im just. not gonna stop am i

lanyon cameo! not much to it and very brief but eh

I awoke, gasping for breath, to a most confusing and worrisome sight.

My bedroom, so meticulously cared for and cleaned, was an absolute mess. Papers were strewn across the floor, clothes hanging from furniture as if thrown to the side in a hurry, chairs were overturned and the door to my closet was hanging open, loose in its hinges. It was as if a tornado had run through the place while I slept soundly, tearing my life apart but leaving me and my bed alone, through some miracle. It was maddening, but most of all, curious.

Had I changed at night, at some point, to that fearful creature I thought I destroyed? Had he taken me by surprise while I slept, using my body to shred my room to pieces around me, then laid down after the carnage was finished and slept on? Had he done this, just to spite me? Or was he looking for something?

No, it was impossible. Though they grew less painful as of late, transformations from one to the other were not an ordeal one could sleep through. I would have woken, if not when Hyde took over, then definitely when he left. It would have been obvious what he did. He wouldn't have gotten away with it, as it appeared he had.

No, something else must have happened. The only explanation I could think of was that either, it was there when I went to bed and I just didn't see it, leftover from some other tantrum he might have thrown; or perhaps it was a servant on a rampage, desperate to destroy something of mine while I slept, and getting a bit out of hand with it. I would be hard-pressed to find out who, in that case, but it would make more sense than Hyde seemingly slipping into my sleeping body and destroying my room while I slept on, oblivious, unaware.

I stretched and yawned, wondering why I awoke in such a state of terror, unable to remember the dream that brought it on. Something dark pressed at my mind, struggling to be remembered, but failing in light of the state of my room distracting me. All that could be remembered, was a feeling of helplessness, that something had gone terribly, terribly wrong, and that I needed to fix it as soon as I woke up.

Well, I was awake, but I could scarce remember the problem. That wasn't good.

I rose and dressed, pushing the conundrum to the back of my mind, thinking it not as important as my dreaming mind sought it to be. I had a job to return to, one I had abandoned far too long in pursuit of other things. Darker things. Things that no longer troubled me, so that I could return to a job I once enjoyed.

I bid the servants to clean up the mess in my room on the way out, letting Poole know to fix the closet door as well. I was served breakfast quickly, then ushered out and to work as per usual.

The work day was unremarkable. Nothing of interest happened, after my reintroduction to what I had been missing, and no one batted much of an eye at my reappearance. I focused on my medicine, on curing others whose ailments paled in comparison to what I'd recently been through. I made no comment, however, at the state of things, and left soon after my work was completed.

On the way out, I ran into Mr. Lanyon, an old friend I hadn't seen much of since before I started my work on splitting myself (what a disaster he'd projected it to be; how correct he was!), and he was curious at my sudden reemergence into society.

"Oh, I figured it was high time I dropped all that silly work on the mind," I laughed, waving my hand and the question off. "It only ended in disaster, so I quit it. You were right, dear fellow, all along. I shouldn't have doubted you."

Lanyon seemed surprised at my confession, but quickly pleased. "Why, thank you," he said happily. "I knew you would see the light some day. I take it you have returned to us for good this time? Last time you said this, it was scarce a few months before you shut yourself away again."

"Yes, it is good this time," I agreed. "Last time I hit a new revelation, but that quickly fell apart under close examination. I am back for good, no worry at that."

Truth be told, I had been getting close to telling him. Before I had the idea to make the potion to kill Hyde once and for all, I almost went to Lanyon for help. I was this close to telling him my darkest secret. I refrained when the new idea came to me, the idea that finally saved me.

We parted ways not too long after that, agreeing to meet up sometime and share a meal, catch up on old times. But for now he had a home to return to, and I mine. I left the hospital in good spirits.

Spirits that shattered when I made my way back to my room, to change in time for dinner.

The room was a mess, despite ordering a cleanup at my leave this morning. I hailed a passing servant and pointed to the mess, demanding why it was still there.

She seemed spooked. "I swear, sir, we cleaned it up this mornin'," she said, all in a fright. "I don't know why it's back, I swear. W-We'll have it cleaned up in a jiffy, sir. I promise."

I dismissed her, ice dripping down my spine. Something was terribly wrong, something I couldn't put my finger to. What had happened while I was away? I knew my household staff to be respectable; they said they had cleaned, I believed them. So that meant that while I was at work, someone else stole into my bedroom and recreated the tornado that blew through this morning, before I awoke. It was a conundrum that gave one a headache, so I passed it off to worry about later. My stomach was protesting at the delay.

I ate dinner, then returned after the mess was cleared away. Yawning, I turned in for the night, closing my eyes against the glare of the gas lamps outside my window, ready for a peaceful sleep and to figure out the problem come morning.

I closed my eyes, only to be faced with the dark, mad eyes of a man I thought dead and gone.

"Hyde!" I shouted, backing away. I was no longer in bed, but rather in a dark room, featureless, foreboding. He stood in front of me, stooped and brooding, yet seeming more real than ever before. His arms were folded delicately behind his back, strange and strangely handsome but disfigured in a way only visible to the soul, his coat torn and face twisted in a sneering grin. That face was directed at me, foul, hatred oozing from his grimace.

"This is only the beginning," he whispered, stepping closer. I backed away, or tried to. Something held me in place, stopping me from moving, from struggling as he stepped up to me, narrow nose nearly touching mine. He looked from eye to eye, his own dancing with malicious glee.

"There is so much coming that you have no idea of, that you cannot possibly comprehend," he said. "Today was just a test. Tomorrow, you see the full extent of what you've done, and what I can do."

"All thanks to you…"

I awoke with a start, to streaming daylight, to maddening laughter, and to absolute chaos.