It shouldn't have surprised her that the last living thought that crossed her mind as she lay dying was of Sherlock Holmes. She'd thought of him a lot in life, it made a kind of poetic sense. She'd have liked to have pictured his enthusiasm over a case, bright and childlike. His thinking pose, finger steepled and face calm. But no, instead she pictured him as she was ever familiar with him, harsh and condescending. "I told you Molly. For the sake of law and order you should have given up dating all together." And with that her heart stopped.
Earlier that night…
Molly was bouncing with excitement. She had a date tonight and she had high hopes for this one. He seemed so sweet. Of course they all seemed sweet, that was her curse. She always found these guys who seemed so great and turned out rotten in the end. It started with Tommy Callow in primary school. Good boy, choir and all that. She had such a fancy for him. Till she found out he liked to boost cars and go for rides in the countryside. It was all downhill from there. Frank the burglar she'd met him at church. Alan the drug dealer, he'd been one of the top students in his med school class. Jackson the embezzler, her mum had introduced her to that one though she denies it now. It was always the same right up to Jim, worst of them all, the consulting criminal. Nice sweet guys who seemed so normal and ended up being rotten at the core.
She sighs heavily trying to shake of the sudden gloom. She refused to think that was her destiny, to be trapped in misery or always alone. This time could be different, would be different. So she let herself get excited, let herself dream and primp and hope. She dressed nicely, she only really wore her worst clothes to work after all due to the blood and viscera and all that. She chose a faded pair of black skinny jeans and layered a light jumper in hot pink over a black tank. A dangly pair of earring, some bangles and a bit of light makeup later and she was ready for her date with Theodore.
He was a bit darker than the kind she usually caught the eye of, tall and rakish and dark haired like some sort of Gothic hero. And if he happened to have bore a bit of a resemblance to a certain consulting detective, well that was just a perk. She'd run into him in her favorite bookstore, and Molly being clumsy Molly she meant literally ran into him. She'd scattered both his books and her own tall stack of mysteries, with just a few romance novels thrown in to make her blush like a schoolgirl when he handed her one while she tried to gather the chaos back into order. He'd smiled so charmingly and said all the right things and she was surprised when the clerk had to tell them they were closing. She'd spent hours talking books with him curled up in the chairs provided to customers. When he'd asked to see her again she'd happily agreed. And so here she was.
It was a wonderful date, if she had stopped to think about it she would have realized it was just a bit too perfect but she never really did think when it came to her heart. He said all the right things, charmed and entertained her and acted a perfect gentleman the entire time. Should have been her first clue it was all going to crash down around her.
Theodore, she wonders now if his name really was Theodore but it really doesn't matter anymore. He'd escorted her home and she'd said goodbye at the door, she was a good girl after all and it was the first date, he'd left and she'd let herself into the flat. She had thought that had been it a lovely end to a great night, the start of what she'd hoped was a bright future.
A hope that crashed and burned when she'd turned from locking up to find him in her living room, smiling darkly. She hadn't even had a chance to squeak in surprise before he was on her, hand over her mouth and teeth at her throat. She'd fought, but it was like a baby bird trying to fight a cat, and eventually she hadn't had the strength anymore. She could feel him draining her dry and her mind wandered as she began to fade.
And so we end up where we started. Thoughts of Sherlock before her heart stops and there was silence. Not the way she'd thought her life would end. But sometimes the end is just the beginning and in the silence fire reigned. And just like like the world came back into sharp focus on a wave of pain. Molly had no sense of where she was anymore, no sense of self or her surroundings. There was just the candied heat that poured down her throat and burned through her veins, purging everything she was and leaving something new in it's place. She writhed and screamed in silence as her humanity was ripped away and replaced with something more. And after what seemed like hours of blazing pain Molly finally came back to herself, huddled and shaking, covered in blood she wasn't sure was all her own. And alone, alone with nothing but hunger, confusion and fear. Scared of herself perhaps most of all.