A/N: Okay well this chapter is a little different as everyone's split up at the moment I decided to give Sherlock and John a case. FYI this case is set in Croydon but I know absolutely nothing about Croydon except that there's a lake there. Well enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 11

It had been a month since Sam's storming out. Sherlock and John were at their wits ends. Between trying to find Sam and Deanna they were exhausted. They had decided that for a couple of weeks rather than hunting down Sam and Deanna they'd go on a holiday. It was very rare for them to go on a holiday but they needed one.

They'd decided that they wouldn't go far out of London just in case Sam or Deanna resurfaced. They'd gone to Croydon. They were staying at the beach and it was lovely. It was summer so it was nice and hot.

But of course their little holiday couldn't go without mishap. While they were at Croydon Sherlock caught wind of a case involving a series of drownings. Back in London it was very rare for them to receive a case related to drowning, especially not this many. Over the past two months 11 children had drowned in the same lake. That was no coincidence.

Sherlock and John had decided to go down to the morgue as Sherlock wanted a good look at the bodies to see what he could find out. The authorities had only managed to recover to of the children's bodies and those weren't in very good condition. Sherlock had still insisted on having a look though.

The first body was one a of 9 year old girl. The girl was covered in bumps and bruises and had had a bite taken out of her shoulder. She had several deep scratches up around her ankles and a few around the area where her shoulder had been bitten. Sherlock scanned her making his deductions as well as taking a few photos on his phone of her injuries, just in case.

The next body was in even worse condition. It was the body of a 6 year old boy. The boys left wrist was obviously broken and well as his right ankle. He had had several bites taken out of him and his body was drained of blood. The one thing that stood out to Sherlock was that he had the exact same scratches as the girl around his ankles and the bite marks.

"Sherlock?" John said from behind him.
"What?"

"What could've done this to them? It's horrible."

"I don't know yet but I know one thing for sure... there's something living in that lake and it's going to keep killing. It's only a matter of time before someone else falls victim to it."

"What do we do then? We can't just stake out the lake and dive in if anyone needs saving."

"Let's start with working out what we're up against. Let's find out if there are any live witnesses."

Sherlock and John had managed to track one live witness of the drownings. The girl had been with the 9 year old whose body they had looked at when the girl had been dragged in. Whatever that girl had seen it was bad.

The witness they were going to interview had checked herself into a mental hospital. So whatever she had seen was obviously not good.

John always liked taking cases with just Sherlock as it meant that they never had to be pretend FBI agents. Sherlock's name was well known and John was well known as his assistant or whatever people thought he was. But that was fine because it always worked for them in these sorts of cases. They could just waltz in and people would let them.

They found the girl with ease. The girl who had beared witness to the 9 year old's tragic demise appeared to be about 15 years in age. She had short blonde hair which she was playing with, probably a nervous habit she'd picked up. Sherlock walked up to her. He was silently deducing her. When he sat down beside her she looked up at him with bright blue eyes.

"He-hello." She stammered.

"Hello. My name is Sherlock Holmes and this is my..." He scanned John looking for the right word. "Partner John Watson."

The girls eyes widened as she stared at the pair. "You're really Sherlock Holmes and John Watson?"

Sherlock sighed and muttered under his breath "Why does everyone keep asking me that? Isn't it obvious who I am?" Then he said a bit more loudly. "Yes, yes we are."

"It's- uh- really nice to meet you. I'm Emily by the way. What-uh-are you doing he-here?" She stammered out.

"We're here to talk to you about your sister's death."

John looked at him in surprise. "Sister?"

Sherlock rolled his eyes at John''s idiocy. "Yes of course she's her sister. The genetic similarities practically scream it."

"What do you wa-want t-to know?"

"You were with her when she died correct?"

"Yes." Emily said meekly while staring at the ground.

"Did you see anything?"

Emily's head shot up. "What? Why?" She asked defensively.

"Because other children have been dying too and we need to work out what is killing them."

Emily stared at him with a shocked expression. She looked like she was about to bolt any second when suddenly she relaxed.

"You said what, not who." She stated.

"Yes I did. Tell us what you saw Emily."

"I- I... you'll never believe me."

"Try me."

"We were playing beside the lake when it happened. We were just having a water fight, it was fun. As we were fighting I noticed that she was getting closer to the edge of the water and occasionally shaking her head as if to clear up some thoughts. I was just about to stop the fight when it happened. She got too close to the edge and a...a..."

Emily stopped talking and broke down crying. Sherlock was confused by the whole thing, why was she crying? He looked at John for guidance as to how to deal with the crying girl. John sighed and walked over to Emily and put a comforting hand on her back.

"It's okay, tell us in your own time." John said calmingly.

"But quite quickly." Sherlock added.

John sent Sherlock a scolding look. After a while Emily stopped crying and looked back up at Sherlock. Sherlock had begun scrolling through his phone by the time she'd stopped crying.

"Sherlock." She said catching his attention. Sherlock put down his phone and looked at the girl.

"Ah good to see that you've stopped crying. Can you please get on with your story now."

"Right well we were by..."

Sherlock cut her off. "Skipping to the part when your sister fell in."

"Right. She was standing on the edge and this slimey green hand with really long claws came out of the water and wrapped itself around her ankle. I tried to warn her but it was too late. The..." She tried to look for the right word to describe the creature that had murdered her sister. "thing dragged her into the water and down deep into it. I jumped in after it and swam in search of her but I couldn't find her. I dove deep underwater in search of here but there was no trace. Then I felt one of the things wrap itself around my ankle and I thought to shake it off but it's grip was so strong. I got lucky and managed to shake it and climb back to dry land."

"What did this... thing look like?"

"I didn't get a very good look at it but from what I could make out it just looked like a regular person with really long arms."

"Did you notice anything else that could be important about it?"

"No but as it dragged me lower I could hear hissing."

"Hissing?"

"Yes hissing, like how a cat hisses."

"Well thank you for your time Emily. We really must be going. Come on John."

Sherlock got up and went out the door. John and Emily both stared at the place where he had been sitting in confusion. Sherlock popped his head around the corner.

"Are you coming or not John?"

"Coming! Thank you for talking to us Emily, I'm sorry for your loss."

"It's fine John." She said.

"Bye."

"Bye."

John ran out the door after Sherlock.

Sherlock and John had gone back to the hotel they were staying at and were on their laptops doing research. John was interrupted from his research when Sherlock suddenly stood up and thrust his laptop in front of John.

"Look!" Sherlock exclaimed.

John looked at Sherlock's laptop. It had been left open on a webpage. The webpage talked about this monster called a grindylow which devoured children which played in or by the lake. There wasn't a whole heap of description of the creature itself, in fact the only thing that had been really described was it's long green arms that it used to drag the children under the water.

"You think that our creatures a grindylow?"

"Yes! It makes sense."

"Well that's great but we still don't know how to stop it."

Sherlock rolled his eyes. "Scroll down."

John did as instructed and saw more information on the grindylows. There were described as water demons. Both Sherlock and John knew how to deal with demons but they didn't know how to kill them.

"So what are we going to do then? Swim down underwater hoping that they won't decide to kill us and perform an exorcism?"

"Not an exorcism."

"What then?"

"We a-salt them..."

"No, don't do that." John said disapprovingly. "Anyway wouldn't the water mess with the salt and make it lose it's effect?"

"Oh yeah..."

"Yeah.. so basically we're going up against demons that live underwater so an exorcism and salt will be powerless against them."

"What about holy water?"

"I don't know we've never tried to bless that much water, would it even work?"

"We could try it."

"We can but we need a back up plan. For all we know there could be more than one grindylow down there."

"We could use the colt."

"Sam has it and god knows where he is."

"Great. Wait... what if we draw them from their source?"

"What?"

"We draw them onto dry land and exorcise them there."

"That..." John pondered the plan for a minute. "That might actually work."

"We need bait. Its unlikely to go for either of us, the lore says that it prefers children."

"Do you think Emily would be willing to help us?"

"Maybe."

"Well then let's go ask her."

Emily had agreed to help them draw out the grindylow. It had been surprisingly easy to get Emily out of the mental hospital and down to the lake where the drownings had been happening.

John and Sherlock did their ritual to turn water into holy water, whether or not it worked they didn't know but at least it was something. Emily had gone up to the edge of the water as instructed. She stood there rather uneasily.

"Don't worry. If they get you we'll rescue you." John said reassuringly. Emily nodded as she stood on the edge.

She froze as a long slimy green hand wrapped itself around her leg.

"I'm scared."

"Don't worry. It's alright to be scared. Fear is a superpower."

"But what if it gets me and I can't get away in time?"

"We'll save you."

She winced as the claws of the grindylow dug into her ankle.

"What do I do?"

"Come over here."

Emily began slowly walking over to John but the creature had other ideas. It tried to pull her backwards into the water. She pushed ahead and kept going but the grindylow was so strong.

"I don't know how much further I can go."

"Just keep going." John said.

Emily kept walking and the creature kept pulling. Sherlock who had snuck behind her grabbed the creatures arm which was still wrapped around Emily and pulled it up towards him. The creature came out of the water with ease.

The grindylow looked like a young boy which had been under the water too long. The slimy green appearance of it's skin had probably been caused by underwater slime and muck. The grindylow snarled at Sherlock.

"Emily you can stop now. You're safe."

Emily stopped walking and turned to look at Sherlock who was holding the grindylow.

"Do you speak?" Sherlock asked it.

"Yes..." It hissed back at him.

"Good. How many more of you are there."

"Thousands. All over the world."

"In the lake, how many more are in the lake?"

"Two. But it doesn't matter if you kill us. More will take our place." It snarled at him.

"Why do you take the children?"

"Because they're so tasty and their screams when we grab them are absolutely beautiful."

Emily walked up to the grindylow and slapped it across the face. "You bitch! You're talking about innocent lives. Those are children you're talking about they haven't grown yet, they haven't had a chance to live yet and you ate them!"

"Yes Emily we did."

Emily paled when the grindylow spoke her name. "How do you know my name?"

"Emily maybe you should..." John was cut off when Emily suddenly shouted at the creature

"Tell me how you know my name!"

"We know everything. It was adorable how you dove in after your sister. Truly adorable. Too bad you never saved her... but how could you? You're only human."

"At least I don't eat children." She defended.

"True." It shrugged.

John pulled Emily back. She struggled against him but he kept a firm hold on her. Sherlock began an exorcism and the grindylow struggled to get away. But it failed. When the exorcism was over it opened it's mouth and black smoke poured out.

"John check the kid."

John let go of Emily and ran over to check the child that the grindylow had been possessing.

"There's a pulse!" John exclaimed.

"Get him to safety."

"What are you going to do?"

"There's still more of them out there. I intend to stop them."

"How?"

"Lure them out?"

"Ho-"

"I'll figure it out. Just get him to safety."

John scooped up the young boy that had once been a vessel to that horrid creature. He carried the kid further away from the water and came back once he was sure that the remaining grindylows wouldn't grab him.

"I don't want to be bait again." Emily said defiantly.

"Understandable but it's not about what you want to do, it's about what you need to do."

"I'm scared."

John walked up to Emily and put his hand comfortingly on her shoulder. "It's okay to be scared, because didn't anyone ever tell you? Fear is a superpower! Fear can make you faster, stronger and cleverer. Fear doesn't have to make you cruel or cowardly, fear can make you kind."

Emily looked right into John's eyes as if trying to read him. Just as it seemed like she was about to walk away she nodded.

"I'll do it. But this time we need a better plan. The thing said that there were two left, we can't just draw them out one at a time."

"How do we draw out both of them?"

Instead of answering Emily dived off the edge into the lake.

"Emily what are you doing?" John yelled to her.

"Acting as bait."

"But you'll be killed!"

"Then stop them." She said determinedly.

Sherlock removed his trench coat and scarf and dived in after her. He swam up to where she was and ducked under the water. For a second John thought that he had lost Sherlock as well when suddenly he heard a hissing sound come from the water. Sherlock emerged from the water with a grindylow snaking up his arm. That had to hurt.

Emily felt one begin to grab onto her leg.

"Sherlock!"

Sherlock immediately knew what she was yelling about and grabbed onto her and swam closer to the edge where John was standing with her. Emily was beginning to struggle to keep her head above the water but Sherlock continued trying to get her to safety. Once at the edge John reached down and pulled her up onto the shore taking the grindlow with her.

Sherlock climbed up after her with the other grindylow still snaking up his arm.

"Now John!"

John began reciting an exorcism but was cut off when one of the grindylows lunged at him. Sherlock continued the rest of the exorcism. Once the exorcism was completed both grindylows froze as black smoke poured from the mouths. The children they'd been possessing dropped to the ground.

"Are they alive?" Emily asked.

John went over and checked. Both of the previously possessed children had pulses and were breathing on their own.

"We have to get them to a hospital."

John nodded and called 911 on his phone.

"Hello emergency services, which service to you require?"

"Ambulance at (IPH)"

"An ambulance has been dispatched, could you please describe the nature of your emergency?"

"We rescued three children from drowning."

"Are they breathing?"

"Yes, don't worry I can keep them alive until an ambulance can get here. I'm trained as a doctor."

When the ambulance eventually arrived it loaded up the three children and took them off to hospital. The paramedics had wanted to have a look at the deep cuts around Emily's legs and on Sherlock's arm. Sherlock had flat out refused to let them treat him stating that John was perfectly capable of treating him if need be. Emily however had accepted treatment and gone in the ambulance back with the children.

As the ambulances disappeared off into the distance Sherlock and John were once again alone.

"Some holiday that turned out to be." John stated.

"Where's the fun in going on holiday if there's no crime to solve?"

"You clearly don't understand the definition of a holiday."

Before Sherlock could respond John's phone went off. He picked it up and was surprised to hear Sam's voice at the other end.

"Dad?"

"Sam?" Upon hearing Sam's name Sherlock stepped closer so that he could overhear the conversation.

"Why are you calling?" John asked.

"I-I..." Sam broke off panting into the phone. "It's not safe for me to tell you, they could hear me."

"Sam, just tell me one thing. Are you okay?"

"I don't think I am." Sam admitted pitifully.

"Where are you?"

"A tube station in London. I can't tell which one."

"What are you doing in a tube station?"

"I had to get away!"

"Get away from what Sam?"

"I can't talk right now. They're here."

They heard the sound of scuffling on the other side of the phone then the sound of it being dropped.

"Sam?" When he received no response he tried again this time much louder. "Sam!"

All sounds stopped playing through the phone. They heard the tell tale sound that the phone had been disconnected. John clenched his fists in anger.

"We need to help Sam."

"I know."

"Don't be scared Sam, we're coming for you."