Chapter 13 The End of the Story

After this, I began to think more seriously about my two different lives. When I was Henry Jekyll, I knew very well about Mr Hyde's activities.

A n d I began to see a new danger.

' Hyde is becoming too evil, too strong, ' I thought.' Perhaps a time will come soon when I will not be able to change back to Dr Henry Jekyll. Hyde will have too much power. I shall be with him for the rest ofmy life.'

I knew that it was a real danger. Sometimes I had to make the liquid two or three times stronger than usual before I could change back from Hyde to Dr Jekyll.

I had to choose between these two. Jekyll or Hyde? Jekyll did not have the excitement, the almost pleasant dangers of Hyde's life. But Hyde did not work as a doctor. He was hated and he had no friends.

I decided not to bring Hyde back again. I preferred the old (and perhaps boring) doctor with his friends, I decided. So I said goodbye to Hyde. I missed feeling younger. I missed the excitement of Hyde's life. But for two months I did not bring him back.

Then, in an hour of weakness, I went to my workroom and made the terrible liquid - and brought him back again.

I was frightened by what happened next. Hyde was a prisoner for two months, so now he was like a wild animal! I could feel the new power of his evil ways. He wanted to shout and scream and hurt somebody.

Then I met the unlucky Sir Danvers Carew in the street. He asked me a simple question, and I enjoyed hitting him again and again. I only stopped when I was tired. I looked down at the broken body of the old man and, suddenly, I felt fear. Hyde was in danger! Hyde had to get away!

I ran through the dark shadows of the streets to my house in

Soho. I was shaking with fear and excitement.When I got to the house, I destroyed all my papers. Then I went out into the streets again and hurried to my workroom. There I felt safe.

I sang a song as I mixed the chemical and the liquid. I drank it and thought of the dead man - and laughed and laughed.

After the terrible pain of change ended, I (as Henry Jekyll) fell down on to my knees, because I was that good man again. I covered my face. I wanted to scream loudly when I thought of the terrible murder of that poor old man. Tears poured from my eyes. I asked God to forgive me.

•

Next day, the newspapers were full of the story of the murder of Sir Danvers Carew I read all of them. I learned for the first time that someone watched the murder from a window! And now the police had the name of the murderer - Edward Hyde!

The Carew murder made my future clear. It was impossible to bring Hyde back because the-world was looking for him. The world was waiting to take the life of a murderer.

' I will never bring him back again! ' I told myself. I locked the door from the workroom to the street and broke the key.' I have finished with evil, ' I promised myself.' I will work harder. I will help weak, ill and suffering people.'

You know that I tried to do this during the last months of last year. I never dreamed of bringing the terrible Edward Hyde back again.

•

On a fine, clear January day when there was not one cloud in the sky, I was sitting in the sun in Regent's Park. I was resting after a hard morning's work. The birds were singing and my mind was not busy. Perhaps I was sleepily remembering happier days when I was young.

Suddenly I had feelings of pain, sickness and shock. When the pain left me, I looked down. My clothes were hanging over the smaller body and legs of— Edward Hyde!

I could not believe it! A minute before, I was safe, rich, and loved. The good, honest Dr Jekyll. Now, suddenly, I was the man that everybody was looking for. A man without a home. A murderer.

I had to change back again - and quickly, before somebody saw me. But how could I get the chemicals that I needed? They were in my workroom, and the street door to the workroom was locked. I could not go into the house from the square. Everyone was looking for Mr Hyde — my servants too.

' What can I do? ' I thought.
 Hyde's mind was quicker than Jekyll's. He thought of Lanyon. 'How can I reach him? ' I thought.'And how can I, Hyde, ask

him to steal things from his friend, Dr Jekyll? '
 Then I remembered something, and I laughed, 
 ' I can still write a letter in my handwriting, ' I thought. And I

knew immediately what I had to do.
 I walked out of the park and stopped a passing taxi, then drove

to Portland Street. The driver looked at the clothes that did not fit me. He was clearly amused, but he said nothing.

In Portland Street I went to a cheap hotel and asked for a private room. The man at the hotel desk looked at my clothes and smiled. But the look on my face quickly took the smile from his mouth. I asked for some paper, and he gave it to me. Then I went to the room.There I sat at a table and wrote two letters, one to Lanyon and one to Poole. Then I paid a servant at the hotel and he took them.

The rest of the day was a time of great fear. Most of the time I sat alone in the hotel room. A waiter brought my dinner to me, then I sat by the fire. When it was dark, I left the hotel. I walked through the empty streets of the city until midnight. I walked

quickly and stayed in the shadows. Once a woman spoke to me, but I hit her across the face and she ran away.

I changed back to myself— to Dr Jekyll — at Lanyon's house. He was shocked, and the fear on my old friend's face hurt me. He was angry with me, of course. But the memory of those terrible hours as Hyde frightened me most. I was terribly afraid. Not afraid of a murderer's death, but afraid of being Hyde.

I listened to Lanyon's angry words, but I seemed to be in a dream. And I seemed to walk home and go to my bed in that same dream.

I slept well at home. In the morning I felt weak but calm. I hated the evil man who slept inside me. But I was at home in my own house again, near the chemicals that I needed.

After breakfast, I walked across the courtyard to my workroom. I was enjoying the cold but clear air. Then suddenly I began to change into Hyde again. I realized immediately what was happening. I had enough time to reach my room over the workroom. Then I was filled with the power of Hyde's evil.

I worked quickly. But I had to take double the usual amount of the liquid before I was Jekyll again.

Six hours after that, the pain and the change returned, and again I had to take the liquid.

From that day, only the chemical kept Hyde away. At all hours of the day and night I felt pain and suffered the change. When I slept, I woke up as Hyde. Even if I fell half-asleep for a minute in my chair, the same thing happened.

I was afraid to sleep. But when I stayed awake, the change still came. When the power of the chemical became weak, I became Hyde.Without sleep, and with the terrible fear, my health began to leave me.

A n d as Jekyll got weaker, Hyde grew stronger.

Now a last terrible thing has happened. I sent Poole for more chemicals when the chemicals from Maw and Company were

nearly finished. I mixed them with the liquid, but they were not strong enough. The colour of the liquid was different. I drank it, but nothing happened.

Poole will tell you that he searched London for more chemicals. I believe now that there was something in those first chemicals. It was not there in the other chemicals.That unknown something gave the chemical its power.

About a week has passed. I am using the last of the old chemicals so I can write this to you. This is the last time that Henry Jekyll will have his own mind. He will not see his face (now terribly changed and old) in the mirror again. And I must bring my story to an end quickly. If the change comes now, Hyde will destroy this letter. But if I have already finished it, he will be too busy. He has to think of a way to escape the death of a murderer.

Will Hyde hang as a murderer? Or will he be brave? Will he kill himself and escape that death? I do not know. This is my real hour of death. The future will happen to another person. Here, then, I am putting my pen down and I am ending the life of the unhappy Henry Jekyll.