Victoria strapped her silver dagger to her stockings. She had been given a contract earlier on that cold, misty morning that had intrigued her too much to put off. Usually she would attend to contracts with a mercurial approach - highest paying, highest priority. However, every now and then a case came to her attention that she would address on the very same day. These particular contracts had a distinguishing feature; Vic thought she might be able to utilise her 'alternative' monster hunting approach.
The standard approach, common for monster hunters, was of course to exterminate the offending supernatural creature. Generally there was somebody inconvenienced by its appearance; a farmer whose sheep were being taken by a werewolf; a rich family irritated by a common imp or poltergeist. Often a condition of the contract was returning a trophy of the kill; and these paid handsomely. But on other occasions, comparatively few, the patron simply wanted the supernatural presence to disappear. Vic guarded her methods for these situations jealously. The fact was that monsters were very receptive to quid pro quo arrangements. They also had some...appetites in common with humans. It was a secret thrill for Vic that these appetites could be used in her favour.
She gathered up her heavy black coat and turned her gas lamps right down. Vic knew she'd be returning later, cold and weary, and want to relax in the soft light; she never snuffed the lamps for a night contract. Besides, the landlady would be by before long to make sure nothing was burning down.
Vic left her apartment and descended the staircase, the air cooling as she went. Out in the Autumn night, the sounds of London reverberated off the cobbled road. Rumbling wagon wheels, shoed hooves clattering; jeering women leaning out of windows, latticed gables fracturing the glow of the street lights on their faces. Some blocks away, a drunken argument was gaining momentum. Vic's boots did not add to this nocturnal dialogue; the heels were muffled with pasted strips of velvet. Stealth was sometimes warranted for a woman in Vic's line of employment.
She turned off the wide main street down a quiet lane, free of public houses, but not entirely of drunkards. She was obliged to step over more than one intoxicated form between the tall building facades on her way to the far end. Down this lane was the quieter entrance to St Laverne's churchyard. She had agreed to meet the priest back here, as her somewhat unconventional appearance at the main church doors might have attracted unwanted attention. In personal appearance, she looked enough like a middle-class English lady to go about her business, with dark hair done up on her head and fashionably rouged cheekbones; but her leather utility coat, with its many pockets and belts, was certainly unusual evening attire for a woman.
She poked her head over the churchyard sidegate, looking into the small foggy courtyard beyond. The priest, Father William, waited in an alcove in the high stone wall at the Western edge. He was wrapped in a cloak over his clerical clothes, and looking about nervously, his breath rising in steamy columns. Vic unlatched the iron gate and picked her way across the uneven flagstones and ceramic planters towards him. He perceived her approach and nodded somberly.
"Good evening, Ms Standon."
"Father."
Vic pulled into the arched wall cavity next to the young priest, and joined him in surveying the yard.
"No sign as of yet?" she inquired in a low tone.
"No," responded William, pushing tousled hair from his eyes. "Though it hasn't been witnessed before at such an early hour. You know how these things go. It's as if they goad us by turning up at the Witching Hour."
Vic smiled. "I think there's something to that. They especially enjoy irritating priests."
The fog was thickening across the yard. It blanketed the gnarled shrubs that wound between memorial stones, and pushed against ceramic pots containing more respectable vegetation. A cat could be heard whining from somewhere on the far side of the church at their backs.
Vic removed a gleaming silver crucifix from one of her deep pockets, and tied it round her neck pragmatically.
"So what kind of creature are we talking about here?"
William frowned. "The novice who saw it first said it looked like some sort of huge, glutinous ghost. But the gardener, who barely managed to flee into the church and shut the door on it, said it was more akin to a sea creature. He described...something like a squid."
Vic quietly digested this information, keeping her expression neutral. This would certainly be an interesting opportunity for her to try out her special, alternative approach...but would it work?
"I see. So essentially corporeal, not spectral. Well, I have silver, as well as a small pistol..."