As always, Morringan left her part-time work in the morgue, got on her bike, and on her way to the graveyard of Winterbourne she bought a small bottle of whiskey, a bouquet of red roses, and the first branch that touched her shoulder on her way there. Parking the bike out of the eerie place she was far too used to now, she hopped off, leaving her helmet on the bike, and headed inside. Striding in confidently, ignoring the haunting voices of the spirits all around her.
"Alone again, lad?" The graveyard guardian asked her, like he always did, he was calm but talkative, and the first one she was ever able to speak to.
Morringan pressed her lips together and walked towards his gracious grave, "She doesn't have a stomach for this, Eldric," it was all she said before putting opening the lid of the whiskey bottle and showering his grave with it. "Drunk yet?"
The first time they met was when she had just turned 7 years old, on her oldest brother funeral, back then, when she told her family about it, they all labelled her as delusional, even her sister. When she understood that nobody would believe in her, because vampires and faes and dragons were real but ghosts was where they draw the stupid line, she stopped talking about it. But that didn't make it less real to her.
From her 8 years old and on, whenever she was feeling too overwhelmed by the outside world and social interactions, she would sneak into the graveyard, taking advantage that her school was three streets away and come after Eldric, to talk to him. She got in trouble many times because of that, and everyone because to label her as an outcast, just because she would rather spend time with the dead than with the living. But to her, Eldric was the most interesting soul around.
When she was 9 years old, he told her that spirits of the dead, such as himself, could experience the taste of liquid things, as long as those things were poured over their grave, and he also told her how much he missed a good whiskey. That was when she began to get into trouble with her family because she would steal her father, her uncle, and her grandfather's whiskey whenever she could, just to bring it to Eldric. And when they questioned her about it, she would just lie and say she was drinking it and couldn't get drunk.
To them it was absurd, to her it was the only thing they would believe in. If she told them it was for a spirit to drink, they would say she was batshit crazy, and she didn't want to be thrown into a psych ward, just because her fae, witchling, and vampire relatives couldn't believe that ghosts existed. When she was old enough to buy alcohol, she would bring a whole bottle solely for Eldric to drink.
His grave claimed his name to be Eldric Vega, but he had told her that he had been murdered for the culprit to hide that he was actually Eldric Winterbourne, a member of the founding family of the city, and the first person to be buried in the graveyard, which turned him into the graveyard guardian. The weapon used to kill him had been a sword that slashed him on the chest and through his heart, and that gave him a wide scar on his chest. He also claimed that she had been the first living person he talked to, ever.
When she was a child, he looked like an adult to her, but now, at 21 years old, Eldric looks awfully young, still older than her, but still young. For years, he didn't tell her about his death, he only opened up about it when she turned 18 years old, it was when he told her that he had been killed by his stepfather Orion when he was 23 years old, after he caught the men cheating on his mother. He was white and with golden blonde hair, blue eyes, he said.
Now he's grayish pale, his blonde hair turned pale and nearly white, and his eyes darkened into midnight blue, with no light on them anymore.
After she turned 20 years old, he told her that when he died, he had just asked the hand of his girlfriend Evangeline in marriage, he had gotten engaged two days before Orion murdered him, and he regretted that dearly. So, she went after learning about the end of Orion and also of Evangeline, trying to give him some comfort. Evangeline got so heartbroken with his death that she left the city and went abroad, nothing on her anymore, while Orion lived as a fake Winterbourne for more 23 years, before he got killed by a vampire guy called Roman from outside the boarders, in a fight of races.
Both of them and Eldric were all fae.
"Ah, how I missed this, Lad," he groaned, feeling the whiskey within himself after she drowned his grave with it.
Morringan rolled her eyes, "I gave you a bottle yesterday, Eldric."
"Yesterday," he cried. "I could have five of these per day, lad, it's sad, you know? This is to me what water is to you."
She crunched her eyebrows, frowning at him, "I need water to keep on living nicely, Eldric, you're dead dead," she pointed at his grave, "literally seven feet under, for centuries may I add, I don't see how that could be the same."
He pouted, "I meant the feeling, lad, no need to be so annoying about it."
"You are an alcoholic ghost, Eldric."
"I'm obsessed with alcohol, you are obsessed with the dead, we're both freaks, no need to keep reminding me, Mor," he rolled his eyes dramatically.
"I'm not obsessed with the dead."
"And I'm alive," he mocked.
"You're welcome," she left the bottle of the whiskey above his grave and turned on her heels.
"Wait, sorry," he sighed, running after her, standing a bit more than a head taller than hee, "can you stay a bit longer? I'm missing talking to people, you're the only one I'm able to talk to, Mor."
Clenching her jaw, she turned her lavender-ish grey eyes to him, "Any news?" She didn't need to say more about what she wanted to know, because he knew what it was, they had been over that for years now.
A muscle plumed on his jaw as he stared down at her eyes, wanting to say more, but not knowing what else to say, "Still nothing, I'm sorry, Mor. I've tried talking to the others around, but the ones who knew your family are terrified of something, I just don't... know what it is," he told her as he followed her steps.
Sighing, Morringan swallowed hard, "You think I'm delusional?"
"No. Never, Mor. Who called you that?" When she stared down, frustrated, though she didn't say the name, he knew who it had been. "Was it your sister? Again?"
"Ophelia doesn't understand what I see, Eldric," she avoided his eyes. "I don't either, not on that night, but I know I saw something. My mind is still dazed. I know I must have memories of it, but whatever happened, traumatized me so much that I'm unable to get back to it. Every time I try to think about it, I'm taken over by an imminent feeling of terror."
"Just like the spirits," he added and she nodded. "If we find a way to disconnect me from this graveyard, I could try helping you better, I,"
"I'm trying my best, Eldric," she finally met his eyes again, "I've been trying to find a way for years, but I can't get my hands in anything about graveyard guardians. And if what you told me about your suspicions is right, we would need to get you to kill a living being and turn them into the graveyard guardian instead, but you can't do that because you can't get corporeal. We both know I can't make you corporeal either, I've been there, we've tried a handful times, it didn't work."
"Did you find any word about the vault of the Winterbourne, there's a library and,"
"We've talked about that before, Eldric," she sighed. "You've told everything about it, and Orion must have done something to hide that, because you're are the only existent being who knows about this library. I couldn't get a hold of where your mother's spirit is, so, it's only you who knows, and you were the last Winterbournes to know all this. You told me yourself that your baby brother was still a little kid when you died, a year after your mother remarried to Orion, so he didn't know that, he didn't pass it down!"
"But did you try to get into contact with my brother's descendant? You said there are some of them here in Winterbourne."
She cringed at the thought, cringed even more when the said descendant came into her mind, rage filling her veins, jaw clenching, "I am unable to get close to that descendant in question, Eldric, he is the more loathing person I've ever met. He was horrible in school, became worse in highschool, and worsened on college. It would be easier for me to kill him rather than to get close to ask about this. Believe me, you wouldn't want me close to him, he is... strange, there's something off about that bastard, I always felt that and it only grew worse with the years."
"He can't be that bad, Mor, he,"
"Draven Winterbourne is the worst you could find in our modern sick society, I guarantee you, Eldric, and he's not a fae like you and your late relatives. I mean, not entirely, I never saw any fae thing on him past the ears," she pointed to hers and his. "He's more demon than anything."