Ghosts Laid to Rest [open]

William Baker was standing in front of his own grave.

Well, not just his grave, but it had been his picture that had caught his eye. A picture of a young dumb kid with blond hair and bright green eyes, surrounded by sage and crosses, with a plaque and a final message; "If you don't properly put my spirit to rest I'll haunt you to your grave."

He couldn't help but laugh, despite how somber the whole memorial was. Somebody had just come through with a duster and replaced the candles, and William had set up incense near the pictures. Hopefully the dead would forgive him for laughing.

He supposed they had just never gotten around to fixing their mistake. On that final day, the day where their lives had changed forever, the day where it all ended, he'd been hurt. Bad. It would have been a miracle if he survived, even with all the healers in the school. They'd set up this memorial for the dead, just outside the school grounds, they'd heard his final request for an epitaph, and they'd honored it. Will had always been the superstitious type, especially back then. They'd even left his sword here.

But then he'd lived, somehow, even if he still carried the scars under his shirt. He'd finished school, back when this place was still a mansion, found his wife, helped out for a couple years, and then... left. He never thought to visit the memorial and dig up all those painful memories again. Will had come back a couple times, to help with construction and the occasional meeting, but now he was here to stay. And if he was going to stay, it meant facing old ghosts.

When they'd called for Guardians, at first, he'd deliberated. His family had still been grieving over the accident, and he wasn't fifteen anymore. He'd even told himself, in bed one night with the letter in his hands, that he wasn't the same kind of guy to rush in to danger to try and be the hero anymore. If they'd asked him to help guard the school twenty years ago, he'd have jumped at the chance. But now he had other people to consider; his wife, his children, his students...

It'd taken awhile for him to admit to himself that some habits died hard. So he'd gone, and answered Nate's call to arms. Zelda, Helen, Hal. They were all settling down in Rosebury now.

"My life had been getting boring anyways..." he muttered to himself.