The Kreizler Institute | The Alienist + Mphfpc [Complete]

Chapter Fourteen | The Ugly Truth

Jade's POV:

I woke up in a foreign room to the sound of birds singing outside of my window. After rubbing sleep from my eyes I remembered that I had stayed over in the loop at Dr. Kreizler's home. The little bit of panic that I felt quickly melted away and I snuggled into the warm covers. A few moments passed before I decided to get out of bed. I washed off before I grabbed some clothes that were in the dresser. They looked as if they had been recently placed there, and I figured that Trinity put them there for when I wake up. I put on pair of brown trousers, a white buttoned shirt, etc. Then I headed downstairs and entered the kitchen. As soon as I entered the room my senses were filled with delicious smells. My stomach growled in response as well.

Trinity was standing by the stove cooking breakfast while Cyrus and Stevie were entertaining Elijah and Jasmine. "Good morning, Jade." Cyrus said, noticing my presence. "Good morning." I replied with a small smile. I helped myself to a cup of freshly brewed coffee before sitting down at the kitchen table with the others. I sipped the strong black liquid and looked outside of one of the windows. It was truly beautiful here even though the heat sometimes felt unbearable. "Where's Dr. Kreizler?" I asked no one in particular. "He's in the sitting room with Caleb discussing something." Stevie replied. From the look on his face I got the feeling that Caleb and the doctor weren't just talking about the weather. I wasn't sure why, but I suddenly got a bad feeling in my stomach. It didn't feel like the usual tug I would have gotten if a hallow were nearby. This time it was just pure anxiety. I continued to drink my coffee and prepared myself for the worst.

Once breakfast was finished, we all gathered in the dinning room. "Good morning, Jade. I hope you slept well last night." Dr. Kreizler said with a small smile as he took his usual seat at the table. "I slept great, actually... thanks." I replied with a smile of my own, and his big brown eyes sparkled. Caleb gave me a hug before the two of us took a seat at the table ourselves. Trinity was going to start serving us, but Dr. Kreizler stopped her. "I'd very much like it if we could wait a few moments before we eat. I'm afraid I forgot to mention that I invited some friends to accompany us this morning." He said. We all agreed to wait, and a couple of minutes passed before the doorbell rang. Within seconds, Sara and John were saying their hellos. Detective sergeant Lucius Isaacson and his brother, detective sergeant Marcus Isaacson followed them into the room. Lucius was a round man with thinning hair and a pair of glasses were perched on the bridge of his nose. Marcus was slimmer and taller than his brother, plus he had thick curly brown hair.

Dr. Kreizler introduced me to the Isaacson brothers, who seemed happy to finally meet me. Apparently the doctor had spoken of me to them as well. "It really is remarkable that you're able to not only see and sense hollowgast, but use mind control over them as well." Lucius said as everyone was settled down at the table. At hearing the word hollowgast, Elijah and Jasmine voiced words of fear. "It's alright, there aren't any monsters who are going to harm you sweeties." Trinity said, calming her two children. "Now look what you did..." Marcus said, glaring slightly at Lucius. The shorter Isaacson furrowed his brows and opened his mouth to say something in reply, but John cut him off. "We better eat before the food gets cold." He said with a look that said 'not now you two.' The brothers didn't say anything more, but they were still glaring at each other. I found their bickering oddly amusing, although I felt bad for Trinity and Cyrus's kids. I didn't want them to feel afraid even though I knew it was probably normal to peculiars to fear hollows. I pressed my thoughts to the back of my mind as we started eating breakfast. We made small talk as we ate, which seemed to brighten the mood.

Sara discussed a few cases she has been working on at her detective headquarters at 808 Broadway, but she didn't go into detail. John spoke of how work was quite mundane since every single day is the same. But obviously, peculiars didn't necessarily have routine schedules like the normals who were time looped. We could do whatever we wanted as long as there weren't much contact with normals. That proved useful for all of us. When we finished eating I offered to help Trinity clean up, but she said that Cyrus and Stevie was going to assist her in cleaning the dishes. So I followed the others into the sitting room. "Laszlo, don't you think we should tell Jade about what's happened?" Caleb said, breaking the comfortable silence. The tone my friend spoke in peaked everyone else's attention as well. "The hollowgast you helped capture has disappeared," The doctor said, and my heart dropped. 'How could have the hollow just disappeared when it was in a cage?' I wondered curiously. "What do you mean disappeared?" I asked him in a very serious tone that even surprised me. "Well... we think that some silver birds members were secretly working for the wights." Caleb said. Anger built inside of me and mingled with the anxious fear I was feeling. It felt like my moment for peace had slipped through my fingers.