Author's note: I probably didn't satisfy your need demony passion, so I'm sorry for that, try not to hate me too much. Hope you're liking the story so far, enjoy this chapter! (Reviews?)
Sherlock awoke the next morning alone, and naked on the sofa. John was nowhere to be seen so he dragged himself up to his room. He tried to ignore the scent of rotten eggs but it was quite strong in the rooms. As Sherlock got dressed he took account of the many injuries he had sustained from the previous night, he was covered in scratches, bite marks, and bruises. Although he had felt more pleasure with John that night than he probably ever had, the pain had countered it quite a bit. Sherlock had never thought John capable of such roughness as John was such a tender person. He always treated Sherlock with kindness and patience yet the night before had been handled in anything but the gentle manner that Sherlock was used to. This only deepened Sherlock's worry about John, not only did John not have an alibi for the nights when the victims were being tortured, he was not acting like himself at all. Sherlock finished getting dressed and noted in the mirror that the most prominent of the bite-marks he had received was still visible on his neck. Sherlock ran down the stairs to get his phone so he could call John but when he picked it up it vibrated in his hand. Sherlock checked the message from Lestrade and it read
Ninth victim just woke up out of coma in hospital, come immediately if you want to question her.
Sherlock frowned for a moment and was about to open up his contacts to call John when something occurred to him. He came to a decision quickly and slipped the phone back into his pocket never having dialed John's number.
At the hospital Sherlock found the victim in a pretty bad state, she was missing several of her fingers, toes, and teeth. Sherlock knew he wouldn't be able to get much information from the battered girl unless he did so delicately so he elected to act more like John might've were he there, or at least how the John Sherlock knew would've acted, not the new John that Sherlock had been dealing with over the past few days. Sherlock let himself into the hospital room and sat next to the young blonde woman that was covered in bloody white bandages. He tried to question her but even with him trying to be as soothing as possible she still was in too bad a state to give him anything useful.
"I'm sorry I can't tell you more, I just don't really know anything aside from what he looked like." The girl said.
"I would tell you where he was if I knew; believe me I want nothing more than to stop that bastard from doing this to anyone else." Sherlock nodded and the girl looked out of the window with pained eyes. Sherlock had to commend her for being as strong as she was in light of the situation but he did wish she had more helpful information. Just then Lestrade walked in with Donovan at his side, Sherlock threw her a glare and nodded to Lestrade.
"Well hello freak, hope you haven't traumatized the girl anymore." Donovan whispered snidely to Sherlock's back and Lestrade shot her an exhausted look. They both walked around to the side of the girl's hospital bed but Donovan stopped short and cracked a grin.
"Well then, did the freak get some action last night?" Sherlock couldn't see himself but he knew he had just turned a violent shade of red to match the unfortunately visible bite mark on his neck. Sherlock had made the mistake of removing his scarf earlier and now the mark was exposed.
"I must admit that looks pretty nasty, you should ask her to lighten up." Donovan said with a laugh then, in a mocking voice, she added
"Or him." Sherlock couldn't help the rush of blood that came to his face and furthered his blush. Donovan grinned triumphantly and opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Lestrade.
"Get out Donovan, some of us are actually trying to work here." He glared at her and she exited the room. The girl on the hospital bed smiled gratefully at Lestrade and he walked over to Sherlock. He leaned down and whispered to Sherlock.
"Is everything alright?" He asked with genuine concern in his voice. Sherlock gave him a tight-lipped nod and Lestrade returned the gesture.
"I'll leave you to work then." He said and walked out of the room. Sherlock turned back to the girl on the bed and smiled what he hoped was a reassuring smile. Sherlock knew there was only one last question he could ask her and it was the question he had been dreading all day. He pulled out his phone and went into his photos where he kept some photos of John (for use as a contact image only, Sherlock certainly did not scroll through them absent-mindedly when he was trying to comprehend the strange emotions he felt in relation to John). He didn't want to do this but he held up a photograph that best showed John's features to the girl and asked
"Do you recognize this man?" All the color drained from the girl's face and her eyes went wide. Sherlock could see as her entire body went tense and her breath sped up and he knew that she did in fact recognize him.
"That's him, that's the man who did this to me." She said in a voice thick with fear and Sherlock quickly pocketed his phone. The girl took a few deep breaths to calm herself and Sherlock thanked her for her assistance. As he was walking out the door the girl called after him.
"How do you have a picture of him?" She asked and Sherlock tried to think of a decent answer. He couldn't, he couldn't tell this girl that the man that had nearly killed her and had put her through immense pain was actually his flat mate, or even maybe more than that. So Sherlock just walked out the door without answering her question and went home.
When he got home John was waiting for him, quite literally. When Sherlock walked through the door John was standing there with his hands behind his back in expectation of Sherlock.
"Where have you been?" John asked with a tight smile and Sherlock swallowed hard. John had killed eight people and now Sherlock was standing in front of him completely unarmed and alone.
"Working the case." Sherlock replied and he went about hanging up his coat.
"Found out who did it yet?" John asked and Sherlock shrugged.
"Don't lie to me Sherlock, I know you know." Sherlock's heart constricted and he turned to face John only to find that John was directly behind him. Sherlock jumped and John smiled cruelly.
"I killed them." John said with a huge grin on his face that made Sherlock sick to his stomach. John began to advance on Sherlock and Sherlock backed away from him in fear. John chuckled at that and feigned a lunge with a "boo", Sherlock leaped away from John though and began to move towards the mantle where a knife was sticking out of the wood.
"You know I killed those people Sherlock, why are you defending me?" John asked as he continued to advance on Sherlock.
"Because you're not you. I don't know how it's possible but you're not John, you can't be." John stopped then and actually looked mildly surprised and even a little… pleased. Then John began to clap.
"Congratulations Sherlock! I'm proud of you; I certainly didn't expect you to figure that much out." John said which only helped to deepen Sherlock's confusion, but Sherlock couldn't allow himself to be distracted from the knife he needed to defend himself. He tore his eyes from John for a moment to spin around and grab the knife. As soon as Sherlock's hand came in contact with the handle of the knife he was flung against the wall by an impossibly strong, invisible force. He slammed into the wall and was immediately pinned there by some powerful thing he couldn't see. In all truth Sherlock could barely comprehend what was happening until he looked up into John's eyes and was met by two pitch black spheres.
"John?" Sherlock asked incredulously.
"I'm afraid not Sherly my dear." The dark eyed thing that wore John's skin said and Sherlock stared at it wide-eyed.
"Impossible." Sherlock stated as he looked once more into the oily black eyes of the thing.
"Oh, Sherlock you know that it isn't. I'm a demon, pure and simple, although probably not so pure." The demon said with a chuckle; Sherlock shook his head in disbelief and the demon sighed.
"Come on Sherlock, you yourself have said that once you eliminate the impossible whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Sherlock shook his head again and said
"If you're not John then how can you know that?"
"Because I'm possessing John, everything he knows, I know." The demon said and Sherlock felt rage bubble up inside him.
"You get out of him-" Sherlock started but was cut off by the demon.
"Save it, it's not happening." Sherlock seethed with anger as he was held by the demon against the wall. The demon walked over to the mantle and plucked the knife from the wood. It examined the knife with a small smile on its lips.
"I will tell you what is going to happen though." The demon waltzed over to Sherlock and stood so their faces were mere inches apart.
"John here is going to be found out for the nine murders he committed and he's going to go to jail for the rest of his life." The demon stated.
"There have only been eight murders." Sherlock said and the demon's smile grew.
"You're forgetting to count the unfortunate murder of John's flat mate." Sherlock's blood ran cold and his eyes grew wide.
"It's a shame though, you really are something. I've never met anyone quite like you." The demon whispered to Sherlock as it fingered the buttons on his shirt. Sherlock wanted to chop the demon into tiny little pieces for ever coming near John.
"John cares about you too. It wasn't just my desires that I was fulfilling last night, they were his as well." The demon leaned in close to Sherlock and planted a kiss on Sherlock's cheek which caused Sherlock to grimace with disgust and hatred.
"In fact, I would even go so far as to say he loves you." Sherlock's heart sank in his chest.
"Has for a long time, unfortunately you are Mr. Married to your work. John fell in love with an emotionless machine." The demon sneered and Sherlock bit his lip. He wished more than anything that he could rewind time and undo all this but he couldn't. John had been stolen from Sherlock by this thing because Sherlock didn't realize in time that John belonged to him.
"Now when John finally has a chance to be with you he isn't even in control of his own body. He can't treat you the way he believes you deserve to be treated, and now he's going to murder you and spend the rest of his life in prison for it." Sherlock gritted his teeth and glared at the demon.
"No he won't, I won't let him." Sherlock stated and the demon smiled that horrible smile.
"I'm afraid it's too late now." The demon said and it brought the knife up above its head. Sherlock struggled against the demon's powers but he couldn't move no matter how hard he tried. So Sherlock shut his eyes so as not to see John in this way, as a monster that had hurt other people and John as well. Sherlock didn't know if John could hear him or not but he knew that when the demon brought that knife down he wouldn't get another chance. So Sherlock uttered the words that he should've told John sooner, before it was too late.
"I love you John."
Author's note: Heehee! Cliffhanger! Guess you'll just have to keep reading ;). (And maybe review…)