foxysquidalso | Story: Ace Attorney, "Empiricism"

Title: Empiricism
Pairings, Characters: Miles Edgeworth, Gregory Edgeworth
Rating: PG
Warnings: spoiler for the end of the first game, references to death and the DL-6 incident.
Word count: 300
Summary: Miles Edgeworth is not afraid of ghosts.
Notes: Written for

pw_contest, for the prompt "ghost(s)".

He doesn't believe in ghosts, unlike certain superstitious individuals he could name. There is no conclusive evidence supporting the existence of supernatural phenomena. After death, the heart is quiet; the self ceases to exist. Why should there be anything more? The span of a life is a fine thing, and enough.

False beliefs harm the populace. They serve no one and no purpose. They frighten people and depreciate discourse. There is no logic in a specter, only ignorance.

It is not a ghost that sends a chill sweeping through him right before he stops short in the hallway and says, "I'll take the stairs." Spirits do not make his heart shake when the earth below his feet does the same. When his chest seizes up, when his breath catches in his throat and he falls, there is no unnatural cause.

He has trouble sleeping. Not every night, but most. As he lies in bed, eyes open in the dark, he hears a familiar voice. Still awake, Miles? He hasn't forgotten that tone, that cadence, not in all these years. A gentle voice, a warm, golden light spilling in from the hall.

He hears his own voice reply, but it is not his voice as it is now. It is a child's. I can't sleep. Can you tell me a story?

Miles squeezes his eyes shut. He covers his ears. He does not want to hear the story. He knows how it will end. It is always the same, because it is real. It is not a ghost story. It happened to him, and its reality imbues it with a greater dread than any mere fiction could possess. In the dark. He cannot breathe. A shot, and then a scream.

He cannot move. He feels so cold.