#really if there had been any loose-lipped witnesses around while Dracula and our heroes were at work

[see-arcane-scribbles]

Extremely belated October 3rd thought:

What if they had a witness? Just some pedestrian, a shopkeeper, maybe a neighbor. Minding their own business when suddenly,

CRASH!

Some aristo in a black suit throws himself out of that big old house’s window. He pauses in the yard to shake his fist at the place.

"You think to baffle me, you—with your pale faces all in a row, like sheep in a butcher's. You shall be sorry yet, each one of you! You think you have left me without a place to rest; but I have more. My revenge is just begun! I spread it over centuries, and time is on my side. Your girls that you all love are mine already; and through them you and others shall yet be mine—my creatures, to do my bidding and to be my jackals when I want to feed—"

He seems to have a good monologue going until some guy with white hair, a face full of murder, and a giant knife in his teeth comes scuttling out of the window like the world’s biggest and most pissed off spider.

“Bah!” says Goth Aristo before sprinting away, locking the gate, and…turning into mist? Is that a bat in there?? What???

White-haired Knife Man is forlorn at not getting to do any stabbing and goes sadly back to his friends who have also come out of the building, likewise armed and covered in garlic flowers and crosses. There, there buddy, we’ll skin him next time :)

The witness decides they’re not touching any of that, thanks. 

But the newspaper is right there...

Fast-forward to the future, post-novel, and our heroes finally have time to catch up on the latest news—

PARANORMAL PERIL IN PICCADILLY!

WITNESS REPORTS THE HARROWING BATTLE OF A BAT-MAN AND SPIDER-GHOUL IN OUR VERY STREETS!

(In true Clark Kent fashion, Jonathan the White-haired Prettyboy is never singled out. He is a different man in Murder Mode, and the default sweetheart solicitor couldn’t speak harshly to a plant let alone attempt to slaughter a vampire in the street, ha ha)

((Mina still keeps one copy pasted in her journal and another framed on the mantel.))