Every time John turns the key to the flat, he feels an ice-cold stab of pain right through his heart.
“You should move out of there, John,” Lestrade had told him, “Why would you put yourself through that every day?”
John had just shrugged. He couldn’t tell him the real reason: that he needed to have that intense pain. It was the only way he knew his heart was still there at all.
This evening, the key turns a bit more quickly and smoothly.
Not that John notices; he’s still wincing from the jolt. Still catching his breath and straightening his shoulders. Still preparing for the sight of a sitting room which seems more like a mausoleum.
A mausoleum with a tea tray, a steaming cup of Earl Grey, and a plate of ginger biscuits laid out carefully on the coffee table.
“What the—?” John scans the room but sees nothing else out of the ordinary. “Mrs. Hudson?” he calls. “Mrs. Hudson, did you…..”
John throws his jacket onto the sofa and looks more closely at the tea tray.
There’s a tiny card next to the cup. In tight, block letters, it reads “Drink Me.”
Next to the biscuits, he sees a similar one. “Eat Me.”
John purses his lips. “Right. Alice in Wonderland, now. Okay.”
“Tea and biscuits” – a post-Reichenbach ficlet
Published
Lady Karasu 