Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tim finds the note on Jon’s desk when he first gets to work. He went in to check if Jon was there, which he wasn’t. Tim’s the first person to get to work (odd, considering Jon’s unhealthy work habits), which means Jon must have written it last night. He knows it’s for him though, because at the top it says Tim’s name. And he was curious. 

The note is short, reading: 

Tim, 

I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have picked you, and you shouldn’t be here. You won’t find what you’re looking for. Please quit while you can. 

The note holds no signature, but it’s clear that the handwriting is Jon’s, albeit scratchier and more frantic. 

And, Tim's not an insecure guy. But when your boss is clearly planning to give you a message telling you that he regrets choosing you for your job, and that he wants you to leave, with no context whatsoever as to why, that’s… upsetting to say the least. They were friends too, well, more like friendly acquaintances, but knowing the guy that’s probably the closest thing Jon’s had to a friend anyway. 

Tim’s upset, sure, but mostly he’s just confused. Why? Why now? Maybe the message wasn’t finished? 

Upon further inspection, behind the message for him, there’s two more messages, addressed to Sasha and Martin, which Tim decides not to read. 

Tim leaves the office, taking the papers with him, and goes to the break room, sitting for a few minutes to think, before Sasha comes in. 

“Hey Tim! Sorry I’m late, do you know where Jon is?”

“I don’t think Jon’s here yet. I checked his office. I found this on his desk.”

Tim hands the paper addressed to Sasha to her. 

“‘Sasha, I’m sorry, I don’t know why you work here, I never knew that much about you, but it’s not worth it. Please quit while you can’- What the hell?”

“Yeah, mine was similar, it told me that he wished he didn’t pick me and that I should quit.”

“Just us?”

“No, there’s one for martin too but I haven’t read it yet.”

“Martin’s not here yet either. Now that I think of it, I think this is the first time Jon has been late to work. He’s usually early.” Sasha checks her watch. 

“Should we go talk to Elias about this? It kind of sounds like Jon’s trying to fire us all?”

“Sure. If Jon didn’t want this to go to Elias then he should have hidden the letters better.”

The two of them ascend the stairs and go up to Elias's office. Walking past the front desk, Rosie stops them once she notices they’re heading towards his office. 

“Hello, are you two looking for Mr. Sims?”

They both look at each other before Sasha responds, “Well, sort of, we’re going to Elias’s office to talk about Jon. Is Elias open to talk right now?”

“I’m afraid not, he’s actually talking with your boss right now, I believe. I tried to tell Mr. Sims that Elias was not open for conference at the time, but he went in anyway. I suppose it must have been important if Mr. Bouchard hasn’t sent him out yet.”

Sasha responds, “Oh, well we think that what they’re talking about might be important for us to be there for, Jon left us a note about it?”

“Hm, well I’m not supposed to let anyone in while he is in conference, but I suppose since nothing is technically scheduled for this time, you can go in.”

“Thank you Rosie!” 

They continue towards Elias’ office. When they get there, Tim tries the door handle, but the door is locked. The sound of wind and birds comes from under the door, like the window is open. 

Tim knocks on the door, “Hey Boss? Are you in there?”

Silence.

Then, slowly, the door opens a crack, and Tim pushes the door open to-

“WHAT THE FUCK?!”

In the room both Elias and Jon lay on the floor, with blood pooling around them, and gaping bloody holes where their eyes should be. The window is open, and there’s scattered stationery on the floor. The blood is still dripping out of their eyes. 

Tim freezes, and Sasha fumbles for her phone to call the police.

He can’t stop staring. 

—

Jon and Elias are at the hospital now, apparently they aren’t dead yet. Which is good. Martin still has yet to call back, and Sasha decided to stop calling after the eighth time the phone rang and went to voice-mail. Since then Sasha has tried talking to the nurses about who Jon and Elias’ emergency contacts were, but they said that was confidential. Whoever they are, they haven’t arrived yet. 

It’s been a few hours, and they finished answering all the questions the doctors and officers had asked . Neither Jon nor Elias have woken up yet, as the receptionist has told them, as they haven’t been allowed in since they arrived, with the doctors working on setting up machines and stopping bleeding and checking for brain damage. 

Tim hasn’t stopped staring off into the distance with that blank look on his face since they arrived. Sasha has tried talking to him, but all she gets are short, one word answers. 

Their waiting room is empty, save for her and Tim. Until the door flies open, and someone with a concerned expression scans the room. They look feminine and have dark skin with black hair. 

They scan the room before locking eyes with sasha. 

“Hey, sorry, you don’t happen to know where any of the nurses or doctors are, do you?”

“No, sorry, the last nurse left his shift and said that someone would be back soon, but it’s been a little while.”

“Ah. I don’t know what I should do then? It sounded like something pretty urgent over the phone…”

“I don’t know, our friend just got admitted, and they won’t tell us anything about how he’s doing either.”

“Ah, I’m sorry to hear that. I’m Georgie by the way, she her.”

“Sasha, she her as well.”

“And uh, who is that? Are you with them?” she asks, gesturing at Tim, who is still staring at nothing.”

“Yeah, that’s Tim. we found our boss and our… other boss pretty injured.”

“Oh… I’m sorry to hear that. I just found out that apparently I’m still my ex’s emergency contact, so the doctors called me here. Wouldn’t tell me why over the phone, but they said it was pretty serious.” She pauses for a moment, “Sorry to ask, but you’re not here for Jonathan Sims, are you?”

Sasha, startled, responds after a few seconds, “Yeah, actually, how did you- oh you’re Jon’s ex?” 

“Yeah, which means you’re his… “

“Assistant. Technically. We work for the Magnus Institute.”

“Oh yeah, I remember him talking about that before we broke up.”

They fall into silence as they wait for the receptionist to come back. 

A new receptionist walks into the room from the back, and sits down at the computer. Georgie gets up and goes to talk with the receptionist, and Sasha notices she points back at them a few times. Georgie comes back to sit next to Sasha. 

“They said I can’t go in yet, and that they’re still operating.”

“Yeah, that’s what they told us too.”

“Do you know what happened to him?”

“Well, not really, we found notes in Jon’s office declaring that he wanted us all to quit, and so then we went to confront him, he was in our other boss’ office, we opened the door, and they were lying on the floor with their eyes gouged out.”

“Oh. That's not good. That’s really weird actually...”

“Yeah, I just hope they’ll be okay.”

They fall into silence, and Sasha ends up falling asleep in the waiting room a few hours after that. 

Chapter Text

Tim is still in his weird trance-like state, and Sasha is starting to get worried. They need to do something, something to help, or at least to make them feel less helpless.

The institute has been taken over by one of its patrons temporarily while Elias is incapacitated. It’s barely been two days, and several people working for the institute have quit.

Sasha has been calling Martin a lot, but he continues to not answer. She doesn’t even get a text. She’s not sure what’s happening, and she is going to find out. She and Tim decide (well more accurately, Sasha decides and drags Tim along) that someone should check on Martin. 

Sasha texts Martin that she’s going to come to his flat to check on him, and as expected, gets no response. Tim is still abnormally quiet, but agrees to come along with the knowledge that Georgie is staying behind to be there if Jon or Elias wake up.

They take the train to the closest stop to Martin’s flat, and walk the rest of the way.

Upon arriving at his flat, they knock at the door and hear shuffling, which means someone is inside. Tim jerks back after a second of waiting, before the door has opened, and Sasha looks down to see a dark stain outside the door, and a few dead worm looking things. They actually look more like a larvae of some kind now that she thinks of it. What on earth is this doing outside Martin’s door? She looks up to see if there is a nest of some kind above the dark spot, but she doesn’t see anything. 

She hears someone inside the flat right next to the door, but it sounds like after they get to the door, they kind of just stand there for a few seconds. 

Suddenly, the door opens quickly, and Martin stands in the doorway looking somehow both relieved and afraid at the same time. 

“What are you doing here?” He questions. 

“What am I doing here? Why haven’t you been answering your phone! It’s been two days, and our bosses are in the hospital, and you haven-”

“What.” Sasha can’t tell what the emotion in that statement is, but she assumes it’s got to be concern.

“Something happened, we aren’t sure what, and the police have been incredibly unhelpful, but now both Jon and Elias have had their eyes gouged out.” Sasha might be acting a bit petty, but she’s been sitting in a hospital for two days, and Martin hasn’t been responding. 

Martin’s eyes widen, “Shit!” He begins to rush past them before stopping and looking back, “Wait which hospital is this?”

Now that Martin is in the sunlight, Sasha can tell that something is wrong beyond not responding to calls. His eyes have dark circles under them, and he looks unusually pale, as well as his hair looking whiter than usual. “Are you okay? Why haven’t you been responding?”

“I’m fine. Lost my phone.” He says flippantly. “Where is the hospital?” He asks again.

Sasha is more than suspicious, but it’s not her place to pry right now. “We came from the train, we can take you back to the hospital.”

Martin nods. Tim is staring at Martin with vacant eyes. Sasha takes Tim’s hand and starts walking back towards the metro station. 

They don’t talk on the train, but Sasha can tell that Tim is suspicious of Martin as well. Does he know something they don’t?

—

Sasha and Tim still aren’t back from trying to find whoever this Martin guy is when Georgie gets the news that Jon is awake. She gets pulled back into his hospital room, and sees Jon, with bandages around his eyes, and cuts all over his face. 

“Mister Sims? Your emergency contact Georgie is here to see you.” The nurse says after knocking on the door. 

Jon’s head whips around to where they are standing, seemingly surprised, before wincing at the sharp movement and looking down. 

The nurse doesn’t leave the room after a few seconds, so Georgie assumes that they won’t be leaving. She’s not sure why though. 

“Hi,” she says plainly. After he doesn’t respond for a bit, Georgie starts talking again. “So… how are you holding up?” She doesn’t want to start asking what happened immediately, since he’s probably a bit traumatized by whatever happened. 

“Fine.” He says after a moment of deliberation. “I can’t see now.” He sounds oddly… neutral about that statement. 

“Yeah, you wanna tell me what happened?” 

Jon pauses again and says “Not really.” 

“Well your coworkers were really worried about you,” 

“Where are they?” He sounds actually interested, or at least concerned now. 

“They went to go get your other coworker, or… assistant I guess. God it’s weird imagining you having assistants.”

“But who was here? Who did they go to get?” 

“Sasha and Tim were here, and they went to go get Martin, because apparently he hasn’t been to work or been answering their calls.”

“Shit!” 

Jon, for some reason, tries to get up, and the nurse rushes over and tells him to sit back down, pulling him back on to the hospital bed. Jon protests, but when Georgie joins in trying to get him to stay down, he gives up. 

Georgie by this point is starting to think that maybe Jon is a little more than just traumatized, but she’s not sure what’s happening. 

The nurse goes to fix the medical equipment, 

“What was that about?” Georgie questions in what she hopes is a placating voice.

“He- I-” he stops for a second before continuing, “I don’t know.” 

Georgie can tell there’s something he’s not telling her. She also knows that this doesn’t seem like usual Jonathan Sims stupidity. He seems like he has an actual reason for not wanting to tell her. 

The nurse seems to be suspicious of him as well. 

At that moment, another nurse comes into the room, leading an anxious looking man, as well as Sasha and Tim. That means the anxious guy is probably Martin. 

“Jon! Are you okay? What happened?” Presumably-Martin asks frantically.

“Martin?” Jon asks quietly.

“And Sasha and Tim!” Sasha speaks up in what Georgie assumes is supposed to be a cheerful voice, but it comes off as strained. Tim looks less blank faced now, and more suspicious and angry. Why? Georgie is not sure.

Jon “looks” in their general direction, although he’s looking a bit to the side of where they are standing.

“Uh… I- I don’t know?” Jons words come off as more of a question than a statement. Martins face falls. Obliviously, jon continues, “I mean, I’m ok, other than you know, being blind, but I don’t remember what happened.” 

“Right, uh, well I’m glad you’re ok.” Martin says in a disappointed voice, which clearly seems strange to Sasha and Tim as well. 

It’s hard to decipher Jon’s face with all the bandages over his eyes, but she thinks he looks like he feels guilty for some reason. 

There’s an awkward silence before the nurse speaks up, “well, I believe that mister Sims’ visiting hours are over for today. Feel free to come back tomorrow!” 

The nurse ushers them out to the waiting room again, and they see two cops going to the patient rooms, which is a bit strange to see considering they are in full uniform. 

Georgie looks at Martin and sees that he has abnormally clouded eyes, like someone might see on someone who is blind, which is strange because Georgie had never noticed that before. 

“Are you all okay?” Georgie asks them.

“I’m fine, I should probably, uh, go. Thank you Georgie.” And with that, Martin leaves the hospital. 

They watch the door where he left for a minute, before Sasha interrupts the silence.

“Ok we all agree that was weird right?”

“Well, it is a strange situation,” Georgie reasons, “Maybe he just needs time to process?”

For the first time, Georgie hears Tim talk, “Something’s wrong with them both. They’re acting strange.”

Sasha seems surprised too. “Uh, I don’t know if something is wrong with them, but they are acting weird, so I get what you’re-“

“No. I mean something is really wrong with them. And I’m going to find out what it is.” Tim leaves the hospital. 

Sasha and Georgie watch him leave. 

“Oh. He might be more shaken than I thought…” Sasha says quietly. 

Chapter Text

Something is certainly wrong with Jon, and maybe Martin too. And Elias has to fit in somehow. He’s pretty sure it has to do with something supernatural. He hopes it’s not already too late for Jon, but considering he likely gouged his own and Elias’ eyes out, it might be too late. Tim’s always too late.

He doesn’t want to bring anyone else into his planning, because this might get them hurt too. Not that Tim is planning on getting hurt, but he’s aware of the possibility.

He isn’t sure what went wrong though, they had all been doing just fine yesterday, or… a few days ago? Whatever, the amount of time doesn’t really matter.

So now he needs to decide who to interrogate first.

He could talk to Martin, that way he could bring a weapon in case something went wrong. But Martin also seems to be the least involved out of the three of them. On the opposite side of the spectrum there’s Jonathan, who would probably have the most information to give. But then he would know that Tim is suspicious of him, and potentially tell the others that Tim is being crazy. Which he’s not, HE wasn’t the one to gouge his own eyes out. Which, no one actually had said that’s what happened, and he assumes that an investigation is still ongoing, but everyone has to know that that’s what happened. It’s kind of obvious. Then there’s Elias, and well, Elias is a bit of a wild card. Tim isn’t sure what role he plays in this situation, nor what he did to make Jon go after him.

A stupid part of his brain thinks that, maybe, just maybe, Jon was running there to save Elias, and was injured by the same thing that was hurting Elias. But that wouldn’t make any sense. How would Jon know that Elias was going to be hurt? No. It has to mean that Jon did something bad, or worse, IS something bad, and is trying to cover it up.

… Maybe he should talk to Elias. Elias has to know something about what’s going on.

—

Apparently the damage done to Elias was worse than what happened to Jon, so it’s been taking him a longer while to wake up. Tim asked the receptionist how long it would take, and the receptionist told him that Elias’ sedative would be wearing off soon, but that he might stay asleep for longer. The receptionist also said that Tim would need Elias’ permission to visit him, due to the fact that they are not related.

So, Tim spends the next hour thinking. About a lot of things, but mostly what his plan is for anything that could happen when he talks to Elias.

After a while, he goes back up to the receptionist and asks if they can ask Elias if Tim can come in. The receptionist smiles tightly and says that they will notify the nurse to tell Elias.

A few more minutes of pacing, and ignoring the looks from the other people in the waiting area as well as the receptionist, the receptionist calls his name, and tells him that a nurse is here to lead him to Elias’ room.

The nurse seems friendly enough, though they also seem to pity Tim. Which is weird, because Tim isn’t the one who was stabbed.

He enters the room, and sees Elias look- no. Facing his lap while opening and closing his hands. His hands seem really shaky, though. Well, actually, now that Tim looks at him more, his whole body seems shaky. He has bandages covering his eyes, but he also seems to have scratches and cuts all along his body and his face.

“Hi.” Tim says stupidly. Damn it! Where did all those plans go?

Elias doesn’t turn his head toward him or respond for a moment. The nurse is still in the room, and they don’t show any sign of leaving.

“Hello?” Tim asks again. “Elias?”

Elias ignores him for a couple more seconds before freezing (though still shaking) and turning his head towards Tim. “Hello?” Elias asks. His voice is raspy.

And- okay, not to be rude but this is kind of pitiful. It’s weird seeing the owner of the institute that he works at this pitiful. He had kind of thought Elias would be still composed and annoyed. Of course he realizes now that that wouldn’t make sense, if you had just been stabbed you likely wouldn’t be just annoyed.

“Uh, Hi.”

Elias looks somewhat confused. “Are y- you Tim?”

“Oh. Shi- crap, sorry, yeah I’m Tim.” He had forgotten that Elias can’t see, despite the bandages over his eyes.

“Huh, n- nice to actually meet you then.”

“What uh, what do you mean by that?”

“Oh… R- right. Forget I said anything.”

Well that’s not ominous at all!

The nurse chooses this moment to say, “Ah, I forgot to mention Mr. Stoker, Mr. Bouchard appears to be experiencing some memory loss in addition to his newfound lack of sight.”

Tim doesn’t believe the nurse, but he can’t say that. So instead he just nods.

Elias frowns. “Does the nurse have to be here?”

“Oh! I technically don’t have to be here, if you would like me to leave?” The nurse asks politely. 

“Y- yeah. Can you leave please?” Okay that is not something Elias would say.

“Of course,” she turns to Elias, “Remember to press the button on your left if you ever need more assistance.”

And with that the nurse leaves the room.

The second the door closes, Tim turns back to Elias, “What do you remember then?” he tries to phrase as a curious question and not an interrogation question. If Elias is just acting weird as a trauma response, he doesn't want to immediately start accusing Elias of being a monster or something. 

“I remember more than you.” 

“What.”

“S- sorry I didn’t mean for that t- to come across as ominous as it did.”

“No, no, what does that mean?”

Elias pauses for a minute. “I… I might not have been able to see or move, b- but I could hear everything.”

“Aaand now I’m more confused.” Tim says faux lightheartedly.

“W- well I…” He trails off.

“You don’t sound like Elias.” Tim narrows his eyes. Not that Elias would see that but whatever. He feels like he has enough proof of Elias not being Elias to actually ask him straight up. 

“I’m not, uh, not the one you know.” Tim pauses expectantly (while freaking out a bit in his head) while Elias forms his thoughts. “He- the one you know, or uh, knew, he was kind of… evil?”

Tim laughs loudly. “So you’re doing a rebrand now are you? Is that what this is?”

Elias sighs. “No, I’m… It’s complicated.”

Tim waits for a few more moments before realizing that Elias isn’t going to continue. “What so that’s it? That’s all you’re going to tell me?”

He looks uncomfortable. “It’s probably better that the A- that Jonathan tells you more.” Tim opens his mouth to speak but then Elias continues, “Oh, c- can you tell him I said thanks?”

“For what? Seriously? You want me to talk to the guy who stabbed you about what caused him to stab you, and you want me to tell him you said thanks? That’s stupid as hell! What the fuck are you on about?”

Elias doesn’t say anything else.

Tim storms out of the room and runs into the nurse coming back. They give him directions to the exit, and then they enter Elias’ room.

Tim exits back into the waiting room, and then leaves the hospital.

He should probably ask to visit Jon too now, to deliver the message, but he’s tired.

Why does this all have to be so confusing? Tim knows that something bad happened to Jon, and Elias, and maybe Martin too. He just hopes that they’re still in there somewhere.