This story begins between "Big Feet" and "Woman in Black".
Many years ago…
"Get up!" the man barked.
Jacob, dazed and lying on the floor, shakily got back to his feet. He wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. He only wore a simple pair of black pants, leaving his torso bare. Jacob, though barely thirteen, was exceptionally strong for his age, and the recent blow to his face did little to keep him down.
The older man circled the stone room, his arms crossed. "Again!"
Jacob took a deep breath. He'd only discovered his true nature a week before, and the older man had wasted no time in putting him to the test. He was still apprehensive about the whole thing; it almost seemed too incredible to be real, but he knew better than that.
Tensing his muscles, he dipped his head, rolling it down at the same time. He felt something, a great wave of sensation rolling over him. His pale skin sprouted thick, black fur, while his fingernails grew into long claws and his teeth grew into sharp fangs. Jacob's pupils thinned into slits and his irises began to shimmer with a black hue. A thick mane framed his head, while his face became more feline with a red complexion. From his spine extended a black, chitinous scorpion tail that curled over his shoulder.
The older man then clapped his hands, and the test resumed. The five Hundjägers, also shirtless, Woged, their faces twisting into snarling canine features. They charged Jacob all at once.
The fight was brutal. They punched and kicked and clawed Jacob, who tried to respond in kind. He was still a novice when it came to all this, and he was not the fighter he was training to become. He did manage to backhand one of the Hundjägers, sending it flying across the room and into the stone wall. Half the time, Jacob forgot he had his tail to fight with, but his opponents were too quick for him to stab them with it.
"Enough!" the older man ordered. The Hundjägers stopped and backed away, leaving Jacob, panting and bleeding, to fall to his knees. "You have talent, but you have far to go before you can use it in battle."
Jacob coughed, then spat some blood onto the floor. "Yes, father."
With the tests done for the day, he Woged back into his human form and put his shirt on. Though he was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to go to bed and sleep for three days, Jacob had the urge to remain in the castle catacombs. He limped through the empty, darkened halls, his footsteps sounding like cracks of thunder.
As he turned a corner, Jacob thought he heard something. He stopped, scanning the corridor for the source of the noise.
There it was again!
It was some kind of whimper, and it was coming from behind a thick iron door. Jacob cautiously stepped over to it, his curiosity too powerful to ignore. There was a slat near the top, and he had to stand on his toes to reach it. Looking inside, he saw only pure blackness. There were no torches, and no windows to let in the moonlight. Someone, or something, rattled chains on the far side of the room. The whimper repeated, and a pair of cold, brilliant silver eyes appeared in the midst of the shadows.
Present day…
Jacob opened his eyes, his pulse racing. There was a strong wind outside, creating a whistling note that rose and fell in a natural song of the night. The soft glow of street lights filtered in, providing meagre illumination.
The motel room was nothing to look at, even if it were daytime. Still, Jacob's heritage gave him excellent night vision; he blinked, and his eyes shone black with thin slits for pupils. The room instantly became as clear as crystal. The only things of note were the pair of suitcases standing by the door and the clothes in the closet. The rest was mundane motel décor.
Louise stirred beside him. Jacob looked at her: black hair mussed by the white pillow, lips moving in incomprehensible speech. He smiled, kissing her on the forehead. Her eyes slowly opened, and she returned the smile.
"Bad dream?" she asked.
Jacob nodded. "But it had a happy ending."
"Sometimes those are the best kind," Louise said, snuggling tighter against him and resting her head on his chest. She blinked, her eyes shining silver with thin slits, lazily casting her gaze around the room. "I'll be glad to be done with this drab room. There's no life here, no sense of belonging."
"Tomorrow, mon amour. Tomorrow we will have a home."
"I can't wait." The Russian Blue cat lying at their feet woke from its own slumber, walking over Jacob. "And neither can Marius, apparently." They both snickered as the cat curled into a ball on Jacob's stomach. The three of them soon returned to the embrace of sleep, happy enough despite their mediocre surroundings.
The next day, Jacob and Louise checked out of the motel room, their luggage and cat in hand. They drove for an hour, taking in the sights. Portland, in many respects, was just another city, with the same high-rises and suburban areas that one would find in a dozen other places. What made it special was that it was now their home. After so many years of never putting down roots, always being on the move, it was time for them to settle down, to have a proper home.
Their new house was a beautiful bungalow on a quiet little street. The moving van was already there, and Jacob directed the two men as to where they should place the furniture.
They went to work, and he started hauling in boxes from the car. "Utensils," he muttered, looking at the label written in sharpie before finding a place for it on the counter. Jacob started to empty its contents, but decided against it. Louise was the homemaker; she would want the final say in how they arranged the kitchen, as well as…everything else.
When Jacob looked out the window, his smile evaporated, and his heart started pounding like a war-drum.
Two men were speaking to Louise outside, one with slightly ruffled hair and a black jacket and the other with close-cropped hair, an earring, and a brown jacket. Jacob pursed his lips. Reaching inside the box, he took out one of the smaller kitchen knives and tucked it inside the long sleeve of his flannel shirt.
"What is this about?" he asked, hurrying down the stone steps to the sidewalk. "Who are you?"
"It's alright, darling," Louise said, placing a hand on his chest. The other held Marius. "These men are with the police."
"There's no need for worry, sir," the one with the black jacket assured. "I'm Detective Burkhardt, this is my partner, Detective Griffin." Some of Jacob's tension disappeared, but he did not allow himself to be completely at ease. After all these were still strangers, and he trusted no one. "There have been a string of robberies in the area recently, and we've been asking the residents if they've seen anything suspicious."
"Well as you can see, we're just moving in," Louise said, gesturing to the house. "I'm afraid we can't help you."
"Well, if you do see or hear anything, feel free to give us a call," Detective Burkhardt said, holding out a business card which Jacob took.
"Thank you, we will." Louise always was the more diplomatic one.
They walked away, towards a house across the street.
"Is the knife in your right sleeve, or left?" Louise asked, quiet enough so the movers could not hear her.
Jacob gave her a faint smile. "Right."
"With any luck, there won't be any need to look over our shoulders anymore." She cupped his cheek and kissed him. "Come, let's make this house a home."
Many years ago…
Louise struggled, but the men holding her wrists were too strong. She kicked and thrashed about, but their grips were as strong as steel. They pulled her along a darkened corridor, lit only by a few scant torches. Everything was made of stone, the walls feeling like they were going to close in and crush her at any moment.
"Stop fighting!" one of the men barked, his canine lips pulled back in a snarl.
"Where is my mother?" Louise demanded. "I want to go home!"
"This is your home now!" the other man growled. "You will serve the family, or you will die!" He snorted, his face almost an exact match for his companion's.
They brought her to an iron door. One of the men held an arm around her throat while the other opened the door. It groaned, squeaking from long ages of use. While some of the torchlight streamed in from the corridor, within was almost nothing but darkness. Louise renewed her struggle, growling and shouting as she tried to tear herself free.
The two men dragged her inside. Louise, seeing red as a wave of adrenaline and desperation consumed her, sprouted claws on her hands and stabbed them into the legs of one of the men holding her. He gave a sharp yelp of pain, and his grip slackened.
The other man, however, was quick to act, throwing her down on the floor. It was not long before Louise was shackled to the wall of the cell. The man she had clawed, blood creating a crimson sheen on his pant legs, backhanded her in the face. Louise whimpered from the strike, her cheek pulsing with pain as her eyes began to water with tears.
"Let's go," the first man said.
"Enjoy your cage, beast!" the second, injured, man said to her. He spit on the floor in front of her for emphasis, and he and his partner walked outside. They closed the iron door shut, locking it and closing the slat near the top.
Louise was now alone in the dark.
There were no windows whatsoever, and with the door sealed, she was submerged in utter blackness. She could see neither herself nor any of her surroundings. Louise tried to stand, but the shackles around her wrists and ankles were not that long. They tightened, and she fell back to the floor. She slid backwards until she bumped into the wall, then found the nearest corner, curling into a ball.
Louise allowed herself to let go. She pressed her face into her arms, sobbing. Her mother was gone, and she had no idea if she was still alive. Now she was trapped in this dungeon, this hell, all alone. She had no idea how long she cried. Eventually the tears stopped. Eventually the sleeves of her sweater dried. All she could do was whimper, wishing with every part of her soul that she could turn back the clock and be home, with her family.
The slat opened.
Louise looked up, squinting at the first sliver of light she had seen in god knew how long. A fresh wave of anger welled up inside her, and she felt something shift inside. In a blink, the darkness was gone, and she could see the cell perfectly, down to the look of each block of stone.
Someone was looking through the slat, at her. He didn't look like the others who had taken her. Was he another prisoner? He appeared to be around her age, maybe a year or two older.
"Hello?" he asked, his eyes homing in on hers somehow.
"Go away," Louise said, noticing how hoarse her voice sounded after so long without even a drop of water.
"Why are you in there?" the boy asked.
"Go away!" Louise shouted, her anger compelling her to bolt to her feet and strain against the shackles as a great wave of painful sensation rolled over her body. The boy shut the slat, and she faintly heard his footsteps as he ran away.
Louise slid back to her corner, crying.
Present Day…
Louise spent the entire day unpacking boxes, depositing the contents of her life into the place she would hopefully call home soon. She gave Jacob directions the entire time, telling him which boxes to open and where everything was supposed to go. She realized she was being somewhat tyrannical, but Jacob never complained, not once. He helped her with a smile on his face, one which she could never be disappointed with.
Despite their best efforts, however, by late evening they both acknowledged that there was too much to unpack in a single day. Exhausted, they agreed to eat supper, go to bed, and finish tomorrow.
"So, are you going to give Joris a call?" Louise asked, taking a sip of red wine.
Jacob finished chewing on a piece of steak. His was cooked, while hers was raw. "I will. He said he would have some work lined up for me by the time we moved in."
"That's good. It wouldn't do for us to live here without the appearance of a normal life."
"We certainly have become experts at keeping appearances, haven't we?"
Louise smiled, and they clinked their wine glasses.
"I was thinking of taking Marius in for a checkup," Louise said, wiping the blood from her lips with a napkin. "I just need to find a local veterinarian."
"I'm sure Joris can point the way; I'll ask him when I see him."
"That would be wonderful, thank you."
Once dinner was finished, Louise took the dishes into the kitchen. She started washing and scrubbing them by hand. Even though their new house came with a dishwasher, she preferred doing it this way. She found the process more relaxing, as her mind could wander while her hands worked. Louise likened it to a form of meditation.
Partway through her task, she felt Jacob's arms encircling her stomach from behind. He kissed her on the cheek, then nuzzled his face against hers. His beard hairs scratched and tickled her, causing her to giggle.
"What are you thinking about?" she asked, her tone playful.
"You. Us," he replied.
"I've been thinking of us, too." Louise cupped his hands, squeezing them. "This is a chance for us to have a proper life, one where we no longer have to constantly be on the move. I want to grow old and make something to be proud of."
"I want that," Jacob said. "More than anything. We've fought so hard and run so far that we deserve to be happy."
Louise spun and faced him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Je t'aime."
"Comme moi, mon coeur," he replied. They both smiled, and she pressed her lips against his in a tender kiss. "I'll finish up here. You go ahead and relax; you've been working hard all day."
"Then I suppose I will meet you in our bed," Louise said, a suggestive smile on her face.
She left Jacob in the kitchen and sauntered through the house. She was already planning the rest of the unboxing, and felt giddy about how everything would look in its finished state. The closest she and Jacob had ever come to a permanent residence was a loft they had rented for nearly a year in New York. That particular chapter of their lives had ended rather badly, with half a dozen corpses and a rushed exodus from the city.
Louise made her way into the bedroom. The bed itself was set against the left corner of the far wall, with stacks of boxes placed around it like medieval guard towers. She retrieved a simple wooden box from one of them and sat down on the bed. The box contained what few mementos she still had that belonged to her family:
Her father's pocket watch, with an engraving on the back that translated as 'To my darling Victor, may we endure the rigours of time together.'
Her mother's locket, which opened to reveal a faded picture of her mother as a young woman as well as a baby picture of Louise.
Her grandfather's teeth. Among her kind, it was customary to cast a dead male relative's long, sharp teeth in silver to be handed down through the generations.
Louise held each item against her chest, closing her eyes. She wished that, if she thought and prayed hard enough, they could somehow bring her family back to her. It was a stupid notion, something only a child would think, but she had been doing it since her youth. It was hard to break old habits. Sometimes—
She heard glass breaking.
Louise stiffened where she sat, setting the mementos on the bed. Perhaps Jacob had accidentally dropped a glass. Her ears started twitching; there was another set of footsteps, and a separate heartbeat from Jacob's.
Louise took off her shoes and hurried through the house.
She stopped in the living room. There, standing inside the backdoor, was a man dressed in a raggedy hoody and jeans, with greasy, unkempt hair and a vicious look in his eyes. He pointed a gun at what must have been Jacob in the kitchen. Louise couldn't see him due to the dividing wall, but she heard his heartbeat, which was faster than normal from the adrenaline.
"No one was supposed to be home," the man said, frowning in disappointment.
"Just take it easy," Jacob said calmly. "This doesn't have to end badly."
"Maybe you didn't hear me: I'm taking all your cash and valuables, and there's nothing you can do about it!" He shook his head, and his human features gave way to a more canine face, with a thick mane under his chin, sharp teeth, and large ears.
A Schakal.
Louise quivered with anger. How dare he! This…stranger had broken into her house, into her home. And he was pointing a gun at her husband! She felt the rage surging within as a great wave of sensation passed over her. She rolled her head back, baring her teeth. Grey fur grew over her skin, along with distinctive black stripes, and her eyes became glowing silver. Her teeth elongated and sharpened, and two of them grew as long as her fingers and as sharp as daggers.
Bounding towards the intruder, Louise tackled him against the wall, sinking her two long teeth into his neck. He cried out in agony, firing off a shot by reflex. She drove her teeth down to her gums, tasting blood. It had been a long time since she had tasted Schakal blood.
Louise pulled her teeth back, leaving significant puncture wounds in the intruder's neck. He could only gurgle as blood poured out of his neck like a faucet, his face frozen in shock more than pain. He started to collapse, but Jacob rushed forward and held him against the wall.
Woging back into her human form, Louise felt her chin, which was now drenched in blood.
She licked it from her lips. Jacob said "Your blouse."
Louise cocked her head in confusion, then looked down. The white garment was now covered in blood spatter, with a large blotch of red just above her chest.
"Take it off, bag it, and tuck it under the bed. Then go in the shower and clean off the rest of the blood. Hand me one of those steak knives."
She passed him a steak knife they had used for supper.
"I need to make these puncture marks disappear," he said, gesturing to the dead man's neck.
Louise nodded. "I love you."
"I love you. Go, now! Someone will have heard that shot and called 911. We have to be prepared!"
She ripped the blouse off, thankful that the blood had not seeped through to her torso, and walked away as Jacob stabbed the steak knife into the Schakal's neck.
Do you believe in fairytales?
Welcome, all, to my latest project, brought on by a rather acute case of Grimm obsession. I guess that's what happens when you binge the complete Blu Ray set of the show for the third time during this pandemic nonsense.
I've had an idea for a Grimm fanfic for ages now. I adore the show so much, and Wesen are such a cool concept that I just couldn't resist playing with them. That, and it's always fun to bring in an outsider's perspective to contrast that of the protagonists in the show. Makes for a fun source of storytelling and conflict when you juxtapose like that.
As you can probably tell, Manticores and Mauvais Dentes are two of my favourite kinds of Wesen. I fell in love with them when I first saw them on-screen, and they got relatively little screen-time, so I wanted to do more with them here. Especially since they're two of the deadliest species we've seen in the series. Whenever I write fanfiction, it's to explore what I think are areas that the source material somewhat lacks, or just didn't go into enough detail with, and the same goes for this story. So, I'm going to do a lot with species that we didn't get to see much of in the show, such as Manticores, Mauvais Dentes, Rißfleisch, Pflichttreue, etc. Also, as much as I love the show, there are a few storylines which are kind of abandoned later on (Coins of Zakynthos, Trubel's interrupted story, and especially Black Claw). I'll do my best to cover those here, so they can have proper resolutions.
So with all that aside, I hope you enjoy my latest offering. Stay indoors if you're feeling sick and follow social distancing. We can get through this together.
Please review/favourite!
Cast List
Jacob Carter: Tom Hardy (especially with the accent)
Louise Sauvageon: Shannyn Sossamon
