Victorian Night Gown AU

Chapter 1 : Late Night in the Corrador

Hey everyone! I'm Maddy/Mack. Um so im sorry if this isn't graet i'm just hveing a fun time writing a little story. I actually am getting Squid to check this for me. If there are any misspellings we ddint catch i'm sorry, i'm super dyslexic so spelling is a bit of a challange for me. I hope you like this first chapter and happy readings!

Also just so you know this story is about me and my friend Squid.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mack was definitely not feeling the vibe of a gender. They decided the didn't need one for now. They ran their hands over the smooth silky cloth that made the nightgown they were wearing. Mack turned away from the mirror to face the rest of the room. The sun was beginning to go down and it was getting dark. There was a knock on the door.

"Come in" Mack said, staring out the window at the setting sun. The door cracked open and Lady Squid ( yes that's an actual name, me and my friends call her that) stepped in wearing a nearly identical night gown that was a shimmering shade of light blue. Her blue-gray eyes sparkled with mischief and her short glossy dark brown hair lay flat to her back. "Hello!" I said. I was happy to see her. She was my best friend and had been ever since I met her three years ago. "Hey" she said, sitting herself down on my bed and pulling out a deck of cards "We will not sleep tonight" she grinned at me and shuffled the cards with a deft motion ( lol no she can't actually do that) "We are here to catch a ghost" I grinned at her and settled myself on the bed across from her. We were at my family's (country) estate. My family enjoyed spending time in London, I however preferred to spend my time with my friend. We would get up to all sorts of trouble.

"What is the name of the ghost we will be hunting?" I asked her, picking up the cards she had delt to me. She shrugged. As I asked her I waved my arm in the air as if gesturing to an unseen being, for all I knew maybe I was. Squid had an odd talent to "perceive the supernatural" as she put it, and I believed her. I however was more talented at puzzles and solving tough problems. We were an odd duo, not to mention the fact that I did not identify with the male or female sex most of the time. We also shared appreciation for both men, women, and everything in between. The two of us often got into a great deal of trouble unbefitting of people our age. As we played our game of cards she chattered about some of the pretty girls she had met on the town that day.

It was near midnight when Squid suddenly sat up straight and shivered. We had fallen asleep awhile ago. and I started awake next to her. "What-" I yawned "What's wrong?" I mumbled. Squid shushed me and tilted her head to the side as if she was listening to something. I shut my mouth. I knew her well enough to know she was listening to the "other place". She scrambled from my side and out of the bed. She motioned to me to grab the candle. I hurriedly grabbed it and lit it. She put her finger to her mouth and motioned for me to follow her. We opened the door out of my bedroom and it creaked. She hissed and muttered a swear. Then she slowly put one foot into the quiet, dark hallway. I shivered and she looked back at me. I nodded to signify I was ok and we crept down the hall, our faces illuminated by the soft glow of the candle. Squid came to a halt and I bumped into her. She was a good 6 inches shorter than me and we had both been told we had reached our adult height. She put out a hand and motioned. We had developed an advanced language of hand signals so we could communicate in secret.

"There's something here...something bad."

"That's not good.. what do we do?"

"We need to head back to the room. Now."

She signed with urgency. I felt a cold finger run down my spine. A cold breath and quiet laugh filled my ear. I shivered. As quickly and as quietly as possible we made our way back to my room. My hands shook as I lit the candles until the room was bright. Still not settled I lit the fire and curled up on the bed. "Who..?" I asked cautiously.

Squid was pacing on the thick red and gold carpet. She looked to me. I was still visibly shaken but I smoothed my night dress and sat up a bit. She raised an eyebrow and I sighed.

"I felt a finger run down my spine, I heard a quiet laugh and felt a brush against my ankle. I'm guessing it was a skirt of some sort." She knew me well and she knew giving me a puzzle would calm me down. "I'll assume it is one who identifies as a female thus they dressed in the gowns that sweep on the floor. Judging by the faint voice I heard, she sounded a little older than us maybe 16 or 17. Meaning she died young.." My mind continued to whirl through a process that would have most people aching in the head. Squid had settled down and pulled out the deck of cards that had been placed on my nightstand. She absent-mindedly shuffled the cards as she waited for me to come to a conclusion about the dead girl. Suddenly I sprung up, causing Squid to let out a small shriek and topple off the bed. "Elizabeth Heart, Alexandra Burgens, and Emma Cassius!"

Squid looked at me startled and confused. "Wh... who?" she asked me, righting herself and stacking the cards into a neat pile on my table. " Elizabeth Heart, Alexandra Burgens, and Emma Cassius!" I said again, holding out my hands and waving them about. "These three girls were all murdered near here! Elizabith was 17, as was Alexandra. Emma had just turned 16, poor girl, all dead all have reasons to be active and out for revenge... but which one could it be?"

It was around 1:30 in the morning by the time I had come to this conclusion. I yawned and soon Squid yawned as well. "We need to sleep" I told her drearily. She ignored me and ran to my wardrobe, grabbing the pinch of salt that I kept there (for her strange purposes) and she outlined the room with salt. After a few minutes she brushed off her hands and clambered into the bed. I joined my best friend and was soon asleep. Still thinking about the problems of ghosts we still had yet to solve.