Among the Darkness Stirs

Henry looked at her with a steely gaze. “I did.”

“Could Joseph be behind this? That’s not thinkable!”

“We’ll soon find out.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

The hansom cab deposited them in front of the train station, and they waited discreetly where no one could see them. An hour later, a carriage arrived, carrying a somber coffin and a man dressed in a large overcoat and hat.

The coffin was loaded onto the train, and the man took his seat in one of the compartments. Henry and Audrey quickly joined the train before it began to move and settled into a compartment near where the cloaked man was.

“We’re headed to London,” Audrey said.

“Listen to me, Audrey. Once we get into London, we need to wait for the coffin and our friend there. I’ll get us a cab so that we can follow them. I need you to keep an eye on them in case we get separated.”

“I will.”

Once the train pulled into Victoria Station, Henry exited first to procure the cab while she watched the man. She was unable to see his face, as his collar was turned up and he wore his hat low. He left the train and then returned with a porter. He and the porter chatted like old friends, and Audrey had the feeling that this was a common occurrence. When the coffin was secure, it was transported to an awaiting hansom cab.

She saw Henry signal to her in another cab. She quickly got inside.

“Now we’ll see where this is headed.” He rapped on the roof of the cab, and the driver sprang into action.

They moved through the dark London streets as the driver followed the other cab. They weaved in and out of the buildings until they came to a large, multi-storied building.

“Wait for me here, Audrey. If they stop for a length of time here, I’m going to get the police. Don’t go in before I come back,” he said.

With that, he stepped out of the cab and vanished. She waited inside, looking out the window at the large building. It was an imposing building from the alleyway, and everything seemed dark, and a moldy smell was thick in the air.

She stepped out of the cab to stretch her legs and walked along the back side of the building. She looked about her, but Henry was nowhere to be seen. He must have gone for the police. There was a small door at the back of the building, and when she turned the knob, it opened.

She wanted to wait for Henry, but she was also interested to see what could be inside the dull building. As she stepped inside, the first thing she noticed was the walls, which were painted jet-black. She could see nothing beyond that as she moved into the next room.

The first thing that caught her attention was a blood-red tablecloth covering several tables and large glass jars illuminated under hissing gaslights. She made her way towards them.

The jars varied in size, all of them with liquid in them. As she moved even closer, she saw that inside the jars and liquid were objects. First, she saw an ear floating in one jar and then a nose. In another jar was an eyeball, a mouth, and yet another jar held several fingers.

She stifled a gasp and looked behind her sharply, but she was alone.

“What is this place?” she whispered, feeling uneasy.

Moving into another black room, she covered her mouth before she even took a step inside. Underneath several gaslights was a human body opened up to reveal the organs inside. She shook her head. It wasn’t real. That was not possible. It was wax. She had seen such wax figures before when she had visited Madame Tussauds. That was it.

She walked forward to get a closer look at the body to marvel at the waxwork. As she stepped nearer to it, she saw that the body was intricately made and so delicate, and she had to keep herself from screaming.

This was not a wax figure. This was a human.

Next to the abdomen were more red tables with more jars. This room appeared to be more sexual in nature. A woman’s breast floated in one jar and in another a man’s sexual organ. She backed out of the room and almost stumbled into another room, where a woman’s body lay cut open to re

veal her organs. Her stomach turned, and she covered her mouth to avoid being sick.

She stumbled into another room and saw a man’s arm flayed open to show the muscles, and a distinct odor of rotting flesh assailed her nose. She closed her eyes from the horror of it all. After she had regained some courage, she looked around for the door she had entered.

She noticed there were signs on each body or jar with a small plaque describing what it was in detail. She shook her head, feeling increasingly sick. What was this place? Where was Henry?

She knocked into a display of an old, wrinkled corpse and wondered if she knew the person. Was this Marguerite? This place…. it was hell.

As she tried to retrace her steps, the lights flickered. Please! Please don’t let the gaslights flicker out and plunge her into darkness in this hellhole. Please, please, please.