Swan Song • Sebastian Michaelis

08 | living nightmares

[ I'm gonna be switching dates a few times here, so prepared for the few dates that'll be important to remember that will appear throughout the chapter ]

November 11, 1882

A sickeningly calm silence surrounded the lone youth as she pressed her back up against the wall and peered across the street through her peripherals. Her pulse quickened, an even larger indicator that her fears were giving into reality. She swallowed he lump forming in the middle of her throats and pulled the hood of her cloak over her head, then dashed across the empty street and into the alley, hiding under the cover of the dark shadows.

A carriage slowly rolled past the alleyway and stopped a few feet away before three gruff walked by. The girl held her breath, pressing herself harder to the wall in hopes that they wouldn't notice her standing only steps away from where they were. Once she was sure they had disappeared, she carefully crept along the front of the rundown building and peered through the first broken window she found on the ground floor. The sight of the interior made her stumble back and fall onto the cobblestones.

Scarlet red blood was scattered along the floor and glittering in stains on the walls, while lifeless, pale bodies were strewn this way and that with open eyes. Aurora recognized the faces, the color of the blue, hazel, and brown eyes that were lifelessly glazed over. The lump in her throat seemed to become bigger as she scrambled up to her feet and sprinted off from the sight.

"No," she panted, blinking back the burning sensation behind her eyes. "No, I refuse to believe this."

The brunette youth skidded to a stop once she arrived at her destination. A two story building with peeling paint and broken windows loomed over her and carriages surrounded her, each carriage pertaining to two or more members from a rivaling gang. The ones at the previous location, they had only been there to clean of the bloody mess that they had created. They slaughtered them, all of them.

With a silver knife glinting deviously in her hand, the girl silently climbed into the house and surveyed the damage done on the first floor of the hideout. Desks were flipped over, their contents slipped and scattered on the ground, and furniture was broken and overturned after a presumed fight while books, papers, and writing utensils were thrown about the room. Her fingers tightened around the hilt of the knife.

"Oi, girl, what are you doing here?!" a voice shouted from the exterior of the building. Aurora quickly whipped her head around to face the ill tempered gang member, and glared at him. "It's too dangerous for a young girl tone in a place like this, so hurry on out here and we'll kindly carry you home to your mother and father."

"You killed them, all of them. Why would I go anywhere with the disgusting likes of you people?" Aurora spat out coldly. "Leave me be, I'll care for myself just fine. Or, perhaps I could kill you."

The bright glint of her silver knife whirling through the air shown brightly in the small amount of sunlight the setting sun was allowing in through the windows. Blood splattered and a sickening choking sound reverberated through the killer's ears as the knife hit the target's throat, taking him to the ground with a soft thud. Her eyes widened considerably.

"I killed him."

•••
July 18, 1883

Brazen, tearful eyes peered up at the starry sky looming above east London while the night crawlers of the city passed by on the streets. Some were drunk after a night out at a rundown pub that sold alcohol and supplied illiegal drugs, others were spending the night out with their families, enjoying the cooler weather of the evening and night hours. None of the passersby had it in their right mind that blood was being splattered onto the cobblestones only feet away from them, just out of their reach. They could have called the Scotland Yard by now to alert them, but spiders, even in the early stages of life, are silent killers, you see.