Ch.12a. Arkham

[Philulhu]

After a moment’s contemplation, the doctor nodded. Wordlessly, he crossed to the other side of the bed to Ivy and started emptying out the contents of a bedside cabinet onto the bed.

[jp1885]

Satisfied, Ivy goes through the girl’s belongings.

[Philulhu]

OOC,POW roll, please.

[jp1885]

POW 75 pass,0

[Philulhu]

It appeared that Miss Dufresne may have sketched a number of the guests as her sketchbook was full of portraits with names underneath. As she turned through the pages, Ivy came across a sketch of a shy-looking young woman with ‘Emily’ written underneath.

As Ivy studied the drawing, the features seems to morph before her eyes and the face of an older man - the man she had seen at Fraser’s mansion - leered at her!

OOC,SAN roll,please.

[jp1885]

SAN 72 fail,0

Ivy lets out a startled yelp.

[Philulhu]

OOC,Lose 1 point of SAN.

Startled by Ivy’s yelp of surprise, Dr Roy rushed over. ”What is it?” he asked. He took the sketch book from her, looking from the sketch to Ivy. ”This is the girl your colleagues came to see, is it not?”

[jp1885]

"You didn't see... I could've sworn... Ahem, I mean, yes, I suppose so... never mind, there's been enough strangeness here for one day I think."

Regaining her composure, Ivy continues her search, before requesting an interview with Emily.

[Philulhu]

Dr Roy studied Ivy carefully. ”What did you see?” he asked. ”This is a sketch of Emily, one of our guests. It looks perfectly normal, yet your reaction to it was not. You saw something else, didn’t you?”

[jp1885]

Ivy sighs, her shoulders slumping in defeat.

“I can fool myself perhaps, but not a professional... Ever since this strangeness began, I’ve been having visions of the same person...”

She tells Dr. Roy an abridged version of their adventures so far, including the murderous symbols, the waking dream she had at the bank, the figure in the mirror and now the face in the sketch.

“I very much think it’s this sinister Brophy fellow, even though he’s supposed to be dead. You can’t tell me I’m imagining things, not after what you yourself have seen today.”

[Philulhu]

Dr Roy looked at the photo once more. ”Well, you are seeing something I am not, so your brain is doing something different to mine. Some people claim to have second sight and claim to see things that others cannot. They cannot provide evidence of the things they claim to see, yet the the claims persist, so there are clearly things we do not understand. I don’t say this to judge whether or not you can see anything different to me, just that the possibility exists.”

He looked around the room. ”If there is nothing else here, I will ask Emily to join us in my office and you can speak to her.” He lead Ivy back through the house and left her in his office. He returned shortly with a tray of drinks and Emily following timidly behind.

As the doctor pulled forward a seat for Emily and handed out the cups of tea, he said gently, ”Emily - this is Miss Ripley. She is working with the police to find out what happened to Miss Dufresne and the other gentlemen. She just needs to ask you some questions.”

He nodded to Ivy to start asking her questions.

[jp1885]

Ivy makes a stab at a friendly smile as she sits opposite Emily.

“Good evening Miss Livingstone, I hope the, I’m, incident in the art room hasn’t upset you. Would you mind telling me what happened?”

[Philulhu]

Emily looked to Dr Roy, who gave her a reassuring nod. "I.. I’m not really sure," she said, weakly. "We were doing Miss Dufresne’s art class but I don’t remember anything of what I was drawing. She was talking to us and... and.. and I’m not sure what happened, but it sounded like a man talking. With a strange accent, like the ones you hear in films, sometimes. You know?”

”Anyway, I don’t know whether I drifted off with the painting but the next thing I know is that I see Dr Roy at the door with some of James’ friends. I wave to them but then I hear the man’s voice again - except it’s coming from Miss Dufresne this time. I can feel myself standing up although I’ve got no control over myself - it feels like I’m a puppet, with someone else controlling what I do.”

”I can’t stop myself - I have to do as the voice tells me so I show them my drawing and then drop it on the floor. All the drawings somehow join together and then a hole appears - like a door into another room except that it doesn’t have a frame - and Miss Dufresne runs through it, followed by James’ friends and that other fellow they were with. They just disappeared!”

[jp1885]

Ivy scrutinises the girl carefully while she talks, trying to discern whether she’s as innocent as she makes out.

Psychology 60,0

”What do you think of James’ friends? I gather both you and they have a mutual acquaintance in a Mr. Brophy.”

[Philulhu]

Emily shook her head. "Acquaintance? Does that mean friend? I don’t think of Mr Brophy as a friend."

”James’ friends have been good to me. They tried to find him and bring him home to me. They told me they tried but hadn’t been able to bring James back.”

"When Mr Brophy wrote to me he said he was a friend of James but I think that must have been after he... went away...” She dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. ”He’d never mentioned Mr Brophy before but he said James and I could be together again, so I just wanted to believe him.”

[jp1885]

“And so you followed his orders and sent him his book. What happened next?” Ivy asks.

[Philulhu]

Emily shook her head again. "I didn’t send it to him. I did as Mr Brophy asked and went to the hotel to find it, even though it was creepy and it smelled disgusting.” She wrinkled her nose at the memory of it. ”It was where he said it would be, hidden behind a panel in the wall. The hotel was empty and it looked like somebody had smashed it up, but it was still there."

”I took the book home but Mr Brophy didn’t write to me again. I began to lose hope of seeing James so I thought if I read the book, I might be able to help him...” Her eyes filled with tears and she snuffled into her handkerchief once more.

"I’m not really sure what happened after that. It was like I was in a dream, like I was in my body but watching as someone else was making me do things. Dr Morris came to see me because he said Mrs Webster was getting worried about me and I was sent here. It got more foggy after that until a few days ago when I started to seem more like myself again. I don’t really remember much about the foggy part.”

[jp1885]

“Where is the book now?” asks Ivy.

[Philulhu]

"I have it in my room,” replied Emily simply. ”In fact, Miss Dufresne had just mentioned it before James’ friends arrived. I’m not sure how she knew about the book as I hadn’t spoken to her about it."

[jp1885]

"Had she mentioned anything strange recently? Brophy for instance?" Ivy continues, fighting the temptation to go and grab the book straight away. "How do you think Dufresne, and indeed myself, know about the book?"