Disclaimer: I do not own Sherlock (the television series and its characters) or any of the original works by Arthur Conan Doyle and anything associated with it (books, characters, movies etc.) I only own my OC Ana.
Nine: Round and Round
The trio exited the museum with swift steps, stepping outside into the evening and the nightly sounds of London meeting their ears. Ana buttoned up her coat again, trying to fight off the chill that had entered the air. To say that she wasn't feeling a slight bit of panic would have been a lie. They needed to find Soo Lin before anything horrible happened to her, like the banker and the journalist.
" We need to get to Soo Lin Yao," Sherlock said, calm as ever. He slipped his hands into his pockets and continued to stride down the steps. John let out a little sigh as he fixed his own coat, shaking his head in the slightest.
" If she's still alive," He added.
" Can we attempt to stay positive, it will keep us on a better track," Suggested Ana. " I mean if we believe she's still alive, it gives us all the more motivation to get her back.
" Sherlock!" Shouted a voice. They all turned to see none other than Raz come bolting towards them. John felt a bit of anger as he saw him, the guy who left him to face the cops, earning John an ASBO. He let out a sigh.
" Look who it is…" He muttered.
" I've found something you'll like," Raz told them as he stopped beside John. As he led the way towards whatever they were apparently going to like, John's jaw clenched as he shot him a look. Ana nudged his arm and smiled a bit with a roll of her eyes. John knew that the roll of the eyes was more directed towards Sherlock, who'd asked nothing to Raz, but merely followed. This was going to be interesting…
After walking for a good ten minutes Ana became admittedly frustrated.
" Where exactly are we going?" She asked as she avoided running into a man in a long tan over-coat.
" Be patient, alright?" Raz said to her, smiling. She shot him a look, becoming just as put off with him as John was. They found themselves beginning to walk over a bridge that was adjacent to a raised train track.
" I'll show you patient…"
" You do know you earned me an ASBO, right?" John finally broke, snapping at Raz. The younger man snorted and rolled his eyes.
" Really? What for?" John gave him an incredulous look, eyes widening in shock.
" Graffiti on public property! They didn't take to kindly to your… art. Look, Tuesday morning, all you have to do is show up and say the bag is yours!"
" Can we forget about your court date?" Sherlock asked monotonously, looking straight ahead. John let out a huff of frustration, shooting his flat-mate a look. Ana wrapped an arm around John's shoulders and pat his arm as they continued to walk, none of the four noticing the woman who watched at a distance…
A skate park.
Raz led them to a graffiti covered skate park (or, rather, it was a type of under-pass no one really used, but with the steps and different height levels, it was perfect for skaters), where each inch of cement was seemingly covered in paint. Ana stared around at the kids who skated about, easily doing tricks and knew if she had ever tried anything like that, she would end up in the hospital. Sherlock mentally smirked as he looked around. Brilliant, he had to admit. If one wanted to hide something…
" If you want to hide a tree, then a forest is the best place to do it, wouldn't you say?" He asked out loud, scanning the walls. " People would just walk straight past, not knowing unable to decipher the message."
" With all this paint how on earth did you find anything?" Ana questioned Raz, turning around in a small circle to admire all the work that so many people had put into the markings around her.
" A bit of talent, ya know? Work with paint, you can pick up things you wouldn't have before. Impressed?" He asked with a smirk, walking right beside her. Sherlock arched a dark brow as he looked over to see Ana's reaction. He had been clearly flirting with her since he first met her in the alley. Ana had definitely noticed it, and had been uncomfortable earlier, but now she just rolled her eyes. She looked over at him and smirked slightly before putting her cold hands in her jean pockets.
" I'd say yes, but, unfortunately, it's a pretty easy talent to uphold, my friend uses it all the time to know which patrons are good tippers at the pub we work at," Ana told him. John stifled a chuckle and Sherlock let out a tiny smirk. Raz looked her over with a indiscernible look before suddenly pointing across at a wall, ignoring her comment.
" There! I spotted it earlier," He told them as they walked over.
Sure enough, parts of the mysterious yellow cipher were peaking out from behind a different image, having been covered up. Sherlock eyed it quickly a few times and then turned back to Raz, jabbing a finger towards the markings, brows raised.
" And that's the exact same paint?" He asked, sounding slightly excited.
" Yeah." Ana stepped over to it and ran her fingers along the image that now covered the yellow marks. She wondered if the image had been purposely put over them to hide it from anyone who might know what it meant.
" They could have used this place to practice," Ana said to them, still tracing the paint slightly with frozen finger tips, brows furrowed in thought. " They had to have known the cipher would be covered up pretty quickly, so why not practice where no one will really care if they cover up someone else's work?"
Sherlock nodded, thinking over her, quite sound, logic.
" Exactly. And even if it didn't get cover up, which of our two victims thus far would have come here? A banker and a journalist. Not many banking deals or propositions could be struck up amongst skaters and there isn't much to write about. Brilliant…" He muttered while another plan began turning in his head. Ana smirked at her own idea being as recognized as it could be by Sherlock, which rarely happened with anyone. " John, Ana, if we're going to decipher this code, we're going to need to look for more evidence. Everyone will split up, if anyone finds anything, run to find the others." With that, he strode away, sharp blue eyes scanning everything as he whipped out a flashlight.
" Well, let's get to it then," Ana said, heading in the opposite direction of Sherlock. John followed, planning to split up once they got back outside.
" This is not how I pictured spending tonight," John admitted with a slight trace of annoyance in his voice.
" What, spending the night in the cold with a graffiti artist looking for a cipher wasn't your ideal night?" Asked Ana sarcastically, smiling. John chuckled humorlessly, shaking his head.
" Actually, I was looking forward for a night of telly with some tea and biscuits…"
Sherlock found himself in a back alley sort of area; he was looking everything over with his flashlight. As he walked, the gears of his mind continued to turn restlessly, he thought of Chinese numbers, each one seemingly appearing in his lower vision towards the ground, coming in and fading away again as he searched. He stepped over to a train track and hopped into the gravel, spotting something rather important. A can of yellow spray paint. Holding the flashlight between his lips, he pulled off a glove and picked up the can, using his bare fingers to touch the nozzle… his fingers getting traces of the bright paint on them. He sniffed it, ending up inhaling the strong fumes. It was freshly used. He looked up and around, figuring out where to go next.
John walked inside a white-tiled tunnel, looking at the posters on the walls along with the graffiti. A siren wailed close by, and the freezing air bit at his cheeks as he walked. He wasn't having any such luck with finding anything clue worthy. Just torn up sheets of paper, the odd piece of rubbish on the ground and every piece of graffiti that was not a cipher.
Ana was searching the back walls of near-by buildings, glancing up at the paint, scanning for any sign of the bright yellow cipher. She went as far as picking up a bit of broken glass and chipping at the paint on the walls, seeing if anything was covered up; all she ended up with was bits of paint and a few minor scratches on her fingers that she made note to clean the moment she got back to the flat.
The only successful one out of the Baker Street Trio seemed to be the inky-haired detective, who came across a paint stricken poster on a wall for a traveling Chinese circus, advertising that it was in London for one night only. It also read that it featured people called 'The Wu Shu Warrior' and 'The Deadly Chinese Bird-Spider' and 'The Monkey King.' Sherlock, immediately taking note of the 'one night only' bit also containing the address and box-office number, tore said corner off, with a swift movement and a loud rip! That circus might come into play.
Soon enough, John found himself walking down another stretch of the railroad track that Sherlock had been on earlier. With his own flashlight in hand (something he learned to carry around from his friend), he scanned the gravel underneath his feet. He was mostly aimlessly wandering, hoping Sherlock might come dashing up to yank him and Ana to whatever important clue he had probably found. But he noticed something… on the wooden planks of the track there were drops of… yellow. Yellow paint! He followed the drop trail to where it then hit the rail and then the gravel… right to a wall with the Chinese markings on them. He backed up to see the entire brick wall covered in the numbers. He scrambled in his pockets for his phone, ready to call Sherlock.
Of course, Sherlock being… well… Sherlock, did not answer his phone, seeing as he had been in deep thought.
" Answer your phone! I've been calling you!" A disgruntled sounding John called out to him as he ran over, panting. Sherlock gave him an odd look. John had been ringing him? In fact… he hadn't heard his phone ring… or vibrate if it had been on silent… actually… did he even have it on him? John, seeing his confused face sighed and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. " I found it." He smiled. Sherlock began to run towards the direction John had come from. " Shouldn't we find Ana?"
" She'll find us eventually! Come on!" Sherlock called out, causing John to bolt ahead of him to lead the way. As they ran, John managed to send a shaky text to Ana, which should have read 'Found the cipher, come down the train track,' but ended up being those words with other jumbled letters here and there.
Slowly down as they neared the wall, John was shocked to find the red brick now painted black. His blue eyes widened as his forehead creased in confusion.
" It's been painted over!" He exclaimed in shock. Sherlock looked around, shining his flashlight in every direction before pausing. " I don't understand… It-it was here." John panted. " Ten minutes ago. I saw it. A whole lot of graffiti!" He was now cold and frustrated as hell with a stuffy nose and numb cheeks.
" Somebody doesn't want me to see it," Sherlock said, shoving his flashlight into his pocket. He needs John to remember those numbers. He suddenly grabbed a hold of John's head, causing the blond man to squeeze his eyes shut.
" Sh-Sherlock, what are you…?" John stuttered in a strained voice.
" Sh! John, concentrate!" John opened his eyes and stared at him like he was absolutely crazy.
What the HELL is he doing!? John thought to himself as his face scrunched up.
" I need you to concentrate! Close your eyes," Sherlock demanded.
" Wh-what? Why? Why!?" John's voice was rather squeaky with confusion as he shook his head. He had absolutely no understanding of what was going on. Sherlock grabbed John's arms. " What are you doing!?" He then… began to turn them in circles, a look of complete and utter seriousness on his face, looking the ex-military doctor directly in the eye. John's body was stiff and he leaned his head back as he unwillingly turned round and round.
It was at that moment Ana had walked up, freezing in her tracks at the sight of her friends. She blinked a few times, not knowing whether to take out her phone and videotape what was going on whilst laughing, or turn around and pretend she hadn't seen… whatever this was. She decided to sneakily film whatever was going on because, to be honest, it was hilarious. So, smirking, watched on.
" I need you to maximize your visual memory. Try to picture what you saw. Can you picture it?" Sherlock's tone was that of vital importance. This confused John all the more.
" Yeah," John muttered in a monotone.
" Can you remember it?"
" Yes, definitely."
" Can you remember the pattern?" Sherlock inquired, an eyebrow quirking.
" Yes!"
" How much can you remember it?"
" Well, don't worry-"
" Because the average human memory on visual matters is only sixty-two percent accurate!" Sherlock informed him strongly.
" Yeah, well, don't worry, I remember all of it." John assured him. He looked at him with a look of doubtful shock.
" Really?"
" Yeah, well, at least I would if I can get to my pockets!" John exclaimed as he pulled away from Sherlock, ceasing the turning motion as he fought his arms back, fishing his camera from the depths of his pockets. " Took a photograph!"
" Bravo," Ana complimented, putting her phone away. She grinned at her friends who stared at her.
" H-how long have you been standing there?" John stuttered out.
" Long enough to know neither of you get dizzy quickly. So, the photograph?" She asked with a grin. John quickly turned on the camera and showed the two the photo. Sherlock scanned it over before John put it away.
" We need to go back to Baker Street, now. I want a copy of that printed immediately," Sherlock told them as he began to stroll off, leaving the other two to sigh and follow.
" Well, at least we'll be out of this bloody cold…" Ana muttered, rubbing her hands together again. " By the way, thank you, John, for letting me know where to find you." She said the last bit loud enough for Sherlock to hear, knowing he wouldn't stop a case just to tell someone where he was.
" Sure thing, Ana. Maybe next time he'll pick up his phone so I don't have to hunt him down," John replied. Curiously, said consulting detective pulled out his phone and checked the screen. At least five missed calls and four texts… all from John. Well, as it would seem, he did have his phone on him… and he just didn't hear it ring.
Afterword: GOSH. I am SO sorry for the late update! I blame these things: Sleep, Skyrim, Assassin's Creed III and The Hobbit (both the book and the film). Speaking of which, I've seen that movie twice with our lovely Martin Freeman, who I think did a brilliant job in it! Anyway, I'm sorry for the wicked late update and I hope this chapter somewhat made up for it!
REVIEW REPLIES!
Gwilwillith: I'm glad you've been enjoying the story! I hope this chapter was okay!
Lightan117: I'm glad you're enjoying it and hope you stick around to read more! Thanks again!
Watersong77: I hope your demand has been filled, but sorry it's so late XD I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks again!
Kat7CA: I'm glad you're enjoying it! Especially the original scenes, which I apologize the ones in this chapter are a bit short, and I'm glad to hear I'm writing Sherlock well! I can't wait to write in the guy who pisses Sherlock off… it'll be great fun! Thanks again!
And thank you to those who have read and added this to story alert or favorites, it means so much to me!
So, my loyal readers, that is it for this chapter, and hopefully a great big gap won't be between updates… I unfortunately start school again on Wednesday. Fun. I start my rehearsals for my school's musical on that day as well; Yay for late nights. Anyway, thanks again for reading and hope you enjoyed! Drop a review to let me know what you thought! Thanks again!
~Mary