Ficlet: The Weapon of Choice
Mar. 3rd, 2011 11:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spacemutineerTitle: The Weapon of Choice
Author: spacemutineer
Word Count: 280
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, John Watson
Rating: R
Warnings/genres: death, horror, dark
Prompt: from shkinkmeme: "Holmes does his Devil's Foot experiment alone, while Watson is out of the house, with horrible results."
Author's notes: I'm having fun working to spec. Here I got to dabble into some horror, which was fun. I tried to think of what Sherlock Holmes would be afraid of, and I think what I came up with works pretty well.
The smoke emanating from the lamp started in single diaphanous wisps, then at once blossomed into a dense, amorphous plume. Holmes caught himself unconsciously holding his breath and forced a single tentative inhalation. Whatever doubt he had that this strange substance was the weapon of choice in these murders melted away in an instant, along with the walls. They splashed and pooled at his feet, swirling into eddies and currents, forming distorted screaming faces. His face, in a million places at the same time, shrieking in primal, mortal terror.
He was falling, falling through the floor, falling through the world into somewhere else. Somewhere black. Somewhere empty. He reached out into the emptiness for something (...anything...) but there was nothing. He could see his hands reaching into the nothing, his fingers broken and mangled, twisted into agonizing shapes. Under his skin, something was moving (...oh god...), wriggling and crawling up his arms. He clawed at these invaders, tearing at them until the flesh itself pulled away from his bones. In the distance he could feel eyes (...make it stop...) upon him, dissecting him from without and within, seeing through him (...makeitstop...) into every atom of his being, every fiber of his soul, every deep-set secret he had ever wished to hide. The eyes (...MAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOP...) were unblinking, relentless and everywhere.
...
When Watson found him, Holmes' body was still contorted in his chair. His fingers were still sunk deep into his eye sockets, stopped suddenly in their quest to dig the visions out at their source. His mouth was still agape, screaming silently in wrenching horror. When Watson found him, he gave his own voice to those screams.
Thank you for reading! Your comments are always greatly appreciated. If you like, you can read more here at my master fic list.
Author: spacemutineer
Word Count: 280
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, John Watson
Rating: R
Warnings/genres: death, horror, dark
Prompt: from shkinkmeme: "Holmes does his Devil's Foot experiment alone, while Watson is out of the house, with horrible results."
Author's notes: I'm having fun working to spec. Here I got to dabble into some horror, which was fun. I tried to think of what Sherlock Holmes would be afraid of, and I think what I came up with works pretty well.
The smoke emanating from the lamp started in single diaphanous wisps, then at once blossomed into a dense, amorphous plume. Holmes caught himself unconsciously holding his breath and forced a single tentative inhalation. Whatever doubt he had that this strange substance was the weapon of choice in these murders melted away in an instant, along with the walls. They splashed and pooled at his feet, swirling into eddies and currents, forming distorted screaming faces. His face, in a million places at the same time, shrieking in primal, mortal terror.
He was falling, falling through the floor, falling through the world into somewhere else. Somewhere black. Somewhere empty. He reached out into the emptiness for something (...anything...) but there was nothing. He could see his hands reaching into the nothing, his fingers broken and mangled, twisted into agonizing shapes. Under his skin, something was moving (...oh god...), wriggling and crawling up his arms. He clawed at these invaders, tearing at them until the flesh itself pulled away from his bones. In the distance he could feel eyes (...make it stop...) upon him, dissecting him from without and within, seeing through him (...makeitstop...) into every atom of his being, every fiber of his soul, every deep-set secret he had ever wished to hide. The eyes (...MAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOP...) were unblinking, relentless and everywhere.
...
When Watson found him, Holmes' body was still contorted in his chair. His fingers were still sunk deep into his eye sockets, stopped suddenly in their quest to dig the visions out at their source. His mouth was still agape, screaming silently in wrenching horror. When Watson found him, he gave his own voice to those screams.
Thank you for reading! Your comments are always greatly appreciated. If you like, you can read more here at my master fic list.
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-04 04:42 pm (UTC)Don't get me wrong- This was fantastic! I'm just impressed by how dark... Guh... Me thinks you should write more horror! I don't suppose you're a fan of Lovecraft?
Oh, also: As usual, your descriptions are fantastic!
no subject
Date: 2011-03-04 07:07 pm (UTC)As for Lovecraft, I have to embarrassingly admit that despite being a bibliophile, I've never read any. My horror exposure has been mostly Stephen King. Perhaps I should get mine ass to a library! Are you a Lovecraft fan?
Very glad you liked the horror. I had a lot of fun writing it. It's interesting to see how down and dark you can go. I definitely will have to venture down this road again.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-05 03:33 pm (UTC)I admit I'm not actually familiar with the original Devil's Foot experiment, which probably contributed to my surprise. I think your ending was fitting- just, as I said before, not what I'd expected! Oh, poor Holmes...
Yes, I'd certainly recommend Lovecraft! You can actually get his stuff online for free legally because it's old enough. My personal favorites include: The Music of Eric Zann, Nyarlathotep, The Rats in the Walls, and From Beyond.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-07 12:15 am (UTC)I'll check those stories out. Thanks for the tip! And I'm looking forward to reading more of your Lovecraftian story over at the meme!
no subject
Date: 2011-06-27 03:29 am (UTC)I still like this piece. The ending is very satisfying, for me. It doesn't pull any punches.
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