The Undefined Criminal - A Sherlock Fanfic

Into The Fire

The stairs seem endless. The length of two floors in four staircases feel like a towering eternity. Claire keeps my arm secure around her shoulders as we struggle up the stairs. I have to practically hop up the stairs because my ankle shrieks in pain. We finally clamber up to a large door. I force Claire to stop to take a breath. She leans me against a wall and I run my hand through my oily, dark brown hair. We're both out of breath, mainly from all the adrenaline. No time to rest. Everyone's lives are at stake! I lift myself from the wall and force myself to balance my weight out on both feet. Not working. This level of pain, I must've dislocated it when I kicked Stephen. Ugh, I'm an idiot! "Claire, my foot's dislocated," I groaned. "I need you to snap it back,"

       "Wait, what? I can't do that!" her voice is shaking.

       "Why not?"

       "Because I'm not a doctor! That's why!"

       "Oh please, I've done it a few times. Well, I've actually dislocated a few-"

       "What!?"

       "Not important. Come on, I need you to do it,"

       She knows there's no other choice. She slowly makes her way over to me, and I slide to the floor. I grab onto a railing bar next to me as she wraps her hands around my ankle. "Okay, all you need to do is pop it back into place," I take bigger breaths. "It's easy!"

       "Okay, okay," she inhales a long breath. "On three... One-"

       She quickly pushes my ankle bone back to where it's supposed to be. I quietly scream in agony. "What the hell? What happened to two and three?"

       "I panicked,"

       I take in some audible breaths to try to ease the pain. Surprisingly, I can move my ankle more comfortably. I wait a few seconds for my heart to slow to a somewhat normal rate, and start to lift myself back up from the floor. Claire offers to help, but I don't need it. All I have now is a bearable limp. I can work with that. "Okay, are you ready?" I ask.

       "Let's get out of here," Claire grins.

       I quietly open the door and peek my head out. A large warehouse appears in front of me. Giant old machines fill the space, each one about seven or eight meters away from each other. This place looks like it hasn't been used for decades. The walls are cracked and sunlight shines through giant gaps. I freeze at the sight of natural light, I started to think I would never see it again. The giant lightbulbs on the ceiling are broken or dead, the sunlight is the only thing filling the room. It's actually quite bright in here for an abandoned place, it must be midday. There doesn't seem to be anyone around, but voices seem to be echoing north of me. "See anyone?" Claire whispers.

       "No, but I hear some people up ahead," I reply.

       "Great!" she pushes in front of me and quietly sprints over to the closest machine.

She signals for me to follow as she crouches under a large tube running around the machine. The thought of freedom influenced me to follow. I crouched down next to her. "Okay, here's the plan. If everyone is truly at the main entrance up ahead, then we can just sneak out way over to the loading docks to the right-"

"What about the cops?" I cut her off.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Stephen said that they were going to be killed after they hand over Charles. We can't just leave them,"

"When did you start caring about cops?"

"When I realized that they're not all against people like us-"