Definition of Humanity

The Change

John's POV

        It wasn't so bad, at first. The tingling sensation I felt turned into numbness as I began to turn to stone. I screamed for help and Greg, Molly, and Donovan thought the change had gone bad, which was evident from their pleas of "Sherlock, do something!" But as the stone grew and I could no longer move my arms,  Sherlock attempted to reassure them. He told them there was nothing to do, it was too late. The Change is unavoidable. I thought I would never see Mary or Violet again. The last thing I heard before the stone covered my head was my own voice pleading Sherlock to take care of my wife and daughter, and the last thing I saw was Sherlock, sobbing, saying over and over again, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

And then, it all was black and silent.

I was still concious, I think, but I could not hear, speak, feel, or even breath. But yet it seemed I did not need the air. I felt the tingling come back, but much stronger this time. It was almost like being set on fire, but not painful in the least. That is, until I began to change physically. It was like a thousand needles striking the skin at once, and I then felt the bones snapping. Wings, I thought. I have wings. Then, it all stopped. I regained feeling, and could hear but not see. I realized that I could move around a bit, that the stone had become a cocoon. I listened to the muffled speech, which I then realized was weeping. They were weeping over me. I tried to yell, to cause any sign that I was alive, but to my horror, they were only growls and barks. I came to the horrible realization that the snapping I felt was not my spine, but my whole body. Not just my spine changed, my anatomy changed. 

And then I began to feel it. It's presence was not physical in nature, but only in my own mind. It began to control me, take over my thoughts. It wanted out. It wanted to be free. I drove it away, again controlling my own mind, but it did not give up. It began to speak to me, in a way not with speech, but in a way which is indescribable. It told me to smell them. To sniff their blood. Confused but curious, I sniffed the air as it asked, not thinking I could smell a thing in this stone cage. But I did. I could smell them, smell everything. I received an equally terrifying feeling when I could hear them. But, not just their speech. I could hear their heartbeats. All 8 of them.

The extra heartbeats were those of my wife and child, and they were racing. And the third was that of Moriarty, and his were calm and collected. I once again felt that presence in my mind, and it was ticked. It was raging. And it wanted to kill, and to protect what was it's own.

It's pack.

Funny that I felt the same way.

I- no, we- pounded against the cold, dark cage to which we were confined. And I could finally see the dim cell to which my friends were confined. We broke free, not caring that there were solid steel bars between us and our family. Not caring that we were covered in fur and running on four legs. Not caring about the frightened cries coming from our wife and child. The bar did nothing to stop us from reaching them.