Author's Note: I do not own The Killing Joke or The Joker they belong to DC Comics as well as Alan Moore and Brian Azzarello. I also do not own The Turn of the Screw. That belongs to Henry James. I do not own Wally West, though I wish I did!
Love,
lies4theliars
"I know where it's from, Inspector." Jamie said.
"Oh and where is it from exactly? Another literary work?" Lestrade said.
"Actually yes. It's from Henry James' The Turn of the Screw. It's a novella." Jamie stated.
"It's a ghost story." Dynah said.
"Well really that is up to interpretation.Seeing as the story is told in the governess' point of view, we can not be sure that she is really seeing a ghost, or if she is just simply crazy." Tessa said.
"That's the last of line of the novella. When Miles dies. The governess believes that it was a ghost, but she was hugging him into her chest, which if she were crazy, she could have killed him by suffocating him against her." Jamie said.
"Why would he leave that message for all of you?" Lestrade asked.
"It's not for us." Dynah said.
"It's for Sherlock." Tessa finished Dynah's thought.
"So what, the psychopath is going after Sherlock next?" Lestrade asked.
"No. He isn't coming after me next. This is just a warning for what is going to come." Sherlock said.
"He's going to kill you?" John asked.
"Yes. He said he would, but first he has to burn the heart out of me." Sherlock said, chuckling darkly. "But never mind this, we need to focus on finding out if their is a ship coming her from Asia."
"Sherlock, do not understand how hard that will be? Do you know how many ships come in and out of the country with cargo?" Lestrade asked.
"That doesn't matter.There will only be one specific ship that we need. Somehow the clue will tie together with it. I need to get back to the flat. I need to think." Sherlock said, rushing out to find a cab, the rest of his flat mates following behind quickly.
Another week passed and Sherlock was losing his mind. Everyday he would check to see if any ships from Asia that even somehow related to the nursery rhyme had arrived, but every time he checked, there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. He couldn't even find out if their was ship that left from ANY country in Asia with a name that would relate back to the clue. There was nothing. Of course Moriarty had made it untraceable so that he wouldn't be able to find it until it actually arrived in England. Sherlock was becoming extremely irritable and every little thing that people did was beginning to drive him off the edge, and Jamie had made one too many comments about him needing medication. It was now the 22nd of June. Once again, John and Sherlock had gone on their own separate cases in their spare time, one of them involving comic book characters coming to life. Sherlock was quite satisfied with himself after that case, but quickly the boredom returned and he was back to putting all of his focus into the game with Moriarty. Jamie, Tessa and Dynah were just as bored and tried to find simple things in order to occupy their time. Jamie spent most of her time reading books, and Tessa would practice her violin. Dynah seemed to always be on a laptop, whether it be her own or John's playing a game called "Slender" that would cause her to scream at random points and panic. Sherlock continued to look up information on ships coming to England, most of them being cargo ships, seeing as that was the most logical way to transport dead bodies overseas rather than on any other kind of ship. Sherlock continued his search until he found what he needed. There was a ship arriving in the Port of Liverpool later on this evening. Sherlock put his phone back into his pocket and walked over to Dynah's laptop, slamming it down to make it shut. He picked up Jamie's book and placed it on the table and he ripped Tessa's violin out of her hands. All girls looked like they wanted to kill him.
"What the hell, Sherlock!" Jamie exclaimed.
"I was just about to face the Slender Man and you shut my laptop!" Dynah yelled.
"All of that can wait. Our ship is arriving in Liverpool later on this evening. We need to be there and it is a rather long drive, so I suggest that we leave now. We're going to need Lestrade to come with us, that way we can get access to the ship." Sherlock said, quickly texting Lestrade, also saying that they would need a ride to Liverpool, seeing as Sherlock didn't want to pay the cab fare.
Lestrade arrived at the flat 20 minutes later, looking extremely annoyed, but Sherlock decided to ignore it and just walked down to where Lestrade had left the car that all of them were going to take in order to get to Liverpool. It was going to take them around 3 hours and 42 minutes to get to Liverpool and the girls seemed to have come prepared, with their music and books in hand, where as Sherlock, John and Lestrade had nothing to keep them occupied, even though Lestrade should be occupied enough making sure that none of them got killed on their way to Liverpool. After an excruciating 3 hour and 42 minute car ride, they finally arrived in Liverpool near where the ship was going to be entering the port. The name of the ship was called 羅茜的灰燼, which meant "Rosie's Ashes". Sherlock searched around for the ship and when he finally found it, he got Lestrade to use his power of working for Scotland Yard to his advantage and got inside the ship. It was mostly a cargo ship, although it had very little cargo for such a large ship. All of the crates were black, some of the paint chipping off of all of them, due to how old all of them were and the fact that they were constantly exposed to sodium chloride and acid precipitation. However as Sherlock continued to work through the rest of the crates, he saw one that did not match the rest and he knew that it was the crate he was going to need. It was white, had little damage done to it and when Sherlock looked around on the side it had the sheet music to "Ode to Joy" painted onto it. The crate was locked with a chain, and it had a combination on it. Sherlock quickly deduced that the combination would be the number of beats each other first few notes of the symphony held. He was right, not like there was any doubt. Lestrade handed all of them gloves and masks, not wanting them to contract the disease, even though it was highly unlikely unless their were rodents of some kind in their that had obtained the virus. Sherlock opened up the crate and the first thing to run out were rats, 5 of them to be exact. They ran past all of us, Lestrade trying to kill them quickly, seeing as he suspected them of carrying the disease, which he was right. Sherlock took a flashlight out of his pocket and looked inside the crate. There were 9 bodies inside of the crate. All of them looked extremely pale, but were covered in black sores. Sherlock moved closer and he could see bite marks on all of them, from both rats and fleas.
"This is like a history lesson come to life." Jamie muttered.
"London during the Black Death must have been such a pleasant time." Dynah said sarcastically.
Lestrade came running back to the crate, obviously having killed the rats. When he looked inside the crate his eyes widened in shock and he put a hand over his mask, where his mouth would be.
"Sherlock we have to do something to stop this man. He's killing innocent people!" Lestrade said.
"We can't stop him. He's completely off the grid. You can't predict his murders because they are seemingly unpredictable. He covers all of his tracks until he wants you to find them. He is always one step ahead of all of us." Jamie said.
"He implanted the diseases into the rats and placed them in the crate with these people. They were in this crate for a long time and without food, or water it wasn't hard for their bodies to lose the energy they needed to fight off the virus. Not being able to clean themselves either had also led to their downfall. He's been planning this one for a long time." Tessa said.
"I'll have the bodies be taken to the morgue at St.Bart's so I can have my forensics look at them." Lestrade said, phoning Scotland Yard.
All of the residents at 221B Baker Street looked at one another, and all of them had a look of worry on their face, even Sherlock. What they hadn't let Lestrade see was the message that had been left for them, because this time, they were really on their own here.
"So Sherlock and sidekicks. I'm so glad that you have made it this far in the game. Truly I am, but really I am getting rather bored with this whole, kill somebody leave a clue. It's so repetitive. So I'm going to change things a little. Just make things more in my favour. You'll find out how soon enough, when I take what I need from you.- J.M xx"
"Sherlock, what do you think he needs?" John asked when they got back to the flat.
"I'm not sure, John. Whatever he takes, it's going to be important to us. Something that will not allow us to think as clearly, because we'll be so focused on getting it back."
"What the hell do we have that could possibly do that?"
"I'm not sure, John. None of this really makes sense. Why now?Why does he want to change the game now? If he was bored, he would have changed it right after the murder at St. Bart's. There's something different now. He isn't going to change the game. He's just going to add another aspect to it. Another motive besides just catching him and winning the game."
"It's to make sure we're more involved. More interested in the game than we are now. Showing how much we want to win, in order to get the thing he stole from us back." Jamie said.
"I still don't understand what he could possibly steal from us that could help him." Dynah said.
"We don't need to worry about what it is, until he takes it." Sherlock said.
"Shouldn't we try to stop him from taking it?" John asked.
"We can't, John. It's his game, remember?" Tessa said.
"There has to be something, something that will give us a clue as to what he wants-" John started.
"It won't make a difference. If we try to stop him we all die." Sherlock yelled.
John sighed and went to go and make tea, while Sherlock sat in his chair and began to think of everything that Moriarty had done leading up to this point. None of this made any sense, the sudden change in the game, and the way he somehow decided that the game wasn't equal. He had known that right from the beginning that Sherlock and John had the upper hand, so why decide now. What factor had changed his mind so drastically. The worst part was that, the note that had been left in the crate was from only a little while after the game started. He had kept leading them through this repetitive cycle, just to change it, but why? What was the endgame? John came back into the room, placing a tray of tea down for everybody to grab a cup. Sherlock slowly drank his as he pondered over the mystery that was Moriarty. The longer he sat there, the stranger he began to feel. He soon began to feel tired, drowsy even and he looked around to see that the rest of his flatmates were looking the same way. They had been drugged, the cups probably having been laced with something. Sherlock tried to force his eyes awake, but he knew that he could fight the effects the drugs were having on his body. He barely heard the footsteps that were walking towards them all, his senses being dulled and weakening as he was slowly slipping into the world of unconsciousness. He shut his eyes for a few seconds, before forcing them to reopen, and his eyes locked onto those that belonged to Jim Moriarty.
"Hello, Sherlock, dear. Did you enjoy your day with the bubonic plague? I definitely had a lot of fun planning that one out." Moriarty grinned.
Sherlock tried to talk, but really all that came out were a lot of incoherent mumbles that sounded more like noises an animal would make.
"No, Sherlock. Don't try to speak. The drug will only make it harder for you. Just go to sleep. I'm only here to make sure that I take what I need. You just rest your pretty little eyes and I'll be on my way." Moriarty laughed.
Sherlock tried to keep his eyes open, so that he could see what it was that Moriarty was taking, but the drug was to strong and eventually he had to shut his eyes because his body couldn't take it. The last thing he heard, before he slipped into the realm of unconsciousness what Moriarty's psychotic laughter.
Sherlock woke up the next day, at 12:05 pm. Whatever drug Moriarty had given them had certainly worked well and to his benefit. Sherlock's body was stiff and was not responding well to his mental commands, but nevertheless he forced himself to get up and when he got up he saw that none of his flatmates were around. He moved quickly throughout the flat, and the first person he found was John, who was in his room. He woke John up and told him what had happened. Immediately, John tried to get up, but this only caused him to have to lie back down because the drug had not completely worn off yet and he was going to get dizzy if he decided to do something stupid like that again.
"Sherlock, where are the girls? Go find them. Make sure they're alright." John said, holding his head, with an expression of pain.
Sherlock nodded and went around the flat looking for the girls. He found Tessa in his own bedroom, her violin in one hand and the bow in the other. He forced her to wake up and thankfully she wasn't like John and didn't try to get up right away, even when Sherlock explained the situation. He then rushed out of the room, to find Dynah in the closet in the hallway where John kept the linens. She was awake, by the time he pulled her out of the closet and he explained everything to her as well. He then went to go and find Jamie. He looked through the entire flat, and so did Tessa, Dynah, and John, but Jamie could not be found anywhere. Realization appeared on all of their faces and Sherlock could see the anger and rage appear on all 3 of their faces. He looked around the flat, seeing if Moriarty had left any clue, any kind of message that would say anything about Jamie. Something. They all began tearing through every part of the flat, trying to find this message and they found a message, but not the one that they needed. Jamie's phone lay in her bedside table drawer and there was a sticky note attached to it.
"If you want to find out what I need Jamie for then simply enter the pass code to her phone and it will be the first thing that pops up.- J.M xx"
"I knew something like this was going to happen! I should have never let you girls get involved in our cases and now Jamie is off in the custody of psychotic nut bar. He's going to kill her, Sherlock!" John yelled.
"No he isn't, John. Did you not listen to anything that he said? He said he wanted to make this game more equal.We figured perhaps by stealing a piece of information or a material object that would some how give him the upper hand. We didn't once think that he would take the girls. He could take any of them, all of them are smart enough, but he took Jamie because she is the one that is most like him, the one that is more tempted by evil and will do things for the fun of it, despite whether or not it is wrong. She does what she believes to be right. Also the fact that she already has trust issues to begin with. The only people she seems to trust are those she knew from her childhood or the people that are most like her. She has an underlying hatred of people and though she can deny it, wants to hurt a lot of them. She'll try to fight Moriarty, yes. But in the end, if she's pushed far enough, she'll give in." Sherlock said.
"Tessa, Dynah. Do any of you know the password to Jamie's phone?" John asked.
"No. She wouldn't tell any of us. She kept saying that all her secrets were on her phone and she didn't want a soul to know." Dynah said.
"It was something important to her. Something that meant something. However she wouldn't have made it a word or made it a number that spelt out something on the phone. It would have been a date. Something significant, but not related to her own actual life. It would have been related to something that she liked. Her favourite novel was The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice. Her favourite character being Lestat de Lioncourt." Sherlock looked up the information on his phone. "It wouldn't be the year he became a vampire, that would be to obvious. It would be a date they never mentioned you could count down to. His birth year." Sherlock typed in 1760. Password didn't work.
"Alright it had to have been something else. She mentioned comic books to me once. Said that they weren't all fighting. That they could keep you up to date with current events. Spoke fondly of them, but I never actually saw her read them. Dynah, who's her favourite comic book character?"
"Wally West? Kid Flash and later on became The Flash." Dynah said.
Sherlock looked up the information he needed on his phone and found what he was looking for. He typed in the number 1116 and the phone opened up, revealing a message from Moriarty that he had typed in an left as a note on her phone.
"Good for you! You were able to hack into her phone. Might I just add that Jamie is quite the comic book nerd. I would have never guessed Wally West if I hadn't overheard Jamie and Dynah discussing it. Now I promised you my reasons behind kidnapping Jamie. The first is that the game was becoming very unfair. You had four minds working on all my riddles, and it just seemed too easy. Also let's face it, Jamie is the most like me and she is quite changeable and I am going to change her. You were right in your guess, Sherlock. Jamie is Faustus. She's always been Faustus. Every time she would leave the flat it would be to see me. Now we just had chats, she talked about how she would destroy me and win the game and I couldn't help but find her passionate hatred for me charming. But she's more like me than I think you can even understand. So I'm going to borrow her for a while. Hopefully she'll willingly help me with my plans. Otherwise we may have a problem." -J.M xx
Jamie sat in the back of a car, hands tied behind her back. Sitting across from her was a very tall man, who was obviously an alpha male type and considered himself better than most people and stronger, as was evident from the way his body was defined. He worked out to make sure that he looked bigger and stronger than everybody. Moriarty was sitting next to him. Jamie refused to make eye contact with him, in stead, she made direct eye contact with the man in front of her, trying to assert her own form of dominance.
"What are you looking at?" he asked, sounding even more idiotic than he made himself look.
Jamie smiled and then lifted her leg up and kicked him directly in the shin. Moriarty began to laugh as the man gripped his shin from the pain and even Jamie couldn't stop a large grin from spreading across her face.
"Now was that entirely necessary, Jamie?" Moriarty asked.
"Just showing him that he has no authority over me." Jamie said, making eye contact with Moriarty for the first time since he had taken her away from 221B.
"Then I guess it was necessary." Moriarty chuckled.
"How long are we going to be stuck in this car anyway? I woke up and hour ago and you kidnapped me last night." Jamie glared.
"Not much longer. We just have to reach a safe distance away from your home on Baker Street. Don't want Sherlock to find you too easily, would we?"
"That would ruin your game, wouldn't it?" Jamie asked.
"Oh yes it would, and you need to see my game play out until the end.
"I already know how your game is going to end, Moriarty. I figured it out a long time ago."
"Aren't we on a first name basis now, Jamie. I mean after all, if you are going to help me plan the fall of Sherlock Holmes, we should really be on a first name basis." Moriarty said.
"I don't really plan to help you. I was forced here against my will, remember? Not like I volunteered to be here." Jamie said.
"Well you're going to help me, whether you want to or not. Besides, now the game is even, which is going to make it so much more fun. Besides Jamie you hate people, so why do you care if they get hurt?" Moriarty asked.
"Just because I hate people, doesn't mean they deserve to die."
"Now we both know that's not how you actually feel. Come on, you can Jim how much you want to kill people. You can even tell me that you know how to do it."
"It's not hard. I just need to get my hands on some botulinum toxin and I'll be set. 39.2 g to be precise."
"It's a sad thing that the government, and in fact the entire world is naive enough to leave that around and think that a psychopath like you or me won't get our hands on it." Moriarty dramatically sighed.
"I'm not a psychopath, Jim. Just because I have post traumatic stress disorder does not mean I am going to become a psycho like you." Jamie glared.
"No. But it makes it easier to make you one. In the words of the Joker from the comics you love so much 'All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy.'"
"The Killing Joke by Alan Moore. I'm impressed." Jamie said.
"I decided to read it one day when I was bored. I rather liked the Joker. It's a shame Batman has to come in a ruin all of his fun." Moriarty frowned.
"There will always be a Joker. Because there is no cure for him. No cure at all. Just a Batman."
Jamie said, reciting it from memory.
"Isn't that beautiful?" Moriarty grinned.
"From The Joker by Brian Azzarello. You should read it if you like the Joker so much. It's all about him."
"Comic books aren't really my thing. Perhaps I'll read another some day." Moriarty said, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it.
"Oh no, that's cool. Light a cigarette. Not like any of us in here are allergic to it." Jamie said, rolling her eyes.
"My apologies." but he still continued to smoke it.
"How long will I have to endure your company, Jim?" Jamie asked.
"Until the fall of Sherlock Holmes, Jamie. Until the fall."