Chapter Text
Reports had flooded the news for the past couple weeks. Londoners were coming home, inexplicably shaken and speaking of an "invisible figure". Some recounted being shoved on the ground, others heard a deep, malicious laugh coming from an unseen source. It was only a matter of time before the news reached the Society. And reach them it did.
Nellie Lovett had been sent to gather information, specifically at the Beating Heart Pub. It used to be her relocated pie shop, but she'd since sold it to a couple she knew well. The pub was alive with a nervous, frightened energy among most of the patrons, retelling their personal encounters with whatever was plaguing London. An old man's tools vanishing from his shed, only to be found in the most improbable places. A flower girl having her basket seemingly float, before it got chucked right at her. Amidst the combined scents of food, alcohol, and bark chips, Nellie kept her focus. Something was telling her these weren't merely drunken ramblings, or any sort of hysteria. The way these stories were told, the genuine fear she heard in the patrons' voices, it couldn't be imagined. Not with this many people. With a silent nod towards one of the pub owners, she slipped out into the night.
Her heeled boots gently clicked on the concrete, as she made her way home to the estate. It wasn't too far from the Beating Heart, thankfully, about ten minutes from each other on foot. Nellie couldn't help but notice just how... empty the streets were, which was odd at this hour. It wasn't even 10pm yet. The sight sent a small chill down her spine, as she instinctively clutched the maroon-colored shawl around her shoulders tighter than before.
As soon as Nellie was back in the estate, she was immediately greeted by both Jonathan Harker and Dr. Henry Jekyll. The two men had been intensely focused on the news, with Jonathan trying to make sense of it and Jekyll already having a prime suspect in mind.
"Nellie," Jekyll began, standing up from his seat in the living room, "did you find anything pointing us in the right direction?" His clear, baritone-ranged voice was mostly calm, but an underlying sense of apprehensive tension underscored his tone.
"I remember hearing some people had caught sight of the bugger. Or, well. What he was wearing," Nellie answered, gently nodding her head. "Something about a trenchcoat and glasses, but nothing else I could make out." As Nellie hung up her shawl on the coat rack near the door, Jekyll's memory started going. He put a gloved hand to his chin, his gaze intensifying as he racked his memory for anyone matching the description.
"Griffin." Jekyll's sudden answer was accompanied by a vocal shift, a hint of annoyance coming through now. Nellie and Jonathan exchanged strange looks, with the exact same question. Who the hell was "Griffin"? Jekyll, sensing their confusion, then called for a Society briefing.
Now that everyone had gathered in the drawing room, decorated by various portraits and elaborate furniture scattered around, Jonathan was the first to speak up.
"Dr. Jekyll, you mentioned the name 'Griffin'. Who is he?" Jonathan, sitting beside his love Mina, raised an eyebrow at the doctor. Van Helsing, the other head of the Society sitting across from the Harkers, froze for a moment. He knew the name.
"Claude Griffin was...," Jekyll sighed out, "he was an old colleague of mine in my university days. Brilliant man, don't get me wrong. But he was very much not of sound mind. Griffin had delusions of grandiosity, that he was superior. And when I graduated and he didn't, that set him off on the path he's followed to this day."
Jekyll's words made Victoria, who was now listening intently after being dragged away from her work, visibly flinch. It reminded her of how she let her own pride and ambition cloud her judgement in her own college days, back when she had initially made Ada and brought her to life. She had left those actions behind her, but it still stung.
"... and?" Nellie folded her arms, leaning forward where she was sitting. She wanted to know what happened after the graduation.
Jekyll nodded gently, continuing his explanation. "He made a concoction, one that, if it worked, would allow him to get away with anything he wanted." Jekyll winced at his own words, the memory of his own self-experimentation coming to mind. "And as you all know from the recent reports... it did."