Author's note: On the title:
Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast
In a field I looked into going past,
And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,
But a few weeds and stubble showing last.
The woods around it have it - it is theirs.
All animals are smothered in their lairs.
I am too absent-spirited to count;
The loneliness includes me unawares.
And lonely as it is that loneliness
Will be more lonely ere it will be less—
A blanker whiteness of benighted snow
With no expression, nothing to express.
They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars - on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.
-Robert Frost, Desert Places
In mid-December of the year 2013, a series of bloody murders sweeps across the nations of Earth, a wave, to be more apt, of unexplained and increasingly violent activity starting in London and eventually, over the course of two weeks, encompassing the entire globe.
Naturally, the world is thrown into chaos. The civilian class begins arming itself, unconnected actions of violence escalate due to panic, and every day, the number of truly connected killings rises exponentially. And these killings are quite easy to find, due to one thing: the absence of blood in any of the bodies of the victims.
Every morning, the globe waits, hearts pounding in unison. Waits behind heavy curtains to see how many corpses will turn up on the streets of the world. News stations eagerly screech their bloody headlines. The public, in perverted curiosity, keeps their eyes glued to their screens as they hear of the latest murders, all over the world.
But nobody truly believes that this phenomenon will affect them. No one ever does in these situations. Most of the time, they happen to be right, because chances are that of all the people in the world, a very few will be hit by true, horrendous, devastation. Not so in this case.
But so it goes.
London, interestingly enough, is one of the least-hit of Earth's major cities. One Mycroft Holmes pinpoints the beginning of the activity to the fifteenth of December, in Bloomsbury. The first victim is believed to be a woman named Clara Schindler, found at five in the morning in front of 187 North Gower Street.
Three more victims are found within the London area on the sixteenth, and seven on the seventeenth. On the fourth day, however, London is only hit four times, and by the next day there is only one murder within the entire area. The phenomenon is unexplained, but Londoners are, for the remaining duration of the event, untouched.
The rest of the world, however, cannot say the same.
Near the end of the year, the wave of murders closes in on itself. It has, by now, covered the entire inhabited land on Earth and killings are happening daily everywhere there are people, except in London, which appears to be a sanctuary. As a result, travel to London rises dramatically.
On New Year's Eve many people are too scared to go out and celebrate, while others drink wildly and gorge themselves on food, out of fear.
Eschatologists stand at street corners screaming at the few who walk in the frigid air. Ham radio hobbyists gather their gear and drive their vans off to remote corners of civilization.
On New Year's Day, there are few celebrations.
Also on New Year's Day comes a totally unexpected and unbelievable explanation for the murders, apparently from the perpetrators themselves.
Did you hear?
wtf vampires
How stupid does the media think we are?
I'm sure there's a rational explanation if everyone will just calm down.
omg the vid has over a mil views already!
there is no way in hell that that is real
what kind of suckers do they take us for? LOL
I TOLD YOU THEY WERE REAL BUT YOU BASTARDS NEVER BELIEVED ME
Reporters these days will tell you anything to get you stirred up, sheeple. Quit believing everything you see online.
this is a sick joke
dude it's real
NO ITS ACHULLY REAL
Considering the number of things people have said aren't possible in the past and have been proved wrong, I'd say that there is no logical reason why vampires shouldn't exist
you don't actually believe this shit, do you?
–Whoa like Twilight? 3
—I'd say more like Stoker
–What's Stoker?
My cousin was attacked last wk
John sits back with disgust. "Have you seen this, Sherlock?" he calls in the direction of the kitchen, where Sherlock is out of sight, stirring something purple. He gets a distracted, muffled noise in reply.
"Look at this crap, Sherlock." John scrolls through a few more comments and then pushes his laptop away. He glances at the newspaper on the table next to him but it has the same ridiculous headlines as the online news.
"Hmm?" his flatmate replies.
John pulls the computer back and types something in the Google search bar. "The things people get up to these days," he mutters.
"You're far too young to be so jaded, John," Sherlock calls sarcastically from his position at the table.
The doctor looks up and grins. "Oh yeah? Come look at this then."
Sherlock takes a couple minutes to finish the mixture, swirls the liquid in a beaker, and sets it on the stove. He makes his way over to where John is looking through several current news articles.
"Vampires? John, don't tell me you're—" Sherlock begins dryly.
John cuts him off. "Apparently, this morning this group, sick pranksters or something, claimed credit for the murders that've been happening around the world recently."
"Which ones? Murders happen all the time, John."
"The bloodless ones. Mostly drained, or have you forgotten Clara already?" He says this without a hitch in his voice but his tone and facial expression reveal something else.
Sherlock sits down. "I'm sorry about Clara, John, but there must be a reasonable explanation for her death, as well as the rest."
John nods. "I agree, but the media seem to believe that the killings were actually perpetrated by vampires. Real-life vampires, the kind you read about in books. These sick bastards put a video on YouTube. They're saying that they've have been around for centuries but they haven't revealed themselves until now because 'the time wasn't ripe', or some bullshit like that. They're saying that the murders are a message."
His flatmate hums in uncertainty. "And the message is?"
John snorts. "Conveniently enough, they didn't say. They did mention that the organization of the murders would become more sporadic, that the 'vampire council' is letting all vampires do whatever they want now. I think they said something cheesy like 'darkness will stalk the streets of the world once more'. I was half wondering if the video was actually a trailer for some Hollywood movie."
The detective blinks slowly. He makes a strange noise and John turns, suddenly a bit uneasy. "What is it? You don't really believe this, right?"
Sherlock breathes slowly, in and out. He stands and retrieves his own laptop. "I have to show you something important."