Shadow Over Trolberg
A Hilda/Persona 4 AU
By Daring D.D. Danger
19: Don't Save Anyone Anymore
"Your journey has been a long one, and now it's time to see if you can solve the riddle without incident." Igor hadn't spoken to Randall in a while.
"I'm afraid your time is about to run out. Do you have the strength to see your journey through to the end?" Margaret crossed her arms. "This is what's called a make-or-break situation."
10/30
"Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Randall asked.
"Yes, I do!" Hilda looked at him with passion in her eyes, as she stepped into the salon. It looked like the hairdresser had asked the same question Randall had, before he shaved all of Hilda's hair off of one side of her head. She returned to him moments later.
"How does it look?" she asked.
"It's certainly a new style," Randall noted. Hilda ran her hand over the newly shaved part of her hair.
"Feel it, Randall!" She grabbed his hand and ran it over her head. It felt no different than his face if he skipped shaving for a day or so. Randall walked home with Hilda. Johanna was blown away by the haircut more than Randall had been, but Alfur's jaw nearly dropped. Apparently, Hilda hadn't changed her style in years. Randall finally returned to his home, and strangely found a letter for himself in the mail. He opened it as he walked up the stairs.
"David!" Randall said urgently into the phone. "Have everyone meet at Junes tomorrow." Randall let the letter fall to his floor.
10/31
"I checked all my resources, but I couldn't find the sender, Randall," Alfur said sadly.
"It's crazy she put it right in your mailbox," Kelly noted.
"The murderer must be closer to us than we expected," Hilda noted.
"That's really scary, they went to your house," Frida shivered.
"You be careful. If you need anything, you call us," David said.
As Randall approached his home, he noted Lil' Hilda receiving a package. The mail truck blew past him followed by several other cars and a weather van.
"Welcome home, big bro!" His cousin waved. She'd prepped TV dinners for the two of them, and was watching the news.
"Citizens of Trolberg are raising concern of the persistent fog that has filled the area in the last year. They've now gotten a local environmental group involved." Hilda made a groan that interrupted the news.
"Are you okay?" Randall asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she said quietly. Randall turned back to the TV.
"The mayor visited the local elementary school class today." The video cut to the mayor. "I had the pleasure of speaking to a young girl today-"
"Hey!" I saw that man at school today!" Lil' Hilda yelled.
"Oh, really?" Randall asked. Lil' Hilda sneezed.
"I don't feel good," she said. Randall put his hand to her head.
"You're burning up," he said before grabbing her and taking her to her room. "It was pretty cold today." His cousin nodded in agreement. "Spring will come soon and it will all be better."
"I don't think so. You leave when spring comes." Randall was taken aback a bit by that.
"Yeah, that's true," he said. His cousin laid down in bed and covered her face.
"When it snows, let's make a snowman!" she said.
"We'll make a big one," Randall smiled.
"You promise?" she asked.
"Promise. We'll play a whole lot." Randall finished putting his cousin to bed.
11/4
The midnight channel came to life as the rain pattered on Randall's window, but the figure was totally indescribable.
"Who is that?" Randall muttered.
11/5
"There's absolutely no way to know who that was, it was so garbled," David said over the phone.
"Let's watch again tonight," Randall said. He was slouching in his house, watching his cousin out of the corner of his eye. He finished his phone call with David and headed over to his cousin.
"What are you up to?" He asked as his cousin hid something behind her back.
"Nothing!" She sneezed.
"Are you still sick?" Randall felt her head. "Your fever has gone down, but maybe you should go to bed early."
"But I want to watch TV!" She complained.
"It's still pretty cold," he noted.
"Let's get the space heater out!" she exclaimed. She then ran to collect the metal box and plugged it in.
"Why isn't it getting warm?" She asked. Randall knocked on the metal box.
"I think it's broken. Let's go buy a new one," he suggested.
"Can we buy it at Junes?" Hilda cheered.
"Sure," he said. His uncle entered at that moment.
"Daddy!" Hilda yelled.
"This was in the mail for you." Uncle Elison handed him a letter. It had no postage on it. His uncle stood over him, expecting him to open it then and there. He opened it and it read 'Don't save anyone anymore'. His uncle grabbed it.
"Why don't you tell me a little more about this?" Randall couldn't speak. His cousin gasped.
"If you want to go somewhere else to talk, that's fine," his uncle said angrily.
"Daddy… big bro?" Lil Hilda was confused.
"We're just going out for a talk." He patted his daughter's head gently.
"We'll be fine," Randall said.
"I'll be waiting," she replied.
Detective Leif was waiting as Randall and his uncle entered the police interrogation room.
"You're a member of my family, and I should've done this sooner."
"Look, uncle-"
"You're going to tell me everything!" He yelled. "What are you involved in?" Randall was sweating.
"I think of you as family too. So I'll come clean." He paused. "We are involved with those cases. When people get kidnapped we rescue them, by going inside the TV."
"You mean like a television set?" His uncle slammed his fist on the table. "I thought if I had enough of your trust, you'd tell me the truth." He got up and handed the letter to detective Leif. "Send that to the lab. You're spending the night here, Randall." He got up and left the room.
"This is just his way of showing he cares. Tough love and all." Randall didn't even look at Detective Leif. "I'll… just be outside the door." He left, leaving Randall alone.
Randall was awoken by the Midnight Channel sparking to life on the small TV in the interrogation room. He looked up at it.
"Hilda!?" He screamed as his cousin stood in an archway on the TV. He ran to the door and began banging. "Let me out! I need to help Hilda!" He slid down the door hopelessly.
"What are you doing?" There was a ruckus as detective Leif spoke.
"You can't be in here!" Detective Ellison yelled as Trevor and David burst the door open. "What's the meaning of this!?" Randall's uncle broke through the pair.
"Little Hilda has gone missing," David said. Hilda walked in, carrying a corded phone from outside the room.
"Talk to Frida." Hilda pushed the speakerphone button.
"I'm at your house. The door was forced wide open and Little Hilda isn't here," Frida said. Detective Elison began walking out of the room.
"I'm going to find her," He said.
"All alone? You don't even know where to look." Detective Leif blocked the way, but he was immediately pushed clear.
"You stay here." He pointed at Randall.
"Let me come!" Randall tried to push though Leif with less luck. Leif closed the four in the room.
"What just happened?" Frida said through the still live phone.
"We got locked in the police station," Hilda grumbled.
"I'll see what I can do." Frida hung up.
"How did Hilda get kidnapped if she wasn't on TV?" Randall slammed his fist against the wall.
"She was on TV." Alfur popped out of Hilda's bag. "The mayor visited her class and talked to her. She was never shown, but she was mentioned by name, and that was enough I guess."
"I had just talked to her too," David said. "I tried to call you at home and she told me you were at the police station." Suddenly a scream came from outside followed by the sound of someone running. The viewing port on the door slid open revealing a pair of glowing green eyes.
"I heard you needed a rescue," Kelly said as she unlocked the door. The group ran out of the police station, it was now raining. By the time they reached Randall's house they were all soaked. Randall's door was totallybroken.
"Okay, we need to go over the case, now." Randall slammed his fist on his table, spraying water from his sleeve.
"We still have nothing on who this person is, besides that Hilda thinks it was a girl," David said.
"There is another thing," Hilda raised a hand. "The amount of time from when I was grabbed to when I entered the TV was short. It probably happened in front of my apartment building."
"It happened in broad daylight too," Frida said.
"She must be taking the TV with her then. Probably keeping it in her car," Alfur said.
"It must be a big car. It has to be a big TV," Randall said.
"It'd have to be a car no one would find odd to see, too," Frida added.
"A delivery van?" Randall asked.
"Wait!" Hilda yelled. "I just remembered there being a van with a bunch of radar equipment on it parked near my house that day!"
"Me too," Trevor said.
"There was one parked on our street a few days ago," Randall said. "It was for the Trolberg weather station."
"It can't be Victoria Van Gale, can it?" Hilda said quietly.
"Call Detective Leif," Randall said. "I'm going to hail a taxi to get us to Junes."
The taxi arrived a few minutes later and roared down the road, until Randall spotted the weather van on the side of the road.
"Pull over!" He yelled, and he got out of the car with Hilda, David, and Alfur. The van had crashed with a police car, and another police car was just pulling up. Randall's uncle was on the ground, bleeding from the head.
"Randall," he coughed.
"Find Hilda… and Victoria. They have to be here." He went to the van with Hilda. She ripped the door open, and found no driver.
"She left her wallet." Hilda pulled it from the car seat.
"Look!" David yelled from behind the van. "There is a TV in here!" Randall sprinted to the back of the van, only to be caught by David.
"Let me go!" He yelled.
"We don't know if entering that TV will drop us somewhere other than the stage!" David yelled back. Detective Leif was talking with Randall's uncle as an ambulance and Frida, Trevor, Kelly, and Twig's taxi rolled up.
"Hey!" Hilda yelled. "I found Victoria's diary." She held up the book. Alfur already had his reading glasses on.
"It says something about her finding a whole new world," Alfur said. "She says 'I have no choice now but to save others.'"
"Save us?" Trevor asked. "That's bullshit."
"Look at this! It's all the victims addresses!" Alfur said. "Raven Leader, Nessa, Frida, Trevor, and both Hildas. Mr. Cory isn't on here either."
"I didn't even know you went missing, Hilda," Detective Leif noted.
"Listen to this. 'I can't believe a small child appeared on the TV. I have to save her, I'm the only one who can do it,'" Alfur read. Randall noticed a small charm on the bottom of the van. He grabbed it and opened it. It was a picture of him and his cousin.
"Randall," Kelly said. "Your uncle wants to talk to you." He ran over to his uncle.
"Randall. Please save her. Save my daughter. She makes life worth living." He was having a hard time speaking as he shakily reached for Randall. He took his uncle's hand.
"I will," Randall said.
To Be Continued
AUTHOR'S NOTE
This goes out to Alt Right David, who has been leaving destructive reviews on Hilda fics across this site. I'm sorry you hate literally everything, but there's good news! You can write your own stories! In fact I formally challenge you to do it! Unless you think you can't out-write the people you call toddlers. In the meantime I'll be waiting, writing the stories I love.
Also as a bonus, since it seems you hate LGBT stuff, I'm a lesbian.
With love,
Daring D.D. Danger