Chapter Text
“Have you heard…”
“…blood spread across all the bookshelves!”
“I’ve heard it’s a result of those behind the door–”
There really is no way to find where these mutterings began. This is the problem with such large organizations. Whispers are common in such dark hallways and gossip is king in the mess hall. When underlings number in the hundreds and everyone seems to hold a different story deal, well, one could say fog is clearer.
“Do you think it’s a dead Exorcist?”
“I’ve heard it’s the wrath of an angle.”
“A lost soul of a Finder perhaps?”
Even harder is this venture of untangling threads of rumor if the very organization rests on impossible stories.
“Ghost…”
“Must be innocence.”
“…Akuma in our midst!”
“Hevlaska in human form?”
Really who knows how it started. Rumors are rumors, stories are stories, gossip is almost always incorrect. Who cares how the story began? Rather one should care about its factuality.
“I saw it!”
“There really wasn’t any blood.”
“Didn’t look dead…”
“Hevlaska’s too polite.”
“If it was an Akume we’d be dead.”
“…not an Exorcist.”
“Angles are holy, not gostly, idiot.”
People are odd. Stories become coping mechanisms or explanations for the unexplainable. They aren’t always supposed to make sense or even be understood. Humans spend too much time attempting to comprehend the scattered whims of fickle writers that often they forget that stories are an explanation of reality. They really wouldn’t wish to apply such fiction, to question their world, by perusing idle gossip.
“… ghosts don’t exist.”
“Just fun to talk about.”
“Really livens the place up.”
“Why would I care if the rumors are true?”
“No one goes in the library anyway.”
“Bah!”
“Rumor.”
“Gossip.”
“Fiction.”
“Imaginative.”
“Lies.”
Who really can say how the rumor started?
A chuckle echoed from the darkness, amused and ghoulish. Unseen they remained as they watched oblivious shadows donning the masks of birds, question gossiping fools. The man examined an elegant hand, fingers of pianist, slender wrist, pale skin. A normal human hand. Now… if only it wasn’t spectral.
"Well..." They smirked, "I believe this shall prove to be quite interesting."