Cruel and Unusual - serialised novel EXCLUSIVE to Steemit Part 23

Exclusive for Steemit - serialisation of Cruel and Unusual – my second novel

Episodes:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

Pictures from Google Images and Pixabay

It's not too late to read the previous episodes. If you haven't done so already, please do - this is where the twisty-turny parts of the story come in. Hunters and Hunted - which is which, what is what, and how on earth is he going to get out of this predicament (if he does, of course).

---

It had been almost four weeks since his first adventures in the slum lands of Whitechapel and Jack was once again walking home from his club. He said goodnight to the doorman and declined his offer of calling him a cab home, the mid-June evening was pleasant enough and the walk would settle his dinner.

He lifted his hat to a couple walking in the opposite direction and said, “A good evening to you,” in reply to their greeting. Jack was enjoying the walk. The air was not cold and not smoggy for a pleasant change.

The gaslights illuminated his way and he felt satisfied from his meal and he continued to be able to appreciate the excellent brandy in sharp contrast to the gutter water he had been unfortunate enough to have been served a month before – that hangover was one he did not plan on repeating.

A young lady wearing a pretty hat caught him up. He heard the tip-tap of her heels as she walked. He gasped in surprise as her arm slipped into his and he looked around at her.

She echoed his gasp and put one gloved hand to her mouth as she let go of his arm. “Oh I do beg your pardon sir. I thought that I recognised you as my fiancé and meant to surprise you.”

“Well you succeeded there at least,” he said laughing.

“Oh I am sorry sir,” she looked around with an anxious frown on her brow. “Oh where can he be? He was going to fetch us a Handsome Cab but he has been an absolute age. I thought that you were he and I have been trying to catch you up. Oh dear.”

“It is no matter, my dear. Please do not concern yourself. I am not harmed nor frightened so you really have nothing to worry about on my behalf.”

“That is as may be, but I do have something to worry about on my own behalf for now I am quite a way from where I should have waited and must now make my return alone.”

“I shall find you a cab and then instruct the driver to take you back.”

“Oh but I see my fiancé now,” she said and pointed down the street to a figure that did indeed bear a resemblance to Jack in the fact that he also wore a cloak, a top hat and carried a cane.

As the young man approached, Jack grew uneasy. He recognised the young man, but from where? The man was almost upon them when it dawned on Jack. He was the man from the theatre when he had his ‘seizure’ – the one that had been the cause of it.

“Good evening, Doctor. I trust that you are quite recovered from your illness of the other evening?” The smile he wore was one of pleasant, good humour but Jack also saw an underlying cunning too.

“I am quite well, I thank you, yes. I shall leave your fiancée in your capable hands then.” He tipped his hat and made to leave to continue on his way.

“You did not recognise me, Doctor?” the young woman asked.

“No, I do not think so,” he realised that the pair were playing games with him but could not imagine why.

“You offered me a meal last month, Doctor. I am curious as to why.”

“And you had an opportunity to indulge in conversation with me on the previous evening – the night before you invited my fiancée to dine. The night that you fled from your attic to spend an uncomfortable evening underneath your bed.”

“That was you? I did not realise.” Jack ignored the goading which implied his cowardice.

“We know that you didn’t and we also know that you are watching us. We would like to know the reason for that too.”

Jack thought on his feet. “I know the legends of Super-humans such as Werewolves and Vampires and I study. I had thought at first that the myths and legends were just stories but I have now seen two Werewolves.”

“You will never see a Vampire, no such thing exists,” she said.

Jack nodded in acceptance and continued. “I did not imagine that so beautiful a lady and so handsome a gentleman could become such magnificent beasts and yet, for all my studies, they are as nothing.” He sighed in what he hoped was a wistful manner, hoping to catch a romantic nature in either of them.

“How so, Doctor?” the young man answered, surprising Jack as he has assumed that the lady would have been taken by his act sooner than the gentleman.

“You know sir, surely?” Jack gasped. “You are an avid theatre-goer and who has not heard of the trials and tribulations of one Dr. Jekyll and his - ah, associate - Mr. Hyde? Who does not thrill to the sheer blood curdling story of The Vampire? Not to mention of course, Dr. Frankenstein and his monster, another lamented man of science. How would my own studies be received if I were to publish them? Why, I would be at best, thought of as a would-be novelist and at worst as a madman. No, dear sir, kind lady, my studies are worthless, except to me.”

He sighed again and removed his hat to mop his brow. “I apologise if I appear crude to such perfect creatures as you but I have longed for such a meeting.”

“You had such a meeting just last month, Doctor, but you fled.” the lady smiled such a wicked smile that Jack shuddered at the memory of their meeting.

“Dear lady,” he recovered his composure fast enough so that they perhaps hadn’t noticed. “You had warned me to flee. I would not have stayed because of your blood lust, but I did so want to.”

“For what purpose?”

“Why, to conduct an interview of course.”

“An interview? To what end?”

“Again, for my own selfish reasons. Your beauty beguiles me, for as a species, yours is the stronger by far. You have the grace, the beauty and the magnificence. By God! You have lethal power. Puny as we humans are, I as one can only admire and envy you.”

He paused as they looked at each other. “But let me assure you, I wish not to learn your secrets, only to ask of your past. Not to learn how you are able to conceal your inner wolf, more to ask how you enjoy your lives. Do you have as similar constraining society as ours is or, as I hope and dream, is it free of rules and petty, unimportant regulations on how we should live and conduct ourselves in public and even in private?”

They looked at each other in quiet bemusement and he continued, hoping for at least a stay of execution, for he was in no doubt as to why they had way-laid him in such a manner, it was to kill him - after they had the answers to their questions.