The last thing he could remember was running behind the Doctor and Caroline towards the steps when he felt himself fall through a crack in the floor and into the icy water surrounding the boat. He struggled to grab onto something, but the cold numbed him almost instantly and he found himself sinking towards the riverbed. It wasn’t very deep where the Barge was docked, and he could see the bottom of the boat so tantalisingly close, and yet he was unable to get to it. He lay there, unable to move, breathe or do anything.
That’s when he saw one of the things in the cloaks. It was swimming in the water above him. It didn’t seem to be affected by the cold and floated so close that their noses - or what little of it’s nose was left - were touching.
“Poor Danny,” it said as it’s hand reached out and touched his forehead.
The next thing Danny remembered was being hauled out of the freezing cold water and pulled onto the dockside. He still couldn’t feel anything, but he knew that even though he was lying in freezing cold snow, it was a thousand times better than being in that water.
It took him a while to adjust, but when he eventually focused he could see Caroline standing over him, her hands to her mouth in shock. The Doctor had taken his long black coat off and had wrapped it around him to keep him warm.
“-niel? Daniel are you okay?” he heard the Doctor say.
“It’s….Danny….don’t call me…Daniel…” he shivered and stuttered.
Then he blacked out again.
When he woke up he was in the back of an ambulance on a stretcher, wrapped in blankets. Caroline was sat next to him holding his hand.
“Caroline…” he just about managed.
“Danny,” she said, fighting back the tears. “I thought you were gone.”
“So…so did I,” he just about managed. “There was one of those…things…”
“An Apparite?” she said, looking concerned. “What did it do?”
“Nothing really,” he winced in pain. “It just sort of…touched my forehead.”
“The Doctor saw you floating to the surface and reached in to pull you out.”
“On his own?” asked Danny. “I’m surprised he had the strength.”
“What happened down there?” came the Doctors voice from behind Caroline.
“What do you mean?” asked Danny, confused at the Doctor’s question.
“With the Apparite. Did it say anything to you?”
“I was drowning, Doctor.” Danny thought for a moment. “And I was underwater. What was it supposed to have said?”
The Doctor turned and wandered over to the dockside edge, muttering to himself.
“The Doctor’s just concerned, that’s all,” said Caroline.
“All of a sudden you’re sticking up for this bloke,” said Danny. “You’ve only known him a few hours.”
Caroline thought for a moment. Danny was right, she had only know him a few hours, but at the same time he’d saved her from those things. It meant something to her.
“Danny…” she started, but before she could continue the Doctor was over again.
“Do you feel well enough to walk?” he asked, impatiently.
“What? No,” said Danny. “I’m soaking wet. I can hardly feel my legs.”
“Then we’ve got to go without him, Caroline,” said the Doctor.
“Go where? Shouldn’t we stay with Danny or try and help the police or something?”
“No, no, no,” he said, looking over at the police men and women standing by the dockside and people in suits taking photographs of the broken, half-sunken remains of the Barge. “They wouldn’t understand anyway.”
“Okay, but-”
“Good,” he smiled. “Danny can go to A&E, get himself checked out, and then he can meet up with us later. Off we go then,” he said, and started trudging through the snow towards the main shopping street.
Caroline hesitated on the spot for a moment and then turned to Danny. “Will you be alright?”
Danny smiled and nodded his head. “I’ll be fine. I’ll call you later.”
She smiled and turned to go when he stopped her, grabbing her arm.
“Just be careful, won’t you?”
She looked at him and then nodded. “I will.”
As Danny watched her try and keep up with the Doctor’s pace he suddenly felt a sharp pain flash across his temples. He grimaced in pain, but was snapped out of it when he heard the voice of one of the paramedics.
“Everything okay?”
Danny rubbed his forehead. “Yeah, I’m good thanks.” He watched Caroline and the Doctor disappear around the corner. “Poor Caroline.”
“Who?” asked the paramedic as he closed the doors to the ambulance.
“Nothing,” said Danny, feeling cold, dazed and confused.
A little while later the Doctor and Caroline were heading down a dead-end street between Vision Express and House Of Frazer, which in turn led to a passage behind the latter shop. At the end of the passage, much to Caroline’s confusion, was a large blue with double doors. Above the double doors was a sign which read: “Police Public Call Box“. On the top was a lamp. It looked like it could barely fit into the passage. In fact it looked as if it had been crammed in there.
She’d read about Police Boxes before at school when they’d studied the history of the police force. They used to stand on street corners and were a lifeline for policemen back in the day before radio’s. They’d be able to lock criminals up inside of them until backup could arrive. But Caroline was sure that there weren’t any about anymore. Having said that, though, she’d never felt the need to wander down this particular passage. It wasn’t something she did in her spare time!
The Doctor went over to the snow-covered box and took a key out of his pocket.
He turned the key in the lock and was about to go inside when he stopped himself and turned back to her. “Do you mind waiting out here?”
“Sure,” said Caroline, wondering why he thought she would even attempt to follow him into a small, cramped cupboard anyway.
“I’ll just be a minute,” he said as he went inside and shut the door.
Never-the-less Caroline felt compelled to go and take a closer look at the box. She slowly made her way down the passage, her feet crunching in the snow. There were only the Doctor’s footprints to be seen so she tried to walk in them to make things easier. Her feet were already freezing. As she got nearer to the box she was sure she could hear a sound. It was like some kind of buzzing sound. And there was something else as well. It felt like the air around her was vibrating in unison with the buzzing sound.
She reached out her hand and could feel her fingers tingling with power. She was about to touch the box when the door opened and the Doctor came back out.
“Everything okay?” he asked, looking at her outstretched arm.
She quickly snatched it back. “Yeah, fine,” she smiled.
He looked back at the box and then at her. “She was tempting you in.”
“She?” Caroline was confused.
“The TARDIS. She needs some company. Clearly I’m not enough these days.”
“You’ve lost me, Doctor,” said Caroline half-laughing. “What is that box?”
“Oh nothing,” said the Doctor, removing a small, thin device from his pocket. “Storage.”
“So, what’s our next step?” she asked, following him out of the passage.
The Doctor flicked a small switch on the tube-like device and the tip of it glowed bright red. It made a high-pitched sound and he held it up to the sky. He walked around in a circle and then stood still again. After a few seconds he started turning on the spot, still with the device held up. When he was facing a certain direction the sound coming from it increased in pitch. He smiled for a second, popped the device back into his pocket, and then marched off in that direction.
“Wait!” said Caroline, attempting to hurry after him again and failing miserably in the snow.
He turned the corner into the main shopping street and continued to walk.
“I said wait!” shouted Caroline as he started to get quite far ahead of her.
He wasn’t listening, his hands in his pockets and a look of determination on his face.
“Fine!” shouted Caroline, standing still.
The Doctor carried on for a few paces more and then stopped, turning back to face her. “What’s wrong?”
“Are you ignorant or stupid?” she asked, her arms folded.
“I don’t quite understand,” he said, oblivious to what she was referring to.
“Look, I know you saved me and thank you for that and, yes, I want to get to the bottom of this as well, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to blindly follow you everywhere.”
The Doctor raised his eyebrows, was about to say something back to her, and then closed his mouth, stopping himself.
“Well?” asked Caroline, hands now on her hips. For a moment he looked like a scolded schoolboy.
He made his way slowly back to her.
Now she raised her eyebrows. “I’m not some kid, Doctor. All I want is a few explanations before I get dragged into god knows what.”
He closed his eyes and nodded. “I know,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry. I’m just so used to being on my own that I sometimes forget about the people around me.”
“That’s alright,” Caroline replied, “just try and be a little more clearer with me from now on.”
“I will,” he smiled, “but I also need you to understand the urgency of the situation. These things are dangerous.”
“I know,” said Caroline. “I saw what they did to the Barge, remember? But a couple of minutes doesn’t hurt anyone.” She started walking in the direction he had originally gone. “Walk and talk, Doctor. Walk and talk.”
The Doctor smiled and made after her.
“So go on then,” she said, as she stepped over a metal bin that had been forced over by a huge snow drift.
“Go on? Go where?”
“Explain to me what we’re doing because I’ll be damned if I know why I’m following you around.” She half meant it.
“The device I was holding up,” said the Doctor, “is my sonic screwdriver. Capable of a number of things.”
“Putting up shelves?”
“Actually,” said the Doctor, edging around a iced-up puddle by the side of the road, “yes. I successfully installed a number of shelves not long ago. Ikea I believe.”
“So how does it help with these ghost things?”
The Doctor stopped. “Do you notice anything strange about the snow storm?”
Caroline looked around her, snowflakes getting in her eyes. “Not really, no.”
“Really? Look harder.”
She looked up and then around her. At first glance there didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary, but the more she looked, the more she realised something wasn’t quite right. The snow was spiralling down and it was spiralling down towards a specific point. It was as if it was getting drawn towards a certain area of the town.
“What’s over there?” asked the Doctor, realising Caroline had cottoned on to what he meant.
“More shops,” she said. “And the church. St James’s.”
“Then that’s where we’re heading,” he said, once again resuming his almost effortless march through the snow.
It was then that Caroline noticed something even stranger about the snow. She looked down at her feet. It appeared to be moving, very slowly at first but it was now gathering speed.
“Doctor!” she called. “This is strange, right?”
The Doctor stopped and looked at her, then followed her gaze down. The snow was starting to pile up around their feet.
“Definitely not normal,” said the Doctor, flicking out his sonic screwdriver. He crouched down and aimed the device towards the snow. It whirred and buzzed with life, it’s red light illuminating the thick white stuff.
“Doctor!” said Caroline as the snow gathered up around her boots.
His hand moved nearer to the snow and Caroline jumped when she saw a flurry of snow jump up and knock the Doctor back. It was as if it was trying to bat his hand away.
“We’ve got to go!” said the Doctor as he clambered back to his feet.
“No surprises there then,” said Caroline as she stumbled over to the Doctor, the snow moving and snapping at her feet.
“Run!” he said, grabbing her arm and pulling her along with him.
The pair made their way down the deserted shopping street and towards the direction of the church, but the nearer they seemed to get to the church, the deeper the snow became. And the streets were empty as well. There was not a soul in sight.
Caroline looked back and the panic in her grew when she noticed that the snow behind them was actually following them. It looked like a mini-tidal wave and this only made her run faster.
She only turned to face forward again when she went crashing into the back of the Doctor. He’d stopped right in front of her. She rubbed her bruised cheek and was about to tell him off for being so careless when she noticed that standing right in front of the Doctor was the looming shape of one of the Apparites, it’s hand outstretched towards the Doctor’s forehead.
The Doctor was still and unmoving, his eyes fixed on the thing standing before him. Caroline panicked, turned and ran.
To be continued...
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