A STUDY IN BLOOD

The Game

Jim had brought Sebastian to his house only a few days after the construction on his house was finished, something Sebastian never would've guessed; Jim moved around the house like he had lived there for years. Plus, all of the stuff in his house made it seem very unlikely that he hadn't been living there for years. To move in completely within a matter of days did not seem normal. But then, this was Jim Moriarty.

Sebastian hadn't seen it for himself, but one of Jim's employers mentioned in passing that the architects had been replaced every couple of weeks for no reason. Sebastian understood this to be so that no one would know the exact layout of Jim Moriarty's sanctuary, but that was guaranteed anyway.

The house was a maze, with several different levels that didn't seem to connect at all. The top floor was Jim's study and his makeshift armory, which was a large room filled to the brim with various weaponry. Below that was his "apartment" as Jim called it- he claimed the American word suited his "vibe" better. In his apartment were three bedrooms with a sitting room connecting them in the middle, complete with two bathrooms and a very extensively stocked bar. Below his apartment was the real kitchen, a sprawling thing with expensive countertops and new appliances that Jim rarely used. The living room and dining room were beneath that, on the ground floor, and the basement housed the shooting range.

There were other rooms of course, but they were kept away from Sebastian with locked doors. He didn't waste time wondering what could be on the other side of any of them-- it was useless to guess when it came to Jim.

It had taken Sebastian weeks to figure out the layout. On the days that Jim left him alone in his house, he would usually go up and down the staircases, looking for a certain room on a certain floor, and be exhausted from the stairs by the time he found the right room.

Now, five weeks after Jim Moriarty admitted a drunk and stumbling Sebastian Moran into his home, it was as if Sebastian had been living there for years.

Sebastian bounded up the last two steps, arriving at the topmost floor barely out of breath. He knocked on the door once-- according to Jim, "any number over one is simply annoying."

"Enter," Jim called.

He was seated at his desk, his head slumped forward and propped on his forehead.

Sebastian moved towards him cautiously, not quite knowing what to do.

"Boss?"

A low rumbling sound escaped from Jim, twisting Sebastian's insides. Then it got higher and more choppy- Moriarty was laughing.

He lifted his head slowly, staring at Sebastian under the hood of his eyelids.

"Sherlock has figured it out."

Sebastian sat down at the chair on the other side of the desk-- the chair added to the room only in the last five weeks-- and propped his own chin in his hands, eagerly waiting for Jim to divulge him.

"He's in his cab as-- we-- speak," he said, jamming his finger into the desk between each word.

Both boys grinned wildly at each other.

"I need you to go over there, Basher," Jim said suddenly, pushing a small device across the desk. It had a map on it, with a small blue dot blinking slowly as it moved down the road. "That's the cab--" he gestured at the dot. "Get there as fast as you can, I instructed the cabbie to come somewhere near here, so it shouldn't take too long."

Sebastian made to leave, but Jim caught his elbow from across the desk and pulled him back.

"Moran," he repeated. "Do not kill Sherlock. I don't care if the detective himself is holding a gun to your head. Do-- not-- kill-- him."