I know i should be feeling victorious, elated, that i have won the game like i have won so many others, but really, i just feel sadness. Sadness, that my most challenging problem has been solved, sadness that it is all over, sadness, that after all, i was alone in a dull world after all.
The time has come.
I lift up my phone, and type the words:
'Im waiting...
JM'
So i wait.
Soon, i hear the door to the stairwell creak open.
"Ah. Here we are at last. You and me, Sherlock. And our problem. The final problem. Staying alive!"
I click the bee gees song off, and its all quiet.
"So boring, isn't it?"
Yes, boring. What's the point of living, if you already have everything? I own everything. I can do anything. But where is the fun, if its already yours to take?
"All of my life i have been searching for a distraction. You were the best distraction. And now i don't even have you! Because i have beaten you. And you know what? In the end it was easy... It was easy."
I thought, for once in my life, that i had found a match. Someone who could fill the whole in me. I always knew i was missing something, but i never quite knew what. Then i found Sherlock. I heard what he could do, witnessed it myself. But in the end, he was just like the others. And i, was alone.
"Now i have to go back to playing with the ordinary people. And i turns out, your ordinary, just like all of them!"
Ordinary. Everyone is so ordinary. I am just a one off. A one in 7 billion.
"Oh well!"
I turned to face him.
"Did you almost start to wonder if i was real? Did i nearly get you?"
He looked troubled, puzzled. Scared.
"Richard brook."
Ah, so finally, he speaks.
I smiled a small smile, a mask. I was always good at those.
"Nobody seems to get the joke. But you do."
"Of course."
"At a boy!"
"Rich brook in German is Reichenbach, the case that made my name."
And the case that broke it.
"Just trying to have some fun."
Which was true. But it was somewhat short lived.
As i circled him, like a predator circling its prey, i noticed him tapping his fingers behind his back.
"Good. You got that to."
"Beats like digits. Every beat is a one, every rest is a zero. Binary code."
Oooh, good, so he picked up on that.
"That's why all those assassins were following me," He continued, "It was hidden on me. Inside my head. A few lines of computer code that can break into anywhere."
"Told all my clients, last one to Sherlock is a cissy."
"Yes, but now its all up here."
He gestured to his head, believing he was really getting somewhere.
"I can use it too alter all the records. I can kill Rich Brook and bring back Moriarty."
"No, no, no. This is too easy, this is too easy!"
How could he really even THINK for a second, that there really was a computer code? A code, a few simple numbers, that can break into anything, anywhere? I thought he was supposed to be smart. Turns out he's brainless, just like the rest of them.
"There is no key, DOOFUS!"
"Those digits are meaningless. Utterly meaningless. You don't really think, that a couple of lines of computer code are going to crash the world around are you? I'm disappointed, I'm disappointed in you! Ordinary Sherlock."
I laughed at him. Not because i found this funny, but at his sheer idiocy. At my sheer idiocy for believing for one moment i had made my match. And now the came drew to a close.
"But the rhythm"
He said frantically, trying hard not to believe that for once, he was wrong, beaten.
"Partaker number 1, thank you, Johan Sebastian back."
"Then how did you-"
"How did i break into the bank, into the tower, to the prison? Day light robbery! All it takes are some willing participants. I knew you'd fall for it. That's your weakness! You always want everything to be clever! Now, shall we finish the game? One final act. I'm glad you chose a tall building. Nice way to do it."
I loved watching the emotions spread across his face. At first, confusion, then realisation, panic, and fear. He was going to die, and the whole world would think he was a fraud. And i would just sit back and watch.
"Do it, do- do what?"
I smiled, a cunning and malicious smile. He knew, he just wished he didn't.
Realisation dawned across his face.
"Yes, of course. My suicide."
"Genius detective proved to be a fraud."
Although, not really so genius after all.
"I read about it in the papers. I love the papers. Just like fairy tales."
We looked down over the edge, down the vertical drop and onto the hard, unforgiving concrete floor. It was actually quite beautiful.
"And pretty Grimm ones too."
His precious doctor would be getting to there flat around now, would find out their dear Mrs Hudson was alive and well. And he would run back, trying to save Sherlock, but just giving him the final shove into the trap.
"I could still prove that you have created an entirely false identity!"
He was panicking now.
"Oh, just kill yourself its a lot less effort."
He looked around, stalling what he knew would come.
"Go on. For me. Pleeeease"
He grabbed me by the collar, and held me backwards over the edge of the building. I kept calm, though. I had a little bit of information that would make him slightly more willing."
"Your insane."
"Your only just getting that now?"
Its true, though. I have never been exactly 100 percent sane. Not even 50 percent, really.
"Okay. Let me give you an extra incentive. Your friends will die if you don't."
His eyes flashed with shock as he processed the information.
"John."
"Not just John, everyone."
"Mrs Hudson."
"Everyone."
"Lestrade."
The decision. All of his only friend's lives, or his own. Which option would he take?
"Three bullets, three gunmen, three victims. There is no stopping them now!"
He pulled me up, and i straightened my suit. I had to look good for the finale, didn't i?
"Unless, my people see you jump."
"You can arrest me, you can torture me, you can do anything you like with me, but nothing is going to prevent them from pulling the trigger. Your only three friends in the world will die! Unless-"
"I kill myself."
Well done, he was finally catching on.
"To complete your story."
"You've got to admit, that's sexier."
"And i die in disgrace."
"Well, of course, that's the point in this."
Gosh, i thought we had already gone through this!
"Ah, you've got an audience now. Off you pop! Go on."
"I told you how this ends! Your death is the only thing that can call of the killers. I'm certainly not going to do it."
And he, would die.
"Will you give me one moment, please? One moment of privacy? Please?"
I looked at him, and he stared back.
"Of course."
Walking off, i realised, maybe he wasn't worth my time after all.
But i was cut off from my thinking by laughter.
"What? What is it? What did i miss?"
"Your not going to do it."
My first mistake.
"So then, the killers can be called off, there's a recall code, a word, a number. I don't have to die, if ive got you."
I laughed at him, he thought i was actually going to just five myself up, like that?
"You think you can make me stop the order, you think you can make me do that?"
"Yes. So do you."
Another laugh.
"Sherlock, your big brother and all the king's men couldn't make me do a thing i didn't want to do."
"Yes, but I'm not my brother, remember? I am you. Prepared to do anything, prepared to burn, prepared to do what ordinary people wont do. You want me to shake hands with you in hell, i shall not disappoint you."
He thought he was everything, better than everyone, but really, he wasn't at all.
"Nah, you talk big. Nah. Your ordinary! Your on the side of the angels."
"I maybe on the side of the angels, but don't think for one second i am one of them."
I looked up into his eyes. They were darker than usual, clouded with memories. I knew, as i looked up into those eyes, i knew he was in no way ordinary. I was not alone. He may not be as smart as me, no, but he was close enough.
"No. Your not."
He smiled, relieved.
I was happy now. I could rest. In peace, now i knew that hole in me, the emptiness, was now filled. I finally felt the happiness i should have been feeling.
" I see. Your not ordinary."
I smiled at him, and looked into his eyes. There was something in there, i don't know what, but i just knew, what ever it was, was not ordinary.
"No. Your me."
I laughed.
"Your me!"
"Thank you! Sherlock Holmes."
I reached out, took his hand and shook it. He looked at me, confused.
"Thank you. Bless you."
I thanked him, because, without him, i would die bored and alone, sad and empty. Now i could go, happy in the knowledge, i had sound my match. And won.
"As long as I'm alive, you can save your friends."
I reached into my pocket. I knew what i must do.
I felt for the cool, metal of my handgun. I kept it in my pocket for emergencies. It was soothing, peaceful. I could let Sherlock get away, carry on with my life, lay low for a bit, but then i would have to live with the knowledge i had been beaten, and i don't know if i could honestly live with that. Or i could end my life here and now, peaceful and happy, at the height of my career, on top of the world. And i would have beaten the great Sherlock Holmes.
"Well, good luck with that."
As i lifted up the gun, and pointed it into my mouth, i saw the panic on his face. Oh, what an excellent game this has been. I only wish we could have played it longer.
Im not alone.
So long Mr Holmes. I'll be waiting for that handshake, Sherlock. In hell.
