Subsection: 12 October 2017 (Carnage in Great Queen Street) Up Subsection: 12 October 2017 (Carnage in Great Queen Street) Subsection: 2 November 2017 (A More Reasonable Man) 

Thursday 4 September 1930

At midnight, both Bessie and Lin Tan start to feel the currents of magic being bent, as if the wind had risen (though the weather in the real world is as still and oppressive as ever). This gradually builds up, and around 12.30 Lin Tan starts to move in; as she gets into the basement passage, she starts hearing voices in her head, high-pitched giggling as of children, and occasional words in a language she doesn’t recognise.
It takes a while to work her way down the passage (cautiously, with little light or sound), and when Bessie comes down a little later they meet outside the changing-room. Bessie is also hearing the giggling voices, and plugging her ears doesn’t make them go away. The changing-room is dark and empty, and they move inside (spotting some outer garments on the pegs in the wardrobes); they start to be able to see the sources of the voices, fading in and out through the walls, a variety of humans and creatures including armoured knights, hairy men with tails, horses, ambulatory trees, old women; they tend all to be either very beautiful or very ugly.
Bessie looks under the door, and Lin Tan through the keyhole: they don’t get a good view, but the ritual space is candlelit, and one robed man is leading the others in a call and response chant, in mixed English and Latin, and the coffin is open and resting on what one might as well call the altar. There’s shine swirling all about the place, and being drawn in from outside; Bessie is able to break one of the threads with her hand, but it doesn’t have much overall effect.
One of the armoured figures raises his sword, and points into the chamber; all the (ghosts? Spirits?) advance through the walls and door, and that’s when the chanting turns to screaming. The pair keep up their observation, and it’s clear that the men aren’t able to see their attackers at all. They’re variously cut, bitten and kicked, and the spirits show no sign of stopping until they’re all dead.
(This is about the point where Audrey and Gertrude are woken up. They get a taxi for central London.)
Bessie has no stomach for this and backs away, keeping an ear out for reaction from outside. After some minutes, the violence and screaming stop, and the figures start to walk away again, many of them bloodstained; they fade rapidly. Lin Tan confirms that Kennedy-Cox’s body is still there, and appears as intact as it was before, but the chamber is otherwise a charnel-house, not helped by the capsized candles.
Bessie hears a nervous voice asking who’s down there and what are they up to, and the pair retreat via the other door before the guard can show up. Lin Tan’s shoes have picked up some blood, and she disposes of them as they hear police whistles being blown behind them. They get a taxi to somewhere random, then another taxi to Audrey’s.
When Audrey and Gertude arrive the police are clearly in possession, so they remember another appointment elsewhere, and get a succession of taxis back to the flat.
The group decides to get some sleep. They return at about eight in the morning… to see nothing out of the ordinary, and building work going on as usual. A diffuse trail of shine leads to Covent Garden market, and gets lost in general confusion there; there doesn’t seem to be anything magical left there.
That evening, Gertrude and Bessie sneak in to the site and sees that the rooms have been painted and had flooring laid since the small hours. (There’s a strong smell of carbolic, too.) There’s a spot of shine visible in a crack between the floorboards.
 Subsection: 12 October 2017 (Carnage in Great Queen Street) Up Subsection: 12 October 2017 (Carnage in Great Queen Street) Subsection: 2 November 2017 (A More Reasonable Man)