The Haunt Strikes Twelve (Cain)

[Eden Fletcher]

It had been a good day for Eden, nice and quiet. THe auror bullpen was rather empty with most people out in the field or just quietly working at their desks. Eden had been sitting cross legged on the floor of her little area of paradise office space. Despite her persuasive ploys Eden still had a tiny cubicle in the back corner of the office. When she needed privacy to interview witnesses she had to use an interrogation room. Usually she just had the poor victim sit on her lumpy chair and she perched on her desk. She'd rescued the massive lump of oak from a pile of trash when the lead aurors offices were refurnished. The scarred executive desk nearly took up the entire cubicle. She needed the space though. Stacks of parchment filled one half of the desk, quills and pencils took up a third. The short walls of the cubicle were covered in wanted posters she had drew.

She'd been doodling when a cranky cry startled her. Standing in her tiny doorway was Auror Christians. He had a harassed expression on his face. At first he didn't see her there on the floor, her chair partially blocking her.

"Damn it Fletcher, where the bloody hell are you, what's the use of a in house sketch artist if you're never around?" He exclaimed throwing his hands up as he started to look around the office.

Eden let out a deep sigh, "Down here Christians," She said waving her ink smudged fingers at him. "How can I be of assistance?" She said her smile bland. Oh how she just wanted to put the smug bastard in his place. Eden hated the guy. He was just so...well annoying. Even the way he did his hair made Eden want to roll her eyes.

The auror stared at the girl. So unprofessional. He didn't know why she was kept around. "Something useful for you to do Fletcher. You know your job. This woman," he reached behind him and practically dragged a poor old lady off her feet, "has seen an intruder in the building. Multiple times. Figure out who it is," He said before leaving.

"Pleasure as always!" Eden called after him as she stood up, setting aside her sketchbook. Eden smiled welcoming at the older woman who was cowering by her desk.

"Please take a seat," Eden said pulling out the chair. "Glass of water?" She asked as she settled herself on the corner of her desk facing the woman. The lady was wearing the gray robes of a maintenance worker.

"No, no thank you," she said in a quiet voice thick with a strange accent. Eastern European. Russian or Bulgarian or something similar.

"My name is Eden and I'm here to help. My job is to draw what you see so we can find out who is bothering you. Okay?" It was her typical spiel. Describe what was going to happen and then make nice. Put the person at ease. Even if she thought this assignment was crack. Who would break into the ministry? Probably some excuse Christians made up.

It had taken three bloody hours to get the story out of the woman. Once she started talking she couldn't stop but it was all over the place. She had made three sightings of the terror. Weird things kept happening. Someone was moving all the lamps by an inch. Or making the lights flicker. Ghostly antics. The description of course was of the resident haunt of cubicle 4. What Eden wasn't sure of was whether Cain was actually haunting this maintenance worker or if this was another ploy of Christians to get the bloody haunt kicked out of the department. The diva often complained that he couldn't work with him lingering around all the damn time.

Quill tucked behind her ear, Eden showed the old lady out and went to find the ghost. In her hands was a sketch of him having tea in the executive offices of the minister of magic.

[Cain the Scorched]

Christians wasn't a bad man, he just liked things just so,  and a ghost floating about the place, chatting up both Aurors and visitors, didn't fit his view of perfect order in the world. Dropping into his chair with what would be described as a flop by anyone else, he briefly put his hands over his face before straightening with a sigh. He reached for one of the quills on his desk, correcting its alignment. He tidied the inbox next. Why couldn't anyone use the standard message paper? It seemed he had scraps of just about any paper one could scribble on in his inbox, old receipts, torn off corners, messenger birds with so many messages on them it was hard to tell which was relevant, because people kept reusing them. Ugh.

--

Cain was floating upside down in the washroom, just out of eye-line of most of the visitors. Occasionally he'd reach down and ruffle someone's hair, or pull a collar straight. The shrieks or yells of protest were very gratifying to the ghost's mischievous nature. Why hadn't he thought to do anything like this when he was alive?

Well, he probably would have been fired, world-famous Cursebreaker or no. And he had really enjoyed his job. So much so that he still tended to float about the Cursebreaker labs, chatting with the current denizens about magical theory. He knew that several of the newer Cursebreakers over the years had benefited directly from his knowledge, and that gave him the warm fuzzies. Which was an interesting phenomena, since he was a ghost and as such was limited to fairly cold temperatures. Like walking through a heavy mist, Alex had said. But Cain knew anyway, he frequently felt his own cold.

He was still pondering this when he floated through the washroom wall towards the hall. Perhaps he'd go to see how Christians was doing. He was so uptight, very anal about organization. The ghost loved moving his stuff just that tiny bit, to see if the Auror would notice. And so far, he had always noticed. 

[Eden Fletcher]

Ghost hunting was hard work. Especially when you stopped to chat with people about office politics. Eden wasn't in too much of a hurry to find Cain anyways. She liked the happy haunt. He made life interesting. This would just be another wanted poster for his collection. Wanted Tea Drinking Miscreant. Hmm maybe she should write that one down. Eden was about to pull out her quill when something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Cain! He was exiting the bathrooms looking very determined. Was he really headed towards Christians' desk?

This would be fun. Eden grinned and crossed the room, wanting to get there in time for the show. Or should she actually warn Cain that Christians was in a particularly bad mood.

"Someone's up to something. Had any good tea lately?" Eden said as she approached Cain from behind, they were still a couple of feet away from Christians domain.

[Cain the Scorched]

Cain floated through the wall, taking the indirect route towards Christians' office. He wasn't in any particular hurry, and most likely he was in his office now anyway. In Cain's opinion, it was the most fun to move things when the auror was out of the office.

"Someone's up to something. Had any good tea lately?"

One thing Cain definitely missed was tea. And food. Fortunately, if the flavors could be made strong enough he could still taste them a little. But it was a hell of a mess to clean up afterwards, since he didn't actually have a stomach. "Eden!" He twirled around, grin widening. He was mighty cheery for a ghost who looked like he'd blown himself up.

"Not too recently, I'm afraid." He answered.

[Eden Fletcher]

The annoyance of having to deal with the old woman vanished at Cain's smile. He was such a jolly ghost that one couldn't help but be in a good mood. Especially since he was perpetually blown up. He looked pretty good for a guy who should be in pieces.

"Huh, I spoke with this old lady, I think she's Russian, could be Bulgarian. She swears that someone matching your description keeps drinking people's tea on the executive level. Everyone is in such a tizzy over it.I mean I think she said tea but one never knows. It could be a metaphor. Or tea means something else in Russian." Eden said with a shrug as she held up her sketch.

"I made you this," It was a wanted poster, thousand dollar reward with information about a tea snatcher. She'd drawn Cain floating cross legged over the ministers desk with a tea cup in hand.

"Our favorite OCD auror had sent the lovely lady my way. I think he's trying to get you fired again." Eden pointed out conversationally.

"Done anything fun lately?"

[Cain the Scorched]

"I made you this," It was a wanted poster, thousand dollar reward with information about a tea snatcher. She'd drawn Cain floating cross legged over the ministers desk with a tea cup in hand.

"Our favorite OCD auror had sent the lovely lady my way. I think he's trying to get you fired again." Eden pointed out conversationally.

The ghost smiled, sticking his tongue out playfully. "He can't fire me, I'm a ghost. I don't actually work here." Although it was his primary haunt, Cain actually spent time in other places, usually drawn by whatever guilt he felt over that particular place. He knew firsthand the acute horrors of the Stone, of the Demons. And he would not let anyone forget.

"Done anything fun lately?"

"Pretended to have tea in the Minister's office?" Cain quipped, floating closer to the poster. It was very well done, one of his favorites so far. "I'm not an asshole, Eden. Despite evidence to the contrary, I don't actually try and make messes or disrupt people too much." So no eating or drinking, since that made an enormous mess.

[Eden Fletcher]

Cain had a point. It was not like ghosts actually needed money. Did ghosts sleep? What did he do all night if he didn't sleep? Did he haunt dreams? Still, Cain was a huge help around here. More than one cocky curse breaker was saved by his hints.

"I'm not an asshole, Eden. Despite evidence to the contrary, I don't actually try and make messes or disrupt people too much."

Eden burst out laughing, her entire body shook and she clutched her sides. It had been a long time since someone had caused her to just loose it. It was a few minutes before she recovered herself enough to straighten up and wipe tears from the corner of her eyes.

"I didn't mean to imply that you were a jerk. You just have a reputation of mischief. I for one enjoy a good bit of fun once in a while and I would enjoy your expertise sometime. I think a certain auror needs to be reminded that you don't actually work here." She said with a wicked grin as she glanced down the hall.

"Can ghosts be banned from places? The ministry can preform a spell that keeps you away can they?" She pondered, a little worried that maybe one day the ministry would just try to kick him out of his haunt.

[Cain the Scorched]

"Can ghosts be banned from places? The ministry can preform a spell that keeps you away can they?" She pondered, a little worried that maybe one day the ministry would just try to kick him out of his haunt.

"I'm sure its something the Spirit Division could manage. They forced Moaning Myrtle to stay at Hogwarts, after all." He considered, tilting rather sideways. He wondered if it would be harder to keep a ghost away from their death-place, as opposed to confined to it, as with Myrtle. He'd died in the Auror offices. Or, rather, he'd died at St Mungo's. But he'd started dying here, during the explosion. Cain didn't see much of a difference.

"Oh, alright, I'll lay off the stiff for a couple days. Let him get some work done."

[Eden Fletcher]

"I'm sure its something the Spirit Division could manage. They forced Moaning Myrtle to stay at Hogwarts, after all."

"Huh? I never knew they could do that. It sounds bloody awful. To be trapped in one place for eternity." She said with a shudder. How could a ghost trapped to one location ever make peace and move on to the next world? What gave the ministry the right to regulate where a being went just because they were an annoying dead nuisance.

"Oh, alright, I'll lay off the stiff for a couple days. Let him get some work done."

"You could always come haunt my cubicle. I get rather bored sometimes," Eden said with a shrug as she turned to see who was calling her name. A harried looking witch was motioning for Eden to come over. The woman was waiving her hands so hard she looked like she was fanning herself.

"looks like my special talents are needed, Catch you later Cain," She said as she hurried off.

-Eden out.