What Kind of Man || Jim Moriarty

Thirty

"Katherine!" The woman jumped as her name was bellowed through the house and dropped lipstick she held in her hand. Luckily none of the fuchsia dye had gone on her pale patterned dress.

"Coming!" She was quick to reply, but before she had the chance to move a muscle, a figure appeared in the doorway of her room. Katherine half expected it to be him, but from the corner of her eye she could see the person's frame was far too slight.

"Miss Reine." Abbie, the young maid who had been under strict instructions to obey her every command, appeared at her bedroom door with a small, timid smile and nod of her head. It was funny, it could almost have been taken as a curtsy, and that amused Katherine. "Mr Moriarty-"

"Katherine!"

"-is leaving and wishes for you to come downstairs." She tried to complete her sentence without anything getting in the way once more.

"I can sense that." Katherine replied sarcastically, a smirked drawn across her lips. But non the less, she stopped what she was doing and flattened out the creases in her desk as she stood from the seat at her dressing table.

She walked steadily down the stairs, watching the scene below as her flowing skirts swayed from side to side in time with her hips. His boys were taking the bags which had been laying in the reception area all morning, to the black Range Rover parked outside. Moriarty was watching, as always unwilling to get his hands dirty. And all the while Sebastian stood like the obedient guard dog he was, awaiting orders.

"There you are. I'm leaving." Jim was the first to greet as he turned and caught her eyes.

"What time is your flight?"

"When I'm ready to leave the ground." Katherine hated to admit it, but she would miss that playful smirk, even if it was only for one night. As she chuckled, he took her chin in his hand and tilted her head up. Her make-up was improving, but it could always be better. "I hate pink on you. Makes you look old." Both of them chose to ignore the irritation and upset she so obviously showed and while Katherine gathered her ego, Moriarty smirked. "You going to be a good girl while daddy's not here?"

"I always am." After he let her go, Katherine stoked her hands over the full skirt once more, a nervous habit, and looked around them.

"I'm leaving you with 15 men. I think that's quite enough to keep an eye on you." Jim explained, watching as her gaze settled on a small group of men who stood to attention behind them, away from the door and further into the house. None of them made eye contact with her, none of them smiled, they all just stood there like clones of one another in their black suits.

"Am I going to get another present if I'm really good?" Katherine started, turning her attention back to Jim in an attempt to bring him back around into a good mood. "I hear Italian's make some of the best handbags in the World." He pulled her in, arms going around her small waist and chuckled darkly.

"You are getting to bold." He muttered under his breath, and just when she thought their lips were going to meet, Moriarty took a step back and brought his sunglasses up to hid his amused eyes. "Be good princess."

"Bye." Then she watched him go. And just like it had been all the other times he'd left, the room felt awfully cold once he was out of it.

She hadn't been able to sleep. She couldn't since Jim wasn't there. It didn't feel safe. Sebastian wasn't even there either. No longer did he lurk around the large house, guarding her like a tiger in the night time. No, now that Jim had instructed Sebastian to join him in Italy, she was left with a countless number of men she didn't know and the same couple of maids who barely talked. It wasn't the same. Nothing had been the same since last night when Moriarty had let her take what she needed from him without any aftermath. He had stayed hours after she had collapsed onto his chest in exhaustion. Jim never held her, never kissed her after it was all over, but he stayed.

But now, the bed was cold next to her and there was an unsettling silence. The house was too large. There were too many blind spots and dark corners. She didn't know who had been following her or what they were intending to do if they got hold of her but the imagined scenarios in her head were enough to make her jump every time the large oak trees out in the gardens stroked the windows.

He was due back tomorrow afternoon. He'd said dinner time and upon his return they were to go out to a quiet restaurant in the nearest village. They needed to "get her out the house" Jim had said with a taunting smile as he pinched her cheek. Give her an occasion to get dressed for. It was something to look forward to but it was still too long to wait, especially in the cold and dark.

Suddenly, there was a creak of the floorboards. It came from down the corridor leading to the master bedroom, near the stairs. A low yet sharp squeak. Katherine took a quick intake of breath and lifted her head from the soft goose feather pillow. There was nothing to see as the door to the bedroom was closed. There was nothing to hear as the silence had returned, well that was apart from the thumping of her heart against her rib cage.

"Peter?" It was probably just him, the night shift guard who had been introduced to her a couple of hours ago. It was most likely just him or one of the other half a dozen men Moriarty had left her with. Just one of her guards. But when no answer came, Katherine was forced to sit still for a further five minutes before she settled on it all being her imagination and turned her back to the door, shuffling in the sheets.

She was losing it. Whether it be because of constantly being on the edge of her nerves or cabin fever...something needed to give sooner or later. Jim needed to tell her it was alright to leave the house and that she was safe. It would be a welcomed difference from him reminding her she was in great danger every day. He was such an arsehole.

But just as her breathing began to settle, just as she began to let herself relax and settle into the soft covers, there was a crash from downstairs. Glass shattering, China smashing.

Katherine didn't jump out of bed that time. She became paralysed by the violent sound and almost sunk deeper in to the covers, longing for a voice to call out an apology for the noise. A maid to shyly shuffle passed her door with a muted 'sorry'. But it never came. Something else did though, a low grunt followed by louder masculine yelps of pain and awkwardness.

They were here.

"Find her. She's here somewhere." A gruff voice sounded before it was drowned out by multiple footsteps fanning out. She had to move, she had to try and get out. But she was in the middle of nowhere, all that surrounded them were fields...there was nowhere to run. The only option she had was to hide.

As quietly as possible, Katherine climbed out of bed and began to tip toe around the room, while tears built up in the corners of her eyes. The bathroom was too predictable, as was the wardrobe, they'd find her in minutes. Under the bed was like a child's game...but there was nowhere else and she couldn't risk going out into the hall. The room was large, open, but with nowhere to keep her safe. There was the balcony...but it led to a dead end, just a long drop onto the patio below.

"Where is she?!" The sudden demand was closer than before and was followed by a loud grunt, then a few seconds of silence. "No? Got no tongue? Well then..." She whimpered when a gunshot practically shook the house. A gunshot...the gun...Jim had put a gun in the bedside cabinet.

Katherine ran to retrieve it. She opened the small drawer and held in a sigh of relief when it lay there, charcoal black and threateningly bold. But just as her hand wrapped around the barrel, the door to the bedroom burst open and in barged a gang of men. Three or four of them, all dressed in black and all holding a weapon of some sort. One had a gun, another had a crowbar, the third had a knife. It was only then, as Katherine's eyes moved to the third body, that she realised it was her personal maid. The girl was only a child, 18 or 19. She was bleeding.

"Miss Rei-" She tried to speak but the hand around her throat stunted the words and the knife held by one of the men, dragged down her arm. Then the scream came, a bloodcurdling yelp from the pain being afflicted. She wasn't strong, the girl wasn't meant to be. She was only there to clean and fetch things. She was innocent, and that made Katherine shake.

"Shut up!" The man who stood at the forefront ordered, eyes fully locked on the girl.

"Abb-." She muttered half of the girl's name under her breath fearfully and mindlessly let her hand raise so the gun was aimed at the man. "What do you want?" It was no use, this fake courage she was pretending to have, it wasn't fooling anyone. She probably looked like a little doll, all in her silk night gown and hair elegantly curled while holding a deadly weapon. She was a joke.

"This is a long time coming. I think you should know exactly what we want." The man eyes dragged down her body, resting in all the places which made her feel so vulnerable. "Now Miss Scott...put down the gun." She couldn't give up so easily. Not after everything Moriarty had taught her in the past few weeks. All those lessons by Sebastian on how to fire a gun properly, martial arts, even knife work. How to manipulate someone with words and everything in-between...but with the two men it had been so easy. Now she was actually in a real situation, all she wanted to do was surrender and take the easy way out.

"No. Tell me what you want...and let her go." Katherine gestured to Abbie but the intruder simply laughed and looked back at his boys in mockery. "And my names not Miss Scott...it's Miss Reine." She tried to hold a strong voice, she tried to steady her shaking hands. But instead, she trembled and whimpered.

"Oh I know. I know." The man started to walk forward slowly, closing the gap which was keeping her from being harmed by him physically. "Nice place you've got here, reminds me a lot of my brother's old place." The realisation settled over Katherine's face like a tidal wave, the Palm of her right hand slapping over her mouth. "He's fixed you up nice here, Jim Moriarty. Shame he won't get to say goodbye to his prize." With lighting speed, the man launched himself at Katherine, knocking the gun from her hand before she even had the chance to think about her self-defence skills, and wrapping his arms around her body. With her arms effectively pinned by her sides, Katherine was lifted from the ground with ease but it was then that all hell erupted. Abbie tried to release herself, to help in some way but the other two strangers were on him too quick and the knife previously used to injure her arm was buried deep into her gut.

"Abbie!" A gloved hand gagged her screams as her one hope of getting out of this nightmare slumped onto the floor of the master bedroom, blood already beginning to pool around her. One of them laughed as they stepped back and looked at Katherine, grinning. Fear was frozen in her eyes, her feet grazing the ground as they started to surround her like sharks in deep water. She was a helpless bird, bobbing on the surface and waiting to be ripped apart.

"Say night night princess." The stocky man, freshly shaven but still somehow unclean looking, sneered at her and raised his hand to hold it in front of her eyes. There in his hand, a needle was balanced between his thumb and index finger. Delicately balanced but that didn't change how threatening it looked. "This won't hurt a bit." Just like that, the sharp pain in her neck lasted less than a second before darkness melted over her vision and her slumped body was allowed to drop towards the floor like a dead weight.

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There were noises, groans and screeches...metal rattling and water dripping. For all the days to come Katherine would begin to wonder whether they were true noises from the darkness or her own mind creating them so she didn't go mad.

"Abbie-" Her mouth was dry and she couldn't finish her words. Her disillusioned cry for help. "James..." The right side of her head was throbbing, her wrists were tied behind the back of the squeaky wooden chair she had been sat on and were burned from the rope. Her clothes felt damp, her hair matter and sticking to her face but whether it was from blood or sweat she didn't know.

Opening her eyes, Katherine hissed as everything spun and blurred. All there was, was darkness. Everything which surrounded her, was bathed in absolute darkness.

There was no light. No noise. All she felt was the cold and rough rope cutting through her skin. Her mouth tasted like iron, like she had been sucking on a dirty coin. The room smelt like dust, dust and gasoline. Damp. All her senses were dampened.

Wherever she was it was obviously abandoned and neglected. But there was nothing much to verify her idea, not that she could see. Closing her eyes, Katherine let her head flop forward as the pain took over her whole body and imaged from the previous night flashed behind her eyes. All she remembered was the blood, the fear, his face...they had found her and taken her. And through all his promises, Moriarty hadn't been able to keep her safe.

For a minute, she swore she could hear approaching footsteps. A minute later she was positive the shadow in the corner was not just a shadow but a person sat watching her. Then, without any doubts, Katherine managed to convince herself there was a voice and someone was talking to her. Calling her name.

But was all just her imagination, hallucinations created from the shock and exhaustion. She had no idea how long she had been unconscious. How long she had been missing. Where she was. If Moriarty knew what had happened yet. If...if that girl was dead. If she was going to die here.

Well to be honest she knew the answer to that one. It was just a matter of asking herself when. How long did she have left? All there was to do was sit and wait as once again she found herself completely helpless.

"Who's there?" With a voice as hoarse as sandpaper, she called out. There was nothing to lose. "Hello!" She had gone too loud and caused herself a coughing fit. The dust surrounding her was disturbed ever so slightly and the noised bounce of the walls in the empty room. "Show yourself..." They had to be watching her. Sick bastards like them got off on watching stuff like this. "Show yourself..."

Nothing came. For days nothing would come. Days would continue to pass without a single noise, without any clue that someone was there and without anything to keep her alive. Katherine didn't know at this point, as she stared into the darkness, that this was just one of the many days she'd spend in that abandoned building alone. No one to hear her desperate pained screams. No one to watch he endlessly struggle and weep for help. No one.