Hi everyone, I am so sorry about the long delay. I was suffering from writer's block, but I'm back now and I'm going to say now that I'm hoping to get more than just two reviews for this chapter because I was pretty disappointed about the amount I got for the last one. Anyways, please start to review more people, I really appreciate it!
Disclaimer: I do not own GRIMM, any of it's characters, storylines, etc. All I own is this awesome idea I had.
Enjoy!
Juliet laughed as she listened to her cousin prattle on about all the pranks he had pulled on her while they were growing up and she playfully smacked his arm when he rubbed her nose in the fact that when the snake had slithered towards her she actually peed her pants.
"You knew that I was terrified of snakes! But I'll have you know now that just two weeks ago one of my patients brought in their fully grown Boa Constrictor and I had no issues whatsoever" she retorted, sticking out her tongue in childlike mockery.
The four laughed and Nick put his arm around Juliet, bringing her in to peck her cheek while continuing to listen to Andy go off about another prank he had pulled on poor Juliet.
As he talked Nick made sure to smile and chuckle at the correct times but internally he was miles away.
He had the message to go on now but he didn't know what it meant. He would have liked to have been able to talk with Monroe as he had poured over the books, ask him for his opinion and if he had ever seen or heard of anything like it. Monroe was a book all in himself, there were so many random facts that the man knew that most of the time Nick got all the information he needed from just talking to him.
But it looked as though he wasn't going to be able to meet up him tonight after all; it was quickly approaching 7:30 and the double date didn't look like it was going to be ending in the next half hour, considering they had only been seated twenty minutes ago.
The longer the case went on without any leads the more likelihood that the perp. Would strike again, and since this was looking more and more to be an Endezeichen Grimm the "if" turned into a "when".
Nick was still trying to figure out the purpose of the killings. Was it simply just a way of trying to wipe out the wesen population in Portland? But if that were the case the Endezeichen Grimm wouldn't just be killing one at a time that would take too long. So, was it some kind of message to Nick? Telling him that he wasn't doing his job as a Grimm and this was an attempt to right his supposed wrongs? That had some plausibility but that didn't really explain the message, he would put a bookmark in that thought for now.
Before his mind could go onto other possibilities they're waiter came with their meals and he thanked the man as he set his order of a steak, mashed potatoes and his side salad in front of him.
The conversations quieted down some as everyone ate, a comment was shared now again about the upcoming wedding and whether or not Juliet and Nick had any upcoming plans.
"Well nothing as exciting as getting married but we have been talking about maybe renting a cabin this month and celebrating a certain someone's birthday" Juliet gushed, rubbing Nick's shoulder with affection.
Andy and Beth smiled and Beth went on with Juliet about the place they would be staying in and Juliet asked her about their honeymoon plans.
He was content to let Juliet continue to do all the talking and he would just be an avid listener, but that was soon dashed when Juliet jostled him into a conversation.
"Nick, you've hardly talked at all this entire time. What's going on in that thick beautiful head of yours?" Juliet asked, having an idea that it was probably about a case.
Now being forced into the conversation Nick shrugged out of his focused mind and did his best to delve into the conversation at hand.
"Sorry, I've just been working this case and its taking a lot out of me right now. So, you guys were talking about your honeymoon plans?"
At this Beth gushed over their plans to vacation under the sun in Tuscany then travel over to Europe to look at all the museums. And the conversation went from there, Andy putting in his five cents here and there when Beth took a breather. Juliet and Beth went into even further detail than their last discussion.
Nick picked up his glass of wine and was about to take a long drink from it in order to help him escape the scene when his phone chirped in his pocket, offering him an alternative out other than alcohol.
He felt they're eyes on him as he pulled the singing device out from his pants pocket and looking at the screen he saw that it was Monroe. Looking up he addressed the small group, who were staring at him in question, but Juliet was the one he looked at as he spoke.
"I'm so sorry, it's my friend Monroe, I'll just be a minute" he explained, leaning over he pecked Juliet on the lips then excused himself and walked out into the lobby to have some semblance of privacy.
Accepting the call he brought the phone to his ear and spoke, "hey Monroe"
"Where are you? It's twenty after 8. I thought you said you wanted to do some research tonight?" he asked, his tone was overlain with annoyance but Nick knew that below that was concern, in short showing annoyance was actually his way of saying that he was concerned.
"Yeah, I'm sorry. I completely forgot that Juliet and I were supposed to have dinner with her cousin and his fiancée, I meant to call you but it slipped my mind. Look, how about we meet up instead tomorrow at the trailer, say the same time?" he offered.
There was silence on the other line. And then Monroe's voice returned, and with it a lecture on responsibility and keeping track of planned meetings.
Before Monroe got too absorbed Nick interrupted him, knowing that if he didn't he would be listening to Monroe list all the other irresponsible things that Nick had done since he had known him.
"I really am sorry Monroe, how about I make it up to you by buying that brand of microbrew that you like so much?" he offered, hoping that his peace offering would put an end to the lecture.
"Fine, but you better not be late" Monroe hung up and Nick ended the call.
Pocketing the phone Nick couldn't help but chuckle, sometimes with Monroe it felt like he was juggling two relationships.
Walking back to the table Nick sat back down and the conversation started back up again.
~GRIMM~
He had been stalking the woman for three hours now, studying her to figure out what type of person she was. So far, it looked as if she was just a regular woman; 42 years old, working full time for an insurance company and had been divorced for the past three years. Gathering the information hadn't been that hard, it was amazing what information the internet held.
But this woman wasn't ordinary, far from it. She was something else, a wesen, an abomination that was tainting this world with each breath she stole. It was his job, his destiny, his honor to smite her from this world.
Getting up from his spot on the trunk of his car he casually approached the 'woman' who was unloading late night groceries from her car.
Putting on a charming smile he spoke, "excuse me, you wouldn't happen to have a jack would you?"
~GRIMM~
~The following morning~
Nick entered the precinct, a cup of coffee in one hand a bag of bagels in the other.
Approaching his desk he saw that Hank was already there, looking at something on his computer with great focus.
Noticing his presence Hank greeted him as Nick sat down in his chair and tossed him the bag of bagels.
"Thanks man, and here I am with nothing for you but gruesome crime scene photos" Hank bid, taking a raisin bagel out and biting into it.
Nick snorted and got his own bagel out, "ah, you shouldn't have" he joked.
Finishing his bite of bagel and swallowing it down with a drink of coffee Hank spoke again, "listen, I heard that the captain had to send you home last night and from what Wu told me-"
"Wu needs to learn how to mind his own fucking business!" he snapped, his eyes glaring into the concerned ones of Hank.
Hank was taken aback by his outburst and leaned back in his chair, his concern for his friend and partner getting worse. Ever since they had been working this case Nick's state of mind seemed to be getting worse and worse, it was like the evilness that was surrounding the crimes were somehow being absorbed into Nick and Hank was terrified that soon there would be nothing left of the man.
Immediately regretting his words he stuttered out an apology, embarrassed and also a little anxious about what was going on with him.
"What is going on with you? I know I've already asked you this but seriously man, this case is screwing with your head and each day you seemed to be getting worse" he pointed out, his eyes taking in the dullness of his gray eyes and the darkening bags under his eyes.
Nick licked his lips as he tried to come up with a response. Hank had no idea how scared Nick truly was, he felt like he was losing himself, like he was giving into a darkness that had been brewing in him since the day he had found out about his Grimm heritage.
"I don't know, but right now we have to focus on solving this case before anyone else gets killed" Hank was about to refute but Nick continued before he could, not wanting to get into any further about his darkening mind.
"I did some research last night while I was here and I managed to get a rough translation of that message at the crime scenes" he divulged, logging into his computer and going to the photos.
Hank remained silent, biting his tongue as he grudgingly allowed Nick to change the subject.
"It's Romanian, it means 'all is not what it may seem, for deep inside there is a beast.' I couldn't find any connections to literature, movies or anything of the kind. But it has to mean something to our killer or killers" he went on, going back and forth between the same message at the two crime scenes.
Listening Hank inputted his own thoughts, "did you check your aunt's books? Maybe there's something in there about it?" he suggested.
"I got through some of the books last night, so far I haven't found the message any of them but I did find an entry on the Endezeichen Grimm, it was written by my aunt. I didn't get a chance to actually go through it though because Juliet called me to remind me about a dinner date we had" Nick explained, his voice showing his annoyance at her call's interruption.
Hank didn't miss the change in attitude when he spoke of Juliet, it was hard to miss considering the change came with a subtle but there scowl. He was itching to ask if the two were having problems but held himself back, not wanting to cause Nick to have another outburst.
Instead he asked if he was ok, which he knew he wasn't but he was hoping that Nick would acknowledge his bad state of mind.
Nick looked down at his desk and took in a deep breath, "no, no I'm about as far from okay as one can possibly get. But my mental state is not what's important right now, what's important is putting a stop to these killings" he stated, meeting Hank's gaze with a deep determination that would take a divine intervention to divert.
Hank's phone rang, breaking the tension that had suddenly developed between the two.
"Griffin" Nick watched as he listened to whoever was speaking on the other line then watched as he muttered a bye then hung up.
"That was Wu, we have another victim" he reported, his voice low and saddened.
Sighing both rose from their seats and walked out of the bullpen to Hank's car.
~GRIMM~
Isaiah sat in his tent, an open poetry book in his hand as he silently read one of his favorite poems. A passage from Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." There was just something about this poem that spoke to him, not because he fancied himself the insane murderer or even the old man with eyes that vexed the soul. He preferred to think of himself as the thin ray of light that shone forth from his lantern that revealed the truth of the old man's evil.
There was one particular portion that he was quite fond of and often found himself repeating:
"And so it was impossible to do the work for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his evil eye."
He couldn't help but find the beauty in the otherwise dark, demented poem. It was a true illumination of what he believed to be true of the wesen that walked the earth. To an ordinary human they appeared to be as human as can be, nothing to indicate what lay beneath the mask they so cleverly wore.
Grimms could see the truth though, and the ones who were pure in mind and soul of the duties they were destined to uphold had the responsibility of wiping them out.
His thoughts were interrupted when a shadow fell over his book. Looking up he was met with the hollow gaze of his leader.
Marking his place he set the book aside and stood.
"You did a very good job Isaiah , and I trust that you left our new message in a spot where it will be found?" she asked, watching him intently as he ran his fingers over the worn book that was resting on the bed.
"I would never let you down, and I can assure you that it will be found" he promised, walking over to her.
She looked up at him and reached up, wiping off a smudge of dried blood on his cheek.
"That's why I chose you, you've never once disappointed me and that's why I need you to make the final contribution. I don't trust anyone else to get the job done properly" she praised.
Giving a rare smile he bowed his head, "thank you, I won't let you down."
"I know you won't"
Reaching into the pouch slung to her side she took out a familiar silver ax and rested the weapon in his open hand.
"Make me proud" she whispered.
Curling his fingers around the handle he nodded.
"It will be done by tonight"
Smiling in approval she turned on her heels she walked out of the tent, and went on to other matters she had to deal with.
Setting the axe down he picked up the book and turned to a random page, he couldn't help the chuckle that sprang forth at the poem that greeted him; "Alone." Setting the book back down and the axe back up he exited his tent, and as he walked he spoke to himself.
"From the thunder, and the storm-And the cloud that took the form (When the rest of Heaven was blue) of a demon in my view-"
~GRIMM~
Pulling up to the house Nick and Hank remained in the car, neither one making any indication of getting out.
Nick looked out the window, watching as officers and CSU went in and out of the house, going about their jobs as usual.
"Are you sure you can handle this?" Hank asked, remembering what had happened at the last two crime scenes.
There was a sharp retort that was building on his tongue, the acidic feel of it making his insides churn but he swallowed it down and grimaced at the aftertaste. Hank didn't deserve anymore of his malice.
"Yeah, I'll be fine" taking a calming breath he unbuckled himself and got out of the car, Hank following suit.
The closer they got to the house the slower Nick's pace became, the aura of evil and horror that the house exuded was wrapping around him, trying to pull him in with a lasso of dark intent but he did his best to fight against it while doing his best to build up a wall that could defend his fragile sanity against the tsunami he was about to face. He prayed the decaying lifeboat he was clinging to would survive.
Walking up the steps Nick and Hank were met by Wu who had been waiting for them by the front door.
Instead of his usual wit Wu merely gave them a blank stare then led them inside, giving insight to how deeply this case was starting to affect him.
"Our victim is Harriet Marlow, 42 years old and works full time as an insurance fraud investigator" Wu told them as they walked through the entryway.
"Who found her?" Nick asked, his eyes roaming the walls, looking for a familiar message.
"A co-worker, got worried when she wasn't answering her calls and came over to check on her. Got here, found the door unlocked and found her friend like this" Wu answered as they stepped into the living room where the stench of blood and gore coated the air and fried the image of blood, exposed tendons and a chopped off head with clouded eyes into their minds.
Nick slipped on a pair of gloves and squatted down next to the body.
"Have pictures of the body already been taken?" Nick asked, not wanting to touch the body until he had confirmation.
"Yeah, have at it" walking away Wu went back out to the front of the house, likely to get some fresh air.
He could feel Hank's eyes on the back of his neck as he examined the body, watching him to make sure that he didn't have a sudden breakdown.
The truth was, he was fighting everything in him not to spend too long looking at the decapitated head that was only inches away from him. He wouldn't let the malicious thoughts control him, he was stronger.
Touching the woman's shoulder he carefully looked over her body for anything the killer may have left behind. But the same as the last two scenes, he couldn't see anything with the naked eye so rising from the floor he looked around the room.
From the corner of his eye he could see Hank talking to one of the CSUs and he roved his eyes around the rest of the room, taking in as much detail as he could while at the same time muffling the dark thrill the blood gave him.
It was when he came back to the decapitated head that Nick could no longer help himself, he had to have a closer look.
Walking over to the head he kneeled down and did a quick examination of it, making an effort not to touch. His eyes traveled down the severed neck, the exposed tendons sticking to the floor like demonic roots and his eyes stopped when he saw something in the glazed eyes of the head.
Brows furrowing he followed the line of sight which led him up to the ceiling to the small glass fixture, but it wasn't the fixture that had his eyes widening, it was the bloody message that was scrawled over it.
This time though the message was different.
"Pentru a lupta cu sine este de a nega pe tine însuți"
And as always at the very bottom was the ancient Germanic G.
For whatever reason though this message seemed to hit him even harder than the last one, but for the life of him he didn't know why. He didn't know what it said but somehow he knew that it was meant for him, and just like he was beginning to suspect that the other message had been for him as well.
He only wished he could figure out who the sender was.
Forcing his eyes away he grabbed a nearby CSU and told them to get some pictures of the message on the light.
While the CSU did as he requested he walked over to Hank who had just finished talking to a female officer.
Upon meeting his gaze Hank spoke first, "did you find anything?"
"Yeah, a new message. It was left on the light fixture up there" he pointed to the sole light source in the room and Hank followed his arm to watch as pictures were taken of the message.
Hank met his gaze again, "We need to catch whoever's doing this" he muttered, shaking his head.
Nick couldn't agree with him more.
Not knowing what else to say Hank offered a next step, "how about we question the co-worker, she's waiting outside with some officers" he suggested.
Having no other suggestion of his own he nodded and followed Hank out of his house, keeping his gaze on his shoes the entire time until they were outside.
Approaching the sniffling woman who was taking shaky sips of coffee from a Styrofoam cup they excused a female officer who was keeping her company then introduced themselves.
"Hi ma'am, I'm Detective Hank Griffin and this is my partner Detective Nick Burkhardt. Would it be alright if we asked you some questions?" Hank began.
Nodding in consent she sniffed once more than took a long swallow of the coffee in her hand.
"Thank you, so you were the one who found Ms. Marlow, would you mind telling us what led you to come here to check on your friend?"
Swallowing she started to speak, "after she didn't come in at her usual time I waited a little while then called her cell, when she didn't pick up after my third try I sent her a few text messages then called her house phone, and she still didn't pick up so I left a message on her answering machine, asking her if she was okay"
Nick asked his own question, "Why were you so concerned about her, had she never come in late before?"
She shook her head, "not for as long as I've worked with her. She was never late, always exactly on time or early, she is-was a very punctual person, she practically had a watch surgically attached to her wrist. I knew when she didn't show up at her usual time that something had to be wrong, I just never thought it would be something like this" she choked, she wiped her eyes with the napkin that had been given to her.
"I'm sorry" she whimpered, unable to stop the flow of tears that continued to escape her.
"It's alright ma'am" Hank assured her.
But it wouldn't be for long though because while she was crying she lost control and woged into an Eisbiber and unfortunately just as she turned she looked directly into Nick's eyes.
The change in the atmosphere was instantaneous.
Fear filled her eyes and she shook her head, backing away from and whimpering in fright.
"Please don't hurt me, please don't hurt me! Oh god please, I have a family!" she cried, her voice high pitched and quivering in fright.
Nick stood in his spot, knowing that if he tried to get any closer to her, her terror would only increase and he didn't want to make any bigger of a scene than they were already creating.
Hank slowly approached the lady, keeping his hands in plain view as he tried to calm her, assuring her that Nick wasn't going to hurt her and that all they wanted to do was track down whoever had killed her friend.
Her back hit the railing of the porch and she continued to whimper even as Hank tried to soothe her fears.
Figuring that the only way she was going to calm down was if he left he addressed Hank, "I'm going to head back to the precinct. You can finish up here" with one last reassuring glance at the woman he turned and walked away, hoping that his departure would make her more willing to talk with Hank.
He managed to catch a ride back to the precinct with another officer.
~Break~
Entering the bullpen Nick walked to his desk and sat down at his desk, immediately bringing up an English to Romanian translator.
Typing in the message from memory he developed a slimy lump in the throat at the translation he was given.
"To fight one's self is to deny thyself"
He leaned back in his seat, the lump starting to develop spikes that were digging into the sensitive pink walls of his throat.
It was becoming more and more apparent that the messages were for him, this was clearly stating that whoever was doing this believed that he was fighting his immoral destiny to become a killer and slay every wesen that he came across, no matter if they had never done anything wrong.
With each day that passed it was becoming more and more difficult to draw the line at where his sanity lie and his ever expanding voyage into the twisted and bloody thoughts that were quickly overpowering him.
Before he could go any deeper his cell rang and seeing that it was Hank he picked up quickly.
"What do you got?"
There was a pause on the other line before Hank spoke, "well, after I got her to calm down and assured her that you weren't going to hunt her and her family down and kill them she told me that she didn't see anyone leaving the house or acting suspicious but she did remember the smell of cigarette smoke in the house. She said it was odd because Harriet wasn't a smoker" he reported.
"Okay so it's likely that our killer is a smoker but that doesn't give us any leads as to who this could be. I'll check to see if any cigarette butts were found but it's unlikely. Did you happen to ask her if her friend was also wesen?"
"Yeah, she said that she was a…a Genio In-in" he struggled to get through the last word but he didn't have to, Nick knew what name he was trying to pronounce.
"A Genio Innocuo? So, so far it looks as if all the wesen that have been killed aren't known for being fighters, are docile which makes them easy to hunt down and kill. I think maybe the Endezeichen Grimm knows this and that is why they were chosen, now the only question is why they're doing this, it can't just be because of them being wesen, there has to be a reason" he went off, his thoughts going a million miles an hour as he tried to think up a reason.
He wasn't sure what Jennifer Miller had been but it was safe to assume that she hadn't been a volatile wesen.
"What are you thinking?" Hank asked, having no clue as to what they could be planning.
"I don't know, listen I'm going to the trailer to do some research. You can meet me there and I'll call Monroe" he suggested, knowing that he wouldn't be able to figure this out in the precinct.
"Okay, see you in a bit then"
"See ya" both hung up then Nick scrolled through this contacts then selected Monroe's and brought the phone to his ear.
"Hi Monroe, listen I was hoping that we could bump out meeting up to now, say in about an hour?"
He could hear the groan that Monroe released at this, "you know we really just need to stop putting times on any of our meetings because they never stick, but yeah I'll meet you down there. By the way, I expect two cases of Duloc Amber" without waiting for a confirmation Monroe hung up, his demand having been made.
Unable to hold back his amuse chuckled he ended the call and pocketed the device.
As he was getting ready to leave Captain Renard's office door opened and after looking around his eyes landed on Nick he motioned him over.
Putting his plans to the side for now Nick walked over to him and entered his office.
"You wanted to see me captain?"
"Yes, I want to know how the case is going, do you have any leads?" he asked as he walked back over to his desk and sat down, inviting Nick to sit down in one of the chairs across from him.
Taking the invitation he sat down in one of the chairs and answered his question.
"We don't have any leads at the moment sir but we did find a new message at the latest scene, it was in Romanian again and it roughly translates to "to fight one's self is to deny thyself" I haven't checked yet if it has any significance but I'm guessing that it probably won't" he updated him.
Sean looked down at his desk and shook his head, "this is not good, and we need to put a name to this guy before someone else gets killed. I can't keep this out of the papers any longer, I'm going to have to give a press conference soon and inform the public that we have a serial killer in Portland" he sighed, hating the very thought of it.
"Is that all sir?" Nick asked, itching to get going.
"Yes, thank you Nick, be sure to report to me again when you get anything new" he ordered, watching as the man got up from the chair and headed for the door.
"Yes sir" exiting the office Nick hurried out of the bullpen before he was stopped again.
Back in Sean's office the Captain picked up his phone and dialed a familiar number.
"Have you got anything for me?"
"Nothing concrete but I have asked around and there is word of a caravan of Romanian Endezeichen Grimm who were rumored to be heading for your territory" he relayed, his voice lowered so as to not be overheard.
He froze, his posture stiffening at the words that he was hearing.
If a whole clan of Endezeichen Grimm had managed to cross into his territory without his knowledge than that meant that either his watch had become lax or his informers had failed him. Either way, if this was true then Portland was in trouble.
"Sir?"
"Call me when you have something more concrete, but also continue to look into this rumor. I want to know everything about them, where they have been, what they have done and what their plans are" he ordered.
"Of course, I shall report back to you with any new information I get"
"Good, and remember, we never had this conversation" he insisted, not wanting this information to get out.
"As you wish, good day sir"
"Good day"
Both hung up and Sean none too gently slammed his personal phone back into his desk drawer
Flexing his hand he rose from his chair and paced the room, his mind chaos from all the implications this could mean. One Endezeichen Grimm had been bad enough but a whole clan of them would be much harder to eliminate, and the cleanup would be hell.
Stopping he slumped back into his chair and turned his computer on, quickly locating the file of crime scene photos that he had ordered be sent to him he clicked through them until he came to images of the body and the bloody message on the glass light fixture.
His eyes seared into the words, tracing each letter with his eyes as he committed them to memory.
If these Romanian Endezeichen Grimm had dared enter his protectorate and had murdered wesen he was going to make sure that they suffered. No one, not even the feared Endezeichen Grimm would escape his wrath of justice.
He was going to hunt them down and make sure that they paid for each and every drop of blood that had been spilt.
If it was a war they wanted, then it was a war they were going to get.
A/N: Hi, me again. So, you see that nice button near the bottom of the screen there? Yeah, that one that says review. How about you click that and send me your thoughts on the story so far, I would really appreciate it. BTW I am pleased to report that Monroe will finally make an appearance in the next chapter, I know he technically has but this time it will not be just over the phone. That's all, bye!