Sherlock - The Game Is On!

The Final Problem- Twenty One

Chapter Twenty One

Third POV

"Me and Jim Moriarty, we got on like a house on fire..." Sherlock bends and picks up the lantern and walks out of the 'room'. Behind him the other three walls fall out and crash to the ground. "Which reminded me of home."

Sherlock begins walking to the house. "Yeah, it's just an old building. I don't care. The plane; Tell me about the plane NOW! "

"Sweet Jim. He was never very interested in being alive, especially if he could make more trouble being dead."

"Yeah, still not interested. The plane!" He demands. "You knew he'd take his revenge. His revenge apparently is me." Sherlock reaches the front door and begins to open it. "Eurus, let me speak to the little girl on the plane and I'll play any game you like."

"First find Redbeard." She spoke slow with coursing precision.

Beside the stairs in the hallway a screen stands on top of a bureau which is covered with a sheet. The image of water pours down the screen but now is replaced by Eurus's face looking into the camera. The area behind her is dark. "I'm letting the water in now. You don't want me to drown another one of your pets, do you? At long last, Sherlock Holmes, it's time to solve the Musgrave ritual."

Sherlock stumbles back from the screen. "Your very first case! And the final problem." Her voice drops to a whisper. "Oh. Bye bye."

In the well, water is pouring down from the top. "Sherlock?" John speaks. Michelle jolts awake and looks around. "Johnny?"

Eurus begins to sing through Sherlock's earpiece: "I that am lost. Oh, who will find me. Deep down below..."

"Michelle?"

"What's going on?" She questions, still feeling hazy. "We're in a well."

"The old beech tree?"

Now hearing John and Michelle's voices over the sound of Eurus singing, Sherlock walks across the hall and opens the door to a room.

"Help succour me now..."

Going into the room, he stares at what he sees. "John. Iris."

"The East winds blow..."

Putting the lantern on the floor he hurries across the room and stares in shock at the screen on the wall. It shows that a camera is set partway up the well and is looking downwards as the water pours down onto his friend and his love. "John. Iris." He begins to shout: "John! Iris! Can you hear me?"

"Sixteen by six, brother, and under we go..."

In the flight deck of the plane, the girl screams again as the plane continues to shake violently. "Help me! Help me, please!"

"William!" Michelle speaks over the little girl.

Sherlock had his hand to his earpiece as the girl spoke but now he lowers it, staring intensely at the screen.

"Be not afraid..." Her song continues as the others talk: "John."

"Yeah, it's flooding. The well is flooding." He shouts over the overthrow of water drizzling down.

"Try as long as possible not to drown."

"What?"

"I'm going to find you both. I am finding you both!"

"Well, hurry up, please, because we don't have long!"

The girl on the plane screams again as it begins to bank hard to the right. "It's leaning over, the whole plane!"

Sherlock glances behind him to the door, then turns towards the screen again and claps his hand over his mouth, desperately trying to work out who to try and save first.

In the well, John helps Michelle up, the best he can before trying to get handholds on the rocks, in order to not just hold himself above the rising water, but Michelle too. He lifts his left leg as high as it will go to try to climb up the wall a little but the chain tugs at his foot and his fingers slide off the slippery stones. He falls backwards and into the water with a loud cry. "John!" Michelle breathes out panicky, trying her best to help him.

In the plane the girl stares in terror out of the windscreen.

Sherlock turns and runs out into the hall as his sister continues to sing. "Eurus, you said the answer's in the song..." He turns to the screen in the hall. "But I went through the song line by line all those years ago... And I found nothing. I couldn't find anything. And there-there was a beech tree in the grounds and I dug. I dug and dug and dug and dug. Sixteen feet by six; Sixteen yards; Sixteen metres and I found nothing. No one."

"Sherlock?" John speaks over the earpiece.

"It was a clever little puzzle, wasn't it? So why is it that Iris could work it out but you couldn't?" Sherlock raises both hands to cover his mouth.

"William? There's something you need to know." Michelle hiccups.

Sherlock lowers his hands, breathing heavily. "Emotional context. And here it comes."

Michelle and John stand in the water, staring in anguish. "Sherlock? The bones I found earlier." John speaks. "Yes? They're dog bones. That's Redbeard." Sherlock determines. Michelle cries. "No one told you..." Sherlock looks around in confusion. "They're not dog bones."