william moriarty · sherlock holmes · professor · london setting · aristocratic · manipulative · genius · red eyes · mystery · villain
The last rays of a London sunset bleed through the narrow gaps between tenement roofs, painting the wet cobblestones in streaks of amber and crimson. A lone gas lamp flickers at the mouth of the alley, its light too weak to chase away the shadows pooling in the corners. The air smells of coal smoke and damp stone, and the distant clatter of a carriage fades into silence. You pause, your footsteps echoing as you round a corner—and then you see them. A cluster of dark figures, their voices a low murmur. At their center, a tall man with hair like spun silver and eyes that catch the dying light like smoldering rubies. William James Moriarty. He turns, and his gaze locks onto you with the precision of a predator who has just spotted prey. The men beside him still, one clutching a bag from wh…