Chapter 11 – Big Ben Caper
~~~~New Years Eve 1878~~~~
"This is insane!" huffed Nikola as Helen dragged him through the dark streets of London.
"You knew what you were getting into when you joined."
He sighed.
"I was expecting lab work, theories, exploring a whole different genetic make-up then our own, you know science, doing your father's grunt work and running all over London trying to capture some creature who is attacking innocent partiers, no! I wasn't expecting that! This is not how normal people spend New Years!"
"Since when have we ever been normal," she laughed.
He huffed again and admired her outfit.
She was wearing trousers and high leather boots, her hair was pulled back with a tie, and she had a hunting rifle resting on her hip as she searched the area for the creature.
He had to admit he enjoyed the view.
She waved him to follow her and he did so, a similar rifle in his own hand, but instead of bullets that were filled with darts that are tipped with a special poison, one of Nigel's little ideas. He had tested it on Nikola; he was out for a day.
"There he is!" Helen aimed her rifle at a moving shadow but it ducked down the street and Helen chased after it.
Since learning of the existence of these creatures, which Gregory called abnormals, they had been learning a wealth from the collection of creature Magnus kept in the basement of his home.
This was the first time Gregory had sent them out to find one.
James, John, and Nigel were close by chasing the creature just like Helen and Nikola, they were hoping to corner it.
Helen ran fast to catch up with the creature, her heart beating fast as she turned the corner, she stopped and Nikola nearly ran into her.
She saw where the creature was heading, the clock tower.
Helen groaned.
"We need to get up there," she looked at Nikola.
"Just show me to the door," he smirked and they raced as fast as they could to get to the tower.
He picked the lock on the door and he and Helen snuck in.
The inside of the tower was pitch black, till Nikola managed to find a lantern and light it.
He held it precariously in front of him with Helen a step behind him.
They heard a screech up above them and Helen saw the creature swing on to one of the bells, causing it to chime loudly.
Helen covered her ears as the loud sound filled the tower.
Nikola covered one ear and moved to a flight of stairs snaking up the length of the tower and he moved up them swiftly, pulling Helen along with him.
It finally jumped off the bell and a sound of shattering glass was heard faintly.
"Where'd it go?" growled Nikola as he reached the landing walking around the bells.
"He can't have gone far. There's only one flight of stairs in this place," said Helen, keeping a hand on Nikola's arm.
Helen saw the hole in the clock face that the creature must've crawled out of; it was twice her size.
"Nikola, I think I know where he is," she pointed at the hole.
Nikola moved towards it and peeked his head out of it, the wind blowing the hairs of is mustache rapidly.
"I don't see him!"
"Nikola watch out!" Helen cried as the creature swung down from the rafters and kicked Nikola out of the tower.
Helen shot at the creature and it shook its head and ran out of the hole.
She ran towards the hole and peeked out to see, praying Nikola was still alive, moisture brimmed her eyes.
She instantly let out a sigh of relief when she saw Nikola hanging by the scaffolding around the clock face.
"Nikola! Are you alright?" she looked around for anything to hoist him to safety.
"I've been better! Now may be a bad time to tell you, but I'm not all too fond of heights…not so much heights really…as falling from them…let me up!" she tried not to giggle at his strained and panicky voice.
"Just give me a moment, I'm looking for something to pull you up with!" he let out another strained cry.
Helen found a piece of abandoned wood and used it to hook the rope of the scaffolding and pull it to her.
The scaffolding was used for those who cleaned the face of the clock, suspended from the top, a job that only truly poor people chose to do because of it's danger.
It was no more than a plank of strong wood held up by two long pieces of rope.
Nikola lifted himself to sit on the plank of wood and he gripped tightly on to the rope.
Helen used the piece of wood she found as leverage to pull him up.
"Almost there Nikola!" she shouted, earning a strained grunt from him.
Suddenly she heard another crash behind her and she dropped the piece of wood, and Nikola along with it.
"What the bloody hell is going on up there?" cried Nikola.
Helen moved slowly, backing away from the creature stalking up behind her, her hands grasped the sides of the hole in the clock face.
Nikola stared wide-eyed up at them, as the hand on the clock moved so slightly, causing the rope to shake slightly.
"Helen, what are you doing?" he yelled, unsure of what was happening, but a slow sinking feeling stooped into his gut.
He eyed the monstrous clock. Then took out his own small pocket watch. It was nearly midnight, and that was not good.
Helen reached for her rifle carefully, eyeing the creature as she did so; she was terrified, she couldn't think of a moment in her life when she had ever been so scared.
She aimed lazily, not wanting to tip the creature off.
Nikola slid on to his belly on the plank and reached downwards to grasp on to the hands of the monstrous clock. He had no idea what he was doing, but he straddled the massive clock hand and looked up.
Helen breathed carefully as she slowly raised the muzzle of her rifle towards the creature, the creature growling slightly.
"Relax, I'm not going to hurt you," Helen said soothingly, like a horse whisperer.
It bared its fangs.
Helen kept her finger on the trigger, still cooing softly to the creature, this was really Nikola's expertise, calming animals, but she'd learned a few things from watching him. Not like he was in any place to do it himself.
She finally pulled the trigger, the shot landing in the creature's chest.
It roared and lunged for her, and she ducked out of the way shooting another shot into it's back, and then anther one, it slowly stumbled and lost it's balance, falling out of the whole and down to the cold London streets below, smashing the scaffold along with it.
Helen gasped for air and went to check on Nikola, who was glad he had moved out of the way, but not glad because he couldn't move back.
"Nikola!"
"Yah!"
"Hold on!"
She looked around desperately for something, a rope, anything that could get him off the clock face and to safety.
"Really? Because i…I would've never thought of that…I just thought if anything goes wrong I'll suddenly spread wings and fly to the ground, but you have opened my eyes!" he said sarcastically, he was definitely panicking.
"Just hold on!" she cried.
"What do you think I'm going to do, tap dance?" he cried back.
She sighs in relief when she finds a rope.
"Ok, I've got something!" she ran to the edge.
"Great, just watch out for the-"
The hand he was clutching to jerked, making him let out a squeak and hold on tighter and suddenly the whole tower shook as the bells rang the hour.
Helen, surprised by the sudden event lost her footing on the edge and came screaming downwards.
Nikola acted fast and grabbed her hand, holding for dear life.
"I really don't like heights!" she screamed, her breath coming out in hard strained pants.
"I've got you!" Nikola's breath was just as strained as hers and he pulled her up to straddle the hand of the clock with her. He wrapped a hand around her waist and held him to her tightly. She leaned even closer to him.
"If we get out of this, drinks on me!" he said, trying to keep the humor light, despite the frightening circumstances.
"If we get out of this I might just kiss you!" Helen said, laughing weakly.
"What's stopping you now?" he joked.
Helen looked up at him and kissed the corner of his mouth lightly.
"Just in case," she winked at him and he held her even tighter.
"Helen! Nikola!" they looked up and saw James and John staring down at them.
"James! John! Oh thank god!" she laughed.
"How'd you get down there?" asked John.
"Well I thought I haven't had a really good death-defying experience yet so I made it my new years resolution!" said Nikola, rolling his eyes.
"He fell!" clarified Helen. "Then I did!"
"We'll have you up soon, don't worry!" said James as he unraveled a rope from his bag.
"Why would we possibly worry, we're just hanging of the London bloody Clock Tower!" Nikola calmed down when he felt Helen's hand wrap around his.
"Happy New Years Nikola," she said soothingly, and she let out a small giggle.
"Next year, can we just stay home?" he said like a child and she nodded.
"By all means," she laughed and hugged him as the rest of the team lowered the rope to bring them to safety.
When they got back to the mansion dead monster in hand, Helen and Nikola shared a bottle of wine and passed out by the fire place