Summary: As charming as the Winchester brothers are, their perception of the supernatural is somewhat limited. Or in other words, have you ever wondered what's going on with the rest of the world, outside the States? Good old Europe, for example, gets protected by an organisation, which to every outsider is known as the Swiss Guard, the Pope's private army, every insiders knows though that they are so much more than that.
A/N: This story is more something like a supernatural spin-off. Its set in Kripke's universe (uses his concepts of angels, demons, monsters) but mostly focuses on original characters. In case I succeed in making something bigger out of this than just a oneshot, I'd certainly let some known side-characters (e.g. Crowley, Chuck) appear.
I'd also like to point out that I'm not a native speaker of English. If you discover mistakes feel free to tell me. But I'd also like to stress that I use British English spelling, so please don't come along saying "it's spelt 'color', not 'colour'".
Thanks go to Silly-Blue, my cheerleader and beta
HOMINES SUMUS NON DEI (We are Humans, not Gods)
Chapter one – Füchse
[Füchse (ger.) – foxes, term also describes new fraternity members, who might still be on probation]
Rome, 14th December 2010
Apparently he was a standard case. That's what they had told him when they had travelled down here. Not that it really mattered but he couldn't help feeling a little bit offended that his near-death experience and shattered world-view counted so little for them.
He was waiting in front of a heavy, wooden office door, which looked old, very old. The shiny golden plate attached to it read 'I. Argast, Oberst' and made Jan fidgety. Who could blame him though? As someone who had been disqualified from military service because of 'potential asthmatic problems' he had never met a real colonel before. Besides, there also was the little fact that this talk could actually decide on the rest of his crappy life. So he really wasn't to blame that he felt like wringing his hands and throwing up the breakfast he hadn't had.
Be calm, he tried to tell himself. The colonel couldn't be so bad; after all, the other members of the Guard hadn't been so bad either. Maybe a bit frigid and detached… uncaring and idiotic but hey, they had saved him… somehow. That he still had had to leave town better went ignored.
Jan took a deep breath. In his mind the image of a corpulent man in his mid-fifties manifested. Yeah, that sounded good. Corpulent with a moustache, that's how he imagined a nice colonel.
And he really hoped the colonel would be nice because otherwise…. Otherwise he really didn't know what to do with himself.
The door opened. A young, brunette woman, probably in her twenties, greeted him with a short nod. Jan, a bit surprised, got up while deciding that she must be some kind of secretary, and followed her inside the office. She gestured towards a chair.
Only when she started walking around the desk and towards the chair opposite his own did he noticed that there was nobody else in the room.
"Errr, where's Oberst Argast?" he asked, confusion and insecurity palpable.
She gave him a weary look. "Mister Hunziker, I presume? I'm Isolde Argast, Oberst of the unofficial division, the PCH."
When Jan did nothing but gawk at her, she added, "I'm aware that I'm probably not what you expected but rest assured that I am the person you're supposed to meet."
"Er, ok." He forced himself to smile and finally took the offered chair. Somehow this didn't make it easier at all – quite the contrary actually. But she didn't give him much time to ponder in which ways this was worse than what he had imagined by starting to scroll through some sheets of paper right in front of her. "So, our files state that you were studying at the University of Basel when the incident happened. Care to fill me in on the details?"
He gave her an unwilling glance. "If you have the files what do you need my story for?"
"A report on a case by a member of the Guard is never as accurate as a first-hand retelling by a witness." Jan could tell that she was just giving him the same spiel all the other members of the Guard had given him as well when they wanted him to repeat all the stupid details on how he had gotten himself into this whole stupid mess. He really didn't want to remember, it made his insides squirm.
Colonel Argast gave him a long expectant look. It was obvious she was not the kind of woman you refused. Jan sighed. "I had signed up for some volunteer work to reorganize and clean out parts of the old university library. Actually, I only did it cause our professor had kinda sent us on a guilt trip that we were all ungrateful, spoilt brats if we refused help…"
A pained little laugh escaped Jan's lips.
oO0Oo
Basel, 23th November 2010
Jan coughed. Bloody dust in this bloody library! What the hell had he been thinking? Why was it that he let himself be so easily persuaded, especially when it came to things like this? He just should have ignored professor Harries, like everybody else had. But no, he had to make a good impression!
Really, he wanted to smack himself.
He and Jenny – or Jessy? He wasn't sure anymore but it wasn't like they talked a lot. She seemed more the silent type anyway - had been assigned to this part of the library the second day already.
The second day of being buried under tons of dust and mouldy, ancient books. Not that he minded books under normal circumstances but when you had to carry them around for hours they lost a lot of their original charm, especially when years of storage in a slightly wet corner of the old library had made them a little bit gummy. A big sigh escaped his lips while he wiped his forehead with the back of his hand.
"Jan? Could you help me?" It was Jenny. She was pointing at some books in the top shelf she couldn't reach on her own.
"Sure." Jan grabbed the little ladder and positioned it in front of said shelf. Jenny wasn't short for a girl but still it was kind of impossible to handle the tall frames without any help. That was probably also the reason why professor Harries had insisted on mixed groups. Clever guy – especially when it came to manipulating students. Jan couldn't prevent himself from grinning. Most of the time he liked him.
He reached for several books and handed them to Jenny, who put them on a cart. Their teamwork went pretty smooth actually; he had nothing to complain about – apart from the dust and the mould, of course - that's why it struck him as a little strange when an undefined wave of anger suddenly washed over him as he passed a particularly big book to Jenny. It had been behind all the others, propped against the back wall of the shelf, almost as if someone had hidden it there. Jan raised an eyebrow but let the unpleasant feeling pass and observed how Jenny put the book on the cart, on top of all the others.
"Maybe you should roll them out now. They're piling quite a bit."
She gave him a small smile. "Nah, two or three more can still go on there."
Jan nodded obediently and was about to reach for the next two books in the shelf when there suddenly was a loud crashing sound. The big book on the cart pile had fallen and now lay open on the floor, with its back facing upwards. Before Jan could step down from his little ladder, Jenny was already on her knees to grab it. "Seems like you were right," she mumbled a little embarrassed.
And then – Jan didn't really know how it happened – he took a big step towards her and slapped her right across the face. She was so surprised that she let the book drop again. It made Jan even angrier.
"You stupid bitch really can't do anything right," he grabbed her by the shoulders brutally.
"When I tell you to do something, you do it without asking questions and patronizing remarks. That's really the problem with you women, you think…"
Jan could hear his own voice, see his hands shake Jenny's slender frame but it wasn't his doing. He didn't want that. And even though he could feel that inexplicable anger pulsing through his veins again, it seemed foreign. These weren't his feelings. It wasn't him slamming Jenny into the shelves and yelling repulsive insults at her. But he also couldn't stop it.
No no no, he repeated over and over again in his head. Why was this happening? Oh God, Jenny was bleeding! This had to stop! Stop stop stop!
Jenny's terrified eyes were gazing at him. She was pleading now, mumbling incoherent sentences of "please, no more" and "don't hurt me" but his hands still wouldn't stop beating her. Oh God…
Jan wanted to close his eyes but even that wasn't working. Instead he had to see her bloodied face, her fear…
Then there was a crack. A terrible, bloodcurdling crack and Jenny's body went slack. He let it drop to the ground, and suddenly… he was himself again. He stared down at her lifeless form and didn't understand. Somewhere behind him he heard a barely human voice whispering whore deserved no better.
oO0Oo
Basel, 25th November 2010
'23-year-old university student beats girl to death' the newspaper titled. Jan didn't want to see it but the obnoxious guy in the black coat had placed it right in front of him, so it was kind of difficult to ignore. He sighed and looked up from under his tousled fringe.
He rubbed a hand over his face. "What do you want to hear? I already told the police everything. I can't explain it. I guess it was some kind of mental derangement, just as the doctors say."
The guy took the newspaper back and shot his partner, who was silently leaning against the wall, a meaningful glance. If his situation hadn't been so utterly miserable, Jan probably would have laughed at their behaviour. This felt a little bit like being interviewed by the freaking Men in Black.
Ok, to be fair, they weren't wearing suits or sunglasses but the black coats contributed to the image imposing itself onto Jan's mind; especially with the weird insignia both had on their right arm.
So, in a nutshell, he had absolutely no idea who those guys were and why the hell they made him repeat the story for the one millionth time. A little part of him even hoped that one of the doctors might come along to tell these pricks something like it put too much strain on the patient and that they should leave – just like all the stupid reporters who had wanted to know why he had killed poor Jennifer Sommerhalder. Yeah, he remembered the name now, and he was quite sure he would never forget it again.
"Mister Hunziker, it's really important that you tell us everything. Every little detail can help to find out what happened to you and Miss Sommerhalder," the guy sitting with him said. He was slightly darker skinned. Italian? Rather Turkish, Jan thought and a weird grin spread across his face because his medicated brain had come up with another MIB joke. Part of him knew he shouldn't be thinking shit like that because it only made his situation worse but he couldn't help it.
"You think this is funny?" Agent J was frowning at him, but it had been the blond guy in the back speaking. Jan hesitated to dub him agent K because he clearly was too young for Tommy Lee Jones but the grumpy attitude fit perfectly.
"Na, it's just the meds," Jan brushed it off, "they make me a bit unfocused from time to time."
J was still frowning. "What kind of medication have they been giving you?" He sounded suspicious.
Jan shrugged. "I don't know. It's not like I asked for details. But they said it's for the nerves."
Apparently that excuse was decent enough because J nodded. "Still, Mister Hunziker, try to pull yourself together and tell us exactly what happened. It could be vital – after all you're accused of murder."
The word murder did the trick. It made Jan swallow and killed all his halfway amusing thoughts.
"I – Me and Jenny… we took part in this library clearing. We worked together…"
"Alone?" blond K interrupted.
"Yes, alone," Jan answered with a bit more force than necessary, before he continued, "and then . That's it. I don't know what happened or why. It just happened!" He glared at the two of them. To admit out loud that he had killed someone was bad enough, but to do it again and again and again was bordering to torture. Right now he just wished he could go to bed and not having to bother with those two.
J was scribbling down something in the corner of the newspaper with Jan's headline on it before he looked up again. "Could you define this 'unexplainable need' a bit more."
"Er, what?"
"You know, 'the sudden, unexplainable need to beat her to pulp'," J stated very matter-of-factly while K, still all cool and composed against the wall, gave his partner an unreadable look.
Jan stared at them. "I'm not sure I understand what you mean?" He made a little nervous gesture.
"Well, was there, by any chance, a particular moment when it started? Were you doing something specific?"
"No, of course not." Denial was an automatic reaction but even without thinking about it he knew it was a lie. But somehow he didn't want to appear crazier than he already did. They wouldn't believe it anyway. Then again, it was their own fault for listening to a guy halfway high on meds. Maybe he should try to regard it as a good thing instead because if they really thought he was crazy, he could plead certifiably insane in court. Not that he thought he was crazy but…. Well, maybe he was, after all.
His silence seemed telling enough because the agents just went on staring expectantly at him.
"I…" he brushed some lose hair strands out of his forehead. These two were really inviting it….
"I don't know how to say it."
"Just try," Agent K, for once, was giving him something like an encouraging nod.
Jan took a deep breath. "There was a book…"
oO0Oo
Basel, 26th November 2010
He had told them all about it. So there really was no reason for them to be back, still they were.
Jan sat at the table next to the window. Today they hadn't given him any meds – somehow he had the vague feeling it was because of the pricks in black, who were approaching him quickly.
This time, though, both of them sat down. Jan raised an eyebrow. Already giving up on the pretence, huh, Agent K. Jan couldn't help but snicker a little bit; he really wished he had a smoke right now.
"Mister Hunziker. I think we missed our chance to introduce ourselves properly yesterday evening.
I'm Selim Yilmaz, this is Patrick Kaiser," J nodded towards K, "we work for the PCH. You probably haven't heard of our institution but we take care of cases like yours."
"Cases like mine? And I always thought it were the police taking care of cases like mine." He gave them a lopsided grin. Normally it wouldn't have been like him to treat officers – or whatever they were – so disrespectfully, but somehow these two brought out the worst in him. And he didn't even know why. The MIB rip-off had been amusing, but part of him doubted that investigating officers should amuse murder suspects – cause that meant they did a really, really bad job.
Yilmaz gave him a long look. "Well, maybe yours is more than just a simple homicide case."
As if homicide was ever fucking simple, Jan wanted to snap at the arrogant bastard but Yilmaz just went on, "That's why we need your help, Mister Hunziker. We need to find out if your case is one for us."
"And how would we do that?" Jan did his best to muster his most pissed off expression.
"You need to come to the library with us, show us the book…"
"What? No, never! I told you I'm never going in there again!" Jan jumped up.
He wanted to storm off but Kaiser grabbed his wrist. "Hunziker, this might be the only way to prove your innocence."
"But I'm not innocent. " He eyed them reproachfully.
"Well maybe you are."
oO0Oo
Actually he didn't know why he had let these two bastards talk him into this.
They stood in front of the library's main entrance, and of course – because people would recognize him otherwise – he was incognito; which meant he was wearing a hoody and sunglasses. It made him look more suspicious, if you asked him – not that anybody would.
It got even better though, because as they went in, these two dimwits decided to flank him, which really completed the C-list celebrity look and didn't attract any attention at all, no.
Jan could only roll his eyes behind the tinted glasses.
"Guys, eh, don't you think you're overdoing it a little?"
"Overdoing what?" Kaiser asked, but Jan could see that little grin in the corner of his mouth. It really made him wonder what kind of odd organisation this PCH was.
They passed the librarians, who gave them dirty looks but still made way when Yilmaz flashed a badge. It was obvious they had recognized him; the look in their eyes had been more than telling when they stepped over the warning tape into the closed part of the library. So apparently he was a celebrity, after all.
When they arrived at the actual crime scene, everything was still exactly the same way Jan remembered. The cart was there, books lay on the floor and there was dried blood all over the place. It made him feel sick, and this time Jan was sure it was no weird foreign emotion haunting him but entirely his own.
"So, which one was it?" Kaiser nodded towards the scattered books. Jan scanned them quickly and then pointed towards the big, reddish one, not without feeling massively uneasy though.
Kaiser stepped over the pile but instead of picking the book up, as Jan had expected, he bent down and held a small electronic device next to it. After a bit of beeping and blinking the agent muttered under his breath, "this is the one, but it's already too late. It's free now."
Jan had no idea what that was supposed to mean.
"We should destroy it anyway." The exasperate tone of Yilmaz's voice made it clear that this wasn't going the way they had hoped for. Kaiser nodded, picked the book up and before Jan knew what was happening to him shoved it into his arms. "Still feeling something?"
A surprised squeak escaped his lips as his most automatic response would have been to hurl the thing into the farthest corner of the library, but instead he only shook his head silently.
"Thought so."
"Is that good?" Jan asked carefully and set the book down again.
Yilmaz sighed, running a hand through his short, dark hair, "No, not really."
Great.
"What do we do then?" He couldn't help it that his voice sounded very small. Despite his not very well-concealed doubts concerning the professionalism of these agents – or officers, whatever – their encouragement that they might be able to prove his innocence had somehow given him hope. He didn't want to be a murderer after all.
"Well, WE are not going to do anything. I'm going to search the library and you stay here and wait." He exchanged a look with Kaiser and then stomped off, the little device out, blinking and active.
After that silence settled. Yilmaz had been the more talkative one from the very beginning, so with him gone Kaiser and Jan didn't really have much to say to each other.
He scanned the tall blond out of the corner of his eye. Up close he didn't look much older than Jan himself. Of course, the I'm-too-cool-for-this-world-demeanour and especially the coat made it kind of difficult to pinpoint an exact age. He didn't know what he had going on with these coats anyway, but they irked him. They were black – well, big news – and woollen, but that wasn't the point anyway, it was the way they looked - stylish in a glossy magazine way but also timeless and somehow military - that made it impossible to regard these two as regular police officers. They were just by far too fashionable. Jan sighed over the fact that he had just spent a full mental minute analysing these coats. Sometimes he feared his little sister had been right when she called him a closet-bisexual.
"Yo, Hunziker. You're a history scholar, aren't you?"
"Er what? …. Oh yeah, I am." Jan blushed. Kaiser had caught him totally off guard but that obviously was his own fault for letting his thoughts stray during such an inappropriate time.
The agent held the book in his hands again. "Do you know then who Heiner Hildebrandt und Maria Arisdörfer are?"
Jan scratched his head and tried to focus. He could see the names spelt out on the book's spine in faded gold. He had never noticed them before but the question seemed legit.
"Well, I know that Maria Arisdörfer was a female professor here at the university in the fifties. She's minimally famous because she was one of the first. I don't know about Hildebrandt though."
Kaiser nodded and said nothing more, instead he thrust the book into Jan's hands again.
"What's it about then?" Jan gave him an irritated can't you read for yourself frown but started skimming through the index pages nonetheless.
"Well, it's obviously an overview on Eastern European history. Which makes sense because Arisdörfer was a professor for Slavonic studies, as far as I remember. Oh, and here it says bla bla bla Historisches Seminar der Universität Basel, so that probably means Hildebrandt was a history professor." Jan felt a little triumphant that he had found out about Hildebrandt so quickly and without the help of the internet but Kaiser only rewarded him with a derogatory look.
"If he was a history professor, shouldn't you have known him?"
"Hey, I can't know about every single person that ever worked at my freaking seminar just because I happen to study history." He sounded defensive and part of him wanted to come up with the flowery phrase that history wasn't about knowing dates and names by heart but understanding relation and connection. In the end he decided to keep that to himself though.
"We'll check that later, then." Kaiser shrugged. It made Jan want to ask why it even mattered who had written a stupid book that triggered inexplicable rage attacks, if the person who had beaten the girl to death was right here, but he was interrupted. By a shriek.
It echoed through the empty library corridors and shook Jan to the core.
"Wh-…" he shot Kaiser a panicky glance but that one was already advancing into the direction the shriek had come from, gun drawn. For a brief moment Jan wondered whether he was expected to follow or if he could just run. He decided to follow eventually, even though every rational part of his brain was screaming at him what a terrible idea this was.
"Kaiser, wait!"
"Shhhh!" The agent threw him a murderous glare, checking out the aisle from around the corner of a bookshelf, before advancing further.
Jan stayed behind him. He could hear noises now, or rather a voice. And what it yelled between the hopeless screams sounded all too familiar.
"Dirty, treacherous whore… You deserve no better!"
They saw a man slamming a woman into the wall. It made Jan's blood freeze in his veins. This was the re-enactment of his personal freaking nightmare. He couldn't…
His pace started to slacken. He fell back.
Kaiser, however, didn't hesitate. He rushed up to the guy and threw something at him. Jan didn't know what but for a moment it almost seemed as if the image of a second person flickered behind the attacker, before he slumped to the floor unconscious.
"Hey, are you ok?" Yilmaz came running from the other side. He grabbed to woman who was about to collapse too and laid her on the floor.
Jan just stood there and watched. Somehow…
"Meddlesome people. Don't' get involved!" The voice was right behind him.
It felt like slow-motion when he turned around and saw the man reach for him. Cold engulfed his whole body and this time he was literally frozen in place. He couldn't move, couldn't scream; only ragged, condensed breaths escaped his lips, while he felt something vice-like clamp around his heart. For a short moment it occurred to Jan that he had probably never seen anyone in his whole life whose face had been so lined with anger and hatred as this man's.
Then everything flickered, the pressure around his heart eased and he fell forward.
Panting he lay on the ground. Yilmaz and Kaiser were beside him.
"Was that a g-ghost?"
oO0Oo
Basel, 27th November 2010
"So ghosts exist and I was possessed by one?"
"Yes, we assume that it was somehow tied to the book and by opening it you freed the angry spirit."
"Great." Jan rubbed his temples. So it turned out he wasn't dealing with the MIB but the freaking Ghostbusters, just great. Part of him really would have preferred aliens…
"We need to find the connection between the ghost and the book, so that we're able to destroy the remains."
"And by destroying you mean digging out the bones of the ghost's body and incinerating them."
"Exactly."
"Great."
"Jan, we know this is a difficult to grasp." Yilmaz was more or less patting his forearm, which already would have said enough about how pathetic he must have looked, but that he also used his first name really did it. When had they switched to first names anyway? Jan thought.
Well, probably during the every-monster-story-you-ever-heard-is-true-talk.It made him want to swallow a packet of Aspirins, whole of course.
"We need your help to identify the ghost. You're the only one who got a good look at it, besides your knowledge as history student might come in handy for us."
"Yeah yeah, I got that. But how the hell do we deduce the ghost's identity from just that book?" He gestured towards the bulky thing, which was lying next to them in a ring of salt and surrounded by four burning candles. If this was a horror flick Jan would have shaken his head at the characters' stupidity for staying inside the library at 2AM, while everybody else had been evacuated, but apparently all necessary information was here.
"The objects ghosts are tied to are never random. They always have a connection to who they were or what they did in their mortal lives. Also the fact that our ghost only seems to possess men in order to attack women says a lot. So we're probably looking for a guy, who has something to do with this book and has murdered his wife or girlfriend."
Great.
"Then what about this Hildebrandt guy?" Jan asked tiredly.
"Actually, he fits the profile." It was Kaiser speaking now. He was coming over from one of the computers with some sheets of paper in his hand. "He died in 1954, suicide. But before that he was suspended from his university work because he was accused of having an affair with a student. Which, considering the time, might have been a scandal but as Hildebrandt was a bachelor it shouldn't have resulted in his suicide."
Yilmaz rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "If this was about saving face then he could have just married the girl. It probably would have been enough to appease the public and save his career."
"Yeah, if the girl had wanted to." Without saying more Kaiser laid another old newspaper article in front of them. Jan skimmed it quickly.
"She went missing after the accusations had been made. So you assume Hildebrandt killed her because she refused to become his wife, or what?"
Kaiser nodded.
Jan, however, frowned. That was a bit too much guesswork for his tastes. "But what's the connection with the book then? You said yourself it can't be random. Hildebrandt may have co-authored it, but that doesn't exactly make it special…" He wanted to ramble on about why that didn't seem a sound thesis but once he noticed the astonished look on the agents' faces - Kaiser actually seemed a little bit annoyed even - he shut up quickly and swallowed.
"Jan, we appreciate your enthusiasm and willingness to give this case so much thought, but let me tell you when something looks like a chicken, it probably is a chicken." Yilmaz was giving him a strained smile and was patting his arm, again. It made it clear they weren't exactly taking him seriously.
Why the hell had they asked for his help then? Jan jerked his arm away.
"We are pros, kid. We know what we're looking for." Kaiser sounded final but that wasn't exactly what set Jan off anyway. Had that prick just called him kid? For real?
What an arrogant bastard!
"Sure. I was just trying to help." He sounded stiff when he finally answered.
"Yeah, we know." Yilmaz got up and grabbed his coat, which had been hanging over the back of the chair. "But we need to get going now and finish the job. Thanks anyway, Jan." He offered his hand.
Jan took it but fixed the agent with a long stare. "Don't you think this is too easy?"
"What would be too easy?" Yilmaz gave small, insecure laugh. He had understood him perfectly well but Jan decided to play along anyway. "The case of course. First you tell me you need my help and then you jump to the first possible conclusion without double-checking. That's not exactly professional and you know it. I have the impression you're trying to get rid of me now that it's getting interesting." He let go of Yilmaz's hand.
Next to them Kaiser moved his chair noisily. It was pretty obvious he was pissed off now.
"You don't get how dangerous this is, do you Hunziker?" He got up.
"This isn't some roleplaying shit geeks like you do. It's real. Real people die and get hurt. And the longer we wait and do 'research' the more time the ghost gets to find another victim."
"No, it's you who doesn't get it," Jan said calmly but his voice sounded intent.
"I know how dangerous this is, and I know that people get hurt. In case you have forgotten it, I'm accused of murder. This ghost used me to kill an innocent girl. So this is personal."
Yilmaz sighed. "Look, I understand your feelings but it's too dangerous to get too involved with these kinds of things. We'll take you back to the hospital and…"
"No!" Jan slammed his hands down on the table. "You're wrong about this and I'm going to prove it to you." Both agents gave him incredulous looks.
"Just give me more time. I'll find something. You can go and burn the bones, but I'll…"
"Are you freaking crazy? We're not going to let you stay in a haunted library!" Now it was Yilmaz who sounded pissed off, apparently Jan had talent.
He slipped into his coat a bit faster and more forceful than necessary, while staring Jan down. That's why it was all the more surprising when Kaiser interrupted their little exchange, expression smug, "actually, we could."
"What?" Yilmaz gave his partner a look as if that one was even crazier than Jan.
"Well, if the kid is so intent on demonstrating how much smarter he is than us, we should let him. The room's secured and the ghost hasn't shown up either. So why not? I don't need a fight with a nosy civilian who wants to get on the fastest track to a premature death." He shrugged.
For a moment Yilmaz looked as if he wanted to contradict but then seemed to decide that it was pointless anyway and just sighed. "Ok." He ran a hand through his hair. "Ok, you can stay here and research whatever you want. Just don't leave the freaking room. We'll come back for you as soon as we're done."
Jan nodded. Part of him couldn't believe he had just won an argument against the MIB. He was good.
So he didn't pay much attention when Kaiser got into his coat too and both agents headed towards the door. They gave him a last warning look before they stepped over the salt lines. Jan waved goodbye. He could still hear Yilmaz's accusing question towards Kaiser of why the hell he had supported that bullshit before the door fell shut. Jan didn't care. He had a mission of his own.
Jan had gone through the records several times, and he still couldn't find the ultimate proof that supported the Hildebrandt theory. Actually, when he had checked the professor's biographical details, he noticed his age outright contradicted it. Which probably should have made him feel triumphant but it mostly left him more anxious.
The professor was born 1902 and died '54, so he had been 52 years old, which meant he was too old. Or at least too old for what Jan had seen with his own two eyes. The ghost who had attacked him had never been in his 50ies. Ok, it was somewhat difficult to tell between the flickering grey and angry grimaces, but he would still have bet the guy looked younger than that. Not that he knew whether ghosts normally projected themselves at their dying age, but he assumed that the gaping hole in his head – which looked traitorously like a bullet wound – was an indicator.
The wound had been his next lead anyway. Hildebrandt had shot himself. So that certainly fit. But it was more or less impossible to find out how exactly. And suicide by blowing your brains out wasn't the most creative way to go either. So the feeling that there still was a big chance their ghost couldbe someone else just wouldn't leave him. He dug the heels of his hands into his eyes and took a deep breath.
Speaking of someone else, there had been noises since the agents had left. Some of which Jan was convinced were of natural origin, others though made him a bit more uneasy. He hadn't seen the ghost, which was good, he guessed, but alone the idea that guy might be standing in front of the research room window and not being able to get in gave him the creeps. He had felt much more confident when he had yelled at Yilmaz about staying here, but now that he actually was here, all alone in the big, dark and (proven) haunted library, it was a lot harder to keep up the pretence.
Not that he'd ever admit that out loud, of course.
His gaze drifted towards the book again. He didn't know what to do anymore, the records had probably revealed everything they could but there had to be more….
Maybe his last option was to go back to the roots, or in his case the book. They hadn't paid it much attention since they had come up with the Hildebrandt theory and a part of Jan seriously doubted the safety of the plan when he lifted it out of its salt and candle circle.
He shuddered a little when he first opened it and started skimming through the pages.
Nothing new so far. First edition 1954 – the year of Hildebrandt's death, published by soandso – who cares. The old pages felt fragile under his fingers as he turned them. It was just a book, a completely ordinary – and if he might add fucking boring – history book. Jan sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. This was leading nowhe-… Wait!
There was something written. Jan squinted his eyes. The handwriting was barely decipherable, small and faded in the upper-hand corner of one of the last pages.
Dear Dominik, it read. Ok, a dedication then.
This book shall always remind you of how special you are to me.
It's a token…. then followed something Jan couldn't make out but that didn't matter because the writer had signed the little paragraph.
Yours truly,
Maria
Jan stared at the name. Maria? Maria Arisdörfer? The other author?
Did that mean they had had the wrong approach to begin with? If the book had been given by Maria to a guy named Dominik then there was no immediate connection with Hildebrandt. It suggested…
Jan rolled his chair over to the computer and stared typing frantically. He needed to find out Dominik's last name. And a picture. A picture would really help! Cause the dedication suggested lover but Jan was pretty sure Arisdörfer had been married, which led them back to the affair motive.
But who was he? A co-worker? An assistant? A student? Jan felt a bit reluctant to impute adultery to a well-known professor but Hildebrandt, on the other hand, hadn't been any better either. So maybe…
He decided to check the matriculation registers. Which turned out to be a waste of time but led him to the website of the university's seminar for gender studies, which had a nice picture of Maria standing next to a young man. The caption below the image read Professor Arisdörfer and her assistant, Dominik Bühler.
Both were smiling at the camera timidly. Jan wasn't sure what to make of it. Was that man their ghost? He wasn't sure but take away the smile and add a nasty head wound he might be. He certainly had the right age. Jan tried to focus but was interrupted by an eerie knock… against the door.
Jan froze. Fuck, he had totally forgotten the ghost was actually here. With him.
And it was staring through the window, looking furious. Jan swallowed. Doublefuck!
The only marginally good thing though was that he could tell for sure that the angry thing out there was indeed Dominik Bühler. Up close and with the picture to compare the similarities were pretty obvious. Not that this realisation would help him much, now that he had an angry spirit at his heels but it was at least something. And it proved Yilmaz and Kaiser had been wrong – just for the record.
But what should he do? The agents were gone, probably digging up the wrong grave and he was stuck here without being able to tell them. Fuck, again! And although they had told him the – still very noisy - spirit wouldn't be able to get in, staying here didn't seem like a very appealing option.
Actually, he wanted out. Now!
Another bang against the door. Jan broke into cold sweat.
He grabbed the book and shoved it into a plastic bag. All the salt on the table got wiped in there as well, before Jan snatched his jacket and started running towards the door on the opposite side of the room. He was aware this was totally a panic reaction and probably far from clever. But hey, he had only learned a few hours ago that ghosts were actually real and how you could deal with them. So he really shouldn't be blamed for panicking.
He tore the door open and started sprinting towards the exit. The ghost hauled a table at him, which Jan scarcely evaded by colliding with one of the copiers instead. He groaned but kept on running.
Fucking asshole ghost!
His hand went into the plastic bag, grabbing some salt. The agents had told him most supernatural creatures couldn't stand salt. So yeah, that ghost was so gonna get a salting!
He threw it around himself while running, without paying much attention where it landed.
For a short moment it occurred to him that tomorrow the library would look like a total mess and the personnel would probably curse him. But the thought was gone as quickly as it had come because smashing his whole bodyweight into the next door seemed more important right now. The ghost howled somewhere behind him. Jan tried to ignore it; he could see the exit.
Just as he was about to reach for the last door handle, something grabbed and hurled him backwards brutally. A breathless "uff" was driven from his lungs as he landed on his back. The ghost approached, Jan went for the salt, again.
So yeah, he had escaped. He didn't exactly know how but here he was, on the bloody tram. He clutched the plastic bag closer to his chest. Somehow he was shivering.
Ok, it was probably the nerves and not the cold but he still felt like people were giving him curious glances. Which was probably justified.
Jan had to roll his eyes at himself. Calm down, he repeated in his head. You're almost there.
The tram stopped and he got out. Even from his current position he could see that the gates of the big public cemetery were locked. Great,but he should have expected it. Then again it made him wonder how Kaiser and Yilmaz had gotten in, they hadn't arrived that much earlier after all.
He studied the gate. Could he climb over that? Part of him seriously doubted it but as he had already outrun a ghost climbing over a gate shouldn't really put him off. He sighed and shook his head.
Here we go.
Where climbing didn't prove to be the problem Jan had expected, finding the agents was. The cemetery was huge and dark, so he had absolutely no clue where to start looking for them.
He considered yelling but as he had just broken into a public space that probably wasn't his best idea either. He felt the urge to smack himself – again – and concluded that he really should have asked these guys for their number.
But ok, he had been able to deduct the ghost's identity, so finding a grave should be peanuts. He could do it… at least that's what he tried to tell himself. Logically the two graves couldn't be that far apart from each other as both guys had died the same year. So he only had to find the iced-himself-in-the-fifties-division and he was safe.
He strolled through the rows of neatly trimmed bushed, regularly intercepted by headstones.
The dates were wrong; he was still in the nineties. The lame joke made him grin a little bit but it faltered quickly when he noticed a flicker. Then the nearest lamp went out.
Oh, this was no good. Jan quickened his pace. This was absolutely no good!
He started running. Behind him he heard someone calling but Jan didn't bother to turn his head, instead he went for the plastic bag again. He grabbed some salt, spun around and threw it at his pursuer….
…..Which unfortunately turned out to be a very p.o.'d Yilmaz. Oops.
"What the fuck are you going here?"
"Er, listen. I'm sorry but –" He tried to placate the agent but that one wasn't listing at all.
"Do you have any idea how dangerous this is?" Yilmaz grabbed Jan's arm and started dragging him away from the neatly trimmed bushes into a different direction. "Why didn't you stay at the freaking library? Didn't we tell you to wait? If you got scared you could have just gone back to the hospital…"
"Yeah about that – " Jan took a deep breath when he could finally get a word in edgewise. "I kinda found out that Hildebrandt isn't the ghost." Which, as a matter of fact, made Yilmaz pause.
"You're kidding, right? We just burned the guy."
Jan only gave an apologetic smile.
"Oh great."
"It's a guy named Dominik Bühler. He was Arisdörfer's assistant and apparently also her lover. But because she was married she must have ended the affair and he, consequently, committed suicide."
"What a heart-warming story," the agent commented dryly but started walking again. His more relaxed posture showed that he seemed to give Jan at least a little credit now. Maybe that made him feel a tiny bit triumphant.
"How did you find out anyway?"
"Oh, I found this note inside the book. Wait, I can show you." Jan started rummaging through his plastic bag but before he could actually present his brilliant findings Yilmaz had grabbed him by the lapels. "Ja~an, please tell me you weren't stupid enough to bring the book here."
"Errrr…" Only then did he notice that his breath had started condensing.
"RUN!" Yilmaz shoved him away, pointing into a certain direction. "Kaiser's there. Tell him to lay out a banishing circle. And now go!"
Jan complied. He ran without looking back, even when there was suddenly gunfire.
He spotted Kaiser not far away, standing next to the slightly luminous hole - which probably was the rest of Hildebrandt's grave - holding a shovel.
"Banishing circle, now!" Jan yelled but the agent only waved him to come closer while not abandoning his pretty relaxed pose. "Already did that when Selim left," he mumbled. "I so knew you were trouble, kid." Jan gave him a glare.
"So, what happened?"
Jan sighed and nodded a bit embarrassed towards the plastic bad. "Apparently bringing the book here was a bad idea." Kaiser dropped the shovel.
"Are you freaking crazy? Which part of the ghost is tied to the book didn't you get?"
"Wait," Jan held up his hand defensively. "You said the ghost was – emphasis on was – tied to the book and is now haunting the library."
"No, the ghost is still tied to the book but after you opened it, it became free to haunt the places where the book is. Which means when the book is in the library, it will haunt the library. When an idiot takes the book to the cemetery though, the freaking ghost haunts the freaking cemetery. Get it?" He snatched the plastic bag from Jan's hands and turned it upside down. The book and all the salt fell on the grassy ground.
"How the hell should I have known about that? You guys don't tell me anything. I was just trying to help," Jan retorted. Kaiser ignored him and started to fumble with some candles he placed around the book. After mumbling something that sounded like a Latin incantation he finally focused on Jan again. "Nobody asked for your help, kid."
"That's – "
"Na na, girls, don't go fighting." Yilmaz's voice interrupted. He was running, gun still drawn, and practically threw himself over the line that marked the banishing circle. Still panting he immediately started reloading his weapon and aimed it at the ghost when it materialised in front of them.
It flickered but turned up again only seconds later, and Jan – to his dismay –had to admit that it looked even more pissed off than it had in the library. Fuck.
„Ok guys, we have to find this Bühler guys' grave. It must be somewhere around here but as we are under constant attack I suggest we stay inside the circle."
"No objections here but who goes distracting our little murderous friend?" Kaiser had stepped next to Yilmaz and was shooting his gun too.
"The one who's stupid enough to ask." He gave his partner a distinct look. "I already had my turn with him." Kaiser snorted but broke through the barrier without much hesitation. The ghost was upon him instantly.
"Ok Jan, we need to move the circle. Have you seen these four red stones that mark the corner points? Everything inside is absolutely ghost-proof but the stones can't be farther apart from each other than nine meters. Which means we'll move caterpillar style. Both of us will each grab a stone and move it to the next grave. Then we'll run back and move the two remaining stones along. Got it?"
Jan nodded.
"Oh, and I probably should mention too that while the stones are off the ground the barrier's not working. So you really have to move fast not to end up as ghost fodder. Kaiser distracts him but that doesn't mean he won't notice when we're vulnerable." Ok. Great….
"I'm ready."
They started running. And indeed, the moment they lifted the first stones the ghost turned towards them. Kaiser shot a few bullets in its direction which diverted its attention effectively enough; before it could focus on them again the barrier was back into place. Jan breathed a sigh of relief, unfortunately though it was only the beginning.
Kaiser's shots resounded over the whole cemetery, only interrupted by occasional shouts and things that were thrown around. Over the commotion Jan almost forgot to pay attention to the graves.
He was running out of breath. Physical exercise wasn't exactly his forte but luckily – for once – that was just the moment when Yilmaz yelled "There! I found it!"
They moved the stones of the circle one last time before Yilmaz eagerly grabbed a shovel and shoved the other one at Jan. "Dig." Jan was still panting and eyed the thing in his hand wearily but started moving nonetheless. When this was over he was so gonna take a vacation. A long one.
Digging up graves was on its best way to make it to one of the top positions on his 10-most-hated-list when Kaiser's scream cut through the night. Both of them flinched and before Jan could really realise what had happened Yilmaz had already thrown down his shovel and was running in its direction.
"Go on digging, Jan! No matter what happens now, we've almost done it!"
What? He stared after Yilmaz for a moment but then remembered what they were here for. Most likely he couldn't help Kaiser anyway, so it was better to do something he could, even if his whole body was aching by now. He slammed the shovel into the ground, and then he hit something hard. Finally.
Jan crouched down and ripped the wooden lid from the coffin. The little voice in his head whispered that he actually should be a bit more shocked at seeing a corpse but Yilmaz and Kaisers shouts from somewhere outside the banishing circle were enough to make him focus. He grabbed the accelerant but then spotted the book. It didn't take a second thought to decide that the cursed thing should go with its owner, so he threw it into the open grave and doused both.
"JAN! Fucking burn the damn thing! Now!"
"Yeah yeah, I'm working on it," he tried to yell back at Yilmaz, who was standing protectively over the fallen Kaiser, warding off the ghost. Jan fumbled with the lighter. The stupid thing must have had decided that now was exactly the moment to play difficult. He could barely hold it with his shaking hands. "C'mon…"
"Jan, we're in a bit of a tight situation over here. Could you please move your idiot ass and hurry up? You know how to use a lighter, don't you?"
"Shut up, asshole! I'm doing what I can!"
And then, finally, the flame sprung up. Jan gave it a last intense glance before he dropped the lighter into the grave. The corpse caught fire immediately and the last thing Jan saw of Dominik Bühler, the ghost, was his distorted, screaming form before he was devoured by it too.
He stared into the space were Bühler had vanished while Yilmaz helped Kaiser scramble to his feet.
"That wasn't so bad," he mumbled.
"Oh, you think so? You almost got us killed!"
"Hey! I told you, I didn't know –"
"Quit the yelling, guys," Kaiser interrupted. He held his head and literally looked beat; still he gave Jan something like an appreciative half-smile. "What's done is done. We're all still alive."
Yilmaz sighed. "Which is nothing more than a lucky coincidence."
Jan shrugged. "What are you gonna do now?" His hands were buried in his pockets. Somehow his mind had only just stared to grasp what had happened. Being accused of murder almost seemed a minor problem now.
"Go back to Rome." Yilmaz, who was fussing over Kaiser's head wound, paused. "Well, first take care of the administrative stuff, like your trial, appease the authorities and all that shit. Then go back to Rome."
Jan gaped. "You can do that?"
"Of course we can. I told you, our organisation is pretty influential. And you shouldn't go to prison for something that wasn't your fault."
"And what exactly are you going to tell them?"
"The truth, mostly." Yilmaz looked unimpressed but Jan could only stare at them incredulously.
"Are you freaking crazy? They're never gonna believe a single word –"
"Oh, they will, when it comes from us." It was Kaiser who had spoken now. He looked considerable better after Yilmaz had patched him up.
"What kind of organisation is it again you're working for?" Jan asked with a raised eyebrow.
"The PCH. It stands for Pontificia Cohors Helvetica."
"Wait…" The gears in Jan's head started turning. "Pontificia Cohors….? Are you telling me you're actually with the Swiss Guard?"
Yilmaz and Kaiser exchanged a look. They seemed amused. It made Jan rub his forehead in exasperation. "Then shouldn't you be protecting the Pope, or something."
"It's more the or something in our division." Kaiser patted his shoulder sympathetically.
"The official Swiss Guard protects St. Peter and the Pope. Our division is a bit less official though, we do everything else."
oO0Oo
Rome, 14th December 2010
„So, you decided to join the Guard? "
Colonel Argast still held the papers in her hands. She had listened to his story attentively.
"Yes, I realised that despite the court dropping charges, I'm still a murderer to the public. My name will never be entirely cleared, even if I'm not sent to prison. So I can't really go back."
Jan couldn't help the sad undertone in his voice but it hadn't been an easy decision after all. Leaving his family and friends behind, unable to tell them the truth and what he was doing now made his heart ache a little. He knew they would be so worried.
"But at least I can try to redeem myself by protecting other people," he added after a short moment of silence.
"That's a favourable attitude. With your qualifications you'll certainly prove to be an asset for our research division." It wasn't exactly a smile but her expression seemed open and honest enough.
"Actually, Oberst Argast, I was hoping I could join an outdoor team. I know I'm not a soldier but…" he trailed off but the colonel just waved it aside.
"Oh, don't worry mister Hunziker. Researchers are often ascribed to certain teams as an additional support. I was actually thinking you could join mister Kaiser and mister Yilmaz, as you already had the pleasure of making their acquaintance."
"Oh..." Jan swallowed. That had been easier than expected. Not that he felt the explicit desire to work with those two idiots again but hey, ascribed researcher to an outdoor team sounded pretty good to him.
"In any case, I would be interested in your evaluation of them, based on the case in Basel", she gave him a quizzical look now which made his slight euphoria vanish instantly.
"Errr, mister Kaiser and mister Yilmaz? They were good I guess," he answered cautiously.
"Sure about that?" Somehow it was very clear that the colonel didn't tolerate evasion.
"Errr, special, maybe? A bit over-the-top?" He gestured helplessly. Calling them idiots didn't seem an advisable idea but lying to your future employer couldn't be much better either. Thankfully the colonel took the choice from him by saying "I get what you mean."
She sighed. "They make everything into a show, don't they? It's terrible."
She shook her head dismissively, Jan blinked.
„But at least nobody died. Which isn't half bad considering it was their first unsupervised case."
The casualness with which the words tumbled from her lips made Jan unsure whether she was serious or not, but then a honest-to-God smile spread on the colonel's face.
"You know I'm joking, right? You're allowed to laugh."
Jan let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank God." The colonel gave him an amused smile.
"Actually, it really was their first unsupervised case, so you shouldn't judge them too hard for making mistakes. But I'm glad you decided to help, not everybody would put their own life on the line to support justice. That's why I think you'll fit in here with us very well."
"Thank you." Jan nodded. It felt good to hear that he was welcome and not considered a total misfit.
That had happened too many times before in his life.
"And I have to admit that mister Kaiser and mister Yilmaz do indeed possess a very a unique sense of humour, on which probably only the two of them agree," she added with a wink.
Now Jan really had to laugh. Actually, colonel Argast seemed pretty cool.
"Welcome to the Swiss Guard, Jan."
End
Author ramblings: This fic is a bit of an experiment. I'm aware it's quite far away from your average SPN fanfiction, especially with the lack of Winchester boys, but the setting alone holds so much potential. Europe and secret societies, it's like a predestined combination for a spin-off verse. Sometimes I'm surprised nobody before me came up with the same idea (or am I just unaware?). Actually, I have a concept to make something bigger out of this but I kind of wanted to check first if there are at least some people interested. This means I need a bit of encouragement because, no matter how enthusiastic I am, I don't want to tell stories to empty space. So please, let me know if you liked it^^