(Alice’s POV: )

Later, Sherlock was still driving us across the moors. Earlier John had pushed me into the middle section between the seats and didn’t give in letting me back up. Sherlock had just laughed so I punched them both and stayed in the middle.

“So, the email from Kirsty – the, er, missing luminous rabbit.” John began awkwardly.

“Kirsty Stapleton, whose mother specializes in genetic manipulation.” I said, not looking away from the road in front of us.

“She made her daughter’s rabbit glow in the dark.” John said sceptically.

“Probably a fluorescent gene removed and spliced into the specimen. Simple enough these days.” Sherlock explained.

“So...?” John looked across to Sherlock (over me) and waited for him to continue the sentence.

“So we know that Doctor Stapleton performs secret genetic experiments on animals.” I explained dryly.

“The question is: has she been working on something deadlier than a rabbit?” Sherlock finished.

“To be fair, that is quite a wide field.” John replied. Sherlock looked round at John in startled surprise as he realized that it was true. I scoffed at his arrogance.

HENRY KNIGHT’S HOUSE

(Alice’s POV: )

His home was enormous – a four-storey stone building that was probably a very important property in the area in the past. A large old-fashioned glass conservatory was attached to the rear of the building on the ground floor and a modern two-storey glass extension had been built onto the side of the house to join it to another two-storey stone building nearby. I wasn’t too surprised; I had lived in a mansion for the majority of my life and I was used to it.

We went into the conservatory, which looked very run-down and clearly hadn’t had a paint job in years, and walked across to the door on the opposite side. Sherlock rang the doorbell and Henry opened the door. Henry immediately looked at me.

“Hi.” He greeted blankly.

“Hi.” John replied, just as blank.

“Come in, come in.” Henry said, moving out of the way. Wiping his feet on the doormat, Sherlock walked in and headed down the hallway. John followed more slowly, stopping to look into a large high-ceilinged sitting room before following Sherlock again. Henry waited for me to come in before closing the door behind me and going up to the lead.

“This is, uh... are you, um...” John stammered. He searched for the right word for a moment before finding it. “...rich?”

“Yeah.” Henry said casually.

“Right.” John said, in his way that I couldn’t quite describe but he always did. I chuckled quietly as Henry led off again. Sherlock threw a dark look at John before following him.

Not long afterwards, in the kitchen in the glass extension, Sherlock put two sugar lumps into his mug and stirred them in. He was sitting on a stool at the central island and John was sitting next to him. I was on the other side, and Henry had come and sat next to me. He was just gazing down at the work surface with his hands folded in front of him.

“It’s-it’s a couple of words. It’s what I keep seeing. ‘Liberty’...”  He began slowly.

“Liberty.” John repeated thoughtfully, reaching into his pocket for his notebook. My mind began going through how “Liberty” could be related to a hound.

“’Liberty’ and ... ‘in’. It’s just that.” Henry added, looking up at John. He picked up the bottle of milk that was on the island. “Are you finished?” He asked.

“Mmm.” John confirmed. Henry looked to me expectantly. I nodded and he turned around to put the milk in the fridge. John looked at Sherlock. “Mean anything to you?” He asked, quickly glancing to me as well.

“‘Liberty in death’ – isn’t that the expression? The only true freedom.” Sherlock replied softly. John and I nodded in agreement as Henry turned back around, sighing. Sherlock took a drink from his mug.

“What now, then?” Henry asked.

“Sherlock’s got a plan.” I said, looking up at him.

“Yes.” The detective confirmed.

“Right.” Henry said, sounding determined.

“We take you back out onto the moor...” Sherlock began.

“Okay...” Henry nervously said.

“...and see if anything attacks you.” Sherlock finished.

“What?!” John and I yelled.

“That should bring things to a head.” Sherlock added.

“At night? You want me to go out there at night?” Henry cried, looking at me for some reason.

“Mmm.” Sherlock hummed. I smiled very softly, thinking that he had been copying John more often.

“That’s your plan?” He snorted in laughter. “Brilliant!” He added sarcastically.

“Got any better ideas?” Sherlock tested.

“That’s not a plan.” John insisted. I nodded.

“Listen, if there is a monster out there, John and Alice, there’s only one thing to do: find out where it lives.” Sherlock explained. He looked round to Henry and smiles widely at him before taking another drink from his mug. Henry did not look encouraged, and I felt a knot of fear forming in the pit of my stomach.

DUSK, THE MOORS

 As night began to fall, Henry led Sherlock, John and I across the rocks towards Dewer’s Hollow. All four of us had flashlights to light the uneven ground below our feet. Foxes screamed repeatedly in the distance. By the time we had reached the woods it was almost fully dark and it became even darker as we headed into the trees. John, bringing up the rear, heard rustling to his right and turned around to look. Sherlock and Henry didn’t notice and continued onwards as John walked cautiously towards the sound he heard, me watching him from a few feet away. He shone his torch into the bushes as an owl shrieked overhead, but he couldn’t see anything as far as I could tell. I came up to him, startling him a bit but mainly just letting him know I was there. I saw a light repeatedly winking on and off at the top of a hillside a fair distance away. I tapped his shoulder ad he raised his head. He looked around to alert Sherlock.

“Sher...” He began.

 “They kept going.” I informed. He shone his flashlight in the direction they went but there was no sign of them. He looked back to the light on the hillside, which was still intermittently flashing, and got his notebook out of his pocket. I looked up at them and squinted a bit. Morse Code. He started to write down the letters while speaking them aloud.

“U... M... Q... R... A.” He mumbled softly. I pressed my brows together, thinking. The light stopped flashing and he looked down at his notebook.

“U, M, Q, R, A.” He whispered. “Umqra?” He tried, saying it as a word. He looked back at me, but didn’t wait for me to reply before turning back around. Shaking his head, he looked up to the hillside again but no more light was coming from it. Shutting the notebook, he headed off in the direction of Sherlock and Henry. “You with me, Captain?” He asked, calling me captain without even a hint of teasing. I smacked his upper arm and he chuckled lightly.

 “How did Sherlock know my… status d’you think?” I asked quietly. He scoffed.

“How the bl**dy h*ll am I supposed to know?” He chuckled.

 “No one will ever know what goes on in that head.” I mumbled playfully.

“You’re probably the one who will get the closest.” He added, nodding a bit and avoiding eye contact.

“What are you implying?” I asked with mock offence. He chuckled softly and we went on.

(Sherlock’s POV: )

Henry and I were fairly ahead of the wandering captains, and Henry’s torch revealed that we had arrived at the edge of the minefield with some fencing and warning signs. We made our way along the edge of the fencing and the silence was getting boring, so I broke it.

“Met a friend of yours.” I began.

“What?” He asked, obviously too busy thinking about my Alice to have heard me the first time I spoke.

“Doctor Frankland.” I clarified.

“Oh, right. Bob, yeah.” He stammered.

“Seems pretty concerned about you.” I droned.

“He’s a worrier, bless him. He’s been very kind to me since I came back.” He replied sentimentally.

“He knew your father.” I pried.

“Yeah.”

“But he works at Baskerville. Didn’t your dad have a problem with that?” I tested.

“Well, mates are mates, aren’t they? I mean, look at you and John.” He added. I noticed how he didn’t say Alice and I or even John and her, but I quickly dismissed that and moved on, already knowing why.

“What about us?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.

“Well, I mean, he’s a pretty straightforward bloke and you...” Glancing back at me, he wisely decided not to follow that line. “They agreed never to talk about work, Uncle Bob and my dad.” He continued. He stopped and turned to his left. I stopped and looked at him, and Henry nodded in the direction he was looking. “Dewer’s Hollow.” He said unhappily. I turned and looked at the steep drop in the land that led down into a misty dark valley. I headed down into the Hollow, being careful to keep my balance on the steep slippery ground. Henry followed me down more slowly. I reached the bottom and shone the torch around, seeing giant paw prints all around in the ground. Another long anguished howl rang out suddenly. Still halfway down the slope, Henry paused. I shone my torch up in the direction of the sound and temporarily lost my sanity for the first time in my life. The beast growled savagely from the top of the Hollow. I recoiled, confused and bewildered as I tried to understand what I just saw. From his position some distance away, Henry hurried down to me.

“Oh my g*d. Oh my g*d. Oh my g*d. Oh my g*d. Oh my g*d. Oh my g*d. Did you see it?” He shouted. I lowered my head, still completely unbelieving and not submitting to the evidence presented to me through my eyes. I stared around, shaking my head and looking for any signs of the creature, then shoved Henry out of my way and hurried back up the hillside. Henry followed me cautiously.

Okay, quick update! Enjoy, vote and comment fun peoples! =)