AN: This story is a little different from my usual action/adventure/friendship stories – horror, and specifically in the Gothic horror style. As a warning in advance, this story does earn that "Teen" rating that I give to all my stories (though it does not go beyond "T"). The villain is the Stripper Ripper from "The Hound and the Maiden," so that should give you some idea of what to expect. Thank you to bryguy2324 for beta-reading this story, though I did give it another round of editing after he read it.
The Maughan Library's Round Reading Room was deathly silent, the occasional turning of a page the only sound to be heard. Bri's eyes strained from the harsh fluorescent overhead light shining onto her tablet and almost whiting it out as she hunched over it. When she closed her eyes for a brief moment of rest, she became aware of the faint hum coming from the lights, the steady ticking of the clock in the corner of the room above the doorway. The sky visible through the glass ceiling was pitch black, the moon hidden behind a thick fall cloud cover, leaving the room almost entirely dark, save the fluorescent lights built into the open floor of the next level and the lamps set on the tables. It was a pity she couldn't just turn off the fluorescents in favour of the warm yellow lamplight. But alas. She smacked the lamp sitting on the table next to her, but it still wouldn't turn on. Perhaps next time she came, she would take it apart to check the wiring; she didn't have the focus or the energy left to do it tonight. She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead, trying to force some of the tension out and regain her concentration for this last push. But between the late nights spent out patrolling and the early mornings trying to get in her hours at the repair shop, Bri had built up a considerable sleep debt, and suddenly it was all coming due at once. And of course this particularly-complex circuit diagram wasn't helping matters.
"You really didn't have to come with me," Anne pointed out, a concerned edge to her voice. "I'm sure I could have persuaded one of the guys at the desk to walk me home after they closed up."
Bri opened her eyes and forced a smile. "No, it's okay," she insisted. They sat across from each other on the far side of the deserted reading room from the doorway, no one else was in sight, yet her whisper still felt too loud for the funereal atmosphere that the library always exuded this late at night. "If I'd stayed home there's no way I would have gotten anything done, but at least I finished one diagram here."
"I have to admit, working with someone is always more productive than trying to work alone," agreed Anne with a smile. She patted the pile of musty old books next to her. "If I were here by myself, I'm pretty sure I would've given in to the temptation of social media at least two centuries ago!"
Bri hummed in agreement and chuckled. "Let me guess: social media's why you're still doing the research for this stupid 20-page preliminary draft that's due in the morning?" she asked, arching an eyebrow.
Anne stared intently at the book lying open in front of her. "… I refuse to answer that."
Bri giggled and returned to her circuit diagram, her focus finally having returned. She could see the way the professor expected them to put it together, of course, but it wasn't the most efficient method. If she switched two connections and shifted another one down half a centimetre, it would work at least 14% better. With a couple notations in the margin, she indicated as much. She smiled softly: her father would be impressed.
A few minutes later Anne let out a heavy sigh, her eyes darting around uneasily to take in the deserted room. "I am glad you decided to join me. Something about being out alone late at night gives me the creeps."
"I can't imagine what," Bri observed wryly, a shiver running down her spine. "The Ripper's getting worse."
Anne nodded, a troubled look in her eyes. "It was bad enough at first to know we had a Jack the Ripper wannabe haunting the streets," she commented. "But something about the last few attacks is just…" she let out a breath. "Did you see the news report on his latest attack? It sounded positively brutal."
You have no idea… Bri thought, almost unable to hide her revulsion. The papers had been barred from publishing any pictures of the last Stripper Ripper attack, but the image was still seared into the backs of Bri's eyelids whenever she closed her eyes. It had happened two nights ago while she was on patrol. She had been on the far side of the city during the attack itself and only stumbled upon the grisly scene after the Ripper had left. The woman's chest had been slashed open from collarbone to pelvis – from the look of horror on her face she had still been alive and felt every moment of it. Her ravaged chest had been slick… Tasting bile in her mouth, Bri scanned the room for a waste bin but couldn't find one. "It was horrifying," she mumbled.
"I think we can both agree he's not the full shilling." Anne coughed. "But enough of that cheery topic. Any ideas what you're dressing up as for Halloween next week?"
Bri blinked and refocused on her flatmate. "I thought about taking the easy route and just getting cat ears, but as far as I can tell, at least half the girls on our floor are already planning to do the 'sexy kitty' thing."
Anne wagged her eyebrows. "And what is your 'Mister Project' dressing as?"
Bri rolled her eyes. At this point it was easier to just play along. "I'm pretty sure he's going to be a dog on Halloween."
"Will I get to meet him?" Anne chuckled. She snapped her fingers, eyes lighting up. "Hey, maybe find dog ears and say you're a 'sexy puppy' to match!" she suggested. Her lips curled up in a mischievous smirk. "You can both be my 'animal familiars'!"
Bri arched an eyebrow at her. "Presumptuous to assume you'll get to meet him! So since you're going to be a 'totally not a witch,' I'd be your 'totally not a cat'?"
Anne shrugged. "I've seen worse ideas than a Druidess with a pet dog." She frowned, looking around the deserted library. "Did you hear the city's imposing a curfew next week?"
"I did," she acknowledged, nodding seriously. "It only makes sense."
"Maybe… Still, it feels pretty minus craic to have a curfew on Halloween."
Bri raised an eyebrow dubiously. "Do you want to be out late on Halloween with a serial-killing rapist on the loose?"
Anne shrugged. "Not particularly," she admitted, "but I kinda think it adds to the spookiness of the season, don't you think?"
Bri scoffed, rolling her eyes, and shook her head adamantly. "I enjoy Halloween as much as the next girl–"
"Hence the hair?" teased Anne, eyes drifting up.
"Hence the hair," Bri agreed, running a hand through her freshly-dyed orange-and-black two-tone hair. "I enjoy Halloween, but the Ripper makes it just a little bit too spooky for my taste."
Anne nodded slowly, her eyes drifting to the clock above the door. She started. "The library closes in just a couple minutes!" she squealed, slamming her book shut with a puff of dust and dropping it on the stack with the rest of her books. Bri turned off her tablet and stowed it in her bag before standing up and stretching her arms, pushing her back out against the stiffness that had set in from hours of sitting in the same position. Her neck finally popped as she was waiting by the front door for Anne to finish checking out her books at the circulation desk, and she slung her bag over one shoulder. She snorted quietly: it was a definite benefit of Engineering that she didn't need quite as many books! Once she was finished, Anne crammed the half-dozen thick tomes into her backpack and raised her eyebrows in a question.
As Bri pushed the library's front door open and led the way out into the darkness and fog, she flicked her wrist to deploy the control for her right bracelet. With a press of a button, the flashlight turned on, illuminating the sidewalk in front of them. The light beam caught and refracted on the thick fog, tracing a straight line through the air. Bri extended the light further away from them, but the further the light went, the more of the light the fog reflected back at them, and the more of its circular beam the fog obscured. Finally she contented herself with shining the light no more than a few meters directly in front of them. Bri resisted the urge to wave her arm too much and set a brisk pace, her eyes constantly roaming over the street in all directions and alert for danger. Anything could be lurking in the darkness around them, and they wouldn't hear it in the fog. Anne hurried along next to Bri, her eyes darting up and down the sidewalk. The covered archway separating the library buildings appeared out of the darkness in front of them, tall and imposing. Even set on the widest beam, Bri's light couldn't show the entire space beneath the arch. The two girls were silent, hardly daring to breathe, until they finally stepped out of the passageway onto Chancery Lane and turned south toward the Strand and home. The only sound they could hear was their own footsteps, muffled by the fog; even the light on Bri's bracelet couldn't pierce more than a few meters ahead of them.
Bri finally let out a breath and allowed herself to relax when she could see the faint glow of a streetlight ahead of them through the gloom. "So how is this paper going?" Bri finally asked to break the oppressive silence around them, her voice sounding dull and muffled in her ears. "It's a prelim for the final term paper, right?"
Anne shrugged. "Better than it was four hours ago, at least. Still not more than halfway done. Probably looking at another all-nighter. But once I write this one, the term paper will be close to half finished."
"And your topic is something on King's, right?" Bri couldn't help a flinch as a car appeared out of the fog coming in their direction, whipped past them on the other side of the street, and vanished just as quickly into the fog.
"Sort of," Anne confirmed, nodding. "More it's on the history of London along the Thames; the college just happens to be in the way."
"Uh huh…" Bri responded absently, her eyes on the street corner directly ahead of them where they would turn.
"The history's actually pretty fascinating," Anne continued animatedly. "The city of Londinium was inhabited as far back Roman times. And yet the Romans weren't the first ones to live in this area; the legend suggests that the reason the Romans built the wall was to protect the city from some mysterious enemy that Roman military might alone couldn't cow into submission. It's a savage story!"
Bri snorted before looking both directions and leading the way across the street. She raised her left arm to wipe away the condensation that had accumulated on her brow – whether from the fog or from nervous sweat, she couldn't tell. "I'm glad you enjoy this ancient history stuff," she commented. "I prefer things in this century personally."
"And for that I am exceedingly grateful," Anne noted, nodding to the bracelet flashlight. "Of course, you know what they say: 'Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it!'" she raised an eyebrow at Bri meaningfully.
Bri giggled. "You know what else they say, 'You start off school knowing nothing about everything, and the longer you stay in school, the closer you get to knowing everything about nothing!'"
Finally climbing the steps to the front door of the Strand House, Anne pulled out her flat key to let them into the building, and Bri finally turned off her light and returned her bracelet control to its place after checking the power level. She would have to charge it overnight, but it was still okay. Anne unlocked the flat, and Bri followed her inside, dropped her backpack on the sitting room couch, and flopped down next to it. The door slid shut and locked automatically, and the tension she had been feeling ever since they left the library finally evaporated. "It's good to be home."
AN: I have three notes for those who care about the accuracy. First, in researching for this story I realized there's a small error in "The Hound and the Maiden": I had assumed that King's College had a library on the Strand Campus, but the Strand Campus library is actually about 8 minutes northeast from the rest of the campus. What is on the main campus is the college archives, so that's where they actually were. Bri's workshop is west of the main campus, about as far from the campus in the opposite direction as the Maughan Library where they were in this chapter. Second, the Strand Campus doesn't have its own housing; the closest King's College residence building is south of the Thames, which seems a little too far from where I put her workshop. So in this universe King's College also has an apartment building about a block north of the Strand Campus, and that's where they live. Finally, for the purposes of this story I'm assuming the library is open until 10 PM rather than the 5:30 PM that Google indicates (though whether that's normal or COVID isn't stated). Let me know if you are interested in all these little nitpicky real-world continuity things.
