The Wind In The Shadows {Sherlock Holmes FanFiction}

The Wind In The Shadows 

 Sherlock Holmes walked down the London alley. It was dark, quiet and had an awful smell he couldn’t place for the life of him. He took out a small watch from his coat, looked at the late time and sighed, getting more impatient. Holmes heard a pair of boots walk up behind him. He turned and was faced with a woman dressed in a long dress with men’s work boots. “Where’s Dr Watson? I thought you two were joined at the hip” his oddly dressed companion said. Holmes moved closer.

  “And you thought I was going to be armed with several weapons” he stated. It was common knowledge that this woman walked around with practically a rifle down her dress. Not even the great detective Sherlock Holmes was willing to try that.

  “I did” the woman conceded, nodding. The vague light from the other streets did nothing to illuminate the features of the woman. “I thought anyone with a working brain did”. All of London knew this woman, but not by her birth name. She was known as the mercenary Nightshade by anyone who was not the police. In fact, there was evidence to suggest few knew of Nightshade’s birth name. Some other evidence suggests that there was a connection between Nightshade and the secretive organisation the Black Wolves.

  “Well, detective? Why did you call this meeting? And couldn’t you have picked a better meeting place?” asked Nightshade, crossing her arms over her chest.

  “I suppose you have heard of Professor James Moriarty?” asked Holmes.

  Nightshade nodded, “Naturally. Few in the London underworld haven’t heard of the man. Once he offered me a job but I had to turn it down. Too political for me”.

Nightshade turned and gestured Holmes to follow her. “Follow me. And you too Watson” she called out. Watson appeared from a doorway nearby.

  “Hello Nightshade” he said wary of the mercenary.

  “Greetings Doctor. And how is your fiancée?” asked Nightshade whilst walking down towards a waiting hansom. Holmes eyed the horses, wanting to see if they would act crazy or similar.

  “How do you know of Mary?” demanded Watson.

  Nightshade smiled. “I know a lot of things that I’m not supposed to Doctor” she replied. The long dress as Holmes originally thought it was, turned out to be a long cloak. The hood of the cloak covered most Nightshade’s face. She was wearing some form of ancient uniform and had what appeared to be a sword on her left hip. She held to the door to the cab open for Watson and Holmes, bowing. Watson eyed her carefully as he got into the horse drawn cab, followed by his friend Sherlock Holmes.

  They sat down on the seat opposite of Nightshade, who had followed Holmes into the cab. There were black curtains covering the windows and crimson velvet covering the seats. Nightshade spoke softly in a foreign language to the driver. The driver nodded in respond and clicked to the horses. Slowly, but steadily, the hansom moved forward. Nightshade made no attempt to make conversation. This pleased Holmes because he could then concentrate on the journey the hansom was making. After a while, the hansom stopped.

  “Watson? I would like to speak to Holmes privately” Nightshade stated. Before Watson could respond, he slumped backward. He had his eyes closed and was snoring gently. Holmes looked alarmed but made no move to help his friend. “He will be fine. He’s merely sleeping” said Nightshade, gesturing to the now sleeping Dr Watson.

  “I thought so. So, how is Miriam?” asked Holmes.

  Nightshade smiled, “She is good, well as good as an eleven year old can be”. She studied him, “Sherlock, what do you want? You wouldn’t call a meeting to talk about our daughter. What is this talk of Moriarty?”

  Holmes answered with, “I believe his behind a conspiracy involving the recent bombing-”.

  “And the recent poisoning of Irene Adler” interrupted Nightshade. Holmes said nothing. Nightshade sighed and lowered her hood. It revealed a face with sharp yet open eyes, full lips, snow blonde hair and an expression which revealed nothing of her true feelings. “She was my friend as well Sherlock. I will miss her greatly as you do” said Nightshade solemnly. Sherlock said nothing in return.

  Nightshade sighed, “Well, back to business. I have been following Moriarty’s progress in case he got too out of control and played with truly dangerous powers. However this seems not to be the case. He appears to be a problem for the great Sherlock Holmes to solve. It appears that his next target will be another friend of mine”. She pulled out a piece of paper with a name of a person and a name of a bar. “Go here. Find her. When you do, and you shall, act as if you’ve never heard of her. And sure as all the souls in the Underworld don’t mention me. There was some… unpleasantness” Nightshade said quickly.

  The driver said something. Nightshade nodded, “I need to go. I’ll put you to sleep now and you’ll wake at the door of 221B Baker Street. I’ll tell Miri you said ‘Hello’”, Nightshade smiled, “Good night Holmes”.

  Holmes then began to feel sleepy. He yawned, “Good night Anna”. He fell asleep quickly.

~***~

“Holmes! Holmes! Wake up quickly!” said Watson as tried to rouse his friend from his sleep. Holmes yawned, stood up and stretched. Upon looking around, he recognised Baker Street. Well, she did say dropped off at the door, he thought.

  “So, Watson-” started Holmes. “Holmes, what happened last night?” interrupted Watson hurriedly.

  Holmes waved a hand dismissively. “Oh forget all of that. Have you picked a bar to have your bachelor celebration at yet?” asked Holmes.

  Watson was surprised by the question. “What? Er, no”.

  “Well my friend I have excellent place in mind, and I’ll bring my brother. It’ll be fun!” said Holmes as they went into the house.