Shadow Over Trolberg
A Hilda/Persona 4 AU
By Daring D.D. Danger
21: Something's Off
Cries echo through the hospital hallway. Detective Elison leaves the hospital room and heads down the hallway, crossing paths with Detective Leif.
"Where's he headed?" The detective asks David, who is slouched on the wall with tears running down his face. "Why so sad?" He continues. "Wait. Did Hilda...?" A moment of silence passes. "Oh no. Detective Elison. He must be headed to Van Gale's room!"
"Wait, what?" David asks.
"Tell us where it is!" Trevor yells.
"I can't!" Detective Leif raises his hands. Randall bursts from the room and runs down the hallway with the group, save for Twig.
"Let me go!" Arren's yells echo through the hospital. The group rounds the corner to see him on the ground trying to crawl into Van Gale's room. "Why did Hilda have to die!? She shouldn't be dead! Not an innocent little girl!" Detective Leif restrains him until he falls to the ground.
"Let's get him to his room." The two guards follow Leif's orders and he follows, carrying Arren's crutches.
"Do you think he was really going to kill Van Gale?" Hilda asked.
"He just lost his only daughter. I wouldn't put anything past him right now," Trevor said.
"First, Nessa, and now Little Hilda!" David says angrily.
"She should be alive. Not Van Gale," Kelly says, looking to the floor. Suddenly, a bang comes from Van Gale's room. The seven enter. She's lying on the floor, with a chair on the ground.
"She tried to break the window!" Trevor yelled.
"Do you really think you are still getting out of here?" Randall asked, directly in her face.
"She's dead and it's all your fault," Frida said through tears.
"I didn't..." Van Gale couldn't finish her sentence before the Midnight Channel took over the TV in her room.
"I didn't save her. I failed," A yellow eyed Van Gale said directly at those viewing the Midnight Channel. "It's because you got in the way."
"How can that be? She's right her, and we defeated her Shadow!" David puzzled.
"They can't get away with killing me and they know it," Shadow Van Gale said.
"Is that what you think?!" Trevor held up a fist.
"No! Please!" Van Gale begged.
"The cops may have gone easy on you, but we're not doing the same," David said, his eyes burning with hate.
"David, take it easy. What the hell are you saying?" Hilda asked.
"You really hate me right now don't you? Like I care. Living and dying are one in the same to me," Shadow Van Gale teased. "We both know you couldn't go through with it. I'll just keep saving them. That's my mission." The Midnight Channel went silent.
"She just gave us the okay." Trevor went to pick up Van Gale, but Frida stepped in the way.
"Stop," she said.
"Out of my way," Trevor said.
"Don't do it!" Frida begged.
"You know, it's odd," Kelly says.
"What do you mean?" Hilda asks.
"That is a pretty big TV for a hospital," Kelly continued.
"Wouldn't be our fault if she escaped into the TV world," Alfur continued.
"She may find she has no way out this time," Kelly finished. Van Gale tried to crawl away.
"You're not serious, are you?" Frida asked.
"Of course! They'd never do that!" Hilda said.
"Are you saying you are okay with things ending this way!?" David yelled.
"No! It sucks, but that's not the point!" Hilda yelled.
"Listen, you've got it all wrong! It didn't happen like you think it did!" Van Gale pleaded as Randall started dragging her by her hospital gown.
"Randall, what are you doing!?" Hilda and Frida yelled.
"Please don't!" Van Gale begged.
"Begging is pathetic," Kelly said.
"David! Stop him!" Hilda pleaded.
"If you don't want to be a part of this, just leave," David said.
"I'm not leaving!" Frida yelled back.
"I was just trying to save her!" Van Gale yelled as she made contact with the TV, which started to ripple.
"Randall, stop!" Hilda yelled.
"Please! PLEASE!" Van Gale screamed for her life. Randall threw her aside and screamed.
"Come on," Trevor said as Van Gale went into the fetal position.
"Dude, this is the only chance we've got! The police can barely keep her. If she walks out of here, she'll keep trying to save people!" David yelled.
"If we kill her, we're no better than her!" Randall yelled back. "We can't lose sight of what's right. It's why we started this in the first place. To find the truth."
"You already have the truth!" David grabbed him. "The truth is in this room."
"It's not," Randall said. "Something's not right."
"Like what!?" David complained.
"It just feels like we've got something wrong," Randall said.
"Bullshit!" David grabbed him by the collar. "You're wrong! Finish her!"
"Calm down," Randall said quietly "We need to use our minds, not our hearts."
"It just dawned on me, we never asked her about her point of view," Alfur said.
"How can I believe anything she says?" David asked.
"She's not innocent, but this fighting is tearing us apart," Hilda said.
"We need to stick together," Frida added. David turned to Randall.
"Fine. Let's make sure we get it right," David said.
The group sat in the empty gray hallway.
"Something has been bugging me," Frida spoke up. "Why'd she start killing people in the first place?"
"She said she was 'saving' people," Hilda noted.
"The police interrogated her after Raven Leader. They let her go, so she must've had an alibi," Alfur noted.
"Why would she have killed Raven Leader anyway? There's no connection," Frida pondered.
"So we're back to square one," Randall muttered.
"Her name was in Van Gale's diary," Kelly noted.
"My head is gonna explode!" David hit a wall.
"Wait…" Randall started. "Where's Twig?" The group split up and Randall eventually found himself outside. The first snow of the winter had begun to fall. David stepped outside.
"Did I not do the right thing? When I didn't push her into the TV?" Randall asked. He began crying and laid his head on David's shoulder.
12/4
"I got to thinking last night. If Van Gale thought she was saving us by killing us, wouldn't that mean she failed to save us?" Frida asked.
"What do you mean?" Alfur asked.
"Her Shadow said she saw Hilda's death as a failure," Frida noted.
"What about Raven Leader and Nessa?" David asked.
"The letters I was sent," Randall said.
"The threats you mean?" Hilda asked.
"The first one said 'Stop rescuing them'. Then I got one saying the next one to go in the TV would be dear to me."
"That makes no sense, why would she tell us to stop saving them if she thinks that's what she was doing?" Frida asked.
"Are you thinking someone else wrote them?" Kelly asked.
"What do you mean, warning letters?" Van Gale asked the group.
"So she didn't write them," Hilda said.
"We just want to know the truth, so help us out," Randall said softly. "We won't judge."
"You wouldn't believe it," Van Gale said.
"We might be the only ones who would believe it," Randall said.
"Alright, fine," she said. "I was watching the news, after another failed experiment. Just as I turned it off, I saw Raven Leader on the Midnight Channel. She looked like she was being absorbed by a cloud of darkness. She reached, and since I was drunk, I reached back, only to find my hand went through the TV. I'd heard about the Midnight Channel through call-ins to the weather station during broadcasts, but they'd come from kids, so I discredited them. I found myself thinking, maybe she'd used the Midnight Channel to call for help? I became obsessed with it. Then I saw Nessa. I wanted to save her, so I approached her, but she thought I was crazy. Then she wound up dead. It was the worst feeling ever. That's when I decided I needed to hide these people. I needed to put them somewhere safe. When I saw Frida, I thought she was trying to tell me the TV was safe. I didn't know what it was like in there, but I thought it was better than ending up dead, and I'd go get her later. I could never explain my idea, so my only choice was to kidnap her. I felt I was the only one who could save them. I had no idea you couldn't leave on your own until I went with that little girl." She held her head.
"I believe you," Randall said.
"When you started 'saving' people, the murders stopped, which led you to believe you were right," David said. The group returned to the halls where Detective Elison stood.
"Randall," he cried, "she's alive."
"What!?" The group shouted. They ran to Lil' Hilda's room to find her hooked back up to life support.
"It's a miracle." Trevor began sobbing.
"Where's Twig when I need him!?" Hilda began sobbing too.
"The fog is expected to continue for the near future, and it's taking a toll on the mental health of the community, we ask that everyone in Trolberg stay calm." Randall had fallen asleep at his dining room table.
"Welcome to the Velvet Room. There is no need to be alarmed, you are sound asleep in your world. Your journey has been a long one, so let's take time to reflect on everything that recently happened. Your friends are following you through the fog, and this will be a trying experience for everyone," Igor said as the cards reflecting Randall's bonds circled him
"Because of the bonds with your friends, you have formed the Judgment bond. I am truly impressed with what you've accomplished," Margaret said as the Judgment card joined the other bonds. "You've also unlocked The Empress Arcana, a bond between you and me." The card joined the others. The train suddenly grinded to a stop. "It seems we need to check our direction. We'll have to stay here for now," Margaret said.
"You should use this time to reflect, you may find it useful," Igor said.
12/5
"We walked around all day and found nothing," Hilda complained as the group sat eating, sans Twig, who was still missing.
"The murders happened over six months ago. Finding something new will be hard," Kelly said. "I'm going out for fresh air." She left the restaurant.
"I'm going to clear my head, too," Randall said. He stepped out into the crunchy snow and stood with Kelly. David followed him.
"Fuck, it's cold!" He complained.
"Then go back inside," Randall said.
"I need to clear my head, too," he said.
"There has to be someone we're missing who meets all the criteria," Kelly was pondering. "It has to be a local, who has access to all the circles of Nessa and Raven Leader. Someone who knows us, well enough to predict our actions."
"Who is that, though?" Randall asked.
To Be Continued