"Pros" (Drabble, Holmes Minor Monthly Prompt, May 2019)

[gardnerhill]

Title: Pros
Author: gardnerhill
Form/Wordcount: 100
Characters/Pairings: None
Rating: G
Warnings/Content: None
Summary: Sometimes you have to remind yourself of the benefits of freedom.
Author’s Notes: For the Holmes Minor May 2019 prompt: Freedom

A dead man is a free man.

Those closest to me are safe now; they cannot and will not be used as hostages nor threats against me.

I will move more swiftly with only myself to have a care for.

I will be able to move unmolested by the remnants of this monster's operation.

Now I can track them down one by one, and tear away the last threads of this vile web once and for all.

Teeth clamped on bleeding tongue, I chanted this litany in my mind over the sound of Watson's cries and the roar of water.

Comments

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Sniff. Nice use of the prompt. Sniff.

[gardnerhill]

A little hat-tip to Jeremy Brett's aborted cry of "Watson!" in the Reichenbach flashback.

[ancientreader]

That's excruciatingly good.

[gardnerhill]

Thank you.

[smallhobbit]

Great use of the prompt and very timely.

[gardnerhill]

Yes, the ORIGINAL observation of May the Fourth.

[debriswoman]

Painful, but very well done:-)

[gardnerhill]

Thanks. What did "Me and Bobby McGee" say about freedom again?

[scfrankles]

Your story shows so clearly what a terrible situation and decision it was for Holmes. In particular that last phrase: over the sound of Watson's cries and the roar of water. It just conjures up the idea of a waking nightmare.

[gardnerhill]

Jeremy Brett adding the near-cry of "Watson!" and then watching sadly as Watson reacts to his letter was a brilliant addition to Granada's production - and added emotional weight to ACD's airy handwave of Holmes' "and then I watched your inept search of the scene."