“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Sherlock says and looks up at the star strewn sky.
“Deja vu, much,” John replies drily, and Sherlock hums in agreement.
They are not in London this time, but in the countryside. After a jarring case with John being abducted - which ensued in a frantic search on Sherlock and the Yard’s part - Sherlock had swept John away to a cottage by the coast for a calm weekend away from the noisy city.
“Where are we heading?” John asks; he knows Sherlock has a destination in mind going by his determined steps.
Sherlock points to a house on the top of the hill with a leather-gloved finger.
“Up there. To visit Madame Zephyr,” is the cryptical answer.
“The West Wind,” John mutters.
“Mm. Better than the East Wind, I assure you.”
“I bloody well hope so,” John retorts, and there’s a hint of anger in his voice now.
“John,” Sherlock says softly, and grabs John’s hand, holding it close to his heart.
Sherlock is strong, and the hold on his hand forces John to stop the ascent. He leans his forehead against Sherlock’s chest and tries to breathe evenly to release his fury. The affair with Eurus is still fresh in his memory.
“I’m sorry.”
John lifts his head to look up at Sherlock whose face is lit up by the full moon. He’s so beautiful like this, almost ethereal, and John loves him so much his heart burns with it.
“Kiss me,” he whispers.
Sherlock lowers his head, cradles the back of John’s head, and presses his lush lips against John’s. The kiss is too soft; John needs to feel, needs more pressure, more tongue, and teeth, lest he dissolve into dust. It’s not necessary to vocalise this; Sherlock senses it and deepens the pressure effortlessly. John cups Sherlock’s throat possessively and growls into the desperate kiss.Â
Eventually, they slow the pace; both are breathless and more than a little flushed.
“Do we really have to go up there?” John asks. “A comfortable bed is waiting for us in the cottage.”
“You insatiable beast,” Sherlock purrs, which does nothing to lessen John’s building arousal. “She waits for us, but we won’t stay long, I promise.”
John sighs, steals another - much softer kiss - and takes Sherlock’s hand, turning towards the path.
***
Hollowed out pumpkins adorn the steps to Madame Zephyr’s house. Each of them has lit candles inside, which flicker in the evening breeze. By the door, a black cat glares at them with light-blue eyes. It makes John uneasy, and he’s about to ask Sherlock if the woman is a witch, when the door opens on its own. The sound of screeching hinges, grates on John’s nerves. Sherlock on the other hand, looks totally unfazed.
“Come in, and close the door, you goons. It’s bloody freezing outside,” a dark and hoarse female voice calls from inside the house.
Sherlock chuckles and ushers John inside. John almost jumps out of his skin when he feels something sliding against his calves. He takes deep breaths when he realises that it’s only the cat.
Sherlock hangs his coat and John’s jacket on a coat stand and steers John into a dimly lit sitting room. In the middle of the room, sits a woman dressed in purple and blood-red garments. Her hair is just as dark as Sherlocks. It reaches down to the armrests on her black upholstery chair. Her long nails are painted dark-red, and she’s heavily made up with kohl around her green eyes, and purple eyeshadow.Â
The tablecloth on the table in front of her, is burgundy-red and embroidered with symbols in a golden thread. All that’s missing is the crystal ball and maybe a deck of tarot cards.Â
“My darling, Sherlock! How are you?” she says in a saccharine tone John doesn’t approve of in the slightest.
“I’m fine, thank you. Meet John,” Sherlock says smoothly.
“John, it’s an honour to meet you.”
The woman’s tone is sincere now, and her eyes don’t convey that she’s acting. She extends a hand, which John takes without thinking twice. A strange calmness envelope him and when Sherlock helps him to lie down on the purple chaise lounge he hadn’t noticed, John sighs contentedly, and closes his eyes.
***
“I had the strangest dream,” John says the next morning.
“Pray tell,” Sherlock drawls lazily and strokes John’s hair back from his forehead to place a kiss there.
“We were out walking, and you wanted us to visit this strange lady up on the hill. And you said something about the East Wind, and I got angry.”
Sherlock looks at him curiously and hums noncommittally.Â
“And there was a black cat outside the house and this strange lady; she looked like some kind of sorceress, shook my hand, and…”
“Go on,” Sherlock prompts, seemingly eager to hear John’s tale.
“I…I felt dizzy and had to lay down for a bit, but shortly after, the house was crowded with…well, people dressed…in and eldritch fashion.”
“What; like ghosts and the like?” Sherlock inquired.
“Precisely! You were…you…”
John turns to look at Sherlock. His eyes widen in shock when Sherlock smiles at him, showing off his previously well-hidden fangs.
“A vampire, perhaps?” Sherlock suggests innocently.
“Yes,” John breathes.
His trembling fingers find the point where he felt those fangs in his dream. The marks are palpable, and John realises that it hadn’t been a dream at all.
“You are mine, now. For eternity.”Â
Sherlock’s velvet voice wounds its way around John as if it were a serpent, which probably should be disturbing. It isn’t.
“I am,” John says steadily. “Now, come here and let me feel those glorious teeth on my skin again.”
Only hours later, does John realise they are no longer in the rented cottage, but in the house on the hill.
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Written for @flashfictionfridayofficial using the prompt FFF328 ~ A house on the hill. This is not a horror story but something else. It is going to be a part of this fanfic that I am working on.
—
Fandom: Kamonohashi Ron no kindan suiri
Characters: Totomaru Isshiki, Kawasemi Omito, Ron Kamonohashi, another character
Word count: 1096
TOTO found himself standing in front of a luxurious hotel in Nagoya. It stood next to the moat of the famous castle.
Two days before his arrival in Aichi to assist Kawasemi, he received a mysterious letter from his postbox. Inside the envelope was a haiku written on a scented paper, the address of the hotel, and a keycard.
To uncover secrets:
climb the twin
house on the hill
He googled the hotel and the answer pointed at Nagoya Castle in Aichi that shared the same name of the now ruins of the Hizen Nagoya Castle in Kyushu, which used to be on the top of the hill. He was still unsure how the sender knew that he was going to Aichi.
With regrets, Toto had to turn down Kawasemi’s offer for a night-out after assisting him. The Aichi police officer personally asked for him, in which Amamiya readily obliged.
“If you don’t have a need for Totomaru Isshiki, may I ask if you could please send him here.”
This time Toto didn’t get upset like the first time Amamiya decided to turn him over to Kawasemi. It was always good to see his senior again. Yet, this time he could not fully enjoy working with him as his mind was constantly shifting to the letter he received.
“Bad timing, huh?”
Not really.
Toto didn’t have to weave a story as he had a sudden allergic attack after they unexpectedly went to the woods. The sneezing started, his nose ran, and there were red patches on his neck and face.
“I would have loved to catch up, Kawasemi-san. Unfortunately, my swollen eyes...” Toto replied. His body rocked when he sneezed.
He took a medication though so he knew that he’d be all right in a couple of hours.
“The last time you and Kamonohashi-san were here you sped up to the train station to return to Tokyo. We barely talk after that.” The older police officer said. Toto noticed that he was clingier this time.
“Perhaps, some other time.”
It was also luck that Ron didn’t insist on coming with him after he told him to stay put as it was mostly administrative work. Well, sort of. It involved running after the suspects too toward the forest.
“Do you have a place to stay?”
“Mm-mm,” Toto said, his right hand on his pocket holding the letter inside it.
After they parted ways, his phone rang.
Ron.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“You are croaky, Toto, are you okay?”
“I am fine I need to stay here overnight though. My allergies…” He sneezed for a good measure.
“Yeah, I can hear.”
“It is usually not this strong, but I have it from time to time.”
“Should I pick you up?”
“I am all right. I took my meds though so I am going to be fine.”
“Just… uhm, call me if you need anything or change your mind.”
“Sure. Thanks, Ron.”
As soon as Toto heard the busy sound from the other end of the line, he headed toward the hotel. There was no time stated on the letter. Despite the heaviness he felt, the need to find the culprit overpowered him. There was one person who would use this kind of communication just to rattle him. But you’d never know these days.
As a police officer, he should be wary entering an unfamiliar room when he didn’t have a reconnaissance gear with him. His hands did not shake but the beads of sweat on his forehead started to build up. He noticed that the growing anticipation put a stop to his allergic attack. He had not sneezed ever since stepping into the hotel’s lobby.
After pressing the keycard on the automatic lock, he heard the click. He slowly opened the door. The room was breathtaking. On the ceiling was a huge intricate lacquered artwork that consisted of a dragon and his claws in supine.
“You look awful, Toto!” Said the voice, followed by a giggle.
Toto knew that voice. The voice that could be his own. It had been months since he last saw him.
“Eli!” The adopted second son of the Moriartys and Toto’s twin brother.
He grabbed Toto by the neck and hugged him, and then he began to pat his shoulders.
“Aren’t you happy to see your brother again?”
Eli looked at Toto. The same face and built. Even the timbre of their voices. The only difference lay on the prescription glasses Eli was wearing.
“Why?”
“Why what?” Eli furrowed his brows.
“Why are you here?”
“I want to see you again. We haven’t talked much after Grandma died.”
“Yeah…” Toto walked to the nearby settee and lay down. Grateful that a box of tissues was close, he took one and blew his nose. He then closed his eyes. The medication seemed to be working albeit slowly.
“I realised that you haven’t registered her as deceased.”
“No one knows that she’s dead but the two of us, which I must say that I appreciated of what you did by the way. Her house in Gunma is still standing.”
“I know…”
Something clicked in Toto’s head. He was not often in Gunma, especially for the last 10 months.
“Have you been staying there all this time?”
Silence prevailed for a few minutes that when Toto opened his eyes, his brother vanished but a comely face of an older woman greeted him.
“Toto, aren’t you taking care of yourself? Have you eaten already?”
Toto gasped. Eli disguised as his grandmother was so convincing it could fool anyone easily. Even him if not for the grey slacks that Eli was wearing.
“I can see that your allergies are still plaguing you.”
“Y-yeah…” Toto shook his head. Stop! Stop!
“What are you playing at, Eli?”
“I needed some place to stay. And maybe, this is easier to reconnect with you?”
“Uhm.. are you in trouble?”
“Not really, no…”
“All right.” Toto held his head. He could not deny his brother. The house was his too. “I just have one request.”
“And what could that be?”
Toto looked at his brother, arched his body toward him and with a determined expression, advised him:
“Just stay away from Ron Kamonohashi.” Eli chuckled.
“He’s that important to you. I get it.” Eli shook Toto’s hands.
“If you agreed to it, then we’ll talk more later,” Toto sniffled. “Now, please let me rest.”
“Of course.”
Eli went to the counter and boiled some water.
“Ron Kamonohashi, huh…”
