Down the Rabbit Hole 1/7
Chapter 1
Special Agent Victor Henriksen went to work on Monday as if nothing had happened. The white bandage at his forearm was perfectly covered under his sleeve so nobody should notice. Dean had been right it didn't need to be stitched.
Victor looked into familiar faces, but they looked strange. Not that he could put his finger on it. However, it felt strange. His colleges, his boss, his office, his whole life felt strange.
"Victor." His boss greeted him. "Got your head free? Recharged your energy?"
Where did he get those phrases from? Some management seminar How to encourage you employees?
He plastered a fake smile on his face. "Yeah, got a new angle for this case. Almost like I spent a few days with those wackos."
"Good, good. We need a breakthrough in this case quick." He smiled weakly, already distracted focusing someone at the other side of the office. "I can feel them breathing in my neck. Hey, Mel, got a minute?" And he stormed off. Victor had not to asked who they where. There were always people up the ladder who wanted results. Preferably yesterday. fucking politicians.
Victor escaped into his office and shut the door. Breathing heavily he slammed into his chair.
Is Sam alright? Rachel Donovan's voice echoed through his mind. He had spoken to her. After he had introduced himself her first question had been if Sam was alright. Then she had told him how Sam Winchester had saved her life by wrestling down a monster. Got clawed up badly that way. Victor had known this part. He had a first row seat for the aftermath of Sam hugging a wendigo as Dean had phrased it.
I bet the so called heroes were the ones who kidnapped those people in the first place. Why else would they just disappear?, was what Victor had heard as he spoke to the local police. A week ago Victor would have agreed with them. Today he followed Rachel's train of thoughts. Is Sam alright? He hoped so but he had no way to know. After the Winchesters had left they once again just vanished. Maybe they would pop up somewhere on the other side of the country in a few days. Maybe not.
Victor took out his badge and ran his fingers over the metal. Fourteen years he worked for the FBI now. How many people did he save in all those years? It took month sometimes years for one breakthrough.
After a few days of work the Winchesters had saved three people and god knows how many more.
Out of his pocket he pulled a little plastic bag. It wasn't labeled, this was not official evidence. Officially he had never been abducted. He hadn't told anybody.
Making a decision he reached for the phone.
"Rick? This is Victor. Could you do me a favor?"
On TV lab results came in within hours. In real life it took days sometimes weeks to do all the tests. Even Rick the self-proclaimed genius of the lab had no magic tricks to make the machines do their work faster. Maybe he should ask Dean Winchester if he knew how to do the trick. Victor chuckled to himself at this thought but wondered if Dean actually did know how to work magic. He wouldn't be surprised if the answer was yes.
Victor used the time he waited for the results to go over the Winchester case again.
Before his encounter with them he had sorted the witness reports into three categories: Those who were scared to death by the famous Dean Winchester so they denied they had ever met him. Even facing hard proof telling the opposite. Though he could nearly smell their fear he now asked himself what they feared. Was it really Dean or something else?
Than there were those people who talked but left out a hole bunch. For them the Winchesters often were heroes who had saved them but they wouldn't tell from what they were saved. Victor now got an idea for that one.
Last were the nutjobs who told stories which would make good horror movies. Reading through the reports of this category Victor's guts clenched. Maybe they weren't nutjobs at all. He considered himself a little more open minded now then last week and perhaps those horror stories were true after all. Chewing his bottom lip he turned page after page. If this was all real, what did it do to him? If there were monsters out there could he just ignore it and went on like he never found out?
You are at the beginning of a very dangerous and most likely deadly path. I highly recommend you to stop before it's to late, Dean had said. Was it too late already, Victor wondered.
His phone rang and pulled him out of his thoughts.
"Rick here. Got your results. Can you come down here?"
Minutes later Victor entered the lab. Rick was bend over a table, glasses low on his nose, occupied with some papers. One hand absently fiddling with a little plastic bag.
"What you got?" He was curious. Witness reports were one thing but this was hard proof.
"Not what you want, I'm sorry." Rick gave him a printout with graphs and numbers he couldn't make sense of.
"What do you mean?" He didn't show it, however, this was the answer he had hoped for. Or feared, he wasn't sure.
"This … claw … or whatever it is." He stopped searching for the right words. "It was covered in blood. Human blood. I can run a test if you want, see if it's in the system."
"No that's not necessary. That is the one thing I already know." Sam's blood. He had seen how Dean had pulled this thing out of his brothers flesh. "Don't wanna let you risk your job with more off the record tests."
"That's what friends are for." He grinned. "By the way, you're still on board with poker on Saturday?"
"Sure." Victor said not actually sure if he cared about poker with his friend anymore. It seemed so … pointless. "What can you tell me about the claw?"
"Right, the claw … it must have been contaminated at some point." He shrugged his shoulders as if he wanted to say that it wasn't his fault. "Shit, I can't even tell if this thing is from an animal or a human … you know, if people had claws and all."
"Can you tell what kind of animal it would be?"
"No clue. Bring me a clean sample and I probably can tell you more. Maybe a zoologist could help you." He took his glasses off and cleaned them with his sleeve. "Where did you get it anyway? Never seen something like that before."
"Me neither." Victor murmured. He grabbed the plastic bag with that damn claw. "Thanks, Rick. I owe you one."
Victor knew a zoologist who had helped him in a case a few years back. He made an appointment with the guy and brought him the claw. Like any other case he wanted to be thorough even when he knew the answer already. Instead of giving him an answer the guy asked questions.
Where did you get it? Have you seen the animal? Can I keep it to show it to my colleges? Can I write a paper about it so I get famous?
Victor grabbed the claw before the guy could accidentally loose it.
Back in his apartment Victor sat with a beer in one hand and that damn thing in the other. Maybe getting drunk would solve all his problems. Before he could set that plan into action the door bell rang. Victor was tempted to ignore it but then stood up with a sigh and opened the door.
"Hey Vic, how are you?" Rick's cheerfully voice ringing in his ear. At least he had a six pack under his arm.
"Fine." Victor guided him into the living room. They took their seats and Rick helped himself with a beer.
"You seemed a bit off the last few days." There was a pause giving him the chance to explain himself. Victor just took a sip of his beer.
"Well, I was thinking about that claw thing." Rick continued when Victor kept silent. "Just curious, you got anything out of that zoologist?"
"No, he has never seen something like that before." Victor took another sip. "Wanted to write a paper about it."
"Yeah." Rick snored. "So, where did you get it?"
"Found it. Can we keep it that way?" He considered Rick a friend but he didn't want to involve him farther into this. But not such luck. Rick kept quiet for a minute and Victor could sense he was searching for the right words to say something.
"You are not quite yourself." Rick started. "Not since the boss forced you to take a few days off." Another pause but Victor had no intention to fill it. "Something happened that weekend?"
"What should have happened?" Victor tried to keep his voice even.
"I don't know. You had an encounter with the owner of the claw?" He guessed.
"Never saw that thing." And that was the truth.
"What happened to you arm?" So he had noticed the bandage.
"I shouldn't play with knives." Victor said but didn't explain it farther.
"I'm your friend." Rick lead out a sigh. "Do I really have to ask?"
"Ask what?" He clenched the beer bottle harder in his fist.
"When did you got close enough to Sam Winchester to get his blood on that damn thing?"
back to Masterpost
continue to chapter 2