An au where Edwin is kind of like one of those nursing home cats that cuddles up with the person who is next to die...
Fall term 1988 at St Hil's. Charles Rowland is a new student arriving and overhears some older students saying: "Don't worry about the profs. Worry about Paine. If you see him at the foot of your bed at night, start praying."
Charles joins the conversation already in progress by saying, "School's got its own grim reaper? Posh." But he doesn't think much of it. One of those school rumours to scare the new boarders.
Then he hits his head during cricket practice and when he wakes up later that night, there's this softly glowing boy sitting at the foot of his infirmary bed. Charles thinks he's probably hallucinating because the boy is wearing this old timey school uniform that Charles once saw displayed in a glass case.
The boy is watching him with a grave expression (pun intended). Charles blinks at him. "Bit rude, staring. What do you want?"
And Edwin straightens his spine just a fraction more. He's unused to anyone wanting to talk to him after all these years and all the rumours. He normally feels a pull toward a particular doomed boy and goes to him, not wanting him to face his end alone but receives only silence or someone yelling at him to go away. But Charles is staring at him so earnestly, so openly. He purses his lips and then says softly, "You should not go home for end-term holidays."
And, to be fair, Charles was on the fence about it so he's like, "Okay. Decided."
Edwin is about to go but Charles asks him to wait, at least keep him company for a little while until he can sleep again. Not s'posed to fall asleep with a head injury and all that.
So Edwin stays. He talks to Charles that night ala Ep 7.
The next morning, Charles is convinced he's dreamed it but still. He starts asking around. Who was Edwin Paine? Did he actually predict people's deaths? From bits and pieces, he pulls together a basic timeline. Edwin died at the school in 1916 but afterwards, people would occasionally report seeing someone who matched his description. He was usually seen sitting at the foot of their bed, or sitting next to them in chapel or sitting across from them in the library. And if he did, then something terrible was coming. Accidents, acts of god, quick-moving illnesses, suicide. As the rumour goes, Paine's revenge is to take your soul to hell so he can trade you to the devil for time off his sentence.
But one way or the other, if Edwin Paine keeps you company, you won't make it to the end of term.
That's utter bullshit as far as Charles is concerned and he tells people as much. He defends Edwin so fiercely that the other boys get suspicious. Then he lets it slip that he's seen Edwin Paine and nothing bad happened.
That opens up the floodgates. They immediately start acting like Charles is a dead man walking. They whisper, "Rowland's marked." The boy sleeping next to him asks to be moved to a different hall. Boys start leaving funeral flowers on Charles' bed. Even professors start getting uneasy around him.
That just makes Charles even angrier. He doesn’t see Edwin as a harbinger of death. He sees a lonely boy who has spent over 70 years sitting beside frightened children because no one sat by him.
And when Edwin hears Charles say as much and then get chased away for being a Mary, he is undone by it. He starts appearing to Charles more: after a visit with Charles' father, when some of the other students corner Charles in the hallway and beat him up, when Edwin finds him after some older boys have cruelly locked him in the basement where Edwin died to "introduce him properly to Paine", Charles is curled up against the wall with fresh bruises and split knuckles, trying not to cry.
Edwin softly says, "You are in danger."
Charles laughs sharply and says, "Yeah, mate. Gathered that."
Edwin kneels beside him, careful not to touch. He wouldn't truly be able to if they both wanted to. "I am sorry," he says. "I have never learned how to prevent students from dying."
But Edwin tries anyway. As long as Charles remains inside the dormitory, school, chapel and other buildings, Edwin can more or less protect him. Nothing physical, he couldn't stop an attacker for instance, but he can warn Charles if someone is after him or tell him where there is an empty store room to hide in.
With St Hilarion’s covered, he fixates on Charles' father. All signs point to home being the most dangerous since Edwin has no way of getting there. He thinks that if he can keep Charles at St Hilarion’s, he can keep him from dying. He warns him not to go home. He sabotages letters. He hides Charles’ backpack and train tickets. He stands in the doorway and begs Charles not to go.
Charles listens and stays at school.
Then his canon death is set into motion--on the grounds, instead of inside one of the buildings. Somewhere Edwin can't even give him a way out.
But Edwin knows it's happening. He can see them out of the window of the old gymnasium. He spirits through the halls, rattling pipes and screaming for professors, but no one comes. No one does a thing to help Charles.
Charles finally stumbles into the attic, frozen and bleeding out internally. Edwin appears next to him, more solid than ever. Now that Charles is dying, Edwin can comfort him. That is his gift and curse.
Charles' death occurs like canon. When death comes, Edwin tells Charles he should go. That it will be peaceful and Charles deserves to rest and Edwin will be just fine of course.
Charles knows he's lying on that last bit. So Charles who has been hurt or abandoned by nearly everyone who was supposed to love him sees this ghost boy who spent 70+ years sitting beside the dying because no one sat beside him and he refuses to leave.
It's rocky at first but then Edwin realises Charles is there to stay. Soon enough, Edwin feels the pull toward another doomed boy. He tells Charles there is someone. There is always someone.
Charles, without batting an eye, says, "Let's go help him."
And together they become the ghosts of St Hilarion’s. The legend changes: if Edwin Paine shows up, Death is near. If Charles Rowland shows up too, She might lose her claim on you.
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