Here Comes The Son (Ghost Band / Papa Emeritus fic)

Call Out in the Middle of the Night

Phantom's eyes opened wide, suddenly alert. Sitting up in the far too quiet room, Phantom's eyes opened wider still. Papa was gone and something was wrong. Cursing himself internally for falling asleep, Phantom reached out with his quintessence, hopeful that Copia was still in his chambers somewhere but all he sensed was emptiness. Scrambling to his feet, he sniffed the air, finding Copia's scent easily and racing after him, desperately hoping he hadn't made the mistake of a lifetime. Castigation and repudiation from the other ghouls, even banishment to Hell's deepest inferno wasn't punishment enough for losing Papa and Phantom was frantic for that not to be the case. Following the scent easily, Phantom was relieved that it never left the Ministry and seemed instead to be heading towards the public chapel. He cursed Copia for leaving his chambers over and over in his mind as his quintessence continued to sense his Papa's alarm and fear.

*

Inside the chapel, Copia remained stiffened and barely breathing with the knife's sharp blade held close to his throat. Saying nothing, his mind was full of doubts but was trying hard to push them away in favour of what he felt he knew instinctively.

"Well, Copia? Nothing to say?" The voice asked in a scolding tone.
"Hello, Matthias." Going with his instinct, he greeted his attacker. "Can you lower the knife, please? If I suddenly sneeze, this won't work out well for me."
"Or me," the man behind him laughed as he lowered the knife from his throat and released Copia's hair, raking his fingers through it to smooth it again. "But seriously, man? What were you thinking?"

Copia offered a deep sigh and a shrug.

"I'm getting tired of being cooped up under guard," he offered the weak excuse.
"Somebody wanted to hurt you badly enough to take you at a ritual. Okay, so we got you back but I'm assuming from all the protection that they haven't given up?"
"Something like that, yeah."
"So, you'd rather be stuffed into a two by one metre coffin?" Cardinal Matthias joined him to sit alongside him in the pew.

Copia raised an eyebrow in indignation and pointed an accusatory gloved finger.

"I'm not that wide!"
"You're not that tall, either."

Matthias smirked, receiving a half-smile, half-frown to the height reference. As someone who would struggle to fit into a standard two metre coffin, Matthias stood considerably taller than Copia and often assumed with occasional confirmation that Copia's height bothered him. As a man who enjoyed being tall, Matthias had never truly understood that the only thing that Copia didn't like about his height was people continually drawing attention to it as if it should be a problem. Clothes fitted him without too much effort and he could comfortably slide into a bunk on the tour bus, which was more than he could say for Matthias.

As the pair settled and relaxed in each other's company, Phantom burst into the chapel, already half-way along the aisle in the blink of an eye with his fangs and claws ready to maim or even kill anyone caught hurting or threatening Copia.

"Papa!" Phantom allowed his quintessence to scan the room for any potential threat. He had certainly felt something, but the two men before him appeared relaxed and calm. "Are you safe?" He asked turning a suspicious stare towards the cardinal.

"I am, Phantom, thank you," Copia nodded. "I'm sorry I woke you. Or rather, he woke you," he pointed to Matthias.
"Are you sure you're okay, Papa? He has a knife. I saw him threaten you."
"Ah, well now, aren't you a sly one, Copes?" Matthias chuckled. "A quintessence ghoul tuned to your mind? No wonder you felt safe enough to go out on your own."

Copia frowned; he hadn't wanted that detail to become general knowledge. Whoever was plotting against him would hopefully make a mistake and the advantage of having Phantom able to picture what he was experiencing was a helpful one, but one that could all too easily be overridden or distorted by his enemies if it were common knowledge.