Dr. Francis Tumblety's Arc

Chapter 2 of 5

Francis walked three blocks before he realized someone was following him. The footsteps matched his pace, stopping when he stopped, resuming when he moved. He turned a corner and pressed himself against a brick wall, waiting. A man in a gray coat appeared, breathing hard, one hand clutching his side. The man was a patient from this morning. Francis recognized the slight limp, the way he favored his left leg. The man stopped twenty paces away beside a towering stone figure carved to look like a woman draped in flowing robes. The statue glowed faintly in the afternoon light, purple and silver. The man reached into his coat and pulled out a glass sphere. Inside it, symbols rotated slowly, the same square and compass Francis had seen on every lodge invitation. He held it up so Francis could see it clearly. Francis wanted to keep walking. He could turn and disappear into the narrow streets, take the journal somewhere they would never find it. But the man didn't move closer or threaten. He simply stood there, the sphere catching the light, his posture patient. A banner hung from the building behind him, purple silk marked with the lodge's seal. They had marked this spot deliberately. They knew he would come this way. Francis stepped forward and took the sphere from the man's outstretched hand. The glass was warm. The symbols inside stopped rotating and locked into place, forming an address and a time. The man nodded once, then turned and walked back the way he came. Francis looked down at the lines still spreading across his wrist. The lodge wanted him, and they had sent proof they could reach him anywhere. He slipped the sphere into his pocket and felt its weight settle there like a summons he could no longer ignore.