For muse_academy Week Fourteen 1.2
Muse Name: Sir Guy of Gisborne
Fandom: Robin Hood
Prompt Number: Week 14.2 - You have discovered that someplace you visit or live in is haunted by a rather friendly ghost. How did the encounter happen, and what would you do?
Title: The Woman in White
Warnings/Disclaimers: Huge spoilers for the entirety of Season 3. Honestly. Right the way up to the very end. Character death. You have been warned.
Word Count: 1832
He glanced around the silent, slumbering camp, all of his new found ‘friends’ asleep, and crept out, heading deep into the woods. No one knew where he was going. If they found him missing, they would accuse him of betraying them, that he’d gone to tell Isabella where the camp was. He didn’t care. He had to do this. He would only be gone for an hour or so.
He had to visit a ghost.
He walked slowly, carefully placing his feet on the ground, trying not to trip over a fallen branch or protruding tree root. The moon was full, and it lit his path ahead of him. Cautiously, he moved forward, one step at a time.
The only time he could talk to her was at full moon.
He reached their glade, deep in Sherwood. He was willing to bet that Hood and his men knew the location of it, but dismissed it as unimportant. Truly, there was nothing here that would mark it out as special. To Guy, however it was.
Because every full moon since he’d killed her, the ghost of Marian visited him in this glade.
If Guy were thinking logically, he knew it could not be real. Ghosts simply did not exist. But what he saw was so vivid, so vibrant... it was almost not possible not to believe it.
He first saw her shortly after he returned to Locksley from the Holy Land, one night when he had consumed a large amount of wine in an effort to forget what he’d done. She appeared to him while he was sprawled over the table, head to one side, having collapsed where he sat, exhaustion finally overtaking him. He stared at her for a moment, then groggily stood up as she flitted out of the door, glancing back at him. He followed. How could he not?
She ran through the forest, like a will-o’-the-wisp. Now and then she smiled back at him, just exactly as he remembered her. They continued through the forest, her leading, him following in desperation to be with her again until suddenly she stopped in the middle of a clearing. The moonlight cut through the trees, lighting her face, her smile.
She was dressed as he last remembered her, in the white outfit she’d worn in the Holy Land. She stood silently for a moment, watching him. “Guy,” she said finally, whispering at him.
He sank to his knees amongst the dead leaves. “Who...?” No, that was obvious. “What...?” he began, unsure how to frame what he was thinking. The alcohol in the wine had left his brain fuddled, but maybe it was also something else. “Who...?” he finally settled on.
“It’s me, Guy. Marian. Who else?”
“You’re dead,” he said bluntly. After all, he ought to know. He was responsible for it.
Marian gave a small laugh. “And you really think that is going to stop me?” she asked, that familiar half smile gracing her face.
Guy simply stared at her for a moment. How so like Marian. “Why me?” he asked finally. “Are you going to haunt me for what I’ve done?” It wouldn’t surprise him, not really.
“Deep down, you know why I’m here, Guy. One day, it will all become clear to you.”
“You’re not here to grant me forgiveness?” he asked, a touch of desperation in his voice. It was what he wanted, what he craved.
Marian looked at him sadly, shaking her head. As he watched, a red stain spread across her dress, blossoming out like a flower unfurling its petals. He drew in a shuddering breath. The stain began from the point where he’d ran his sword through her.
She began to fade from view. “Watch for me, Guy,” was the last thing he heard before she vanished entirely. Then utter silence. Not even the normal sound of night animals broke the peace. Guy stayed on his knees. He longed to sob, to release the emotions pent up inside him, but he couldn’t.
Over the next few weeks he saw her, here and there, a pale ghost in the distance. While he was collecting taxes to pay for Prince John’s ridiculous demand of one thousand crowns per month, destroying Locksley’s residents way of life. While he committed a murder in the name of the Sheriff. Any time he did anything Marian would have disapproved of - which was a lot of the time - she was there, watching him.
She called to him next full moon, and he went to the glade once more.
“Why me, and not Hood?” he asked, frustrated that he couldn’t get any satisfactory answers from her.
She looked at him sadly. “When the time is right, I’ll be there for him. But not yet. Now... well, you have too many things left to do.”
“What things?” he asked, not expecting an answer to his question. He wasn’t disappointed.
The following full moon he never knew if she was there - he was being held by Prince John, betrayed by the Sheriff in an attempt to save his own live. But even as he was held in the dungeon, awaiting the Prince Regent’s decision, he saw her - not to speak to, but off to one side, watching. Waiting. He’d reasoned by now that it was his mind playing tricks on him, and that this was the beginning of a descent into insanity. But even after he had worked that out, she didn’t leave him alone, not for long, but she would never talk to him.
A return to Nottingham, a re-introduction to a sister he thought long gone, and the death of the man with whom he’d always had the most complex of relationships was what he was faced with during the next full moon. He walked to the glade quietly, the night after his fight with Vaisey.
“She reminds me of you,” Marian said casually as he entered the glade. She was sitting on a low hanging branch, waiting for him. Guy looked up shocked. Marian was right. Isabella was so like him. Where did the family go wrong? Deep down, he was worried. He didn’t want Isabella going down the same path as he had. His parents wouldn’t have wanted it. But he wasn’t even sure how he could stop her.
He paused, looking at Marian, not sure where to start. “I got what I had hoped for,” he said eventually. “What I promised you I would get. Power, wealth, status. Tomorrow. I’ll make Prince John keep to his word.” But it felt hollow, like something was missing.
That something was Marian.
She looked at him. “You’ve done more than you know, Guy. You’ve done Nottingham a great service. Things are in motion.” Guy looked at her sharply, frowning. She smiled at him in return. “You’ll see.”
And so it was he found himself creeping into the glade again, leaving the outlaw camp behind, so much having happened. Isabella and her descent into insanity. The rescue of Archer from York, and his subsequent abandoning of them. Guy’s own rise and downfall, Meg, and his finally finding a new place, even if it only was of convenience while he tried to destroy - no save Isabella. He had to use Hood, and Hood had to use him. He wasn’t entirely comfortable with the situation, but it was his best to chance to complete what he had to.
“She got under your skin, didn’t she? In the end she meant something to you,” Marian said, smiling at him, sitting on the ground in the glade.
Guy’s natural instinct was to lie, to bluff. No one knew about Meg, about how much she’d affected him. But then, as Marian was part of his own imaginings, he couldn’t lie. “She reminded me of you,” he said after a moment. “She didn’t deserve to die.” He paused, and once more sank to his knees beside her. “And nor did you. I... I’m sorry.” The words, finally spoken, hung in the air.
Marian reached out, touching his arm. Guy looked at her in shock. It was the first time she’d touched him since... since she’d died and it felt real. He hung his head in shame. He’d told Robin that he could never ask for forgiveness from him, because he couldn’t forgive himself. He couldn’t face Marian now.
“I know,” she replied, moving to her knees beside him. “Guy, look at me. I don’t have much time.” When he refused to move his head, she asked again. “Look at me.” Guy gradually lifted his head, turning his blue gaze onto the woman whom he loved - and destroyed. “Why did you choose this path?”
“I didn’t,” Guy replied. “It was an accident.” He truly believed that. The only reason he was there was because of Archer.
“This is beyond just you. Surely you see that, Guy. This is important - to Robin, to England... and to me.” She gave him a genuine smile. “But I know that you will choose the right path. Because you began to think, after you let her close. She trusted in you. That spark of goodness is there, growing because someone other than me believed in you.” She sighed. “Robin’s friends won’t accept you - all they see is the horror you once were. They will doubt you. But stay strong, because of us.”
Guy had said nothing to her for a moment, just looking at her. “Your heart was always his, wasn’t it?” he said, the words heavy as he said them. “You never loved me.”
“I cared for you, truly. But no, I love Robin.” Guy was silent, then nodded once. The rancor he had once had at those words had long dissipated - too much had happened in recent months.
“I won’t see you again, will I?” He somehow knew it was coming, felt it deep with him. He bowed his head, as Marian shook hers.
“My job is done, Guy of Gisborne. You’ve chosen your path.” Then, silence. Guy looked up once again, glancing round the empty glade. She was gone.
“Forgive me,” he said quietly. But there was no answer.
He looked up at Robin, struggling to focus. Death would not be long now. “This is the end.” A part of him was glad of it, to find peace, now, after trying to save Robin’s life.
“For you and me both, my friend,” Robin replied. Guy wanted to laugh at the change that had come about. For Robin to call him friend...
“I’m sorry. At least you have someone waiting for you.” Guy smiled slightly. “Marian. The love of my life... she was always yours.” Merely stating the truth, and it didn’t hurt the way it once did. “I lived in shame, but because of you I die proud... and free.” But his own words were not the last thing he heard as death claimed him. A quiet voice only he could hear whispered one final phrase before all went dark.
“I forgive you.”
Fandom: Robin Hood
Prompt Number: Week 14.2 - You have discovered that someplace you visit or live in is haunted by a rather friendly ghost. How did the encounter happen, and what would you do?
Title: The Woman in White
Warnings/Disclaimers: Huge spoilers for the entirety of Season 3. Honestly. Right the way up to the very end. Character death. You have been warned.
Word Count: 1832
He glanced around the silent, slumbering camp, all of his new found ‘friends’ asleep, and crept out, heading deep into the woods. No one knew where he was going. If they found him missing, they would accuse him of betraying them, that he’d gone to tell Isabella where the camp was. He didn’t care. He had to do this. He would only be gone for an hour or so.
He had to visit a ghost.
He walked slowly, carefully placing his feet on the ground, trying not to trip over a fallen branch or protruding tree root. The moon was full, and it lit his path ahead of him. Cautiously, he moved forward, one step at a time.
The only time he could talk to her was at full moon.
He reached their glade, deep in Sherwood. He was willing to bet that Hood and his men knew the location of it, but dismissed it as unimportant. Truly, there was nothing here that would mark it out as special. To Guy, however it was.
Because every full moon since he’d killed her, the ghost of Marian visited him in this glade.
If Guy were thinking logically, he knew it could not be real. Ghosts simply did not exist. But what he saw was so vivid, so vibrant... it was almost not possible not to believe it.
He first saw her shortly after he returned to Locksley from the Holy Land, one night when he had consumed a large amount of wine in an effort to forget what he’d done. She appeared to him while he was sprawled over the table, head to one side, having collapsed where he sat, exhaustion finally overtaking him. He stared at her for a moment, then groggily stood up as she flitted out of the door, glancing back at him. He followed. How could he not?
She ran through the forest, like a will-o’-the-wisp. Now and then she smiled back at him, just exactly as he remembered her. They continued through the forest, her leading, him following in desperation to be with her again until suddenly she stopped in the middle of a clearing. The moonlight cut through the trees, lighting her face, her smile.
She was dressed as he last remembered her, in the white outfit she’d worn in the Holy Land. She stood silently for a moment, watching him. “Guy,” she said finally, whispering at him.
He sank to his knees amongst the dead leaves. “Who...?” No, that was obvious. “What...?” he began, unsure how to frame what he was thinking. The alcohol in the wine had left his brain fuddled, but maybe it was also something else. “Who...?” he finally settled on.
“It’s me, Guy. Marian. Who else?”
“You’re dead,” he said bluntly. After all, he ought to know. He was responsible for it.
Marian gave a small laugh. “And you really think that is going to stop me?” she asked, that familiar half smile gracing her face.
Guy simply stared at her for a moment. How so like Marian. “Why me?” he asked finally. “Are you going to haunt me for what I’ve done?” It wouldn’t surprise him, not really.
“Deep down, you know why I’m here, Guy. One day, it will all become clear to you.”
“You’re not here to grant me forgiveness?” he asked, a touch of desperation in his voice. It was what he wanted, what he craved.
Marian looked at him sadly, shaking her head. As he watched, a red stain spread across her dress, blossoming out like a flower unfurling its petals. He drew in a shuddering breath. The stain began from the point where he’d ran his sword through her.
She began to fade from view. “Watch for me, Guy,” was the last thing he heard before she vanished entirely. Then utter silence. Not even the normal sound of night animals broke the peace. Guy stayed on his knees. He longed to sob, to release the emotions pent up inside him, but he couldn’t.
Over the next few weeks he saw her, here and there, a pale ghost in the distance. While he was collecting taxes to pay for Prince John’s ridiculous demand of one thousand crowns per month, destroying Locksley’s residents way of life. While he committed a murder in the name of the Sheriff. Any time he did anything Marian would have disapproved of - which was a lot of the time - she was there, watching him.
She called to him next full moon, and he went to the glade once more.
“Why me, and not Hood?” he asked, frustrated that he couldn’t get any satisfactory answers from her.
She looked at him sadly. “When the time is right, I’ll be there for him. But not yet. Now... well, you have too many things left to do.”
“What things?” he asked, not expecting an answer to his question. He wasn’t disappointed.
The following full moon he never knew if she was there - he was being held by Prince John, betrayed by the Sheriff in an attempt to save his own live. But even as he was held in the dungeon, awaiting the Prince Regent’s decision, he saw her - not to speak to, but off to one side, watching. Waiting. He’d reasoned by now that it was his mind playing tricks on him, and that this was the beginning of a descent into insanity. But even after he had worked that out, she didn’t leave him alone, not for long, but she would never talk to him.
A return to Nottingham, a re-introduction to a sister he thought long gone, and the death of the man with whom he’d always had the most complex of relationships was what he was faced with during the next full moon. He walked to the glade quietly, the night after his fight with Vaisey.
“She reminds me of you,” Marian said casually as he entered the glade. She was sitting on a low hanging branch, waiting for him. Guy looked up shocked. Marian was right. Isabella was so like him. Where did the family go wrong? Deep down, he was worried. He didn’t want Isabella going down the same path as he had. His parents wouldn’t have wanted it. But he wasn’t even sure how he could stop her.
He paused, looking at Marian, not sure where to start. “I got what I had hoped for,” he said eventually. “What I promised you I would get. Power, wealth, status. Tomorrow. I’ll make Prince John keep to his word.” But it felt hollow, like something was missing.
That something was Marian.
She looked at him. “You’ve done more than you know, Guy. You’ve done Nottingham a great service. Things are in motion.” Guy looked at her sharply, frowning. She smiled at him in return. “You’ll see.”
And so it was he found himself creeping into the glade again, leaving the outlaw camp behind, so much having happened. Isabella and her descent into insanity. The rescue of Archer from York, and his subsequent abandoning of them. Guy’s own rise and downfall, Meg, and his finally finding a new place, even if it only was of convenience while he tried to destroy - no save Isabella. He had to use Hood, and Hood had to use him. He wasn’t entirely comfortable with the situation, but it was his best to chance to complete what he had to.
“She got under your skin, didn’t she? In the end she meant something to you,” Marian said, smiling at him, sitting on the ground in the glade.
Guy’s natural instinct was to lie, to bluff. No one knew about Meg, about how much she’d affected him. But then, as Marian was part of his own imaginings, he couldn’t lie. “She reminded me of you,” he said after a moment. “She didn’t deserve to die.” He paused, and once more sank to his knees beside her. “And nor did you. I... I’m sorry.” The words, finally spoken, hung in the air.
Marian reached out, touching his arm. Guy looked at her in shock. It was the first time she’d touched him since... since she’d died and it felt real. He hung his head in shame. He’d told Robin that he could never ask for forgiveness from him, because he couldn’t forgive himself. He couldn’t face Marian now.
“I know,” she replied, moving to her knees beside him. “Guy, look at me. I don’t have much time.” When he refused to move his head, she asked again. “Look at me.” Guy gradually lifted his head, turning his blue gaze onto the woman whom he loved - and destroyed. “Why did you choose this path?”
“I didn’t,” Guy replied. “It was an accident.” He truly believed that. The only reason he was there was because of Archer.
“This is beyond just you. Surely you see that, Guy. This is important - to Robin, to England... and to me.” She gave him a genuine smile. “But I know that you will choose the right path. Because you began to think, after you let her close. She trusted in you. That spark of goodness is there, growing because someone other than me believed in you.” She sighed. “Robin’s friends won’t accept you - all they see is the horror you once were. They will doubt you. But stay strong, because of us.”
Guy had said nothing to her for a moment, just looking at her. “Your heart was always his, wasn’t it?” he said, the words heavy as he said them. “You never loved me.”
“I cared for you, truly. But no, I love Robin.” Guy was silent, then nodded once. The rancor he had once had at those words had long dissipated - too much had happened in recent months.
“I won’t see you again, will I?” He somehow knew it was coming, felt it deep with him. He bowed his head, as Marian shook hers.
“My job is done, Guy of Gisborne. You’ve chosen your path.” Then, silence. Guy looked up once again, glancing round the empty glade. She was gone.
“Forgive me,” he said quietly. But there was no answer.
He looked up at Robin, struggling to focus. Death would not be long now. “This is the end.” A part of him was glad of it, to find peace, now, after trying to save Robin’s life.
“For you and me both, my friend,” Robin replied. Guy wanted to laugh at the change that had come about. For Robin to call him friend...
“I’m sorry. At least you have someone waiting for you.” Guy smiled slightly. “Marian. The love of my life... she was always yours.” Merely stating the truth, and it didn’t hurt the way it once did. “I lived in shame, but because of you I die proud... and free.” But his own words were not the last thing he heard as death claimed him. A quiet voice only he could hear whispered one final phrase before all went dark.
“I forgive you.”