The Hutch

**The Hutch** is what Lethe delegates call the secret rooms above the shop on 268 York St, New Haven, Connecticut. Located closer to the dorms and campus relative to Il Bastone, the Hutch is a warded place for the delegates of Lethe House to rest and eat a snack. Like Il Bastone, its rooms and food stores are maintained by Pamela Dawes in her office as Oculus.

While the commercial space below the secret rooms are now a clothing store, the space has hosted a shoe store, a wilderness outfitter, and a twenty-four-hour Wawa mini-mart with its own Taco Bell counter.

## History

### 1900's

In the period of time when the shop below the Hutch was a Wawa mini-mart, Lethe delegates complained about the stink of re-fried beans and grilled onions seeping up through the floor. In 1995, someone had enchanted the Hutch and the back staircase that led to the alley so that it always smelled of fabric softener and clove.

### Ninth House

After Darlington toured Alex Stern around Il Bastone for the first time, he took her to the Hutch.

On Halloween, Darlington met up with Alex in the alley way next to the Hutch before they walked to Manuscript, only a few blocks away. Alex and Darlington would walk back to the Hutch alley, with Mike Awolowo and Kate Masters in tow. Outside the Hutch, Alex and Mike came to an agreement to keep Manuscript's actions quiet in exchange for a favor, before Alex calls a car to drive Alex and Darlington to Black Elm. The next morning, a car drops the pair off at the Hutch once again.

After spending the night supervising the Skull and Bones' prognostication and investigating Tara Hutchins' crime scene, Alex stopped by the Hutch in the early morning to wash off the stink of the Veil with the stocked verbena soap filled with cedar and palo santo. Alex had to dress in Lethe House sweats embroidered with the Lethe spirit hound, having not followed Darlington's advice in keeping clothes there. In contrast, a set of Darlington's clothes still remained in the dressing room.

The next day, when Alex was getting attacked by the gluma and infected with corpse beetles, Alex escapes to the Hutch, which immediately opened its doors to her. Fortunately, Dawes was inside and was able to carry Alex upstairs and give her a potion of brimstone to burn away the beetles before healing her burned throat with another potion. A few hours later, Sandow visited the pair, called by Dawes about Alex's near-death experience, and informs them everything was ready for the new-moon rite to retrieve Darlington. Alex tells Sandow of her theory that the societies may be involved with Tara Hutchins' murder, only for Sandow to dismiss her concerns. Alex, looking at the old map of New Haven above the mantel, realized that the site of Tara's death mimics the shape of the original colony plan.

After her trip to the Egyptian borderlands, the next day, Alex and Dawes went back to the Hutch. Dawes prepared Alex some hot cocoa with her gourmet marshmallows as Alex, sitting on the window seat overlooking the street, described what she saw. Despite the bizarre details of the borderlands, Dawes only protested at the notion of Alex breaking into Tara's apartment, arguing that Turner won't let her get close to wherever Tara lived. Outside the Hutch, Alex asked whether she knew anything about a 'Jean Du Monde' or a 'Jonathan Desmond,' only for Pamela to say she didn't know. Alex informs her that North claims Darlington isn't in the borderlands, much to Dawes' relief. Alex inquires how Pamela got into Lethe and she tells Alex she was chosen because of her dissertation topic, how being Oculus was boring work until Darlington befriended her. Upset, Pamela rushed back into the Hutch.

After being hospitalized from Blake Keely's attack on Il Bastone, Alex spends three weeks at the Hutch, not returning to her dorms or classes. She ate all the stocked food in the apartment and then takeout food charged to Darlington's account. Her wounds from the Lethe hounds were healing badly and she spent most nights either sleeping on the window seat or on the floor. Alex found herself reading the *Suggested Requirements for Lethe Candidates* pamphlet. Alex was startled when a rock came through the window. Looking down, Alex found Mercy and her mother Mira Stern on the street. Although against the rules to allow outsiders inside Lethe locations, Alex figured that after everything the societies had done to reveal their secrets, she was allowed to bring her mother and friend to the Hutch.

As Mira tidied up the apartment, Mercy confessed to following Alex a couple of times to the Hutch. The pair made Alex shower and book an appointment with the university's health center to get antibiotics, though Alex refused to show them her injury. Mira went to the market for food, and later got Alex new clothes. After finding out her mother was only at New Haven until tomorrow morning, Alex goes to tour Mira around the campus and dorms.

## Security Measures

The house is warded against magical creatures, particularly Grays. When something such as a Gray comes into contact with the wards, a chime rings, notifying the occupants inside. Furthermore, when someone enters the stairway, a low gong sounds audible from the living room.

## Layout

The Hutch is small in comparison to Il Bastone. The entrance is in the alley of the building, requiring people to take stairs to enter through the apartment's metallic door. The back staircase and the Hutch itself is enchanted to smell of fresh laundry and clove. There are four known rooms: the living room, the kitchen and the bathroom and the narrow dressing room.

Near the door, there is a bronze post shaped like a jackal’s head, used as a coat rack. The common living room has carpeted flooring and is decorated with framed paintings of meadows filled with sheep and shepherds. Inside, there's a couch, a wing-backed chair, a desk and an antique samovar—along with a window seat overlooking the street below. On the far wall, there is a mirror television. On another wall was the fireplace. Above the mantel was an old map of the New Haven colony.

In the kitchen are stocked pantries and a freezer. The bathroom has a shower and near the bathroom is a narrow dressing room that has storage space for Lethe delegates' clothes.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 *Ninth House* Prologue (Early Spring)
2. ↑ *Ninth House* Chapter 2 (Last Fall)
3. ↑ Ninth House Chapter 10 (Last Fall)
4. ↑ Ninth House Chapter 13 (Last Fall)
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 *Ninth House* Chapter 5 (Winter)
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 *Ninth House* Chapter 9 Winter
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 *Ninth House* Chapter 11 (Winter)
8. ↑ Ninth House Chapter 14
9. ↑ Ninth House Chapter 28 Early Spring
10. ↑ “Dawes struck a few keys on her computer, and the mirror on the far wall brightened. A moment later, the screen showed Elm Street teeming with cars and people" Ninth House Ch. 11