100 Themes Challenge - 9/100: Ghosts
~~~
Rotwraith is a haunted man. Ghosts and ghouls come to him in the dead of night, make him wake up gasping from dreams he’ll never be able to verbalize. Sometimes they come when he’s awake. Those are worse. (Audible Hallucinations, Heelih says, that thoughtful and well educated frown of concern on her features. As if having a fancy name makes it any less jarring to hear buried voices screaming.)
If he’s sleeping on the Captain’s floor, he’ll reach up and dig his sharp nails into the Captain just to hear him grunt and know there’s someone else alive. If Heelih has him on a table, he’ll sit up, and she’ll wake in an instant and get him whatever he needs to sleep. If Sro is around, well, he’ll blink owlishly when he sees that Rotwraith is awake. That’s enough.
Lately there’s been Carrow, too. Carrow isn’t a comfort so much as he’s just…There.
But at least he’s alive. At least he’s not buried, and come back to rip through Rotwraith’s head and steal sleep the way that Rotwraith has stolen lives.
One night, they are standing on the perimeter, watching a caravan to make sure no one attacks it while it crosses.
The noises in Rotwraith’s ears grow from buzzing to ringing to growling to screaming. He grits his teeth, knowing that if it’s real, the boy will react to it, too. Unless, of course, the boy is already dead, or-
Rotwraith’s foot moves of it’s own accord, bumping up against the boy. Carrow gasps.
“Quiet.” Carrow hisses. “Captain said to not be noticed.”
“Ah, you are quite right, boy.” Rotwraith rasps, a smile curling his lips.
(Over the years, he kicks Carrow a lot. It’s only when Carrow silently kicks back in confirmation that all is quiet that Rotwraith starts and realizes he could very well begin relying on the boy if he’s not careful, horror of horrors.)