Prompting Part XXIV

Jan 16, 2012 09:01

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prompting: 24, prompt posts

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Fill - WARNING FOR TRIGGERS anonymous January 17 2012, 03:21:20 UTC
So my first response to a prompt and this is what I come up with. I think it's done. Hope this is close to what you were looking for.

Warning now for triggers of suicide, child abuse, and depression. Yes folks, this has it all.

4 times Sherlock witnessed a suicide and 1 time he didn't.

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There was this boy in secondary school, Martin Johnston. He was small for his age, thin and gangly, with big glasses and too long hair. It was pitiful to see whenever he tried too hard to fit in. Always one of the last ones to be picked for everything, always coming to school with money for lunch and leaving with an empty pockets and an emptier belly. He was easy prey for the older children.

It didn’t help that he was being abused at home either. Oh, the signs were all there and adults really were stupidly blind, weren’t they, to not notice anything. It was easy to see, really: the long sleeves, the hunched posture, protecting his stomach, hints of old bruises peeking through when he got roughed up after school.

Sherlock noticed it but said nothing. Why should he? Logically, he knew that no one would listen to him. They didn’t listen to him about Karl Powers, so why would they listen to him about this? Especially when those bruises could be so easily explained by the regular rows he found himself in from the bullies. No, better to sit it out. It would all come out in the end.

And it did. After Martin took too many of his mother’s sleeping pills in the boy’s loo. They found him just after lunch, dead in the corner. Sherlock could still remember his body, leaning against the wall, like a discarded ragdoll, pills scattered around him like candy.

Sherlock calmly closed the door and went to get a teacher.

This was the first time.

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Sherlock was in University, which really was very boring and how could anyone stand it? There was a young girl a floor below him in the dormitory. He can’t remember her name now, it’s not important. All he remembers are the signs (because they are the same things he saw in that young boy, Martin, and really it would be very useful to know the signs of an impending suicide. For his Work, of course.) of what she was planning.

He first became aware of her when she started to frequent the common area late at night. It was an odd occurrence, especially considering the hours he kept. She would just sit down and stare at the blank TV. It didn’t bother Sherlock, she wasn’t making any noise.

Then she started to pay off her debts, little things she owed people: a quid here, a drink there. Once he saw her pay back the gum she had taken from some friend of hers. It only stuck in his mind because of how odd it was. Gum? He should have seen it then, really but he didn't have all the knowledge yet.

It wasn’t until he was roaming the hallways looking for something to stimulate him (boredboredbored!) that he heard it, that odd sound. Something creaking. He walked back a few steps and placed his ear to the door, and there it was, softly squeaking. Gently swaying. He noted the room number, placed the face with the name (deleted), and came to a conclusion. He broke down the door and saw her; back and forth, back and forth.

This was the second.

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It happened quite painlessly, that next time. Sherlock was in between hits, in a filthy corner under the bridge surrounded by his fellow junkies. He barely noticed his neighbor shoot up, watched with disinterest as the man convulsed, didn't realize until after the high, until after Mycroft had sobered him up, that there was entirely too much heroin in that syringe for it to be a mistake.

That was the third and he didn’t even notice.

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Jim Moriarty shot himself. His blood was everywhere.

He was the fourth.

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The fifth time didn’t happen. He thought about it, for just a moment. Just a brief moment. If it would save them, (save him), then maybe it would be worth it.

The fifth time didn't happen.

Sometimes, he wished it did.

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Re: Fill - WARNING FOR TRIGGERS anonymous January 17 2012, 20:54:42 UTC
This is painful but beautiful.

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Re: Fill - WARNING FOR TRIGGERS anonymous January 17 2012, 23:07:54 UTC
Thanks, I really don't know what happened. I'm usually sweetness and light but well, I guess the muse decided it wanted to try something new.

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Re: Fill - WARNING FOR TRIGGERS anonymous January 18 2012, 00:25:44 UTC
oh my god yes. just yes.

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Re: Fill - WARNING FOR TRIGGERS anonymous January 18 2012, 01:30:46 UTC
thanks! I wasn't too sure about it but had to post it.

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Re: Fill - WARNING FOR TRIGGERS anonymous January 18 2012, 00:33:36 UTC
This is absolute perfection. Great job, anon!

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Re: Fill - WARNING FOR TRIGGERS anonymous January 18 2012, 01:32:17 UTC
thank you!

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Re: Fill - WARNING FOR TRIGGERS straydog733 January 18 2012, 02:58:41 UTC
Wow, that one stings, but it very well-written. I could really see Sherlock noticing the signs but not seeing why it would be important to bring them to anybody's attention; he solves mysteries and stops people from killing other people. A suicide has no mystery and no perpetrator outside of the victim, so it would not interest him at all.

Great character piece.

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Re: Fill - WARNING FOR TRIGGERS anonymous January 19 2012, 23:02:31 UTC
I agree. In a way, I wanted to show that the first 3 weren't humanized in Sherlock's mind. It's not until the 4th one when it happens right in front of him that this changes.

Glad you enjoyed it!

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Re: Fill - WARNING FOR TRIGGERS anonymous January 18 2012, 04:35:04 UTC
Very well done. Love the last lines.

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Re: Fill - WARNING FOR TRIGGERS anonymous January 19 2012, 23:04:37 UTC
Thanks! The last one was the only one I knew for sure. The rest just kind of came out.

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Re: Fill - WARNING FOR TRIGGERS joking January 18 2012, 05:44:02 UTC
Wow. The last one was like a punch to the gut.

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Re: Fill - WARNING FOR TRIGGERS anonymous January 19 2012, 23:05:28 UTC
Thanks. After I wrote it, I stopped and just had to breathe for a moment.

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Re: Fill - WARNING FOR TRIGGERS anonymous January 22 2012, 02:26:53 UTC
GAH! So painful. So perfect.

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