notquiteheartless | Deduction 8 - [ action / audio ]

[Sherlock Holmes almost laughed when he opened his eyes. Seemed his nanny had finally gotten tired of his self-appointed task. The chair John Watson had occupied last night -- and nearly every third night this month -- was empty.

Sherlock had to be amused at the sincerity with which the doctor had clung to his task. He had been so determined to find some method of making his charge fall asleep without letting him resort to the proven opiates.

Doxepin? An utter failure. Vicious, bloody nightmares rendered what sleep the detective managed pointless. Nothing else had really taken hold, either.

But the latest attempt. Zolpidem. Not as effective as morphine or heroin might have been, but Sherlock knew he'd slept a dreamless six hours. The most promising results so far, certainly.

Sherlock went into the main room of the flat to report, but... something was wrong. That it was empty was odd enough, but it went beyond that. Little things were gone. Insignificant pieces in the whole, but he noticed. How could he not? All of them were John's things, too.

He went down the hall of the flat and opened the door. Bed made, perfectly crisp and tidy. But nothing else. Not even the clock by the bed John had used. All of it was gone. The walls were white, not the pale tan he'd helped paint them.

He tried twice to make a filtered message to John over the Journal before hurriedly crossing out the words when the filter refused to work.

Sherlock Holmes accepted the truth and returned to the main room. If he had to pry up every floorboard in the place, he would. He doubted that would prove necessary. An average mind was easy to outwit.]

[It's evening before Sherlock turns on the Journal to address Luceti.

He's sulking in an empty flat on the top floor of Community House Two. A small dish in front of him has twelve cigarette butts -- a cheap American brand -- in it, smoked down to the filters. A thirteenth is half finished and in his hand.

There isn't much to say. There are no explanations to give, deductions to reveal, or clues to interpret. There is just one simple fact.

Perhaps that's why it's so hard to say.]

John Watson's gone.