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Was this a bad idea? Probably.
Maijabi had been working with Tweedy on this project for several days now. They had actually started on it months before but, the moment they had brought it up to Dr Jekyll, they had been forced to ditch it.
“It’s a breach of privacy.” He had reprimanded, scowling at the pair until neither could meet his eye.
Any attempt at argument was cut off with various excuses and reasons.
"How would you like it if one of the other lodgers read your mind?"
"The gossip around here is bad enough without you getting into people's private business."
"Imagine what would happen if that device fell into someone else's hands somehow or got lost or- Or-!" Jekyll threw up his hands in exasperation, "Just please stop asking! The answer is no!"
And that was the end of it.
Maijabi had been fine to sit down and take it but Tweedy had always retained a bit of bitterness at Jekyll for holding them back.
With Frankenstein in the society, though, everyone was feeling a little rebellious against their founder. Why let him hold them all back? Real mad scientists didn’t allow themselves to be held back.
That was why, sat in front of them at that moment was a device, about the size of two hands put together, and shaped in a cuboid.
A speaker taken from a gramophone, bronze and glinting in the light with untold possibility. A handle on the other side that could be used to crank it, silver and black, "borrowed" from Griffin after their last handle broke.
A small and unassuming little machine that, in theory, could read minds.
They were currently in one of the common areas of the society. There were plenty of other lodgers hanging about, most of them chatting. A lot of them had spotted Tweedy and Maijabi's illicit activities but it wasn't like any of them were going to snitch.
Tweedy had a mischievous gleam in his eye as he surveyed the finished machine.
“What do you say, we test this out?”
Maijabi looked it up and down again before nodding. He looked a little dubious but it wasn't like they would lose anything from it. Either way, they had rebelled against Jekyll. If it worked, that was just a bonus.
“Who first?” Maijabi asked.
He barely even needed to ask. Tweedy was bouncing up and down on his heels with barely restrained enthusiasm.
“Try me first. I can tell you if it’s off or not.”
Maijabi pointed the machine towards Tweedy and turned the crank until it couldn't go any further. Then, he let it go.
The handle slowly began to spin back. There was a crackle of static and a hollow clanking from the depths of the speaker. The pair leaned in. Then, with a sputter and a puff of smoke, a voice rang out through the static.
"Maybe I didn't wire up the speaker properly? Wait- Is that my voice? Do I really sound like that?
It was unmistakably the voice of Tweedy.
“Testing, testing, one two. Oh wow, those really are my thoughts! It worked? It worked! Holy sh-”
The handle stopped, finished.
For a moment, neither spoke, just staring at the machine. Then, slowly, they both looked up at each other. There was a large smile splitting Tweedy’s face while Maijabi’s face simply seemed to lighten a bit and his eyes sparkled just a bit brighter.
“Who next?” Tweedy asked breathlessly.
In response, Maijabi turned the machine towards himself and turned the crank.
“I was wondering if we could try this out on a spirit. I'm curious to see if they think in the traditional human way, if at all.”
Tweedy looking consdidering considered for a second. At that moment, from the other side of the room, there was the distant sound of a door opening. He looked up and his eyes landed on the newcomer.
Jekyll hadn’t spotted them yet, that was the charm of such a large and busy area, but he walked with his usual, straight, confident gait. Despite everything said against him, he didn’t seem to falter or lose face. He acted with all the confidence of the upper class – the people who frowned upon their work or tried to stop them.
All the lack of care of one who cared more about money than people.
And with that, he was the perfect target.
"I have a better idea."
He gave Maijabi a wide grin and looked down at the machine. Maijabi frowned.
“Is that such a good idea?” He asked, “If Jekyll finds out about this, we could be kicked out.”
“He won’t. Trust me, I've done far worse than this and I'm still here. Besides, I want to know whether or not Frankenstein was right about him.”
Maijabi frowned again but didn’t complain as he spun the machine around to point at Jekyll. It would be a great test of the contraption’s range.
Static came from the machine loudly and the pair strained their ear to try to listen. Jekyll was talking to Griffin, clearly trying to convince him to do the exhibition. Griffin just gave him a derisive look and walked off.
At first, there was nothing. Then, there was a crackle, sharper than before, and smoke began to curl from the speaker, thicker and darker than before. It rose in the air before them.
Abruptly, there was a resounding bang causing the pair to flinch and the smoke began to practically pour from every hole, nook and cranny of the device. If Griffin hadn't been yelling something rather obscene at Jekyll in that moment, they could have been found out right there and then. Luckily, the mix of yelling and general chatter drowned it out.
The machine fell silent.
"I think it broke already." Maijabi noted disappointedly.
Tweedy opened his mouth to dejectedly agree when he was cut off by a hissing noise. It started quietly, then steadily rose in volume, underpinned by static. The handle was still turning, although more smoke was trickling from where it connected to the machine.
It seemed that the machine might still have some spunk in it yet.
As they listened, the hissing began to form itself into a different kind of noise. A chill crept up Tweedy's spine. He looked at Maijabi to see if he could hear it too.
It was, unmistakably, whispering.
“That’s not Jekyll’s voice.” Maijabi stated simply.
The pair of them looked back at Jekyll. There were no obstructions that they could see.
“It’s either the range or some invisible experiment of Griffin’s.” Tweedy reasoned, “We have to get closer.”
As it turned out, they didn’t need to.
Jekyll turned in their direction, heading towards the doorway behind them. He grew steadily closer and closer and, as he did so, the whispering from the machine grew louder and louder.
“Well what exactly did you expect?” The voice hissed, now discernable, “You’re not a real scientist, just some fake. A fake scientist, a fake gentleman. Tell me, Doctor, is there anything real about you?”
The voice dripped with spite and hatred, possibly even exceeding Frankenstein’s hatred of Jekyll. The sheer malice in that voice would have been unnerving enough but the shifting static beneath it added an eerie effect to it all, giving an almost otherworldly air to whatever it was.
“I would hate you too in their shoes. You’re just holding them all back.”
Tweedy tensed up as Dr Jekyll came dangerously close to hearing distance. He was just about to grab the handle and try to physically stop it before they were found out when the handle stopped with a clank and a puff of smoke.
Maijabi glanced down at it thankfully as Dr Jekyll stepped within range. Close enough that, if the machine was still running, he would have heard it for certain.
With that, Jekyll stopped right before them. His eyes flicked down to the machine and then back up at them, one eyebrow cocked.
Tweedy glared back, daring Jekyll to say something about the smoke or strange device. In his head, he was already preparing a slew of lies to explain it.
Just before he could, however, there was the abrupt and malicious hiss of a horribly familiar voice.
“You are seeing it too, right? The way they’re looking at you?”
They both stiffened. Tweedy's eyes shot back down at the handle, heart beginning to beat just a little faster.
It was moving again. Clearly it had simply gotten stuck for a second but now it was chugging along with ease. All his his excuses dried up and his earlier confidence seemed to evaporate in one clean instance.
Jekyll wouldn't kick them out - surely he wouldn't. He wasn't the type.
Yet, things had changed, hadn't they?
Maybe they could have gotten away with something like this before but Jekyll had thrown Hyde under the bus only recently. Tweedy remembered being silently horrified when he had learnt that Hyde had been blamed for everything. It put the leader of their society in a new light - the light of a person willing to toss aside even his closest assistant when it suited him.
Moreover, how far had they pushed it lately? This could be the straw that broke the camel's back.
Recalling this, he didn't want to look up.
Nerves twitched inside him against his best efforts to calm himself, his stomach churning and head filled with fears of what was about to happen to both of them.
Finally, with excruciating slowness, he looked back up at Jekyll.
To his surprise though, there was no change to Jekyll's face. Nothing registered there, no surprise or anger or confusion, just... Nothing.
At first, Tweedy thought it had to be a ruse. Maybe it was some sort of quiet rage and Jekyll would throw them out with a smile on his face, then the voice spoke again, the taunting words coiling around inside his head.
“I bet they haven’t told you a thing about that machine there. They used to tell you everything they were working on before, now they’re deliberately not telling you. Go ahead, ask. They won’t tell you. Maybe they’ll even insult you. Everyone else has been doing so, why not them?”
Throughout this speech, Jekyll continued to stare at them both, his cool expression completely dissonant to the whispering. He opened his mouth as though to say something, then hesitated.
"Go ahead, doctor. Ask."
His mouth closed again and he simply smiled.
"Good day to you both."
With that, Jekyll strolled casually past the machine and vanished through the doors. As they swung shut with a bang, silence fell.
The handle finally fell still.
Tweedy and Maijabi just stared.
"...What the actual Hell just happened?" Tweedy said at last.
The two glanced uneasily at one another.
With a shake of his head, Tweedy quickly turned the machine towards himself and spun the crank again.
“Is it broken? No, it still seems to be working just fine." He frowned uneasily. "That couldn't have been Jekyll's thoughts, could they? It didn't sound like Jekyll's voice. And why didn't he react to it?”
A moment of thoughtful hesitation.
“But what if he was already hearing that voice aloud..?” Majibai mused.
"Then he wouldn’t be able to discern the machine from what he was already hearing.” Tweedy’s train of thought finished.
They stared at each other for a second.
“...Auditory hallucinations...” Maijabi muttered, “Jekyll doesn’t really seem the sort...”
“Tell me about it. He didn’t even flinch.”
"I didn't think the machine would be able to pick up on that sort of thing."
Picking up the machine, Tweedy tipped it to the side, letting the last of the caught smoke out of it. An uneasy expression sat on his face as he did so. “But he doesn’t act like he’s hearing things.” Tweedy spun the machine around, fiddling thoughtfully with the crank, “He’s still acting like the same suck up as before.”
“If he always acts like that, even while hallucinating, nobody would be able to tell.”
Slowly, Tweedy put it back down and looked up at Maijabi. “...Do you think this is a constant thing? Or do you think he’s just having a bad day?”
Maijabi didn’t respond for a moment.
“We should test this on some other people, maybe we can figure it out.”
As it turned out, they didn’t figure it out. No matter how many people, ghosts or animals they tested the machine on, nobody seemed to have the same issue as Jekyll.
They did accidentally find out more about the other lodgers than they would have liked. Tweedy looked a little queasy at some of them.
He wouldn’t admit it aloud but he was starting to see Jekyll’s point about mind reading.
On numerous occasions, Jekyll would pass by and they would try the machine again with, often, the same results.
Once, they actually did hear Jekyll’s voice from the machine, but it was the same self-deprecating speech as before, only this time, Jekyll was simply musing over whether or not Frankenstein was right about him.
It was disconcerting to see the calm expression on his face as, all the while, the internal fears and anxiety continued. It just didn’t fit with the Jekyll they knew. Something guilt-ridden twisted in Tweedy's gut as he thought about it.
Maybe they had turned against him just a bit after Frankenstein but they didn't hate him - not like the whispering kept saying.
It was a weird thing to realize, but Tweedy was steadily coming to the revelation that he did care about Jekyll in a weird way. He had wanted to rebel but he didn't want Jekyll actually hurt. He didn't want this to be happening to him.
On the bright side, they had managed to pick up Archer on their escapade. He was thrilled at the idea of reading other people’s minds.
When the pair demonstrated Jekyll’s strange internal voices to him and Archer’s eager face dropped.
“...Every time you’ve listened in on him?” Archer asked, incredulous. Tweedy nodded. “Have you told anyone else?”
A head shake. No.
Archer puzzled over the situation for a while. “Is Jekyll really that stressed about the exhibition?”
“Well there’s also Frankenstein.” Tweedy pointed out.
“And that business with Hyde.” Maijabi added.
“And the police has been on his case since the fire.”
“Nobody’s working on the exhibition.”
“I vaguely remember overhearing him mention financial issues.”
“...Geez” Archer sat back, “Isn’t anyone helping him with this?”
“Hyde’s on the run.”
“What about Rachel?”
“Wasn’t she getting on Jekyll’s case about turning Hyde into the police?”
“Ok, Lanyon then.”
A pause.
“Ok, one person’s helping him out. Is that all?” Archer looked between the two of them, troubled. When neither answered, he chewed on his lip worriedly. “I never really imagined Jekyll to be the type to crack under stress. He always seemed to do so well on his own.”
“He’s been spending a lot of time with Jasper?” Maijabi suggested.
“Two. Two people.”
“Is Jasper really the sort for good life advice?”
“I don’t know.” A moment of silence as Archer considered. “Hey, we haven’t really seen Jasper around a lot since he got here. I hope he’s doing ok. Did you read his mind?”
“One problem at a time.”
“What are you guys talking about?” Lavender strolled over.
All three of them tried to talk simultaneously and drowned each other out. Lavender gave them all a funny look.
Archer decided to take the lead.
“Tweedy and Maijabi made a mind reading device and apparently Jekyll’s hallucinating.”
“What?! Jekyll?!”
“What’s everyone saying about Jekyll?” Cantilupe dropped in.
With a sigh, Archer started again.
It was true that rumours ran around the society like wildfire. Archer wasn’t quite certain when seemingly every person in the society had joined the group, all murmuring worriedly about the new information.
They had demonstrated the strange voice multiple times and it was getting to a point that Jekyll was becoming suspicious. Even if the bewildered look on his face was unclear, his thoughts and the cruel words of the voice certainly weren’t.
Many of the voice’s suggestions were downright paranoia, each suggestion of the device’s true nature becoming more and more twisted, ranging from using Jekyll as a human guinea pig to using it to gauge weaknesses to use against him. Eventually it gleefully put forward the idea that the lodgers were plotting to kill Jekyll.
After hearing that one ring from the speaker and seeing the worryingly considering look on Jekyll’s face, they decided to stop reading his mind.
“...Ok, so Jekyll’s hearing things. What can we do about that?” Griffin crossed his arms, looking a lot less bothered about the situation than everyone else. "He's not exactly going to accept any help from us, not with... Whatever that is telling him that we want him dead."
More murmuring, then, from the back, Ito piped up.
“I have an idea.”
Henry didn’t like whatever was going on with the lodgers. At first, he had shrugged off the mysterious new invention but he kept seeing them with it over and over again, always trained on him. To make matters weirder, every time he saw them, more lodgers had added themselves to the group until he could have sworn the entire society was stalking him around the building.
Considering recent events, he feared that Frankenstein had convinced them to do something to him. The more logical side of him knew that it was probably some simple sabotage or pranking - Nobody in the society would go that far - but Hyde wouldn't shut up.
It was becoming steadily more difficult to hold on to logic and steadily easier to believe that something incredibly bad was going to happen to him soon. Paranoia, he knew, but it was quite obvious that something was amiss and it was better to play to caution.
This was why he decided to hide himself away in his office to wait for the situation to die down.
Not because it was harder to sneak up on him with a knife in there. Nope. No way. Caution, that was all.
Usually he worked out finances with Robert there but he considered this a special occasion. He wasn’t going to be able to sit still in there, knowing all the things he had to do, without working on something. The potion was out of the question to occupy his mind.
He ignored the heaviness to his limbs and the taunts of Hyde, drowning himself in paperwork to forget his troubles. There he stayed as the hours trickled by, barely able to even focus on his work.
More than once, he had to reread something because he hadn't been paying attention.
Every time he looked at the clock and saw that it was getting closer to the time for Frankenstein's treatment, his heart grew just a little heavier and his mind became just a little more distracted.
Finally, with a sigh, he watched as the clock hand hit the exact time. Part of him wanted to put it off until later but he knew that just wasn't possible. If he left it "just five more minutes" like he wanted, he would never leave.
It wasn't just the fact that he had to leave the safety of his office. It was also the fact that he was dealing with Frankenstein of all people. No doubt, she would be prepared with a whole new bout of insults for him.
Smoothing out the crinkles in his clothing and taking a deep breath, he steeled himself in preperation.
It would be fine. Just smile.
His smile, however, felt incredibly forced in a way that it hadn’t been for years. Even a look in the mirror revealed his face to look fake and strained.
If the lodgers did spring whatever trap they had planned now, Jekyll feared he would break completely.
Cautiously, Jekyll opened the door with excrutiating slowness. There appeared, at first glance, to be nothing out there.
He glanced left, right, ahead.
With a sigh of relief, he made to take a step before realizing his mistake and thoroughly checking the ceiling and top of the door for buckets of water or nets. The ceiling seemed clear. Then his eyes dropped downwards and his blood ran cold.
A package sat there.
A neat, little red bow adorned the top but, further than that, he couldn’t make heads nor tails of it. The wrapping was brown and done up painstakingly. He caught a glimpse of a note attached and, with trembling fingers, he picked it up, breath caught in his throat.
You looked like you needed this.
-Dr Lanyon
Jekyll squinted. No, that wasn’t Lanyon’s handwriting. If it hadn’t screamed “trap” before, it certainly did now. With that thought in mind, he shuffled past it, keeping as far away from it as the hallway would allow and keeping his eye on it at all times.
Once it was out of sight, he jogged the rest of the way to Frankenstein while the hidden lodgers groaned.
“That didn’t work.” Griffin crossed his arms, giving Ito a hard look.
“I said not to write a note – Jekyll knows Lanyon’s handwriting – but noOoOo, he won’t open it unless he thinks it’s from someone else, you said, say it’s from Lanyon.” Ito returned Griffin’s look.
“We should have said it was from Jasper.” Tweedy muttered.
“Well he’s not going to trust presents any more, we’ve lost that option.” Archer looked over at Ito, “Do you have any other ideas?”
Frankenstein hated being in London. It was dirty, full of smoke and she had to sit with her wounded pride as Jekyll treated her. It was infuriating that, in a whole building filled with mad scientists, she, also a mad scientist, was being treated by the fake one.
It stung and it stung badly.
The only good part of the situation were the lodgers. They had the same passion and drive that she had when she was younger. It was tragic to see the way they were held back by Jekyll, pushed into society’s rules until they practically weren’t mad scientists at all. They were losing all the potential they had.
The evening had went as usual: Jekyll tried to treat her and she made things as difficult as possible until he left. Creature gave her a hard look at the end and the cycle repeated. With a grumble, she lay back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling, wishing she was anywhere else.
She was startled out of her misery by a knock at the door. She turned, ready to snap at Jekyll. To her surprise, it was a ton of lodgers, crowding the doorway. Ito stood front and centre with a nervous, awestruck look on her face. Frankenstein allowed a small smile to graze her lips.
Ok, maybe she wouldn’t want to be absolutely anywhere else, just somewhere where the air was a little cleaner.
“Here to hear some more of my stories?” She asked, voice soft. They seemed more nervous than usual and she wondered if Jekyll had banned them from meeting with her.
“Actually, Miss Frankenstein, we need to have a word with you about a situation.”
Frankenstein stayed silent as the lodgers talked her through the issue. Her mind ran over what they were telling her over and over again.
During the worst times of her situation with Creature, before they became friends, she had often had similar experiences. Often, she had seen dripping corpses hanging from the ceiling or heard the screams of those Creature had killed in her dreams.
She wondered if it was similar to her experiences – obviously certain things were different but Jekyll certainly appeared to be hallucinating from the sounds of things.
Moreover, if it was similar, then why Jekyll? What had he done?
She bit her lip, thoughtful.
“Why are you telling me this?” She said at last.
“We’re trying to make things easier for him. Our first attempt failed so we were wondering if you could help him out? He may not trust you but he’s looked up to you since he started the society.”
“Me?” Frankenstein blinked. Jekyll idolized a mad scientist? Jekyll looked up to her of all people? That certainly went against his image. She wondered how much more she didn’t know about him. “How much helping are we talking here? I’m not exactly in any state to be doing housework for him.”
“I think they’re suggesting you let him treat you,” Creature said, “Without the constant resistance.”
She looked down at the bedsheets, recalling the spark in Jekyll’s eye when she had said she’d heard of him. She had dismissed it at the time but…
“Fine. I’m not doing anything more though, and,” She raised a finger, “if he’s being an idiot, I will tell him. I’m not babying him.”
The lodgers agreed although there were a few uncertain mutters at the last statement.
“I think the lodgers are plotting something.” Jekyll said to Lanyon the next day as they worked through finances.
Lanyon glanced up and raised an eyebrow, prompting Jekyll to continue.
“Well, yesterday they kept following me around with some strange machine and later there was a present outside my office. The letter said it was from you but-”
“I never left you a gift.” Lanyon looked alarmed, “What was in it?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t want to open it.”
“Where is it now?”
“Outside my office still.” Seeing Lanyon’s horrified look, he hurriedly continued, “We have lodgers who make bombs, I don’t want to touch an unknown package with a 50 foot stick, let alone move it. That's why we’re working in a spare room instead of my office.”
Lanyon hissed between his teeth, looking nervous. “You’ll watch your back, right?”
“Of course, just… Tell me if you see the lodgers doing anything shady, ok?”
Lanyon nodded and the pair went back to finances, both looking very on edge.
The day passed without incident and Jekyll was beginning to hope that whatever the lodgers were up to had finished with the present.
He still wasn’t enthusiastic about visiting Frankenstein and his eyes were drawn to the clock frequently, dreading when her next check-up was due.
His gut twisted when the time struck but he did his best to keep a cool face.
To avoid betraying any weakness, he kept his pose purposeful as he made his way to her room. He pushed the door open, tubes and vials in hand, ready for another yelling match. The initial entrance to the room was silent, a fact he was thankful for.
She was staring at a wall, avoiding his gaze.
He sighed and strode forwards, ignoring the slipperiness of the vials in his sweaty hands.
“I have your medicine for today if you would please just take it without the theatrics.”
He waited for the insults, the complaints. None came. Frankenstein silently took the vial and, after giving it a bitter look, swallowed the whole thing. Jekyll just stood there for a second, trying to wrap his head around what had just happened.
“...Did… Did you just drink it?”
“Was I not supposed to?”
“Um...” He wasn’t sure how to respond to this. Frankenstein was eyeing him up but the hostility in her gaze seemed… Lessened. If Jekyll were crazy, he’d almost say she looked pitying. “No… Yes! Yes you were supposed to drink it! I just- Um...”
What on Earth was going on with Frankenstein? He would check her temperature if he wasn't convinced she would bite him for it.
Frankenstein just stared a while longer in a focused gaze, looking him up and down as though she was seeing him for the first time.
“Frankenstein..? Are you feeling ok? Any feelings of confusion, memory loss or dizziness?”
“No, do I look any worse to you?” She snapped before seeming to catch herself. In silence, she stared at him a moment longer before speaking. “What about you, Jekyll?”
“What about me?”
“Are you ok?”
Jekyll’s skin prickled and he took a step back. She was being too nice. Was this another of the lodgers’ tricks?
She’s working with them, it was probably her idea to begin with. He could practically hear Hyde’s smug grin. Attempt one didn’t work so the next step is to try and gain your trust for attempt two.
He swallowed. Was that the case? He couldn’t see any other reason for Frankenstein’s unusual behaviour.
“I’m fine, why do you ask?”
“Just curious.”
The silence, which had been awkward before, seemed suddenly quite sinister and Jekyll wanted nothing more than to leave.
“Well, how are you feeling? Do you think you’re doing better than before?”
Frankenstein screwed up her face and bit out the next few words like they pained her to say, “Better than before, thank you.”
...Ok… A… Thank you..?
She continued in a softer tone, “I was wondering, since you’re here, how’s your life doing at the moment?”
Jekyll edged towards the door, never taking his eyes off her. “...Fine. Look, my examination is complete, I’ll see you again tomorrow.”
“Wait!” She called out, stopping him. “Are you sure there’s nothing on your mind?”
Heart rate skyrocketing, Jekyll walked out with a shaky, “Nope. Thanks for the concern though!”
Once he was out the door, Jekyll sprinted away.
“It didn’t work.” Frankenstein tapped her fingers, impatiently, “He’s more jittery than a squirrel on a shot of adrenaline.”
“Well... He thought the present was a trap...” Archer mused, “Chances are, Frankenstein suddenly acting strangely nice to him after that...”
“It would probably come across as highly suspicious.” Maijabi mused.
Griffin threw up his hands in exasperation, “This is ridiculous! We can’t do anything nice for him without him assuming it’s a trap! How are we supposed to help him?!”
It wasn’t Ito who spoke up this time but Doddle. “Can I make a suggestion?”
Rachel had an… Unusual relationship with Doddle.
They often shared a kitchen, Doddle using it to bake the occasional cake or make sweets. That was fine, it was when the sweets blew up that the problems started. She had to put out one too many fires at the sweet and friendly hands of Doddle. He may seem nice to others but, to Rachel who had to share a kitchen with the guy, he was the cut-throat-kitchen-disaster.
On the other hand, he was the lodger that she knew best and the one she had become closest to.
You could almost say they had an uneasy friendship – one built off of poisoned cinnamon rolls and toxic oven fumes.
Doddle came to the kitchen that evening, his usually cheery smile looking a little strained. It was a small detail but one that set all of Rachel’s motherly instincts ablaze.
“Doddle, is something the matter?”
Her eye caught on movement outside the door and she noticed a bunch of other lodgers peering inside, headed by Doddle, all looking rather anxious.
“...Is something the matter with all of you?”
“Rachel...” Doddle started hesitantly, “We need to talk to you about Jekyll.”
Rachel frowned and placed her hands on her hips, “If you’re hoping to prank him, I want nothing to do with it. Jekyll has enough on his plate right now.”
“That’s not the case!” Sinnett piped up, “He seems really troubled lately and...”
“We were hoping we could do something for him.” Ito strolled forward, taking the lead, “He’s too suspicious of us to take any of the help we’ve offered him so far.”
“Why is he suspicious of you?” Rachel gave them a hard look and they all cringed under that gaze. She reached to pull a tray out of the oven.
“Maijabi and Tweedy built a mind reader and we might have used it on Jekyll a little too much...” Sinnett stared down at his feet, feeling Rachel’s stare burning into him as she straightened up with the tray, “He doesn’t know it reads minds, just that we’ve been following him around with a strange device”
“Why did you keep using it on him?”
An awkward pause. Rachel was a close friend of Jekyll's, they weren't sure how well she would take the news. It was the reason why she had been cut out of the loop so far.
“Jekyll’s hearing things.” Tweedy finally said, “Like, auditory hallucinations.”
Rachel dropped the tray she was carrying.
“Jekyll’s what?!”
She looked at each of them in turn, looking for a smile or something to suggest they were joking. She got no such comfort.
“Lanyon doesn’t really like us,” Ito met Rachel’s gaze, “And Frankenstein hasn’t met with any success so we’re turning to you for help.”
“W-what am I supposed to do?” She thought about Jekyll’s recent pale and ill look. Was he hearing things as a result of his bad health or was it the other way around?
Doddle held out a small box. “Can you give this to him? You can check it beforehand if you want.”
She hesitantly took the box and opened it, checking the contents. She clicked her tongue.
“You should have come to me earlier. If he’s suspicious of you, you can’t get him chocolate, he’ll think it’s poisoned.” She removed the contents of the box, “I have a better idea.”
When he heard a knock on the door, Jekyll immediately grabbed a nearby umbrella, wielding it like a club. He gripped it tight in his sweaty hands and approached the door slowly, keeping a close eye on it for any sudden opening or poisonous fumes from under the door.
He felt an awful lot like Hyde, holding the umbrella like that, a detail not lost on Hyde.
He didn’t know what would be next but he was prepared for anything.
...Well, anything but Rachel.
With the door swung open, the pair stood there for a long time, just staring at each other. Jekyll was still poised to hit whoever was on the other side of the door, frozen in shock. Rachel cleared her throat and eyed up the umbrella.
“...What’s that for?”
Jekyll went bright red and lowered the umbrella, hearing Hyde cackle in his head.
“Uh, sorry Rachel. I’ve been having some issues with the lodgers lately and… Yeah...” He dropped the umbrella. “What are you doing here?”
“Issues with the lodgers?”
“They’re planning something. They left me a present ‘From Lanyon’ except, when I asked, Lanyon never left me any presents, and, later, Frankenstein was being uncharacteristically nice to me and asking about my health and about what was going on with my life and...” His eye caught on a box in her hands. It was wrapped up in red paper, a green bow adorning the top. His words died in his throat. He blinked. “...What is that?”
“Did you bother to ask them what’s going on?”
“...No..?”
“They’re worried about you, it’s not ‘planning something’, they’re just trying to help,” Rachel tsked, “and doing an awful job at it.”
“Rachel," Jekyll gave her a look that he hoped was hard but, in his current state, probably came across as a little wild and crazed, "You can’t trust them. They idolize Frankenstein and all Frankenstein wants to do is take me down. Whatever they’ve told you or given you-”
“I made this one myself.” She held out the box. "They were planning on giving you chocolate but I thought this would be more fitting."
Jekyll took the box cautiously, holding it at arm’s length. He looked at Rachel’s face one last time, scanning for any sign of deception. Finally, he carefully undid the bow and unfolded the paper. There in his hand was a large book of alchemy. He blinked several times, his mind processing what he was looking at. His mind suddenly clicked and he panicked.
“Rachel! You didn’t have to get me this – I mean, thank you but, this must have been so expensive and I know I don't pay you enough already anyway and-”
“The lodgers all pitched in.”
He stared at her.
“As I said, they’re worried about you.”
Jekyll didn’t know what to say. His eyes darted between Rachel and the thick tome in his hands. “...Why are they worried about me?”
“Because the lodgers don’t know how to mind their own business. I’ll go tell them you got the present.” Rachel spun around and strolled away. When she was a short distance, something seemed to occur to her and she turned back. “If there’s something bothering you, you don’t have to keep it to yourself, you know. Everyone here is more than willing to help you out if you just talk to us.”
Jekyll didn’t miss the sad look in her eye as she turned away and left.
He looked back down at the book in his hands, running a finger down the spine.
“Don’t know how to mind their business, huh?” He murmured, “I wonder what they found out.”
With that last anxiety inducing thought in mind, Jekyll shut the door to his office and got back to work feeling a lot lighter and Hyde's voice much quieter in his head.