Chapter Text
“I do not like this, Charles,” Edwin repeated for at least the third time since they’d arrived.
“I know,” Charles said with a sigh.
“We do not have nearly enough information on whatever entity or creature we are dealing with,” Edwin pushed on.
“I know,” Charles said again, he was peering through his spyglass at the abandoned building they’d been directed to by their client. So far he hadn’t seen any signs of movement from within the dark building. “That’s why we are doing a bit of recon.”
“I do not even like being this close without more knowledge, what if it can somehow sense us?” Edwin said and Charles had to bite back another sigh. He knew why his partner was being so cautious. They’d had a rough go of it recently and Esther had taught them a lot about jumping into situations under-prepared.
“So far it seems like this thing is only dangerous to the living, luring them here and then killing them. That’s what our client said, yeah?” They had left Crystal and Niko behind for precisely this reason.
“Yes,” Edwin agreed. “But that does not mean that it is incapable of hurting ghosts.”
“Look,” Charles said, pushing his spyglass closed and turning to face Edwin. “I know this is risky, but we agreed to do it because we were out of other options. We’ve tried to turn up clues in other places. We’ve interviewed all of the victims we could find. Crystal and Niko went around to ask questions and read the neighbors. And after all of that, we are still left with very little information.”
“I am aware,” Edwin said tightly. “That does not make this any less of a risky move.”
“I know,” Charles said again. Because he did know, he was just as frustrated as Edwin was that they had been unable to get more information. Their investigation skills usually served them better than this. But Charles also knew that investigating the spot of the crime was also essential to figuring out clues.
“Can you see anything?”
“Nothing,” Charles said, opening back up his spyglass and looking around with a frown on his face. “We might need to take a closer look.”
“Charles…” Edwin said reproachingly.
“What else do you suggest, Edwin?” Charles asked, pushing back his annoyance.
“A stakeout. Let’s just wait and see if anything comes out or goes in.”
“And what if someone who goes in is an innocent person,” Charles challenged.
“Then we shall have to get closer,” Edwin said.
“Okay,” Charles said, he never loved it when their plan was to wait and see, but he had to admit it was the best move at this point. Charles handed the spyglass to Edwin. “I’m gonna update the girls.”
“Mm,” Edwin muttered, distractedly as he took the spyglass. Rolling his eyes good-naturedly at his friend, Charles stepped away to call the girls on the phone Crystal had gotten for him. Charles went far enough away that he’d be able to whisper in the phone without raising alarm, but not so far away that he couldn’t still see Edwin and get to him quickly.
“Charles?” Crystal answered the phone after it had barely rung once. "Hang on." There was a click and Charles knew he'd been put on speakerphone because Niko and Crystal started rapid firing questions at him.
“What’s going on?
"Are you guys okay?"
"Are you at the place?"
"Are there any signs of what is causing all of this?”
“Yes, we’re here,” Charles said with a soft chuckle when they both paused for a breath. Crystal and Niko really didn’t like being left out of things. Especially since they'd just gotten their little group back together. “It’s this big abandoned building on the edge of town. We’re staying back and watching it but there’s no sign of movement.”
“Damn,” Crystal said. “Are you going to break in?”
“As soon as I can convince my wary partner that going in is the only option,” Charles said with a sigh. “Edwin wants to stake out the place for a while.”
"I agree with Edwin. Breaking in seems like a bad idea," Niko said. Charles wasn't surprised by this, Niko and Edwin tended to think similarly about situations and they both were hesitant to jump in without all of the information.
“I hate to say this, but I also agree with Edwin on this one.”
“Crystal,” Charles practically whined, she was supposed to side with him on this.
“I know, I know, but it scares me how little information we have about this one. What if you need some super specific spell and you don’t have that book?”
“I brought most of the books we need. And besides we are prepared for things it most likely is, poltergeist, demon, witch…whatever it is we can deal with it.”
“I know you guys have been doing this a long time…but just…be careful, I have a bad feeling about this one.”
“We will be careful,” Charles responded immediately, wanting to reassure them both.
“See that you are,” Niko said seriously.
“I’ll call you in a couple of hours,” Charles said and hung up the phone. Charles walked back over to Edwin who was staring at the building and standing perfectly still. Before Charles could say a word, Edwin held up a finger to silence him. Charles immediately tensed, looking from Edwin to the dark building. Without the spyglass, Charles couldn’t see anything. Edwin suddenly grabbed onto Charles’ sleeve and yanked him down until they were crouching behind a few bushes. “Edwin, what is it?” Charles whispered frantically.
“I saw…something look out of the window,” Edwin said, glancing in the direction of the building but not peeking back over the bush.
“What kind of something?” Charles whispered.
“It looked like…a teenage girl,” Edwin responded.
“Did she see us?” Charles asked, really trying to resist the urge to look in the direction of the building.
“I cannot be entirely sure, but I do not believe so. It looked as if she were looking in a different direction than us.”
“What was she looking at? Do you reckon she is waiting for someone?”
“Possibly…” Edwin reluctantly agreed.
“Edwin,” Charles groaned.
“We still don’t know what is happening, but as I promised, if there is danger to anyone we will go in,” Edwin said, anticipating Charles’ argument.
“Alright,” Charles agreed, settling down on the ground in a more comfortable position.
They waited for a very long time without moving. Neither wanted to risk exposure by peeking out again. Finally, when Charles couldn’t sit still for a second longer and felt like he was going to burst out of his skin, Edwin handed him back the spyglass with a sigh.
“Be careful,” He whispered. Charles got into a crouching position so he could just see over the bush. He aimed the spyglass, searching for a little while before he was able to locate the window. It was currently empty of any figure and Charles hoped that meant they hadn’t been detected. Charles swept his gaze around the building, still not seeing anything.
“No sign, It looks like-” Charles cut off when a loud engine revved nearby. Once again Edwin dragged him down. Surprised, Charles lost his balance and ended up sprawled half on top of Edwin. Before Charles could apologize, the car roared to a stop right in front of the building. Charles felt Edwin’s grip tightened when the engine turned off and the car door opened and shut.
Wanting to see who it was, Charles moved to look over the top of the bush. He was stopped by Edwin wrapping his other arm around him to hold his shoulder. Charles turned to look at his friend and Edwin shook his head silently. Charles pushed down his curious need to see what was happening and focused on what he could hear instead.
“You live here?” A male voice sounded in the silence. There was a light giggle and a female voice responded, although Charles couldn’t make out what she was saying. “Oh, that makes sense…I guess…” The guy said followed by another response by the girl. “Um, yeah, I suppose.”
They heard the door close and silence settled once more. Charles let out a breath and after a few moments, Edwin relaxed his grip. Charles shifted so he was no longer half on top of Edwin, but didn’t move too far away, still wanting to stay hidden behind the bush.
“Edwin, mate, do we reckon that’s a victim or an accomplice?” Charles whispered.
“Considering how surprised he seemed at her venue of choice, I’d guess victim. It appears she finds a way to get them here willingly,” Edwin theorized.
“We gotta move in, no choice now,” Charles said, pulling off his backpack to root around for a weapon.
“Wait a tick…”
“She’s gonna kill him, mate,” Charles said, pausing to look his partner in the eye. Edwin held his gaze for a few long moments before nodding.
“Very well,” He said finally. Charles pulled out his phone to text Crystal that they were going inside. Then he shut off the phone before Crystal could call him and try to talk them out of it.
“Let’s sneak around back,” Charles said, pulling his new cricket bat out of his backpack.
“Our top priority needs to be to get the living male out. We still don’t know what we are dealing with and we may be unprepared to take care of the supernatural entity. If that is the case we should attempt to break the living person out and escape ourselves.”
“Sure, mate,” Charles agreed easily, both of them knowing full well he would take a swing at the bad guy if he could.
They walked around to the back of the building and Charles peered through one of the windows. When he didn’t see anything they phased through the wall. They heard voices off to a room on their right and headed in that direction.
“I’ma be honest, this is a bit sketchy,” The boy's voice reached their ears.
“I thought you said you were good with freaky?” The girl’s voice responded. She was laughing slightly and had a taunting tone to her voice. Something about it sent shivers down Charles’ spine.
“Yeah, but I thought…well I didn’t think it’d involve a spooky old building,” The boy said.
“Don’t worry, darling, you won’t be here for long,” The girl sneered and then there was a crashing noise.
Charles had started moving even before the crash, not trusting the tone of the girl’s voice. He ran into the next room to find that the girl had the boy pinned on the ground with the nails of her hand digging into his throat, Charles saw that the nails were long and pointed like claws. Although the girl was smaller in stature, she seemed to have no trouble holding the boy motionless.
“About time you two showed up,” She said lazily, turning to look towards Charles and Edwin. “Get bored of standing across the street staring at nothing?”
“Actually, we came to prevent you from taking his life,” Edwin said, taking a step forward. The girl’s gaze locked on Edwin and Charles took an instinctive step in front of him.
“No chance, hell has a claim on his soul, and I mean to send him down there ahead of schedule,” She sneered.
“Oi, hell? What's happening? Who are you talking to?” The boy on the ground said, sounding terrified. She quieted him by digging her fingernails in harder. Charles saw a few drops of blood form.
“So you’re a demon,” Edwin said, sounding almost bored. Charles knew he was trying to distract the demon and get her talking but he really wished he’d find some way that didn’t involve the demon getting mad at him.
“Soul-collector,” The demon practically hissed. Edwin took a few steps forward, shooting Charles a look as he did so. Over thirty years of working together told Charles what Edwin wanted him to do.
“So you what? Find innocent souls and corrupt them, then when they’ve done something irremediable you kill them so they’ll go to hell?” Edwin said, taking another step so he was now in front of Charles. He took a few steps to the right and Charles subtly moved back and to the left. The demon glanced at Charles briefly before locking eyes on Edwin.
“Something like that. You both smell of hell, but you have it in your soul,” She said. Charles had to resist the urge to run back in front of Edwin.
Instead, he gently took his backpack off of his shoulder. He stuck his arm in it until he’d found the cloth he’d made when they’d exorcised Crystal’s demon. He slowly pulled it out of the bag and dropped it on the floor. Next, he found chalk and Edwin’s book. He dropped the book on the cloth and held the chalk in his hand as he shouldered his bag. Charles knew he’d have to find some way to subdue the demon while Edwin drew the circle of ruins around it to trap it. The snag was making sure the teenage boy was free before doing anything, otherwise he might become an unintentional casualty.
“Escaped?” Charles heard the demon practically roar. He’d lost track of the conversation while he’d been retrieving the items, but it was pretty easy to see what Edwin had been talking about.”
“Twice,” Edwin said with a smirk.
This had the desired effect. The demon completely forgot about her previous target as she launched toward Edwin. The teenage boy looked around helplessly for a few seconds. Charles rushed forward, dragged him up, and shoved him toward the door. The boy still could not see him, but he apparently got the message and started running. Charles breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the car start. The demon heard this as well and redoubled her efforts to get to Edwin, who was just barely managing to keep her at bay. She knocked him down and attempted to claw at his face, but Edwin grabbed her wrists before she could,
Charles jumped into the fray, using his cricket bat to knock her off of Edwin. “Here,” He helped Edwin up and handed him the chalk. “Start drawing the circle and I’ll find a way to get her to you.”
“Okay,” Edwin said, not hesitating for a second before he slid to the floor a few steps away and started scribbling symbols.
The demon had regained her footing and looked absolutely furious. Her eyes were black and she grinned creepily at Charles as she appraised him. “Oh, you are going to pay for that, ghost.”
“Try it,” Charles said, spinning his cricket bat. The demon came at him, swinging her talon-like nails. Charles blocked it with a blow to her forearm and ducked to the side, making sure the demon was standing with her back to Edwin. Charles didn’t want her to see what Edwin was doing.
The next time Charles blocked a blow was slightly less successful. He blocked one of her arms but the other one came up and blazing hot nails scraped along his cheek. Charles staggered backward, surprised both at the sensation and the pain. It felt like a cat scratch only ten times worse. Charles blinked back tears as the pain radiated across his entire face.
“Not so tough now,” The demon said with a smile. Charles risked a glance behind her to see that Edwin had almost completed the circle, now he just needed to get the demon back in it. Charles stepped forward and ducked under the demon’s arm as she swiped at him. He swung the cricket bat and hit her across the middle. She cried out and took a couple of steps backward. She was almost there. Charles swung again, but the demon had recovered. Her nails scraped across Charles’ forearm and he dropped the cricket bat mid-swing. It flew across the room and fell to the floor with a loud clatter.
The demon wasted no time in taking advantage of Charles’ distraction. She swept her leg forward and unbalanced Charles. He fell backward in surprise and found himself quickly pinned in a similar way to the living boy they’d rescued.
“Charles,” he heard Edwin gasp in the background, but luckily the demon girl seemed too fixated on her current prey to spare him a look. Charles couldn’t see Edwin from this position but really hoped he wouldn’t do anything to risk himself.
“You know, if you two hadn’t been so utterly bad at spying, I might’ve not been prepared. But since I spotted you hours ago, I had plenty of time to take the necessary precautions,” As she spoke, she reached the hand that was not at Charles’ throat down to take something out of her boot. Charles caught a glimpse of something long and thin. She made a shaking motion with her hand and it seemed to extend to the length of a sword. Charles couldn’t really tell what it was made of, but he had a pretty good guess. The demon took the hand away from his neck and sat up slightly, raising the object above Charles’ chest.
“NO!” Edwin screamed. The demon gave a sickly grin and drove the iron blade down.
Charles felt like he’d burst into flames. A searing, burning, tearing sensation came from his chest and quickly spread across his entire body. It was a pain unlike he’d ever felt before. He’d been hurt and beaten while he’d been alive. He’d ended up with broken bones and needed stitches. But none of that was even a fraction of what he was experiencing now.
Iron burned ghosts, it made them vulnerable, and Charles had an iron blade sticking through his chest. He could feel it going through his body in a way that he hadn’t really been able to feel his corporation since he’d died.
The burning fire spread across his chest, quickly reaching the tips of his fingers, the bottom of his feet, and the top of his head. It spread until Charles felt like he was one giant raw nerve.
For a while, the only thing he was aware of was the pain. Finally, other sounds began to seep in. He could hear Edwin yelling but wasn’t sure what he was saying. He heard things crashing. Charles realized the demon was no longer on top of him. She must be fighting Edwin. For a blissful moment, the pain faded away as Charles’ only thought was to get to Edwin. He tried to sit up but discovered quickly that was a poor decision. The pain crashed back, reminding him that he was pinned to the ground by an iron blade. Charles gingerly moved his hands up to poke at his wound. He hissed when his fingertips met the blade and it burned them.
“Charles, stop, don’t move,” Edwin yelled and Charles was glad that he could finally understand him. But his friend sounded far away and he sounded strained. He was fighting the demon alone. Charles knew it’d be hard to trap the demon and finish the symbols for the circle by oneself.
Charles needed to help Edwin. So he needed to get this stupid iron blade out of his chest. Not thinking twice, Charles grabbed the blade with his hands and tried to yank it out. His hands slipped from the blade when another wave of pain crashed through his body the second the blade moved. Charles thought he might hear Edwin yelling again, but the roaring sound in his ears drowned it out.
Charles knew that ghosts could discorporate from pain. He clenched his hands into fists and focused on trying to stay grounded and ride out the pain. The problem was, the blade was still in his chest. As long as it was there, things would just keep getting worse and he wouldn’t be able to heal. Gritting his teeth, Charles lifted his hands back to the iron and tried to pull the blade out.
Just as before, he was forced to stop after only moving the blade the slightest amount. Charles’ hands fell heavily to his sides and dark spots danced across his vision. Charles had no idea where Edwin was, but he hoped his friend managed to survive.