(Sherlock x Reader) Never trust those who are never truthful

Chapter 6 - Blood Eagle

All these distractions were not helping his deduction skills. His mind was wrapped around the mystery and puzzle of you and it seemed to him that the crime scene reeked of you. It was as if everything he did or saw reminded him of you. He was currently trying not to think of you, but yet again Sherlock Holmes seemed to be losing control very very slowly on what he let into his head and what he could get out of it. You did not seem to make an exception.

Everytime he turned a corner to find some information in his mind palace, you were there. Smiling the same as ever, a little bit nervous but still you. And that was the most infuriating thing about it, it was all you! Everywhere he went and he hated it, the only other person who was like this with him was the woman and he couldn't deduce a damn thing about her! So what the hell was going on with you?

He pushed all of the doubts out of his mind and tried to focus, if you wouldn't go away even when you weren't there he had to just put up with you whether he liked it or not. And he wasn't at all sure whether he did like it or not. He shook his head, curls bouncing, as if it would help to get you out of his mind. It didn't.

"Sherlock? Are you alright?" Lestrade's voice seemed to cut through the fog in his mind and dragged him back to the surface of reality. He looked at him a little blankly as if he was talking gibberish. Well he usually was, but that was beside the point.

"I'm sorry what?" His eyes had slightly glazed over, he just was not himself. Maybe your presence wasn't so distracting after all. Perhaps it even helped to focus him, not the reverse. That would explain why he felt like he missed you all of a sudden.

"Are you high?" Lestrade frowned, looking into the young man's eyes, he didn't look like he was on drugs, physically of course. There weren't any of the tell tale signs but you could never know wtih Sherlock, he was expertly skilled at hiding things he didn't want to be seen. But there was something a little off about him. He needed to ask the question anyway because last time he seemed perfectly normal before and then ended up in a drug den. And that was not a pretty sight to see, even after all the times Lestrade had seen him high. That was the worst.

"What?! Yes I'm fine, just a little..." he trailed off not really wanting to admit that he couldn't concentrate at the crime at hand so he went back to the dead body in front of him, "So this is exactly the same as before?" he looked up at Lestrade as he bent down to look at the exploded body a little more closely.

"Well yes but this time the explosion didn't do the same sort of damage as before so we could actually see how they died this time." He said slowly, hoping what he said actually went into Sherlock's head this time.

"So the explosion didn't kill the last one?" Sherlock looked confused, were his deductions wrong from last time? This surely couldn't happen again, not after all the embarassing things he said last time he got it all wrong.

"No, they seemed to maul the body first." Sherlock's brow furrowed even further so Lestrade continued, a little exasperated that the detective hadn't picked up on it yet, he really wasn't himself "They performed a blood eagle, you know? Like the vikings did? No well okay then... The vikings used to break their victims ribs next to the spine, pull them up and pull out the lungs through the back to reseble that of wings. Understand?" Sherlock nodded and gulped, he had no idea that they were dealing with such a sadistic killer, he'd never dealt with something like this before. these muders were the things that you hardly ever saw anymore and were just on Tv shows that always over-dramatises things "This is what we're dealing with so if come up with anything, just let me know okay?"

Sherlock nodded again, all distraction gone out of his head now, he could only focus on the images in his head of how the murder must have taken place. They must have had this done when they were still alive, screaming for help, screaming in pain for no one to hear them and have them be killed mercilessly. Without regret. He couldn't quite place why they had exploded the body though, it was odd. Surely if they were to perform something so elaborate they would wish for it to be seen by everyone? Be on the news, give a warning to everyone. Or maybe it was someone else who exploded the bodies? Or something else...