Sentiment {Sherlock BBC}

69. "Sherrinford."

"You realize I'm the smart one?" Mycroft asked.

"As you never cease to announce." Sherlock said.

"But Eurus, she was incandescent even then. Our abilities were professionally assessed more than once. I was remarkable, but Eurus was described as an era-defining genius, beyond Newton."

"Then why don't I remember her?" Sherlock pressed.

"You do remember her, in a way. Every choice you ever made; every path you've ever taken – the man you are today ... is your memory of Eurus. She was different from the beginning. She knew things she should never have known... as if she was somehow aware of truths beyond the normal scope." Mycroft suddenly stopped and John looked at him.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Sorry. The memories are disturbing."

"What do you mean? Examples." Sherlock said.

"They found her with a knife once. She seemed to be cutting herself. Mother and Father were terrified. They thought it was a suicide attempt. But when I asked Eurus what she was doing, she said, "I wanted to see how my muscles worked." Mycroft said.

"Oh," I whispered to myself.

"Jesus!" John said.

"So I asked her if she felt pain, and she said, "which one's pain?" Mycroft added.

"What happened?" Sherlock asked.

"Musgrave. The ancestral home, where there was always honey for tea. And Sherlock played among the funny gravestones."

"Funny how?" John asked.

"They weren't real. The dates were all wrong. An architectural joke which fascinated Sherlock.

"Help succour me now..." Sherlock began to chant.

"The East winds blow." Mycroft said with him.
"Sixteen by six... and under we go." Sherlock said.

"You're starting to remember." Mycroft said.

"Fragments." Sherlock said.

"Redbeard?" John asked.

"He was my dog." Sherlock said.

"Eurus took Redbeard and locked him up somewhere no-one could find him... and she refused to say where he was. She'd only repeat that song; her little ritual. We begged and begged her to tell us where he was... but she said... the song is the answer. But the song made no sense." Mycroft said.

"What happened to Redbeard?" Sherlock asked.

"We never found him. But she started calling him "Drowned Redbeard," so we made our assumptions. Sherlock was traumatized. Natural, I suppose – he was, in the early days, an emotional child; but after that he was different, so changed. Never spoke of it again. In time, he seemed to forget that Eurus had ever even existed." Mycroft said looking from me to John.

"How could he forget? She was living in the same house."

"No. They took her away."

"Why? You don't lock up a child because a dog goes missing."

"Quite so. It was what happened immediately afterwards. She burnt the house down. After that, our sister had to be taken away."

"Where?" Sherlock asked.

"Oh, some suitable place – or so everyone thought. Not suitable enough, however. She died there."

"How?" John asked.