"There is a nightmare on the loose, haunting our streets." In the Cauldron and Stewpot pub, a group of people had gathered around a young working girl. "He will cut your throat and rip open your abdomen." She was sitting at a table, shivering from fright as she told the story. "They won't ever catch him but he will catch us. He's already slaughtered two of my friends, he left them lying in the alley for anyone to find. He's a Ripper. Jack the Ripper." Anne watched as the crowd fell silent as she finished what was left in her mug, she stood up and walked away from the crowd while the men at the table with her watched her leave. Anne sighed, the life of a working girl was tough but now some serial killer was out to get them? She finished her beer, placed what she owed on the bar, wrapped her scarf around her neck and went outside. As she made her way towards her flat, Anne heard a scream come from the alleyway, she took off in the direction in a heartbeat unsure of what she would find.
She stopped as she watched the young girl's body fall to the ground, standing over her was a tall man wearing a top hat with his head covered in bandages. Anne was close enough that she could see her lifeless eyes staring up at the smog-ridden sky. He turned towards her, she couldn't move or scream as she seen the empty holes in the bandages where the eyes were meant to be. He slowly walked towards her, his last victim left forgotten on the ground behind him; his knife covered in her blood. A million thoughts ran through Anne's head as he closed the distance and Anne stood, frozen in fear for the strike to come...but it never did.
A hooded figure pushed past her and landed a right hook right into her would be killer's jaw. Anne heard the sound of a bobbie's whistle which caused the murderer to run into the shadows. She breathed heavily as her saviour lends her a hand up, the grip was strong and she noticed that she could not see their face but she took in every other detail that she could in the dark. Dark hooded trench coat which made it impossible to see what was underneath, a strange looking gauntlet on the left hand and all she could see from beneath the hood was the faint sight of stubble on a chiselled chin. Her rescuer was a man. Before she could even get a word of thanks out, he lifted his left arm that shot out a zipline and scaled the building and was gone before the police arrived. I'm going to find him.
"Anne," hearing her name get called behind her caused Anne to come back from her thoughts. "What happened here?" Detective Frederick Abberline came to her side while the other four policemen with him searched the surrounding area.
"I was leaving the pub down the street when I heard a scream. This girl was a working girl who told an audience about Jack the Ripper, the last two victims were her friends." Anne stared over at the body. "How'd you find me?" The detective gave a solemn smile.
"You weren't the only one who heard the scream but you were the only one who was brave enough to go look. How did you escape?" She looked up at Frederick. Anne trusted him, he saved her life and when he asked her to be an informant and a profiler; she owed him that much. "He- He heard the whistle and took off, I wasn't close enough to see a face." Anne stared down at her boots as she felt his gaze watch her face. Anne couldn't tell him the truth as she didn't even know what to believe herself, some faceless killer slicing up his victims while a vigilante scurried up walls. It was absurd.
A few days had passed and Anne had little information for herself and for the police. All she had managed to gather was talk about another victim found nearly an hour after the first, they called it the "double event" this time her abdomen was ripped apart with a kidney and most of her uterus missing. He killed again in the same night because she had interrupted him at the first, his murders were becoming more gruesome and despite every bobbie on the lookout, there was no trace of Jack the Ripper. Anne had told Detective Frederick that the next body they find will be mutilated, the killer's instinct finding its nature in the way he went from cutting his first victim's throat twice and her lower abdomen partly ripped open to the latest victim's throat was severed and her abdomen had a long, jagged wound with two organs missing. He had all the information she was able to gather that was related to his case.
The only information Anne had gathered about her own personal case was that this hooded man had something to do with the new gang that had popped up and taken back London from the Blighters, she had decided that today she was going to follow him and find out more. Anne pulled on her favourite blue waist coat and boots as she pocketed her notebook and charcoal pencil. She kept to the alleyways while she made her way quickly to one of the strongholds, the last few days he had come here but she never had the time to wait around as there were more pressing matters at hand.
As she waited in a small hiding spot where she could see exactly where the man had gone in, the wind picked up and a few tresses of blonde hair flew into her face; she gently placed them back into her braid before she took out her notepad. Even though it was windy today, the sun was shining as much as it could for a Autumn day; Anne managed to see the back of the man before he went into one of the houses.
"Top hat. Brown shaggy hair. Same black trench coat. Dark breeches. Dark leather boots." She was frustrated that it was all she could see but she would wait here all day if she could get even a glance at his face.
Evie spied the mysterious woman from the rooftops behind her, she bore no sign of being a Templar spy but they couldn't take risks. Jacob had come to his older sister with news of being followed so while he carried on his usual routines, Evie followed his stalker. The woman wore a blue waist coat and brown breeches with matching knee high boots, her hair golden like the sun and was braided into a bun that seemed to annoy her now and again but what she was focused on was what the woman had in her hand. Her back was turned towards Evie so she couldn't see clearly what she held but whatever it was, she kept looking down at it. A signal from one of the Rooks showed Evie that Jacob was about to exit and be on the move.
Jacob was all for killing the stalker but Evie advised against it, if she was a stalker then she would have valuable information on who hired her and what they could be planning. Her worries about her little brother taking matters into his own hands haunted her all day but so far, he was playing along with the plan.
Evie followed along the rooftops while Jacob took a turn down an alleyway, the stalker paused before following him in and that's when Evie's heart began to pound. It was the only time she didn't have eyes on him and she as she dropped down to close in on the stalker, she feared that he had done something rash. As she rounded the corner, Evie found the stalker crumbled on the ground in front of Jacob.
"What did you do, Jacob?!" She ran over to him as he smiled at her.
"I just gave her a tranquiliser dart to calm her down. She began to freak out when she realised she had nowhere to go." Evie checked the woman's person and found a little notebook tucked into the inside of her jacket. They didn't have long till the dart's effects wore off so it was best to get her tied up before searching for more clues on who this woman was.
"C'mon then, pick her up and let's get going. We'll sort this out when she wakes."