opera
I had heard whispers of it, first.
Someone had slipped into the falls.
‘Course that story altered itself, eventually, to suit the true events--no one had fallen. One man had dragged the other in after him, and as soon as I heard that I sighed even as something within me sank.
It was obvious, wasn’t it? The professor had snatched Holmes in a death grip, unwilling to lose the game even at the end.
At first, I didn’t know what to do.
A voice told me, quite quietly, that I was done now and could do whatever it is that I liked.
There wasn’t anything I wanted to do, however, that didn’t involve trekking to the bottom of the falls, and so I slipped through the crowd.
It was a bit of excitement for most of the people here; something unusual that they could go home and talk about. You know the great Sherlock Holmes? Well, at Reichenbach…
I wasn’t worried about any sort of police force. Had the doctor set them out upon me? Perhaps, but I gambled even with that. I think I knew how his mind was working at this point. Revenge would come later.
Grief, first.
So I strode through the crowd, held high even as I tempered my pace. I wanted to run, damn him--why would he…?
So I tempered my pace. People would wonder why I was so anxious. I wasn’t the doctor, so…
-----
There was a collection of people at the base. Gawkers and the like. I sympathised with them, and yet I felt a welling of scorn. Oh, yeah. They made it seem as though they were curious as to what happened, but actually show them a body, twisted and torn and they’d turn away. Probably faint, too.
Weak.
The official force were already badgering these lookey-loos away, and I saw one pompous fellow approaching me, drunk off what little power he had in these parts.
“We can’t have the public picking through here, sir. It will only hinder our efforts,” he said amiably enough, and I watched as he lifted his hand, perhaps to put on my arm and direct me away like a sheep.
“Ah. Don’t,” I said quickly, and when he hesitated for only a moment I gave him a look that helped him make his mind up. He dropped his hand.
“Sir, you have to leave.”
“I’m here to look.”
“Sir, you can’t be here,” he said, and I studied him for a moment before sidling up to him. He was smaller than I, which made the next part easier for me as I tipped my head down to speak directly into his ear.
No one would have heard us anyway; the roar of the falls drowned out nearly everything so that we had to practically shout to hear one another even at this close distance. Still, it was better for effect.
“I know you’re doin’ your job, right, and I respect that and everything. I’ve got an occupation of my own and I like it well enough, but here’s the thing. I’m going to stay here, all right?”
“Sir--” he started to protest and then I gripped his arm in a steely grasp, holding him still so that I could continue, close enough to smell the soap on his skin.
“I was in the war, you know. A colonel. Think about that. If you say another word to me…any words…other than ‘Carry on, sir,’ I will make certain that they never find your bloody body. Got it?”
I drew back to appraise him as he searched my face. He looked pale, and he swallowed as he nodded.
“I--”
“What?”
“Carry…carry on…sir.”
I gestured to the bull’s-eye at his side. It was dark, and I hadn’t actually thought out bringing a light--I was too concerned with getting down as quickly as I could.
“Might I borrow that?” I asked, and when he handed it over without a word I smiled. “You’re too kind.”
He scampered off the instant I allowed him, hurrying off in the opposite direction entirely, and I watched his arc and judged him to be returning to town. Better still--the less idiots I had to work with made my task all the easier.
It was hell.
It really was.
The rocks were slippery, slick with the splash and foam from the waterfall so that I slid a number of times, catching myself all but twice. It was dark, as mentioned, so that every shadow seemed like the form of someone until turning the beam of the lantern upon it. Then it became a gnarled twig or sloping rock and I had to try elsewhere.
I wore my voice out shouting. I don’t know why I did it; logic dictated that he wouldn’t be able to hear me over the water. Lights from the force--and no doubt the doctor--bobbed within eyeshot, yet if they had not flashed their lanterns I would never have known they were there.
The falls swallowed sound so utterly I paused, giving my voice a rest while attempting in utter vain to hear something. Anything other than the roar of the waves.
I moved here and there among the rocks at the water’s edge, picking my way along the shore and always staying a good distance from the others. Didn’t want to have to run if I didn’t have to.
I shouted, again, when I waded out into the water. Human nature, I suppose. When there’s always a glimmer…
The water was cold. Frigid. Took my breath away the moment I stepped in but then I plunged into it, wading until it was past my waist and my limbs were numb as I turned this way and that, shouting repeatedly. He couldn’t hear me. I knew he couldn’t. But…it felt better when I did.
In frustration I roared out a wordless shout, churning up the water with my fists.
The professor didn’t do stupid things! Why would he do this?
Why would he ever let it get this far?
He planned everything out, every little detail, and the end result is this?
Me, shouting and freezing myself silly, hoping to find his body in this mess of a waterfall?
It wasn’t right.
I eventually waded back to shore, spending some time bumbling back and forth until I managed to stumble onto the bull’s-eye, which I had shuttered and left on the bank so as not to draw questions of why there was a light bobbing out on the water.
When I returned I found that I was alone and so I allowed my shoulders to slump and I shook from the cold, dripping out onto the bank before hissing and straightening.
I could do nothing more. Not tonight.
I could…I could search tomorrow, but my logical side was whispering at me, reminding me that the hopes of finding the professor a day later--alive--were low. He had never seemed to have a high tolerance of the cold, to me, and he shunned any sort of activity that relied solely on physicality.
That was my job. He would deal with the brainy part. The intellectual side.
I swallowed, wavering on the bank and listening to the pounding of the water behind me, echoing through me. Still. I’d have to come back, wouldn’t I? If even just to fetch the body.
Wouldn’t--couldn’t--let those bastards get ahold of it. They’d be sure to give him a pauper’s burial, and he deserved better than that. I didn’t necessarily have the money for it, but I would think of something. I was a good gambler, in a pinch.
I’d find him. Dead or alive, I’d find him. And I wouldn’t rest ‘til I did, neither.
I stumped off in the direction of the hotel, thoroughly exhausted and mind numbed with the need of sleep.
-----
“You can’t shut me out!” I roared, beating at the front entrance. Bloody stupid fat little man running the place was having a fit I had roused him out of bed at such a late hour and was spiting me for it, keeping the door barred even though he knew me.
“I told you the rules when you purchased rooms here. We lock the doors promptly at eleven o’clock, no exceptions.”
“Can’t be much later than that!”
“It is three-oh-five,” he said snootily, behind the wood, and I growled in a feral fashion, pacing slightly back and forth in front of the door before stopping, controlling my temper.
Don’t kill him, Sebastian. Don’t kill him. His disappearance would raise too many questions and you don’t have the time to come up with some elaborate explanation for a sudden death on his part. Focus.
“Let me in!” I said by way of argument, slamming my fists down again.
“I’m sorry, no.”
“I will give you twenty quid, right now, if you open this bloody door,” I snapped, and there was a slight hesitation before he cracked it open.
“Let me see it.”
Greedy pig. For a moment I pondered throwing the door open and punching him in the face for good measure but decided against it, realising I might not be able to find any more rooms for that evening.
I reached into my breast pocket and pulled out--damn. I was short.
“I only have fifteen,” I said. “Good enough?”
He thought this over and then allowed me in, stepping aside so that I could sweep past.
To say the fellow running the hotel was displeased to see me would be an understatement. Didn’t know how muddy I was ‘til I got in and heard him clucking at me in disapproval.
“And you’re making a mess, too. Excellent. I’ll have to clean that in the morning, you know. Second person to come in, after curfew, mind, and make a mess in here. At least you didn’t threaten me like the other,” he grumbled as he latched the door, and I smiled.
Ha. Got what he deserved, then.
I tread down the hallway to our room--well. My room now. Don’t think the professor’d be using it tonight. I knew I ought to shuck off my clothing when I got in but I planned to simply dive face first into the bed nearest the door and sleep.
I blundered about in the room until I found the bed with my right shin, letting out a few choice words before sinking down into the bed with a weary exhale, shutting my eyes.
I could not immediately relax and blinked my eyes open again, peeking about the room. I had adjusted to the darkness but could not quite see anything in it discernible from the black around me, and yet…
I was tense. The hair on the back of my neck was standing up and I had the acute sensation of being watched. Certainly that happens to one, at times, in the night. A certain paranoia, if you will, but I could shrug that away.
No, I was being watched.
I had narrowly missed the jaws and claws of enough tigers to know when something was lying in wait for me. Whoever it was was good--they had sensed my alertness and levelled off their breathing, perhaps holding it to ensure that I would not be able to hear him.
I sat up quickly. Damn it. I had dropped my gun near to the door. Stupid.
“Who’s there?” I asked, and when no answer--predictably--met me I fumbled with the light, turning up the gas so that I might see the intruder anyway.
The shadows were chased away but left a ghost behind as I gaped at the professor, standing just before the door.
“Really, Sebastian? Asking ‘who’s there’? Isn’t that a little overdone? Couldn’t you come up with anything better?”
“You--but--I looked and…” I realised, then, that the man the innkeeper had been complaining about earlier must have been the professor and I shut my eyes. I heard him laugh at me.
“Catch up, did we?”
“What’s that in your hand?” I asked, and my voice shook. I was tired. That was why, of course.
“Bought these before all this mess,” he said, tapping his fingers thoughtfully on the paper held in his right hand. “I thought you might like to come. Little reward, let’s call it, for being so loyal?”
He was before me, then, limping slightly as he walked to me, and when I did not immediately take his offer he reached down, opening my right hand for me and placing the object on my palm. I noted some minor cuts upon his hand as he did so.
“It’s…it’s a ticket. For The Magic Flute,” I said, bewildered, and he favoured me with the ghost of a smile.
“I thought you might like to see it with me.”
-----
Someone had slipped into the falls.
‘Course that story altered itself, eventually, to suit the true events--no one had fallen. One man had dragged the other in after him, and as soon as I heard that I sighed even as something within me sank.
It was obvious, wasn’t it? The professor had snatched Holmes in a death grip, unwilling to lose the game even at the end.
At first, I didn’t know what to do.
A voice told me, quite quietly, that I was done now and could do whatever it is that I liked.
There wasn’t anything I wanted to do, however, that didn’t involve trekking to the bottom of the falls, and so I slipped through the crowd.
It was a bit of excitement for most of the people here; something unusual that they could go home and talk about. You know the great Sherlock Holmes? Well, at Reichenbach…
I wasn’t worried about any sort of police force. Had the doctor set them out upon me? Perhaps, but I gambled even with that. I think I knew how his mind was working at this point. Revenge would come later.
Grief, first.
So I strode through the crowd, held high even as I tempered my pace. I wanted to run, damn him--why would he…?
So I tempered my pace. People would wonder why I was so anxious. I wasn’t the doctor, so…
-----
There was a collection of people at the base. Gawkers and the like. I sympathised with them, and yet I felt a welling of scorn. Oh, yeah. They made it seem as though they were curious as to what happened, but actually show them a body, twisted and torn and they’d turn away. Probably faint, too.
Weak.
The official force were already badgering these lookey-loos away, and I saw one pompous fellow approaching me, drunk off what little power he had in these parts.
“We can’t have the public picking through here, sir. It will only hinder our efforts,” he said amiably enough, and I watched as he lifted his hand, perhaps to put on my arm and direct me away like a sheep.
“Ah. Don’t,” I said quickly, and when he hesitated for only a moment I gave him a look that helped him make his mind up. He dropped his hand.
“Sir, you have to leave.”
“I’m here to look.”
“Sir, you can’t be here,” he said, and I studied him for a moment before sidling up to him. He was smaller than I, which made the next part easier for me as I tipped my head down to speak directly into his ear.
No one would have heard us anyway; the roar of the falls drowned out nearly everything so that we had to practically shout to hear one another even at this close distance. Still, it was better for effect.
“I know you’re doin’ your job, right, and I respect that and everything. I’ve got an occupation of my own and I like it well enough, but here’s the thing. I’m going to stay here, all right?”
“Sir--” he started to protest and then I gripped his arm in a steely grasp, holding him still so that I could continue, close enough to smell the soap on his skin.
“I was in the war, you know. A colonel. Think about that. If you say another word to me…any words…other than ‘Carry on, sir,’ I will make certain that they never find your bloody body. Got it?”
I drew back to appraise him as he searched my face. He looked pale, and he swallowed as he nodded.
“I--”
“What?”
“Carry…carry on…sir.”
I gestured to the bull’s-eye at his side. It was dark, and I hadn’t actually thought out bringing a light--I was too concerned with getting down as quickly as I could.
“Might I borrow that?” I asked, and when he handed it over without a word I smiled. “You’re too kind.”
He scampered off the instant I allowed him, hurrying off in the opposite direction entirely, and I watched his arc and judged him to be returning to town. Better still--the less idiots I had to work with made my task all the easier.
It was hell.
It really was.
The rocks were slippery, slick with the splash and foam from the waterfall so that I slid a number of times, catching myself all but twice. It was dark, as mentioned, so that every shadow seemed like the form of someone until turning the beam of the lantern upon it. Then it became a gnarled twig or sloping rock and I had to try elsewhere.
I wore my voice out shouting. I don’t know why I did it; logic dictated that he wouldn’t be able to hear me over the water. Lights from the force--and no doubt the doctor--bobbed within eyeshot, yet if they had not flashed their lanterns I would never have known they were there.
The falls swallowed sound so utterly I paused, giving my voice a rest while attempting in utter vain to hear something. Anything other than the roar of the waves.
I moved here and there among the rocks at the water’s edge, picking my way along the shore and always staying a good distance from the others. Didn’t want to have to run if I didn’t have to.
I shouted, again, when I waded out into the water. Human nature, I suppose. When there’s always a glimmer…
The water was cold. Frigid. Took my breath away the moment I stepped in but then I plunged into it, wading until it was past my waist and my limbs were numb as I turned this way and that, shouting repeatedly. He couldn’t hear me. I knew he couldn’t. But…it felt better when I did.
In frustration I roared out a wordless shout, churning up the water with my fists.
The professor didn’t do stupid things! Why would he do this?
Why would he ever let it get this far?
He planned everything out, every little detail, and the end result is this?
Me, shouting and freezing myself silly, hoping to find his body in this mess of a waterfall?
It wasn’t right.
I eventually waded back to shore, spending some time bumbling back and forth until I managed to stumble onto the bull’s-eye, which I had shuttered and left on the bank so as not to draw questions of why there was a light bobbing out on the water.
When I returned I found that I was alone and so I allowed my shoulders to slump and I shook from the cold, dripping out onto the bank before hissing and straightening.
I could do nothing more. Not tonight.
I could…I could search tomorrow, but my logical side was whispering at me, reminding me that the hopes of finding the professor a day later--alive--were low. He had never seemed to have a high tolerance of the cold, to me, and he shunned any sort of activity that relied solely on physicality.
That was my job. He would deal with the brainy part. The intellectual side.
I swallowed, wavering on the bank and listening to the pounding of the water behind me, echoing through me. Still. I’d have to come back, wouldn’t I? If even just to fetch the body.
Wouldn’t--couldn’t--let those bastards get ahold of it. They’d be sure to give him a pauper’s burial, and he deserved better than that. I didn’t necessarily have the money for it, but I would think of something. I was a good gambler, in a pinch.
I’d find him. Dead or alive, I’d find him. And I wouldn’t rest ‘til I did, neither.
I stumped off in the direction of the hotel, thoroughly exhausted and mind numbed with the need of sleep.
-----
“You can’t shut me out!” I roared, beating at the front entrance. Bloody stupid fat little man running the place was having a fit I had roused him out of bed at such a late hour and was spiting me for it, keeping the door barred even though he knew me.
“I told you the rules when you purchased rooms here. We lock the doors promptly at eleven o’clock, no exceptions.”
“Can’t be much later than that!”
“It is three-oh-five,” he said snootily, behind the wood, and I growled in a feral fashion, pacing slightly back and forth in front of the door before stopping, controlling my temper.
Don’t kill him, Sebastian. Don’t kill him. His disappearance would raise too many questions and you don’t have the time to come up with some elaborate explanation for a sudden death on his part. Focus.
“Let me in!” I said by way of argument, slamming my fists down again.
“I’m sorry, no.”
“I will give you twenty quid, right now, if you open this bloody door,” I snapped, and there was a slight hesitation before he cracked it open.
“Let me see it.”
Greedy pig. For a moment I pondered throwing the door open and punching him in the face for good measure but decided against it, realising I might not be able to find any more rooms for that evening.
I reached into my breast pocket and pulled out--damn. I was short.
“I only have fifteen,” I said. “Good enough?”
He thought this over and then allowed me in, stepping aside so that I could sweep past.
To say the fellow running the hotel was displeased to see me would be an understatement. Didn’t know how muddy I was ‘til I got in and heard him clucking at me in disapproval.
“And you’re making a mess, too. Excellent. I’ll have to clean that in the morning, you know. Second person to come in, after curfew, mind, and make a mess in here. At least you didn’t threaten me like the other,” he grumbled as he latched the door, and I smiled.
Ha. Got what he deserved, then.
I tread down the hallway to our room--well. My room now. Don’t think the professor’d be using it tonight. I knew I ought to shuck off my clothing when I got in but I planned to simply dive face first into the bed nearest the door and sleep.
I blundered about in the room until I found the bed with my right shin, letting out a few choice words before sinking down into the bed with a weary exhale, shutting my eyes.
I could not immediately relax and blinked my eyes open again, peeking about the room. I had adjusted to the darkness but could not quite see anything in it discernible from the black around me, and yet…
I was tense. The hair on the back of my neck was standing up and I had the acute sensation of being watched. Certainly that happens to one, at times, in the night. A certain paranoia, if you will, but I could shrug that away.
No, I was being watched.
I had narrowly missed the jaws and claws of enough tigers to know when something was lying in wait for me. Whoever it was was good--they had sensed my alertness and levelled off their breathing, perhaps holding it to ensure that I would not be able to hear him.
I sat up quickly. Damn it. I had dropped my gun near to the door. Stupid.
“Who’s there?” I asked, and when no answer--predictably--met me I fumbled with the light, turning up the gas so that I might see the intruder anyway.
The shadows were chased away but left a ghost behind as I gaped at the professor, standing just before the door.
“Really, Sebastian? Asking ‘who’s there’? Isn’t that a little overdone? Couldn’t you come up with anything better?”
“You--but--I looked and…” I realised, then, that the man the innkeeper had been complaining about earlier must have been the professor and I shut my eyes. I heard him laugh at me.
“Catch up, did we?”
“What’s that in your hand?” I asked, and my voice shook. I was tired. That was why, of course.
“Bought these before all this mess,” he said, tapping his fingers thoughtfully on the paper held in his right hand. “I thought you might like to come. Little reward, let’s call it, for being so loyal?”
He was before me, then, limping slightly as he walked to me, and when I did not immediately take his offer he reached down, opening my right hand for me and placing the object on my palm. I noted some minor cuts upon his hand as he did so.
“It’s…it’s a ticket. For The Magic Flute,” I said, bewildered, and he favoured me with the ghost of a smile.
“I thought you might like to see it with me.”
-----