Note: Contains non-spoiler references to The Adventure of the Cardboard Box.
Nothing felt real to Susan Cushing anymore. That horrible package, the hassle of the investigation, and the truth about her poor sisters… it was too much for her. She had left England, and had been lucky to meet a few kind strangers who welcomed and entertained her. She'd tried to be happy, and took their advice to go visit another town she'd never heard of.
She was on the road there when the exhaustion hit. She was tired: tired of running, tired of trying to distract herself. Nothing felt real, and it hadn't for a very long time. It was time, she knew, to go home.
Home wasn't welcoming, but it was real, and Susan Cushing sat in her own home feeling it all. The horror, the pain, the crushing grief. She let herself think about them. Sarah… James… Mary… Mary… Mary…
Susan sat for a very long time, feeling. Her eyes were closing as the first stroke of midnight peeled out. It was Christmas morning, and in a few hours people everywhere would be opening packages…
Her final tiredness was a relief. It was over, she had felt everything, and she was about to enter a world more real than anything here could be. And, she fervently hoped, she'd find Mary and James there, both as happy as could be.
A 221B, for the prompt from V Tsuion: Here I am riding on a road I've never seen, going to a place I've never heard of, and all because of a package which came from nowhere.