INKTOBER '20 #26 - Hide

Can an existential agoraphobic find themselves wanting to live in a bustling city? Yes. Yes they can. Meet Fykeon Mahimas, the most elusive of the Haunts. Despite their grim reputation, Haunts aren’t malignant undead that hide in the corners of the darkest places to jump at the unsuspecting prey to suck their souls out. Nothing could be further from the truth. While indeed, Haunts are spirits of the long departed that got bound to the shadows, they are not ravaging spirits of vengeance nor they crave any souls to being with. If anything… they are shy. Bashful even. Their only craving could be to be left alone, but that would be false as well, for most of the Haunts find a new way to focus their eternity on. A passion. They are tangible enough to partake in earthly affairs – that is a part of their dire reputation, that they can spring traps and choke the live out of any miserable prey – and they have that special clarity of mind and purpose that only death can bring. And so, they find a new hobby and usually became ultimate experts in it, for the concerns of mortal living or time itself does not really register with them anymore. And Fykeon is botanist. An avid one, but not for alchemy, nor biotechonology. Just… for the sake of it. He find immense pleasure in cataloguing them, naming them, finding their properties, measuring their lives and cycles. In knowing them. And you might ask, how such a green-thumbed ghost could find itself in the city? Simple. One day he haunted the city glasshouses which were installed for hydroponics and growing food during wintertime. It was decade ago, and now he is a de facto curator of the project with a growing botanical garden that extend more and more in every direction to his quiet, mournful guidance.