Warning: This chapter may contain some graphic descriptions of a corpse. Jack the Ripper is on the loose.

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When Jack was around 13 years old, Jacob took him to India, to visit 'Auntie Evie' and 'Uncle Henry' as Jacob had put it. They admired the landscapes of Northern India as well as the rich culture.
Evie was by now married to Henry and together they helped out the brotherhood of the Indian branch that were strongly connected to the culture of the Sikh.

The relationship between Jacob and Jack had hardly improved over the years. There seemed to be always a kind of distrust coming from the boy. But still, Jacob had the patience of an angel and worked with that.
He had started the Assassin training with Jack when the boy had turned 10, as it was custom. And as they were in India, Jack learnt even a bit more. Special techniques that would induce fear upon their victims...

The years passed on and everything seemed to be perfectly fine. Until the bodies started to show up.
It was September 8th in the year of 1888 that the body of Annie Chapman was discovered. She was the first in what would be a series of bodies to be found.
Frederick Abberline still worked for the police and he hoped that with Jacob Frye's help he could make sense of these cruel murders. Surely, the police found dead bodies day by day, but there was something about these that was different.

"I was hoping you could help me. Please be careful, securing of evidence isn't quite done yet", Abberline said. The crime scene was located just in between some houses it smelled of urine, rain and a bit of decay. The decaying process of the corpse however was not far yet. She had been cut open and gutted, some of her organs were draped on her shoulder. Forensics would learn that her uterus was missing.

"The victim is Annie Chapman, born Smith. After she divorced from her husband, she worked as a prostitute. ...Seventeen people living here and no one heard or saw a thing.", Abberline was a bit frustrated. "A few days earlier we found the body of a woman cut open similarly, but... there was a letter on this one. For you."

When Jacob entered the crime scene and saw the gutted woman a feeling of nausea approached him. It was one thing to kill someone, but to gut and drape a body was something else. True Assassins never took pleasure in death.
Jacob grimaced and tried to shove his nausea aside. He lifted his eyebrows when Abberline gave him the letter.

The message within the letter gave him goosebumps. Especially since the murderer seemed to know Jacob.
In the meantime, a few men from the forensics team tried their best to build up a bulky camera.
"How can it be that so many people lived here but no one witnessed anything?"
This murderer seemed to be a professional.

"I have no idea. But it seemed very risky. You see, the only entrance and exit is the one we came through.", Abberline pointed to the small passage between the houses. "A worker found her this morning. ...A serial killer is the worst that can happen to this city. I really hope you can help me. If not you, who will?"
"Of course I will.", Jacob saw that Abberline was hardly able to solve it himself. ...And then this letter. It seemed that Jacob was further involved than he knew himself.

"Shall we go to the department? I still have the file of the previous murder. Maybe it will help you in your search for the murderer.", Abberline offered. Jacob nodded.
"The sooner we can find the murderer, the better.", Jacob had to tell Lilian to not leave the house after nightfall.

They drove to the department, where they looked through the file and also chatted a bit about the current situation.
"When I learn something new, I'll tell you.", Jacob promised.
"Yes, we should stay in contact.", the Sergeant agreed. "...How are your wife and children anyway? Doing well?"
"Yes. Lilian and Ethan are doing fine. Well .. Jack has me worried for a while. He's more isolated than before. But .. well, that's him.", Jacob shrugged.
Abberline could not take Jack under arrest just because he behaved differently.

"Jacob. .. we've known each other for such a long time. Do keep an eye out for him, will you? I've read the file about how he was found, twenty years ago."
Jacob nodded. "I .. I will.", he could understand Abberline's worry. But there was so little Jacob could do.

Ever since from the start, Jack had hardly accepted Jacob. The only people he had given a decent chance were Lilian and Evie.
Jacob also knew the file Abberline spoke of. They had adopted Jack from the Lambeth Asylum. Before that, the boy had been found beside his dead mother, murdered by Starricks Templar lackies in Whitechapel.
This was also the one common thing the two murdered women had. They had been killed in Whitechapel. They had both been prostitutes and both been slaughtered.

It would prove to be difficult, Jacob having an eye on Jack. Because he was no longer a child.
And luckily, not every day a new victim was found.
After the Chapman-murder, things remained quite calm in the Whitechapel district. Ethan and his Assassin friends still kept an eye onto matters.
Ethan had recently become an Assassin himself and wanted to help his father, where he could.

But then, one day he stood before their home. Ethan was trying to hold back the tears. Police was there too, making sure to investigate the scene.
Ethan had to keep it together, he told himself. He still remembered how just half an hour ago, he had waved his mom goodbye...
He looked up when he saw Jacob arrive and tried to stop him from entering the house. "Father, don't! Mother, she is... she is..."
"What is with her? Where is she?", Jacob felt a sick twist in his belly. He shoved Ethan aside

Nothing in the world could have prepared Jacob for what he saw now.
It was Lilian, in the kitchen, on the floor. With her guts sprawled out.
Jacob felt like the floor was slipped from underneath his feet and he'd fall 40 stories deep. His heart was breaking into a million pieces. He did not want to believe what he was seeing.

Two Police Officers had to drag Jacob back outside.
Ethan wrapped his arms around his father. "I didn't want you to see her like this! Why didn't you listen!", he was now unable to hold back his tears and wasn't ashamed for it. "Why... why is he like that?"
"Who?"
"Jack! When... when I came home, I saw him. ... He almost killed me too. But apparently he had no interest in finishing the job.", Ethan said among sobs. And he showed his neck. There was a fine red line. "Also, when we grew up, he was weird."

Jacob let out a cry of pain. How could he... How could Jack kill the woman that had raised and loved him as if he was her own flesh and blood? And he had also nearly taken Jacobs son!
"Jack... he has ..experienced some terrible stuff. He had to see .. how his mother was killed off. And then he was taken to an asylum. Lord knows what they done to him there. And .. I knew his mother.
We worked together and ... god, I should have known she was killed. I read the file and ... Jack had called for me. I wasn't there to save her. And this... this is why Jack is like this."

Jacob would never have thought that this would blow up like that. "Ethan, I'm sorry. It's all my fault. I couldn't help and..."
"But you didn't wield the blade!", Ethan argued, not wanting his father to take the blame. "So many people die due to our work. And so many fates are interlinked. We can't foretell what is happening."