A few days later
-
Helen walked into Will's office where he was working on some paperwork. "Will, do you have a moment?"
He looked up to her before he nodded. "Yeah."
"I have something in my study which I am certain you'd be interested in seeing."
"Okay." He said, standing.
"This morning around five o'clock, I received a phone call from my contacts in the police department. They sent over some information about some interesting cases which have crossed their desks recently."
"What kinds of interesting cases?" He asked, confused.
"Violent murders where a man enters the home or place of business a few hours before the murders, but emerges from that home or place of business as an unidentified creature."
"Werewolf?"
She shook her head. "No. The creature is more ape-like than wolf-like."
"A costume? Halloween is around the corner."
She shook her head. "You'll see for yourself. Henry tapped into the city surveillance system and retrieved several videos of the areas and times of the murders."
He stood, looking over her shoulder as she pulled up the video on her computer.
A man, dressed in an expensive suit, walked into the small cafe. She fast-forwarded a few hours into the feed before the creature she'd described emerged, wearing the same suit, now ripped and bloody, as he left, looking around himself somewhat nervously.
She paused the video again. "This is what the authorities found." She said, retrieving a file of crime scene photographs.
Half a dozen eviscerated corpses littered the small one-room cafe. Blood was spewed over all the surfaces, and Will grimaced. "I hate to admit it, but even Jack the Ripper would be appalled by this mess."
Helen threw him a look.
"Sorry." He said, shaking his head. "I just...wow."
She stood, and retrieved a written report. "The autopsies of the bodies showed that many vital organs were absolutely destroyed."
"And you think this guy did it?"
"The police identified the man who entered the cafe as Dr. Henry Akers, a chemist who works for one of the pharmaceutical companies that previously worked for the Cabal."
"Okay..."
"He's the only one who was unaccounted for when the police examined the surveillance footage."
"So he, what? Morphed into a psychopathic ape and murdered six people?"
"Stranger things have been known to happen." She reminded him.
"Name one."
"How about the man who could fly because he wore a suit that was made of interwoven insects?"
"Okay, that was weirder." He admitted.
"My contacts inform me that this is only one of three such occurrences, and this man is the only link."
"So let's find him."
"Easier said than done." She said, seriously. "He hasn't been to work or his apartment in three weeks."
"Strange."
She nodded. "But our contacts outside of the police force have informed me that a man matching this description has been sighted in one of the alleys. I thought you might want to come with me, and see if we can persuade Dr. Akers to visit the Sanctuary."
"Persuade..."
"We'll bring tranquilizer guns and handguns as insurance that he comes along." She clarified.
"Ah." He said, nodding. "I'm in."
"Wonderful. We'll take the van." She said with a sober smile.
-
"This is so weird," Will began as they drove to the site. "Like Jekyll and Hyde."
"My friend, Robert, wrote that story." She said, trying to keep him from talking again about the similarities between the fictitious story and her former fiance.
"About you and Druitt?"
She sighed. So much for keeping her lover out of the comparison. "Actually, he claimed that it wasn't about John. It was about something he'd seen in 1885. I tried to track and capture it, but with such a young Sanctuary, it was a nearly impossible feat to find a man who morphed into an abnormal."
He nodded before Helen inhaled. "Still, as you suspected, Robert was one of the people who had alerted me to John's suspicious activity."
"Did you believe him when he said that this wasn't about you and John?"
"Until now?" She asked, looking over at Will. "No."
"You think he may have seen this abnormal?"
"It's possible." She admitted. "Especially if it's a case where a parasite inhabits a human host and takes control somehow."
"But would that account for the physical manifestation of its presence?"
She shrugged. "I would need to study the parasite and the host."
-
John walked out of Helen's study somewhat confused as Henry walked past. "Something I can do for you, Druitt?" He asked, looking over at him.
"Yes, actually." John said, seriously. "Do you know where Helen is? I haven't been able to find her all morning."
"Oh, yeah. She's on a mission."
"A mission?"
"Yeah. To find this Jekyll and Hyde abnormal thingy that she heard about."
"What?" He asked, surprised.
"Yeah. It's this guy who walks into a place like a normal guy, hangs around and then, BANG! He turns into this animal and slaughters everyone in the joint."
John's eyebrows raised in worry. "Where was she going?"
"I don't know." He said, shrugging.
John caught Henry by the collar and pressed him up against the wall. "Where was she going?" He demanded more loudly.
"I...I can look up the GPS on her phone!" Henry announced, nervously.
"Do it." He said, letting go of the him
"Yes, sir." He said, quickly inputting data on his tablet.
-
Helen stepped out of the van, pulling the tranquilizer gun from her belt. "Tranquilizers first, bullets last." She said, looking over at Will.
"Sure." He said, feeling a little nervous as they headed down the narrow alley.
Helen's eyes darted around the alley, waiting for some sound or indication that they were headed toward the abnormal they'd been looking for.
A moan met her ear, and she looked at Will. She pointed to her eyes as she indicated for him to watch her.
She followed the sound around the corner to where she found the man from the video lying on a pile of garbage. She hurried to his side. "Dr. Akers?"
He looked up, confused. "Excuse me?"
"Dr. Akers, I'm Helen Magnus." She introduced before the pungent scent of the rotting refuse, hot and wet from the ventilation of a nearby laundromat, caused her gag reflex to activate. She covered her mouth as she ran away from the offending smell, falling to her knees only a few moments later as she released the contents of her stomach.
"Magnus!" Will cried, hurrying over.
She wiped her mouth with a handkerchief as she shook her head. "I'll be fine." She assured. "Just..." She pointed back at Akers.
Will nodded. "Sure. Maybe I should call Kate. You should go home. Get some rest."
She shook her head, still recovering. "Just...talk..."
He nodded as he turned around.
"Uh, Magnus...he's gone."
She whirled around in surprise. She felt nauseous and dizzy as her equilibrium caught up to her body. She tried to stand, but faltered. Will caught her. "Magnus, you should go home."
"We need to find the abnormal." She said, leaning on him as John appeared before them.
"Helen! Are you all right?"
"Fine." She said, waving away his concern.
"No, she's not. She just vomited." Will reported. "And she's too weak to stand on her own."
"Thank you, Will." She said, looking over at him with a sigh. She looked back at John. "We lost Dr. Akers. We need to find him before he transforms again."
"Uh, Magnus..." Will said, looking up a few inches over John's head. "Too late."
Helen looked up to see the ape-like monster with wolf-like fangs and claws. She felt her head swim in dizziness and her knees weaken. John reached for her as she lost consciousness.