7th March 1899
Ever since I was a little girl, I dreamed of exploring the world for the creatures my parents described in stories. When they were away, I would sit in the library and admire the various specimens and bones they had collected over the years; the three-headed sheep in a jar, scales from a mermaid's corpse, the skull of an Australian bunyip. I recall the day they returned with Blaise, a phoenix they had found during a trip to Egypt, and decided that would be their last trip. I felt an immense sorrow, as all my life I had hoped my first expedition would be with my mother and father. Around two years later, Kamal Manish Singh, a cryptozoologist from India, came to live with us and study under my father alongside me. Mr Singh has since become a close friend, and regularly helps me to look after my breeding pair of Wolpertingers (large rabbit-like creatures I was sent by the Sauer twins from Germany). It seemed only right, three months ago, after a few glasses of sloe gin (lemonade for Kamal), that we should plan our own expedition. "We have so many contacts the world over", I recall Mr Singh saying, "there's so much we could learn". Within two months, we'd made all the necessary plans to start our trip, and even recruited the Sauer twins, who would help protect us from harm, as well as trap certain specimens for further study.
It is my last night at home, for tomorrow we take a coach to London to track down a curious creature known as Spring-Heeled Jack, who had once terrorised the city many years back. We'll be staying at The Queen's Arms in Kensington for three nights, before taking another coach to Suffolk on the 11th, to investigate the infamous Black Shuck.
Mr Singh has already retired to his room, though I find myself far too excited to even think of sleep! I am unsure how successful my journey will be, though as I write this I am feeling overwhelmingly positive.
8th March 1899
We arrived at the Queen's Arms around eleven o'clock, and have somehow managed to fit all of our equipment and luggage in the two rooms we've bought for the next few nights. I am sharing with Grete Sauer, whilst Mr Singh shares with Friedrich in a room down the corridor. The Sauer twins aren't quite as I imagined them. Grete is a tall, muscular woman who looks as though ten men couldn't move her, and her brother is no different. Grete seems to be in charge of most of the weaponry while her brother specialises in building traps. Upon arrival they asked how my Wolpertingers have been, and were happy to hear the two had settled quite well into the enclosure I had built for them.
We plan to rest for most of the day, enjoy an early dinner at around four o'clock, before venturing out to Peckham where we will be tracking Spring-Heeled Jack. It has been many years since Jack was seen, though reports have arisen again, and London's mayor, Sir Alfred Newton, wrote to us some weeks ago asking us to look into Jack's possible return. How incredible that he should begin to appear again at such a time! Grete has prepared two pistols for herself and Friedrich, she has reassured me they are only taking them as a last resort, though insists she will teach me to use one at some point on our journey.
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It is nearing midnight as I write this, as we have just returned to the Queen's Arms. After speaking with locals, we believe Jack may not in fact be in Peckham, but rather just visiting there on occasion. We instead believe Jack is residing in Rotherhithe, around three miles away. There is a number of abandoned houses near the docks there that Jack could no doubt hide in, and all recent reports of him seem to end around that area. What I find fascinating is that his more recent sightings have been non-hostile, and all the people who claim to have spotted him say he fled almost immediately. Perhaps Jack's days of terror have been long over, and the creature has simply returned to his old home to die. The question arises: who or what in Peckham was significant to such a beast?
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