Shadows from the dimly lit candles flickered against the walls of Grimm's office. He had been reading texts and old journals for the past few days. His eyes scanned the old documents and pieces of records scattered on his table to uncover more about Elio Oswald, the young man whose sixth sense was so strong that he could see, hear, and touch a ghost as if they were alive. He defies the laws of life and death and can cross the boundaries that shouldn't be crossed in the first place.
And Grimm?
He hated not understanding a single thing about everything...
About Elio.
Then, he came across a journal containing the list of all the clans and family trees. There, he traced the roots of Elio's heritage until he saw a familiar name that shook Grimm, causing him to lean in his seat, exhaling slowly due to anxiety in his chest. He had spent years dealing with spirits, reapers, and the unseen forces that governed life and death.
But this?
This was entirely intentional, something the universe would do if they wanted to mock someone.
In this case, it was Grimm whom they wanted to mock by the audacity of the things he just discovered about Elio.
"This is... impossible..." he said, still in disbelief upon knowing Elio's roots and who were related to him from Grimm's ancient past.
If this information were accurate, that Elio is related to that person, then Elio wasn't just another dying soul-he was something much worse, something he had to deal with along with his past...
But despite the evidence, Grimm didn't believe in any of these...
He's not ready yet.
A knocking at the door broke the silence in Grimm's office, diverting his mind from his thoughts to the urgency of the knock.
"Sir!"
It was one of his staff, out of breath from running. A sense of urgency is laced in his voice when he shows up at the front door.
"What is it?" Grimm asked.
"Sir, it's Elio..."
Grimm's blood ran cold upon hearing Elio's name.
"What about him?"
"He's here. At the shop. Kenny's with him, but..." The staff member inhaled deeply to catch a breath, "He collapsed while entering our shop.."
Grimm did not finish the entire statement. He was already on his feet before his staff finished speaking. He stormed out of his office and went to where Elio was. His staff member, still panting from running, hurried to keep up with him.
Elio...
When Grimm arrived at the entrance of the funeral shop, he immediately spotted Kenny kneeling beside Elio, trying to cool the young man down with a damp cloth. Grimm immediately showed how pale Elio was and how the young man shivered from the combination of pain and high fever. He went closer to have a better check on Elio's condition. Aside from the fever burning up his entire body, his breathing was shallow, his brows furrowed in discomfort as he shifted restlessly, and he was barely conscious.
"What happened?" Grimm asked, crouching beside them.
Kenny shook his head. He doesn't have any idea about Elio's reason for coming. "I don't know. He just showed up here like this."
Elio might be going to the hospital. That was Grimm's thoughts upon hearing the details. But instead, the young man came here out of any possible reasons available, as if he was being drawn here...at the shop.
Grimm brought his attention back to Elio. He pressed his fingers against his pulse. It was weak but still there, enough to say he was alive, but barely.
Grimm exhaled sharply, trying to think about the best course in this situation. He can not bring Elio to the hospital. That would require him to shift into his human form, attracting more earthbound the moment he stepped foot. He can not attract attention from the dead. That would be a disaster.
So there's no other option but this...
"Get me cold water," he instructed Kenny with urgency in his tone. "We need to bring his fever down before it worsens."
Kenny nodded and quickly took off to get what Grimm asked. Grimm turned back to Elio, watching his chest rise and fall unsteadily.
Why did you come here...of all places?
This was the question he wanted to ask Elio if he wasn't in his current dying state.
Then, suddenly-
Elio fluttered; he slightly opened his eyes, still glazed with fever. But instead of looking at Grimm, he was looking at somewhere distant. At that moment, something was off about him, like he wasn't entirely there with him...
Then, Elio lifted his right hand, trembling with pain and cold, and then he pointed towards the farthest corner of the room.
"There's....a door over there," he mumbled, entirely unconscious of what he was doing. Grimm realized that the air in the room suddenly shifted, and it caused Grimm's breath to catch in his throat.
No....
He turned his head, following Elio's gaze and where he pointed his fingers. At first, there was nothing. It's just an empty corner, dimly lit by the candles.
But then, a shadow formed, a ripple in space itself. Grimm felt it before he saw it.
An honest and tangible doorway began forming a door-like image where Elio had pointed. It was not a physical door but something else entirely.
A tear, a passage...
No, this couldn't be happening!
"Elio," Grimm immediately grabbed Elio's shoulders, shaking him slightly to get him conscious. "Elio, wake up! You have to stop!"
But Elio didn't respond. His fevered mind was too far gone, taking his entire consciousness to the void. But for some reason, his lips parted as if he was calling to something beyond that nothingness forming in the corner of the room.
Grimm turned back to the forming doorway. He tried to observe it, then from there, he noticed something...
A whisper.
A murmur from the other side.
Something was waiting.
Something was coming.
Grimm didn't hesitate when he realized what he was dealing with beyond that door. With a sharp movement, he raised his hand, closed the doorway before it could fully open, and let something out of there...
The moment the door vanished, Elio's body tensed, then went completely limp and unconscious.
Silence remained.
Grimm stared at the empty corner for a long time, his pulse hammering in his ears, and for the first time, he felt his heart pound like crazy because of fear.
And he had no idea what comes next after what had happened just now...
----
From Elio's perspective, everything was a cinematic blur. The last thing he heard before the darkness took him was a voice—anxious and distant.
"Quick! Call Grimm!"
He was aware of someone's arms catching him before hitting the ground. He could still hear Kenny's frantic voice breaking through the ringing in his ears.
"Elio? Hey—stay with me!"
He wanted to respond that time, to say something, but his body wouldn't allow him to move. He felt like his entire body was melting from the unbearable heat and being ripped by the pain in pieces, which made his memory entirely fogged.
Then he recalled there was another presence...
It was calm, steady, and unshaken.
"Bring him inside, now!"
The voice was unmistakable. It was Grimm. Even in the depths of his fevered delirium, Elio recognized him. He could clearly remember his voice at that time. Then he felt strong arms lift him, and for a moment, he felt weightless, like a soul untethered from its body.
Then he recalled some voices in the distance, murmuring simultaneously as if they were trying to speak to him, but the words were unrecognizable. It wasn't coming from Grimm, Kenny, or someone in the shop.
It came from somewhere else.
Then, the voices stopped. He didn't know why, but it stopped festering his ears.
What he could remember after that was the sensation coming from a damp cloth pressed against his forehead, soothing yet fleeting. There were hands—gentle yet firm, adjusting his blankets around him. Aside from the smell of old candles, a sharp scent of herbs and something faintly medicinal lingered in the air that he could remember, definitely not a hospital thing to give to a cancer patient like him.
Then, from there, time slipped away in fragments. The fever still refused to break, dragging him between brief moments of awareness and the pull of unconsciousness. Still, in the end, he managed to open his eyes momentarily.
When Elio's eyes flutter open, the dim glow of a candle casts long shadows against the walls of the room where he is resting. His body still aches from the pain, but at least the fire raging beneath his skin has dulled into a simmering warmth.
And beside him was Grimm.
Waiting.
Grimm...
Grimm was there, sitting at the edge of the bed. He still has his usual stiff posture, but something unreadable in his expression softened it. His black suit was draped over the chair, his sleeves rolled up, revealing his forearms. His face, usually impassive and distant, was touched by something else.
Fatigue? Concern?
No.
It was something else.
"Elio..."
The way his name left Grimm's lips was softer than he had ever heard it. Is it a sigh? A plea? He couldn't tell. But despite the delirium, Elio could tell that Grimm didn't have his usual unreadable expression.
That moment, it was something else...
Fear. Worried.
But what made Elio's heart faltered was the fact that Grimm had stayed. He had taken care of him. Grimm had watched over him when he was weakest, something he could never ask out of ego. He was ashamed that someone had to take care of him because he could not do it himself, but he was happy at the same time that it was Grimm who took care of him...
Elio had never allowed himself to be vulnerable ever since he had decided to live his life in solitude or even when he started to fight cancer alone. However, regarding this man, Grimm, those rules were entirely useless.
Or when it comes to Grimm, those rules never apply.
Then a single touch from Grimm's hand made His eyelids feel heavy again, exhaustion tugging him back into sleep.
That touch was so cold, yet very comforting.
Elio wanted to stay awake. He tried to say anything to acknowledge Grimm—at least for him to say "thank you." But those thoughts and words slipped away before he could form them. The sleepiness gradually overtakes him once more. And just before the darkness claimed him again, he heard Grimm's voice, quiet and steady.
"I'm glad you made it."
Elio felt something warm settling in his chest, more profound than any fever he could experience...
Then, from there, he let himself fall asleep.