They were covering the research end of what seemed like a pretty standard-issue case. Al was sitting across from Ed in the library, snarling a little in that their computer system was down; including the wireless. Back to basics it was; and Al had several books open and had just returned from printing out pages from the microfiche machine.
Ed was paging through a book that really didn't have much to do with the case, but Al knew that Ed's tolerance level for the amount of research he did was a whole lot lower. Also, he'd been acting hinky the past few weeks and Al was trying his best not to get on his case about it.
Al looked up when Ed dropped the book, though. That wasn't a "I'm tired of this, and I'm going to slam the book down" noise, it was a flat out dropped-the book. "Ed?" When his brother looked up at him, Al frowned deeper. "What's wrong, man, you look like someone stepped over your grave."
The expression that crossed Ed's face could have been comical under different circumstances. Al realized what he'd said almost immediately. "Ed, sorry, I-"
"I need some air," Ed said gruffly, standing abruptly. The metal-tipped chair legs shrieked across the floor, almost certainly leaving marks. Al winced and Ed, surprised at the noise, took more care at pushing the chair back to the table. That kinda ruined his dramatic exit, but Ed still left.
Al watched his brother go, concerned. It wasn't even that Ed had died and been brought back, something recent ... in the past few weeks, even, had really twigged him out. He was having nightmares again, vivid ones, that he stalwartly denied having despite waking Al up out of a dead sleep by throwing himself out of bed and halfway across the room at least twice.
He reached over and picked up the book that had triggered this particular incident. Ed hadn't slammed it shut or anything, it had fallen open onto its pages. He grumbled slightly about Ed's lack of care for books, and looked over the pages.
One page was a wall of text, but the other was a full-color plate illustration. It showed a very large gate, carved clearly from stone. The person put into the picture for size reference was practically dwarfed by the stone doors. Carvings of bodies in agony crawled up the door, and there was an image of the sepirothic tree drawn across the two doors itself.
The little note on the opposite page labeled the illustration simply "The Gate."