Rookery ~ Assassin's Creed Syndicate

Chapter Fifty Seven

I spent the next morning in the house, pawing over a fat pile of newspaper clippings from the Jack the Ripper reports. I made notes on one at a time, placing them into a deep box when I was finished with them. There were practically no clues in the clippings other than what I had been told by Jacob.

He had been born in the Whitechapel area of London. He lived here with his mother until she was murder by Templars who had been ordered to do so by Crawford Starrick. The traumatisation made him go slightly mad, so he was placed into Lambeth Asylum. Ill-treatment and negligence from nurses and doctors only worsened his mental condition. After Jacob, Evie, Henry and I had defeated Starrick, Jacob liberated the lad from the asylum, making sure to bring him into the assassin fold to take his mind off of everything.

We took him with us to India in 1870 so that he might learn the fear tactics which Evie and Henry had told us about. We all joined the Indian Brotherhood.

Then, upon returning to London, Jack went completely mad. He had this extremist view over our mission. He managed to take control over the Rooks from myself and Jacob. No matter who was sent to stop Jack, he simply killed them before they could reach him. He practically brainwashed any of his allies into thinking that his way was the only right way in the world. This spiralled Whitechapel into a cesspool of crime.

Now, Jack has killed innocent women and he is seen as an outlaw. No one knows his true identity except for myself, Jacob and Evie. Telling anyone else could result in complete hatred and distrust of the assassins, since Jack, himself, was once one of us.

A knock came at the door at around one in the afternoon, just as I was heating up a pot of soup for lunch. I opened it to see Evie standing there, holding a fresh pile of newspapers. She held an angered look on her face.

"Someone is publishing more of these sickening letters in the papers again."

"It's Weaversbrook. He's been doing it since this all started." She stepped through to the kitchen and spotted the clippings in the box. I shut the front door and cleared my throat.

"I've been looking for clues in the clippings. Trying to find some sort of link between the victims other than them all being prostitutes."

"Anything?"

"Nothing." She sighed and dumped the newspapers on the floor. "Wait. Did you say there was a new letter?" Evie nodded.

"Titled 'From Hell' and addressed to a Mr. Lusk." She handed me the newspaper from the top of the pile. I started to read the article surrounding it.

"Sent with half of a kidney?" She nodded again.

"Seems that way."

" 'Mr Lusk. Sir, I send you half the kidney I took from one woman - preserved it for you. The other piece, I fried and ate. It was very nice. I may send you the bloody knife that took it out if you only wait a while longer. Signed. Catch me when you can, Mister Lusk.' This is vile." I pulled a face. "This is pure scaremongering. Selling newspapers by publishing horror stories." I quickly tore the article from the paper and slapped it to the table top. "I'll examine this one too. In the meantime, would you like something to eat? I can see that you haven't had much sleep." Evie's cheeks went red.