A Game Of Hearts And Minds

CHAPTER XI - Dreams and hallucinations

When I woke up, I realised I was in a circular room, the diameter not more then twenty feet. The floor was cold, and made of plain concrete, the walls heavily padded with a dirty, greyish-brown material. I sat up on my knees, my heels digging into my butt, but keeping me off the cold floor. On the other side of the room, I could see a man crouched down on the floor, he was leaning against the wall with his head lowered. Apparently, there had been a door behind me because it now it banged closed. I stood up, at least I tried. With my eyes red-rimmed, I waddled over to the man on the other side of the room, checking up on the man that was in the room with me. The man was breathing heavily and mumbling something under his breath.

Slowly, the man turned his head a little towards me. I still couldn't see his face completely, but this was enough for me to recognize him. I stared at him, eyes wide, teeth bared. "You." I whispered through bared teeth. My breathing fastened as Moriarity rose to his feet, his face murderous, dirty and flushed dark red with rage. With each step he came towards me, the lights around the walls flickered briefly. "You don't have to fear it!" He shouted, wide-eyed and insane.

I clenched my fists at my side, refusing to back away from him. His eyes were focussed on me, and he raised his hands out of his pockets. "Pain." I gave in, I stepped back, he stepped forwards.

"Heartbreak."

Another step back.

"Loss."

Another step.

"Dead. It's all good."

My last step back, my back was to the door now. "Why can't you just die?" He asked, taking another step forwards. He was approximately 5 feet away. "One little push, and off you pop. It's more fun being dead, nobody really bothers you." He came one more step closer. "They're losing you, Lauraine. You're letting Sherlock down Lauraine... Sherlock is definetely in danger." I grid my teeth together, preparing myself to either talk back, or fight. Then, without a warning, he charged at me, placing his hand in my throat as we barged through the door behind me.

Suddenly, I was in a pool, Sherlock in front of me, Mycroft next to him. When I tried to look around over my shoulder, as I could feel someone's presence behind me, my cheek was struck by a fist and I slammed into the ground.

Shakily I got up to my knees, and I froze as I saw Sherlock and Mycroft staring at me in shock. I tried to do something, but no words would come out of my mouth. I tried to stand to walk to them, but I was pushed back to the ground by who could only be Moriarity. I heard the click of a gun behind my head, and froze. "You two might be ready to die," said Moriarity, his voice dangerously calm and low. "But are you ready to take her with you?"

I had no idea what was happening. I sat there frozen and I started to feel a warm, thickelish feeling seap down my chin. Time seemed to slow down and all I could hear was the da-dum of my heart beating in my chest. I tried to figure out a way out of this all, but my mind could only focus on the fact that there was a gun pointed at my head, while normally, I wouldn't be affected by a gun placed on the back of my head. I had been through stuff like that before. But right now, the only thing I understood was that I needed to calm down, I knew that much.

I slowly pushed myself up from my forearms to my knees. I closed my eyes. Everything was just happening, I wasn't thinking about what I had to do, I just did. I knew I needed to get Sherlock and Mycroft to safety. "Do you really think, that Lauraine changed anything?" Mycroft asked, his eyes focussed on me. What he said was so assured, that I almost even believed it. Mycroft held up his gun steadily, his face emotionless. I had never seen Mycroft with a gun before and he vowed not to kill before, what the hell was happening?

"Oh boys," Moriarity sighed. "We both know that she changes everything." Sherlock clenched his jaw, the gun he had in hand was pointed down to a bombjacket on the ground. He looked like he would shoot that at any given moment. "Because Sherlock, no matter how much you pretend you aren't capable of human emotion...doesn't change the fact that you are married to her."

I could feel Morairity walk closer to me, with the gun trained on me still. I needed to do something, and without another thought I swiped my leg under Moriarity's causing him to loose his footing. That one second was all I needed to spin around, grab a hold of the gun, grab a hold of his arm with my free hand. That one second was enough for me to twist his arm back, and yank the gun out of his hand as his grip on the handle lessened.

The place went eerily quiet as I held out the gun in front of me, aiming it directly at Moriarity's head. Adrenaline rushed through my veins and my heart beated out of my chest. "Tsk Tsk," Moriarity began, "You really think that you could pull the trigger? You won't." He stared right through my soul and it made me feel violated. "Because, if you do. I shoot Sherlock, and If Sherlock tries, I shoot you. To me, all you are is leverage."

"Leverage." I mumbled under my breath. Things started to piece themselves together in my mind, and I lowered the gun to my side, my gaze remaining on Moriarity. He looked unsure, maybe even confused. Suddenly, realization seemed to dawn on his face and he began to step towards me. But I was quicker. Before he got ahold of the gun, I had the gun back up. Just pointed at another target.

No one made a sound.

"Lauraine." Sherlock breathed out. I glanced over at him, tears in my eyes, horror and shock in his. I hated to see him like this. I felt tears sting in my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I turned back to Morairity, and looked him right in the eye. The fire inide me burning bright as I reminded myself of why I was doing this.

I felt the cold muzzle of the gun shake against the base of my chin. "Drop it." Moriarity taunted.

"No. I won't be your leverage."

I was wondering if this was the right thing to do. And as I felt something come up from behind me, I didn't even have the time to spin around before the gun was wrenched from my hand. I spun around to see Sherlock, who one had the gun I was previously holding in his hand. Sherlock's eyes grew big, and within a second I felt someone's arm snake around my neck pulling me away from Sherlock. My only mistake had been taking my eyes off of Moriarity.

He pulled me closer with one arm around my neck, the other around my waist holding me close. My hands went over to his arm around my neck. I couldn't overpower him, I wasn't in the state. But I could struggle, it was the least I could do. I dug my nails into his arm, and I wiggled my body around trying to make it difficult for Moriarity to keep his hold on me. Moriarity tightened up his hold around my neck, cutting off my airway. I stopped struggling and gasped for breath. Moriarity lowered his head down to my ear. One word escaped his breath. "Don't"

So I stopped struggling. For a moment at least. Because a couple of seconds later I brought my elbow back into his gut. I was able to pull out of his grip, but as soon as I was ready to sprint off, he pulled me back by my arm. I squirmed under his grip. I was so close. His arm hand snaked back around my neck, the other one holding my hands behind my back, putting strain on my shoulders. "You know it's not that easy to get away from me." He whispered in my ear, before he turned to Mycroft and Sherlock. "I see why you like her. She's got fire, I like fire too." He paused, sighing so deeply that I could feel his chest extend out against my back before he continued. "I normally don't get my hands dirty, but I guess she's the exception."

His grip on my throat thightened, cutting of my air supply. I slowly started chocking, and as I saw Sherlock and Mycroft run to me. I felt myself slip away and-

I shot up straight in the bed, beeping monitors all around me. Sherlock at one side of the bed, Mycroft at the other. They immediately turned their heads to me, shooting up from their chairs. "Lauraine!"

"Where am I?" I asked.

"The hospital," Mycroft responded "The drugs that Eurus used to take us down. Your dose was way too high, three times as much as needed, enough to drug even me and Sherlock three times over. You almost died."

Unbelievable. It was all dream. Moriarity was a dream, the pool was a dream. Everything had been a dream.