User blog:Theory of everything/The Grimm Trilogy: Part Three "Grimm Future"

SOMEWHERE IN SEATTLE

2037

It was your standard college slumber party. Three coeds, giggling and drinking, partying safely within the confines of their dormitory room. The next morning, the police had no answers.

Two of the room mates had disappeared sometime in the middle of the night, while the third slept. That third girl, Amelia Powers, having no knowledge of her room mates whereabouts, had apparently slept throughout the whole incident.

Only one clue. Amelia’s feet, the next morning after the disappearance, was covered in Moss, although she had no memory of how it got there and hallway security cameras revealed she nor any of her room mates had ever left their room that night.

The missing girl’s families demanded answers. The University demanded answers. The city of Seattle demanded answers. But the Seattle police had none.

Chief Wu was as stumped as anyone and even after placing his finest detectives on the case, the case was cold. The only clue was the Moss on Amelia Powers feet.

The police lab determined it was a very rare form of Moss, not found anywhere near the region. In fact, it was a type of Moss not known to even still exist having thought to have become extinct several hundreds years ago.

Chief Wu was perplexed. Finally, he decided to “think outside the box” and bring in a special consultant.

He had secretly worked with this consultant on “unusual” cases in the past with some success and this case, if it was anything at all, was definitely “unusual”!

Wu trusted this consultant, as he had trusted the consultant’s father, who had been a detective Wu had closely worked with back in the days when Wu was a sergeant with the Portland police department.

Wu learned, years later, that Detective Nick Burkhardt was something more than just a detective. He was what was called a Grimm. That knowledge explained a lot towards understanding the “hunches” that Nick always seemed to have regarding certain suspects. Hunches that always seemed to have turned out correct.

Now his daughter, Niki Burkhardt, continued on with the family tradition. She was not a cop, like her father, but was a “consultant on call” for special police matters and, exactly like her father, Niki Burkhardt was a Grimm.

Nikki, dressed in black leather pants, white tank top, and leather jacket, her long dark hair flowing halfway down her back, was summoned into the Seattle police headquarters to meet with Chief Wu.

“Got another strange one for ya,” Chief Wu said.

“I figured it had to be when you called me,” Niki smiled.

Wu began to fill her in on what they knew so far about the case, which wasn‘t much.

“Could I see the Moss report?” Niki asked.

“Of course,” Wu replied, handing over the file containing the report.

Niki read it over.

“I’ll need a sample of that Moss,” Niki requested.

“I’ll have a sample sent right over,” Wu replied, as he made the call to the lab.

Minutes later the sample was delivered.

“I’m going to borrow this and do some checking on my own,” Niki began, “I’ll let you know my conclusions. Is Ms. Powers still staying in the same dorm room?”

“Yeah,” Wu answered.

“Then I’m going to go over and make a visit,” Niki said.

“Want me to send backup?” Wu asked.

“Naw,” Niki replied, “better if I show up by myself. Less conspicuous, you know?”

Wu nodded.

Niki left heading for home first. Home being a very old trailer that once belonged to her great Aunt Marie, a great Grimm in her own right and a legend in her own time.

Although, Niki had digitized all of her great Aunt’s notes and drawings, she still kept all the books, notes, and illustrations locked up securely in several safes.

Many a night, Niki would open one of those safes and take out one of her Aunt’s books and slowly open up to a random page and just read. It somehow helped her connect with her family and her legacy. It made her feel good.

This night, she read up on the Moss and discovered something interesting. A solid clue. Taking her Streak X-80 electric motorcycle, she headed over to the university and the dorm where Amelia Powers resided.

It was a Friday night, so another party was in full bloom.

As Niki walked down the dorm hall, filled with some very loud heavy house music, she dodged several drunken coeds and several flirtations from some guys who were the “guests” of some of the other coed residents.

She finally found Ms. Powers room and knocked. The door swung open and a slightly inebriated Amelia stood in the door way.

“Who you?!” she drunkenly slurred. Nikki noticed a couple of other girls drinking straight from a bottle in the back of the room and one or two guys leaning against the back wall, with beers in hand.

“Ms. Powers?” Niki began, “My name is Niki Burkhardt. I’m a special consultant with the Seattle police department that’s investigating the disappearance of your two roommates. I was wondering if I could talk to you for a moment?”

Amelia Powers slightly smiled.

“Well, as you can see, I’m kinda busy right now,” she said, “could you, like, come back tomorrow afternoon?”

“This will only take a few moments,” Niki replied, “its more like a request.”

Amelia Powers frowned at the thought of the inconvenience.

“Okay,” she reluctantly answered, “but only for a moment. Lets go down the hall to the study room. No one will be in there and it’ll be quieter!”

“Lead the way,” Niki replied, as she followed the drunk and stumbling Amelia down the hall and to a small room off to the side.

Niki noted that Amelia was right. There was no one using the study room on this Friday party night (no surprise there) so it was quiet.

“What’s your request?” Amelia asked.

“I want to spend the night in your room,” Niki said.

“Oh, you do, do you?!” Amelia snickered.

“Not what you think,” Niki smiled, “I want to observe what happens when you and your roommates sleep!”

“Well, a lot might happen if me or my room mates have any “guests” stay over!” Amelia laughed.

Niki just smiled.

Amelia then shrugged, “Aw, what do I care? You got nothing better to do than watch us sleep, then be my guest. Although, I don’t know how this is going to help you find out what happened that night!”

“What did happen that night?” Niki asked.

“Hell if I know!” Amelia sadly replied, “I wish I did. I mean, everything was cool. Shelly and Misty were having fun. Laughing and telling b.s. stories. We all got pretty drunk, then we fell asleep. When I woke up, I had some weird crap on my feet and my roomies were gone!”

“Well, maybe I’ll be able to help find some answers,” Niki replied.

Amelia nodded, as they headed back to her room. Amelia and her roomies continued to party. Niki sipped cola and talked casually to Amelia’s guests.

Amelia had introduced her as some high school friend that had come into town and just needed a place to stay for the night.

Several hours later, the party died down. The boys left, drunk and downtrodden for not getting “lucky” and Amelia and her roommates finally fell asleep with the help of alcohol and the lateness of the hour.

Niki sat in a corner and waited. She had a suspicion of what might happen tonight. Now, only time would tell. Near dawn she found out.

She noticed the green glow first, directly under Amelia’s bed. Niki quickly moved to a closet and hid inside.

The glow intensified, then suddenly shapes slithered out from the glow‘s vortex. Niki shielded her eyes from the bright light to try and get a good look at the shapes. She could make out three.

One stood over one of Amelia’s roommates. It gently touched her head and the girl suddenly opened her eyes and, trancelike, got out of her bed and followed the shape into the green glow. A second did the same to Amelia’s other room mate. Then a third did the same to Amelia.

Niki waited until Amelia entered the glow, before she made her move. With gun drawn, she moved immediately into the glow herself!

At first all she could see was a thick green mist. She could still detect movement up ahead, so she continued until she found herself in the center of a thick forest.

Just ahead she could still see the three girls walking on a thin trail of green moss. Niki obviously now knew how the moss had gotten onto Amelia’s feet. After a few minutes, Niki saw the girls enter a clearing where more shapes awaited. Finally, she got her first clear look. The shapes were Hulda Trolls!

There was a cave carved into a brushy hill that the Trolls began to lead the girl’s into. Niki knew what was happening and she had to take swift and sudden action!

She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a silver sword she had taken from her Aunt Marie’s collection, which was made from special material mined from minerals found at Stonehenge England.

She charged into the cave. The Trolls reacted in surprise and swiftness, but not before Niki was able to decapitate two of them along the way!

Two more charged her! She had pulled her gun out and blasted away. One Hulda Troll’s head exploded into fragments of green pus. The other’s exploded out the back, as the hollow point bullets did their job!

Niki could hear footsteps from further down the cave. More Hulda trolls were on the way! She grabbed Amelia and the two other girls and pushed them back out the cave. All three girl’s were still in a trance and offered no resistance.

“Move back up the trail and into the green light!” Niki ordered.

“Are we dead?!” Amelia asked robotically.

“No!” Niki replied, “but if you don’t haul all your asses out of here, you soon will be!”

Amelia suddenly seemed to snap out of the trance, as she looked around in confusion.

“Am I dreaming?!” she nervously asked.

“Yeah, its just a dream!” Niki lied to get her to obey, “NOW KEEP MOVING!!”

Amelia led the way, as the other two girls quickly followed.

Niki glanced back to see two more Hulda Trolls rapidly approaching. She quickly pulled out of her pocket another object from Aunt Marie’s collection. A pair of red ruby chain chucks!

Niki managed to slice the arm off on of the Trolls with a quick swing of the chuck, but the other Troll managed to duck her back swing and grabbed Niki, throwing her over its shoulder! In the process, she lost her gun and chuck.

She still had the sword, however.

“You’re a feisty one!” the Hulda Troll muttered in a guttural fashion, “but Grimm’s usually are! You’re gonna make a fine prize!”

“Not today, Toad face!” Niki replied, as she took the sword and jammed it deep into the Hulda’s head! The Troll continued to walk into the cave as if nothing had happened, the sword still sticking out the top of its head. But the Hulda Troll did slightly loosen its grip on Niki enough, that she managed to squeeze out and tear ass away, back down the moss laden trail.

As she approached the Green glow, she saw Amelia and her roommates standing just in front of the spinning misty vortex.

“Go on through!!” Niki yelled, “go on through!!” But they just stood.

Niki literally got behind the third girl and pushed all three, bumper car like, into the vortex.

Suddenly, they all found themselves back in the quiet of the dorm room. Without saying a word, all three girls walked back to their beds, laid down, and went back to sleep as if nothing had happened. Niki knew that in the morning, any memory they may have managed to retain would seem like a dream, if they would retain any memory at all.

Niki also knew what she had to do. She reached into her pocket for a small bag of special herbs called Witch’s Foot. She opened the bag and took a handful of the spice and threw it straight into the vortex of the glow.

There was an immediate electric-like crackle, then the vortex spun faster and faster, until it began to shrink. Soon the glow became just a pinpoint of light before it just disappeared.

Niki let her self out of the room, as the girl’s peacefully slept, and quietly left the dorm building. As she rode her cycle home, she figured she would write a report for Chief Wu later this morning.

She realized the moss sample she had examined and read up on from her Aunt Marie’s notes, was from an enchanted forest and the only way to and from enchanted forests was through a vortex. Hulda Trolls, as ugly and as stupid as they were, were good at using vortexes to travel back and forth between our worlds. They were also good at kidnapping and killing humans and unfortunately, for Amelia’s first two roommates, the Troll’s vortex exited into their dorm room.

Fortunately, for Amelia, she was somehow able to resist the Hulda Troll’s mind manipulations, so Niki guessed Amelia was able to escape and make it back through the glow, the first time she had been kidnapped.

‘Lucky girl,’ Niki thought, ‘but she had no memory of what had happened. The only clue was the moss she had picked up walking barefoot through that enchanted forest.”

Niki had suspected the original incident were the actions of Hulda Trolls (she had come across a similar case in New Portland a few years ago) and the only way to prove it was to see if the Trolls would return (like all predators, they usually did) and to use that special magical herb, Witch’s Foot, (good for skin rashes, upset stomachs, and sealing vortexes!)

“Never leave home without it,” Niki laughed.

As she rode off on the X-80, leaving the campus behind, she decided she would give her report to Chief Wu later that morning, but first she was going to go home and treat herself to a nice warm bath, a glass of wine, and would be sure to turn off her fiber phone. No more Grimm business tonight!

The End.