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He had only been a ghost for barely an evening as he discovered the rules of being a ghost. Only a few hours ago, he was running through a labyrinth of halls and rooms down in Hell. Now he was back, back to a different form of Hell called St. Hilarion’s School for Boys. It was where he died. He hadn’t expected to find himself here, but logically it had made sense.
Being a ghost was far from being alive and being tortured in Hell. There were things he was slowly discovering.
One: a ghost can walk through solid objects with ease and not feel any discomfort. He learned walls are practically a hologram, though to Edwin that would not be what he would call it. What piques his interest is, he doesn’t fall through the floor. He has control of his position on this plane. He could slip below the floor if he wanted to, as he discovers going up the stairs from the basement, but only if he desired to.
Two part A: the touch receptors on his skin do not pick up anything. He couldn’t feel the dampen spots on his nightgown. He even tried holding onto a book, but the rough paper is nothing to him. Was he considered mist or a cloud to everything? It was not something he expected, but what was he truly expecting?
He questions could another feel him? Could he feel a human if he wanted to? Could he feel another ghost? Since he was never a fan of being held or touched, he held this off. He could ask another ghost, if he ever found one. If he ever realises that he’s not alone. But now he lets those questions fade to nothing. He doesn’t wish to find out.
Two part B: The winter chill did not bite when he stepped out of the building. There was no perception of temperature at all. He even waved his hand through a burning candle, a foolish thing to do when alive, but there was no warmth, no pain. The flame flickers as if Edwin was a breeze in the air. He tries again, but all he does is diminish the flame with the pinch of his fingers.
Three: In Hell, he had walked through the gluttony sweet’s shop where the damned stuffed their mouths with endless supply of food. Anything one could imagine, it would be there on a plate for you to devour. Now, it was a curious thought that came across him as he strides through the courtyard. The dining hall was to his left. He had not had anything sweet or savory since the day he was sacrificed. Come to find out food had a grainy feeling in his mouth. One taste of a peppermint stick caused him to spit it out. A grainy rough taste as if he was licking sand from the lake. Anything that he tried to enjoy came out to taste the same.
There were more, Edwin was sure of it, but those were the only ones he had discovered before finding the young dying Charles in the attic. He explained the best he could, leaving out much detail of how he had discovered them, embarrassed by his procedure. He was trying to be as brilliant as he could.
When Charles became a ghost, the newly dead tested out his new abilities when the two were safe away from Death. It wasn’t because he doubted his new friend, but to see what it was all about. Some of them made the bloke question, but Edwin had no answer for many of them since he had not met anyone but him since his escape from Hell.
Charles was the one to discover a fourth rule. There were objects out there in the world that possessed the ability to allow the ghosts to take on other appearances and be seen by those who couldn’t before.
It was an accident for Charles to find the fifth one. He had tripped over his own feet and stumbled through a mirror only to find himself miles away from his new friend. There was panic between the two, believing the two had separated forever. It was Edwin, who focused on Charles and followed him through the mirror as if he was Alice going to Wonderland. Edwin found this discovery to be one of his favorites. It was useful when it worked and the two weren’t separated because of a distracted mind. It took practice until it was perfected.
Sixth, or Edwin downed it as two part C, rule was neither of them could feel hugs or feel the living. They had discovered this when Charles had a crush on a client, a living breathing girl, and tried to hug her. All it was to the girl was a cold blanket practically. Even when Edwin went to shake her hand, there was nothing for him.
One would state that seven is a lucky number, but according to how Edwin wrote down the rules, seven to the two ghosts was the number four in East Asian cultures: Death. When it came to being ghosts, they were in a way immortal. They could live forever. Or well, until Death caught up to them. They were runaways and Death wanted to reap Charles since that day, but it wasn’t a constant chase.
Weaknesses against iron was the eighth rule. It was the first time Edwin felt anything since Hell. It’s a burning hot pain as if the iron was red hot ready to brand. It brought the horrors of hell back to him. He had found out iron makes them tangible for a bit. It makes the ghost wonder if there were any other weaknesses against them. It would balance out the pros of being a ghost.
Almost a week later, the two found out about rule eight part B. Cat scratches were deadly to spirits. It was Charles that got scratched by an alleycat when they were trying to gather evidence for a case. He had picked up the cat so Edwin could grab the shirt from the ground. This didn’t go well with the cat and scratched Charles’s arm which caused him to scream in pain. It was similar to iron, but with more burning and coursing through them like poison. The scratch even made Charles’s arm corporeal for a while. Edwin found out, depending on how deep it was, would depend on how long the two would stay corporeal from a cat scratch.