by R. L. Weeks
Miss Kaye looks at me, thin-lipped. “The letter, love?”
“Sorry,” I say and read over the article. They’re calling him the Leather Apron?
“Start the letter, ‘Dear Boss’.”
She scrawls out my words and blows the ink. “That all?”
“Say that if they are going to use a trademark then they should use Jack the Ripper,” I say. “That should lead them to him. His real name is Jack.”
She signs it,
Yours Truly,
Jack the Ripper.
She folds the paper and forces it into an envelope. “I’ll send it from a few streets away so it can’t be traced.” She puts the letter in her front pocket.
I bite my lip as I look at the envelope sticking out of her pocket. This fake confession from my uncle should hopefully bring them a step closer, or at the very least scare him. They will know his true name now, and the victims that I know were his, which I also asked her to write into the letter.
Miss Kaye tilts her head as I pull myself out of my thoughts.
“Now,” she says. “Let’s discuss how you’re going to help me.”
***
I panic as my uncle’s face comes into my dream. “Raven.” He hisses. The shadow men hiss around him, waiting for his next kill, but there’s someone else I can’t quite make out behind him. There is a flash of red hair, a bite, and a woman’s voice. “Bring me more,” she says.
Her voice echoes around us. We are in an abandoned building somewhere. Inside the dirty passageway, Jack takes his next victim — a blonde woman with a toothy smile and gentle eyes.
“Why are we here?” she asks him. “Not that I can complain.”
He reaches up her skirt. “Tell me you love me.”
She whispers the words. “I love you, Jack.”
His gaze latches onto her body greedily. My stomach churns. “Stop it!” I shout, but they can’t hear me.
That’s when he reaches up to her throat. “I wish I didn’t have to do this. I want more than just to kill, but I need your soul.”
I scream as he tightens his fingers around her throat. She kicks and screams, but he’s too strong. He has been taking something to help him. I see a bottle on a table. Some mixed herbs. They’ve given him more strength. I feel it in his aura. He watches her with a sadistic grin as she slips away. Her legs stop kicking, and her screams stop. He drops her to the ground. She hits the floor with a thud. “Don’t forget to take this one,” a woman says. I can’t quite make out who is it before I am pushed out of the dream. The woman, whoever she was, pushed me out of the dream.
I jolt up and shudder. Was that real?
Four
I sit and watch Emmett drink his morning tea and read the paper. I can see the sun rays shining through the window, but I can’t feel their warmth.
I sit in the armchair, not that it offers me any comfort, and study him: his steel-coloured eyes as he scans the front page, the way his mouth curls at the corner when he reaches the jokes at the back of the newspaper, the way his emotions sit in a little wrinkle in between his arched eyebrows. It’s the small things that keep me near to him. I might even say I miss him.
I stand up and walk over to stand next to Emmett. My eyes scan the paper with him. I’ve been following the latest news ever since the killings started because, just like last time, the murders are crammed uncomfortably into my un-beating heart.
Ripper claims second victim.
I think about the dream last night and wonder if I somehow witnessed the killing. I scan the article, but it doesn’t say anything about where her body was found. It was probably just a dream. I’ve been thinking about it too much, that’s all.
At least the Jack the Ripper trademark has caught on. I had hoped they’d have found him by now, but Miss Kaye refuses to write any more letters or talk to Emmett for me until I do more of her bidding. Doing her spying is exhausting. I find myself in all sorts of unsavoury brothels and back-alley abortion clinics getting information for her.
Elizabeth has been helping me some days, but she has been inconsolable since her ex-husband took another wife. I’ve been trying to give her space, but I don’t know if that wound can ever heal.
Without Elizabeth’s daily company, I have been feeling more alone than ever.
Emmett folds the paper and puts it down on the side table. He looks around the empty room. “Raven…”
I jolt on hearing my name.
“I know this must be difficult for you. Now that I know you’re here with me, I can I guess talk to you.”
He looks confused. I wish I could tell him that I can hear him.
“I’m actually surprised that you stayed with me. I thought you’d have gone with Tom when he left.”
I thought I would too, honestly. Tom knew he’d never see me again and probably saw no reason to stick around. I guess I can’t blame him. I’d have done the same thing. Now that he’s gone, my whole life revolves around Emmett’s.
He looks down at the folded paper. “But then you probably just stayed because of your Uncle Jack, right?” He looks around and sighs. “Well, I guess we should call him his adopted name of Jack the Ripper now.” He pushes his hand through his thick black locks. “I miss you, Raven.”
My heart thuds louder and louder.
“I guess I should have told you this when you were alive, but you were so caught up with Tom.”
Can ghosts feel dizzy?
“I wish you were here with me. I know it’s not my place to say, but you did something to me. I’ve never felt that way around anyone before. It’s like an emotional connection…”
He strokes my raven ring, which he kept after I died.
“Still, I owe you. You died for me. You never killed me, Raven. It was the thing inside of you, so you sacrificed yourself for something that wasn’t your fault, and I’m going to set that right.”
Tears push their way through the corners of my eyes. The heart-wrenching truth hits me — I may never be alive again. I was so focused on my responsibility for the people I care for after my death that I never let it sink in. I am dead, and that is it. I can’t come back to life, and everyone else gets to carry on living. Everyone except me.
I bite down on my lip just to feel something — anything.
Emmett will find a wife one day, and I will still be here, a transparent stalker lurking in the shadows without purpose.
I will never get to live.
I fall to my knees, grip the floor, and cry. My hair falls around my face, and my tears fall into the blonde strands.
***
Emmett beats on the front door to Miss Kaye’s Boutique. “I know you’re in there.” He looks around the empty street. “You never leave this place.”
We hear a scuffling inside, and finally the door swings open. Miss Kaye stands in the doorway with eyes as wild as the Amazon. “Do you have to be so loud?”
She peers behind Emmett to me. “Oh good. You’re both here.” Her voice is thick with sarcasm. “How wonderful.”
Emmett takes off his hat. “You have been evading me.”
I walk in after Emmett. Miss Kaye slams the door behind us. “I’ve been busy!”
She pulls off three rope necklaces from which all sorts of colourful stones dangle from and sets them on a side table. She runs her fingers through her wild red hair. “Come into the back.”
Emmett and I follow her through the red curtain and into the small back room.
Miss Kaye sits at her brown chair, and Emmett sits across from her. The table between them is covered with amethyst and whites tones, two sets of cards, and runes.
She clasps her hands together and looks from Emmett to me, then back to Emmett. “You have both been very helpful to me.”
Emmett looks sideways. “Both of us?”
Miss Kaye leans back in her chair. “Raven has proven to be quite the spy.”
“Do you have to tell him that?” I ask as Emmett leans forward.
“Why is she spying
for you?” he asks.
“One at a time,” she says. “Raven. I didn’t know you wanted it kept a secret.”
I sigh. “Well, I did.”
She shrugs her shoulders and looks back to Emmett. “Raven has been spying on certain clients around London for me in exchange for help capturing her uncle.”
“Jack.” A smirk twitches at the corners of his lips. “Even beyond the grave, she’s trying to help people.”
Miss Kaye waves her hand dismissively. “Yes, yes. Raven is such a good person. I get it.”
“I want to bring her back,” Emmett says.
Miss Kaye and I both look at Emmett wide-eyed.
“That’s impossible,” I say.
Miss Kaye leans forward. “I can’t raise the dead, Emmett.”
“Yes, you can.” He says. My god, he’s dead serious. “I want her back, and I will pay any price.”
She shakes her head. “I can’t do it.”
“I know you can,” he says. “How is your daughter, Amelia?”
“She, uh — how did you know?”
“I have many contacts too, Vera.”
Ah, her name is Vera. I never thought to ask her first name.
Miss Kaye bites her lip. “That was different.”
He scoffs. “It is no different! She was dead, killed by the plague. You brought her back. I found her physician. He says there is no way she could be alive. Her heart had stopped beating. She was rotting in the ground.”
Miss Kaye draws in a deep breath. Silence hangs between us all.
“What’s your price?” he asks after a long pause.
She reaches out and picks up her runes. Her hands are shaking. “I’m sorry. I know you want her back, but the price is too high for me.”
Emmett slams his hand down on the table, making everything on it shake. “I will tell everyone of your practices if you don’t help me.”
Her violet irises turn darker. “Do not threaten me. You would be implicated as much as me.”
He laughs sinisterly. It sends a shiver through me. “The difference is I have nothing to lose. Let them lock me away, kill me. I don’t care. I will do anything to bring her back.”
Miss Kaye looks over at me. “There won’t just be consequences for me. You and he will have to pay the price too.”
I stare at her. There is a part of me that wants to come back of course. I would be lying if I said I wanted to stay dead, but I can’t have anyone else pay the price for it. “Tell him I said no.”
She shakes her head. “He won’t listen to that.”
“What is she saying?” he asks desperately.
She looks back at him. “She said no.”
His jaw clenches. “Of course, she wouldn’t want us paying the price for it. That is why I need to bring her back. She doesn’t deserve this.”
Miss Kaye stands up. “There are a lot of innocents who didn’t deserve death, but it happens.”
“Not to my Raven,” he says.
My heart skips a beat. “Tell him to stop,” I say, my voice breaking. “I can’t come back.”
She sighs. “Let me show you my daughter before you make any decisions.”
He nods. “Fine.”
“Wait!” I shout. “What about my uncle? He’s going to kill again. We need to stop him first.”
“Sorry,” she says. “He has a bigger bargaining chip than you do.”
Five
We reach Edinburgh. The city is beautiful, as if it has been crafted by Angels. A stretch of green reaches uphill to the castle that looms over the brick houses and wide dirt roads. Horses and carts line the sides of the road. The sash windows are littered with ghosts of the recently fallen. I had never noticed so many dead until I had joined them. They stand there, empty, looking out at the city that was full of promise and hope before they were torn from their futures.
The two-day trip has really taken it out of me though. Even dead girls must rest.
Miss Vera Kaye bangs on the roof of the carriage. “Stop here.”
I peer out the window. We have arrived at a manor house.
Emmett, too, looks out the window. “A brothel.” He spits. “Fallen women.”
“Courtesans. My daughter is a high-class escort. Men need an outlet for their desires; she provides them with it. She only meets the needs of aristocrats.”
Emmett’s mouth twists in disgust. I never had him as the judgy type. I guess, when I think about it, there’s a lot I don’t know about him, but then, I don’t think anyone knows much about Emmett. He’s a very private man.
Miss Kaye opens the carriage door. “You will treat them with respect or you lose my help.”
Emmett steps out of the carriage after her onto the bustling street. “I will be respectful.”
I step out too. Miss Kaye looks over her shoulder before entering through the black door. “Come on,” She says with a finger to her lips.
We follow her through drapes of purple and red and over to a front desk. “Vera Kaye.”
“Right this way, Miss Kaye,” a woman with dark purple hair says. She eyes Emmett. “An honoured guest?”
“My guest,” she corrects. “I need to see my daughter.”
The woman clears her throat. “She is with a client.”
“We can wait.”
We follow the woman into a back room. Women in corsets and stockings are walking around drinking champagne and sitting on various highborn men’s laps.
“Wait here,” the woman says and hurries out of the room.
Miss Kaye turns to Emmett. “What I am going to show you, you must keep to yourself. If you don’t, it may just cost you your life.”
He looks unfazed by her threat. “I am good at keeping secrets that benefit me.”
She relaxes and sits back.
I stand up. “The women here are quite enchanting.”
Miss Kaye smiles. “Yes, you’ll soon learn why.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Are they like you?”
She laughs. “No, my dear.”
I look around. Each of the women is crazy beautiful, with porcelain skin, absence of wrinkles, and perfect hair. One of them looks toward where we are sitting and, to my surprise, right at me.
She nods at me and turns back to her man.
“How did she see me?” I ask Vera. “She nodded at me.” Am I going mad?
Emmett looks at Vera. “Is Raven okay?”
Miss Kaye smirks. “Oh, she’s having quite the time here.”
He looks up. “Well, I don’t expect she would like being in a place like this.”
Miss Kaye shrugs. “I think Raven is more open-minded than you realize.”
He raises an eyebrow but doesn’t say anything.
Emmett jumps up as all doors suddenly lock. My heart races as I watch the girls lock the windows too.
“What’s happening?” Emmett asks.
I go to his side. Even though I can’t protect him, I can at least be with him.
“Miss Kaye, please,” I shout. “Answer him.”
“You wanted to see the consequences of bringing back the dead.”
Emmett stands tall, poised to attack. “What are they doing?”
The women, one by one, descend on the men.
I tilt my head to get a better look. At first it seems like they are kissing the men, as they are not fighting them off.
I scream, frightening Miss Kaye. “Oh my lord!”
Blood leaks from the men’s necks. The men sit back, limp. On looking closer, I see the women’s mouths. Their teeth are pointed into fangs, and their eyes have turned to bright red.
“What are they?” I say, stepping backwards.
Emmett hurries to the wall, placing his back against it. “What are those things?”
She laughs. “I don’t think they would appreciate you calling them ‘things’.”
His expression does not change. Miss Kaye rolls her eyes. “They are vampires. Women brought back from the dead by people like me. Seers. Necromancers.�
��
There’s a pause. I look around the room.
“What?” Emmet asks in disbelief. “The things of fiction?”
Miss Kaye nods. “Except they’re not fiction.” She pauses. “They won’t harm you. You’re here with me.”
The women clean themselves up with rags then turn to the men’s necks. “Is that how they can see me? Because they are dead?”
“The living dead,” Miss Kaye says and helps a woman who has dragged one of the men over by our table. She leans down and touches the man’s head.
The woman looks at Miss Kaye with concern. “Will he survive? I fear I drank too much. He isn’t healing.”
“This one will die,” Miss Kaye says and closes his eyelids. “Take him out back and dispose of him.”
I look at them wide-eyed. This is madness. Utter madness. It’s horrifying and an act against God.
“We are leaving,” I tell Miss Kaye. “I will not become one of those.”
The women who had killed the man looks at me. I shudder. I guess I’m not used to being seen. Her blood-red gaze locks with mine.
“It’s not that bad. We rarely kill.”
I could vomit. “No thank you. I’d rather…”
“Stay dead?” the woman asks and raises a perfectly arched eyebrow.
I nod and close my eyes. “Yes.”
Miss Kaye looks behind Emmett. “Ah, my daughter is here. This is Amelia.”
Emmett turns around and holds his breath. I’ve never seen him so startled. “Marie?”
She smirks. “Ah, Emmett. I see you’ve only grown more handsome with age.”
My heart pounds. They know each other?
Six
I fidget uncomfortably outside the room where Emmett is conversing with Marie. I look at Miss Kaye. “How long will they be?” I can’t keep the agitation out of my voice.
“Jealous?” she asks.
I shift my weight to my side.
Finally, the door opens. Amelia steps out. The crease of her brow shows concern. Her poker-straight hair falls down past her ample-chest to her small waist. Her eyes, however, are her most striking feature. They are pools of flaming gold. Her full lips stretch into a forced smile. “You must be Raven.”
She reaches out and touches my arm. I jump. “How?”
