by H. Duke
“You’ve never read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, have you?”
Thaddeus shook his head. “Well, no. But come on. I know what Mr. Hyde looks like.”
Dorian pointed at him as though the words he’d just said were damning evidence of his point. “That’s just what I mean. You’ve watched movies and television where there’s an approximation of Mr. Hyde, but those are all very visual medias, and they need a way to visually differentiate Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. So they make him grotesque, a true monster. In the book, Mr. Hyde looks like a man. Everyone can sense that there’s something wrong with him, but they can’t put their fingers on exactly what deformity he has.”
Thaddeus wanted to argue, but he knew there was truth in Dorian’s words. He himself had thought that there was something off about the man running down the street but couldn’t say what.
“Fine,” he said. “Perhaps I’m not as informed about literature as I should be. What’s your point?”
“My point is”—Dorian cast a nervous glance in Sara’s direction, but the girl was humming to herself as she colored, completely oblivious to their conversation—“that you’ve affected the storyline. She’s supposed to be in that road when Mr. Hyde comes running by. It’s a pivotal plot point in the story, the one that starts everything off. If she’s not there, the rest of the story does not happen. Those ‘zombies’? They’re trying to protect the story, because if it’s broken, the fabric of their world could break down.”
“If that’s the case,” Thaddeus said, “then why is the world still working? It seemed fine to me.”
“You’re lucky,” Dorian said, his lip curling. “The description in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is light on detail. There’s nothing to say that Mr. Hyde hadn’t been running up and down that street all night, or that it had to happen at exactly that moment. The world will shift as much as it can to protect itself. But mark my words, it has to happen.”
“What are you saying?”
“We have to take her back.”
Thaddeus stood up, the chair whining against the floor as it was pushed back. “You don’t understand. He was coming right for her. She could get hurt, or worse!”
“I’ve read the book,” Dorian said. “I know what happens.”
Thaddeus’ face widened in shock, then his lips curled. “I guess I was right about you, character,” he said. “You have no moral compass. You serve only the false god of this gate.”
“Please,” Dorian said, “You have to listen—”
Thaddeus cut him off. “I’m done listening.”
“What’s going on?” Sara said. Her bottom lip protruded with concern. “Is everything all right?”
“Everything is going to be fine, just like I promised,” Thaddeus said. “But it’s time for us to go.” He held out his arms for her, and she hesitated only a moment before walking over to him. He picked her up.
“I can’t let you do that,” Dorian said. He moved towards the book, but Thaddeus was closer and scooped it up first.
“Don’t come any closer,” he said, “Or I’ll throw the book in and your friends will be lost forever.”
“That would doom millions of people,” Dorian said. “You would sacrifice them to save one? See some sense. You must be here when April gets back. We have to erase the rest of the ink rot, or scores more than one little girl will perish.”
“If I can’t save one little girl, what’s the point of saving anyone?” Thaddeus flipped open the book to a random page. The gate screeched as it switched scenes.
Thaddeus set the book on the table and paused. “I’m going to save this one. I couldn’t save the others, but I will save her.”
Before Dorian could move forward and close it, he stepped backwards and disappeared.
~~~
April touched the last bit of ink rot. She’d managed to erase almost all of it in this scene without breaking into much of a sweat, but what about the rest of the book? And in the other books that were going black?
She’d given up any hope that she’d somehow be able to make it through enough of the blackening books that she’d be able to go to Europe with Gram as planned, but now she worried that she wouldn’t have time to save them all before some of them went completely black, even if she worked every possible minute that the gate was active.
They needed to move faster. But that seemed impossible. They were already going as fast as they could.
“Do you see any more?” she asked.
Randall shook his head, but Rex whined. He lifted one paw and pointed to a door in the side of the building. The building looked clean, but she opened the door just in case. The inside was entirely covered in shiny black ink-spores.
“Good job, Rex,” she said. She gave the dog a pat on the head before touching a bit of the ink rot over the door frame. In seconds, the entire room was clean, a dissipating black powder hanging in the air the only sign that the ink rot had been there at all.
“I think that’s it,” April said, “Unless either of you can spot any more. Rex?”
She looked down at the dog, but he huffed as though to say he didn’t smell any.
“All right. I think that’s all we can do from here.”
“Uh, April?”
The worried tone in Randall’s voice drew April quickly to the door. “What is it?”
He didn’t explain; he didn’t need to. A horde of townspeople with lifeless eyes was walking towards them in every direction.
“Did we affect the plot?” Randall said, his brow furrowing.
“I don’t think so,” April said. “I haven’t even seen Utterson and his cousin Enfield out walking since the first time we were here.”
She bit her lip. That didn’t make sense, though. This whole scene was about those two men walking, Enfield telling Utterson about the horrible man he’d seen trample a young girl.
But where were they?
“I think we need to get to the library,” April said. “Hopefully Thaddeus is back by now.”
“Something tells me he’s not.”
April felt the subtle whisper of the gate. She was getting accustomed to paying attention to that subtle whispering. “Me, too. But it would be nice if something went right tonight.”
They hurried towards the doorway hiding the gate, Rex leading the way.
“What are they shouting?” Randall asked as they jogged.
“I think they’re saying, ‘bring her back,” April said.
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“I know.”
Rex reached the doorway moments before them. He pawed the door, then turned towards them. He whined, confused.
“What is it, boy?” Randall asked.
April, knowing from that subtle whisper what she’d find, reached out and pulled open the door. Instead of the library and the shimmering veil, she saw only the inside of a house. There was a hearth against the opposite wall, a simple table, and a few stools.
“The gate’s closed,” she said. “Something must have happened in the library.”
Randall had turned back towards the street. “Something’s about to happen here.”
April turned around. They were cornered on almost all sides by UNCs.
There was only a small opening against the wall where the mob hadn’t yet gathered.
“Run,” she said.
Chapter 4
Dorian ran towards the book, noting the page Thaddeus had entered before opening it back to the framed scene, the one where Randall and April had gone into.
“Come on, come on,” he said. Should he stay in the library? Or should he go get them? What if someone got into the library while he was away? What if the book was closed somehow?
He and Mae had gone into the portal without someone watching the books for many years, but they seemed less at risk then. Maybe they were just naïve.
Finally, he decided that he would enter, but as he stepped forward, he saw someone walking through the portal.
“Oh, thank heavens,” he said, and waited for the person to step through, and then realized it wasn’t April or Randall.
“Mr. Hyde?” he said, but even as he said the name, he knew this wasn’t Mr. Hyde. He’d seen Dr. Jekyll’s darker half on previous ventures into The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and this wasn’t him—he didn’t wear a bobby’s cap, for one thing.
“No,” the man said, its voice distorted but still very-much human. “I am Officer Powers.” Then his brow furrowed. “No, I am not that sniveling coward Powers. I am… William the Bold.”
Dorian had never heard of Officer Powers or William the bold. “You’re a UNC.”
He examined the being’s eyes. Yes, it had the same empty gaze that marked all unnamed characters possessed by the story to defend their world, but still different than the UNCs he’d seen. A mass of ink rot covered the right side of William’s head, it seemed to go into his ear canal, and tiny tendrils of it had moved from the cheekbone and into his nostril. Could the ink rot be affecting him somehow? Making the UNC hold on him less powerful?
“I am not a player,” William said. “Not as described by the text.”
“But you took Dr. Jekyll’s serum, I see,” Dorian said. It was the only explanation, though Thaddeus had neglected to mention that. Was it possible that he hadn’t known? “Does that not put your world in peril?”
“It was necessary,” the being said. “It can be worked around. The girl, though… the story cannot go on without her.”
“I know,” Dorian said. “Allow me to go after them and bring them back to you. We will right this.”
“Officer Powers would have taken your offer. But I am not him.” the creature mused. “I will deal with this myself. Tell me where they’ve gone.”
“They went to a different page in the book,” Dorian said. “A further point in this story. You can’t go there. You’ll break the world—”
William the Bold smirked. “The story does not track my progress, nor does it care if I am absent here or present there. Tell me where they are.”
Dorian thought for a moment. “I won’t.” He grabbed The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from the table, clutching it to his chest protectively.
“If you will not help us…” William the Bold stepped over towards him and raised his fist. Dorian, still clutching the book with both hands, could do nothing but brace for the attack.
He felt the impact of the blow reverberate through his teeth before he felt the sharp pain at the crown of his head. He felt suddenly light-headed, and his legs gave way beneath him.
The book was pulled from Dorian’s hands as he fought unconsciousness. When he opened his eyes, William was flipping through the pages, smelling each one. The gate behind him screamed and protested as it flashed and popped, never having enough time to show the details from any of the scenes. William the Bold flipped more slowly as he approached the section of the book that Thaddeus had gone into.
“This one,” he said, and opened the book. The gate stopped making its protesting noises and settled into a scene of the same city street but viewed from a different angle. It was the one Thaddeus had stepped into with the girl minutes earlier.
William faced the gate. “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” he said, and then stepped through.
After William the Bold disappeared, Dorian moved forward and grabbed the book, fighting the dizziness and pain emanating from the top of his head. He flipped back to the walking scene, then fell, unable to fight the dizziness any longer. He hoped April and Randall would come back soon.
~~~
“Run,” April repeated. She grabbed Randall’s hand and pulled him towards the gap in the mob, but a woman with empty eyes moved to block her path.
“Bring her back,” the woman said, her face crunched into a wide snarl.
“Bring who back?” April said desperately. “We haven’t done anything—we haven’t even spoken to anyone. We’ve just been erasing the rot!”
If she expected the woman to thank her, she was disappointed. “The girl was taken from this street. The story cannot move on without her. Bring her back!”
“That’s impossible,” April said, and the woman glared, looking like she might attack. “We’ve been here for close to an hour, and we haven’t seen anyone take a girl, and we certainly haven’t taken one ourselves.”
“It happened a week ago,” the woman growled. “Bring her back. She is needed.”
“If she disappeared a week ago, what does that have to do with us?” April said. “We only just got here!”
Randall tapped her shoulder. “If Thaddeus went into the scene where Mr. Hyde trampled that girl…”
Realization washed over April. Randall was right. “Damn it, Thaddeus.” They never should have left him in the scene by himself.
She turned back to the woman. “As I said, we did not take the girl… but we know who did. We’ll fix it.”
April held her breath. From what she’d witnessed, the UNCs were hyper-focused on whatever threat they perceived to their world, but they were reasonable. As long as whatever solution she presented was likely to work, they’d allow her to pass without harm. They weren’t ruthless monsters, they were just singularly focused, and more than a bit creepy.
“Fine. Don’t delay.” The woman’s gaze became even more faraway, as though she were listening to a voice only she could hear. “Officer Powers is no longer under our control. William works on his own. He has his own plans for retrieving the girl. Pray he doesn’t find her before you do, for her sake.”
“Powers? William? Who are these men?” April asked, her brow furrowing. She didn’t recognize either name.
“Go,” the woman said, pointing to the gate and ignoring April’s question. “Bring her back. She is needed.”
“I heard you the first time,” April grumbled, but she hurried back to the gate. Then she remembered the gate was closed.
“Hey,” she said, “How are we supposed to—” but the gate again stood open, and the library came into view. Dorian was on the floor near the table where The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde lay open.
She ran through, her heart pounding in her chest. “Dorian?” she said. She crouched down next to him on the floor. “What happened?”
“I’m fine,” Dorian said, but he winced as though speaking caused him pain. He raised his hand to his head, gently caressing an egg-sized lump.
“Like hell you are,” she said. “Who did this to you? Was it Thaddeus?”
“Not directly,” Dorian said, his eyes flashing. Then he shook his head and sighed. “No, it wasn’t Thaddeus who attacked me. It was a UNC.”
“A UNC? What were you doing on the other side of the veil?”
“I wasn’t on the other side of the veil. I was in the library.”
“I thought UNCS don’t pass through the gate on their own?” As far as she knew, UNCs didn’t cross over to this side of the veil. They only stood on the other side, staring, waiting for you to make the mistake of crossing back over.
“They don’t. They also don’t normally attack unless they absolutely have to.”
“Then what was wrong with this one?”
“He said that he drank Dr. Jekyll’s fortification serum,” Dorian explained. “A detail that Thaddeus neglected to mention to me.” His tone sounded sour.
“Thaddeus is here?” April said. “Where is he?”
Dorian sighed. “Thaddeus crossed over a little while after you went back in. He wasn’t alone. He had a girl with him—the one who’s supposed to get trampled by Mr. Hyde in the opening scene. He didn’t know what he was doing.”
April nodded. “He’s never read the book. What happened next?”
“Once I found out who she was, I told him she had to go back, or else the story world could face destruction.” He paused. “He didn’t like that. He fled back through the gate with her, to a later page.”
“Do you know which one?” April asked.
“He’s back on the streets, a few pages before Hyde murders the Carew man.”
“You don’t think he’s going to try to save Carew, too?” April asked.
Dorian shook his head. “I don’t think so. He wouldn’t know that the man is going to be killed because he hasn’t read the book. And I’m not sure that the murder will take place if the girl doesn’t have her encounter with Mr. Hyde, either.”
April nodded, thinking about how Utterson and Enfield hadn’t been walking along the roadside the second time they’d gone into the walking scene. She’d thought that perhaps they’d missed them. Could it be that they never go on the walk at all if the girl doesn’t get trampled?
Randall nodded. “A butterfly effect.”
“There’s something else, too,” Dorian said. “Thaddeus said something about others that he couldn’t save, but he was going to save ‘this one.’”
Randall rubbed his beard. “Sometimes when he’s having one of his episodes, he’ll talk about saving someone. Not always a her, but that rings a bell. How did he seem, mentally?”
“Like he was barely holding on. As much as I don’t want to babysit him, we shouldn’t have sent him into the gate.”
“You might be right,” April said. “But how did the UNC get here if Thaddeus didn’t bring it over?”
“He came over by himself,” Dorian said. “He was dressed in a police officer’s uniform. He admitted to taking Dr. Jeykll’s serum.”
The mention of police officers rang a bell in April’s mind. “The woman I was talking to said that Officer Powers was no longer under their control.”
Dorian nodded. “I think he was Officer Powers before consuming the serum. Now he’s—”
“William the Bold,” April finished with him, repeating the name the woman on the street had said. It looked like she’d only been talking about one man after all. “Great.”
April’s phone vibrated. She pulled it out of her pocket with irritation.
“Who’d call you at this hour?” Randall said. It was already past eleven.
April’s jaw clenched as she read the name on the screen. “It’s Gram. It looks like she’s called several times. Hold on.”
