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Following Ulrich's rage into the church, and tracking mud from the waffle soles of my vans felt like sacrilege, damning whatever part of my immortal soul stood a miraculous chance of getting into heaven in the afterlife. We were charging into a place of worship, a place that should be sacred, and accusing a priest of serial murder. Like I said: sacrilege. It's not like I was even religious. My spirituality was built on bits of wisdom and faith that I had picked up along the way.
"Ulrich, come on mate." Beck pleaded "We have to play this right or he's gonna have us committed"
"Play this right?" Ulrich was enraged. And probably dangerous "he killed my bother! And he's going to kill yours too, don't you get it?"
"Ulrich please!" I tried to calm the boy down
"Don't you think I should be more concerned seeing as how I'm gonna die miserably and alone!?" Zacharias added
"None of you are helping!" I snapped "If you can't go in there calmly, go wait in the graveyard."
The boys sighed and continued marching forward, much slower this time.
Much like the outside, the inside of the church hadn't changed. The delicate fresco in the ceiling, which had always been my favorite part of the old building, shone brighter than ever.
Ulrich broke ranks, charging forward like a goddamn renegade, shouting at the priest who stood at the the altar, "You killed my brother you bastard!"
"What the fuck did i just say?" I sighed, annoyed to the core "Bloody hell."
All I got was a semi reassuring pat on the head from Bartosz as the boys followed Ulrich to the altar, where he had grabbed the priest by the collar and slammed him up against a wall.
We were all going to go to hell.
Scratch that: we're probably already there.
"Adam has a plan for everybody, Ulrich." The preacher rasped "He had one for Mads, and one for Heidi."
My jaw dropped. Heidi wasn't even alive in 1986.
"Just like he has one for Zacharias, and poor sweet Annaliese."
I swallowed the lump forming in my throat. "How the hell do you know my name?"
The priest laughed, Ulrich slamming his head against the wall again "Adam knows all. I also know Magnus and Bartosz and Beck. Now that we've got that out of the way, my name is Noah."
"I don't give a shit!" Zacharias shouted "I don't know how you know all this, but I'm going to die before I hit fifty! Before I start a family. Before I watch my neice graduate high school and start her career. Before she gets married.And it's all going to be your fucking fault!"
"Watch your language, boy!" Noah snapped "It's for the greater good!"
"Greater good?" Bartosz laughed "You killed my girlfriend."
"And he's going to kill more people if we don't kill him first!" Ulrich boomed
"Ulrich, no!" Magnus warned "We need him. For information."
I needed to put the foot down. Like in the movie Inside Out where all the emotions are scrambling around in the dad's head and there's this whole procedure and crap. "We're not kidnapping anybody, boys!"
I should have gone to the woods with Franz and Mars and left Jonas to deal with this.
"If we kidnap him, we'll have the upper hand." Beck shrugged nonchalantly.
This church was full of heathens.
"Guys, no-" I started when I was cut off by the epic guitar solo from November Rain. My ringtone.
"The hell is that?" Zacharias said "It sounds amazing."
"Guns n Roses." I murmered "They didn't release this song until 1991. How is it ringing?"
The last thing I expected was fro my cell phone to work in 1986.
I ducked into the confessional to take Franziska's call. I'd let the men duke it out, just so long as they didn't kill Noah. That would be bad.
"Franziska? What's up?"
"You'll want to see this." The redhead started "There's a bunker under my grandfather's cabin. It's filled with pictures, and clippings and some stuff that hasn't even happened yet."
______________
Back in 2019, Martha guided the group of us into Helge Doppler's bunker. Ulrich hadn't stopped smoking since we got out of the church.
"Woah there, calm down Steven Hyde." Franz said, taking the joint from between the other teen's fingers.
"The hell is Steven Hyde?" Beck asked
"Right. I forgot Ashton Kutcher didn't grace your screens as Micheal Kelso until the nineties." Martha said "Franz is obsessed with Hyde, even though the actor is a terrible person."
"Hyde and Masterson are not the same person." She huffed "We, as a fandom, have collectively disowned him."
"You used to love it." I piped up, staring at a picture of me and Uncle Z on the wall. "We used to watch it on Sunday nights, when mom retreated into the studio for wine and watercolour. Your favourite character is Fez, he always made you ugly laugh. One time, you laughed so hard the Jack you were drinking came shooting out your nose." I smiled to myself, reaching for Magnus' hand.
"I thought my life would have just gotten boring after my twenties." the boy laughed
"Look at this." Bartosz pointed out. "That's Noah, and I'm pretty sure that's Helge. This guy looks like Vladimir Putin."
The Tiedemann boy was pointing at a worn photograph. I pulled out the red thumbtack and flipped it over. There was no year, just a few words in delicate Latin script.
