The Spider-
Isabelle sat down on the worn down park bench and quietly pulled off the cellophane from her sandwich, her bag slumped in the grass at her feet. Isabelle kept a wary eye upon Lillian and Alistair, the former running wildly about trying every piece of playground equipment. Alistair busied himself watching his little sister from his perch, keeping a hand on one of the brightly colored bars to prevent falling. She smiled fondly at them before biting into her sandwich. It was incredibly simple, luncheon meet with a dollop of mayonnaise. Isabelle had no time to actually cook for herself much less deal with the impending house fire. Mycroft would have been appalled. That was the benefit of his long trips to who-knows-where she supposed, there remained no risk of chastising glares or long winded lectures about creating nutritional meals. Ug. (Of course he would have cooked for her in the first place had he been home which might've subverted the lecture.)
Isabelle had made it halfway through her sandwich when she felt a presence move in beside her. A short figure lounging with one leg crossed over his thigh at the ankle. There was something about the stranger that sent involuntary chills raging down her spine and her fingers curled around the slightly soggy bread in her hands.
"Little Miss Muffet, sat on a tuffet-"
Isabelle gasped as soon as she recognized the voice, her hazel eyes traveling the short gap between them and meeting a pair of soulless brown eyes. Daniel Pierce her mind dutifully supplied before she had enough time to properly think. Of course his name wasn't Daniel Pierce, but that was how she would always remember him. He wore skinny jeans and a pale white shirt. She could see expensive Italian shoes over pink socks with kittens on them barely visible on his raised ankle.
"-eating her curds and whey."
His voice lilted soft and irish and so...promising. Isabelle attempted to right her attention to her children, though she couldn't help but watch him from the corner of her eye. Her heart hammered horribly in her chest as he pulled open a small brown paper bag and pulled free a red jelly baby which he pinched between his pointer and middle finger. His foot bopped once as he continued.
"Along came a spider who sat down beside her-"
He bit off the babies head then dropped the remaining body back into the bag. Isabelle swallowed, focusing on her stilted breathing. You can do this, remain calm! "Go away," she hissed. The creature's head oscillated minutely as he ate the head off another baby. Isabelle noticed that he didn't chew, merely kept them stored in the recesses of his smiling mouth. She thought of Lillian in his hands and nearly choked. She couldn't handle it, she couldn't! "Please leave! Please..." she turned fully on him, her voice quivering despite her best efforts. Isabelle knew she was easy to frighten and easy to wrong foot- but Mycroft was always there with his constant (though sometimes overwhelming) protection, and her siblings were never around to make her feel awful. She had no reason most of the time to feel unsafe! But that man... that man was like a nightmare she couldn't quite remember but still scared her as though she was still experiencing it. Still seeing the horrors. A figure that appeared only once before but had ingrained himself upon her brain.
Jim Moriarty raised a hand and waggled his pale fingers at her in greeting, opening his mouth and then closing it on the hapless candy heads. Isabelle lost it and stood up in a rush, dropping her sandwich to the ground and walking purposefully (not withdrawing) to the playground to gather her children.
Moriarty hummed to himself, twisted the top of the brown paper bag easily between his fingers, watching as Isabelle Holmes ran away from the spider. He sniffed as though deeply moved then lyrically recited:
"Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet.
Eating her curds and whey;
Along came a spider
Who sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet away."
I apologize for the lateness of this new chapter. I've been both busy and devoid of any solid ideas. I think I have two other chapters that are only about half finished that I can't seem to finish. Bleh. I promise though that I'll have another one of these (hopefully longer) chapters out before the end of the new week *crosses fingers*
If it helps, I've been working on the next chapter of Letters so that's also kept me from writing in here.
Red: Yes I do realize, and truth be told yours are probably better than anything else I could come up with haha XP