My ficlet: I is for Innocent
Jun. 9th, 2025 05:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stonepicnicking_okapiTitle: I is for Innocent
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Rating: Gen
Warning: Major Character Death
Notes: Angst, part 2 of Time Loop: Reichenbach, set during "The Final Problem, this is a linked series of ficlets in which Watson relives Reichenbach based on theories collated in The Annotated Sherlock Holmes about what happened on that day.
Warnings: Drug use, needles, Murder, Suicide, please don't read if the idea of Holmes killing an innocent person and himself during a cocaine binge will upset you.
Length: 500
Characters: Holmes & Watson
Prompt:
Summary: Watson wakes up (again) on 4 May 1891 in Switzerland with Holmes and discovers Holmes' mind is fatally addled by cocaine.
“Holmes?”
The needle was in his arm. His eyes were closed, and his expression was one of pure rapture. When he opened his eyes, his pupils were tiny dots.
“Did you not go on your mission?”
“My mission? My mission! My mission to the moon!” Holmes cried out and sprang up and danced about the room, our room at the Englischer Hof.
“What day is it?” I asked.
“May Day! Let’s take our ribbons and dance, Watson!”
The Morocco case was open on the bed. That explained Holmes’ behaviour.
I rose and went out and ran into Peter Steiler the elder. He informed me it was the fourth of May. He asked me if I still planned to go to Rosenlaui and to see the Falls. He relaxed when I said that I and my companion were still of a mind to go.
When I returned to the room, Holmes was euphoric. He practically danced out the front door of the inn.
“The trees are a lovely lilac from their roots to their leaves, the gaslight, too, gives off a violet glow!” he sang.
“Holmes, who is chasing us?”
“Chasing us? I know of no one. Pray tell me, Dear Watson, who is at our heels?”
Without saying the man’s name, I proceeded to recount the version of Moriarty I held, somewhere, in the recesses of my memory.
Criminal mastermind. Archenemy. Villain.
“Dear me, how have I let such a fiend exist?!” exclaimed Holmes. “And you say he is pursuing us now?”
To be fair, I wasn’t certain anymore.
“But what is his name, Watson?”
“He goes by so many,” I replied vaguely. “It would be of no use to tell you.”
At last, we reached Reichenbach, but while I was taking the measure of them, Holmes was taking another measure of cocaine.
A lone traveler approached the Falls from the opposite direction.
I greeted the gentleman and made some cursory remarks about our surroundings.
“And what is your name?” asked Holmes, looking almost unrecognizable, like a feral beast.
“P-p-professor J-j-james M-m-moriarty,” stammered the man.
“I thought as much.”
And then, to my abject horror, Holmes picked the man up and hurled him off the edge into the water.
“HOLMES!”
“There! The villain is vanquished!”
I looked over, tried to see if perhaps the man had survived, but could see nothing.
“Holmes, it was not him!”
“Was it not?”
“You have committed murder, Holmes!”
His expression was blank. “I shall hang.”
I spotted the Moroccan case on the stone and turned my helpless rage against it. I grabbed it and hurled it over the cliff.
“No, no, no! Watson, what have you done?”
Holmes leapt.
He followed the case, and the man, into the air and down into the water.
I walked back to the Englischer Hof in a daze. Mycroft Holmes was waiting for me.
“What has happened?”
I told him.
He nodded. “Professor James Moriarty shall live in infamy, and may God have mercy on all our souls.”
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Rating: Gen
Warning: Major Character Death
Notes: Angst, part 2 of Time Loop: Reichenbach, set during "The Final Problem, this is a linked series of ficlets in which Watson relives Reichenbach based on theories collated in The Annotated Sherlock Holmes about what happened on that day.
Warnings: Drug use, needles, Murder, Suicide, please don't read if the idea of Holmes killing an innocent person and himself during a cocaine binge will upset you.
Length: 500
Characters: Holmes & Watson
Prompt:
Summary: Watson wakes up (again) on 4 May 1891 in Switzerland with Holmes and discovers Holmes' mind is fatally addled by cocaine.
“Holmes?”
The needle was in his arm. His eyes were closed, and his expression was one of pure rapture. When he opened his eyes, his pupils were tiny dots.
“Did you not go on your mission?”
“My mission? My mission! My mission to the moon!” Holmes cried out and sprang up and danced about the room, our room at the Englischer Hof.
“What day is it?” I asked.
“May Day! Let’s take our ribbons and dance, Watson!”
The Morocco case was open on the bed. That explained Holmes’ behaviour.
I rose and went out and ran into Peter Steiler the elder. He informed me it was the fourth of May. He asked me if I still planned to go to Rosenlaui and to see the Falls. He relaxed when I said that I and my companion were still of a mind to go.
When I returned to the room, Holmes was euphoric. He practically danced out the front door of the inn.
“The trees are a lovely lilac from their roots to their leaves, the gaslight, too, gives off a violet glow!” he sang.
“Holmes, who is chasing us?”
“Chasing us? I know of no one. Pray tell me, Dear Watson, who is at our heels?”
Without saying the man’s name, I proceeded to recount the version of Moriarty I held, somewhere, in the recesses of my memory.
Criminal mastermind. Archenemy. Villain.
“Dear me, how have I let such a fiend exist?!” exclaimed Holmes. “And you say he is pursuing us now?”
To be fair, I wasn’t certain anymore.
“But what is his name, Watson?”
“He goes by so many,” I replied vaguely. “It would be of no use to tell you.”
At last, we reached Reichenbach, but while I was taking the measure of them, Holmes was taking another measure of cocaine.
A lone traveler approached the Falls from the opposite direction.
I greeted the gentleman and made some cursory remarks about our surroundings.
“And what is your name?” asked Holmes, looking almost unrecognizable, like a feral beast.
“P-p-professor J-j-james M-m-moriarty,” stammered the man.
“I thought as much.”
And then, to my abject horror, Holmes picked the man up and hurled him off the edge into the water.
“HOLMES!”
“There! The villain is vanquished!”
I looked over, tried to see if perhaps the man had survived, but could see nothing.
“Holmes, it was not him!”
“Was it not?”
“You have committed murder, Holmes!”
His expression was blank. “I shall hang.”
I spotted the Moroccan case on the stone and turned my helpless rage against it. I grabbed it and hurled it over the cliff.
“No, no, no! Watson, what have you done?”
Holmes leapt.
He followed the case, and the man, into the air and down into the water.
I walked back to the Englischer Hof in a daze. Mycroft Holmes was waiting for me.
“What has happened?”
I told him.
He nodded. “Professor James Moriarty shall live in infamy, and may God have mercy on all our souls.”
no subject
Date: 2025-06-09 10:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2025-06-10 06:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
From: