Fanfiction: The Hour of Separation - Chapter Seven
The Hour of Separation - Chapter Seven
It would take Crystal a little bit of time to get a plane ticket back to London, which meant that Edwin had plenty of time to argue with Charles about his pathological need to put himself in harm's way. While Edwin might have loved Charles more than anyone he had ever met, and that was an interesting revelation that he had not long after his confession, his partner was also insanely stubborn to a fault. It didn't matter how often Edwin tried to tell him to stop and that he could handle himself; Charles still thought of himself as some shield that had to take the blows.
Edwin hated it.
"Charles, you were impaled on multiple iron nails," Edwin said. His voice sounded a pitch higher than usual because he felt like he was about to lose his mind; what about this was Charles not getting?
"I know, certainly stung quite a bit," Charles replied. He was reclined on their couch like he didn't have a care in the world, while Edwin couldn't get himself to stop pacing. Someone was hunting them, trying to hurt those that they were close to, and had managed to hurt Charles twice. It felt like running through the dollhouse all over again; Edwin swore he could feel the spider breathing down his neck. It took him a minute to realize that Charles was calling his name.
Edwin blinked and realized that Charles was standing right in front of him, and he looked afraid. "Nice and slow there, mate." Edwin couldn't understand what Charles was talking about until his hands were on Edwin's arms, and he removed Edwin's fingers from his hair. Edwin realized a brief sensation was coming from the fact that he had been pulling at his hair. With so much care, it made something in Edwin's chest hurt; Charles carefully uncurled his fingers so he was no longer clenching them into fists.
When the last finger was free, Charles looked up at him as if asking a question. Edwin didn't know what the question was, but this was Charles, so the answer was probably 'yes.' He must have seen what he wanted to because he tangled their fingers together and gently moved them both over to the couch. When Edwin sat down, it was like the tension finally broke, and whatever it was had passed.
Edwin became very aware of Charles's hand in his own and how closely the two of them were sitting on the couch. He realized how easy it would be to close the distance and kiss the boy he was in love with, but Edwin didn't know if Charles would want that, and he couldn't risk their friendship.
"I spent 70 years in hell being hunted," Edwin said carefully. "Now we are being hunted here, and it's even worse because the person I care about the most is the one getting hurt."
"I'm not going to apologize for trying to keep you safe," Charles replied. "But I'll try to stop getting hurt so much." Edwin released Charles's hand and cupped his face with the care and love Charles Rowland deserved. Edwin pressed their foreheads together and lingered a little longer to soak in the feeling of closeness. Eventually, they had to pull back, and Edwin felt much better, even if the feeling of the spider was still there. He had a feeling it wouldn't go anywhere until they found out who this was and stopped them.
"I know we talked about not going anywhere without each other, but that was under the assumption that Crystal and Niko were going to be nearby," Edwin explained because he needed to have some level of control over this. "However, now that Niko is so far away, I believe we still need to see her, but we need to stay with Crystal since we know she is likely the next target."
"You've protected the office with wards and spells over the years, so it's pretty safe here," Charles said after a moment of silence. "If Crystal and I stay here, then you can visit Niko since we don't know if the car accident is the last thing they will do to her." While Charles had a point, Edwin felt that the car accident was what he would do to her. He knew things about them, at least to some level, so he must have known that it would be nearly impossible to get Niko to hate them simply for being friends. Edwin also knew it would make them both feel a lot better if someone could see, with their own two eyes, that she was okay.
"Very well, maybe you can even convince Crystal to sleep here as well. She has done it before, so I don't see why she wouldn't do it again," Edwin said. Charles didn't look particularly hopeful that she would agree to do that, but stranger things had certainly happened, and Crystal wasn't stupid. She would take the necessary precautions if and when they explained what was happening.
+++
Edwin disliked being wrong in general, but it utterly confounded him this time. When Crystal returned from London, she seemed to come to the same conclusion they did about her potentially being the next target, which made it a scenario they might have to contend with. That didn't make her any less stubborn about it, and it was moments like this when Edwin understood what Charles meant when he said that Edwin and Crystal were very similar. It was like arguing with a brick wall. Only this brick wall could read minds.
"It's for your own protection," Edwin said for what felt like the tenth time.
"I heard you, but I don't see why my protection means I have to sleep on the pullout for god knows how long," Crystal replied. "Why can't you two come back to my place and protect me there?"
"Because the office is safer due to the protection measures that I have taken." Edwin knew his voice was getting a little loud, but he just could not understand why she was fighting them on this.
"All right, you two," Charles said, effectively breaking up the fight. "Edwin, you want her to stay here because it's safer and easier to guard. Crystal, you want to stay at your apartment and think we should come to you because it's your space, and you don't want to stop living life because of this arsehole. How did I do?" Edwin glanced at Crystal, who also looked a bit stunned and silent.
"Pretty much nailed it," she said as Edwin nodded.
"Aces, so there is another room we can set up for you, Crystal. That way, you can have some space away from us, but you'll still be behind all of Edwin's wards. It'll take us a minute to clear some room out because it's all storage right now, but it can be yours until we figure this out, all right?" Charles asked.
"That solution is acceptable to me if it is acceptable to you," Edwin said to Crystal, and she sighed heavily but nodded as well.
"Yeah, that will work, even if I'm not particularly happy about it. We'll have to make regular trips back to my place, though," she said. "You barely have working toilets and no shower." That made complete sense, considering that neither of them needed those things, and Edwin had vague memories of Niko and Crystal talking about getting the bathroom working well enough.
Edwin wasn't happy with Charles leaving his sight, but Crystal needed things from her apartment, and they needed to clear out the room. So, even though it formed a knot in his stomach, Edwin was left alone to go through everything. The first thing Edwin did was remove anything too triggering to Crystal's powers. He didn't want her to roll out of bed, under-caffeinated and half asleep, only to accidentally touch something that sent her into an awful vision. Once he got the worst things out of the room, Edwin went down to the second worst things and sorted the room that way. Some objects were harmless and would have been easier to move, but Crystal saw enough as it was. He didn't want anything in the place where she would be sleeping to contribute to it.
When Charles and Crystal returned with some of her belongings, Edwin explained his system to her and how the things he still deemed problematic were in the furthest possible corner from where the bed they would purchase for her would be. Whatever he was expecting, it was not Crystal throwing her arms around him and hugging him tightly. It wasn't terrible, but Edwin managed to awkwardly pat Crystal on the back before she pulled away. Charles had just watched the two of them with a fond smile.
Once Crystal had a bed and somewhere to sleep, they arranged a time for Edwin to mirror-hop over to see Niko. She was in her old home that she had grown up in while her mother was still recovering in the hospital, and Edwin didn't even want to think about her sitting alone with those memories. Niko wasn't in any way diminished, but Edwin knew what it looked like when someone was carrying around a pain so heavy it felt like it might crush them.
"She's going to be all right," Edwin whispered as they watched an anime he forgot the name of. Niko slowly fell onto his side until Edwin was holding her. She was shaking just a little, and he could see the tears in her eyes.
"I know you're trying to make me feel better, but I don't appreciate you lying," Niko replied, which was such an out-of-pocket thing for her to say. "You can't promise or know that she will be okay. We don't know, and I wasn't here when it happened. I hardly even talked to her because talking to her made me think of Dad, but now I almost lost her too." Edwin didn't know exactly what he should say because this was a moment when Charles would know what to do. So, he thought what Charles would say and tried that.
"Your mum loves you, and you're here now. That's all that matters in the end, right?" he said, opting for something simpler rather than going on a rant about it being okay that Niko felt guilty and then doing his best to dissuade said guilt. That was another burden Edwin knew far too much about, and when the time was right, he would sit down with Niko and tell her that her being in Japan wouldn't have stopped this accident. She might have been in the car and ended up hurt; she might have been in a completely different location, but the way their stalker was acting indicated that he was determined to make them hurt by seriously hurting those they cared about. Evil will find a way if it is determined enough; endless running in hell taught Edwin that.
But now wasn't the time, so Edwin held her as they barely watched the show until it was time for him to leave.
+++
Edwin had never wished he had a photographic memory more than when the rune in Tokyo vanished before his eyes. Charles was on the ground, and he was clenching his teeth so hard to try and keep from screaming until he couldn't hold it in anymore. Edwin was frantic as he tried to see if anything was stuck in Charles's back that he would need to remove. The iron nails in the wall were just long enough to do some damage but nothing serious. It was made to hurt. The whole situation was made even worse because the rune was gone, and he didn't have time to sketch it, so Charles got hurt for absolutely nothing.
Maybe that was why Edwin dove directly into one of the books on summoning and meticulously began to look over every single spell he could find. The logic was that he would recognize the rune, and maybe that would trigger something so he would remember the changes. It wasn't going well, and Edwin was pretty sure he would go cross-eyed soon if he didn't stop reading. Crystal was asleep in the next room, and the cohabitation was going well so far. It had only been ten days, but that seemed like enough time for something catastrophic to happen if it was going to happen. Since it hadn't, Edwin was pretty convinced it wouldn't be an issue. Charles was sitting on the couch and going through the mail, but he was frowning deeply as he looked at the letters.
"What is it?" Edwin asked.
"More letters from other ghosts saying that ghosts tethered to locations have been moved," Charles replied. "Some of them have the chance of going poltergeist because of how angry it's making them, and it's making others nearby nervous."
"If there is a poltergeist, then we need to take care of it before it hurts someone," Edwin said, but Charles shook his head.
"This letter here says that someone already came to take care of it. They couldn't tell who or what she was, but it looked like she could do magic," he said. "She doesn't sound like anyone we know; young adult, pretty, with brown hair and, as this ghost of a grandmother keeping an eye on her grandchildren said in the letter, 'a mouth on her unbecoming of a lady.' Sounds like something, you'd say, Edwin." Edwin disagreed with that statement but decided that calling attention to it was pointless.
"Where did the most recent ghost vanish from, and where did it end up?" Edwin asked, and Charles replied with two different addresses across the city. It wasn't an extremely long distance, but it was significant enough. "I believe we should go interview some of the ghosts from those locations. If nothing else, we need to find more information about this other magic user. We don't know if they have allies." He meant that they didn't know if this other magic user knew or was allied with the man currently stalking them. Charles nodded as he gathered some things for his backpack and handed Edwin the letter detailing the ghost being moved, the poltergeist, and this unknown magic user.
Fortunately, the area of the city where the ghost was taken was one they were familiar with, so it was fairly easy to mirror-hop to the area. The letter gave specific enough directions to the building where the ghost was originally tethered. Edwin wasn't even that surprised when he found out that there was more than one ghost. A man in his late 40s emerged from the shadows and looked at them with some serious trepidation.
"I've heard of you lot," the man said, interrupting Edwin's introduction before it even started. "You're those detectives supposed to solve mysteries or help people move on."
"That's correct; we're the Dead Boy Detectives," Edwin said, but he could tell this man was not thrilled to see them. From the corner of his eye, Edwin saw Charles adjust his stance just a little, indicating that if this ghost got violent, he would likely throw Edwin across the room if it meant protecting him.
"I'm not ready to go anywhere, and I don't have anything you tossers need to solve, so fuck off," he yelled. The walls seemed to shake a little, and it was clear that this man was aggressive, but Edwin had a feeling he knew why.
"We're not here to do anything to you," Edwin explained carefully, raising his hands in what he hoped was a soothing gesture. "We heard another ghost was removed from this location he was tethered to and put somewhere else. That's very strange, and we want to know more about what is happening and who is doing it. That's all we want from you. Just tell us if you saw your friend get taken or if you remember anything about it." The man looked like he did not believe a word Edwin said, and this was not going how he wanted it to.
"Your little friend back there looks like he's about to attack like the dog he is," he said. Edwin was about to go back on his word on hurting this man when Charles spoke up.
"You don't touch him, and we won't have a problem," Charles said, completely bypassing the disgusting comment. Edwin wanted to argue, but Charles moved closer so their shoulders and arms were pressed together. It was grounding and settled Edwin's rage, at least for now.
"Fine," the man said. "His name was Rupert, and he'd been here longer than I had. He died here and didn't want to leave the building; something about his accident not being an accident or some shit like that. One day, I heard him screaming, and I walked in to see that he was just gone. I could tell he hadn't moved on; there was something that hung around in the area, but it didn't last long. I didn't see him again."
"Would you say he was taken very quickly, or was it drawn out?" Edwin asked. This man was still glaring at Charles like he was somehow the problem in this situation, and Edwin was about to call on Death or hell himself out of sheer spite.
"Fast, are we done now?" the man clearly didn't want them on his territory anymore, and Edwin was not in the mood to deal with a poltergeist. So they didn't thank him and promptly left without another word.
"I should have summoned Death or hell on him for how he spoke to you," Edwin said.
"I appreciate the righteous indignation about the racism, Edwin, but it won't help," Charles said.
"Why?"
"Because the dead don't change, not really," Charles said with a shrug. "We're the exception because we're still living in our afterlives and still changing. But most of the dead are sometimes stuck in the same place, figuratively and literally. If they weren't able to get over that bullshit while they were alive and capable of changing, why would I expect the dead to be any different?" There was something about that statement that Edwin didn't like because he had spent years unlearning so many things the longer he was out of hell. The mere hint that there was a time when Charles might have thought he wasn't capable of change was incredibly horrifying. He must have done a poor job hiding this minor crisis because Charles's hand slipped into his and threaded their fingers together. The touch brought Edwin back to reality. "Not you, never you, not even once you."
They hopped to the next location, where they found Edith looking over her family exactly like she had said she was. Her letter even had a return address, so it was easy to find, but she looked a little confused when she saw them. Edith looked at the letter and frowned.
"Well, that's what I saw, and that's my handwriting, but I don't remember writing to you boys," she said. "But, I was forgetting things when I died, and even in death, I'm still forgetting things, so it's not that unusual that I couldn't remember." Something about that bothered Edwin, but he couldn't linger on it right now, and Edith looked like she really wanted to get back in the flat where her family was.
"What can you tell us about the woman who dealt with the poltergeist when it appeared?" Charles asked carefully.
"She was pretty, not young, maybe in her mid to late thirties if I was guessing," Edith replied. "She had a white coat on, and her hair was brown. The mouth on her was ridiculous, if any of my children or grandchildren spoke like that I would have rinsed their mouth out with soap. I couldn't place her accent, but she sounded like she was from further North."
"How long was it between the poltergeist arriving and this woman arriving?" Edwin asked, ignoring the soap comment for now even though he knew it would bother Charles--it wasn't the time.
"A few days at least, but it's so hard to keep track of time," Edith said, but she frowned. "One of the neighbors heard the noise and called her."
"It was a member of the living that called her?" Charles asked, and she nodded. Few people in the United Kingdom could deal with a poltergeist and were willing to do it for money. Edwin thought that it would make her much easier to track down. They thanked Edith and looked around the spot where Rupert, the poltergeist who was moved across the city, was placed. There were many classic signs with broken things and some scratches on the walls. However, this magic user didn't leave any trace of herself behind. They had a description and the fact that this woman was someone who could be hired. That had to be enough to get them somewhere.
Notes: Hello everyone, how are we today? We have finished another chapter in this fic that has somehow continued to become more and more massive. I am trying to figure out how this happened, what is going on, how did I get here. Anyway, I've already started on part eight, and I'm still unsure how many more chapters we have. It'll be somewhere between 3 and 5? I think? Who knows? I will hold off changing the chapter count until I have a better idea. Your comments, kudos, and likes are still the best part of my day, so thank you for them, and I'm thrilled the mystery aspect is working for people. I hope the reveal doesn't let anyone down! I'm still posting previews on Sundays and Wednesdays on my Tumblr, and if you'd like to be tagged on Tumblr when a new chapter goes live, just let me know, and I can make that happen.