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Who knew that the scent of peppermint didn’t mix well with Stevinium? Dr. Henry Jekyll did, or at least should have. In the moment that that realization would have come in handy, however, it was already far too late to properly react.
The room was in shambles. Papers everywhere, glass broken and on the floor, and worst of all, a passed out Jekyll was sprawled out on the ground. Luckily, it wouldn’t be too long before he awoke.
…
A strange man in the mirror cackled as Jekyll finally gained consciousness. The latter was currently raising his head from the floor to take a gander at what situation he was in. He turned and, looking at the mirror, frowned.
“Are you in the mirror or are my eyes playing tricks on me?” He asked quizzically.
The man in the mirror froze, shuffled as close as he could to the glass, and eyed the other man on the floor curiously. Jekyll finally sat up and fully turned toward the stranger. Looking the mirror up and down, his eyes widened in shock.
“You are in the mirror!”
“Am I? Oh dear, maybe you really have lost it..” His.. reflection? said, feigning innocence.
“No I.. ehm–” He started “...Who are you? Are you haunting my mirror?” He replied, briefly pausing.
“Haunting your- No, I’m not haunting your mirror!” The blonde replied, annoyed. “If anyone’s haunting mirrors here, it's you!”
“Me?” The brunette replied, insulted.
“Yes, you! And to be completely honest, which I usually am, th-”
A knock sounded at the door, breaking what would most likely end up being a tirade. Both men quickly looked toward the source of the noise, Jekyll getting up from the floor and scrambling to answer the knock as he did so.
“Oh! Hello!”
“Jekyll! Do you think you can purchase more Edinium? I need some for an upcoming experiment, but I think we’re all out…” A woman said. Her black hair was tied up, and she wore goggles that rested atop her head. Jekyll noted her appearance with a vague sense of familiarity.
“Of course! I’ll get it taken care of.. Er- quickly! In fact, I’ll get to it right now!” Jekyll replied, smiling charmingly.
The woman nodded and thanked him, leaving Jekyll alone with his thoughts. And, well, the strange man in the mirror. He closed the door and walked up to the mirror.
“So, who are you anyway?” He asked. “You never really answered my question”
The yellow haired man laughed, in an irritating way.
“Who am I?” He repeated. “I am a devil in the shadows, the wickedness you cower from, I am the Spirit of London at Night!”
“..What?”
“What?”
“You have to only soften the butter so that it can be mixed in, but stiff enough so that it will still help the cookies keep their shape.”
“But wouldn’t it melt anyway? When it’s in the oven?”
“Jasper, that’s like saying to mix all your chemicals in one flask!” Rachel commented “It won't turn out right if you go that route”
Jasper thought for a minute.
“..Alright.” He started “I guess I get it” Jasper replied, not getting it. He wasn’t sure he would, at least not at the moment, and didn’t want Rachel to waste her time trying to explain. He’d look more into it later.
The oven dinged.
“It looks like they’re done!” Rachel said excitedly. “Alright, let’s try them”
Jasper picked one up off of the hot sheet and sniffed it. As he was sniffing it, however, it slowly bent over and broke in half.
“..Maybe we should’ve waited for them to cool for a minute.”
“Sorry,” Jasper replied sheepishly.
From around the corner, footsteps approached.
“The cookies are pretty much cooled, we’ll bring them out in a minute!” Rachel announced, expecting one of the impatient lodgers.
“Oh, cookies? For what?” Jekyll said, walking into the kitchen.
“Dr. Jay! We made cookies for game night, wanna join?” Rachel said. She hoped he would say yes. He had been cooped up in his office pretty much all day.
Jekyll had expected that he’d be able to sneak into the kitchen in order to make some tea. He knew he would be in for a long night in which he would, hopefully, figure out how to solve his problem. Now he had a choice to make. Abandon his plan and somehow blend in so as not to gain suspicion, or bolt back to his office with the door closed, never to be opened again.
“Uh-” he started “Game night?”
“Yeah, like card games and trivia games. Probably. I’m not completely sure what they have planned.”
“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt…” he mumbled to himself. Rachel beamed, having heard what he said.
“So? It’s a yes?” she asked, excited. She then leaned over to Jasper and said in a loud whisper, “I think it's a yes.”
Jekyll looked over to the oven and muttered to himself again, however this time it wasn’t understood by Rachel. Rachel followed his line of site, hoping it would clue her in
“Neat oven, huh?” She said.
“Huh?”
“You were staring at the oven. Very intensely.” She pointed out.
“There’s a man in th-” He suddenly slapped his cheek, leaving a red mark, and a stunned Rachel. (And Jasper. He’s here too)
She blinked, confused. He was acting quite.. Unusual. She was obviously concerned with his behavior, but was unsure about how to go about it. So, she of course just said the first thing that popped in her mind.
“So… how about those games?”
As the maid, the werewolf, and Jekyll walked through the main doors, everybody’s head turned to look. A few in particular, such as a man with white hair and a man with brown pointy fluffed out hair, gaped at the sight of them. Feeling their odd and pointed stares, Jekyll immediately felt out of place.
“Jekyll! How nice of you to join us!” A woman exclaimed, delighted.
“Oh.. thank you!” He responded happily. “The offer sounded fun!” He added, smiling.
From beside him, the werewolf and maid exchanged a quick glance. However before he could question it, another lodger piped up.
“Come! Sit, sit!” They said, patting the seat next to them. It was the lodger with the brown mutton chops. He seemed friendly enough, he thought.
Jekyll took a seat next to the man. He was all smiles. But for some reason, He felt a little on edge while being next to him.
“So.. what are we playing?” He asked warily. “Miss..” He started
“Piggy" the helpful voice chimed in.
“..Piggy.. Told me that she wasn’t very sure of the plan.”
“O..kay,” the woman with black hair and goggles said.
“Well.. We were planning on playing truth or dare!” She said, her voice reverting back into a cheerful tone.
His heart sank into his feet.
“..what”
The man he sat next to snickered.
“So, who wants to go first?”
“Me me me!!!!!” A man with a friendly looking mustache exclaimed. Well, at least somebody was excited about the game.
“Okay Doddle, you can go first.”
He cleared his throat, then turned to the man with white hair.
“Truth or dare.” He said in a low voice.
The man who was on the receiving end to the question looked at him with an equally serious glare.
“Truth.” He answered, voice also low.
“Where were you on Saturday April 24, 1886 at 12:32 PM?”
The white haired man put on a grimace, then whispered. “No way you could’ve..”
“Where were you Griffin?” He challenged
“I.. I don’t remember.” He said, hesitant
“So you forfeit the game then?”
Griffin broke out in a cold sweat. His eyes darted around the room. When his eyes landed on the man sitting next to both him and Jekyll, he took a breath.
“Fine,” he said, “Helsby had told me to go into your room and see what happened when I turned flour invisible.”
“What?! No I didn’t!” The man with mutton chops protested.
“And?” Doddle said, ignoring Helsby, “What happened?”
“Well, have you seen your flour?”
Doddle didn’t answer. Then, he smirked.
“No.. I suppose I haven’t”
The room roared. Jekyll thought he could make out a “You dared to go into Doddle’s room?!” But to be quite frank, he really wasn’t sure. He didn’t know who these people were, but from his perspective, they sounded insane.
“They are.”
Jekyll rolled his eyes then muttered, “I gathered.”
The game had been going on for about ten minutes. All the while, Jekyll waited for his impending doom. Why had he ever agreed to this? There was absolutely nothing he was getting out of this besides wasted time and perhaps even.. Getting caught..
“Normally you would’ve agreed to it” The man in a nearby reflection told him. Jekyll huffed in response.
“Well these aren’t exactly ‘normal circumstances’ now are they?” He muttered.
“Still, you’ve got to blend in!” He said while snickering. He was quickly getting on Jekyll’s nerves.
“Jekyll, truth or dare?” Miss Piggy asked.
“Uhhh-” He started, quickly looking back over toward his reflection.
“Dare! Do a dare!”
“Truth!” He quickly said before he registered the other man’s words. “Er wai-”
“What was that 2 year expedition for?”
He blinked, then tuned back in to whatever the annoying blonde man was yelling about.
“-ody boring question she could’ve asked! I mean this is truth or dare not… I don't know- just making casual conversation! She might as well ask you about the bloody weather while she’s at-”
He cleared his throat, trying to subtly gain the blonde’s attention. Unfortunately, he stayed focused on keeping up his rant.
..Maybe he could guess while being as vague as possible? It was worth a shot.
“I was.. Hoping to perhaps meet new people.” He blurted. That wasn’t the vaguest he could’ve been, but hopefully it was satisfactory while still staying potentially partly true.
Miss Piggy’s eyebrows furrowed in response.
“You..what? why?”
Unfortunately, now the voice decided to pay attention to the game again. And now he wouldn’t stop laughing.
“Tell her-” He started, before interrupting himself with his own cackles, “Tell her you wanted to find a new partner!”
“I have a feeling that wouldn’t be true..” He muttered.
He cleared his throat. “I wanted to find.. er..”
Everyone looked at him in anticipation.
“A new.. Partner.”
Again, the room roared in excitement. Miss Piggy’s eyebrows shot up through the roof.
“MASTER HYDE?!” She shouted, louder than the commotion of the room.
Internally, Hyde cackled
“I don’t even know who ‘Master Hyde’ is!” He exclaimed. WIth that, the room quickly went silent.
“DON’T LET THEM KNOW THAT YET!!”
But it was too late. The damage had already been done.
Ito quickly whipped together a potion and shortly thereafter, Jekyll’s memories were back to normal. Fortunately for him, he didn’t recall anything that had happened that night.