Because what is a fandom without a dark, absolutely unhinged take? What if Edwin let Charles die? What if Edwin had been out of Hell for a while, when he met Charles? After all, one doesn’t just come out of Hell and automatically know all the ghost rules, and the border changes on the map (“They were the same country when I was alive”), so we can guess that Edwin was top side for a while. He told Charles that he knew Charles was going to die when he could see Edwin, but what if he lied? What if he knew that people who had near death experiences could see that dead too? There was a chance that Charles could have lived if he received medical aid, but Edwin had been watching Charles for a while. He watched this boy full of so much life, and compassion, and couldn’t help but follow unseen. He saw this bright, beautiful boy, and selfishly wanted to keep him. He saw the way Charles’ own family treated him and thought “I can take better care of him. You don’t deserve him.”
He didn’t make Charles protect the other boy. He didn’t make the boys chase him into the lake and throw rocks. But he knew Charles now better than the other boy could know, and knew how he would repay kindness tenfold. When Charles could see him in that attic, Edwin knew that if he stayed with Charles for one night, that Charles would stay with him for eternity.
Well, if you're going for a dark universe, then you can have Charles figuring this out multiple times over the years and trying to escape only for Edwin to find him and wipe his memories.
