A/N: Chapter 2's up! Hate me if you will, for making Mina marry Dorian. Well. Enjoy; I have nothing to say, for once.
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CHAPTER 2
LONDON, ENGLAND
DEEP IN THE CITY
3.28 AM
Skinner woke up, for what reason he didn't know. His heart beat wildly and he lay perfectly still as he tried to place what had woken him up. Outside, a thunderstorm raged. He frowned. Something's wrong, he thought. A flash of lighting lit up the room, and he jumped in his bed as the peal of thunder sounded, so loud he heard the glass vase on his desk rattle.
There wasn't any sound; all was quiet in the Skinner residence.
Lizzy's sound asleep, she's totally quiet.
Totally quiet.
He sat up abruptly. That was the problem; Lizzy would be screaming for her daddy by now. She wasn't making a sound, which worried him greatly. He got out of bed, and walked as fast as he could to Lizzy's room. The way was lit up by the frequent flashes of lighting and the steadily increasing crescendo of thunder was enough to make him wish he had earplugs. He rested a hand on the doorknob, hoping against hope that something wasn't wrong with his beloved daughter, then took a deep breath and pushed it open.
His stomach fell, his hopes dashed, and horror filled the very bottom of his soul.
The bed was empty. The window was open.
Lizzy was gone.
Running to the window, he stuck his head out and felt the rain patter against his head, which wasn't exactly registering anything except blind fear. Peering out into the dark, stormy night, he struggled to rein in the panic.
"Lizzy!" he yelled, leaning out as far as he could, and he gravely misjudged the distance. With a cry of surprise, he fell out the window and down two floors into the very empty flowerbed below. A sickening snap and searing pain flooded his brain. He tried to place it, and figured it was from a broken arm. His ankle was numb and his head pounded. The two floors weren't exactly low from the ground.
As he lost consciousness from the extreme pain he was in, he managed to whisper his daughter's name.
"Elizabeth..."
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LONDON, ENGLAND
THE JEKYLL RESIDENCE
3.30 AM
Jekyll awoke when he heard Marie's cry of terror. Sitting up in bed, he blinked and saw that his wife was staring, horrified, at Noah's crib. He jumped out of bed.
"Marie, what is it?" he asked, worried. She was sobbing.
"Henry, Noah's gone!" she managed between sobs. She put her face into her hands and shook.
Those words chilled him to the bone. He got to her side and the chill in his bones increased until he felt positively chilled to the bone.
A flash of lighting served as his light, if only for a moment. The comfortable crib was vacant, the six-month old gone. The sheets looked as if their baby had struggled.
"Oh, god..."
"Henry, do something!" Marie cried, hysterical. She clutched at his nightshirt.
"Calm down, Marie," he said, the bravado totally faked. He himself was on the verge of panic, but he knew that he had to keep calm if he were to think. "Police. We need to go to the police. Noah couldn't have sneaked out of his cot. Marie, get dressed. We're going to the station."
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LONDON, ENGLAND
DEEP IN THE CITY
3.42 AM
Mina slept peacefully, but she slowly rose to consciousness by a odour she didn't know. She sat up and Dorian stirred beside her. She glanced around the dark room just as a peal of thunder sounded.
"What is it?" Dorian asked. She was silent for a while, then got out of bed and threw on her robe against the chill. She strode out of the room and Dorian followed, unsure of what she meant to do. She disappeared into Lucy's room and when Dorian entered, he felt his blood run cold.
"I knew it," Mina whispered to no one in particular. "Someone was here. Someone we don't know."
"Who?" Dorian asked.
"I don't know," Mina said, louder this time. She took a deep breath, memorizing the scent. The terror she could identify most clearly, followed by exertion, as if someone had struggled. Her daughter's familiar smell of lilacs was there, as well as a more manly one, close to smelly rags. Soil? She thought. There was the barest hint of it in the stink. She tried to place the type of soil. Garden soil. Like mud. She filed it away and worked on the other scents. Rain water, cobblestone, gas lighting, human...
"Mina?" Dorian inquired, touching her arm lightly and looking at her, concerned. "What is it?"
"Someone took Lucy." Mina's lovely green eyes flashed a blood red as her need for revenge took over. "They will pay."
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LONDON, ENGLAND
DEEP IN THE CITY
3.52 AM
Allan heard a loud clunk in Will's room and he sat up, listening intently. Another clunk, then a yell of pain. Knowing something was wrong, because Will didn't fall out of bed twice in less than a minute, he got up and ran into Will's room.
There, his grandson was struggling with a man, who kept his face in shadow. The lighting was their source of momentary light, and Allan saw that the window was open, soaking the man in the rain. At the sound of the opening door, Will barely spared a glance at his grandfather.
"Grandfather, help!" Will was thrown back by the man and he landed at Allan's feet. A angry snarl came from the guy in the shadows. Allan helped his grandson up and Will produced grabbed the nearest thing he could find; a empty glass bottle on the bureau that stood next to them. Before Allan could stop him, Will charged, leaving Allan alone in the middle of the room. He then realized that there was someone else in the room, besides the three men.
Too late, because stars exploded in his vision as someone hit him over the head with something hard.
He struggled to fight the darkness that awaited him, to no avail as the floor came rushing up to meet him.
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NEW YORK, AMERICA
DEEP IN THE CITY
3.59 AM
Tom came out of the toilet, and decided to check on Alice. She slept quietly, and he wondered if she did that all the time. Since he took over taking care of her three days ago, he found that she was as quiet as death when she slept; no sound at all. He found it unnerving, so he kept checking on her. Besides, he didn't want to let Huck down.
It'll be interesting to see how she does it, he thought. I guess she doesn't have to share a room with a brother. Unlike that idiot Sid.
He opened the door silently, pushing open just a slight bit as he peeked in. He squinted in the dark. Since when is her room this dark?
As he pushed it more ajar, he noted that her gas lamp, aka night light, was off. Usually she didn't need it, but she was like other kids and was terrified of the dark. Well, at least she had something in common with other normal, snot-picking, dirty, naughty children. He pushed the door all the way and his heart leapt to his throat.
He swore. The window was open, and the curtains flapped lazily in the soft breeze that drifted into the room. Running to the windowsill, he knew it was useless to poke his head out of it, but he did so anyway. The night was clear, and he could see the beautiful stars high above the city. America was a fledging country, but all was quiet, now; it sounded, and looked, like a more, older country. Maybe like London. The night was a stark contrast to his mood right now. No sign of her, he thought. I am so dead if I don't find her.
He reasoned with himself, through a brain fogged with sleep, that maybe she could've gone down to the kitchen. He checked, and she wasn't there. He ransacked the house, and within the hour, it looked as if a tornado had ripped through the comfortable residence of Huck. The only thing that Tom didn't dare touch were the china. He hated to think what would happen if he touched Becky's china.
Sitting down in the middle of a stack of his own clothes, he thought hard, placing himself in her shoes. If I were eight, and I hated my goddad and wanted to get away from him, where would I go?
He couldn't think of any place. She wouldn't want to miss school the next day, he knew. So she would probably come home. Unless she took her clothes with her. With that thought, it spurred him into action and he threw open her closet doors. Since he did the laundry, he knew that nothing was missing. A sigh of relief escaped him.
Oh, no.
His eyes widened at the realization, the last one theory that he hadn't wanted to think about. Grabbing his baldric, he was out of the door and headed to the police station, all the while thinking, I am a dead man.
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NAUTILUS
SOMEWHERE IN THE OCEAN
4.15 AM
Nemo was awakened by the sound of a strip of paper being printed in the slot at the edge of the room. Standing up, he waited until it finished printing and read the dots on the paper. Although the message was pretty long, only three words mattered:
Ajit is missing.
(#1) Nemo froze. Ajit. Missing. His brain managed to process those few words. He felt numb. Ajit was the closest thing he had to a son, and the boy was showing promising signs of leadership and sailsmanship. Now that he was missing...
He dressed himself quickly, and was forming his orders in his mind: get the Nautipod ready, get his first mate to take care of the ship, the captain would be back in a few weeks. He had to look for Ajit. If he lost the boy...
Nemo didn't want to think about that.
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(#1) I just realized that Ajit's mum couldn't have sent the letter so quick, so let's just say that she has some wonderful mode of communication that can send a message to a submarine a few hundred feet under the sea in a little over an hour.
A/N: call me a lousy writer. Go on, do it. I'm not afraid. Anyways, I think I'll continue this only if I get reviews.