Chapter 05
In which Sherlock is mildly impressed
Genre
Horror/ Drama
Sherlock and John were in the library looking for Alice, they had come here every day for a week, thinking it was too conspicuous to just knock on her front door, but today they had better luck. It was a small place, with an interesting atmosphere
It didn't take long to spot the girl, browsing through the non-fiction shelves. They slowly walked towards her, trying to look as casual as possible – just friends on a visit to the library. Sherlock stopped a little way away from her, picked a book off one of the shelves and pretended to skim through it. John tried to look like he was reading over Sherlock's shoulder, difficult considering their difference in height. In fact, that was probably what gave them away.
'Alright, follow me.' Alice rolled her eyes, closed the book she was reading and tugged lightly on Sherlock's coat as she walked past them. Sherlock looked faintly surprised for a split second before his usual emotionless mask took over once again. The two of them followed the girl to the borrowing desk where she loaned the book she had been reading, then she walked outside, where people were buzzing about on their lunch break. It was almost shocking, being suddenly whisked away from busy, congested London and moving to a country town of only a few hundred.
They walked in silence until they reached a park, where they all adopted a more leisurely pace. 'In case you're wondering, I knew you wanted to talk to me because I hadn't seen you before, so you attracted my attention. You looked like you were searching for something and you stopped suddenly near me.' She turned her head to look at them, 'So you must be after that rumour of me being cursed some years ago, because there isn't anything else interesting about me.'
'I wasn't wondering.' Sherlock spoke slowly. John could tell that Sherlock was mildly impressed though, this girl was better than most of the police back in London, even though she wasn't quite Sherlock.
'So I've brought us to this park, where it is less likely that we'll be overheard thanks to all the noise in the background. And this is where we'll find another friend of mine who may be able to help you if you're interested in the curse.' Alice shielded her eyes with her hand, scanning through the trees before making a beeline for a fashionably dressed Asian woman sitting alone on a bench in the corner of the park, reading through a book. She dog-eared her page and looked up as we neared her.
'Hello Alice, who are these new friends of yours?' She politely smiled at us each in turn. She had a slightly unsettling way of talking, she said everything slowly and softly, like she was choosing her words carefully - and her voice was constantly stuck between a smug, tired and amused tone. That was the best way John could describe it - it was hard to put into words.
'I don't know their names, but they are investigating the curse.' Sherlock had remained blissfully silent during this whole thing, probably because he knew it was important to get information out of these two women.
'Mm?'
'I am Jeremy Brett, and this is my friend, Martin Freeman' Sherlock introduced us by the false names Mycroft had given us.
'Karen Tran, I'm a nurse at the local hospital. It's nice to meet you. So are you two police officers?'
'No.'
'Ah, so you're doing it for a hobby, like me. It's always nice to meet someone with similar interests.' She hadn't stopped smiling yet.
'The feeling is mutual.' Sherlock smiled at her kindly.
Karen cocked her head to one side. 'Has Alice told you of her experience with the curse?'
'No, we're interested, but she doesn't have to say a word if she doesn't want to…' Sherlock was disturbingly good at acting kind.
'Oh, I don't mind, I'd actually like it if someone worked out what the curse was.' Alice piped from where she was standing.
'So this is what happened: My parents made me move out of town to live with my aunt after two of my friends had been hit by the curse,' She closed her eyes and smiled grimly. '…but only a week or so after I'd moved, I started hearing a third footstep behind me whenever I stopped walking, I lost my appetite, I felt something watching over me when I slept, I soon became depressed and paranoid and I think I started seeing things…' She trailed off and shook her head before starting again, a haunted look on her face.
'Once when I was outside walking home from school, I tripped and grazed my knee, it wasn't particularly bad, but it started bleeding and- and maggots started coming out of the wound with the blood. I panicked and started scratching at it to try and get them out, but they kept trying to get back in, and it was so itchy, and I could feel them squirming under my skin, and…' She was panicking now, John was watching carefully, bracing himself in case she fainted.
'a-and… I think I blacked out, next thing I knew I was in hospital, it seemed I had actually lost quite a bit of blood. Soon after that, I moved back to my parent's house in Riverview, they seemed to think it was the curse. I think they were right, a couple of days after I had moved back, I was my old self again.' She suddenly calmed down and shrugged, looking up at us with a cautious but hopeful look in her face, not expecting us to believe her.
Sherlock looked very thoughtful, John looked very disturbed.
Karen placed a hand on Alice's shoulder and handed an innocent-looking A5 notebook towards them. 'Here is a notebook of mine, I've been studying the curse for a while now – my notes are in here, but please don't tell anyone about it, our research, or what Alice has told you, we don't want to become the next victims of the curse now, do we?' She giggled softly. John took the notebook in silence.
Sherlock turned and started to walk away. 'Thanks, you've been helpful.' John said as goodbye before he turned and jogged up next to Sherlock. 'Now, what next?'
'We take a look through this notebook, obviously John.' Sherlock dived to grab it out of John's hand and started flicking through it.
'Right… fancy lunch when we get back?'
'Just tea for me, thanks.'