Against the Odds

Chapter 25: Trauma

The trio raced to the hollow, Sherlock's hands gripping the handle of the car tightly as he drove as fast as he dared. He pulled up as close to the woods as possible, and Marie and John darted out quickly, Sherlock following after he'd pulled the brakes on the car.

Marie had pulled out her gun as they ran to the Hollow, although she kept it tucked behind her back for now. John looked a little surprised but Sherlock didn't even glance at it as they raced through the woods. They arrived just as Henry was placing his pistol into his mouth.

"No, Henry, no! No!" Sherlock shouted as he skid down the hill into the Hollow. John and Marie flanked on each side of him and Marie's grip on her gun tightened as Henry waved his gun wildly, screaming as he flailed away from their torchlight: "Get back. Get – get away from me!"

John tried to calm the young man as he said soothingly: "Easy, Henry. Easy. Just relax." He lifted his hand slowly, soothingly but Henry said shakily as he pointed his gun at them: "I know what I am. I know what I tried to do!" His voice returned to hysterical.

"Just put the gun down." John said, trying to calm the man but keeping his voice firm. "It's okay-" Henry shrieked: "No, no, I know what I am!" Sherlock said pacifyingly: "Yes, I'm sure you do, Henry. It's all been explained to you, hasn't it? Explained very carefully."

John and Henry looked confused and Henry asked: "What?" Marie kept a tight grip on her gun as Sherlock explained in the same soothing but firm tone: "Someone needed to keep you quiet; needed to keep you as a child to reassert the dream that you'd both clung on to, because you had started to remember."

Marie's grip tightened as Sherlock stepped forward slowly, imploring Henry: "Remember now, Henry. You've got to remember what happened here when you were a little boy." Henry said in a broken voice: "I thought it had got my dad – the hound. I thought ... Oh Je... oh Jesus, I don't – I don't know any more!"

The man started to put the gun back in his mouth and John cried in alarm: "No, Henry! Henry, for God's sake!" Sherlock interjected hastily: "Henry, remember. 'Liberty In'." Two words; two words a frightened little boy saw here twenty years ago."

Henry paused and Sherlock continued quickly: "You'd started to piece things together, remember what really happened here that night." He paused and he prompted: "It wasn't an animal, was it, Henry?" Henry paused, straightening up as he stared at Sherlock as Sherlock continued encouragingly: "Not a monster. A man."

Henry's face slackened and Marie could see he was remembering the truth. She watched him carefully as Sherlock continued to explain: "You couldn't cope. You were just a child, so you rationalised it into something very different. But then you started to remember, so you had to be stopped; driven out of your mind so that no-one would believe a word that you said."

"Sherlock!" Lestrade called, having arrived. Sherlock glanced over as Lestrade clambered his way down to the Hollow while John said to Henry soothingly: "Okay, it's okay, mate."

John slowly walked forward, gently taking the gun from Henry's loose grasp. Marie relaxed just a little bit now that the gun was out of the half-mad man's grasp, but she was still tense as she glanced around. There was no way it would be this easy- Frankland would have wanted to ensure Henry was silenced.

Henry mumbled uncertainly: "But we saw it: the hound, last night." He looked at Sherlock as he pleaded: "We s... we, we, we did, we saw..." Henry's voice broke and Sherlock nodded as he explained: "Yeah, but there was a dog, Henry, leaving footprints, scaring witnesses, but it was nothing more than an ordinary dog."

Henry's face contorted and he began to shake his head but Sherlock explained firmly: "We both saw it – saw it as our drugged minds wanted us to see it. Fear and stimulus; that's how it works." He paused and when Henry looked uncertain Sherlock said softly: "But there never was any monster."