My ficlet: I is for Incarnate
Jun. 12th, 2025 06:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stonepicnicking_okapiTitle: I is for Incarnate
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Rating: Gen
Notes: Angst, part 3 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.
Length: 500
Characters: Holmes & Watson & Moriarty & Moran
Prompt: timid
Warning: Major Character Death, elements of the supernatural
Summary: Watson wakes up on 4 May 1891 in Switzerland with Holmes and discovers Moriarty more than what he seems.
“Ah, Watson, you’re awake. Wonderful. I had planned to knock you up in a moment. Enjoy your nap?”
I stared at Holmes, then I studied him.
His physique bore no signs of drugging. My eyes surveyed the room, and the Moroccan case was no where in sight. I tried a question.
“How did you manage to get out?”
“Of London? The same way you did, my good man. Are you ready for our walk to Rosenlaui? With the detour recommended by our good landlord?”
I tried a statement. It came too easy to my lips. “But we went there yesterday.”
“Sleep has muddled you, Watson. Why, we only arrived in Meiringen yesterday.”
“What is today, Holmes?”
“The fourth of May.”
On our hike, little coaxing was required to get Holmes to hold forth on the subject of Professor James Moriarty, and his opinion was as it had been in London.
Criminal mastermind. Archenemy. Villain.
“He is following us?” I asked timidly.
“I pray not, but with so calculating a personage, one can’t be certain. He is evil incarnate, Watson. Do not underestimate him.”
We arrived at the Reichenbach Falls, so did the messenger from the Englischer Hof about the dying English woman. I pretended to take my leave, but I did not quit the area, I merely found a decent hiding place from which to view Holmes.
There was a figure in the black cloak.
The two stood apart in conversation which I could not hear for the rushing of the water.
Holmes quit his companion. There was the flash of his cigarette case.
Was he leaving the note for me to find?
I assumed so, for he returned without his walking stick.
I considered that perhaps the aim of this confusion of time, repetition of day, was for me to intervene, so as soon as Holmes stepped to the figure, I charged.
They wrestled, but just before I could reach them, they tipped, as one into the abyss.
“HOLMES!” I cried and peered as far over the edge as I dared.
The one became two before my very eyes.
One half continued the journey downward, but the other half halted mid-flight, the black cloak billowing then catching on a limb.
Then hands reached out and yanked the figure to the ledge below.
The singular acoustics of the chasm threw up a voice, “Reflexes as sharp as ever, I see, Colonel.”
“HOLMES!”
A duet of chuckling.
I resolved to return as quickly as I could to the Englischer Hof and alert the authorities, but when I reached the steps of that establishment, my mission was arrested, and my heart was in my throat.
A reptilian figure in a dark cloak was waiting for me with a henchman of the worst order at his side.
His eyes were red. From the lower hem of the cloak, there uncurled a pitchforked tail.
I smelled brimstone.
A voice rumbled,
“Now don’t swoon, my timid mouse, or there’ll be the very Devil to pay.”
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Rating: Gen
Notes: Angst, part 3 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.
Length: 500
Characters: Holmes & Watson & Moriarty & Moran
Prompt: timid
Warning: Major Character Death, elements of the supernatural
Summary: Watson wakes up on 4 May 1891 in Switzerland with Holmes and discovers Moriarty more than what he seems.
“Ah, Watson, you’re awake. Wonderful. I had planned to knock you up in a moment. Enjoy your nap?”
I stared at Holmes, then I studied him.
His physique bore no signs of drugging. My eyes surveyed the room, and the Moroccan case was no where in sight. I tried a question.
“How did you manage to get out?”
“Of London? The same way you did, my good man. Are you ready for our walk to Rosenlaui? With the detour recommended by our good landlord?”
I tried a statement. It came too easy to my lips. “But we went there yesterday.”
“Sleep has muddled you, Watson. Why, we only arrived in Meiringen yesterday.”
“What is today, Holmes?”
“The fourth of May.”
On our hike, little coaxing was required to get Holmes to hold forth on the subject of Professor James Moriarty, and his opinion was as it had been in London.
Criminal mastermind. Archenemy. Villain.
“He is following us?” I asked timidly.
“I pray not, but with so calculating a personage, one can’t be certain. He is evil incarnate, Watson. Do not underestimate him.”
We arrived at the Reichenbach Falls, so did the messenger from the Englischer Hof about the dying English woman. I pretended to take my leave, but I did not quit the area, I merely found a decent hiding place from which to view Holmes.
There was a figure in the black cloak.
The two stood apart in conversation which I could not hear for the rushing of the water.
Holmes quit his companion. There was the flash of his cigarette case.
Was he leaving the note for me to find?
I assumed so, for he returned without his walking stick.
I considered that perhaps the aim of this confusion of time, repetition of day, was for me to intervene, so as soon as Holmes stepped to the figure, I charged.
They wrestled, but just before I could reach them, they tipped, as one into the abyss.
“HOLMES!” I cried and peered as far over the edge as I dared.
The one became two before my very eyes.
One half continued the journey downward, but the other half halted mid-flight, the black cloak billowing then catching on a limb.
Then hands reached out and yanked the figure to the ledge below.
The singular acoustics of the chasm threw up a voice, “Reflexes as sharp as ever, I see, Colonel.”
“HOLMES!”
A duet of chuckling.
I resolved to return as quickly as I could to the Englischer Hof and alert the authorities, but when I reached the steps of that establishment, my mission was arrested, and my heart was in my throat.
A reptilian figure in a dark cloak was waiting for me with a henchman of the worst order at his side.
His eyes were red. From the lower hem of the cloak, there uncurled a pitchforked tail.
I smelled brimstone.
A voice rumbled,
“Now don’t swoon, my timid mouse, or there’ll be the very Devil to pay.”
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