~Sherlock's Roommate~ (Sherlock x Male!Oc) //On Hold\\

Chapter 42 | Frankland

With a pistol still in his hand, Henry is walking briskly across the moors towards the woods surrounding Dewer's Hollow. Some distance behind him, Sherlock, Easton and John race across the terrain in the Land Rover.

Unaware of this, Henry continues onwards, stopping momentarily to stare tearfully at the woods ahead of him, but then he continues onwards. Not long afterwards Sherlock pulls up presumably where the woods begin and he, Easton and John get out and continue on foot, running as fast as they can.

Henry reaches the lip of the Hollow and begins to make his way down into the misty valley. Reaching the bottom he slows down and stumbles slowly forward, wandering around vaguely for a moment before coming to a halt.

Squatting down, he brings up the pistol and opens his mouth as he aims the muzzle towards it.

"No, Henry, no! No!" Sherlock shouts as he, John, and Easton scramble down the slope, shining their torches towards him. Henry stands up and stumbles backwards, waving the pistol vaguely in their direction. His voice is high-pitched and hysterical.

"Get back. Get-- get away from me!" He screams, his face was drenched in tears.

Easton's eyes widon, "Easy, Henry. Easy. Just relax, let's talk--" Easton said but Henry sobbed.

"I know what I am. I know what I tried to do!" He cried.

"Just put the gun down. It's going to be okay." Easton said, trying to stay calm.

Henry's voice was hoarse with anguish, "No, no, I know what I am!"

"Yes, I'm sure you do, Henry." Sherlock said, as reassuring as he'll ever sound, "It's all been explained to you, hasn't it, explained very carefully."

"What?" Said Henry..

"Someone needed to keep you quiet; needed to keep you as a child to reassert the dream that you'd both clung on to, because you had started to remember." Sherlock says as he begins to step closer to the young man. "Remember now, Henry. You've got to remember what happened here when you were a little boy."

Henry's gun hand begins to droop momentarily but then he raises it again, his face full of his struggle to understand.

"I thought it had got my dad-- the hound. I thought..." Henry stuttered but he loses control and begins to scream in anguish, "Oh Je... oh Jesus, I don't - I don't know any more!"

Sobbing, he bends forward and aims the muzzle into his mouth again.

John lurches forward towards him, "No, Henry! Henry, for God's sake!" He shouts.

"Henry, remember." Sherlock says quickly, ""Liberty In." Two words; two words a frightened little boy saw here twenty years ago."

Henry begins to calm a little but still remains hunched over with the gun's muzzle against his mouth.

"You'd started to piece things together, remember what really happened here that night. It wasn't an animal, was it, Henry?"

Henry starts to straighten up, blinking.

"Not a monster."

Henry turns to look at Sherlock.

"A man." Sherlock says. Henry gapes at Sherlock as the truth reasserts itself in his mind, Sherlock continues, "You couldn't cope. You were just a child, so you rationalised it into something very different. But then you started to remember, so you had to be stopped; driven out of your mind so that no-one would believe a word that you said."

Quietly Easton steps forward, holding out his hand encouragingly towards Henry as Greg Lestrade arrives and calls out while he trots down the slope towards them.