Chapter Text
After a long day of shift work, the guards are gathered around the fire pit with the recruits, trading stories, and scars. Phillip, the captain, sits quietly eating his soup as the others hoop and holler. His light brown eyes look over the men and women carefully, making sure none get too drunk for duty tomorrow. The door to the guardhouse bursts open and Layla runs into the circle, her dark features defined only by the flickering firelight.
"It's happened again!" The group goes silent as she pants to catch her breath. She continues, a little calmer this time. "Another one disappeared." Guards look around at each other before all speaking at once.
"What is it?" Says a recruit with shaggy hair and glasses.
"I heard there's a ghost." A burly man across the circle responds.
"Yeah right, it's just a story." Before they can continue, Phillip stands and walks into the circle. Everyone looks up at him, quieting out of respect and curiosity to see what he'll do. He takes Layla's arm gently but firmly and pulls her in. His voice is soft and wise in her ear.
"Let's speak inside." Layla nods and he guides her away from the fire and into the guardhouse. Once the door is shut behind them, she starts to rant.
"Okay, so you know how the first time this happened it was completely random? I think this time I found a pattern and there were also some things left behind that I can use to-" Phillip cuts her off before she can continue, his eyes narrow and his usual calm smile gone.
"Layla, stop. You are too obsessed with this. We're guards, not detectives. It's just a ghost, leave it at that." He turns and rests his hand on the doorknob but Layla turns him around, her eyes pleading.
"Captain. These are your people, your guards! You have trained every single one of us from the day we signed up, how can you be so okay with this? Ghost or not, there has to be something we can do to get our friends back." Phillip looks down, sighing.
"You need to stop digging into this." With that, he turns and leaves her in the guardhouse, alone with her thoughts and the beds of her quickly disappearing comrades.