The Oncoming Storm ²

The Crimson Horror

"Thank you for agreeing to this meeting. I'm told you are the investigator to see if there are strange goings-on" the man says, the lady of the house is heavily veiled.

"I read of your brother's death. Another victim of the Crimson Horror, I believe."

"So, it is claimed. He was a newspaperman. He and a young woman were working undercover. Tell me, madam, do you know what an optogram is?"

"It is a silly superstition, sir. The belief that the eye can retain an image of the last thing it sees" the man has taken photographs of his dead brothers staring eyes. He passes one to the maid, who hands it on to her mistress. The women throws back her veil.

"Good grief," Vastra says.

"Oh, god" the man faints.

*Darkroom*

Jenny and Vastra make enlargements of the photographs.

"Well, I'll be blowed. I think, madam, that we'd better make plans to head north" Jenny says, Vastra nods.

*Carriage*

"According to my research, Sweetville's proprietor holds recruitment drives for her little community. She is only interested in the fittest and the most beautiful" Vastra says.

"You may rely on me, ma'am" Strax says.

"I was, in fact, speaking to Jenny."

"Jenny. If this weak and fleshy boy is to represent us, I strongly recommend the issuing of scissor grenades, limbo vapour and triple-blast brain splitters."

"What for?"

"Just generally. Remember, we are going to the north."

*Chapel*

The poster advertising the meeting proclaims Mrs Winifred Gillyflower on the Present Moral Decay and the Coming Apocalypse.

"Bradford, that Babylon of the moderns with its crystal light and its glitter, all aswarm with the wretched ruins of humanity. Men and women crushed by the devil's juggernaut. And moral turpitude can destroy the most delicate of lives. Believe me, I know. I know" a curtain is drawn back "me own daughter, blinded in a drunken rage by my late husband. Her once beautiful eyes, pale and white as mistletoe berries" her daughter gets up from a chair and taps her way to a covered board "and what, my friends, is your story? Will you be found wanting when the End of Days has come, when judgement rains down upon us all? Or will you be preserved against the coming apocalypse? Do not despair. I offer a way out. There is a different path. Sweetville!" the blind woman pulls the cover from an illustration of an ideal community. Factory with two rows of terraced homes, its own chapel and bandstand and gardens "join us. Join us in this shining city on the hill" later, the congregation are queuing up in front of the pulpit "you wish to join us, my dear?"

"If it's all the same with you, ma'am," Jenny says.

"Oh yes, dear. You'll do very nicely" Jenny signs the book.

*Carriage*

"If our stratagem succeeds, Jenny will infiltrate deep into the black heart of this curious place," Vastra says.

"And how will she locate the Seerand the Doctor?" Strax asks.

"To find them, she needs only ignore all keep-out signs, go through every locked door, and run towards any form of danger that presents itself," Vastra says.

"Business as usual, then."

"Business as usual."

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