+25: Basket Case - Green Day 

Requested by @MordedJones

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When Jim was younger, his obsession and undeniable need to kill scared the life out of him. He panicked more and more with each cat he buried in the backgardan - frightened to death that his mother would discover what made him smile and send him to a ward with all the other crazies. 

He wasn't crazy. Jim was convinced of that. He just.. liked killing things. He wanted to kill people, yes, but he restrained himself and murdered innocent, fluffy cats instead. Surely that showed he wasn't crazy. He could control himself. 

Eventually, the town ran out of cats. Jim was fifteen. He was just itching to kill something. He stayed in his room, faking illnesses as an excuse to stay hidden from the world. If he was alone, the only thing he'd kill was himself. 

This desire to kill made him cry. He didn't want to be weird. He didn't want to upset his Mummy. 

A doctor comes round to see Jim. They sit in the kitchen as the doctor speaks to him and his mother (she's convinced he was depressed and was worried he'd do something silly). Jim didn't hear much of what he was saying, far too busy imagining pulling a large knife from the draw and plunging it between the doctor's shoulder blades. 

 In the end, the doctor ruled it out as a phase. Jim wanted to murder him even more than before. 

 The other person Jim had ever met and not imagined killing was his mother. He felt safe with her because even though he wanted to kill, he didn't want to harm her and he never onced imagined what it would be like to see her body lifeless at his feet. 

In the end, Jim does kill a person. A boy named Carl. He was a nice boy and was even friendly with Jim as their mother's knew each other from their childhood. Carl was a swimmer and he lived for the sport, he liked to tease those who couldn't swim. Jim told him to stop one day when he teases a small eight year old for being scared of the water. Carl called Jim a string of names and laughed at him for being so close to his mum. Two days later, Jim watched as Carl drowned to death thanks to some poison Jim introduced into his medication. 

After killing Carl, Jim accepted it. He stopped letting it scare him. He liked killing and felt no regret when he killed Carl. While that didn't frighten the fifteen year old, the idea of being caught did send a chill down his spine. So he stole Carl's shoes because he panicked out the police choosing to analyse all of the flakey skin on them. 

Luckily, no one suspected it was murder and ruled it as a horrible accident. Jim was beyond relieved and he threw the shoes into the back of his closet. 

Jim kept an eye on the case, just to double check, and that's when he first discovered Sherlock Holmes. The boy was older than him by a few years maybe and he seemed determined to get the police to look into why Carl's shoes were gone. How the boy knew that, Jim had no idea. Still, it had Jim on the edge of his seat as he prayed the police told him to bugger off. 

They did just that. "Stop playing detective, kid" were the exact words the police officer muttered. 

Jim relaxed again. As he watched Sherlock Holmes walk away, however, he felt a smile slide on to his face. Being young, Jim simply thought of it as them being rivals like in the superhero movies. 

He never expected his life to go the way it did. 

*

Jim had two mirrors in his bedroom. They were identical in every way and on the day they brought them, Jim ordered his right hand man to put on a pair of knuckle dusters and crack one of them. Despite his bemusement, Sebastian carried out the order without question. 

Two years later, Jim still had the cracked mirror. He liked having the contrast. The distorted image from the broken mirror and the clear, sharp image from the normal mirror. He liked to look at himself in one and then the other each morning, in any order. The ritual calmed him. 

Long ago, Jim decided that he wasn't the crazy one. If anyone was crazy, it was all the people around him that ridiculed him for being different. He liked killing things, so what? 

If he killed say one person a week, he'd be calm and tolerable. If not, he'd be jittery and itchy. He'd just be a total horror to be around, in a foul mood and easily angered. Killing keeps him sane. 

At least, he thinks he's sane. 

No. He's sure. He thinks. 

*

If you asked Jim how things come about to this, he wouldn't be able to tell you. He'd try and try to remember how it happened but he couldn't say. It was so ordinary that he'd blanked it. The 'this' and 'it' Jim is talking about it the fact he's now living with Sherlock Holmes, the boy he saw playing detective all those years ago. 

Jim vaguely remembers trying to kill Sherlock. He's pretty sure that actually happened. So that meant Sherlock escaped him and continued living.. somehow. Now, however, he's sharing a bed and a breakfast table with Sherlock. That doesn't make sense to him. He doesn't know how he got here. 

He tells Sherlock this, many times. Sherlock always smiles and kisses his forehead, telling that it's okay. All that bad stuff happened but then they fell in love.

He always makes sure to say "You're not crazy". The effect of those words are clear. It makes Jim relax and lean into the kisses he's given.

He supposes that it doesn't matter how they got here. What counts is that they are here. 

He goes around in circles, however. A day, a week, maybe a month later he'll start to wonder how they got here and he'll become confused as to how this all happened. Sherlock calms him down, every time, and then he goes to his mirrors in his office. 

The mirrors always helped. They helped him remember there's more to a story than meets the eye. 

They were enemies. Now, they're in love. They even work together sometimes. 

Jim stays in the office for hours and he knows that Sherlock worries because Sherlock doesn't understand. Jim wonders why he doesn't have the desire to kill Sherlock anymore. Is it because he already did? Even though, Sherlock faked it. 

Or is Sherlock like Jim's mother? Jim loved his mother dearly and he loves Sherlock too. Maybe that's why. 

He's not sure.

He'll ask the mirrors tomorrow, he decides.

*

Jim killed Sebastian. Sherlock watched.

After, Jim cried. Not because he killed his best friend but because he was scared that Sherlock might get mad at him and then Jim might stop loving him if he's angry. If he didn't love Sherlock, he'd want to kill him. Jim didn't want that. He loves Sherlock!

Sherlock didn't get angry, though. He came over to Jim, plucked the gun from his hand and then held him close as the man sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. 

The neighbours came round to complain the noise. Jim killed them both. It's the fifth set of neighbours he's killed now. It was the first he'd killed in front of Sherlock, however, and that sent Jim into hysteria again. 

He clutched onto Sherlock and begged him not to leave. Sherlock reassured him that he'd never leave but Jim still begged and begged and begged. 

Eventually, Jim feel asleep in Sherlock's arms and so Sherlock could him to bed. Jim opened his eyes to see Sherlock slide in beside him. 

He smiles and curled up against the other. 

Even if he was crazy, Sherlock loved him. So, he was happy. He had Sherlock.. and his mirrors. They'd always be there. In fact, they'd be there longer than Sherlock.

Jim wonders if maybe he loves the mirrors more than Sherlock. That thought has Jim looking at Sherlock pale neck and wondering what a noose would look like wrapped around it.