The Darkest Night: Terror in Arkham

Olive was leafing through a section with relative ease, despite being up on a ladder than looked like it would collapse any second, even under her meager weight. She pulled out a thick, weathered tome, and daintly crawled down, tucking it beneath her arm. 


"Oh! Hello, Miles." She said with a smile, "Come for some books as well?" She asked, plucking her glasses from where they had hung on her blouse front. She out them on, blinking a few times to adjust before she began scanning the titles of the various texts.


She snagged one, flipping through it, then grinning. 


"Wonderful! The detailed history of the Mayan empire." She smiled sheepishly, "I'm studying Mayan Yuchetecan." 


(Yuchetecan is one of the primary ancient Mayan languages/dialects)
 
Julia had stayed quiet on the ride on the trolley, busy making notes in shorthand in her notebook. She would translate her scrawlings later when she was in a safe place, but for now, she needed the speed that shorthand gave her. Thank god she had learned it in her senior year of high school.


After making notes about what she saw along the trolley ride, she quickly followed the group off, entering into what seemed to be a central square of town. Likely, this was the downtown area. Indeed, many of the buildings around here were connected either with the government or commercial shops. 


Their guides made a few more veiled comments on their wardrobe, and Julia stifled a sigh. She was not looking forward to spending their tour of town shopping for clothes. Besides not having much of a budget for it, Julia already had clothes she considered good enough for Arkham and the other students of Miskatonic University. She would stick with jeans.


But, it seemed like everyone was heading off. Miles beelined to the men's clothing store. Probably buying clothes to fit in, so he could impress Olive (and by extension Aldous). Amy was exuberant to purchase top-of-the-line clothes from the most fashionable store in the square. Why not, Julia would accompany her.


After having Amy ooh and aah at a couple articles of clothing, mostly antiquated styles, but some of which were difficult to find, Julia meandered off into the furniture section to see if anything caught her eye. She would catch up with everyone at the book store (? Is that what it was?) later. 
 
Aldous emerged from another section of the store twirling his watch on the fob and reading a small, but aged leatherbound book. He smiled at his lady love before turning his attention to Miles, not looking malicious although the smile had faded.


"You like old books too, old sport?" Aldous asked, putting his watch back in his pocket and running his hands over the old musty volumes that had been collecting dust in that store for more than a century. "I love the smell of the mouldering pages." He smiled slightly and closed the book he had in his hand, extending it out to Miles as if asking if he would like to read it. The cover was black faded type on it that could be barely understood as Deux traités du gouvernement. It was a first edition, 1669 copy of the famous John Locke book.
 
The small bell jingled as Miles walked in. The smell of books and parchment filled his senses and gave him a warm, easy feeling.
Olives soft voice brought him back to earth.

"The history of the Mayans is quite extraordinary, Tis' unfortunate that I only know bits and pieces."

It was true, Miles history knowledge was more middle eastern and greek centered, particularly the ancient type. The older it was, the more he wanted to know about it. He was particularly tickled about Sumeria at this current time.

"I do enjoy old books but I am sorry to say my french is a bit... err rusty at this point in time Aldous, my apologizes sir."

jesus I know NOTHING about english history or the french language for that matter...

Miles tried his best to not seem like a total idiot in front of Aldous, he had to quickly recover with something less... stupid.

" I particularly enjoy ancient history, mostly from the middle east and greek. The first roots of civilized man have always piqued my interest of sorts."

I hope that wasn't too stupid of me to say..
 
Julia frowned slightly as she toured the furniture. Cushions sank in, tables and dressers had cobwebs between the legs, and when she placed her hand on an armchair, it came away a different, dirtier color. Dusting her hands, she looked around for the store attendant. She spotted the motherly-looking woman, and walked over to her, schooling her features into a wide-eyed, interested, open expression.


"Excuse me, I don't want to seem rude, but are these the most recent pieces you have here? Where I am from, many of these would qualify as antiques."


Apologize for probing, give her a compliment, look like you're buying....Julia thought to herself. She had been able to justify the furniture in their home as the rag-tag collections of accouterments Delacroix had collected over the years, the trolley as a lack of city funds for revitalization, but this was a place of business. It was difficult to believe that this really was a place out-of-time. Julia wondered what had happened to sequester this place so thoroughly.
 
"Ooh! Greek," Olive cooed, spinning on her heel, pivoting, and returning with a dark green leather bound volume, titled "The Complete History of The Ancient World" by a Chester G. Solomon. 


"There are some very interesting chapters on Athens and Sparta, the differences between their societies and such. I think you'd enjoy it. Aldous reccomended it to me some time ago." She kissed the aforementioned boyfriend's cheek affectionately. "He picks the best books. Always." She plucked her glasses from the end of her petite nose and affixed them properly to the front of her blouse once more. 


"What is it you were reading just now, darling?" She asked as she watched the pocket-sized book move between Aldous and Miles, in an almost comedic fashion; like it was a hot potato. 


@Shireling @DevilishDoodler
 
"Nothing, my dear. Just a bit of Johne Locke. It appears our friend here has not had the luxury of an education in French. A pity truly, if you intend to further yourself in the folklore department at Arkham, as French was once one of the principle languages of the region, as was Dutch." 


One got the sense that Aldous didn't mean to be condescending, it just happened. This was how he spoke. "But, come along now. I would hate for anyone to get lost and I think I saw young Julia wander into Mrs. Rothschild's store." The aforementioned old spinstriss had a reputation for trapping people in conversation for hours. 


Rothschild Clothes and Household Accoutrements 


As Julia struck up a conversation with the aged woman about the furniture, Mrs. Rothschild smiled amicably. "The old styles were always my favorite, and they seem to still be popular here." She folded her morning edition of The Arkham Examiner and placed it on the desk. 


"Most people don't buy furniture anyways, they take it down to the uphoulsterers for repairs. My selection is for the occassional returning resident." The old woman smiled, for Julia was dressed conservatively enough and had a dark enough look about her that she could have passed as a wayward Arkhamite. 


"Are you from around here, dear? Oh lordy, I don't remember anyone leaving town for good since the Allison boy, and I believe he left to get treated for cancer in Boston and never came back. Now that I think of it... I remember my husband saying something before his passing about a McCreedy girl going up Canada way, but I don't..." 


The old woman droned on and on going far past the original point and question until Aldous returned with the rest of the party at his coattails. "Good morning, ma'am. I need to grab my confederate here, we're on official university business." 


Aldous rushed the remainder of the group out in a whirlwind of movement, despite the protestations of the chatty old woman. They came back into the street where Aldous stuck his hand in his pocket and withdrew a long, hand-rolled cigarette and lit it with a metal lighter not unlike a conventional Zippo. 


"First impressions of Arkham, ladies and gent?" Aldous asked as he started everyone on a walk past the various stores towards the old and mouldering mansions of Uptown.  
 
Olive wrinkled her nose, getting a somewhat unpleasant whiff of the cigraette's noxious fumes. She sighed, giving Aldous a kind of look, as if to say 'you know I hate that'. She folded her arms over her chest, the look dissolving quickly.


She knew he enjoyed it, and it wasn't too much of a bother. She would let it be. It made him happy, after all, and wasn't that her whole reason for existence at the moment? Not to be a prudish nag. 


She allowed herself to smile, intertwining her fingers with her beau as they walked along, a picture perfect Arkhamite couple; and just in time. 


"Oh, Aldous, we're about to pass your father's store."


@Shireling
 
Miles piped up. "I do apologize Aldous, indeed the first things I will purchase shall be a right and proper translation book."
that tone again*bleck*..

There was truth though in those words. If he wanted to learn anything further about the history of this place he needed some guidance in both languages.
he gathered up a couple books to translate French and Dutch to English. They smell of the book's pages permeated around Miles as he peeled them off of their shelves. As much as he was at home in the smell of books, these were clearly the oldest books he had touched in his life time. He approached the front cashier with the same false smile as the one in the clothing store and thanked them as he paid them and hurried up to Aldous and Olives pace

 "Also I find Arkham most astonishing, quite friendly folks you have 'round here." 
 HAHA wow I made myself laugh with that one.

Trying to follow on Aldous and Olives heels out of the book store the thought of Aldous' father piqued Miles' interest.
I bet hes something cool and sciencey.. like a... scientist? Wow and I'm supposed to be majoring in Bio aren't I? Jeez...

"I do believe it would be quite interesting to procure your fathers wares? May I ask what type of business the gentlemen runs?"

 
 
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Julia wasn't too happy about being dragged away. This was just the type of information she had wanted. Someone chatty, who would be willing to talk about town gossip to her for as long as she could get them to. 


Well, Julia thought, sourly, I guess this is a tour. "The town has a lovely position, here on the river. And beautiful architecture." Here, at least... she thought, but she didn't think it prudent to add.


She noted, again, how their two guides seemed to be almost forcing themselves to act like a couple. Are they putting on a show for us? This was a game changer. She would stay observant. Perhaps it was for the town, not for them.


Just as she had come to that conclusion, Olive noted Aldous' father's store. Ah, I'll get to see how they react around him. That should tell me what I need to know.
 
"Ah yes," Aldous said quietly. He pointed to a shopfront on the right with a sign that hung limply down over the sidewalk. 


Wilmarth Auto and Wagon Supplies


After a slight minute of internal debate, Aldous finally steered them all into the crowded shop. The bell clanged to note their entrance, but no one was behind the counter at the moment. The store itself was small, cramped, and crowded with various motor vehicle acoutrements. If one were to check the catalogue, they would see that his parts catalogue ran back all the way to 1930. 


Aside from the various cans of oil, oil filters, air filters, fuel filters, fuel additives, nuts and bolts, connectors and ramrods, and so on, there were also harnesses for horses, horseshoes, and one conspicuously placed wagon wheel. Finally, an aging old man arrived at the counter. The old man was probably in his early 60's and was mostly bald with white tufts of hair popping out over the ears and a Grover Cleveland moustache marching across his face. He was somewhat overweight, but not terribly so, and wore his shirtsleeves up and an oil stained apron over his clothes. 


When he saw the group, he groped on the counter and retrieved a pair of round spectacles which he laid on his head, his eyes seeming to fire in intelligence afterwards. 


"Well hello, my son!" He said jovially, looking between the couple first with a beaming smile, then turning his attention towards the rest. 


"These them?" He asked, to which Aldous covertly nodded. Aldous, for one, looked fairly uncomfortable as his grip tightened on Olive's hand that was looped through his arm. 


"We thought we would stop by, you are part of the town anyways." Aldous said meekly. 


His father smiled again before nodding and addressing Miles, Julia, and Amy. 


"Welcome to Arkham!" He boomed. "I don't suppose any of you have a car, otherwise this is the place to go for parts and servicing." He flashed a genuine smile. 
 
Olive visibly shrank, seeming to disapear into Aldous's shadow.


don't comment, please don't comment...


Aldous's father made Olive extremely panicky and nervous. Especially after the incident with the Cornish hen. God, it still plagued her thoughts every time she even came close to the store. She mumbled something unintelligible into Aldous's lower shoulder, her glasses pressing not too comfortably into his back. 


@Shireling
 
Wow, I don't think I have ever seen any cars like these even on the road?
His eyes caught all the glimmers of the shiny parts in the store.

Miles greeted the man heartily "Hello good sir! How has the they day been going for you?" Miles laughed to himself at the sight of Aldous's father. He seemed more jolly and grandfatherly to him, it was quite odd compared to the rest of the town his dad seemed to be a bit more, cheery?
 
'It's the father.' Julia thought, wishing she could smack herself for her stupidity. At least I was right about Aldous being from a rich family. She could hardly believe anyone in town still used a horse and buggy. She made a few squiggley lines in her notebook to mark it down, and looked back up. She would be wary around him, since Aldous and Olive seemed to be kind people, if a little bit snobbish, and they certainly were not at ease around this man.


'Perhaps only powerful, with a lot of force of will?' she wondered. "Hello, I am Julia," She said, nodding in a friendly manner towards Mr. Wilmarth. "This is Amy." She turned to her companion, noting her lack of sunglasses and mentally shook her head. "We've been enjoying a tour, today. Your son was kind enough to show us around."
 
"Yes, I can't think of anyone better suited to showcase the delights of Arkham than my boy." He beamed again towards his son and Olive. 


"Well, we must be running along now." Aldous interposed hurriedly. "I will see you tonight, father." 


His father wished them all a good day and they were herded back out into the street. Aldous attempted to compose himself, then resume the tour. 


Arkham Uptown 


"The McDowell house," He explained was first constructed in 1694, but was burned in 1710 for some unknown reason and replaced by the house that sits there today in 1721." 


As they continued their rambling tour of the old mansions, Aldous stopped abruptly which caused the rest of the procession to crash into each other like detached train cars. 


When they looked to acquire the reason for the abrupt halt, they could see that a house on the next block over was taped off with the distinctive yellow crime scene tape and vehicles were scattered about in the street, namely two police cars, Arkham PD Forensics Department, and the crime scene photographer. The coroner was noticably absent. 


"That's the Waite house." Aldous said noncommittally. He was more focused on the police outside. 
 
Olive's grip tightened on Aldous's arm. 


"Aldous, dear, let's move along," she urged, delicately steering him away. 


"Let them be about their buisness. We have a tour to conduct, yes?" She murmured, giving him a pleading look. 


@Shireling
 
Miles froze as they approached the house. An ominous feeling clawed at his guts, and made it's way out of his throat before he could filter out the words.


"What happened there?... Th-That is if you don't mind me inquiring."


He caught himself, just looking at that house sent his brain into a spin. This was wrong, this house, and it's contents were wrong. He didn't know how or why, but they were.


The name "Waite" sounded familiar to him, he possibly came across it while studying Arkham before arriving... Or did he? He could have just imagined it after all.
 
Amy was the only one of them to not crash into anyone else when Albus -she had privately started referring to Aldous as Albus, of Dumbledore fame- stopped short.  This, despite apparently texting on her tiny little phone.  She sidestepped, neatly avoiding colliding with Olive, and then nimbly stepped forward, lest anyone behind her crash into her.  She hadn't been texting and she quickly slipped the phone into her purse and surveyed the scene.  Silently, she counted cars and people and noted that no one was, as of yet, approaching the the small group of intruders.  She looked around, scanning the windows of nearby houses.


The houses were old and darkly elegant, but the faces peering out from behind damasked silk curtains and draperies were simply old and dark of scowling countenance, if not of complexion.


"Olive's right," she said quietly to Albus, "if we stick around, they're going to want to question us."


"Unless you know the Waite... family?" she added after a moment of consideration at his hesitation.
 
Aldous swallowed. "Let's just find out what happened." 


Unbenowkst to all except Olive, the eldest of the Waite children was an old classmate of Aldous' and the two families were historically close. The Waites of Arkham, as Miles may later recall, were estranged from the Waites of Innsmouth, an abandoned port town north of Arkham, but were still seen to have some bloodstain in connexion with Innsmouth folk. 


As they approached the house, they could see a policeman with a large, flashbulb camera taking pictures of a window on the east side of the house that was shattered, with pieces of glass laying on the leave-strewn yard. Two policemen were standing at attention by the door while a man in a creme suit was taking notes next to the crime scene photographer in a notepad. The overall look of the crime scene made it seem like a scene out of a Humphrey Bogart movie as the policeman wore dated, old fashioned uniforms and their cars were 60's or 70's model Crown Vics. 


The house itself was a large and well-kempt Georgian of unknown age, but was presumably antebellum. Great white pillars rose up on either side of an overhanging balustrade that would have shaded a horse drawn carriage from the rain as its passengers disembarked in the days of yore. 


The first man to approach Aldous was a younger-looking policeman who carried himself with quite a bit of seriousness. 


"What happened, Ed?" 


Edward O'Saur, a policeman of ten years and a well-respected Arkhamite, had the vitality of youth still about him, but lines of worry and regret played across his pale face. He scratched his head under his hat then shook his head sadly. 


"Somebody snatched the youngest kid." 


"Albert?" 


"That's the one." 


The policeman had an air to his countenance that communicated the idea he had seen a similar circumstance too many times before, but this one was different in some way. 


"Yeah, it's a shame to see these guys drag off the wee ones." He chirped sadly in an almost comically-thick Irish accent. "But this one's gonna be in the papers for weeks, first kid ever snatched in this neck of the woods. City Hall'll have to do something now, or you bet your ass they'll can Mayor Cunnings for this one." 


Aldous looked past the Irishman and towards the house. "Are the detectives here yet?" 


"The hell if I know, Clarence and that Pollack Smolinski show up when they feel like it." A sort of subdued anger broiled up in the Irishman's voice. He then finally noticed the rest of Aldous' party. "Who are them, Aldy?" 


"These are the new students from out of town, Miles, Amy, and Julia." 


"Well how do you all do on this unfortunate morn?" Officer O'Saur asked in a friendly voice, tipping his hat to them. 
 
Olive shook her head sadly, frowning towards the officers, whom she quietly greeted. She stayed tucked behind Aldous, clinging to his arm shyly. She didn't really know what to do; this wasn't a woman's place. She didn't know what was expected of her. So she hid behind Aldous, like a meek little mouse. Rather, the meek little mouse she is. 
 
Julia had been writing notes about the houses. Mostly boring ones, but others about the trends she was noticing. 'I wonder if I could get away to visit the Riverside tonight' she thought, idly, as Aldous finished telling them about the McDowell house. 'It'll be more interesting than this wonderfully boring rich neighborhood.'


Suddenly, she collided with Miles' back, and peered over his shoulder to see what had stopped them. 'Maybe not so boring, after all.' She looked at the police officers there, no blood, no weeping family, no coroner's car, or doctors. "Break-in is my guess," she muttered lightly to no one in particular.


Amy and Olive suggested they leave, which seemed preposterous to Julia, Not when things were getting good. Miles inquired something polite and boring. Julia had to hold herself back from walking over there alone to ask what had happened. She knew enough about the citizens of Arkham to know they would not react kindly to a stranger digging for information. Julia prayed they would investigate.


Luckily, Aldous suggested they see what was happening. The police officer validated what Julia had thought. 'Kidnapping. And not the first big crime to happen recently, if I heard correctly.' Julia thought, making hurried notes in her small notebook.


"It is a shame this happened. How young was this poor unfortunate boy?" she asked, keeping her expression open. "Has anything like this happened before?"
 
Three things stuck in Amy's mind, "...it's a shame to see these guys drag off the wee ones," "...first kid ever snatched in this neck of the woods," and "...can Mayor Cunnings for this one."


"I'm sorry, who's dragging off 'wee ones'?" Amy asked the young Irish-sounding cop.  When he gave a reproving look, probably for butting in on the gentlemen's conversation rather than simply saying good morning, she quickly put on her pouty, scared little girl face and added, "I'm just a wee one myself, you see, so... I'm a bit nervous, as you can imagine." 'Oh my Science, I sound like Miles, now!' she thought.


"You said, 'these guys', so..." she shrugged her narrow shoulders and left it at that.
 
"Good morning sir, and my apologies for the intrusion, were not locals you see."


Miles interjected further and gave Amy the same look a mother would give an inappropriate child then snapped his attention back to the officer.


"But regardless of the fact, we would like to help in anyway possible, if we could. Especially if it deals with particular suspicious characters to look out for, and such."


Miles was hoping this particular officer would give them a leg up since he was trying to be as sincerely polite as Miles could manage for an outsider.


Not only that but Miles was definitely curious himself. Why kidnappings, and why here of all places?
 
The officer shrugged sadly. "We know it's a gang of men, but we don't know who they are or where they're from. Mostly, they snatch vagabond kids and old drunks off the wharves on the Riverfront, the kind of people that nobody misses. But here they are breakin' into the Waites' place and cartin' off their youngest son---he was fourteen by the way." 


O'Saur paused again and shook his head. "We don't really know what we're looking for, and the two dicks that they have on the case are no good. They're drunks and adulterers!" The Irish policeman really seemed to have a deep-seeded anger for the two detectives who were supposed to be working the case but had still yet to arrive. 


"If you ask me, it was all Chief Wright that put those flatfoot cops on the Waite case, to make a mess of it and do the Mayor in so he can trade up jobs, you see. But where does that leave the Waite kid and all those other poor bastards?" 


O'Saur suddenly grew tense, and so he led the group a little away from the rest of the police at the scene and took out a notebook as if he was taking a statement. 


"Now don't let this slip, but I'm thinking of investigating this case on my own---that way, all them people that got disappeared will get their justice. I joined the police force to be a good honest cop like my grandfather, not to peddle politik." He checked around him. 


"Now, if you folks see anything, call this number, you see." He wrote down a phone number and stuffed it in the nearest person's (which happened to be Amy) hand. "Don't call until after ten, that way the kids will be in bed and Moira will be too tired to get up for it." 


Suddenly, an old Cadillac swerved onto the street from an adjoining boulevard and skidded to a stop by a marked patrol car. Two men dressed in suits that were ridiculous salmon and powder blue colors stepped out and put on their hats. They seemed to harass the CSI man the creme colored suit for some unknown reason, then passed through the central portal and left into the house. 
 
'Definitely going to go to Riverside tonight.' Julia thought. She was glad the officer had answered their questions, despite Amy's crude questions. 'Note to self: don't bring Amy anywhere I will have to ask questions.'


Before the officer left, Julia thanked him, shaking his hand as the Cadillac pulled up. She turned her back to the two men emerging from it and looking around, and moved to block their view of Amy. Now that the detectives could not see what she was doing, she made more quick notes, then held her hand out for the note from the officer.


            O'Saur   555-857-2265


'He's perfect for information. I'll have to question him more, soon.' Julia wrote something else in her notebook, and looked up at the rest of the group. Staying here would only stick in the minds of the detectives more. They had to leave. "Even though this is unfortunate, the day is still young. Shall we continue the tour?" she asked.
 
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