Work Text:
Alfendi knocked on the door of the small apartment door, hoping the correct address was the one on the paper in his hand. After the incident at Forbodium, Lucy had been much more communicative- both with him and Loopy. She constantly took notes in her small book, so that even Loopy could join in the investigations and interrogations (though the last time that occurred was a messy ordeal nearly ending in another murder).
Even so, it was a slight surprise to him when Loopy invited him over to her apartment that night.
“1425 Cherry Brick Lane!” She had said, “Big old buildin’, connod miss id. Go to room 389- ya can just walk right in Needle Legs, ya’re welcome in my home whenever. Just knock to warn me.”
When he heard no answer, he checked to see if the door was locked.
It was not.
Well, unless he wasn't in his right mind, this was 1425 Cherry Brick Lane, room 389. And so, hoping he wasn’t about to be violently ambushed, Alfendi let himself in.
The first red flag he noticed was that it was deathly quiet. Remnants of the smell of food and a single light on in the bedroom were the only signs that someone had recently been in the rather large apartment, but that seemed to be it.
“Lu?” He called out the nickname he had grown fond of using- although it also helped him call either Lucy or Loopy when he didn’t know who he was talking to, “Are you here?”
No response. Second red flag.
Cautiously, he walked further into the room, calling again.
“Lucy? Loopy? Anyone home?”
As he continued into the apartment, he could’ve sworn he heard something from the kitchen. Was that… heavy breathing? It sounded panicked, trembling slightly. That was the third and final red flag. He needed to check and see what was wrong. Slowly, he walked so that he stood directly in front of the dark kitchen. He reached for the light switch, but paused before speaking to whomever was cowering in the kitchen.
“It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m turning on the light now, okay?”
With the warning in place, he turned on the light.
There, in the corner, trembling with a knife clutched close to her, was Lu.
“Lu?” He questioned, “Are you alright? What’s wro-”
“Who are you!? Heaw did- How did you- How’d you unlock the door?”
Alfendi raised an eyebrow, “You invited me here, and the door was unlocked, my dear Lu.”
There was a silence before he dared to ask what was on his mind.
“You’re… You’re neither Lucy, nor Loopy, are you?”
Lowering the knife, this new side of the DC quickly pulled out the small leather notebook he had become accustomed to seeing and furiously flipped through the pages. When she stopped on one to read it, her face became pale.
“O-Oh. Are you Alfendi?”
He nodded, kneeling down to sit on the floor so that he didn’t tower over the poor girl.
“I am. Now, who might you be?”
To this she did not answer, seemingly lost in her panic-addled mind, fumbling over pages while muttering to herself about how much she was out of the loop. Her eyes darted between him and the pages, as if she feared a sudden attack. She suddenly jolted.
“Aw’m- I’m! I’m sorry, did you say summa- something! Did you say something? I-I’m sorry for not listening, I just- I haven’t checked the book in a long time and-”
The inspector gently raised his hand, shushing her.
“It’s alright, Miss…?”
She nervously glanced around, avoiding eye contact before finally answering.
“B-B-Barde. L-Lucille Barde.”
He smiled softly, inching closer to her.
“Well, hello, Lucille. Were you not expecting me today?”
Lucille shook her head.
“I-I weren’t- I wasn’t. I don’t check the notebook often, Mr. Alfendi. And this is my fost- My first! This is my first time coming out in years- I don’t even know why I’m out!”
He took her hand in his, stroking the back of it with his thumb. He said nothing as she told her simple tale of feeling her mind disassociate, and, in turn, she felt herself awaken. How, she knew not, why, she knew not, just that she awoke to find herself in this apartment, at the stove, having finished cooking a small pot of soup. She had only just finished eating when she heard a knock at the door- Alfendi. Of course, seeing as she had been dormant for so long, she knew nothing of him or his relation with her alters, and so she panicked, moving swiftly and quietly to grab a weapon and hide. The rest of course, was recent history leading to now.
“I- I read wod- I read what Loopy and Lucy wrote abeawt- about! What they wrote about you.” she suddenly swapped topics, “It was a lot of praise and Loopy’s… um… commentary about your looks. All good, mind you! I-I suppose. Then Lucy said a lot ov- a lot of-”
“If I may interrupt, Lucille,” Alfendi said, concern laced in his words, “Why do you do that with your voice? Going from Lancastrian to London dialect?”
This seemed to send Lucille into a small panic, and she started trying to cover herself.
“Nay-No! No, no, no, no, no, no, that just comes from Loopy! She writes in a Lancastrian dialect sometimes, I just accidentally picked it up! I were- was! I was born in London!”
And he would’ve accepted this as fact… if he didn’t have several pieces of evidence to prove her wrong.
First and foremost, he had asked both Loopy and Lucy where their accent came from not long after Forbodium. He remembered each answer.
“Loopy, forgive me if this is rude to ask, but where were you born? In all my years living here, I’ve never heard someone with an accent such as yours.” he had asked
“Well, my accent is from Lancashire. Makes nouse, I suppose, I were born ont border between Lancashire and Yorkshire. Y-Ya know that's the reason I were called the York-Lanc Fox… right?”
Lucy had said the same thing when he asked her the next day.
“Aye! I’m from the Lancashire Yorkshire border! I just lean more into my Yorkshire accent compared to Loopy. She’s the one who were dead set on keepin’ her Lancastrian accent.”
Second, he had seen Loopy write before, and, unless it was a very specific word or phrasing (writing were instead of was, insults like barmpot, etc.), she never wrote in her dialect.
When he presented this evidence to Lucille, she curled up into a ball, hugging her knees close to her chest.
“I just… I don’t like the accent. I-I’ve been told it’s hard to understand and unnecessary. And it reminds me too much of… p-pe-people I’d rather not t-think about. I’m-I’m getting better too! Or, at least I was, until I came out today.”
By now, Alfendi had scooted and inched all the way to Lucille’s side, seeing as she didn’t seem all that threatened anymore. It was odd, seeing someone who was usually so bright and energetic become such a frightened mess. Gently, he gave her a small side hug.
“How long have you been dormant?” he asked.
A pause.
“Um… How old am I now?”
...
Well. That was certainly an answer. It took Alfendi a while to gather himself to respond.
“22, Lucille. 23 in a few months.”
“Oh. So, about 10 years or so I believe. At mooast- most. Haven’t been out since I were- since I was 12. That was when Loopy started her killing spree and-”
She stopped abruptly, clamping her hands over her mouth. The inspector patted her back and nodded.
“It’s okay. I know. She told me, along with the note that she decided to stop four years ago.”
This seemed to calm the woman ever so slightly.
“Good. I never liked being associated with the bloodshed.”
There was a long, still silence between the both of them as he watched Lucille continue to flip through the pages of her little notebook, making little comments as she read the entries:
“Loopy, why?”
“Oh, Loopy, how could you be careless like that!”
“O-Oh! Lucy’s an officer now! Good for her!”
“Loopy, I’m going to scratch that out, you flirt!”
He let out a small chuckle, and she looked at him with a small blush.
“S-Sorry. You probably came here expecting sum- summathing- something, and I can’t give it to you cause I don’t even know what it was!”
“It’s quite alright, Lucille. I can leave for now, and I will simply come back tomorrow, how does that sound? I’ll let the others know as well, while we’re at work, if that’s what you want. It’s late, after all”
Lucille nodded with a soft smile.
“Thank you, Mr. Alfendi.”
And so, with a quick goodbye and plans for tomorrow, Lucille saw Alfendi out, before a feeling of tiredness came over her. Hoping the others would not wake up at this hour, she retired for the night, the feeling of the bed foreign to what she remembered as she succumbed to sleep.
***
It was dark, cold, and everything was muffled, even the echoes of screams and begging she heard somewhere off in the distance.
Was she underwater? It certainly felt like it.
But she was also going up- she felt it. She was rising upwards, the booming pressure that muffled everything slowly lifting as she got closer and closer to the light above her and then…!
“Oh! Sken who finally coom out to talk!” She heard the voice before she saw the face. She turned to see the others- her alters- sitting at a table. The violent one who called herself their protector, Loopy, continued speaking, “Haven’t seen ya in a while! Thought ya jannockly died! Or fell off the edge of the Earth!”
This had to be a dream. For one, her alters could not exist at the same time as she herself. Second, as she looked around, she saw that the horizon was an endless sky, and she was standing on the very water she'd been under not too long ago.
“It’s been a while since we’ve had a dream meeting.” Lucy mused, “Wonder why it’s happenin’ now.”
“Well, my guess is that it's because Bardey here stopped bein' feeard of her own shadow and coom out after a solid ten years. Finally plannin' on gettin' back int’ world?”
To this, Lucille did not respond. Loopy sighed before holding her face in her hands and speaking softly.
“Though, if I’m honest, a few thoughts have been squirmin' about in my hed. Personal ones.”
Lucy tilted her head in curiosity, “Oh? Like what?”
Loopy was concerningly quiet at this question, before she eventually forced out the question.
“Have uz heard from ‘em? Any ov ‘em? It's been ten years and not a peep! Ya don't… ya don't think they’n…?”
This caused a heavy silence to fall over the trio at the implications of such hesitance.
“If we had heard owt, Loopy,” Lucy started, “ Owt … I doubt we would’ve kept it out of the book. One of us would’ve written it down for the others to see. Right?"
They collectively nodded in a rare agreement.
"W-We just have to stake out and find out." Lucille stuttered, "I'm- I'm sure they'll get out and come to us."
"Or uz could stop bein feeard and go there oursel’, uz're stronger now nor uz were as babbies!" Loopy argued.
"Absolutely not!" Lucille barked.
A silence.
"We can't!" she cried, "We can't go back there we'll get caught then and there and we’ll get hurt more! Then what will we do, Lily? No one would look for us! I mean, look at us three, what are we really?"
She pointed at Loopy, "A murderer?"
She pointed at Lucy, "A hero?"
Then, with hesitance, she pointed at herself, "A victim? It doesn't matter what you answer." She held herself tightly, tears at the corners of her eyes.
"No one will help us because he were right. Uz are a demon."
To this, no one responded for some time, before Lucy gently took Lucille's hand.
"We don't have to go there right now." She said softly, "We need time to prepare anyway. Besides, we won't have to go alone. I work at the Yard, with a wonderful and smart mentor, his name is Alfendi Layton."
Lucille lifted her head up at this, but said nothing about how she knew who her alter was talking about. Lucy continued.
"I know how you are around new- especially tall- people," she paused, shuddering slightly, "But we can trust him with what happened. I know that much."
Loopy suddenly grabbed Lucille's other hand and held it tightly.
"I rarely say it, but hoo’s right.” Loopy said, “The man’s trustworthy. And… I know… I know ya hate the thought of that place. I know ya hate the thought of him. But if uz don't act now, if uz don't get help, then their chances of livin' get a lot lower. Whether it's now or later, uz need to go there...
Uz need to go to the place uz once called home.
That was the last thing she heard in this dream world before she heard the alarm and felt herself awaken. She supposed it was for Lucy, and that she needed to start getting ready.
With a quick call to Alfendi and a look in her book, Lucille was able to gather everything Lucy needed for work that day. She even made it on time, according to the blonde woman when she walked in.
On her way to the "Mystery Room" as she heard it be called, she mulled over all that had been said in the dream.
She thought and thought, and even as she walked into the office with a greeting and a small smile on her face, she realized something rather depressing.
That despite all their talk and confidence, she could never match up to it.
Despite what she was, she would never be more than a simple shadow made by the light of her alters.
Despite how she needed to scream, she just couldn't.
She couldn't tell him. Maybe they could trust him, but she couldn’t.
Not now at least.
Not with her family’s life on the line.