15. “Embracing the Madness.”

       “How…?”

I couldn’t even get the rest of the question out. My name had never been in the papers. Nobody knew what my real name was. The media only knew me as The Viper.

            How could he know?

            “You really think Moriarty trusts you?” John asked. “Hmm? Have you met him?”

            “I have.” My jaw locked.

“Does he even know you’re down here?”

“He knows. There’s no point in hiding you from me. I’m not the one that can’t see you.”

“Elena,” he whimpered.

“How do you know my name?” I pressed.

            “Your sister came looking for Sherlock.”

            “M-my…sister?” I shook my head vigorously. “No, she’s dead. She was killed years ago. She and my boyfriend both were.” I heard the two gunshots echo in the back of my mind. I saw their bodies fall to the ground so fast.

            “You’re wrong. Your sister survived, Raine. She came here to London to ask us to find you. She’d told us that you were involved with Moriarty so we had something to go by. I guess there’s no need for a search party now that I’ve found you.” He sniffed. “She’s been here for over a month searching for you.”

            I continued to shake my head. “No, she’s dead. You’re lying. You must’ve gotten this information somewhere else. My sister is gone, dead.”

            “No, wrong again. Your sister is alive. I can’t say the same for your boyfriend, though. Dean. He didn’t survive.”

            “Shut up,” I bellowed. John couldn’t know about that. Who could have told him and Sherlock that if Spencer and Dean were both dead? Had there been a witness and I just didn’t see them? “You’re just trying to mess with my head. You’re trying to make me believe something that isn’t real so I’ll somehow magically come back to the good side and let you go. Well, you know what, Doctor Watson? I’m not stupid; I know what you’re trying to pull.”

            John sighed. “He’s corrupted you really badly. You won’t try to see that I’m telling the truth.” He sucked in a pained breath. “Look, if he’s threatening you, we can help. All you have to do is get yourself away from him.”

            “You think Jim is threatening me?” I laughed obnoxiously. “That’s rich. He’s never done that from the time I’ve met him. Once again, this is another failed attempt to try and get me away from him. This is yet another failed attempt to try and let me free you. Neither is going to happen.” I smiled. “He warned me that you would try and make me turn on him. Your efforts are pretty weak; I guess you know it’s impossible to make me change my mind.”

            John closed his eyes before opening them slowly. Whatever fire he’d once had had now vanished. He looked aged before me, looked much older than he really was. “Whatever Moriarty plans to do, keep Elena out of it.”

            “She’s already in it.” I said this rather somberly.

            “Keep her safe for me.”

            “You sure have mood swings, Doctor Watson. Are you sure you’re not PMS-ing?”

            John shot me a severe look. “I’m asking you to keep my daughter alive.”

            “Why? Why would you ask me, the very woman who kidnapped her and murdered her mother?” My head tilted to the side.

            “If you’re her babysitter like I think you are, she’s had to come to trust you, probably trust you the most out of everyone here—wherever this is. She’d look to you to keep her safe. You’ve made her feel comfortable, she’ll look to you when she’s faced with danger or something she doesn’t like.” Like when she first saw Jim in my bedroom, I recalled. “I can’t see you being pure evil, Raine. You do have a soft spot, and I’m sure Elena has brought that out in you.”

            “I still don’t think you answered my original question. Why are you asking this of me?”

            “Because I can’t help her now, and neither can Sherlock.”

“Oh, right, he probably doesn’t have a clue as to where we are.”

“You’re the only person right now who can help her. She’s the only family I have left; I don’t want to lose her to Moriarty too. She’s never deserved what she’s gone through lately. I’ve never wanted that for her, but I guess it never mattered what I wanted. It happened anyway.” He hung his head.

            I thought about Elena, who was upstairs, probably napping away or trying to get comfortable with Jim. We were just using Elena as leverage right now for Sherlock. He had to care about his blogger’s little girl. We wouldn’t actually do anything to her after the game was over…

            Would we?

            “She’s not going to die, John.” I realized I let the name slip. John picked his head up, noticing my error as well. “She’s been in good care; she’ll be in it regardless.”

            “If you think she’s safe, she isn’t. You don’t know what Moriarty’s done to children before.”

            “And you do?”

            “Yes, I’ve seen it. Before Sherlock and Moriarty committed “suicide”, Moriarty set Sherlock up to look like he’d kidnapped two children of someone important and poisoned them with chocolates that were wrapped in wrappers laced with mercury. The children didn’t die but got severely sick. And a time before that, he’d strapped a bomb to a kid and would have blown him up had Sherlock not solved the riddle he was given. If Moriarty is willing to do that to children, he could do something more extreme with Elena if he sees fit.” Before I could open my mouth to defend Jim, John cut me off. “If you think he won’t do it, I can’t wait to tell you ‘I told you so’.”

            “If you live long enough to say it,” I snarled.

            “You better hope I don’t get free, because when I do, you’re mine.”

            I snickered. “Wow, I’m really popular today. Everybody wants me, and for the same reason too.” I sighed dramatically. “Oh, you poor, naïve soldier. You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”

            “As if you do?” he retorted.

            “Are you referring to yourself?”

            “Yes, and your psychotic boyfriend.”

            I scowled. “We aren’t together. I willingly joined him; I knew what I was getting into.”

            “I know. Your sister told me that too. She told me about that night.”

“Lying, again.”

“You’re just in denial.”

I threw him a bitter smile. “It’s fun to talk with you, I must admit. You’re entertaining. Don’t be surprised if I come back and have another chat with you.”

*      *      *

            It felt like something of a routine had been established. With Jim not leaving the mansion, bedtime went like this: I would be stuck in the middle with Elena on one side and Jim on the other. Elena still wasn’t warming up to Jim, but neither of us expected her to. As long as she had me to trust, there was no way she was going to leave or disobey me. Even if she did, the worst I’d do was lock her in my bedroom and let her out to only go to the bathroom.

            I cringed, hearing a low yell from downstairs. Logan wasn’t finished with John for the day, it seemed. He wanted to get in a little night torture.

            “How do you know Logan isn’t going to end up killing him?” I asked Jim. My head was on his shoulder, my eyes stuck to the ceiling. “John looks brutal.”

            “He knows his limits,” Jim assured me. “He told me he’s tortured lots of people within an inch of their life.”

            I bit back the news I planned to tell Jim. As long as he is around, Logan won’t get to me. I’m under good protection.

            “How did you kidnap John and bring him here?” I asked curiously.

            “That wasn’t hard; I knew the right things to say. I originally wanted to do something simple with him, but I decided that was just it, it was too simple. Ever since he lost Mary and Elena, I’d been making the doctor paranoid: dropping notes where he could easily find them, driving him insane with worry about his little girl.”

            “You still haven’t told me the how.”

            “I wanted to threaten Elena’s life so that he could come here willingly, but of course I knew that wouldn’t end well. So, I got some henchman to tail him and Sherlock while they were out on a case, and then they were ambushed. It wasn’t hard—you get enough men on Sherlock, and then it’s so easy to snatch John Watson.” Jim laughed. “That wasn’t complex either, but it was much better than my first idea.”

            “How long has he been here with us?”

            “How long have I been back?”

            “Not long, maybe a little over a week.”

            “He’s been here for that long.”

            “And I’m just finding out about him now? Logan must’ve started out nice or John took the pain quietly before today.” I only let a heartbeat of silence pass between us before I blurted out, “Is that what really happened to Andrew?” The question came out of nowhere, a sudden thought that just occurred to me. “He didn’t relocate, did he? You probably had someone take care of him.”

            “What makes you think that?”

            “You’re Jim Moriarty. I think that’s enough.”

            “No, it isn’t.”

            “I can’t find Andrew going somewhere credible.” I shrugged. “If you don’t have any use for people, you get rid of them somehow. With you, relocation sounds too nice. You had someone take care of him, you had to have.”

            “I will admit I saw him drooling over Heidi, and I did something about it. I shipped him off, and that was that. I didn’t send anyone to kill him. He’s someone else’s problem now.”

            “Logan’s ours.” I frowned.

            “He’s got his head on straight, unlike Andrew. He’s more focused.” I laughed, Jim looked at me strangely. “Something I said?” he asked.

            “You said Logan had his head on straight.”

            “What’s funny about that?”

            “Do any of us have a straight head?”

            “With the way we think, we do. To others we’re lunatics.”

            “And we’re embracing that,” I chirped.

            He kissed my right temple. “Embracing the madness.”

            “How’s the game with Sherlock coming along?”

            “It’s starting to slow down. But I know he’ll find his way here soon enough.”

            “You don’t sound impatient compared to other times. Normally you want to get to the big finale. You’re so calm about this.”

            “You can’t lose yourself in a game like this; it gives your opponent an advantage. You’ve got to be attentive at all times.”

            “If you say so. Shouldn’t you be thinking of ways to taunt him by telling him we’ve got the Watsons?”

            “Oh, I’ve already done so.”

            “Are we kidnapping anyone else he knows aside from Elena and John? I’m sure he’s got one or two more people he cares about.”

            “He does, and as lovely as the idea sounds, we only need the Watsons for this. Maybe in another game we’ll deal with the others.”

            Elena twitched beside me. She suddenly reminded me of what I’d learned from John.

            “So it turns out I have another body to add to my total. Mary Watson did die that night.”

            “Oh, I know. Johnny-boy told me first, and I rubbed it in his face that you were the one responsible. I just love shoving your success in people’s faces. I think that was the first time I ever have. I really hope I get to do it more.”

            “I should feel so special.” I yawned. “It’s a shame this’ll end soon here. I don’t mind keeping Elena here. She seems like she’s getting used to it. When we escape, we’ll take her and John with us, right?”

            “Of course. We won’t drop them and run. That isn’t us, little girl. We’ll torture the heart out of Sherlock and then burn it into ash.”

            “Mm, that menacing voice,” I crooned. “Sexy. No wonder women fall under your spell. All you have to do is talk and you have them.”

            “It’s one of my many talents.” 

**Okay, here's another good question for you. Who's got the pairing of RainexMoriarty in their head? Who's got a pairing in mind in general if it's not that one?

Whether it amounts to nothing or something, I like it. What's a story without a ship anyway?

Also, the song on the right may be familiar if you remember The Reichenbach Fall very well.**