The Devil Was Never Here

We're Always Watching

"Would it be alright if I put up video cameras in your hallway?" Sherlock asked suddenly, looking up at the Watsons, who were having a very useless conversation with Molly about parenting. It was almost as if they were trying to avoid the topic of the undead, as if by ignoring it that it would somehow just go away.
"Oh um...sure. Would that help in your investigation?" Mary wondered, sounding rather reluctant.
"Very much so." Sherlock agreed with a pleasant smile.
"You have cameras for something like that?" Molly wondered, looking at Sherlock in confusion.
"Well...no. But I'm sure I could get some, I think I have a credit card." Sherlock decided, searching his pockets for his wallet uncertainly.
"Well Sherlock if you're going to spend your own money on something that we're using we'd be happy to split the cost. How many do you need?" John wondered. Sherlock heard a little yip of pain and something banged on the table, presumably Mary's knee as she brought her foot down hard on John's shoe under the table. Obviously Mary didn't like investing in such a thing.
"Two cameras will be ideal; I could hook them up wirelessly and watch from Molly's apartment, kind of alike a spy camera I guess." Sherlock planned.
"Sounds stalkerish." Mary decided with a frown.
"Well, I mean, it kind of is. But we're not spying on you; we're spying on the ghost." Sherlock debated. Mary sighed heavily, but finally nodded. Sherlock smiled thankfully, and soon he was heading to the store with one hundred dollars of the Watson's money and one hundred dollars of his own, hoping that would somehow cover the cost. Molly went back to her apartment to feed her cat Hellen, and so Sherlock was left fighting against sales people all by himself. The lack of the dead was strangely nice, however, he almost felt normal as he browsed through the aisles in the local computer store without having to step over the bloodied corpses of hit and run victims. In the end Sherlock walked out of the store with two small, live feed cameras, and a cable to hook the cameras up to his computer and get them synced or whatever he had to do. The tech guy explained the process, to which Sherlock heard none of, and sent his on his way. Sherlock arrived back at the Watson's house about an hour and a half later, he was driving Molly's cute little car and so he looked very odd as he climbed out of the driver's seat with a cry of pain, stretching out his leg muscles thankfully. John helped him set the cameras up, and Mary just observed, occasionally leaving the men to do the work to play with Rosie or make dinner. Sherlock appreciated this solitude, partially because he wanted to know his victim better, and partially because John was pretty cute.
"I don't think Mary really likes the idea of putting this camera in the bedroom." John muttered as Sherlock stacked up shoe boxes to make a platform for the camera at the appropriate angle.
"Well, she's right not to, but you can trust us. This isn't for creepy peeping, this is a formal investigation. You two can change in the bathroom, or give us time periods when we shouldn't be watching." Sherlock suggested.
"We'll just change in the bathroom, it will be alright. I just don't want you to see me snoring." John said with a little laugh.
"I'm sure the snoring will be the least eventful part of your night." Sherlock decided. He went around the back of the camera and made sure it could see the whole room from the corner it was placed. The shoe boxes were a bit of an uneven surface, but Sherlock was planning on duck taping it down later.
"You think the ghost will try to turn the cameras off?" John wondered as he watched Sherlock turn the camera on and look around with it, trying to find the right angle.
"I don't see why it would care, it's only being observed. In some cases the dead like the attention." Sherlock decided with a shrug. John nodded, sighing heavily as if he had too many questions to ask in such a short amount of time.
"You don't have to be scared John, we're going to figure this out." Sherlock assured, taking a break from adjusting the camera to give John a look of reassurance. John nodded, smiling as if he were trying to convince Sherlock that he wasn't scared at all. That was pathetic, however, it didn't matter how many smiles John plastered onto his face, Sherlock knew he was scared, anyone would be. If he wasn't scared then the ghost had kicked his human soul out long ago.
"I just wonder why it took me." John admitted. Sherlock nodded, he had been wondering that as well.
"There may be no reason at all. The dead are unpredictable John, they do what they do, they do what's convenient. Most likely this ghost was from this house, someone who died here." Sherlock decided.
"And it it's not?" John wondered curiously.
"If it's not from here then you picked it up somewhere around town, it's kind of like a germ. You didn't even know you got it, but somehow it got in, and somehow it spread." Sherlock muttered. John nodded once more, but he didn't bother smiling. He just looked down uncertainly at his shoes, obviously worried about his own health.
"As long as it doesn't hurt my family." He decided.
"It has no reason to hurt your family John, as long as they stay out of this then they will not get hurt." Sherlock assured. He scanned the room one more time with the camera before setting it in the proper angle, plugging it into the wall so that it wouldn't lose battery and leaving it on. According to the tech guy, it should broadcast a feed to Sherlock's laptop up to ten miles away, which was ideal for this kind of situation.
"Who do you think it will go after then?" John wondered. Sherlock just laughed, stepping out from behind the shoe boxes and looking at John with a smile.
"Well, preferably no one, but if it does get provoked it will most likely go after me." Sherlock guessed. John frowned; obviously he didn't like that idea.
"How? Will it use paranormal powers on your, choke you like Darth Vader or something?" John wondered. Sherlock just shrugged, he honestly didn't know how a ghost would attack, if they could attack at all.
"It would take something very powerful to use supernatural forces on me; most likely it will use your human form to attack me. Hand to hand combat." Sherlock guessed, shrugging as if this were a perfectly normal conversation.
"Oh." Was the only thing John could respond with. "I hope you've taken self-defense classes then."
"Well, no, not really." Sherlock admitted with a laugh.
"I think anyone using my human form could crush you like a grape." John decided, looking Sherlock up and down as if trying to determine how quickly a man like him could break. Sherlock could only smirk back; evidently John was seriously under estimating him.
"I'm stronger than I look." Sherlock insisted, and with that he walked out into the hallway to adjust the other camera.