Strangeness and Charm (a Sherlock Fanfiction)

A Car Accident (Bear McCreary)

Grace was slumbering in the couch, a furry, orange comfort blanket draped across her waist and legs. Her red curls were sprawled out onto her collarbones, and her half opened eyes were pointed at the television screen, displaying The Graham Norton Show.

It was a drowsy summer night, lousy fog roaming the night sky and preventing the inhabitants of London to gaze up at the stars. Even the moon was nowhere to be seen. 

Grace's boyfriend, Jared Daniels, was out on a night-shift, as usual. For an eighteen-year-old, he took his job rather serious. Grace, on the other hand, didn't really have a job; only ever a hobby. She was a modern age noir photographer, and had a website, at which she posted and sold some of her photographs. Mostly, she photographed streets and people, and converted the pictured into unique urban pieces of art. 

Tonight was... strangely calm. Shadows infiltrated through the window behind the television, and drew black lines on the light green wallpaper, which was patterened with yellow roses and sparrow birds. 

Delilah, Grace's orange-and-black patched tortoiseshell feline, yawned loudly, and then snapped in the air a couple of times, as if she was catching butterflies. The cat was perched onto the creme white coloured couch, at Grace's right, her claws seethed and her honey-brown eyes blinking lazily. 

Grace took a deep breath, and crossed her legs, her heels planted into the yellow and white printed rug at the floor; at that exact moment, all guests in the show burst out with laughter. Grace cracked a smile, and let her eyes trail across the room, unvoluntarily.

Everything was just the same. There was a large mug of tea, printed with a ladybug, atop the sidetable between the television and the couch. Jared had given it to her, as a present, months ago. He was a fine lad, Jared. Funny, smart, thoughtful. Grace's look averted from the fir wood floorboards to the cupboard, stacked with little heirdoms and memoirs at the right. Its mahogany wood was left in the shadowd, and nearly looked black. The cupboard contained a skull her dad has given her, a pipe, a picture of Jared's parents (which Grace had made on his request), and... 

There was a pink something peering out of one of the three drawers, at the bottom of the cupboard.   

Grace frowned at it. Pink?  She despised that bloody colour. She had never put anything pink in the cupboard, she was sure of it. Jared, maybe? Nah, what would he do that for?  

Her infamous curiosity began to flare within her, like the light of a torch. What was something pink doing in the cupboard? Would it be a new item? Had Jared just placed it there? 

He would have told me if he got something new in, Grace pondered, and her right hand absentmindedly rose, running through her lush hair- it was a sort of nervous tic, of her. 

It couldn't be a present- he knew that she severely disliked pink. He wouldn't even dare to give her something with pink wrapping paper. Then... what was it? 

What if someone had given him  a present, instead? But then... he would have told her, as well, right? ... Unless it is supposed to be a secret. 

Grace bit her lip out of frustration, and let her glance trail to her cat. Delilah met her glance innocently, her wide honey-brown eyes alighted. She could have a look. Just a peek. She wasn't going to wait until Jared was home, no way- that would take ages. A good, sweet and proper girlfriend would, perhaps.... but she was too curious for that. 

Within the second, Grace had kicked the orange blanket off her, and bounced off the couch, to Delilah's whiny complaints. Her bare feet slapped onto the floorboards once she had stepped off the rug, and she absently combed her wild red curls back, out of her line of sight.