saki101

Title: Penumbra (Winter Special)
Author: saki101
Rating: R
Characters and Pairings: Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Sherlock/John, Mrs Hudson, Mrs Turner, Wiggins, Greg Lestrade, Mycroft Holmes, Molly Hooper, OCs
Word Count: ~41.7K (Chapters 38/38)
Summary: Autumn has faded into winter. As the days grow shorter, Holmeswood Manor celebrates the solstice.
Disclaimer: Neither Sherlock BBC nor Dark Shadows belong to me.
A/N: Written in a series of short chapters to the prompts of the 2020 Advent Ficlet Challenge and taking as inspiration the John and Sherlock of the Unaired Pilot.

Another instalment of the Penumbra series, which is a gothic AU of the Sherlock universe inspired by the universe of Dark Shadows (the 1966 television series).

Preview: In Maine, there was Collinwood and the three centuries of history that were woven into its walls. In London, there is Holmeswood Manor (or the Manor on Baker Street as the urban legends have it), tucked now into a city street when once its oak woods rolled from the heath to the river.

Series One Overview: John grew up with its stories of ghosts and wizards and things that hunt in the night. They didn’t keep him from interviewing for a residential post at the Manor because he couldn’t afford London on an army pension and there could not possibly have been any truth to the tales.

Series Two Overview: It's been more than a year since John came to live at the Manor on Baker Street. He has learned many things, one being that the stories hadn't prepared him for the half of it.

Summer Mini-episode: A glimpse of life in the season after the ball.

Winter Special: The winter solstice approaches. John's knowledge of the Manor and himself expands.

***
Excerpt: I turned back to the window. “I don’t recall this last year. Were we away?” I leaned out. The breeze was sharp. The sound of bells louder.

“No. I told you this summer that you were changing.”
 

***

Posted on AO3.

Photo source material: A Wooded Landscape in Three Panels by Louis Comfort Tiffany, a public domain work of art from Google Art Project, Wikipedia Commons. (More information may be found here.)