Annoying Sherlock Holmes

Chapter 10: Memory Lane

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"She's waking up!"

"Miss, can you hear us?"

"She moved her arm. She's responding. Miss, can you open your eyes?"

"I don't think she can yet."

"It's not safe for her to go unconscious again."

"Miss, please try!"

"Her heart rate is dropping!"

"Oxygen mask!"

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I awoke to blinding lights and searing pain. I reached to touch the side of my head and gasped. The small amount of pressure I had put on it resulted in a stabbing pain. The right side of my head, including my eye, was wrapped in bandages. What happened?!

I can't seem to remember how I injured myself. I remember being sick. I remember Leo being there... But not much else.

"Good evening, Miss." I looked up to see a nurse walking into the room. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I'm being stabbed in the head." The words came out slurred, my tongue felt heavy in my mouth, like a weighted slab. The nurse nodded and smiled at me. She approached the hospital bed and said something about medication and pain killers. I just nodded and half listened. Then something struck me. I grabbed at her arm. "How... what happened to me?"

"You fell down two flights of stairs and put your head through a railing." She smiled sweetly at me again and extracted her arm from my clammy grasp.

"I fell." I stared at my hands. Something felt off. "Are you sure?" I don't know why I asked that, but the worlds left my mouth before I could stop and think about them.

"Well, that's what we were told by your boyfriend and your relative." She glanced at me slightly concerned. "Why?"

"No reason. I just..." I couldn't think of the right word. My head hurt. Suddenly, the room began to spin. I clutched my head and put pressure on my wound and gasped for breath. I began to wheeze.

"I can't breathe... I can't breathe." I felt like I was drowning. My lungs felt like they were being filled with lead. All the noise in the world came back down to a muffled hum. Darkness surrounded me, and in that moment I could only think of one thing:

I've been here before.

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I could hear it. His voice pierced the darkness like it had then, only he wasn't screaming now. He was calling me.

"Clarity!" I peered around in the darkness, but couldn't see anything.

"Jamie?" I called out. Suddenly, light started to filter in my dark world. I found myself standing in a forest.

"Rity!" Jamie called for me again. I smiled at my nickname. For years I had pretended to hate it, but in reality, I loved it. Everyone else called me Clarity, Clara, or Claire. Only Jamie called me Rity. When he was younger, it wasn't that he couldn't say my name, it was that he thought it was funny if he left of the first two letters. He called me Arity, which eventually became Rity.

"Jamie! I'm over here!" I called out to him again and looked around the trees. Then, I spotted him. Between the branches, I could see my little brother standing in clearing with his back turned to me. I could tell he was scared. I can always tell.

I remember this.

I approached him quietly from behind. My breath steadying. I reached out my hands and grabbed his sides. With a slight tug, he was in my grasp. I tickled his sides and smiled at his laughter and shrieks. "Got you, ya little bugger! What were you thinking? Running off without me! We have adventures together, not by ourselves!"

What am I saying? I thought. Then it clicked. This is memory. One of my favourites and least favourites. Our family went on a picnic. Jamie and I had gone hunting for elves when he ran off. I was so scared. I had lost my precious brother. I had searched the surrounding for the forest for an hour before finding him. I was 13 then, he was 9.

"I'm sorry, Rity. I didn't mean to run off, I thought I saw a whisp and I got lost." He sniffed. I gave him a hug and let him bury his head in my hair.

"Hey, it's okay bud." I rubbed his back, he was terrified of getting lost. "Those nasty whisps lead you away from me, but I can find you anywhere, okay?"

He looked up at me, "How?''

"Cause I'm always with you, silly. I'm right here." I poked his chest. "And I'll be there as long as you let me. No matter where you are, no matter how lost you may be, I'll always find you." He hugged me tight.

"Thank you, Rity. But... you have to go now." I looked down at him, confused. "It's time to wake up. If you sleep for much longer, you might not ever wake up."

That's right. This is a dream. Or a memory. It doesn't really matter. It's not real.

We stand up and Jamie grabs my hand. "This way." He leads me towards a dark patch in the clearing, and steps through.

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My eyelids feel like someone injected them with lead, but I open them anyway. I'm back in the hospital room. The overhead light blinds me. I sit up and blink the spots out of my eyes. I hear a soft sound.

"Rity..?" I look up and stare at my brother. He shifts under my gaze, uneasy. I smiled at him. Memory Jamie had lead me to the real one.

"Hey, Jamie." I reach out and ruffle his hair. He smiles, relieved. I put my hands on his shoulder and look into his eyes.

"Clarity?" He says uneasily.

"Give it to me straight. How bad do I look?" He laughs and hugs me.

"Almost as bad as you looked in your prom dresses. Almost." He snickered and ducked out of my reach.

"Why you little- Come 'er!" I reached for him, but stopped when I saw Leo standing in the doorway. Something bubbled up in my throat. I swallowed it and smiled slightly.

"I wouldn't recommend that." He said, frowning at my brother. "You might get hurt again." I pulled Jamie close to me again.

"Jamie, who brought you here?"

"Your roomies." I snorted.

"Can you out to them for a few minutes? I need to talk about something with Leo." Jamie nods and leaves the room quietly, but not before glancing at Leo uneasily. Leo ignores him and pulls up a chair next to me, placing a hand on my back.

"How are you feeling?" A memory flashes through my mind. More like a feeling: fingertips. Something bubbles in my throat again.

"I'm fine." He smiles and removes his hand from my back. "Hey, Leo? What exactly happened right before I fell?" I asked.

"Um... you were walking towards the stairs and I told you to stop because I was scared you'd hurt yourself. Then, you tripped on your blanket. I tried to grab you to stop you from falling, but failed. I might have actually helped you fall instead of preventing it. I'm really sorry!" He looked up at me, waiting to see my reaction. I smiled and flicked his temple.

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A/N: It's almost 4 am. I'm sorry if this is crappy. 913 followers is terrifying.

I think ASH is about to under go some major rewriting. Or I'll just pull a Pandora Hearts on y'all. I'm sorry if you don't get that. Deal with the tone change. It might change back. I'm very fickle.

Edit: I went back and fixed some stuff cause wattpad changed their writing feature to allow bold, italics, and shit.