‘You can’t leave us!’ pleaded Jayne.
Donald Turner grabbed his coat and rucksack and turned back to face the rest of them in the crypt. ‘Why not? We’ve lost nearly everything. I’m so tired, Jayne.’
‘We’re all tired,’ said Jayne, ‘but that doesn’t mean we can just give up.’
‘I’m not giving up,’ said Don, almost as if he’d said this for the millionth time. ‘I’m going to find my own way to rescue Lilly. She’s been gone for too long.’
‘But how? You have no idea what you could be messing with.’
Donald walked up to Jayne and stared her right in the eyes. ‘We lost Thomas and Rebecca just because they wanted to get on with their lives, and then we lost April. Why? Because she made a mistake. You sent her into god knows where.’
‘It was a necessity.’
‘Was it?’ said Don, turning around and walking towards the crypt door. ‘Was it really a necessity? What are you turning into Jayne?’
‘You can’t leave!’ shouted Jayne again.
‘Try and stop me. I’m gonna get Lilly back at any cost.’
With a slam of the door, he was gone.
Jayne felt her heart racing. She still had a fairly big group, but the main members of her team were starting to drop away. Was she really losing it? She stumbled and headed out of the room.
Margot followed her into the next chamber.
Jayne stood there, hands on the wall, watching the faint glow coming from them.
‘You alright?’ asked Margot.
‘I don’t know, Margot. How long before you and Ben leave me as well?’
‘We won’t,’ said Margot. ‘I know you’re only trying to help.’ Margot thought for a moment. She didn’t want to breach the subject, but she felt she had to. ‘Why not get the Doctor involved?’
They all knew of the Doctor from the Torchwood files. Jayne shook her head. ‘No. Not yet. If he finds out about them he’ll just try and destroy them.’
‘That’s not the Doctor’s way,’ said Margot.
‘But it might be the only way for him to help them. To put them out of their misery. I want them back. Brandon, Lilly, Penny, Father Ainslie…I want them all back.’
Margot nodded and then turned to leave. But then she stopped herself at the doorway, turning back. ‘There’ll come a time when we have to let him help us. It’s only a matter of time before he stumbles across this little accident.’
‘I know. I know.’
Jayne watched Margot leave and then she fell to her knees. She sobbed as she keeled over and rolled herself into a foetal position. She stayed there for a long, long time, crying herself to sleep.
1997
Donald flicked the switch on the radio. They were out there. He had heard them. He was sure of it. He wasn’t entirely convinced, but he was certain he had heard Lilly, somewhere beyond the static, singing to him. Singing for him to come and find her.
But there were the other voices as well. The crazy sounding voices of Brandon and the ones who had slowly become almost lunatics. The ones who would stop at nothing to hurt people. But if that was the way forward…
Don shook his head and screwed his eyes up. They were his friends! What else could he do? His wife was trapped in that dimension. She needed to be saved. He needed to save the rest of them.
And then, just by chance as he was flicking through the static on the radio bandwidth, he happened to come across the sounds of Town FM. An illegal, pirate radio station.
And the idea began to formulate in his head.
May, 1998
Newspaper excerpt, taken from the Thornsby Evening Telegraphy, dated Monday May 11th 1998.
RADIO STATION HORROR
“Police were continuing investigations today linking the illegal running of pirate radio station Town FM and the deaths of a number of people at Gulliver’s Nightclub on late Friday night.
As reported in Saturday’s edition, fourteen people were found dead at the popular nightclub. At first it is thought that the use of a highly dangerous drug may have caused the deaths, but police have since dismissed the idea.
Now police are considering the possibility that the Gulliver’s incident and the damage caused at a local primary school on Saturday afternoon may be connected. Police arrived after locals reported a loud explosion from the caretakers office. Upon arrival they discovered the body of a man in his late 40’s - as yet unidentified - and another man, Lee Green, 22, who is currently helping police with investigates.
A local resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, reported seeing the police escorting Green from the damaged building under a blanket, but that he looked shaky and was mumbling incoherently.
A police spoke person was unable to comment.
Although it is believed that others were involved with the illegal running of Town FM, they have since gone to ground. It is, however, unlikely that anybody else will be arrested as Lee Green has been cited as the main instigator behind the radio station.
In tomorrow’s Telegraph, reporter Sadie Jessop will be running an article on the possibility of Town FM also being responsible for the other random deaths that have occurred just lately around Thornsby and Yarathorpe.”
Jayne put the paper down on the table and sighed.
“Can you believe it?” said Margot.
Jayne glared at the rest of the team. “How did we not even know any of this? How did Don slip past us?”
“To be fair,” said Ben nervously, “they haven’t tried anything like this before.”
“We do not let things slip under the radar,” scolded Jayne. “People have died because of us.”
Margot thumbed back to a stocky, bearded man leant against the crypt wall. “Kev here’s just done a scout around the area. He says the Doctor was there. From the future.”
“Yes,” said Jayne. “I felt he was here.”
“He didn’t stop it though,” said Kev, sniffing and scratching his nose. “It was Thomas’s kid.”
“Caroline? The one who’s been living with the Parkers?”
“That’s the one.”
“A future version though,” said Margot quickly
Ben groaned. “Time travel really screws up your mind.”
“We should bring the kid in now,” said Margot.
“No,” said Jayne. “We can’t risk the timeline. Not now. If Brandon goes for her then we’ll help her, but for now we’re just gonna have to watch her until she finally goes off with the Doctor.”
“And what about the Doctor?” asked Margot.
Jayne tapped her fingers on the desk and then looked at the team. “Okay, next time we have an incident, we let him deal with it. God knows we could do with some good luck right now.”
The rest of the team nodded.
Jayne turned to go and then looked back at her team. “Don made a mistake. Let’s make sure nobody else makes the same mistake.”
July, 1998
Caroline and Danny were sat under the pier. It had been a long, long hot day. The sand was still warm, but in an hour or so it’d cool down. A piece of driftwood had served as a comfortable enough seat. It was getting late and the sun was setting. A little way back towards the road, the night time revellers had arrived and were already busy getting drunk.
Danny turned to Caroline and smiled. “Happy Birthday you old cow,” he said.
“Hey,” said Caroline, punching him in the arm.
“Oh come on, we’re both 16 now. It’s all down hill from here.”
Caroline laughed. “I need to get back home.”
“Why?”
“My parents, Danny,” she sighed. “These are the same people who banned you from visiting me for…no reason!”
“Just tell them you’re staying at Kate’s house tonight.”
“They’ll check up.”
“Well just sod ‘em then,” said Danny. “Come on, Caz! We’ve left school now. We’re adults at last. We can start planning for the future.”
Caroline looked down at her hand. She still wore the ring he had given her at Christmas.
“Hey,” he said quickly. “I didn’t mean settle down like that.”
She laughed and then scooped up sand, flicking it in his face.
Danny reached into a rucksack he had brought with him, gave a furtive glance around to make sure he wasn’t being watched, and then pulled out a bottle of Hooch.
“I can’t believe Gina got that for us,” said Caroline.
“And there’s another five bottles in there too.”
“Looks like I’m not going home tonight,” said Caroline. “How would I ever explain being drunk?”
Danny laughed. And then he noticed the glint of silver around Caroline’s neck. “You got the necklace?”
Caroline’s hand instinctively went to the cross around her neck. “Yeah, finally. Grandma used to say it’d protect me from evil. Well, let’s hope it protects me.”
Danny looked at her as he took a swig from the bottle of Hooch. “How long do you reckon we’ll be together?”
Caroline looked a little unsure. “Do we have to discuss that?”
“I just wondered,” said Danny, passing her the bottle.
Caroline took a swig of it. “All I know is what matters right here and right now.”
Danny smiled. “Live for the moment, yeah?”
“Yeah,” smiled Caroline. “Live for the moment.”
They spent the next few hours lying back on the beach, their heads propped up on the driftwood, watching the revellers in the distance as they danced among the glowing lights of the arcades and night clubs. Soon it was dark and there was only one bottle of Hooch left.
Caroline looked longingly at the cloudy liquid. “I feel drunk.”
“You’re definitely staying at Kate’s tonight.”
“Hey,” said Caroline, “fancy a swim?”
“Don’t be daft,” said Danny. “We’re bloody drunk. Terrible statistics and all that.”
“Only in the shallow end,” said Caroline. “Come on, I’ve been sweating to death all day!”
“You first then,” said Danny.
“Okay,” said Caroline. She got to her feet, a little unsteadily, and then ran off to the water. She took her trainers and socks off and then stepped into the water. It felt cool and she smiled.
Danny had run up to join her and was now standing in the shallow water.
“Race you to the end of the pier,” said Caroline.
“As in swim to the end of the pier?” said Danny. “You can’t race when you’re swimming.”
“Then what’s a swimming race?” laughed Caroline.
“Daft sod,” said Danny. “And anyway, I’m not getting this shirt wet for anyone. You look so beautiful,” he said, as he put his arms around her waist and pulled her in tighter.
“I love you, you know?” said Caroline.
“I love you too,” said Danny.
“Then race me!”
August, 1998
Caroline sat in the ruined remains of the old, caretakers house. The paint seemed to have peeled away even more than when they were last here, but the paint was the last thing on her mind.
Danny and her were sat, crossed-legged, looking right into each others eyes. But neither of them looked particularly happy. Caroline’s eyes were red and Danny’s were just blank.
“Are you sure this is what you want?” asked Danny.
Caroline screwed her eyes tight and then opened them again. “What I want and what I need are two separate things,” she said.
“You have to do what your heart tells you.”
“But it’s my heart that’s telling me two different things.”
“I thought after we-”
“What happened that night was…amazing. It was the best night of my life, but in the morning I realised that something felt…wrong.”
Danny looked crestfallen.
“A right wrong,” said Caroline, realising she was digging herself into an even bigger hole. “What I’m trying to say is that I don’t think I’m ready for a relationship. And it is a relationship. This is moving fast and it’s gonna get serious.”
“But that’s good, isn’t it?”
“No,” said Caroline, “because I don’t want serious right now. And I also want to keep my best friend. I don’t want to lose you. And that’s why it has to end right here and right now.”
Danny looked away from her.
Caroline got up and then looked down at him. “I’ll always love you, but right now, it can’t be anything more than friends.”
She quickly slipped the golden ring off her finger and then crouched to place it next to Danny on the dusty, wooden floorboards. For a second their eyes met and Caroline felt a sudden regret, but then she looked away. She had to get a grip on her life, and she definitely knew that she wasn’t ready for what Danny and her could have together.
Next: Caroline walks out and Adrian disappears. Coming Monday 21st October.
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