Loving a Holmes

Garrideb

Sherlock and I walk along a narrow grey-walled corridor and turn into a room which is much smaller than the cell. Although also grey in color, the walls have been messily daubed with red paint so that it looks like they're heavily covered with blood. He and I look around as we walk deeper into the room, John and Mycroft following us. "Someone's been redecorating."

"It that allowed?"

"She's literally taken over the asylum. We have more to worry about than her choice of color scheme."

As I look around the room, I notice there is another screen on the back wall. "Shall we play a game?" I turn and see an almost disapproving look on John's face. "What? You know that's how I process things like this."

The room is about twenty feet wide. At the far end is a large window, made up of three panes of glass, looking out over the sea. A small glass table is a few feet from the window and there is an envelope on it. Mycroft runs his fingers over the paint on part of the wall. "Barely dry. Recent."

Sherlock nods as he looks over the envelope, as I step over to him and look over his shoulder. "It's for our benefit."

Behind us, the door we come through had slid shut. That door being at the left of the back of the room and there is another one at the right-hand side. On the wall between the doors, the large screen now activates and Eurus appears on it. "As a motivator to your continued cooperation, I'm now reconnecting you."

She lifts the remote control into view and clicks it. Jim's voice comes over the speaker, speaking in a phony American accent, and his red-hued image appears on the screen. "Fasten your seatbelts! It's gonna be a bumpy night."

There's a brief screech of static and then the little girl we had been on the phone with before calls out. "Are-are you still there?"

I step toward the center of the room. "Yes, hello?"

She doesn't respond, so Sherlock calls out to her. "Hello. We're still here. Can you hear us?"

"Yes." The little girl answers as she continues to sound scared and tearful whenever she speaks.

I nod and glance over at Sherlock. "Everything's gonna be alright. I just need you to tell me where you are, alright sweetheart. Outside, is it day or night?"

"Night."

Mycroft folds his arms. "That certainly narrows it down to half the planet."

Sherlock glances towards him as he speaks to the girl. "What kind of a plane are you on?"

"Um, I don't know."

John nods his head and takes a breath. "Is it big or small?"

"Big."

"Lots of people?"

"Lots and lots, but they're all asleep. I can't wake them up."

Sherlock glances over at John. "Where did you take off from?"

"Even the driver's asleep."

I put a hand up to Sherlock. "That's alright darling, but we need to know where the plane took off from?"

"My Nan's."

"Where are you doing?"

"Home."

"Do you know what town you..."

There's a click as he speaks, and Eurus' image reappears on the screen at the end of the room. She's almost singing as she talks. "Enough for now. Time to play a new game. Look on the table in front of you. Open the envelope! If you want to speak to the girl again, earn yourself some phone time!" Sherlock and John move to either side of the glass table. Mycroft stands a few feet away with his arms still folded. I stay in the middle of the room, turning my back to the screen.