A/N: Yooo okay so I've actually had chapter 2 ready for a while but have been hella busy these past few days? So yeah, here it is.

You get a better sense of who Alex is in this one c:

Undertaker still isn't here yet, but he's mentioned! He'll make his big appearance next chapter!

~The protective circle at my feet was definitely on fire, I felt it burning my legs, but didn't have the heart to move.

Not when this captivating light was fixating itself on me.~

And then it stopped.

I was so worried for a second that I had failed, my stomach lurched.

But no, the light was still there.

Completely stabilized and surrounded by a bright red pulsating border. It stared at me and I stared at it, feeling as though my arms were turning to lead. I very slowly lowered my hands, seeing no change in the gateway of light, and then completely dropped them.

"Oh my goddess." I gasped, awe replacing the disbelief in my eyes.

"A-Alex?" Emery said tentatively. I looked over at her and was surprised to see fear in her eyes, and not fear of the light but fear of me.

"Alexandria Bishop you should be dead." She said to me.

"Emery, what the hel—"

"I-I saw you collapse, you collapsed outside of your circle. And the light j-just… just looked at you. I thought you were dead you were bleeding so much." Tears ran down her face and a sob escaped her.

I furrowed my eyebrows and looked down at the wood floor in front of me. There was indeed a pool of blood there, and the front of my clothes were covered. The source of it seemed to be coming from my chest, where the rune was, but I refrained from looking at the moment.

"Emery, I'm fine. I'm pretty sure I'm fine. And I'm also pretty sure that the conjuring worked…" I trailed off, staring at the triangle of beaming light in the middle of the room.

It seemed to be waiting for me, looking at me patiently and glowing a bit brighter when I took a step towards it.

I stepped completely out of my protective circle.

"A-Alex…?"

"I'll be fine." I reassured, "I just, I need to…" I reached out to the light and tendrils of it reached back, caressing my fingertips.

"Alex, no."

"Alex, yes." I said, not being able to help the nearly feral grin on my face. My lip was definitely split somewhere, it hurt like a bitch.

Gemini was completely silent, though I knew he was still merged with me. Either he was too exhausted to say anything or was just as in awe as I was. My tail whipped behind me giddily and I took another step forward, my arm completely consumed in the light.

It felt so… good.

Like taking a warm bath with sore muscles, or stretching out your entire body first thing in the morning.

"Alexandria step back pl—"

I didn't hear the rest.

"Fuck!" I yelled, the light completely sucked me in. I could imagine Agatha murmuring something along the lines of I told you so.

Whatever had been stopping my wounds from hurting was most definitely not there anymore, I felt the wound in my chest ripping open and fresh blood poured down my abdomen. The cuts and bruises on my arms and legs became ten times more intense and my head hurt as if a thousand marching bands were playing inside of it.

Blood dripped out of my nose and my eyes teared up, my fingers felt numb and I'm pretty sure a blood vessel in my eye popped.

Just as I was getting accustomed to the feeling of falling through nothing, I landed. Hard. Onto something that was definitely not on my list of favorite things to fall onto.

The air was knocked out of my lungs and Gemini yowled in surprise through my mouth, which I probably would've laughed at if I knew it wouldn't hurt. I blearily opened my eyes and found myself staring at what looked like a morning sky. I groaned and threw my hands over my face.

"Gemini, what time is it?"

'7:34 AM'

"I can't even tell if we're still merged, please return to animal form my head is gonna explode." I requested, massaging my temples.

Gemini didn't say anything but soon I felt a wet nose start to nuzzle my chin. I spared a hand to scratch behind his ears and then down his back.

"You did good, Gemmy, I probably would've died without you." I said with a short, humorless chuckle that rattled my chest.

He merely mewed and sat down on my belly.

My eyes were trying to close and I was so tired, but there wasn't a chance in hell I was gonna be able to fall asleep with this gaping chest wound. In fact, the dizziness I was experiencing was probably due to blood loss…

"G-Gemmy, where the hell are we?" I asked.

He was silent for a moment, kneading his claws into my shirt. I almost forgot I'd even asked the question when he suddenly answered, his voice not sounding as close anymore now that we weren't merged.

'London, England.'

"Oh, hell. Okay, we gotta get back home, bud. As soon as I get patched up we're bookin' the next plane outta here." I said with a heavy sigh.

'I'm not quite sure that will be possible, Alexandria.' Gemini said hesitantly to me, his body tensed nervously.

"Wh-what… why?" I asked, a sharp edge to my voice that made his small fluffy body jump a little.

'Because the commercial use of planes hasn't been invented yet.'

I opened my mouth and then paused, furrowing my eyebrows.

"What." It didn't even sound like a question, just a flat word filled with disbelief and confusion.

Gemini didn't respond, if I wanted answers out of him I'd need to ask the right questions.

"What's the year?" I asked. The amount of talking I was doing was affecting my throat negatively after the conjuring. It felt as though it was made of sandpaper.

'1888.'

"Oh sh—"

"—h bloody hell is that another dead body?" A far off voice squawked. Now that my attention had been caught by something other than my own crippling pain and confused thoughts, I could hear horse trots and carriage wheels.

Another? I questioned to myself. I couldn't see it but I was pretty positive Gemini would be raising an eyebrow right about now.

"I don't fancy callin' up the Yard again, jus' put 'er in the back, yeah? We'll tell 'em later." Another voice said. The trotting came to a stop and mud squished as someone hopped off the carriage.

'Gemmy, scatter.' I thought as loudly as I could to the cat. The weight of his body suddenly disappeared off me and I knew he'd safely left this plane. He'd return if I summoned him later.

I, being of my species, didn't necessarily require as much air as the normal living being. And so I stopped the whole "key signs of life" thing entirely as the footsteps stomped closer to me.

I felt my body being lifted up by two grimy, unknown hands and refrained from growling at the one on my ass. Dead things don't growl. At least their corpses don't in my experience, their spirits on the other hand —

"We'll take 'em all to that kooky mortician!" The person holding me shouted at his partner.

And suddenly I was being tossed onto what felt like a bunch of dead bodies.

'Now this takes me back…'

The light behind closed eyelids disappeared as something was shut over me and the rest of the corpses. I immediately opened my eyes and was met with pitch blackness. Now it was time to investigate.

'Gemini, merge.'

'Yes, Alexandria.'

My vision blurred for a minute before my regular eyes were replaced with cat eyes. The fuzzy ears atop my head flattened as I began to smell the scent of rotting flesh with stronger feline senses. The tail that flicked behind me in distaste grazed the top of whatever was covering me and I made a note to not bump against it for fear of alerting the men to my very much alive state of being.

I looked over the corpses and noted that they were all very heavily lacerated. There weren't as many as I had originally thought, only two. However their limbs being so disconnected from their bodies made it feel like more when I was tossed onto them.

"Holy hell… this can't be human, can it?" I whispered to myself.

If Emery where here right now she'd be green in the face, passed out, or screaming at this point. I giggled quietly at the thought, then thought better of it remember that I could be heard.

Being cramped in such a small space was not doing my injuries any good. I turned one wrong way and felt fresh warm blood leak out of my chest. I grunted quietly and repositioned, but then it was my legs hurting. It was only now that I took note of the fact that they were burned pretty badly.

The least painful position I could find was me leaning back on my bruised hands with my legs awkwardly splayed over a series of mangled body parts.

0/10 would not recommend.

I could tell when we got further into town as the sloshing muddy sounds and sluggish movements turned into the sounds of hooves on stone and the wagon wheels being bumped by uneven roads. I only hit my head on the top of the cover twice but it was definitely more than enough to leave a bruise.

When the carriage ride got to be more than 10 minutes long, I opted to start playing my own little morbid matching game with the two bodies that accompanied me. I found a severed arm to my right and attached it to the woman closest to me. I moved a foot to the one farthest. I lifted my body up when I felt a sliver of a thigh beneath me, and attached it to the body closest.

Upon closer inspection, they were both women, with heavy damage to their torsos.

However, the states their bodies were in alerted me to the fact that they'd been murdered at different times and in different places. The one farthest from me had in the back of this carriage for a few hours longer than the other.

The theory I made in my head was that the first had been found, authorities were called ("The Yard" they had called it). And as these buffoons continued on, they found another. Authorities were called again, they were told to cart both bodies off to the mortician. And then little ole me came along and they were just done with dealing with the whole process and decided to take me along.

Very unprofessional in my opinion. Quite frankly, I was a bit insulted.

'Ask them what's going on. This is getting tedious.' Gemini said, a high level of boredom apparent in his tone.

I sighed, 'I was just having a little fun, shush.'

'You're too morbid.' He scoffed. Gemini could be a little bitch sometimes, he was a cat after all.

'Just morbid enough.'

I repositioned myself to sit criss-cross applesauce and closed my eyes, focusing deeply on the energy around me. This was what I specialized in, and a grin came to my face at the familiarity of it.

'Just like old times, eh?' I nudged at my kitty companion.

'You literally did this a week ago. What old times could you possibly be referring to when it's something you do regularly?'

'Geez, geez~ no need to be harsh, love.' I said with a snort.

I moved my hands into the same triangle shape I had used for the conjuring. This time I much more easily forced my arms out as suddenly my hearing became ten times more powerful. When I opened my eyes, everything was in black and white and two swaying spirits were with me in the cart.

I lowered my hands and waved, "Are you two okay?" I whispered, looking between the two of them.

They both looked absolutely horrified, which was expected of newly born spirits. One opened her mouth several times before choking out, "Is that me?" She hissed, looking down at the mangled body that used to hold her.

I frowned a little, cocking my head to the side as I tried to match the face (sliced in half) to hers, "I… think?"

Which probably wasn't the right thing to say. Whoops.

She choked back a sob, but before she could say anything else they were gone. Scared away as the carriage came to a complete stop. My focus snapped, my vision filled with color, and I was alone again, save for Gemini.

'Stay in my head but stop merging with me.' I said to him. He didn't reply but my vision returned to the pitch blackness. I managed to slump my body over in what I thought was the position they had thrown me in just before the cart opened up and light pierced my closed eyes.

"Bring 'em in through the back, that's the only way we'll be able to fit 'em." The man who had carried me said.

Turns out, the bodies were actually on a wooden board that slid out from the wagon. The men struggled with the weight of two corpses going through rigor mortis and then another body on top of that (no pun intended). As they slid the rest of the board out the opening of the cart creaked, and before I could even think about the helplessness of the situation, a heavy slab of wood slammed down onto my forehead.

THWACK.

I could've screamed.

"Oh, blimey, that's gonn—"

"You don't tell a bloody soul." The other said, his voice beginning to sound wavy and far away as my head swam and my tongue felt heavy.

'Goddammit.' I thought to myself tiredly before I completely blacked out.

A/N: Whew! So that's done! I'm gonna be going on vacation to San Francisco for about a week, so I could wind up posting chapter 3 either tonight, over that week-long period, or after Monday!

Thanks for reading, leave a review if you so wish, they make my day!