‘No, wait!’ yelled the Doctor as he was dragged from the room. He wasn’t sure, but he could have sworn his saw Feathers smiling.
The Doctor was dragged into the reception area where Caroline was waiting with hospital security staff.
‘So they caught you as well?’ asked the Doctors dejected companion.
‘Yes, unfortunately,’ said the Doctor, disheartened at not being able to have a proper chat with Feathers.
‘Just what did you think you were doing?’ asked one of the security men. ‘Patients shouldn’t be disturbed like that.’
‘I know, I know,’ said the Doctor, ‘but we have reason to believe that Mr Feathers can help us with a little investigation of ours.’
‘And what would that be, sir?’ asked the security man suspiciously.
The Doctor thought for a moment and then stopped himself. ‘I’m afraid you wouldn’t believe me.’
‘Very well, then we must ask you to leave. You won’t be allowed back into this hospital again. You’re lucky we haven’t called the police.’
‘Don’t worry,’ said Caroline, ‘we don’t want to come back.’
The Doctor took Caroline’s hand and they were escorted out of the hospital.
A little later on, when they had gotten out of the hospital grounds, the Doctor and Caroline sat down on a wall that ran around the car park.
‘Did you find anything out?’ asked Caroline as she looked up at the trees surrounding the grounds.
‘Not really. But what I did hear just led to more questions.’
‘What questions?’
The Doctor looked back towards the hospital building. ‘Our Mr Feathers claims to be Harold J Stevens.’
‘That’s impossible. That Harold fella was at the prison, wasn’t he?’
‘It would seem he was,’ said the Doctor. ‘Perhaps Feathers thinks that he’s Harold, rather than actually being Harold.’
‘Then you think he’s mad?’
‘I think,’ said the Doctor, looking back at the hospital building one more time, ‘that whatever he encountered in the prison grounds made him go insane.’
Caroline sighed and kicked her legs back against the wall. ‘So, what do we do now?’
‘We can’t go back into the hospital, and I doubt that Feathers would be able to help us much anyway.’ The Doctor jumped off the wall. ‘Come on, we’ll find some transport and then head back to the cabin. They’ll all be bored back there’
Back at the cabin Joanne was backed up against the wall, silent. Alex was on his hands and knees on the wooden floor and was looking up at Kate with sad and almost fearful eyes.
‘Are you well, Alex?’ asked Kate. Her voice was more or less the same, but slightly croakier.
‘Kate? How? You died,’ sobbed Alex. ‘You were dead. I know you were dead!’
‘I can’t explain it,’ said Kate. She put a weak hand to her chest. He top was covered in dark, red and dry blood.
Alex gasped. ‘Let me see. You may be hurt.’
‘I am hurt,’ she said, opening her top. There was a huge gouge in her chest where something had been stabbed into her.
Alex panicked and stood up quickly, backing away from her.
‘Feel my pulse.’
Alex nervously edged forward and put his fingers to her wrist. There was nothing. He frowned and then put his fingers to her neck. Still nothing. ‘You haven’t got one.’
Kate stared at him. She knew she couldn’t be alive. Her face was drained of all colour and her eyes were almost black. ‘I’m dead, I know I am.’
Alex gulped and held Kate’s hand. It was as cold as ice and he let go straight away. ‘If you’re here, you can’t be dead.’
She tried to cry but no tears would come. ‘I remember a sharp pain in my chest. I’d been stabbed with something. Then I remember feeling short of breath and collapsing to the ground.’
‘And then?’ asked Joanne from the back wall. She had finally found her voice.
‘Then there was some kind of white light. I remember standing in the chapel, looking down at my body.’
‘Oh, god…’ said Alex putting a hand to his mouth.
‘Except that this time I felt much better. I felt wonderful. There were two men waiting for me and they were smiling, a little sadly maybe, but they were still smiling.’ Kate put a hand to the wound on her chest. ‘Then the men stopped smiling and looked concerned. There was a figure standing there. A figure that I couldn’t make out. He threw himself at me.’ Kate began shaking. ‘I thought I was going to…’ she stopped herself before saying the obvious. ‘Well, that had already happened. But I felt myself dragged back to reality. The candles had flickered back on and I was lying on the ground again.’
‘It sounds like someone brought you back to life,’ said Alex in a mildly optimistic voice.
‘Then why is my body still dead? And who is Harold J Stevens?’
‘Not him again!’ gasped Joanne.
‘Come on,’ said Alex. ‘I don’t know what’s happened to you, Kate, but the others are at the prison and might be in big danger. We need to get back there.’
Tom emerged from the darkness and blinked in the afternoon light of the prison grounds. He wasn’t sure what had just happened, but he was sure it was something bad. Already his memories of the incident were fading. He made his way over to the cemetery where Danny and Mark were standing in a deep grave and finishing off their digging. ‘How’s it going?’ asked Tom. ‘Found anything yet.’
Danny and Mark ignored Tom.
‘C’mon guys,’ said Tom, trying to put on a friendly voice. ‘I’m sorry for making you two do all the work.’
Mark looked up to where Tom was standing and then looked back down at Danny. ‘Did you hear anything, Danny?’
‘No,’ said Danny, ‘why?’
Tom grit his teeth and snarled. ‘Suit yourselves then.’ And he marched off. What was up with them? He knew that he hadn’t exactly been the best of company and he had shouldered the work onto them, but he hadn’t been that bad, had he?
‘We’ve found something!’ came Danny’s voice from back near the cemetery.
Tom spun round and ran back to the cemetery. When he arrived he saw Mark jump out of the deep pit looking on nervously whilst Danny was busy trying to haul something up.
‘What have you found?’ asked Tom.
‘We better get Tom,’ said Daniel.
‘It’s alright,’ said Tom, ‘I’m here.’
‘I’ll go get him,’ replied Mark.
Tom frowned as Mark leapt up and ran straight past him. ‘I’m here!’ shouted Tom. He crossed over to the grave where Danny was standing. Inside was a rotten wooden coffin - but no body. ‘Danny, what’s going on?’
Danny didn’t reply and just continued to look at the coffin.
‘Why can’t you hear me?’
Tom’s heart began racing as Mark returned to the cemetery. ‘I can’t find him anywhere,’ he said, panting and out of breath.
‘I’m here!!’ yelled Tom at the top of his voice.
‘Oh well,’ sighed Danny, ‘he’ll come when he wants to.’
Tom looked at the pair with scared eyes. They couldn’t see him. Why couldn’t they see him? He turned around and clumsily ran back to the main prison building. He plunged into the darkness and then felt himself trip up. His face slammed down against the cold stone floor and then he turned around to see what he had fallen over. He yelled in fear and astonishment. Lying at his feet was his own body.
‘You’re dead,’ came a cackling voice from the darkness.
Kate, Alex and Joanne had been walking for some time when a car had pulled up behind them. It was the Doctor and Caroline. They had borrowed some transport from the town and were heading back up to the cabin. When they found nobody at home they headed for the prison.
Then the questions had begun.
Now all five of them were sitting in the car with the Doctor speeding along the country road behind the wheel.
‘Can you explain it, Doctor?’ asked Alex.
‘Explain what?’ he said distantly.
‘Explain why Kate is alive?’
‘I’m not sure she is. We tested her pulse and there’s nothing.’
Caroline was sat in the passenger seat and looked back at Kate. ‘I’m sorry for leaving you in the chapel.’
‘It wasn’t your fault,’ said Kate. ‘I just couldn’t get out in time.’
Joanne rubbed her eyes. ‘This is all too much for me.’
‘How come I’m alive then?’ asked Kate.
‘I just said that you’re not. I know that sounds harsh, but, well, you just have to except it. Somehow your body has been temporarily brought back to life, but the organs and functions aren’t actually operating.’
‘Like a zombie?’ asked Alex in disgust.
‘Like a zombie.’
‘That’s horrible,’ said Joanne.
‘Indeed it is,’ replied the Doctor. ‘And that’s why we’ve got to find out what’s going on at the prison.’
‘But you will be able to bring Kate back to proper life, won’t you?’ asked Alex hopefully.
The Doctor turned and looked at the couple. ‘I’m not a God. Something is keeping you alive, Kate, and once we get rid of that “something”, you may well die.’
‘No,’ said Alex tearfully, ‘I can’t let her go again.’
‘You’ll have to,’ said Kate sadly. ‘At least this time we can say goodbye properly.’
‘So,’ said Danny as he and Mark sat on the edge of the grave, ‘there is a coffin but no body.’
‘It’s probably rotted away,’ said Mark.
‘Don’t be stupid,’ laughed Danny. ‘Even if the flesh had rotted away there would still be a skeleton.’
‘Then perhaps there were grave robbers,’ suggested Mark.
‘This bloke was a prisoner. He would have had nothing of value buried with him.’
‘Then perhaps the authorities moved the bodies.’
‘Do you want go digging up other graves to find out?’
Mark didn’t reply.
‘I thought not. No, I can feel that something’s wrong. This Harold J Stevens must have gotten out of his grave and walked away.’
‘Seriously?’
Danny shot him a scolding glance.
Mark shivered. The air had turned distinctly colder. ‘Where the hell is Tom?’
‘I haven’t seen him for ages.’
The sound of a car engine made the two jump up and run for the gates, only to be greeted by the Doctor, Caroline, Joanne, Alex and, amazingly, Kate.
The questions began again.
Tom was in shock as he stared down at his own body. There was a large gash in the back of the corpses neck, almost deep and wide enough to have decapitated him. He felt like throwing up, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him before he could. He spun round quickly and his heart jumped in terror. Standing before him was something that he had only seen in horror films. The thing could have been described as a skeleton, except that this one had huge white eyes and the skin was still stretched tight across it’s bones. The eyes were bloodshot and the pupils wide and black. The hair was wiry and only a few strands stuck up from it’s scalp. The monster was dressed in ragged blue clothes and grinned insanely at Tom. It pointed a bony finger at him and a low growl came from deep within it’s twisted, rotting form.
‘I am Harold J Stevens.’
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