"I'm two quarters and a heart down/ And I don't want to forget how your voice sounds/ These words are all I have so I write them/ I need them just to get by// Dance, dance/ We're falling apart to half time/ Dance, dance/ And these are the lives you love to lead/ This is the way they'd love if they knew how misery loved me". 

- Dance, Dance by Fall Out Boy

:/:

"What do you mean we're too late?" Lottie asked, panicked, and feeling to see any weaknesses in the wall. Louis stood up, going next to her.

"I thought we would have more time", he answered quietly. "To talk I mean". 

"I'm sorry", she stuttered. "I shouldn't have asked, or asked you later. And now we've got no hope of getting back".  

"Oh, stop blubbing and focus. This wall is about... fifteen foot high. No way to scale it without breaking something, somethings. Maybe we could use the sid-"

"Why did you answer?"

"Pardon?"

"If you knew that a wall would pop up out of nowhere blocking our way, why did you answer my questions? I wouldn't have minded if you told me to shut my mouth, we could've talked later". 

"This isn't even the Puzzlebox; not yet. That wall is the start of it. And then we can't speak, we can't communicate in any way, we get sent down two separate paths and expected to get out the other side. I wanted to... catch up. It's been a while since I have". 

"We can't communicate at all?" she asked, the thought of Robert's disappearance playing on her mind. He needed to know, and now was the only time she would have to tell him. "Look, I need to tell you something; by now it's probably got way out of hand, and I don't know what to do about it". 

"Go on". 

"It's Robert. Well, and a girl. Some of a girl". 

"Spit it out Lotts". 

"Robert was in love with someone, lovely lass called Bella, and she... fell victim to Tenebrae. He just disappeared, Dad, I- I don't know where he's gone". Louis just looked to the ground, surveying the wall in front of him. 

"He's going to do something he's going to regret. Trust me, I know". 

"Please stop talking in riddles", Lottie muttered, questions still swinging around her head. "You said you were going to kill Dance, you said you were so close, but why didn't you? All of this could have never had happened; you wouldn't have had to run all the time". 

"I suppose I was a coward. You may not want to think this, but he was like a brothe-"

"Enough of the clichés. He was never like a 'brother', he was your monocane dealer, and you were..."

"Stupid enough to keep him alive. I know. It's what I've been telling myself for the last twenty odd years. You don't have to tell me too".

"I'm sorry, it's just... You had that opportunity to put him six feet under..." Silence had overrun the conversation now, the only sound being the soft calling of the spectres around them.

"I did. Well, later on. When your mother had passed away. I suppose that with her being an angelic creature, she suppressed my Hyde side. I was always Jekyll with her, so I never needed monocane. And when she met her grave, I just couldn't keep Hyde away".

"And Dance wouldn't give it to you?"

"He refused; said that I was no longer needed in Tenebrae. Little did I know that he was just finished with his experiments on you three".

"You have an awfully confusing history, don't you? First you're saying they're your brother, then you're killing them".

"The perks of being Jekyll and Hyde, sweetheart", he said, smiling. "Now come on, the quicker we get out of this maze, the quicker we can find Robert".

:/:

"I'm scaring you, aren't I?" Olalla lulled, leaning back in her chair. Her 'interview' had been a laborous process, and she was starting to get sick of the MIO agents. They were so human and so boring. Hannigan had given up trying to get information on her family out of her, so only Sackler remained. He was sifting through the papers on the desk and she noticed several different files on her father underneath the pile.

"No", he answered bluntly and rubbed his eyes.

"Shame. That's what I was hoping to do".

"And what would that achieve?"

"Fun?"

"She says sounding like Dance", he murmured under his breath and tossed a few files off the table.

"Well, after being abandoned by my father, he was the only family I had. So, yeah, he may have rubbed off on me", she answered, surprising him as he thought she couldn't hear him.

"What do you know of him? Your father, I mean".

"Not a lot. You probably know more than me".

"Then how can you say he abandoned you when you don't even know him? Maybe he just didn't get an opportunity".

"He's had twenty two years to find me. I think he just prefers I don't exist". She smiled sarcastically, but backtracked slightly. "Can you tell me anything about him?"

"MIO have been trying to track him down", he started, passing over three, pale brown files. "It's all yours".  Curiously, Olalla picked them up, flicking through them. She pulled out a report written up in shorthand. Reading through it, Sackler noticed her eyebrows furrowing into a confused frown. 

"He's had quite a history, hasn't he?" she commented, flipping onto the next page. 

"Yes, he was originally a Tenebraen agent, then ran off on his own to the Middle East for a few years, joined the army, shot Dance and the trail went cold from there. Last thing we saw of him was a Mr. L. Hyde buying a flat in Thailand". 

"Do you know about my mother?"

"Not much. Her name was Evelina Jekyll, and she was a fallen angel. Basically a human with morals and wings. She was in Tenebrae too, but her and your father met in London when she was masquerading as a member of the public". 

"Is she still alive?"

"Um..."

"Look, if she's not, just tell me. I'm not Lottie; I'm not innocent or naive, I know death like an old friend, so just... tell me". Sackler paused for a moment, plucking the file from her hand and pulling out a brown piece of crumpled paper. He handed it to Olalla and she read the writing on it aloud:

"Certificate of death. Evelina Nadya Jekyll; aged 26; Cause of Death: Congestive heart failure as a result of bullet projectile to chest. What?"

"She was shot. Nobody knows who by, it was all covered up. All we know is that in the space of a couple of weeks after your birth, your mother and Dance are shot". 

"I-I...", Olalla started, but couldn't finish her sentence. "I d-"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to spook you". 

"It's okay. I just... Can I go home now? Please". 

"Sure. But don't let Bulstrode see you. He'll have my head", Sackler chuckled, then his expression dropped, and he started hunting in his shotgun case. He brought out the Jekyll Ring that he had been stowing away in it, and passed it across the table. "Hannigan told me to give you this". 

"Thanks", she replied, then noticed the open window behind her. "Which floor we on?"

"The third", he said, eyebrows raised. Olalla smiled, opening the window further and sat on the windowsill. She tucked her father's file under her arm. "We'll be in touch". With a nod, she flung herself out of the window without another word. Landing on her two feet like a cat, she scurried onto a bench nearby and opened the first page. It was covered in scribbly handwriting that had been done in a rush. Beside it were two almost alike black and white pictures with the captions 'Jekyll' and 'Hyde'.

"Louis Edward Jekyll-Hyde", she murmured, trying to understand the curly letters. "Characteristics: kindred spirit, high morals, but a soft touch. Conditions..."

"Multiple personalities, brought upon by use of monocane". She huffed. Her father was pretty much the same as every Jekyll in their family. But underneath the shorthand was a word that had been underlined many times.

'Liar'.

:/: