn’t try to hide it from him.

Ciel frowned. “The barrier should have been able to keep creatures of that level out. Don’t tell me the barrier is weakening…”

“We believe so. Now it might be dangerous for those without sufficient strength to walk here” Noire pursed her lips as she thought about the situation.

“Until papa comes back, George will be in charge since he’s the head of security.”

“Where is he? Shouldn’t he be down by now?” Ciel looked around but did not see the man.

“He went upstairs to shower. He was covered in blood” Blanc said, his nose wrinkling in distaste.

“No he wasn’t he only smeared some blood on his face by accident” Noire reprimanded her brother.

“Either way, he was a sight. He’ll probably be down later. In the meantime, we’re in charge of looking after this entrance.”

Blanc leaned back against the wall, his hands behind his head. Noire, who was holding onto a black coat suddenly thrust it to Ciel.

“This is his. Could you return it to him? You know how papa is like with appearance and presentation.” She said.

Ciel stared at the coat, afraid to touch it. Of course he knew the staff rules… all staff members are to be dressed presentably in a manner that will not hinder their duties.

Wait staff were normally dressed in white shirts, a black vest and black slacks or skirt with a black apron. The black vests had a silver ‘S’ embroidered on the left breast pocket for a touch of class.

Some of the hosts were allowed fancier clothes while his mother liked to wear any colour that didn’t clash with her flaming red hair – not that she cared anyway – almost anything she chose looked good on her.

Meanwhile, all security personnel were dressed in dark coloured suits, with or without ties, depending on their preference. This was in consideration that some staff had secrets they wanted to keep private while others did not like the constricting feel: like a noose around their neck. No matter the case, it was compulsory for all security staff to wear dark colours: blood wouldn’t be as visible.

Even if his father was not here, guests frowned at sloppily dressed staff; they paid good money for this indulgent luxury after all. George already broke protocol by leaving his coat behind.

“Couldn’t you take it to him?” he asked tentatively.

“I’m still a girl, remember? Besides, Blanc and I need to look after the entrance.” Noire looked back at him, her amber eyes widening innocently.

‘What girl? You’re 493 years old!’ Ciel was screaming in his head but he supposed that Noire would always be his baby sister. The part about her needing to watch the entrance was also true. Sighing he took the coat and trudged upstairs.

Blanc looked at his twin. “I thought you didn’t like George?”

“He’s not really a bad person, just that him and Ciel got off on the wrong start.” Noire shrugged.

“He hurt Ciel, of course it was a bad start. You know how he looks like when he stares outside.” Blanc said, his face turning unhappy at the thought of his older brother.

“And George needs to make amends for it. But he can’t do anything if Ciel is forever avoiding him.” Noire said with another shrug.

Blanc stared at his twin. “How can two people born at the same time, raised together think so differently?”

Noire smirked. “Justice and Mercy go hand in hand but they have different objectives. That’s just who we are.”