Snow was falling thick and fast, and the bitterly cold air was on the verge of freezing the body of a little girl who was running along, clutching a cat doll in her frail little hands. With a panicked expression, she glanced behind her, trying to see if anyone was chasing her.
The little girl had just done something she would never be able to forgive herself for; a short while earlier, she'd been captivated by a doll she'd spotted in a toy shop, but she didn't have enough money to buy it—even though the money in her pocket was all she had.
The girl turned around and looked towards the till, where a member of staff should have been, but they were on their break. That was when the girl experienced her first major moment of indecision in her life.
"…If no one notices, no one will tell me off,"
the girl said to herself. She looked back at the grey cat doll before glancing around at the deserted shop; this was a small, rarely visited shop, making it a golden opportunity for her to get what she wanted.
She was almost out of breath as she kept running until she finally stopped at a small house on the outskirts of town—trembling, she took the key from the pocket of her thick jacket, unlocked the door and burst inside. The door slammed shut with a loud bang, and the girl's legs could no longer support her weight.
She tried to calm herself down as she looked around her empty house, adorned with Christmas decorations; she was the only one in the house now—her parents were still at work even though it was Christmas Day, leaving their daughter alone on a day when families usually gather, but unfortunately, she did not come from one of those fortunate families.
She shook her head before placing the doll on the floor and slapping both her cheeks hard. "Ciel, you are a strong girl!" she tried to encourage herself, but her blue eyes glanced back at the cute doll. "And Ciel… you… you're a naughty girl."
"Should I give it back?" That inner conflict troubled her once more as she gazed at the doll again; she wanted it so badly, but she also didn't want to be a naughty girl because she thought Santa wouldn't give her any presents if she behaved that way. "But if I give it back… they'll report me to the police… and then Mum and Dad will be sad and disappointed in me."
She finally found the energy to get back on her feet and walk into the living room before collapsing onto the sofa; she lay down whilst holding the cat soft toy aloft to block out the light from the lamp. '...I wonder what the consequences of my actions will be,' she wondered, before hugging the cat soft toy tightly. 'Well, perhaps if I apologise, this problem will be sorted out.'
Ciel turned onto her side and looked at the towering Christmas tree; she still hadn't received any presents for Christmas this year. "I hope Mum and Dad come home soon..." she murmured, her eyes growing heavy with the fatigue weighing on her shoulders.
Slowly, everything grew dark and the girl fell into a deep sleep, as if she hadn't just committed an impulsive act that might threaten her freedom. She slept so soundly that she didn't even realise how long she'd been lying on the sofa; all she knew was that she'd woken up because the cold was biting at her skin.
Her eyes slowly opened and, at that very moment, a foul odour assaulted her nostrils; her vision was still blurred, but she could dimly make out a figure standing near the Christmas tree. 'Dad?' She tried calling out, but the figure did not turn round; gradually, Ciel began to realise that the creature did not look human.
Its body was heavily furred, like that of a predator; it had long, goat-like horns, and on both its legs and arms were shackles that appeared to have broken, allowing it to move as it pleased. Ciel's eyes were now fully open, taking in a figure that was not human but a monster standing right in front of him.
"Naughty girl," growled the monster as it slowly turned round; Ciel's skin prickled and she froze in fear when she saw that the monster had an extremely long tongue and glowing red eyes. "Yet a naughty child like you is still deeply loved by your parents."
Ciel couldn't believe her eyes, for cradled in the monster's embrace were two faces that were all too familiar to her—the two people who had been there when she first opened her eyes to the world. "This is what happens when you're naughty. You stole a doll and thought you'd get away with it," the monster added.
Ciel wanted to scream, but it was as if she'd forgotten how; all she knew was that her vision was blurred and tears were streaming down both her cheeks, her mouth still agape and a faint sound audible only to her own ears. "Who—are you..."
The creature coughed and, in a hoarse, unpleasant voice, began to introduce itself. "They call me Krampus the Devil, and I am none other than a Fable."
"And I've just had a Bad Ending, so I want to try out my new abilities," its red eyes glanced in the direction of Ciel, who looked utterly terrified. "Oh, right, you probably don't understand what I've just said, do you?"
Ciel glanced at the bodies of her parents, which had been so brutally mutilated that she could see their entrails scattered across the floor. In a panic, she sprang to her feet, burst through the front door and ran away from the place as fast as she could. Before, she had been haunted by fear, but now she was truly being chased by a terrifying creature that was in hot pursuit of her.
Her little body bumped into something in front of her; her head hit the ground, and as she peered out from beneath her eyelids, she saw a man who looked panicked and worried, reaching out his hand. "Are you all right, little girl?" he asked, and Ciel felt as though she recognised the man's face.
"Isn't that the doll…" the man muttered, his eyes fixed on the cat doll. Ciel recognised exactly who the man was—he was an employee at the toy shop from which she'd stolen the doll she was still clutching tightly, before finally letting go, leaving the grey cat doll lying in the snow.
With tears still streaming down her face, she immediately ran off to avoid him, even though the man was calling out to her—Ciel just kept running, not knowing where she was going, she simply wanted to get away from whatever was behind her. She whimpered as she kept moving her legs, but the bitter cold pierced her body and froze her blood, preventing the poor little girl from going any further.
Eventually, she collapsed and her face struck the snow-covered pavement; in that very moment, she let all her emotions out and whimpered loudly—her tears froze into ice, and the last thing she knew was that she lost consciousness right then and there.
A day had passed and the girl finally awoke to find herself lying on a sofa just as soft as the one at home—yet this was not her home; it was far from home. "Huh," she murmured, noticing that a blanket was already warming her body, sparing her from the night's bitter cold.
"Blimey, you're awake, are you?" a man's voice rang out, and when Ciel turned her head, she saw a man in a neat uniform with a warm smile greeting her. "How are you feeling? Are you all right?"
Ciel fell silent for a moment, recalling that everything that had happened to her had been nothing but painful; she nodded hesitantly in response to the man in the uniform's question. "Don't worry, you're in a safe place – because this is the police station," the police officer said, trying to strike up a conversation, though Ciel still didn't seem interested in anything he was trying to say.
The policeman, understanding her situation, let out a long sigh but still maintained a smile that, little by little, began to feel cloying. "We found you lying on the pavement earlier—are you all right? Can you tell us what happened to you?" The policeman tried to probe further, but judging by Ciel's expression, she really didn't want to discuss it at that moment.
The policeman looked dejected as he sat at the end of the bed, intending to stay there until Ciel finally broke the silence. 'What's the point of being a policeman if you can't protect everyone?' The question shot out, piercing the policeman's heart deeply. Ciel still couldn't bear to see her parents treated like that—admittedly, she had made some mistakes, but Krampus had no good enough reason to treat her parents like that.
The police officer fell silent for a moment, trying to formulate a reply for a girl who did not yet understand or know much about the world. "If only someone who can save everyone could become a police officer—then no one would ever wear this uniform." Hearing that reply took Ciel completely by surprise.
"But that might not apply to Fables, because those scoundrels do sometimes defy human logic," the man chuckled, realising he'd just taught the little girl a rude word. "Ah! Sorry, don't go copying that, all right!*
Ciel blamed all of this on herself, but when the policeman mentioned the Fables, it brought her back to her senses—she had merely stolen a rabbit doll and had ended up receiving a punishment that was both extremely cruel and completely out of proportion. This showed who was far more in the wrong and cruel between Ciel and that terrifying creature.
She continued to stare at her blanket before clutching it tightly, her eyes brimming with passion, determination and a desire for revenge. "That's right… They are truly the worst scoundrels ever created by the God of Casuallity." It was on that day that the hatred for the Fables within Ciel's heart began to emerge and burn fiercely.