Chapter 12 Henry Jekyll's Story

M y reason? Because, as my story will show, my experiments were

not completed.
 It was a long time before I decided to try the chemicals.There

were too many things that could go wrong. I was afraid of dying. But finally I had to know! I had to have the answer!

My experiments showed me the liquid that was necessary. Then I bought from Maw and Company - the chemists - a lot of the special salt chemical that I needed to put into it. Late one night, I carefully put the salt chemical and liquid into a glass and

mixed them together. I watched the liquid change colour. Then, nervously, I drank what was in the glass.

I felt terrible pain and a great sickness. But then, quite quickly, the pain went away and I began to feel better! I felt younger, lighter, happier, andfreeinmybody.Mymindfeltfree, too.But1 knew immediately that I was more evil than every other man on

earth. How did I know this? I do not know. But it was a wonderful feeling! Like the, taste ofthe best wine!

I looked down at my body. I saw immediately that I was smaller than before.There was no mirror in my workroom then — I brought it in later. So that night I went quickly across the dark courtyard and into the house. It was after midnight. All my

servants were asleep, so they did not see me.
 I went quietly up to my bedroom and straight to my mirror.

In it, for the first time, I saw the man that I decided to call Edward Hyde. He was much smaller and younger than Henry Jekyll. I can only believe that the evil side of me was not fully grown. It was not as strong as my good side.The worst part of me

was not as old and tired as the good and honest part.
 The ugly face in the mirror was an evil face, I knew that. But I felt no fear. I welcomed it, because it seemed very natural. The

face looked more alive than my usual face.
 Later I realized that people could not come near me without a

feeling of great dislike. They hated me before I even spoke.

'This is probably because they have never met a man like Edward Hyde. He is a man who is all bad — all evil, ' I told myself. ' Most people are good and bad.'

Now came the next part ofmy experiment. I returned to my workroom and prepared the chemical again - and drank it. Once again I suffered the terrible pains of change. But I soon had the face and body of Henry Jekyll.

That night my life changed for ever. The experiment was a success, and from that time I was two people. One was Edward Hyde — a man completely evil. The other man was dear old Henry Jekyll.

As time passed, I felt a greater and greater need to escape into the younger, more exciting body of Edward Hyde. And it was so easy. I only had to drink the liquid, and there I was! In my new life.

I prepared everything carefully. As Hyde, I took the house in Soho and employed a woman. She looked after it and asked no questions. As Jekyll, I described Mr Hyde and told my servants: ' Mr Hyde can use my house in the square when he wants to use it.' I visited the house two or three times as Mr Hyde so there were no mistakes. His visits became quite usual.

At times Henry Jekyll was shocked and frightened by the things that Edward Hyde did. But only Hyde did wrong. Jekyll was not worse than before the experiment. He often tried to correct the wrong things that were done by Hyde.

Then I made the will that you did not like.Why did I make it? Because I wanted to be able to change from Dr Jekyll to Edward Hyde without losing all my money.

I would not like to describe everything that I did as Edward Hyde but I will tell you about one accident. It happened one night. I knocked down a child, and this made another man very angry. I saw the man the other day — he is your friend. The child's family were very angry, too. For a time I was afraid that they

wanted to kill me. But Edward Hyde calmed them. He brought them to the workroom door and gave them a cheque from Henry Jekyll.

But most of the time, everything seemed perfect. If I was in trouble as Hyde, I only had to escape into my workroom through the door in the narrow street. I only needed a minute to make and drink the liquid. Then Edward Hyde disappeared! In his place, sitting quietly at his desk, was good, honest Henry Jekyll!

Edward Hyde was an evil man. Slowly, his actions got worse and worse. Then, two months before the murder of Sir Danvers Carew, I — Henry Jekyll — went out one evening and returned late. When I woke up the next morning, I looked down at my hand. The skin on it was darker, and it was half-covered in thick hair!

It was the hand of Edward Hyde!

I looked at it for almost a minute before I jumped out of bed. I ran to the mirror and looked at my face.Yes! There it was! There was no mistake!

'I went to bed as Henry Jekyll, but I have woken up as Edward Hyde! ' I thought. ' How could it happen? What went wrong? And what am I going to do? '

All my chemicals were in my workroom, but I had to get to them. It was late in the morning and my servants were already working in the house. But I had to go through the house and across the courtyard.Then I remembered!

' Of course! ' I thought.' The servants have seen Edward Hyde in the house before now! ' And I laughed.

I dressed quickly and went downstairs. One of my servants saw me. He looked a little shocked when he saw Edward Hyde so early in the day. But he said nothing. I hurried across the courtyard as fast as I could. I went straight to my workroom and quickly mixed the liquid. Then I drank it.

Ten minutes later, Dr Jekyll returned to the house for his breakfast.