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July 13 - No Way to Beat Ghost Horse
Jul. 13th, 2021 11:43 pmAuthor: Pompey
Universe: ACD (with Carnacki the Ghost Finder)
Rating: PG
Warnings: supernatural
Word count: 225
Summary: Watson’s knowledge of ghost stories saves Holmes, but not himself.
Prompt: July 13 - Sensational fiction. Use Watson's love of sensational fiction in some way in your work today.
A/N: Much like A.J. Raffles the Amateur Cracksman by E.W.Hornung, Carnacki the Ghost Finder by W.H. Hodgson is a contemporary of Sherlock Holmes who needs to feature in more crossovers, IMHO. (Also, did I steal my title from the song “Fugue for Brotherhorns”? Yes. Yes, I did. #noregrets)
Sherlock Holmes paced as silently as he could in the corner of the room. His agitation would not allow him to sit still. Even so, he did not dare leave Watson’s side while his condition remained so critical.
Watson’s willingness to sacrifice himself to protect Holmes was nothing new, lamentable though it remained. But how was it he had recognized the danger when Holmes had not?
Simply put, Watson was well-versed in the lurid but popular ghost stories. He had read Lord Dunsany and Le Faun and Stoker. More pertinently, he had read W. H. Hodgson’s story “The Horse of the Invisible,” in which a young woman was apparently haunted by a giant, invisible horse.
Nonsense, of course. Holmes had belittled Watson’s comparisons between the story and their case with the disdain he felt it deserved. Even so, it seemed Watson had never quite dismissed it.
Holmes might never find out exactly what it was Watson saw to make him give a cry of alarm and push Holmes away. But he had the subsequent images burned into his memory: the sight of Watson suddenly crushed to the ground by something unseen descending from above them. A something large and heavy enough to shatter several of Watson’s ribs and leave a bloodied imprint in his back – an imprint that eerily and undeniably resembled a giant horseshoe.
