Sherlock Holmes & The Knights Templar

Chapter 5

The next day as John sat eating his breakfast he wondered why he hadn’t seen Sherwin, or anyone else for that matter. The crunching sound he was making while eating his cereal was the only sound in the room. John chewed then stopped, then chewed some more and stopped again. “Okay, time to stop playing making the cereal sound echo game. Where the hell was everyone?” John thought. Then another more terrifying thought crept into his mind. “What if they had all forgotten him down here? What if they had left him to starve?” John smiled and then laughed at himself. “I am creeping myself out just like I used to do with my sister when we were left alone in the house.” John let his memory drift back to his tumultuous childhood. He and his sister had not had very many good times together. John sighed. As bad as his childhood was, he shuddered when he thought of how poor Sherlock had suffered. Just the thought of Sherlock made John’s heart beat faster. “I miss you, Sherlock.” John whispered aloud to the empty room.

Around lunch time, John heard the big heavy metal fire door creak open. He wasted no time and ran to see who it was. The young man that stood in front of John was not Sherwin. His eyes flitted around the room and he nervously kept pushing his glasses up to the bridge of his nose and back. He finally held out a cold, clammy had for John to shake. “Hi, my name is Doctor Freed, however just call me Scott.”

John shook hands and then introduced himself. “I’m Doctor Watson, or John.” He smiled in an attempt to make the younger man more at ease. “So, what happened to Sherwin?” John asked.

Scott visibly paled, making his skin even more translucent than it already was. “Um he was called away on an emergency; I am going to get you ready for tonight.”

John nodded as Scott led him through the heavy metal door into the darkened hallway. “Follow me, John. Keep close it’s pretty easy to get lost down here. We are going to go to the library. I am sure you will enjoy it, for there are some ancient medical texts that you no doubt find fascinating.” Scott seemed to relax a little as John made small talk. John tried to make note of the patterns they were making through the dimly lit hallways, but soon gave up the maze was too complicated for him to remember. John smiled as he thought that Sherlock would already have accurately counted each hallway and have committed them to memory by now.

The library was located behind another metal fire door. Scott put his thumb on an electronic device located near the handle and the door magically opened.

“Open Sesame, “John laughed. Scott just stared back at John as if he were speaking a foreign language. John shrugged and then followed Scott into the library. The light was so bright that John had to blink several times until his eyes made the adjustment. Though the room appeared to be illuminated from fluorescent bulbs, John had never seen a fluorescent bulb that had such a blue-green hue to them. John stood transfixed in an almost hypnotic trance as he gazed into the light.

Scott cleared his throat. “Um Doctor Watson…John?”

John jumped. “Oh, sorry it’s just that those lights are so..humm I don’t know…well spellbinding.”

Scott nodded. “They are that color so that the books are protected. I’m not sure of the science behind it, however, they are beautiful. So are you ready for a little studying?”

John nodded eagerly. “I’m ready.”

Scott took a deep breath. “The first thing that will happen is that I will lead you blind folded through a series of patterns. I will take your arm of the left side, then afterwards you will kneel in from of a stone alter. You will take your vows and then head Knight will take a sword and gently tap the left shoulder and then the right.”

John laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding me. This sounds like something from Camelot or Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”

Scott looked at John disapprovingly. “John, if you’re not going to take this seriously then maybe…”