Lucy's Day Off (A Lockwood and Co. Fanfiction)

Chapter 7

Lucy's pov

The owner of the voice was a tall, gray-skinned, hook-nosed man. He wore a an old-fashioned black suit to match his black beard. An elegant rapier hung at his side, yellow with ectoplasm stains. His cigarette flared as he took a breath.

"Well, well, well, look who we have here. If it isn't Lucy! What brings you here?"

Jacobs. Agent Jacobs. The very reason why my life became so much worse. A worthless, mindless supervisor for the local agency. But something seemed different about him today; he carried himself with more confidence and arrogance, like he knew something I didn't. I remained silent.

"Why so shocked? I still live here you know. It's not like I'd leave or anything. Death doesn't bother me. Your friends didn't have very much Talent, unlike you, so it wasn't really a loss when they died," he smirked.

"Their deaths weren't meaningless! They were children! We were children!" Tears were rolling down my cheeks now. I turned back into the afternoon sun; away from my nightmare, away from Jacobs.

He smiled. "Where do you think you're going? I'm not done talking to you yet. We have so much to catch up with! So have you been doing Lucy?"

I whipped back around. "Well I'm done talking with you. Now just leave me alone and carry on with endangering kids' lives!"

"You always were a feisty one. Well, suit yourself. But before you go, I have something I've been meaning to show you. But it might, how should I put this, 'endanger your life', I believe."

At this point I started to run. This was not the shaky, scared Jacobs. His hands did not shake and he did not stutter. This was a monster. That was my last thought before I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head and everything went black.

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I awoke with a start to the sound of water dripping. My hands were tied to the back of a chair with what felt like chains. A blindfold covered my eyes. I immediately started to struggle, but that only succeeded in making the flimsy wooden chair fall to the ground, landing on my cheek. I groaned through the gag in my mouth.

"Ah, you're awake. Took you long enough," a familiar voice said. I could hear footsteps walking my way. I struggled again, but to no avail. I could feel a small hand remove my blindfold and gag in a surprisingly gentle way. I gasped when I saw who it was.

"Maggie," I said in a dumbfounded voice.

"That's right, dear. Took you long enough," she cackled.

"Wha? Bu- how?" I said confused.

She gently lifted my chair off the ground. She simply said, "You never know who could be working for the Orphaeus Society, dear." She turned her back and walked away to a small table.

I took this time to survey my surroundings. Wherever I was, it was certainly an odd place. There was water dripping everywhere. It seemed like a natural cave, except for the fact that there were old, rusted beams supporting some spots. The beams were rather twisted, as if they were repurposed or under a lot of stress. The space was small, and there were boulders in some parts. There was only one door, which I guess somehow lead back above ground. There were agency items around here too; I saw rapiers, salt-bombs, some canisters of Fire, and some durable iron chains. But the most amazing sight of the cave was the multitude of Sources in a silver glass case; they glimmered in the darkness. At least they weren't that bright; but the fact that they shone at all meant that it was getting late.

Maggie walked back towards me. "I see you're a little curious about this space. Well, let me explain. This is one of the secret hideouts of the Orphaeus Society. This is one of my favorites; you see, this one is under a stream. Isn't that cool? Soon, we're going to have to repair it though; it's pretty close to collapsing. We use this place to study the nature of ghosts. This is a great place to study because quite near here was the sight of the Battle of Otterburn in 1388. Lots of ghostly sightings around here. Quite a nice area."

At that point Jacobs came in through the little doorway. "So sleepyhead is finally awake, is she?"

Maggie straightened herself and faced him. "Yes. It's nearing 6 o'clock, sir."

Jacobs smiled. "Excellent. Now I'm sure Lucy here has some questions, so why don't you go ahead and ask? No matter how we may seem, we're still polite."

I snorted. "Yeah, if you consider kidnapping people polite. But anyway, what is the Orphaeus Society?"

Jacobs answered, "Well, the Orphaeus Society is a secret society that investigates the nature of the problem in all simplicity. But we're so much more than that. We are very interested in the profits you can make from agencies. So, we have been using specific means to create more ghosts. More ghosts equal more money. We feel kind of bad about making kids fight the ghosts, so we have been creating things that enable adults to be agents. Like the goggles you stole from Fairfax. It was a shame when he died; he was a huge donator to our goals."

I sighed. "You all are crazy. But why did you join?"

Maggie laughed. "Well, my sister always hated agents. Well, she didn't really hate them; she was just jealous. She didn't ever get into an agency and I did. I was always the one who outshone her; the one who was the center of attention. Well, one day my Talent began to fade. She laughed and told me that I was now worthless and couldn't be an agent anymore. So, when the Orphaeus Society contacted me and asked me to join, I obviously said yes. I told her of the technology they were making; how I still had a chance to be an agent. Well, she got really mad and humiliated me in front of the whole town. She spun a lie, saying that I had stole from the very agency that I used to be in. I had no choice but to leave. I actually worked at Fittes with other Orphaeus agents. This is the first time I have been back."

Jacobs nodded. "Well, I used to be hot stuff as an agent at Fittes. When my talent started to fade, some Orphaeus agents asked me to join. But, they sent me out here, to the most ramshackle town there is. So even though I'm loyal to them, I kind of have my own practice. Let me show you."

He grinned wickedly. "Now Lucy, I'm surprised you even got a job up in London. You didn't have a reference or pass your fourth grade test, remember? Well, I'm willing to give it to you now. But, you need to prove that you can handle yourself in a situation first."

He walked over to the silver glass case and pulled out what looked like an ribbon. He set it down in a loop of heavy iron chains. Just then, the Source inside of the silver glass case flared dark red. That was when I noticed what Jacobs and Maggie were wearing. They wore the same metal suit that Fairfax did, except for the lack of the headpiece. They both walked over to the table and put the headpiece on.

Turning, Jacobs walked over to the chains and stooped by them. He said softly, "I have a feeling you will remember who this is, seeing as you killed her."

He walked back over to me and spat at my feet. Then, he undid the chains around my wrists. I stood up shakily. Maggie tossed my rapier to me and I caught it. The whispers were beginning to build up in my head.

"Now this is a special type of ghost. We haven't encountered any other ghost like her. I will give you your fourth grade certificate if you manage to defeat her," he paused. "If you can survive."

A/N: I'm so sorry that it took that long to update! I have been very busy as of late. I bet you guys thought that I had abandoned the story! Again, so sorry. Please feel free to tell me how you felt about this chapter or any of the book for that matter. I will try to update sooner this time!

Love,

Eepster