Chapter Text
The cold night air bit Edwin’s cheek, rubbing his hands together to keep warm. As they approached the small bookstore that was wedged between two other small stores, he could feel the pit in his stomach that had been sitting there for days grow larger. Out of all the mysteries he has figured out, he could not figure out why he was so.. scared? Nervous? Edwin didn’t know what he was feeling, but he had other things to focus on, like his and Charles's current case.
A few hours ago, Edwin and Charles had been sitting in their office, talking and discussing the latest case they had just finished.
“Right, but I was a little confused when the dog started to talk. I thought only cats could t-“ Charles was suddenly cut off by a huge bang as their office swung open.
“I….need….” The woman gritted her teeth and sounded out of breath as she spoke. She had short, tangled, black hair. Her outfit seemed to look straight out of the 2000s; black skinny jeans with rips at the knees, a Millionaires band t-shirt, a bow clip that was almost falling out, and tall Converse. Her hair looked like she never brushed it and only ever teased it, and her eyeliner was smudged along with black tears down her face. She was hunched over like she was about to be sick, one hand on the door for balance, her other clutching her stomach.
“I..need your..help.” Her breath escaping her before she collapsed, and the cold wind shut the door behind her, sealing the boys in with her problem.
“What. The. Hell.” Charles finally spoke.
Almost immediately, the boys stepped into action. Charles walked up to the collapsed woman, grabbing a magnifying glass from his coat pocket. As he investigated, Edwin looked through their collection of books to see what could help their situation.
“What do you see?” Edwin asked over his shoulder, trying to narrow down his book selection.
“Uh, I’m seeing some kind of fungus or mold growing from her lips, eyes, nose, and ears. There’s also some dirt under her nails, but it’s probably not related.” Charles lifted the woman’s hair with the handle of the magnifying glass to more clearly see her face.
Edwin continued to search, grazing each spine with his fingertips.
“Hm, this might help.” He pulled out a book titled ‘Ghost Mold and Fungi’. “Right, let’s see if there’s anything in here that resembles what’s going on with our Jane Doe.” He said as he slammed the dusty book onto the office desk.
Charles stood up and walked over to Edwin and started to look at the images in the book. He absentmindedly rested his hand close to where Edwin rested his. Edwin’s stomach disagreed with the distance between them, but he couldn’t seem to move.
“There, that one.” Charles finally pointed to one of the images after a minute or so of sifting. It was titled Spectral Mycosis. “There’s the mold and everything.” He continued to read. “Huh?”
“What is it?”
“It says here that this illness only happens when the victim has a second death- the hell?”
“What is a ‘second death’?” Edwin scratched his head and started to pace between the desk and where the woman still laid.
“Absolutely no clue. Is there any chance we would have any book about it here?”
“If I’ve never heard of it, probably not.”
As the two of them continue to discuss, the woman on the floor starts to make a gurgling sound. They both spun around to face her, then look at each other with nothing but concern and confusion on their faces. When they look back, the woman had spat out a puddle of dark green liquid. With a closer look, the puddle appears to growing hairy, blue mold.
“Oh, what the hell?!” Charles gagged at the look of it.
”Charles, come look at this.” Edwin had gone back to reading the book, presumably to look for a solution already. Very Edwin of him. “It says here that when someone is infected with the illness, they are rotting from the inside.”
”How is that possible? She’s dead, she doesn’t have a body.”
“I’m not sure,” Edwin turned around to face the dark green puddle of mold on the floor. “Let’s go find out.”
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The pit in Edwin’s stomach grew. Maybe it was the air of the library, all the dust. Anything to blame to keep him focused on the task at hand.
As Charles and Edwin walked through the shelves of the library, Edwin noticed an anti-bullying storybook for kids with a girl on the cover. The girl had long, silver hair. The girl was sitting alone at a park bench while other kids played at the playground behind her.
All he could do was stare.
“Oh..” Edwin muttered to himself, his eyebrows furrowing and tears forming in his eyes.
“What was that?” Charles said over his shoulder, too focused on looking.
“Uh, nothing, just reading.” He looked down, trying to hide the sorrow in his voice.
“Uh, okay.” But Charles knew. If he knew anyone, he knew Edwin. Something was wrong, terribly wrong. Edwin had been there for Charles when he needed anything, and Charles was always there for Edwin, even though he never accepted any help.
“What about this?” Charles pointed to a book titled ‘Deaths; Are there more than one?’.
“Let’s see.” Edwin flipped open the book on the floor, trying not to make so much noise as to alert the teenager working the counter.
The book had images of multiple patients who had been infected with Spectral Mycosis. The patients had visible warts and rashes of mold on their skin. The book showed drawings of the different stages of the illness. The first stage was what their Jane Doe and the patients were showing. In the second stage, the mold had gotten bigger and worse. At the final stage, the mold had almost completely taken over the sketched person.
Charles and Edwin looked at each other, both having an expression of dread on their faces. They both scurried up and out of the small bookstore, quickly grabbing the book for their own library. The two sprinted through the crowded streets of London, not caring who saw the floating book. They swung open the office front doors and practically lunged themselves at the collapsed woman. She had already began stage two since they had been gone, and they had no idea when she would reach the final stage. Madly flipping through the pages, Edwin managed to find a recipe for a medicine that could help her.
"Grab two leaves of mint and three leaves of lavender leaves!" Edwin shouted as Charles frantically went through their jars of ingredients. When he paused, Edwin shouted, "The green part not the purple part!"
"Right," Charles muttered to himself. He took the leaves and threw them in Edwins' mortar and pestle. "What else?"
"I need something rotten, preferably a fruit, and some water."
"Uh, okay." Charles whipped back around to face their shelves of ingredients and grabbed a jar of a piece of rotten peach and a jar of water. As he placed them into the mortar, he asked, "Anything else? Also, how are these ingredients contributing to this medicine-cure thing, like, at all?"
"They all have key roles that I do not care for at this moment." Edwin grunted as he used the mortar and pestle. When all the ingredients had turned into this green, purple mess, he lifted up the collapsed woman's head slight and poured the mixture into her throat. After he made sure the medicine went down, they both stared at her.
"So, what now?" Charles asked.
"I assume we just wait." Edwin replied, his voice monotone.