Sorry about the delay for the update, it's been a hectic week! I was hoping to put up more than one chapter today, but I've got a lot of work to do so I don't really have the time, I hope you enjoy it anyway!

Warning: this chapter contains swearing, so beware those who may have sensitive ears/eyes!

Reviews are awesome as always, and thanks to those who have reviewed so far! :D

Chapter 10

The Great Game Two

John couldn't do much apart from stare at Moriaty as he stood casually in the doorway, smiling as if the whole thing was some sort of joke.

"You," was all John could think to say into the shocked silence, the one word dripping with loathing.

"Ah, yes, me." Moriaty grinned, as if John had just complimented him.

"You're meant to be dead."

Moriaty swayed on the balls of his feet, still grinning, as if he was enjoying himself very much. He was wearing almost exactly the same clothes he had worn when they had met; black polished shoes, smart suit and tie. "So are you actually," he pointed out, "but you're not, and that might work out better for the both of us after all."

Lucy was the only thing that stood in between the two men, and, to John's surprise, she turned and went right up to Moriaty without a sign of fear. She was still clutching her teddy bear.

"Can I go home now?" She asked in a small voice.

"Yes, I've have no use for you now. It's not my principle to shoot dumb animals, not small ones anyway." Moriaty replied, staring down at her.

Lucy took one look back at John, a mixture of fear and perhaps sympathy in her large eyes. She squeezed silently past Moriaty and left the room.

There was a short silence; John could hear the rain hammering at the windows, as if it wanted to smash them apart. The occasional drip of rain from a hole in the ceiling seemed to echo around the room. The first rumble of thunder echoed through the sky, it sounded as if it was miles away, but no doubt it would come closer. John so desperately wanted to run away, cowardly as that would be, but the further away from Moriarty, the better. However his legs were glued to the floor, and he couldn't do anything else other than the man standing in front of him, watching the little girl as she disappeared from sight.

"Isn't she cute," Moriaty smiled when he was sure that Lucy had gone.

"You bastard," John spat, rage burning like fire through his veins. Who in their right man would kidnap a child? "You utter bastard, how long have you been keeping her here?"

"All right no need to swear at me," Moriaty rolled his eyes. "Only a few days. I don't know why you're glaring at me, it's your fault, if you had come sooner I wouldn't have had to keep her so long."

"She's nothing but skin and bones, didn't you feed her?" John demanded.

"I'm not running a fancy hotel John, she's still alive isn't she? Although she was so annoying," Moriaty said, elongating his 'so' as he always seemed to do. "Every night she cried and was asking for her mummy or daddy or little teddy bear. I really hate children, although that probably isn't a surprise to you. Anyway it turned out she did become of use in the end. I knew you would be one of those people who would be worried about a little girl, so would try and find her at some point. Would you please stop glaring at me John it's very irritating!"

"I'm guessing you're responsible for the death of Garrison Smith as well?" John responded in a flat tone, he didn't stop glaring at Moriaty.

Moriarty giggled and clapped. "Well done John, I kill people! You're getting quite good at this now aren't you! Quite probably, I'm not quite sure I recognise the name. How did he die?"

"Spider bite."

"Oh yes that was probably one of mine," said Moriaty, he stepped further into the room, John didn't move, he kept his eyes focused on Moriaty's face, despite the raw hatred he felt from looking at it. The men were now only a few feet apart, staring at each other. John wished he had a gun.

"You don't even remember the names of the people you kill?" John responded. He couldn't understand how a spider bite connected Moriaty, but there wasn't much he could understand about this man.

"There are a lot of them John, it's hard to remember all of them. I've got better things to do." Moriaty replied, "But I can promise you one thing – more bodies will be turning up soon."

"Are you going to tell me why you killed him?"

Moriarty shrugged, his posture still frustratingly casual. "I'll explain it all a bit later, we've got plenty of time. The main reason was because he was annoying; he was getting in my way. Do you see what happens to people who get in my way? I don't think he died a very pleasant death, but that just makes it more enjoyable for me."

"You're a sick man." John finally took his gaze off Moriaty; his eyes started darting around the room, looking for ways to escape. He couldn't stay here much longer. There were just two doors and several windows, but they were far too small for a grown man to fit through.

"I'll take that as a compliment, though I'm guessing it's not." Moriaty's smile faltered a little as he spoke. "And you can stop trying to find a way to escape, you won't be leaving here for a while."

Sadly, John knew he was right. He gave up looking for a way out; he went back to glaring at Moriaty. "What do you want from me?" He demanded.

"Oh…it's that word, what is it? I always forget it, it tastes very sweet, but I can never decide if it's served best hot or cold….Revenge, that's the one." Moriaty smacked his lips at the word and grinned. "It's so delicious. Vengeance is mine, as they say. But I thought that would be obvious to you, or perhaps you're dumber than I thought."

"I'm not dumb." John snapped, "I know this is about Sherlock Holmes, I just don't know why. I thought you'd had your fun with him."

Moriarty nodded, he almost looked sad, but there was a glint in his eye that told John he was enjoying this little game. "Yes, but you see I do that really irritating thing where I change my mind all the time."

"Yes, I've noticed."

"I couldn't let you get out of that swimming pool alive, but you did anyway." There was a strange expression on Moriaty's face that seemed close to anger. "I should have shot you when I had the chance, but something told me that I should wait, and it seems that it will work out better this way after all."

"If you're trying to use me to get to Sherlock, you've got the wrong person." John told Moriaty bitterly.

"Aww, have you two had a bit of a fall out?" Moriaty asked in a sympathetic voice.

"You never answered me when I said you should be dead," John changed the subject quickly. He didn't think that Moriaty was the best person to explain friendship issues with.

"I know but I'm alive! How fun," Moriaty gave a horrible laugh and grinned, clapping his hands once more, but then he became more serious. "Though you knew I was alive, you knew all along."

"How did you survive?"

"Same way you did probably, pure bloody luck. And the fact that I knew Sherlock was going to do something stupid like that, so I made sure the bomb wasn't as explosive as you thought. Also a bullet proof jacket under a suit helps. That's the thing you see, I'm always one step ahead of you, always have been, always will be. It's what makes the game work, and this is the next game. Great Game Two shall I call it? That sounds like fun. Perhaps not as fun as the last one, but if someone doesn't stop me soon, then more people will die, a lot more than before." Moriaty laughed, "they'll fall like flies."

"What have you done?" John tried to hide the fear in his voice.

"Patience my dear John, I'm not just going to tell you everything because you order me to. As I said, we've got plenty of time, you're not going anywhere. If I tell you all my plans in five minutes that'll just ruin my fun."

"I don't have to stay here, and I don't have to listen to your shit," John spat, his heart was still pumping red-hot anger through his veins. "What makes you think I'm going to stay? I can walk out of here right now if I wanted to."

"You could," Moriaty nodded in agreement. "But I know you won't, curiosity for one thing, it's been the only thing that's been keeping you here since the start. Also it's just a very bad idea, because I have one of these." With a flash, Moriaty had whipped out a gun and was pointing it at John's head. John's blood froze in horror and terror in a matter of seconds.

"I thought you didn't like getting your hands dirty," he pointed out.

"Hmm, changed my mind about that as well. You see, this game's going to be a bit different to the last, and I'm willing to get a little blood on my hands if that's what I have to do."

John realised he had stopped breathing, he tried to keep himself calm, to think clearly. He didn't want to die.

"You're not going to kill me," he said as calmly as possible.

"That depends," Moriaty said darkly, his eyes narrowed. "Does Sherlock know I'm alive?"

"No," John admitted.

"You didn't tell him?" For a moment John thought that he had given the wrong answer, that he was going to die, but then he realised that Moriaty seemed please with him.

"You wanted me to tell him?" He asked.

"No of course not! That would just ruin everything if you had." Moriaty explained. "I'm just curious about why you didn't tell him."

"I didn't want to sound like I had gone mad," John mumbled to himself, he felt like a fool, he should have said something. But perhaps he was going mad; maybe this was all a bad dream. He hoped he would wake up soon.

"Oh, so you lied to him. He's going to be so angry when he finds out I've been alive and kicking all along!" Moriaty gave a laugh that was more like a cackle, but he still held the gun firmly in his hand.

"I don't get what's so funny," John said between gritted teeth. Though he doubted anyone would find anything funny when they had a gun pointing at them.

"Well I find it funny, you wouldn't. Because you always thought that you trusted him, but it turned out you doubted him. Do you know what's the worst part for you? Sherlock would have listened!"

Moriaty yelled these last four words, and they made a shiver run down John's spine. He looked away from the gun, he couldn't face the truth of what had happened, what was happening now, any more. It was then that John spotted the security camera.

The camera was sitting in the top corner of the old factory, and it was focused on where John and Moriaty were standing. John wondered who might be watching them and why. For a few moments he thought that perhaps someone might be watching the camera and realise that something was very wrong, and get some help. But then he realised it was probably Moriaty's camera, so he would get no help from that.

It was then that Moriaty noticed what John was looking at, and fired a single shot.