What Lies Beneath [Vladimir Tod Fanfiction]

Lean On Me ~ Vlad

I was the last to step into the dorm building, and the only one that looked back into the trees.  Snow waved to me silently, telling me that she was ready to take her position as lookout.  She couldn't come in with us because, according to Joss, she didn't know anything about this whole vampire business.  Little did he know that she was one of the creatures that he hated.

I offered her a finger wave before I slipped inside with the others.  Henry was leading the way up the metal stairs to the left, followed by Joss and me.  Luckily, a lot of the students that lived in this dorm were out for the night.  I don't blame them.  Who would want to stay in a dead boy's dorm the night of his vigil?

I sighed and followed the two cousins down the upstairs hall.  We stopped in front of the door that still had Greg's name on it for the time being.

"Now how do we get in genius?" Henry asked Joss in a hushed tone.

Joss pulled out a bobby pin. "This." He fiddled with the lock while I surveyed the area.  It only took him a couple of seconds to open the door.

"I have a feeling that you've done this many times before. You should really stop breaking into people's houses," I said bluntly.

He ignored me and went in first.  I huffed before opening my eyes and my nose.

Greg's dorm hadn't been cleaned out by his parents yet, so everything was still in order here.  Posters of Sum 41 and Green Day lined his light grey walls, his closet was still full of plaid shirts and jeans, and his bed was still unmade.  I started my search in his closet, looking for something that might help us understand this whole mess.  Honestly it felt like we were on a wild goose chase, but what else could we do?

I was scanning through his clothes for any sign of blood or something of that sort when Henry cursed.  I turned my head around, seeing that my friend was searching his brother's drawers.

"What is it, Henry?" I asked.

Henry pulled out something from the dresser.  He took a breath out, a frown returning to his face. "Just an old family picture..."

Joss was eyeing Henry, but he said nothing.  Something glimmered in his eyes, and it finally hit me.

No wonder he was so determined after we talked to him about our suspicions.  It wasn't a reach for him to think that a monster killed someone he cared about.

I watched Joss until he spotted me and immediately went back to what he was doing.  Henry stuffed the picture in his pocket and continued his search.  I pushed my bangs out of my face before sticking my head into the closet.

I'm glad that I did, otherwise I might've never picked up on a peculiar scent coming from the back of the closet.  My eyebrows furrowed.  I pushed the hanging shirts apart and glanced over the shelf that lined the back wall of the closet.  I could tell that there had been objects on top of it, since there were places where the dust on the shelf hadn't reached.

What the hell would Greg keep back here?  It wasn't like to him to have something to hide besides his collection of comic books, and Henry said he left those at home when he moved.

I sniffed the shelf and sneezed loudly.  In my large inhale, I saw something move.  I quickly grabbed the moving object after I was done.  What I saw was a small piece of black leather that my eyes had missed on first glance.  I took a minute to clear my sinuses before I inspected the leather.  It had the same odd scent plastered on it. 

"You know, Vlad, dust makes you sneeze," Joss said just before I brought my head out of the closet.

"Shut up, Joss. I found something."

Joss shut his mouth and stood up straight.  Henry whipped around as I put up the piece of leather for them to see.

"What's so special about that?" Joss asked.

"I found it on a hidden shelf in there. Looks like everything was moved out besides this. It holds the smell that the objects did. The smell's not familiar at all to me."

Joss snatched it up from me and sniffed it himself.  Even with his human senses, I could tell that he could smell it.  He then carefully handed it back to me. "Looks to me like part of a book cover. Be careful with it. Maybe someone knows what the scent is affiliated with."

"Who do you suppose we go to?" Henry asked curiously.

"Otis," Joss said right away.

"No," I protested. "He can't know about what we're doing. He'll stop us."

"Well I can't go to anyone I know," Joss said. "I can't let them have our lead."

"You don't have a choice, Joss," Vlad said, giving it back to him.  He took it after he hesitated.

"Besides. You said you had to do this anyways, right? For your superiors I'm guessing?" Henry said, jumping in.

"Yes, but-" He stuttered. "I was going to come back with nothing suspicious so my team wouldn't get involved."

I folded my arms across my chest, genuinely surprised at Joss, but I didn't look the part. "You were going to lie?"

He scratched the back of his pale neck. "If necessary. I wanted this to stay in 'family'. But, I guess that it can't..." He gently put the piece of leather and shook his head. "This is going to be hard, guys."

"As long as your able to communicate your findings to us, you can follow your little clan while Henry and I try to stay ahead of you. Maybe your friends will back off after they fail to get anywhere."

Joss shook his head dismissively. "They won't give up, I know that, but I can try to relay information to you without looking suspicious. Just give me the night to think about it. I won't give them the evidence until morning."

My teeth clenched together. "You make one wrong move-"

"Why would I? This is for Greg. No one else. You can trust me here, Vladimir. I'll work with you."

"You better," I growled.

"Vlad," Henry stated.  I glanced over at him. "I-trust him with this. You should too."

Joss smiled softly after that, thinking that no one was looking.  It hurt me, but it was the only thing that we could do at this point.

I looked back at Joss. "Fine. I'll trust you one more time." I slapped my hand onto his shoulder. "Don't let us down, eh?"

"I won't. Not again." His eyes were shimmering a little bit, but he sure as hell wasn't going to cry.  He then calmly shrugged me off and headed towards the door.  He stopped at the knob. "Don't take too long, guys. Twenty minutes is almost up."

"Roger," Henry said.

"I'll call you guys in the morning. Don't worry, I'll be in town."

"Take care, Joss," I forced myself to say as he slipped out of the door.  I turned back to Henry. "Are you ready to go?"

Henry looked around the room, his eyes eventually landing on the dresser.  He took the small plastic t-rex off of it and smiled. "He loved this thing. Called it Jeffrey. I think I'll take it now so that my parents don't put him in storage."

I smiled for what felt like the first time today. "Alright."

"Now I'm ready."

I flung my arm around Henry and we walked out of the room together with a weight lifted off of our shoulders for the night.  I just hope that Joss doesn't get crushed from the pressure...