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Old homes, especially old homes of people of old money had dirty, nasty secrets. People of such a heritage always thought they were above the rest and thus in their hubris, they could collect the most vile spells or items, or pay someone to create it for them. That was how a client asked them to find out the reason of her death because she knew something was wrong but didn’t exactly know what. It was a tricky case but in the end, the boys found out their client was the victim of a curse put upon her by her sister, using a cursed object. Charles ‘should-I-grab-it-should-I-not-grab-it’ Rowland was of course the ghost to pick up the shiny-looking trinket from her desk: a little crystal apple, thinking none of it. Because curses were for the living. They took effect while the person was alive and may have continued through and after their death but usually, curses did not work on ghosts.
The crystal apple caused anyone who touched it to starve to death, and explaining that to the client was difficult. She sobbed and sobbed as Death took her away, and Edwin thought he could still hear her cries long after she was gone. But they had no time to say ‘job is jobbed’ because a little after they arrived back at their office, something growled .
“Charles,” Edwin frowned, looking up from his book. “What was that noise?”
“I…” the other boy frowned, mirroring Edwin’s confused expression. “I think my stomach just growled?”
“Charles, you have no stomach,” his friend reminded him. “It cannot-” But as Edwin was about to go into a rant, Charles’s stomach indeed growled again, loud and clear.
“Mate, I think I’m… I think I’m hungry,” Charles said with a smile of disbelief on his lips. Though his smile quickly disappeared seeing Edwin’s expression. Because there was no way ghosts could eat, so they should not get hungry. Which was… a problem.
Fast forward to two weeks later, after they tried everything they could think to stop the effects of the curse. They destroyed the trinket, they tried to undo the curse with a spell, they actually tried to feed something to Charles but none of that had any effect. Charles was starving. He was withering away. In the last few days Edwin noticed him appearing paler, and actually being see-through. And it scared him to death…
Edwin sat by his desk with several books in front of him, and looked over to Charles on the couch, as the boy rubbed his face. He looked… pale. Which was a funny thing to say about a ghost. Edwin frowned as he watched his friend trying to surpass a shiver, despite sitting there with all his layers on. Ever since Crystal had yelled at Edwin about Charles and his secrets, he had tried to pay more attention to his friend.
Charles kept saying he was fine and he couldn’t die anyway so it was fine. But death wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to a ghost. Death was just one thing that could end a life. But end an existence? Now, there were too many of those. And as it happened, it was Charles Rowland who would find one of the most horrible cases of withering away, quite literally.
“Charles, it will be alright-”
“I know,” Charles snapped. Edwin pursed his lips. The book he was reading for the past hour proved to be completely useless but he didn’t dare to stop reading it. Because it meant that they were still clueless about how to help Charles. Usually, curses stopped either after destroying their origin or fulfilled what they forced the victim to do. Taken their client also died from malnourishment just simply eating didn’t exactly help it. But then what could stop a curse that forced the victim to starve? How to make somebody eat, when they couldn’t? Edwin felt he could cry from frustration. “This is nothing,” Charles continued suddenly. His voice was so weak that Edwin felt his knees shiver.
Charles was lounging on their couch, in all his layers because the more the curse went on the colder he had felt. He put his arms around himself, and he looked so small and fragile that Edwin felt his heart break.
“Charles, you cannot mean that,” Edwin said and got up from his desk to walk over to his friend. “You are suffering, it is not nothing.” Charles looked up at him for a moment. But then he shook his head, looking away.
“My dad used to do this to me,” he croaked. “‘S like… learning principle, right?” he said. “No food until I made it right. Until I got a good grade or played well on the field.” Edwin froze on the spot. Even after they had been through, Charles wasn’t easily talking about his family, especially not his father. And not usually with Edwin. At this point, Edwin was sure that Crystal knew more of the Rowland family history than him. “Food was for boys who did good,” Charles continued in a tone that sounded like he was imitating someone. “‘My food is for those who’ve earned it’ the cunt used to say.”
“Charles…” Edwin whispered. “Charles, that is horrible.”
“Sometimes I got a few bites at school but somehow he always knew and I got beaten for it,” Charles muttered, looking like he was suppressing a shiver, not looking like he heard Edwin at all. “I was glad I could go to boarding school so he couldn’t take my meals away.”
Edwin just stood there helpless. His best friend, the love of his afterlife, was suffering from a curse that couldn’t be undone and all he could do was to watch.
“So,” Charles concluded quietly. “I got this,” he said. “I figured it’d be something like this.”
“What do you mean?” Edwin frowned.
“I thought…” Charles shrugged. “I thought I'd either die by his hand or starve to death. So the actual cause was a surprise. But this is-”
“Charles,” Edwin interrupted, wringing his hands. “You cannot possibly say what I think you are saying.” Charles looked at him with an expression Edwin had rarely seen on him: resignation.
“I’m stupid, Edwin,” he said. “I’m not good to anyone or for anything. It’s okay, right? I’ll just disappear. No afterlife, no Hell…”
“You would not go to Hell.”
“You don’t know that,” Charles snapped. “ That you don’t know,” he said and slowly got up from the couch. Edwin thought he was going to leave but all he did was phase through the closed closet door. A clear indication that he wanted to be left alone. Edwin angrily wiped his face from tears.
--
Maybe this was the first time Charles missed being angry. Anger gave him energy. It made him go on. But right now, with his spectral stomach being empty and his body shivering, he could not muster up the strength to get angry. He just wanted it to be over. He could see how hurt Edwin was when he told him and Charles hated to see him like this. But Edwin was going to be fine without him. He got out of Hell. He was smart. He could do anything… On some days Charles wasn’t even sure why he let him stick around other than being too polite. Him being out of the picture could also make Edwin see that there were other, better ghosts out there for him.
Charles wasn’t sure how long he had spent on the closet floor, waiting for his proper death when he heard a knock.
“Charles? May I come in?” It was Edwin. Charles sighed, leaning his head back against the shelf.
“Yea’,” he said at last. At his surprise, the closet door opened instead of Edwin just simply walking through it. At a second glance, Charles realized why. The boy had a plate of food with him. Charles spotted Niko and Crystal behind his friend, trying to peek inside nervously. God, if Edwin’s hurt face was a lot, seeing Niko and Crystal look at him so worried was even worse. So Charles felt grateful when Edwin closed the door behind him. He clicked the soft, dim lights on and slowly sat by Charles.
“I know you have already decided your fate for yourself,” Edwin started, taking the spoon. “But we shall try one last time to end the curse.”
“Edwin,” Charles sighed, closing his eyes.
“I found this magical spoon, and Niko and Crystal made this curry for you,” Edwin insisted, scooping some rice and curry onto the completely normal-looking spoon and holding it up for Charles. “It shall work with a home-cooked meal. Try to eat it.”
“We tried with a home-cooked meal already,” Charles said.
“But not with this spoon. Eat,” Edwin insisted. Charles rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to take the bite. It tasted like ash, as usual. Before he could say anything, Edwin already held up another bite. Charles took it without comment. He didn’t want to fight Edwin anymore. “Charles, I love you,” Edwin said then.
Charles chewed quietly before he answered.
“I know,” he said. But before he could wince or react to just how shitty that must have sounded to Edwin, another spoonful of curry was presented to him.
“You were there for me when nobody else was,” Edwin said. “You are the best person I know.”
“Even if I-” Charles started his mouth still full of food, when Edwin already offered another one.
“Yes,” Edwin said. “You do not need to prove anything. You do not have to earn it, Charles, you are already enough.”
The curry Edwin was feeding him was a curry coming out of a box. And Charles frowned when he realized that. Not because he had seen the box, or Edwin told him, it was because he could taste it. He could taste it…! He suddenly teared up, unable to retort anything to Edwin, other than soft sobs between bites. It tasted so good. And Charles was so relieved. But so scared. It felt like an old wound had opened up and bled from all the bad blood and infection. It hurt but Charles felt lighter and fuller with each bite, with each second. The magical spoon was working.
“Edwin,” Charles cried, chewing on one of the last bites. “I’m sorry, I…”
“Charles,” Edwin sighed. “It is alright. No need to apologize. Do you feel better?” Charles nodded, rubbing his eyes and feeling like a fool. When he opened his eyes again he found Edwin presenting him with the last of the curry.
“You eat it, Edwin.”
“What? But Charles I…”
“‘S a magical spoon, innit?” Charles asked. “You taste it too, mate.” Edwin looked like he wanted to refuse but in the end he took the last bite. Charles watched with fascination, realizing that this was the first time he had seen Edwin eat something. And probably the last. The sight hurt a little because in another life they could have been friends while still alive. They could have gone and tasted the world together. “How was it?”
“Quite spicy,” Edwin grumbled, putting the plate and spoon down. Charles actually laughed out loud. The curry was not spicy at all. And it was almost adorable how Edwin probably could not handle spicy food at all. “We may need to repeat this if you feel hungry again but I believe we are… we have found a way to break the curse.”
“Yeah,” Charles sighed, feeling his shoulders relax. “Thank you, Edwin,” he said, reaching out to take his friend’s hand. Edwin smiled a little shyly, squeezing his hand back. “I should uh, tell the girls I’m fine, yeah?”
“They were extremely worried,” Edwin nodded.
“Crystal’s gonna yell at me?”
“Yes.”
“Aces, then I should get to it.”
--
Later that night the agency had exhausted itself with games and play to celebrate the half-resurrection of Charles Rowland. But the office was still not a place to stay for the night so Charles offered to escort Crystal and Niko home, leaving Edwin behind. He was about to continue some research when the Night Nurse walked in.
“I heard you have found a potent magical item? You must be well aware by now that I need to inspect every one of those,” she said. “We cannot let dangerous items just be thrown into the back of a drawer!” Edwin rolled his eyes but presented the spoon to her. She held it, her disgust was almost comical on her face. “This?”
“That,” Edwin said, raising a challenging eyebrow.
“This is not a magical item, boy,” she hissed.
“I am well aware.”
“What am I supposed to do with this, then?”
“Give it back?”
The Nurse frowned and slowly handed it back to Edwin.
“How did the curse break?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him. The boy pursed his lips as he weighed the spoon in his hand.
“The curse broke when we destroyed the artifact,” Edwin said. “But sometimes the spirit needs to be fed, too. So, as far as I am concerned, this is a magical spoon.”
“It is not the spoon that is magical, Edwin Payne,” the Night Nurse sighed. “You two boys do take care of each other.”
Edwin didn’t retort but smiled a little as the Nurse had left. Then he went and put the spoon in their cabinet of magical items that were not up for exchange.