Note- This is a re-edited update of my previously published series. Which is a sequel to 'The Adventures Of Scarlett Holmes.'
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There have been numerous attempts to update Sherlock Holmes into the modern age and so I have decided to place my imagined version from 1891 to the present day. As usual, Scarlett Johansson is my chosen heroine with Emma Watson by her side. This tall tale is entirely fictional and not meant to offend any celebs described herein.
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Chapter One.
'Holmes Falls'
London, 1891.
It is with a heavy heart that I take up my pen to write these last words in which I shall ever record the singular gifts by which my friend and lover, Miss Scarlett Holmes, was known and distinguished.
I, Doctor Emma Watson, will be forever indebted to the superlative consulting detective pertaining to our outstanding adventures. Not to mention our mutually explored sexuality.
The striking thirty-five-year-old blonde had been blessed with a large brain and a large bosom, and although she and I enjoyed our private romance and love affair, Scarlett had been free from social conventions and traditional ideas of the late Victorian era and had slept with both men and women alike.
We had shared several wonderful years living in our rented rooms at 221B Baker Street before that woeful day in May this year when my beloved Holmes perished, together with Professor Moriarty, at the bottom of the Reichenbach Falls.
My life, and those of the entire British Isles, whether they are aware or not, will never be the same. She saved the Empire on countless occasions, and the majority of us were able to sleep soundly at night thanks to her endeavors and accomplishments in tackling the most evil of criminals. My life goes on, hoping that dear Scarlett has found peace, wherever her soul may rest.
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Scarlett Holmes felt the spray of the Falls on her face as she lost her footing and dropped like a stone. Beside her, Professor Moriarty fell with her, both flying through the air in a bundle of flailing arms and legs. The so-called Napoleon of crime, and the celebrated consulting detective, had been locked in a final conflict that had resulted in a fight to the death. Locked in combat they had both lost their footing and had been hurled into the raging water. The animated Holmes experienced an unsettling myriad of lurid colours as she tumbled over and over into a seemingly endless abyss. As the sensation continued, she felt as if she were falling in slow motion, with no resistance or friction. Streaks of bright light flashed in her eyes and she became more and more woozy until there was only inky blackness. Was this death then?
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London, 2023.
"Heavens! The noise! The smell! The lights!"
Scarlett Holmes reeled as all of her senses were assaulted. The vein in her temple pulsated as she awoke from the nightmare that was her untimely death. As she tried to grasp what had occurred she found herself on the hard pavement of a busy thoroughfare.
"How odd."
The night had fallen, yet the roads and pavements remained lit by countless street lights that highlighted numerous pedestrians as they went about their business. Young females walked in pairs and by themselves, and some wore their dresses high up on their legs revealing lots of bared flesh! Men strolled the sidewalks, several with hair down past their shoulders, and one man, in particular, seemed to be talking loudly into what appeared to resemble a packet of tobacco in his hand!
"What infernal place is this?"
She was still dressed in her Victorian finest. Floor-length dress, high buttoned and lace-up white shoes, and a tightly fitted upper corset that served to cover her overlarge breasts. The golden blonde accosted the nearest person as the smell of motor oil made her wrinkle her pretty nose.
"Sir! I beg of you. Where is this? Why is it so loud? Is this hell?"
Scarlett held her ears to shield out the roar of automobiles that flashed past and a passing aircraft overhead screamed with its three large engines.
"Why, it's the City of London. Where else? You been on the sauce, lady?"
The man brushed past the distraught Holmes who spun around in a confused whirl. Everywhere was lit brightly. Shop windows, houses, and passing motor cars. And metal, huge structures made of metal and glass abounded and seemed to puncture the very sky. Here, there, and everywhere were sprawled people. Hundreds of people, dressed in such outrageous clothing she had never seen the like of. Echoes of Indignant laughter and loud conversation filled her ears as she struggled to make some sense of it all. A middle-aged woman with a kindly face approached and looked into the pleading eyes of Scarlett.
"Are you feeling alright?"
"Madam. I feel as if I am going insane! Has the world gone mad? Are we at war?"
"No, silly. It's just a regular Saturday night. Can't stop, I'm off to see the latest Marvel movie."
"Movie? What?"
Scarlett took two paces forward and tumbled into the road disoriented, only to be brought back to earth by the loud horn of a Ford Fiesta that almost ran her over.
"Get out of the road, you stupid bitch" Cried the driver as he wound down his window.
"I feel...feel faint."
A light rain fell and dappled her somewhat crumpled dress, and as Scarlett tried to find a purchase or risk falling to the paving stones, a helping hand reached out to catch her.
"Careful, you very nearly fell over."
Scarlett looked up into an angelic face that beamed broadly at her, and a chill overcame her, not from the cold but from the notion that she might very well be staring at a ghost.
"Watson! Dear Watson. It's you!"
Emma Watson smiled and spread her hands.
"Yes, it's me. What would you like? A selfie or an autograph?"
"A selfie? What?" Scarlett gave Emma a curious look.
"Who shall I make it out to?"
Emma turned to her female friend who handed her a scrap of paper and a ballpoint pen.
"Watson?"
"Your name? Who shall I sign it to?"
"My dear Doctor. It's me."
"Doctor? No, I'm no Doctor."
"Emma. It is I. Scarlett Holmes. I'm alive."
"I can see that. Are you a Harry Potter fan, or is it Beauty and the Beast you like best."
"Potter? The only Potter family I know of is that loathsome family of rapscallions from Rotherhithe, the patriarch of which is currently serving fifteen to twenty for burglary in Brixton Prison at the pleasure of Her Majesty Queen Victoria."
"Victoria? Hold on. Scarlett Holmes? My grandmother used to tell me stories of Scarlett Holmes with my great-grandmother."
"Tell me? Who is your great-grandmother?"