|
|
Diary of Henry Jekyll....
November 11...1:47 AM.
At last, my peril is over. Since my violent confrontation with Hyde that ended more than an hour ago, I have felt his being receed further and further intothe depths of my soul, submitting at long last..for fear I will carry out my threat of suicide..for he realizes it would be detrimental,should he try andtake controlagain..knowing his life, too,will end, the moment my final breath is taken.
I can only pray to God in Heaven that he does not return.That he remains burried deep within me,never to show his loathsome face again..striking terror in thelives of the innocent who blindly fall into his trap...
Dear God...Lucy...
I recall the earlier events of this night far more clearly than I wish too...his memory melding with my own as he grows weaker within me. His finaltorment..his last act of brutality..and by far his worst. The more time that passes, the more vivid the memories are...gruesome flashbacks that I will carrywith me always,I have no doubt..
Of all the lives Edward Hyde has cut short these past weeks, it is
Lucy's death that haunts me like no other. I can see her through his eyes,
looking uponher as he prepared to rob her of her existance...her eyes wide
with terror and pain,her mouth open,and spilling forth a high pitched wail,followedby
ragged pleas for help,as he bludgeoned her mercilessly...revelling in her
futile attempts to free herself...erupting into chilling, hysterical
laughter as she crawledweakly into the corner of her room,where her tortured
form collapsed in a pool of her own blood..moaning incoherently for
someone to helpher.."Goodnight,my sweet..." he growled..kneeling over her
and grabbing a handful of her ebony curls,obsenely spitting upon her lovely
face..
Henry Jekyll paused, staring breifly at the last line he had written, pen hovering over the small journal, his body shuddering at the nightmare playing continuously through his weary mind. In a sudden gesture of frustration, he raised his head and threw both pen and book against the far wall of the laboratory, where they bounced off harmlessly and landed on an upholstered chair.
Never before had he been consumed with such an overwhelming feeling of guilt....his dear, sweet, beautiful Lucy...who had trusted and comforted him..viciously murdered at his own hand..
"Damn you..." he mumbled, running his trembling fingers through the tangles of his hair, a hot coal of disgusted resentment for his counterpart settling in the pit of his stomach. Tears of exhaustion and remorse began to gather in his eyes, the ghost of Lucy's desperate screams echoing through the eerie silence of the room.
His body aching..his left side covered in Lucy's blood, Henry turned his back to the laboratory that had once been the sanctuary where he had been certain his dreams would be discovered and realized through his work. The answers he yearned for, to unlock the secrets of his father's illness, lurking in the shadows,waiting for him to acknowledge them. It was now a hollow, lonely place which had become little more than a prison to him in the past few weeks, since the experiment that had once held such promise had somewhere along the way gone so terribly out of control.
Henry departed the room wearily, stumbling out into the hallway and locking the door behind him, wondering if he would ever again find the strength to continue his studies..for his father's sake, if no one elses. He cringed at the very thought, and started for the staircase..
Sleep, he told himself...If only I could sleep...
A loud wrap at the front door froze him in mid-step. Who on earth would be visiting now..in the middle of the night?? The knocking continued, and Henry noted the faint sound of a womans weeping. Poole was long since in bed, he figured..
Alert, now, he approached the front of the house, the woman's cries getting louder and more despairing with each moment that passed. He tentatively opened the door.. no sooner had he done so, a tiny, fair haired woman practically flew into his arms. For a moment he mistook the girl for his darling Emma, and eagerly accepted the frantic embrace she demanded...
Emma would never be out alone at this hour...
Henry quickly realized that the girl, lacking the height, and maidenly restraint of his beloved,was in fact, a stranger, and he sheepishly removed his arms from around her.
"Madame...!!!!" he exclaimed incredulously, holding the girl out at arms length,studying her young, frightened face..her huge blue eyes, so filled with urgency.. "Who..what..what business do you have here??" he demanded, his insensitive tone sending the girl into wracking sobs.
"Please, sir..she's 'urt..needs yer 'elp she does..surely'll die if y' dont 'elp 'er.."she choked.
Henry struggled to translate the girl's accented, broken English.He shook his head, confused...what a perfect end to this night..one more hellish ordeal..
"I dont understand, miss...who are you? Why are you here? Who needs my help?!"
Tearfully, the girl opened her mouth and proceeded to speak softly, an edge in her voice brimming on total hysteria. "Name's Molly..came 'ere cause she begged me to fetch y'..she's been 'urt awful bad..." she answered him,casting her eyes to the floor. "Couldnt breathe too well when I left...ran all the way 'ere, I did..please..Luce 's in poor shape...'s if some'n took a blade to 'er.."
Every muscle in Henry's body clenched, and he thought for a moment he would collapse at the poor childs feet. His stomach began to heave as realization dawned..no...certainly the girl was mistaken..it wasnt possible for anyone to have survived such an attack. Yet as he observed her, dressed in a grimy, pale blue dress, blood staining the fabric as well as the her small hands, those young eyes burning with such exquisite terror, he knew she spoke the truth.
Lucy was alive..
Adrenalin rushing through his veins,as the startling news seeped into his brain, Henry sprang into action, grabbing the girls unsuspecting hand and rushing her along behind him into his dimly lit office. Molly continued her tormented sobbing, scarcely resisiting, nor caring, apperantly, so caught up in her worry for Lucy... Her cries grated on his already frayed nerves, though he managed, somehow, to tolerate her, as he frantically gathered the medical supplies hedeemed necessary to treat...and save, God willing, his waiting patient.
"Where is she??" Henry asked the girl hurriedly, snapping closed his full medical bag.
"Luce's at th' Rat, sir...we 'ad no place else t' take 'er..." she replied, tugging on his arm. "C'mon, we 'ave t' 'urry!!!"
Henry allowed himself to be propelled out of his office and into the chilly night air, where the two fled like bandits being pursued. The filthy tavern where Lucy resided, so appropriatly known as The Red Rat, was a great distance from the Jekyll household...on the other side of town.Henry shuddered to recall the seedy establishment near the riverbanks..a home to not only Lucy, but other unfortunate souls as well, such as the nymph-like girl at his side, a child no more than sixteen, he observed sadly.
As the mismatched pair approached the god forsaken structure, Henry haulted at its entrance, suddenly hesitant, for he dreaded the scene that awaited him inside... Dear god...what if I'm too late...
Noticing the Doctor's lack of presence, Molly spun around, those huge blue eyes blazing with frustration, her fair curls whipping across her face."We've no time to waste, sir..please!!" With that she grabbed his hand once more and jerked him through the rusting doors.
Once inside, Henry bore witness to every conceivable sin...and his stomach churned momentarily at the repugnant odor that filled his nostrils. To think that Edward Hyde had frequented this lowly place, night after damnable night... Men lay strewn along the dirty floor and across table tops, incapacitated, from drinking to excess. Women strutting around, and splayed across the men, their scant clothing revealing more skin than it covered.
Ignoring the vile comments and offensive whistling that emitted from the bawdy, indecent crowd as his arrival was acknowledged, Henry followed Molly's small form through a darkened hallway and up two flights of rickety, creaking stairs.
His heart nearly leapt out of his chest in anticipation as the girl lead him into the tiny room at end of the third floor hall. "She's 'ere.." Molly whispered, beginning to cry again.
An uncontrolable hatred for Edward Hyde consumed Henry as his gaze fell upon Lucy..laying on her stomach in the blood-soaked bed, the ruined, crimson-stained sheets drawn up to her waist, leaving her savagely wounded back exposed. How could he...
"Thank the lord,you came!!" exclaimed the woman kneeling at Lucy's bedside. "She's been waitin' for y'...fightin' as best she can.." she went on tearfully, standing and moving away to make room for Henry. He noted that Lucy's eyes were closed..her breath coming in short, labored spurts,in between which, incoherent moans whispered from her lips.
"Have you applied any pressure to these wounds?" Henry asked quietly, his brow furrowed in concentration, examining the extent of the damage, and seeing that, indeed, the bleeding had been stopped..or at least slowed, somehow.
"Yes sir. Did ever'thin' I could think of. I knew she couldnt 'ave lasted bleedin' the way she was..." the woman answered. "I 'ope I didnt do nothin' wrong, sir.. was just tryin' to 'elp 'er.."
"No, no..you did very well,miss.." Henry assured her. "I'll need some warm water.." he added, as he gently brushed Lucy's matted hair from her back, prompting a barely audible squeak from her.
Wincing at the single tear of pain that slid down Lucy's waxen face,Henry leaned over her,stroking her forehead..."Lucy...please,try not to be afraid..I'm here now...I'll help you. You're going to be fine..just lay still..." he whispered against her ear. Her eyelids fluttered breifly,then closed again..
"Here y' are,sir." The older woman placed a small bowl of water on the bedside table, and Henry nodded thankfully.
"Would you two...mind waiting in the hall.." he asked her, nodding towards the small girl huddled in the corner, weeping noisily. "I'll call you back in should I need assistance."
The woman nodded, and leaned down to place a kiss on Lucy's cheek. "Yer gonna get well,now, hear? Be up and singin' again 'fore you know it...." she paused, her voice yielding to the tears that fell. "I love y' Lucy.." she choked, then turned to Molly and ushered her out the door,closing it softly behind them.
Left alone to work, Henry began the tedious job of cleansing Lucy's wounds. He dampened the cloth he had tossed in with the rest of his supplies,and with trembling hands he gently dabbed at the drying blood that streaked her back. She whimpered as the warm water met with the open abrasions, her face clenching in pain. He removed the cloth immediatly..."I'm sorry..shh..." he whispered.
Aware that his examination of her would only grow more painful, Henry retrieved the small, over halfway empty bottle of laudanam from his bag, dripped some of the water from the bowl into it, and very gently held it to Lucy's mouth. "Here now..this will help you sleep..." he coaxed.After a moment her lips parted in compliance, and he slowly tipped the contents down her throat, drop by drop, so not to choke her.
Soon the battered girls breathing, though labored, was even and seemingly stable. Henry began working at a furious pace..cleansing away the blood that was caked to her pale skin, noting there were four serious contusions, all of varied depth and size, as well as fading welts across her lower back,and bruising across her arms and throat from her previous encounters with Edward Hyde. How anyone could survive such dispicable mistreatment, Henry couldn't comprehend. He discerned,with some surprise, that once the blood was washed away from her, the knife-wounds looked far less threatning..by no means shallow, but certainly lacking the severity he had at first feared..
Lucy's heartbeat was soft, but steady, he concluded that by some miracle granted by God, neither of her lungs had been punctured in the attack. Even more extraoridary, was that, save the loss of blood she had suffered, and the flesh wounds on her upper back,there were no visible, life-threatning injuries.. He contimplated the possibilities..lacerations of her esophagus..pulmonary blood vessels..nerves could have been split resulting in paralysis in her arms..but there were no signs of any of these complications..
After completeing the tender, precise work of suturing the wounds, he smiled.. both astonished and alleviated at the decrease of urgency in Lucy's condition. He slumped onto the bed beside her,as though oblivious to the crimson stains covering the majority of the sheets,too completely worn to depletion by the nights events. "You're going to live, my darling girl...and that horrid beast shall never lay another hand on you..or anyone.." Henry proclaimed softly his hand floating over her dark tendrils of hair.
He paused a moment, attempting to detect some feeling..any glimmer of Hyde's presence from within him. Nothing. His being was weary and in desperate need of rest. His being, and no other. That perverse aura of evil that had for so many weeks burned in his core,incessantly fighting its way to his surface with enduring power,was diminished completely...ultimately defeated.
It was nearly four in the morning, when Henry raised his weary, burning eyes to the shabby,l eaking ceiling, and his mouth uttered two soft, yet passionate words... "Thank you..."
Without regard to the two pacing females that awaited his word on their
friend's condition in the hallway just outside, he slept, succumbing at
last to the darkness that beckoned him, one hand resting lightly in Lucy's
hair...