Sherlock and The Woman

Oh Death

The Holmes boy sighed and pulled out the woman's phone from his coat pocket. "There were two more texts between Irene and Moriarty a few hours before the final cryptic text. First one from Irene telling the criminal she had outsmarted him, and Moriarty's reply… Here. 'I applaud you, Ms Adler. Come alone when I call for you later or they die.'. Obviously he meant you and I. She went because he gave her no choice."

"Then why leave us the phone?"

"Maybe she hoped I could still be in time to save her," Sherlock stated in a low, dark voice. As do I, the man added to himself in his mind, though he wasn't prepared to admit as much to his friend. He then turned his gaze out the window while one of his impatient hands drummed its fingers against his knee in an impatient beat.

The doctor watched his distressed friend but refrained from commenting on his uncommon behavior.

--

The time had almost reached the stroke of midnight, Irene noted as she gazed out through the glass of the great clock. She had arrived at Big Ben just twenty minutes ago and wasn't too surprised to find both the path unlocked and unguarded as she had made her way up to the very top of the bell tower. Obviously, Moriarty had connections everywhere to make it happen.

She had found her way to the smaller area right behind one of the dials in the four-faced clock itself to await Moriarty. The area was about three meters wide and twenty meters long and opposite the glass of the clock there was a large wall, behind which the mecanics of the watch were hidden from sight.

Irene stood close to the clock and attempted to look down at the Thames but found that it was virtually impossible to see anything but shadows and light playing outside the opal glass. Besides a few lanters in the small space inside, the moon itself bathed the room in a pale light. Irene wished all the more she could have seen the city of London down below one last time. Or that she could have seen the people she cared for most once more, but it was better this way, she supposed.

She was no stupid girl, and had known from the get-go that following the directives in Moriarty's text would lead to her probable death. If she was lucky, the youngest Holmes had found her phone, decrypted the text and was on his way to save her. Then again, that would also mean that he might not be so lucky, Irene knew. Moriarty had in plain text threatened he would kill Sherlock and John if they appeared. The woman couldn't help but be afraid she had made the wrong choice in hoping naively that the brilliant man would find a way to solve that small problem, too. Regardless, she couldn't rely on the detective's aid now.

Early on, when she had first contacted the criminal master mind, Irene had learned of his intricate love of games and riddles. She had also learned that no one crossed his path and lived, just as Sherlock had later also warned her. And this time, it meant she was no longer the dominatrix but the dominated. The fact that her puppet-master was none other than the criminal mastermind who held the whole world in the palm of his hand, frightened her more than she cared to admit.

Suddenly, a sound echoed between the high walls in the bell tower, a chill ran up the woman's spine. It was a humming noise of a haunting tune that danced between the shadows. It seemed to awaken dark thoughts and deeds everywhere. Irene stood frozen and with her head held high. Fear gripped at her throat but she would rather die than portray that truth.

"O-oh, death…" the voice sang in a low-key tone. "O-oh death. Won't you spare me over 'til another year…?"

The brunette heard the soft tapping sound as shoes hit the floor and the voice grew louder and closer from the shadows on her right, from the same stairs she had recently climbed to get to the hidden area.