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It took a good few hours for the Cat King to wake. The cats of the cannery kept a watchful eye over them both while the Cat King slept and Edwin sat on the edge of the bed, beside him, refusing to budge even an inch until he could confirm that the Cat King was okay.
When he finally did awaken, he still had a few scratches and still had a definitely look of exhaustion about him, but it was a vast improvement on the state that he had been on when they had first arrived there. For one, he was conscious.
“… Edwin?” he asked, voice groggy and his expression one of complete disbelief.
“You're awake.” Edwin stated, turning so that he was facing the Cat King properly rather than being turned forward. “I was starting to become worried.” He frowned and quickly corrected himself. “I was starting to become more worried. I was already worried.”
“You were… worried?” the Cat King asked, still not quite grasping the situation.
“Well when one receives a mysterious bundle of thorns that are tied with a piece of blood-soaked fabric, one tends to worry.” Edwin replied. “Especially so, when that blood belongs to a person that one holds particularly dear to them.”
“...Right...” the Cat King was regarding him with a kind of astonishment. “You consider me someone you hold dear?”
Truly, he looked as though somebody had just told him that the sky was green, or that cows were from the moon.
“Of course I do!” Edwin took offence to the question. What would ever have given the other man a reason to believe otherwise? Sure, they had gotten off on the wrong foot and their journey to mutual understanding had been a little rough, but by the end, it should have been obvious that Edwin cared for him.
He did not hand out kisses all willy-nilly! It may not have been his first kiss, or a kiss on the mouth like the Cat King had made it obvious that he had wanted, but it had been the first kiss that Edwin had given freely and of his own volition for the pure sake of expressing his affection. He would never have done something like that if he hadn't considered the Cat King to be someone that was important to him.
“Oh...” the Cat King said, dumbly. He blinked a few times, looking up at Edwin with widened eyes as he processed the – apparently new – information. He sat up so that he could look at Edwin on the same level and searched his eyes for any hint of deception.
Edwin felt the emotions from earlier bubbling back up inside of himself. “I thought that you were going to die. How could you expect me to stay away? To leave you? Do you think so little of me?” he hated the way that his voice trembled with frustration and hurt, hated that he had been too much of a coward to come back before there was a life-or-death situation to deal with.
Instead of answering Edwin's question, the Cat King offered his own; “Why did you never come back?”
Edwin's head snapped up to him then, meeting his eyes. The longer that he held that gaze in silence, the more it stung as the threat of tears brimmed his eyes. He blinked them away, stubbornly.
“I don't know.” his voice cracked. “I- I was scared of what it would mean…scared of what you could mean to me… scared of the way that you make me feel.” Edwin gulped and did his utmost not to look away from the Cat King.
“Edwin...”
“At any rate,” Edwin interrupted. “I am here now, am I not?”
“You are.” the Cat king replied. “Thank you… for coming back for me.” he, very carefully, slid his hand along the sheets until his fingers settled over Edwin's hand.
After a long moment of charged silence passed between them, Edwin stood very abruptly and paced back and forth a couple of times. “I should really be getting back-” before the Cat King could look too disappointed, he carried on, “at least to inform Charles and Crystal that I will be here for a while longer and to assure them that I am in perfectly good health.”
“You're coming back?” the Cat king asked, unable to stop himself from doing so.
“Obviously.” Edwin answered, as though it were exactly that.
-----
When Edwin returned about an hour later, it was with an awfully sombre expression on his face.
“What's wrong?” the Cat King asked, still sitting on his bed, though he now donned different attire. He lounged in a pair of black satin trousers and a matching robe that was loosely tied at his waist.
“I have just discovered something that I find to be rather disturbing.” Edwin clenched his fists in front of himself, pressing them together before flexing them and tucking them behind himself instead.
“Something you can tall me?” the Cat King shuffled a little bit, obviously implying that he was making space for Edwin to sit next to him. When the ghost paused, he even patted the space beside him, invitingly.
After a beat had passed, Edwin sighed heavily and gave in. He crossed the room in no more than a few strides and sat down on the bed, not leaving as much space between himself and the Cat King as he might have in the past.
“It would appear that the staff at my old boarding school have uncovered my remains and have since been using them as a way to market the school as a place of historical significance.” Edwin chose not to acknowledge the furious expression appearing on the Cat King's face as he continued explaining. “My bones and uniform are currently being displayed within a glass case in the entrance hall. There is even a plaque. The audacity of them to do such a thing after covering up my murder for so many years is deplorable. Attempting to profit from my exploitation. I suppose my disappearance was only an act from god while it suited them.” he glared down at his hands, which he had folded in his lap, his tone understandably bitter and resentful.
“Edwin… that's terrible. I'm so sorry...” the Cat King reached out to touch Edwin's arm in comfort, but aborted the action half-way, apparently thinking better of it.
Edwin wished that he hadn't.
“The worst part is that this discovery had led to some so-called ghost hunters and supernatural experts to gain an interest in the location and they have been… attempting to prove that the place is haunted and to commune with me. To no avail, of course. The only reason that I have even been made aware of this was the newspaper that the Ghost Postman left on the desk not long after I got back to explain my absence.” Edwin huffed another sigh and looked over at the Cat King with the most exasperated look that he could muster. “The principal of Saint Hilarion's seems to have seen fit to sell ghost tours of the school while the current students are home for breaks.”
There is a brief pause before the Cat King smirks. “Well you know what we have to do then, don't you?”
Edwin frowned in confusion. He had no idea where this was going. “...What do we have to do, exactly?”
“Obviously, if they want a haunting, we'll give them one.” he replied, flashing a fanged grin. His tone was playful, but his eyes betrayed the anger that he was feeling on Edwin's behalf.
Edwin felt his heart soften as he acknowledged the Cat King's sincerity. “You intend for us to haunt the school?”
“Exactly! We can mess up the place, make some spooky noises, I can even transform myself into you for a bit of an extra scare~” the Cat King's mischievous expression never wavered, his golden eyes lighting up at the prospect of a fun little game.
Perhaps it would be enjoyable to play a game with the Cat King this time, rather than against him.
“I...” Edwin considered the idea for a little longer and the more that he did, the more that it felt like a terrifically good idea. “I believe that that would be… most agreeable to me.”
When Edwin met the Cat King with a mischievous little smile of his own, something warm settled over them both.
-----
The cobbled halls of St Hilarion's boarding school were as cold and unforgiving as they had always been, brick looming over head in a way that seemed to grow higher and higher the deeper you went into its maze of corridors and classrooms.
Some areas had been somewhat modernised, though the building seemed to have been preserved for the most part, likely to retain its reputation and history. If there was anything that Edwin hand learned from his life and death within those walls, it was that they cared for little other than that reputation that they worked so hard to protect.
The people who staffed the school would not be able to see Edwin, but they would be able to see the Cat King if he so chose it. So, as they passed the entrance court and in through the large, wooden doors, the Cat King turned to Edwin and offered the ghost his hand.
After a brief moment of hesitance, Edwin accepted.
Immediately, he was taken aback by its warmth, the gravity of the contrast it made to the chill of the place where he was killed sunk through him like a brick. Edwin took a shaky breath and tightened his hold on the Cat King's hand, seeking more of the comfort that had been offered to him. Sensing that he needed more, the Cat King bumped his shoulder into Edwin's and turned their hands so that he could link their fingers together.
Edwin looked at him in mild surprise and the Cat King gave him a reassuring smile.
“I'm with you. Nothing in here can hurt you.” the Cat King said.
Edwin found himself relaxing considerably at those words, the unwelcome fear that had been building up within him draining away until all that was left was his determination to see this through and have a bloody good time doing it.
-----
The space darkened and a cool air crept through the gaps in the single-paned windows. The hallways seemed to twist and contort. The paintings and photographs of staff members and notable alumni of the school shook on the walls, some coming loose from their screws and toppling to the ground, glass smashing against the hardwood floors.
Doors to classrooms and offices blew opened, windows shattering in their frames. Several teachers could be heard yelping in shock at the sudden and intense shift in the atmosphere. They had been all too willing to exploit the prospect of a haunting and yet they were frightened by its reality.
Staff quivered under their desks and locked themselves in supply closets as the onslaught continued.
Lights flickered and bulbs blew out as the floorboards creaked under the weight of the heavy footsteps of an intangible presence. The sound of it echoed through the halls, through the classrooms, through the walls and floors themselves.
Dark, bloody footprints appeared on the floor, trailing down the corridor behind the tap... tap... creak... of footfall. The shadow of a man stretched out from the source of the footsteps in all directions, slinking across the walls, dipping into every crack and crevice.
It stopped in front of the head mistress' door for a moment that seemed to stretch on forever. Then…
KNOCK
KNOCK
KNOCK
Nothing.
The quiet sound of shaking, panting breaths was stark against the dead silence the engulfed every ounce of space surrounding it.
Flame lapped at the outside of the door, slowly creeping up the sides of the frame. A face pressed forward, a hair's breadth from the door's window.
No.
A skull.
A skull with empty eyes.
Blood trickled over bone and then empty sockets were replaced with an emerald green that flashed gold against the light of the flame surrounding them. In an instant, the skull was replaced by the face of a man; a face that was far too familiar, one that peered up at the headmistress from the newspaper that was folded neatly on the edge of her desk in scratchy sepia.
Slowly, the doorknob started to turn, the brass scraping against its latch and the hinges whining with the pressure.
The door cracked open and then slammed wide open, bouncing off of the brick wall with the force of it. AA the same time, the drawers in all of the drawers and metal filing cabinets that lined the walls sprung open, the papers flying into the air and scattering, catching alight from the lapping flames. There one moment and ashes the next.
The man walked forward, his school uniform now unmistakable. He placed his palm upon the desk, singeing its surface to charcoal, melting the plastic monitor of the principle’s desktop computer, burning everything but the photograph from the front of the newspaper.
Behind the quivering headmistress, words slowly began to appear on the window, dripping like someone was smearing them across it with bloody hands. The message was clear.
IS THIS AN ACT OF GOD?
“I… I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...” the trembling whisper of a voice sounded from behind the desk, now crouched against the wall with her knees tucked to her chest, hands over her ears. “I was wrong… please...please don't hurt me…”
IS IT?
The woman flinched and shivered. “No!” she cried. “No it's not! It never was! I'm sorry, please… please, I'm sorry, I'll f-fix it, I promise...I'll tell the truth… please...”
In an instant, the room was righted.
Light flooded back into the building, the fire extinguished, the shadows and cold air gave way once more to the artificial warmth of the recently-installed central heating. All that remained of the previous chaos was tattered paper, shattered glass, and a photograph of a boy.
-----
Edwin ran down the hall of previous alumni, still hand-in-hand with the Cat King. His path only veering as the Cat King tugged him, spinning him around and giving him the full view of his own face as purple flames erupted around them and it gave way to the face of the man that he was becoming increasingly fond of.
Edwin's phantom heart raced as they continues to spin down the hall, the Cat King flashing his fangs as he grinned, tossing his head back and laughing at the pure exhilaration of what they had just done together.
Edwin could do nothing but watch him; watch the sparkle of his eyes and the absurd curve of his lips, edged with that curious scar. His fur-collared coat fell around his shoulders, exposing more of the mesh turtleneck that left very little of his chest to the imagination. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed and straightened his neck to look Edwin in the eyes once more.
The came to a stop in front of a glass cabinet; a glass cabinet containing the skeleton of a boy and all of his affects that had been salvaged from the school's basement or attic or wherever they had found them. The plaque at the bottom read his name and the years of his life.
“You good, ghostie?” the Cat King asked, his warm voice like honey and sunshine, overwhelming the shadows that might have otherwise crept into the corners of Edwin's heart.
“My death was no act from god. It was a cruel and foolish act committed by cruel and foolish boys in the basement of a school that may as well have called itself a prison.” Edwin said, turning his attention from his remains to the man before him. “I have done far more living in my time being dead that I ever did while I was actually alive, and far more living still since my excursion to Port Townsend.”
The Cat King simply watched him, tilting his head with curiosity and interest. There was more in Edwin's eyes that he had yet to put words to.
“I am done holding on to the things that have been holding me back. Those antiquated views on who I am and who I should love were nothing but shackles. Unknowingly, I had brought hell with me, even as I escaped it.” Edwin squeezed the Cat King's hand and drew closer to him. “I would very much like to exist as honestly as you do, the way that you have shown me time and again is possible.”
“I'm not always honest, Edwin… I'm not even always myself. I was you, earlier.” he laughed with the last part, though there was a strain to his voice.
“Even when you looked like me, you were still you.” Edwin said, visibly surprising the Cat King with his words. “Thank you, by the way, for giving this to me… and for giving me back myself.”
“For this, you're welcome, ghostie, but for yourself?” the Cat King lifted his free hand and placed it softly against Edwin's chest, over his heart. “You always had that.”
Edwin was struck.
The Cat King had always been good at reading him, good at knowing what would push his buttons. He had seen who Edwin was at that first glance and so it must have been true; it must have been true for it to have been seen. Edwin Payne was a stubborn, brilliant detective with a penchant for getting himself into trouble and he was a man who loved other men. He had thought – perhaps foolishly – that there would only ever be room in his heart for one, but he had mistaken the capacity of his own heart.
Despite all that he had done to hide and deny who he was at his heart, in his soul, the Cat King had seen him. The Cat King could still see him, was still looking.
And oh, what eyes they were that saw him. So deep and expressive; windows to a soul that resonated with his own.
There was nothing that he could have done in that moment to hold himself back.
“I am going to kiss you now, if that is amenable?” Edwin whispered as he brought his own free hand up to cup the Cat King's face.
The Cat King nodded helplessly. “Please.”
Without wasting another second, Edwin surged forward and finally sealed their lips.