My first Shelock Holmes story! :D Hopefully you will like it.

This works with most of the "Sherlock Holmes's" but I'm writing (or attempting to at least) in the style of the Jeremy Brett one.

I own nothing (sadly)

Watsons pov

Sherlock Holmes was calmly smoking his pipe in his favourite chair while I was reading aloud from the times.

It'd been three weeks since our last case and I was highly aware that Holmes was growing all the more restlessby the minute. I was therefore very keen on finding a new case, anything to avoid the use of his cocaine bottle.

There was a knock on the door and before I had even had time to react Holmes was already answering it. In came a young lady and a slightly older gentleman followed closely by a greatly upset Mrs. Hudson.

"I'm so terribly sorry Mr. Holmes, I told them you were busy but I just couldn't stop them," the poor landlady said apologically and seemed quite put off when Sherlock simply smiled and nodded before closing the door in her face.

Both our attentions then turned towards our new guests.

The lady had brown-redish hair and green eyes while the gentleman had black hair and blue eyes but by the similarities in their complexion and bone structure made it easy even for me to tell that they were in fact brother and sister.

This was, of course, also clear to Mr. Holmes who was studying them closely while waiting for them to state their reason for this unexpectied intrusion.

The young lady opened her mouth as if to speak which turned both our gazes to her which resulted in her closing it again.

Holmes went to the fireplace to lit another pipe while I waited patiently for the lady to take a deep breath and try again.

She was painfully pale, and so was her brother, so I assumed that whatever they were about to tell us was going to be a very ugly business.

"We are very sorry to disturb you gentlemen but we are greatly in need of your help," she said and her brother laid a hand protectively on her waist.

Holmes sat down with the pipe in his hand and indicated for them to sit down.

"I assumed as much," he said," Now tell me, what are the facts?"

This time it was the gentleman who spoke. Both Holmes and myself were very curious and I quickly fished up my notebook.

"My name is Anthony Beckington and this is my sister Theresa. We live in a village not far from Causton, in a house on the grounds of Jameston manor. The manor used to belong to our grandfather, who died but two months ago, and since we are his only living relatives (our parents died in a carriage accident while visiting a friend in Ireland) we inherited the entire estate…," there the boy stopped and the lady leaned in a little closer to him before continuing.

"Our grandfather was a very private man and didn't like having other people in his home, he didn't even have any servants but one deaf old lady, and as such we rarely visited the manor. However as it is now ours, or rather Anthonys but he is kind enough as to let me live in it until I marry my fiancée, Robert, we decided that we should start to clean out all of the useless stuff our grandfather had summoned all over the place…," she said and then looked up at her brother who seemed, if possible, to have paled further.

I glanced over to Holmes to see him completely focused on every word they said and I couldn't deny that I was getting very interested myself.

"Hrm, we had decided to start in the attic since it was the most crowded place in the house. We'd gotten about halfway when we accidentally turned over an old armchair which turned against an old mirror which of course was destroyed by the impact," Mr. Beckington said and here miss Beckington burried her face in his chest. Both I and Holmes were most impatient for him to continue as we both clearly understood that this was where the actual event of interest was likely to present itself.

"Please continue Mr. Beckington," urged Holmes and I mentally scolded him for being so insensitive.

The boy however simply nodded and cleared his throat to continue with his arm slightly tighter around his sister.

"As I was saying, the mirror crashed under the weight of the armchair but as we moved closer we noticed that the mirror had actually been a hidden door. It was completely dark in there so I took one of the gas-lamps which we had brought with us up and went in ahead of Theresa. It smelled horrible and I felt shivers run down my spine. I turned up the lamp and," here he had to pause before continuing and I feared for a moment that Holmes would speak up but a glance from me silenced him, "-and there she was…," he finished with a gulp.

I felt confused but quickly scribbled down what he'd just said.

"Who, Mr. Beckington?" asked Holmes and puffed twice on his pipe before putting it away.

"A-a young lady Mr. Holmes. She was covered in blood and wounds sir… You wouldn't have known it was a person, much less that it was a woman, if you hadn't seen her face. The body itself was far beyond recognizion. Her head was greenish as if after bruises and there was dried blood on her forehead, but oh, the expression on her face was…" Mr. Beckington shuddered visibly at the thought.

"What, Mr. Beckington?" asked Holmes and ignored me as I glared at him.

"It was a grin sir, a satisfied or possibly mocking grin… and her eyes… her eyes were…" miss Beckington gulped before continuing to answer the question her brother hadn't been able to answer, "Her eyes weren't there sir. There was just two empty holes in her skull," she finally said and once again buried her head against her brothers chest and he embraced her tightly.

I felt extremely nauseous at the thought of such a sight but Holmes simply nodded quietly to himself and leaned forward slightly in his chair.

"Was there anything else in the room?" He asked and placed his hands together at his lips as he always did when considering facts.

"Yes," said Mr. Beckington and nodded, "Just by her there was a rather old-fashioned nightgown. It was almost entirely covered in blood and it was ripped in two. Otherwise the room was empty except for numerous stains of blood on the walls… Please sir, will you help us?" he said and I could clearly hear desperation in his voice.

"Of course, Mr. Beckington. I and Watson will travel to Causton first thing tomorrow morning. Until then you must return home and see to that nothing is moved or touched in the house," Holmes said and stood up to bid them goodbye.

I stood up aswell and shook Mr. Beckingtons hand with a very bad feeling in the back of my head at the thought of this case. This was indeed some really ugly business.

After the two siblings had left the two of us sat down and I looked expectantly at Holmes.

Holmes pov

I went through the facts in my head while trying to ignore Watsons expectant stare.

It was a most confusing case indeed.

As they did not seem to recognize the girl it couldn't possibly have been anyone within their acquaintance.

Could it be the grandfather who murdered her? No, something tells me that there's more to this than such a simple explanation.

"It's most curious Watson, most curious indeed…" I said and glanced up at my dear friend.

He nodded in agreement and I smiled at him.

Hope it was to your liking ^_^

Please review and tell me what you think, all constructive critic is very welcome.

Until next time / Emmy