Because I Could Not Stop For Death | Lockwood & Co.

𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐃

"And now that I'm grown, I'm scared of ghosts."

𝐄𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐂𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋. She had known that ever since she was a child. Her parents suspected from the time they brought her home from the hospital that she was Talented. As she grew, there was no denying it. She could see things, hear things, and feel things that her parents couldn't. Her parents knew that when she came of age, people would expect that she would be headed for an agency to help fight the Problem, as long as it still ravaged England at night. Her parents didn't wish to burden the young girl, but also worked to be sure she wasn't afraid of her Talents. Sketchbooks, easels, and paintbrushes quickly became the girls' closest friends, where she drew all that she saw, heard, and felt. Some were of ghoulish figures that would give any adult nightmares. Others were objects and sometimes, just a person's name.

𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑 𝐀𝐆𝐄 of five, Eden's Talents became much more pronounced, for one night, a disgruntled Visitor from a carelessly disposed Source found a new set of victims—Eden's parents. Eden was only a child, but watched as the ghost that only she could see and hear murdered her parents right in front of her. But curiously, when the Visitor turned to next attack Eden, the strangest thing happened. As Eden was watching her parents die, sound began to infiltrate her ears—white noise, static—built like painful pressure until she couldn't take it anymore. When the ghost approached her, Eden wailed, and the ghost vanished. Almost like it had never even been there to begin with.

𝐃𝐄𝐏𝐑𝐀𝐂 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐍, and an investigation was conducted with the help of the Fittes Agency. Alongside Eden's testimony of what happened, neighbors' reporting that they heard a wail, and the agents assigned to find the Source, one conclusion was drawn. Though there were traces of a Visitor in the house, the Source was completely obliterated. This led DEPRAC to deduce that it was Eden's wail that drove the ghost away and destroyed the Source. Marvelously, it was a Talent that they had not seen, and wanted to use it to their advantage.

𝐒𝐎, 𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐆, the Fittes Agency became her home. Penelope Fittes, daughter of Marissa Fittes, who started the agency in the 1970s, raised the girl like her own. But as Eden grew, the playing field was not equal. DEPRAC's intelligence branch had deduced that the presence of all three Talents in Eden, overwhelmed by the presence of the ghost and all the feelings that that brought with it, were what triggered her to wail. And that is exactly what Fittes forced her to do. On every job, she was the one forced to use her Talents the most, forced to connect with each and every ghost until she was falling to her knees in physical and emotional pain, not realizing that some of the only times she wailed were when members of her team died. And those wails were never strong enough to obliterate a Source and drive a ghost away.