Chapter 2: The Chains
As the clock chimed five, the end of the work day, Scott finished up and nervously went to Erik.
"You'll want all day off tomorrow, I suppose." Erik groaned.
"If it's convenient sir." Scott said. "After all, it is Christmas Eve."
"It's not convenient." Erik muttered. "And it's not fair. I have you pay you a day's wages for nothing. All this holiday garbage will have me in the poor house."
"Don't fall for it, Scott." Kurt muttered. Erik was a sly old business man.
"Well sir." Scott said. "If things are so bad for you, you don't have to pay me for the whole day."
"First sensible thing you've said all day, Summers." Erik said. "I'll pay you half a day, and no more."
"Alright." Scott said.
He and Erik walked out as Kurt reluctantly followed Erik. Kurt was furious at him.
How can anybody be so stingy?
So stingy? So stingy?
How can anybody be so stingy?
He's the stingiest man in town!
Erik sighed as he checked his cash box for the day, full as expected.
"Uh, you're lucky you're dead as a doornail, Warren." Erik sighed. "And not bothered with Christmas. I'm lucky too. I don't have to share the profits with you, anymore."
Old Lehnsherr's such a stingy man.
The tightest man since time began.
Oh he's so tight, so tight I say,
He wouldn't give a bride away.
It hurts him so to pay one cent.
He wouldn't pay a compliment.
He uses lightning bugs at night
To save the cash he pays for light.
How can anybody be so stingy?
So stingy? So stingy?
How can anybody be so stingy?
He's the stingiest man in town!
And when his Hurst goes rolling by,
No man alive is gonna cry.
But you can bet his ghost will curse,
Because he's paying for the Hurst.
And when it's time for him to go,
His soul will travel down below.
And when he gets there, you can tell
Because you'll hear old Satan yell,
"How can anybody be so stingy?!
So stingy?! So stingy?!
He's the stingiest man in town!"
Erik went to an old house that used to belong to Worthington, having been left to Erik in his will. There was something strange about that night. The mist was so dark that it seemed like death sat in meditation. Erik went to the doorknob when suddenly it became the face of Warren Worthington! There was no mistake. He had the same goatee and sharp eyes.
"Warren?" Erik gasped. "Warren Worthington? But you've been dead for seven years! Oh, why have you come back to haunt me?!"
The doorknob returned to normal, and Erik sighed.
"Just my imagination." Erik sighed. "Bah humbug. I better get to bed."
Erik walked in as Kurt followed. His mother had been Warren Worthington's aid, and Erik inherited their use with the house.
"Didn't seem like a humbug to me." Kurt said as he passed the door nervously.
After the commotion, Erik went straight to bed, however…
That night when old Erik Lehnsherr
Lay dreaming in his room,
He heard the sound of rattling chains
Come clanking through the gloom.
And while he lay there shivering
In the icy grip of fear,
The ghost of Erik's partner,
Old Worthington did appear…
Warren looked the same, but he was covered in chains and cash boxes.
"Erik Lehnsherr…" Worthington said moaning as if in pain or misery. "In life I was your partner, Warren Worthington."
"Bah!" Erik said. "You're just an hallucination!"
"See me." Worthington said as calm as the sea. "Why do you doubt your senses?"
Worthington removed his very face as his skeleton roared at him. Shocking Erik as Worthington refixed his face back on as easy as putting on a mask.
"What do you want with me?" Erik asked nervously.
"Much." Worthington explained. "Look at me. Condemned to walk the Earth in death because I wasted my life."
"Wasted?" Erik asked. "How Warren?"
"I helped myself to money." Worthington said with a weep. "Instead of helping my neighbor, and so I wear this chain of greed and heartlessness I forged in life."
I wear a chain. A heavy chain
Is bound around my soul.
A chain of sin and vices
That I could not control.
Repent your crimes. Repent in time.
Or you'll repent in vain.
For if you wait until too late,
You'll never break your chains.
Although my chain is very long,
The one you wear is longer.
My chain of wrong is very strong,
But yours is even stronger.
You must escape! Escape my fate!
Cast of the sins that bind you,
Or you will find when you pass on,
You'll drag your chain behind you!
"But it's not right for you to be so condemned!" Erik said, applying this to himself as well. "You were only doing business in life as I do now. And business is business."
"Mankind should have been my business." Worthington said. "You still have time to repent. Reform!"
"How?" Erik asked.
"Tonight, you will be haunted by three spirits." Worthington said.
"I'd rather not." Erik said quaking for the first time in many, many years.
"Without their visits you cannot hope to shun the path I tread." Worthington retorted. "Expect the first tonight when the bell tolls one."
Worthington then walked to the window and opened it as Erik saw several people with chains like Worthington's, some were shorter, some were longer, but all looked extremely heavy to carry.
"See the phantoms that fill the night air." Erik elaborated. "Each with chains. None free, and I must go with them."
Worthington floated down to the others and turned to Erik.
"Observe and know our misery, Erik." Worthington went on. "Now we seek to do good in human matters but have lost the power forever. Repent! Repent…!"
"No!" Erik said more out of fear of the sight than refusing to repent. "NO!"
Erik shut the window as Kurt rushed to see the sight, having seen Worthington with Erik.
"Zey're gone…" Kurt said with a shiver.
Oh my… That must suck for Worthington.