Melody lived her life on autopilot since the incident. She rarely talked to others and kept conversations work related when around Jackie or her clients. When work was completed, she would lock herself in her room and lay in her bed staring at the wall. She had been through pain and suffering for centuries, but she had never seen the outcome of the lives she touched. She witnessed death and isolation that was beyond her control, but she never saw someone's life tear apart at the seams because of the decisions she made. Even after she walked out on them, she always saw her life with Michael and their children as the family she always wanted; and she held on to those memories until they were torn from her. Now, only a shell of who she once was remained.

Jackie knocked on Melody's door for the fifth time that day, Melody still not moving from her spot. A few clicks echoed throughout the room and the door creaked open. "At least you're still maintaining the place. I half expected clothes and equipment to be strewn all over the place."

"How did you get in," Melody mumbled.

"Did you forget? I own the whole building. I have a master key that opens every door. Haven't had to use it since moving in, but I felt it was time to make a unilateral decision and pull you out of this funk."

"Please just go away."

"Not this time." Jackie grabbed the sheets and ripped them off of Melody. "Now get up and get dressed, or we'll miss the show." Melody turned and gave Jackie a confused look. "That's right; I'm taking you out to see that new play that just came to town. Jekyll and Hyde I think it's called. I heard it's all the rage, and you can use a bit of entertainment to brighten up your mood." Melody went to turn back over to ignore her, but Jackie grabbed the edge of the mattress and flipped it over. Melody shot up and glared at Jackie. "Good. Now that you're up, get dressed." Jackie stepped, but stopped just outside the door, "And if you're not down in ten minutes, I'm dragging you out with whatever you have on; even if it's nothing at all."

Melody rubbed her temples in irritation, knowing she had lost this fight, and made herself ready. She went downstairs and saw Jackie tapping her foot while looking at her pocket watch. "Are you happy now?"

Jackie slammed the pocket watch closed and looked Melody over. "I was hoping for something a little more formal since it is a play, but it'll have to do since we're running late."

They power walked across town until they reached the theatre. A line of people wrapped around the building as they waited to grab their tickets. They were lucky enough to be one of the last couple of people to obtain a ticket, and made their way inside to find their seats. As the play went on, Melody's mood changed. She started to forget the pain and focused more on what lay ahead of her. This was made easier with her trying to compare the book she read that the play was based off of. The play made the main characters much more involved in each other's actions, and the atrocities the one named Hyde more severe. The book was far easier to digest, but Melody enjoyed the nuance the play brought. When the play finished, they made their way to a coffee shop across the street, packed with those leaving the theatre with them.

Jackie took a slow sip of her tea, savoring the taste. She set the cup down and looked over to a pensive Melody. "On the upside, you don't seem to look very depressed. What is on your mind?"

Melody looked up from her tea and shrugged her shoulders. "It's nothing really. I'm just going over the differences from the book and trying to figure out their reasoning to change it. Like how in the book Hyde was unencumbered but still human, and the play made him more animalistic. It wasn't bad, just different is all." As she took another sip of her tea, she caught a familiar face out of the corner of her eye. The prostitute she had seen just before meeting Jackie was slinking through the street with a bundle of cloth in her arms. The woman kept looking around, seeing if anyone was noticing her. Melody saw her duck behind an alley for a couple of minutes, and then reemerge without the bundle. Melody started to stand up, but was stopped by Jackie. Melody looked down and gave her a puzzled look.

"I saw her too, and I suggest you forget what you saw. I know you say you have a curious nature, but if you feed into this curiosity, you may not like what you find."

Melody chuckled, "You talk as if I'm going to find a dead body. I'll be fine. Besides, it's going to bug me all day if I don't find out." She pulled her arm away and walked over to the alley. She turned the corner and only found a pile of trash. She scanned the area until she found the cloth. She walked closer and saw that it was a blanket with a fresh stain on it. She reached down and was stopped before grabbing the edge by someone clearing their throat. She looked over and saw Jackie with a pleading look in her eyes.

"Please Melody, just let it go."

Melody sighed and rolled her eyes. "You're worrying over nothing. It's probably just something she stole and is ditching it before she was caught." Melody grabbed the blanket edge and moved it away. She gasped and stepped back in horror when she realized what it was. Lying in the rubbish was a dead freshly-born infant. Melody braced herself against the wall to prevent herself from falling. "Why?"

Jackie walked over and laid a hand on Melody's shoulder. She didn't have to look at it to know what it was. "This is unfortunately more common than you'd think. The prostitutes here will get pregnant, and then kill and ditch the child because they are unable to take care of one."

"They can't just bring it to an orphanage or find a family that would want it?"

"No one will take them. Once they find out the child came from a street worker, it will be labeled undesirable. It's painful to say, but this is better than anything else it could face."

Jackie pulled Melody away from the alley and guided her back home. Along the way, Melody could feel her blood begin to boil. She couldn't believe someone would do such a horrible act to their own child. Melody saw children as the most precious thing, and couldn't even think of doing this to any of her children. Once home, Melody excused herself and made her way to the bathroom. She filled the sink with water and splashed her face to help calm herself. She looked at herself in the mirror and recognized the devilish grin staring back at her.

"Rough day?"

Melody groaned and splashed her face again. "I can't believe there are people in this world that could be so cruel to those they give life to."

"I know, it's horrible. Wouldn't the world be better if people like that didn't exist?"

Melody looked at the reflection with a sense of apprehension. "That would be nice, but there's nothing that can be done about it."

"I beg to differ." Melody gave her a look of bewilderment. "Has your lust for violence disappeared that quickly since your days on the high seas? The best way to get rid of a problem is to get rid of it permanently."

"Are you suggesting I start going out and just killing random people?"

"No, not at all. What I'm suggesting is you go out there and kill these immoral cretins so that they never bring an innocent life into this world to suffer."

"While the idea of becoming a vigilante does sound entertaining, I'm not a murderer. I only kill when innocent lives are on the line."

"And those children aren't considered innocent?" Melody took a deep breath as her mind became torn with the conundrum, and made her way back to her room. "Fine, YOU don't have to kill them."

Melody stopped as she crossed the doorway. "And what is that supposed to mean. What? Do you plan on taking on the job?"

"Not exactly. I have no effect on the physical plane, but there is a way we can help each other out." The specter materialized next to an old crate in the corner and gestured to it. Melody walked over and opened it up. Inside were old costume outfits and set pieces. At the top was an old cape and top hat. The other Melody leaned in and whispered in Melody's ear, "What do you say, Ms. Hyde?"

Melody stepped away from the crate and shook her head violently. "Are you insane? No. I'm not going to disguise myself just so I can go on a killing spree."

The phantom sighed and turned away from Melody. "Very well then. Besides, Jackie is probably right. Maybe a quick death for the child is better than letting the child grow up under those conditions. Come to think of it, wasn't that how you came to be as well?" She turned and shot an evil smile at Melody, "And your life turned out so well."

Melody sat down on her bed, overcome with shock and guilt. She was an accident brought from her mother's unscrupulous lust. If it wasn't for her aunts stepping in to intervene, she would have grown up abused and even worse off, if she even grew up at all. Even with the intervention, her mother still made her life a living hell. She walked back over to the costumes and pulled out the cape and hat, put them on, and examined herself in the mirror. The hat was oversized and only stopped at her eyebrows because it rested on her ears. The cape could be wrapped around her and had a tall stiff collar that hid the sides of her face. With a decent suit jacket, she would look just like an upscale aristocrat. The longer she looked in the mirror, the more she saw someone she didn't recognize. She knew it was her, but everything was different: from the hollow eyes to her crooked grin. "Hello, Ms. Hyde." A knock on the door startled her and she tossed the items back in the trunk before slamming it closed. "Come in."

Jackie poked her head in with a concerned face, "Are you okay?"

"With the past event in mind, I'm as good as I can be. I was planning on going for a walk and then heading to bed."

"Alright, just don't stay out too late. We still have the one body to finish up, and the weekend is over so there is bound to be a fresh one before lunch." Melody nodded and Jackie left to go to her room.

Melody pressed her ear against her door and listened for Jackie to return to her room. She waited a couple of minutes after hearing the door close and rushed over to the trunk to retrieve the costume. She sifted through her clothes and found a formal black outfit that worked well with the cape. She gave herself one last look, grabbed a knife from her mortuary tool kit, and quietly left out her private door. She kept to the shadows and made her way back to the theatre, hoping she might find the woman walking about. As luck would have it, the woman was standing under the marquee fiddling with her skirt. Melody slowly approached her, being sure to use the hat to hide her face. The woman looked up and fixed her hair to try to make herself look presentable.

"Well hello there handsome, you looking for a little late night snack?" Melody kept quiet and slowly nodded her head. "Ah, the shy type. Well, I have my ways to bring that shyness out of guys." She extended her hand out and Melody lightly grasped it. "Follow me, and I'll work my magic." Melody followed the woman around the back of the theatre, grasping the handle of her blade tightly within the jacket sleeve. The woman released Melody's hand and started to unbutton her blouse, "So tell me, what do you like." Melody stared her down as the woman became agitated. "Time is money. Either tell me what you want or piss off."

Melody slid the knife out from her sleeve and let it glisten in the moon light. "I want you to feel the pain your sins have caused." The woman backed away in fear and bumped up against the wall. She turned and began to claw away at the stonework and tried to jump up on the ledge, finding it to be too tall. The woman never saw it coming as Melody covered her mouth from behind as she ran the blade across the woman's throat. The woman grabbed her wound and attempted to breath, unable to get air past the blood filling her airways. She fell to her knees and looked helplessly up at Melody. A sinister grin spread across Melody's face as she watched the woman's eyes roll to the back of her head and her body fall to the ground. Melody knelt over the body and placed the knife over its abdomen. "I believe I got my point across, now to leave a message for others." Melody, using the knowledge she obtained from working with Jackie, began to cut open the body in particular sections and started to remove certain body parts. After a half hour, she stepped back to admire her work. The other Melody appeared next to her and gave a smile of her own.

"It's quite the masterpiece. And while I do enjoy the work you've done, it's only a matter of time someone finds us; so we should probably leave."

Melody left the alleyway, once again keeping to the shadows, and made her way back home. She carefully hid her clothing, checking for any blood splatter, and snuck her way to the bathroom to clean her hands and weapon. She laid down on her bed and stared up at the ceiling, feeling her heart race. She could feel herself overwhelmed with a mixture of joy and fear. She knew what she did was wrong…but she didn't care.

-o-O-o-

She woke up well rested and peered out into the daylight pouring through her window. "Oh no, I slept in. Jackie is going to kill me." She rushed to get her work outfit on and hurried down the steps to the morgue. She burst through the door and saw Jackie standing over the body from yesterday.

"Nice of you to join me. I guess someone didn't listen to me and stayed out too late." Jackie looked up and saw Melody standing in the doorway with a shameful look on her face. Jackie rolled her eyes and pointed to another table. "Whatever, I'm almost done with this one. You can start on the fresh one that just came in."

Melody nodded and walked over to the table with the new "client". She sorted out her tools and lifted the sheet away, instantly dropping it back with a squeal. Jackie ran over and placed a hand on her shoulder. The color of Melody's face drained rapidly as she continued to look at the covered body.

Jackie pulled the cover away and examined the body. "What's wrong? It's not like you haven't seen worse."

Melody pointed a shaky finger at the woman and stammered, "I-it's the wo-wo-woman from the ssssstreet."

Jackie looked back at the woman and tilted her head. "Huh, you're right. Well, it's the risk you take meeting strangers in the alley." Jackie grabbed one of Melody's tools, the same knife she used last night, and placed it in Melody's hand. "Now quit being a baby and get to work."

Melody hovered the knife over the woman's chest, her hand less steady than it was the night before. Before she made the first incision, she heard someone next to her try to get her attention. She looked across the table and saw her doppelgänger smiling back at her.

"Well, this is quite the turn of events."

Melody looked back to see Jackie still working on the other body. She leaned across the body and whispered, "Why is she here?"

"You're the only morgue in the south district. If you don't want this to happen again, I suggest taking your outlet to the other side of the Thames. Either that, or accept the fact this is going to keep happening."

Melody looked back at the cold empty eyes of the corpse looking back at her. Melody closed her eyes and took a deep breath, calming her nerves. She felt her nerves wash away from her and the knife steadied in her hand. "I guess I'll just have to get used to it."

"Look at the bright side, you now control what the authorities know."

She was right. Melody could put anything she wanted in the report and point the blame anywhere she wanted, even to no one at all. She wrote the report as a random killing, the cuts being random and made hastily. She sewed the body back up and placed the report in the finished pile.

After that, she kept a low profile as she waited how the police would react to the findings. A week went by and news about the murder went all over town, but no suspects had been named. Melody sat out on her balcony and twirled her knife between her fingers as she reveled in her accomplishment. She watched as the people walked along the street, living their daily lives. She heard a noise below her and she leaned over to see a woman stumbling with her clothes disheveled and a man behind her buttoning his pants back together. The man tossed her a couple of coins and walked on pass her.

The woman looked up when she heard the wood creak above her as Melody leaned against the banister. "What are you looking at? Advert your eyes hussy, I don't do women." The woman pocketed the coins and walked off to find her next catch.

Melody tapped the handle of the knife against her lips as she sneered in the woman's direction, "Maybe it's time for another walk."

-o-O-o-

Melody woke up to the sound of yelling coming from downstairs. She got dressed and slowly made her way towards the sound of the commotion. She peaked through the door leading to the morgue and saw Jackie arguing with a woman that she had never seen before.

Jackie pointed her finger in the woman's face and yelled through gritted teeth. "I told you once, I told you a thousand times, I don't know where my mother is."

"Then what you are telling me is that this," the woman pointed at a new corpse lying on the table, "is your doing."

"How dare you accuse me of this! You know everything I had to do to hide my past and the mistakes I made. I have paid my dues tenfold, have reluctantly been your organizations lap-dog for the past five years, and I am still treated like a criminal in your eyes."

"You know what they say 'the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.' It's like your teen years all over again. Even carries the same M.O."

"What's going on here?" Melody emerged from the doorway and postured herself in a defensive manner.

The mystery woman looked at Melody and then back to Jackie, "Who's that?"

"She's my assistant. She helps me around the morgue and runs a medicine shop upstairs out of the loft."

"Your assistant? So that means she knows everything you do." Jackie went to interject but was cut off by the woman raising her hand. She made her way to Melody and stopped inches from her face. "What's your name?"

Melody stayed still and cocked her eyebrow in irritation. "Melody Charm; and you are?"

The woman looked Melody up and down and pulled Melody's collar down to reveal the scar around her neck. Melody smacked her hand away, but both stood their ground. The woman pulled her hand back and chuckled. She made her way to the front door, looked back at Melody, then back at Jackie. "We'll be in touch."

Jackie collapsed onto her chair and leaned her head back as Melody approached her. "Mind explaining to me what that was about and who that was?"

Jackie looked at Melody and then over to her wall of certificates. "Do you remember how I said I got in this business?" Melody nodded. "As you know, before there was a Jaqueline Ripe, there was a Silent Hill. And Ms. Hill and her mother would visit morgues and learn everything there was to know about the human body, inside and out. What you don't know was it wasn't just a bonding experience, but grooming for a bigger plan. Mom said people were after her and trying to kill her for no reason; so the loving daughter I was would defend her, even if it meant killing those that intended to harm her. It wasn't until I was cornered by a group of these people did I learn the truth. These people are called the Immortal Hunters. This might sound strange, but my mother has this unique ability to live for years. At my current age, I now look older than she does, but she has a couple of hundred years on me. In the years that she lived, she left a wake of pain and destruction; her and her sisters. Luckily I was able to strike a deal. I turn in my mother, and they let me live. One night, I had everything planned and they would capture her. However, even with her turning me into a monster, she was still my mom. I told her what was happening, we had a massive argument, and then she left. In the end, she got away and the hunters have held the murders over my head. Everything was going smooth for the most part until this," she gestured to the corpse.

Melody lifted the sheet, knowing exactly who it would be this time. The woman from yesterday was once again looking up at her, but this time was unable to make any smart remarks. "What, is it an old friend of theirs?"

"Hardly, just another street walker. The problem is the method in how she was killed. It matches the method that killed the woman last week. Killing prostitutes is not uncommon, and would never hit the hunter's radar. It's the fact that the cuts are professional, methodical," Jackie rubbed her hand over one of the wounds, "and familiar."

"And what's the deal with these hunters? I've never heard of them before. They sound like some kind of cult."

Jackie looked at Melody and laughed. "You wouldn't be far off. They trace back to the days of old when the Catholic Church ran everything. They would hunt down anything that was unnatural to this world. If it wasn't for what I knew about my family, I'd say they were crackpots." Jackie saw Melody shift with unease. "You have nothing to worry about. They only have a thing out for immortal beings…and me." Jackie grabbed a clipboard behind her and walked over to the body, "Go ahead and run your shop today. I need some time to decompress."

"If you say so, but if you need me you'll know where I'll be." Melody left Jackie to her work and headed up to her room. She walked in and headed to her external door. She reached for the lock and noticed it was already unlocked. She heard the springs in the bed adjust and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. "We're not open yet, but if you come back in a half hour I should be set up." She turned to see the same woman from before lying on her bed staring at the ceiling.

"No problem, I won't be long anyways. I'll be gone before your first customer." The woman hoped out of the bed and slowly approached Melody. "How long have you been working for Ms. Hill; sorry, Ms. Ripe?"

"It'll be a year come next month."

"So, you've had plenty of time to learn the trade."

"What are you getting at…whoever you are?"

"I know you were there long enough to get the gist of what's going on, and I heard her tell you her life story. What I'm getting at is that she may have passed to you more than one trade."

"That's absurd, and I don't want to hear anymore."

"I noticed that scar on your neck. It's odd; I've seen scars like that before in the past; not in the same area of course, but the same mark and discoloration. I'd ask how, but something tells me you know a lot more than the wound that caused them." Melody's face became flushed with rage. The woman raised her hands in surrender. "Okay, I get it. I'm leaving."

"I still haven't gotten your name."

"I still haven't given it." The woman left and slammed the door behind her.

Melody walked over to the door and punched it hard. She recoiled from the pain and sat on her bed while she waited for the stinging to subside. As she sat, she looked over towards the trunk and her heart skipped a beat. Part of the cape could be seen sticking out of an unlocked trunk. Melody knew she had put everything back in the trunk and secured it with a padlock. She looked around and found the padlock sitting next to the trunk against the wall. "She knows."

A knock came from the mirror and she saw her reflection waving at her. "Looks like we found a new target."