James Moriarty - Tempestuous Tides

Chapter 8

We cannot all be heroes, we can be fighters, we can be warriors. We can fight and not succeed, yet in our hearts, we will have tried so hard that we are fighters in our own right. That is exactly what the four of them would become, fighters. Those that learn to be fighters to succeed in the world.

All in all, we have our moments where we cannot succeed at everything, but we can try to be higher than the time before when we fail. Failure is a sign of growth so that when we do succeed in the end, we will be even more triumphant than when we win the first time around. At least it will mean a lot more, as you grow to learn how much value that will hold in your heart. However, not everyone succeeds at the thing they want most, which is why you have to set a much smaller goal in order to pursue the bigger dream. 

People often say that they would love the 'American Dream': prosperity, success and fame. Which of those adds to your life? Happiness adds more time into your life, it makes your life more valuable and rewarding. It makes it increasingly beautiful it makes you flourish. Wealth can give you comfort, and not leave you worrying about putting food on the table, but too much if it can give you reasons to worry more than before. You fear it being taken from you, you worry about making more money than you necessarily need.

Still, people will say money, fame and success are what you need to be happy. When in actual fact, good relationships play a larger role in your life, they make you a stronger person, having someone you can rely on to make you happy. You need to have people around you that will be there when you are on your sickbed, and when you are at your best. 

People who will be there when you succeed.  

James was successful, he was rich beyond belief because he did not need money for what he wanted, and he was famous. Did that make him happy? Hardly. He has good relationships with different people for different reasons, even the ones that hurt him sometimes, he knows that they will be there for him when he needs them. 

Sherlock was there right now, he knew how things worked with Aella since she seemed to be more open with them than she was with Moriarty, her father. Everything seemed like fantasy and imaginary when she came into his life that he rejected her on several occasions, making her susceptible to needing someone else to talk to. Now, she was turning into a faded memory now she was gone, and he missed her greatly with all his heart. 

Things had changed a lot since she was gone, and things were a lot different before she was her. She came and took away his carefree nature, she came and gave him a reason to be stressed, worried sick about her. She left, leaving an empty void of the unknown, not knowing how he would be feeling when she left.

"Where did this blood come from?" James asked Sherlock, not knowing where this came from.

"We believe it came from the child I found on the phone, he had called me, scared and alone. Lost. I directed him out of the woods when he was on the phone and led him to here, then when we arrived we were left with a bloody crime scene covered in what we believe to be his blood,"

"Whose is the child?" 

"I think it isn't Mycroft's son, but he seems to think it could be," Sherlock answered, passing the text messages to Moriarty who would be able to get the phone's location faster than Sherlock could. It was a trick he had mastered over the years. "Let me guess, in the woods?"

"Yes, it follows that blood trail exactly. We should follow it," James started to walk toward the blood trail, his gun in hand. Moran followed behind him with a gun in hand also. That was until Sherlock and Mycroft pulled them back. "What?"

"Did you not read the messages?" Mycroft asked, trying to pull Moran back. Moran was twice the muscle capacity of Mycroft, he was a lot more of a strong build. "Did you not see what they warned us?"

"No. No one ever gets to warn me," he shrugged off Sherlock's arm. "Remember, they warned you, not me. I will hunt them down till the day I die to find what I want to find, and she is coming with us as bait. Are you coming or what?" 

Moran carried her on his back, as they all walked into the woods without any hesitation, apart from Mycroft was against the whole idea. You could see in his eyes how he was protesting in his mind against the inhumane act of using someone like this, at least someone so weak. 

"Don't act like you haven't seen me use someone as bait before. Come on big boy, where is your Government officials coming in with the bomb squad?" Mycroft said nothing, he wanted his conscience to be clear. "Let me get something out in the open here. I am still James Moriarty. The lead murderer of all criminals. I will kill her without hesitation, and I would kill you without hesitation. So quit complaining with your eyes, get your act into gear, and hold the gun Moran gives you. If I ask you to fire, you fire. If you don't... well, we all know what I will do to you." 

Moran gave him the gun, which he took begrudgingly. He walked alongside Camilla and Moran, looking at her skin that was pulsating out of her body, it was all very strange.

"What is wrong with her skin?" 

"We think she needs the water that she swims in. It seems like a reaction to the gases we have in our atmosphere that are probably a lot less in theirs,"

"Seems right, have you tried putting her into the water,"

"Not yet, which is why we are going here. Why are you all so interested in this place?"

"Because, we think it is my son, and John has been taken. I always tell Sherlock to keep separate from people, but he never listens,"

"Well, you got close with a kid that is not yours, it's him," Moran looked in front of him. Implying that he knew. "If that kid is dead, and he finds out, you will be the one saying hello to your early grave."

"That can rest on my mind, I am giving that child a good life, unlike the one he would. As long as I can sleep at night."

As they stopped in front of the newest clearing from tracking the phone, they all had to hide behind some shrubs which allowed them to be concealed from being seen by two people who were laying on top of the rock pools, the pools ran deep where there was a stream of blood still running down one of the holes. 

It only implied one thing. 

Camilla gave Moran the widest eyes she could, eyes of fear.

"Is this why you came to us? Because you knew someone took a boy? You knew it was her, and you hated her so much you needed us to know," he whispered to her, and she just nodded, a tear trickling down her face. He held her into his chest as she muffled her sobs from their hearing. "What happened to her?"