for @convincingsmile - Nobody's dying today (probably)

[technicallyhellbound]

Edwin knew as soon as he fell through the mirror that something was wrong, and not just a little bit wrong, but the kind of wrong that made the whole world tilt on its axis a little.

It wasn't a misdirected portal, not like the case that had ultimately led them to Crystal, not like many other failures of concentration when traversing mirror portals before, it was something else, and he couldn't place what it was. All he knew was that he'd simply passed through the mirror in question and had landed, hard on the floor on the other side of the room, hard enough that he actually skidded a couple of feet and that couldn't be right because that actually hurt, and hurt in the way he hadn't felt in... well, decades.

It was enough to tumble him against the far wall just from his own momentum, impacting hard enough to knock the breath out of his lungs, and that was definitely wrong, because he shouldn't have had breath or lungs. He could see, even through pain-hazed vision that the poltergeist he'd been baiting had, indeed, gotten caught in the trap he himself had leapt over when aiming for the mirror.

That was, however, the last thing he saw before the half-rotted-through loft floor gave way beneath his sudden and unexpected weight, sending him falling, flailing, scraped to ribbons on the broken slats, to the ground below, and he was reasonably sure he'd actually heard something snap on impact, ribs, if the sudden radiating pain was anything to go by, though his shoulder wasn't in good shape either, and that was an entirely different kind of pain, just layering on top of the feeling of the ragged scratches from the wood, and it occurred to him, dimly, that he'd forgotten how much he hated the feeling of blood on his skin.

It had been different in Hell, the pain, the sensations in general, all of it, it had been horrible, yes, but it was so much more visceral now, and even as his vision began to go hazy again, head swimming, his last thoughts were trying to remember how he'd somehow gotten separated from Charles, who had been barely a step behind him when he'd rounded the corner into the loft pursued by the poltergeist now trapped securely above him.

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[convincingsmile]

Everything was going so well. Right, they decided to bait a poltergeist, a mad one even, using themselves as bait but that was fine, that was most of their cases. So Charles couldn't actually say that he could tell something was going to go wrong, yeah? Aside from the usual, which being the mad lad missing the trap and they would have to push it into it or... something like that. They did this so many times and Edwin was thinking about it all and everything, so Charles wasn't entirely worried. He focused on keeping behind Edwin and trying to shield him from anything that could happen. Easy.

Charles arrived behind their target so he didn't have the same vehement that sent Edwin across the room. But the moment he arrived into the space he gaped for air. It felt like suddenly getting submerged in heavy water only to realize that he could breathe. He could breathe! Charles' eyes went wide, his lips parted, just breathing... Then the loud noises of destruction brought his focus back. He looked just in time to see the floor break under Edwin... and the he fell through! As if he had a weight.

"Edwin!" Charles yelled leaping to the edge of the gaping hole in the floor. He spared a glance at their trapped poltergeist safely, and angrily, trashing around in the trap Edwin set. "Edwin!" Charles called again.

Edwin was the better ghost between them. Right, so Edwin was still the better half of the agency but he was also better at being a ghost. So seeing him fall through the floor alarmed Charles like nothing else. And then he saw blood. There was blood. That was blood. On Edwin. And he looked like he was in pain... while Charles knew that he could handle pain. Charles' hands were trembling as he stood up and almost attempted to just fucking walk into the gap because he should've been able to do that! But as he raised his foot he felt it, it was heavy. Heavy in a way he hadn't felt it for a long, long time. It scared him but not enough to address it just yet. He needed to get to Edwin and fast.

Well, he could handle the fall... right? Was Charles' last thought before he jumped after Edwin and fell on his knees by the impact. The old floor groaned under his weight but it didn't break further. Charles hissed at the pain but thankfully nothing as bad happened to him as to Edwin.

"Mate, Edwin, are you alright?" Charles crawled to him, reaching out to him, only to gasp when his fingers touched his arm. It was warm. Proper warm. As if... alive. And he didn't look alright. There was blood, and Charles could see he was in pain. And he tried not to panic, he tried his hardest, but truly, all he wanted to do was scream.