The Grimm Dossier

Chapter 36 - The Hanged

England, West Coast
Devonshire, Dartmoor
St George, Skirrid Inn
5 November 1898, 6:22 pm

Elly sized him up out of the narrow slits of her eyes. At first, he thought she was much cleverer than he had assessed her to be after all. Did she see through the fact that he was playing her? But then she expelled the equally held air and slowly lowered the arm at the end of which Dr. Archer was dangling like a fish on a line. Apparently, it was working. The doctor's feet came back onto the wood of the floorboards with the tips of his toes. The tips of his shoes scuffed across the floor, mingling with the sound of the scene in a grotesque way. Two dead already, it could quickly become three or four. The doctor's fingers still closed around the girl's arm. He tried desperately and powerlessly to strike at her, but Elly did not even seem to notice his attempts to fight back. His strength was not enough to release or loosen her grip.

Kyle felt his heart pounding impatiently.

"How did you notice?" said Elly then, her voice uncomprehending and suspicious, "How did you resist my spell?"

Kyle lowered his hands a little and stretched them out slightly in front of him. Very slowly he took a half step forward, then another. Not for a second did he take his eyes from hers. This conversation was a balancing act, an obstacle course on a frozen lake of thin ice. One wrong step in the wrong direction and the situation could tip.

"I know about these things. And I know people who can help you." even as he said it, he could literally hear the thin ice cracking under his feet. He saw the change in her expression. How curiosity turned to anger.

"People can help me?!" she hissed out and the doctor rasped as the grip around his throat tightened again. Kyle felt the tingling in his limbs as they tried to unload in his fingers. He wanted to intervene. Even if it meant attacking them. But he knew his spells could hurt the doctor in the process.

"I'm not sick!" with each word her voice increased in octaves and climbed higher.

"No no no! I didn't mean it like that Miss Elly!" said Kyle quickly, taking another half step back. "I know you're not sick!" he said, but this time it didn't sound as convincing as he would have liked. Thunder rumbled outside and lightning lit up the interior. It was like a stage play that was inevitably approaching its final act.

"This man has done something terrible to you," he restated. And THAT was the truth. He understood and probably there would be no one who didn't. It was disgusting and vile. That didn't undo the whole picture that was emerging here. But for the moment he had to play with words. Normally it was easier for him. Now, however, a witch with the powers of a strangling snake held his partner's neck in her fingers.

"I understand that you killed him. He was a disgusting man. He did this to you, he beat children and who knows what else. I can understand that they're angry. That they wanted revenge." Kyle dared to step forward again, "But why the others? What did they do to you? Didn't the Father believe them? Did you confide in Marie and they laughed at you?" he could do no more than conjecture. As much as pieces of the puzzle were now slipping into each other, they didn't fit elsewhere. It made sense now how she had been able to remove the body from the grave. But the rest?

"YOU KNOW NOTHING!" she shouted so loudly that her voice rolled over. "Stop your accusations and lies! NOBODY did I kill! NOBODY!"