Fic: Bane: Gen

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Title: Bane
Length: 221b
Rating: Gen
Notes: Werewolf AU; Angst
Author's Notes: a late entry for April's prompt (transformation) and Reichenbach day (May 4)

Once more, I take up pen. Once more, I lay it down.

Part of me longs to write the whole tale and send it to my beloved Watson.

Part of me dares not.

He is already grieving the loss of his friend. Why add to his sorrow?

He would think it a trick. Or the work of a madman.

And he would not be wrong.

I am a madman, well, a specific kind of madman.

A lunatic.

How can I tell him that the confrontation between myself and Professor Moriarty took place the night before he, and now the rest of the world, believed it to have occurred?

There beneath the full moon, my adversary and I struggled. There I unbalanced him, pitching him into the chasm of Reichenbach, but not before he’d wrought his revenge in the form of his teeth clamped ‘round my arm. The mixing of his saliva and my blood sealed my fate.

The moon was still high in the firmament. I transformed at once and spent the rest of the night howling in despair.

I arranged the scene at Reichenbach.

And now I run.

I run towards the rising sun, searching for knowledge to undo the spell, searching for wisdom about who and what I am.

I run, trying, in vain, to outpace this wolf’s bane. 

Comments

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Even a man who lives by science
and deduces day and night
Can become a beast when the wolfbane blooms
and the moon is full and bright.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

This is so lovely. I love the incorporation of wolfbane. Are you doing Wits on Tap? Or did the muse just hit? Either way, I loved it.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Not mine, it's a variation on the poem from the 1941 WOLF MAN film:

"Even a man who is pure in heart, and says his prayers by night;
May become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

That's a very different take - I do like it!

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Trying to wade back into my Holmesian waters.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

An inspired and heartbreaking use of the transformation prompt. I particularly love those last two lines.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I was pretty chuffed when I thought up a b word I could end on. I shall be slowly but surely catching up on things.