He tried to open his mouth to call out, but nothing came out.
Then there was a voice. It seemed to come from all around him.
“Poor little Doctor.”
He tried to speak again, but it was no good.
“Think,” said the rasping voice.
The Doctor closed his eyes and instead of speaking he thought the words. “Where am I?”
“Our world.”
“But I was in a street on Earth.”
“Our world. Your mind.”
The Doctor got to his feet. “Ah, I see. This is a projection of your world from your mind into mind. That’s why you were reaching out to my forehead?”
The voice didn’t reply.
“Why are you doing this?”
“We do nothing wrong.”
“You’ve brought this town to a standstill and hurt people along the way.” He looked around himself, hoping to see one of the Apparites, but there was nothing in sight.
“Poor little people.”
“And you seem to lack the capability to communicate in any kind of sense,” said the Doctor sternly.
The voice laughed. “Little man. Too little for this world.”
“What does that mean?”
“You are known to us,” said the voice. “You are damaged.”
The Doctor’s unconsciously moved his hand to his right pocket where his tablets were stored. “How do you know?”
“We know,” came the chuckling voice again.
“What do you want with this world?”
“Freedom.”
The Doctor shook his head. “Not if your freedom means this. I’m always willing to help those in need, but not if it means destroying a world to do it.”
The voice cried out in anger, but the Doctor could hear pain in it as well.
“I want to help.”
“Go back!” shouted the voice. “You will suffer the same fate.”
The Doctor looked up at the sky. “Please, tell me what you want!” he pleaded.
But instead everything went black.
When Caroline had finally stopped running she realised she had almost gotten home. She was standing in her deserted, orange street light-lit street and she was out of breath. The snow had stopped chasing her, but she was too frightened to go back and look for the Doctor. She felt bad for running, but what was she supposed to do? She had no idea how to fight these things.
“You alright, love?” asked Mrs Wooster as she locked up her shop.
“Yeah,” said Caroline, realising that she really wasn’t. “Just trying to get home.”
Mrs Wooster frowned at her. “Have you been running? You ought to be careful. This snows getting worse.”
“I know,” said Caroline, realising that running in her boots through the snow had been a bad idea. “I just wanted to get inside in the warmth.”
“Well you take care, love, won’t you?” said the little grey haired woman. She then edged closer to Caroline, looking over her glasses at her. “There are strange things out in this street.”
And with that she was gone. Caroline knew exactly what she meant, but wasn’t sure if Mrs Wooster knew the real truth behind the strange things that were out here.
She finally reached her front garden and took her keys out. She felt a twinge of guilt as she unlocked the door and stepped inside, the warmth from the house making her skin prickle all over. She felt bad for leaving the Doctor, but she vowed to go back and look for him in the morning. And anyway he knew what he was doing…supposedly.
She was unable to really convince herself of that.
She made her way down the hallway and then suddenly remembered what had happened with Mr Cope. She went over to the door that led to the bottom part of the house and knocked softly.
“Mr Cope, are you there?” she asked.
There was no response.
She knocked again, knowing full well that there wouldn’t be an answer. “Mr Cope?”
She could now feel the tears welling up in her eyes as she leant against the door and slumped to the floor. This was just too much for her. Her life had been turned upside down in just a few hours and right now all she wanted to do was curl up in a ball and fall asleep.
After a few minutes she clambered to her feet, eyes still wet, and made her way upstairs. She told herself that she’d get on the phone to the police as soon as she had sat down and gathered her thoughts together. After all, how could you explain that your landlord had been attacked by ghosts?
As she made her way onto her landing she could hear a noise. It was coming from the front room and it sounded like the TV. She grabbed an umbrella from the basket and pushed the door open, ready to give the intruder a good whack.
Sitting there in front of the television, watching the news, was Danny.
“Danny?” said Caroline, confused and surprised.
He turned to look at her and then quickly got up. “Caroline. I’m sorry-”
“What are you doing here?” she said, walking into the room and standing in front of him.
“I let myself in.”
“How?”
He shifted uncomfortably on the spot. “I, erm, I got in through the window.”
Caroline thought for a moment. “Hang on. You got in through the window? Which one?”
“Your bedroom window,” he looked like a scolded schoolboy.
“I can’t remember leaving it open. And anyway, what are you doing breaking and entering.”
Danny held his hands up. “I entered, but I didn’t break. The window was open.”
“You still don’t come into someone’s house uninvited,” she said, walking out of the room, into the hallway and into her bedroom to check. “It’s closed.”
“Well it’s closed now,” said Danny, sitting back down. “There was a bit of a chill.”
Caroline returned to the living room, her face like thunder. “You should be at the hospital getting checked out.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I feel fine.”
“You just fell into an ice-cold river!” she said, sitting down with her arms folded.
“I know, but…I feel better.”
Caroline looked at him. He had a look of contentment on his face, but something wasn’t right about him. He was always an easy going guy, but this seemed too easy going.
“You need to stop worrying all the time, Caz,” he said, turning back to the TV.
The two of them sat there for a moment - Danny watching the TV and Caroline watching Danny. There was something not quite right about him, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.
After a moment Danny spoke again. “This could have been us in another life.”
She frowned. “What?”
He looked at her. “Me and you, sat together watching the TV.”
Caroline rolled her eyes. “You’re watching the TV, Danny, not me.”
He smiled. His face looked different, almost sinister. “You know what I mean.”
“I thought we’d agreed years ago that it never would have worked out between us.”
“We were school kids, Caz,” he said, turning back to the TV. “Time’s change. People grow up.”
Caroline didn’t like where this was going. She cared a lot for Danny, but not enough that she ever thought there could be anything more to their relationship. They were good friends who had drifted apart over the last few years. That was it, and that’s how Caroline was determined to keep it. After Steve she was certain she wasn’t ready for a new relationship.
“Why would you want things to change? You could have any girl, I expect,” said Caroline.
He turned to her again and smiled. “I don’t want any girl though, do I?” He turned in his chair and was looking her right in the eyes. “You’re special. You’re pretty, you’re smart…there’s something about you that you can’t find in anybody else.”
Caroline was feeling uncomfortable and turned to face the TV. The local news reports were showing the wintry conditions in the area which had gotten steadily worse.
“Where’s that Doctor guy?” asked Danny, still staring at the TV.
Caroline suddenly felt that twinge of guilt again. “He…he ran into one of those things.”
“And what about you?”
She sighed, trying not to break down in tears again. “I just turned and ran.”
“Well no one can blame you,” said Danny blankly.
This certainly wasn’t the Danny she knew. If it was he’d have been over to her and be trying to tell her that everything was going to be okay. Maybe it was the last few years of them being apart that had done this, but right now this Danny seemed to be cold and emotionless.
She fought back the tears. “What the hell is up with you?”
“Nothing,” said Danny, refusing to look at her. “I’ve just had my eyes opened.”
Caroline thought back to their conversation at the ambulance. “You said that thing touched your forehead.”
“That’s right,” he said, turning and standing up. “It opened my eyes.”
Caroline shifted uncomfortably on the sofa as Danny loomed over her. “It opened your eyes? What did it do?”
He smiled. “It showed me who you really are?”
This wasn’t the first time she’d got a sense that something wasn’t right with herself. “What does that mean?” she said, exasperated.
“You are special. They want you.” He was now standing right over her and Caroline could see his eyes. They were pale and she could feel cold air coming from his body.
“Why am I special?”
“Let me show you,” he said as he reached out for her.
Caroline chose that moment and jumped up from the sofa, and using her full body knocked Danny to the ground. The both of them came crashing down and Caroline fell on top of him. He groaned as she scrambled off him and crawled across the floor.
She was about to grab the umbrella she’d put down earlier, when she suddenly felt an ice-cold hand around her ankle. She turned back to see Danny, on his stomach with his arms outstretched, reaching for her.
“Get off!” she shouted, kicking back at him and hitting him right on his forehead. He yelped in pain and let her go. It gave her just enough time to get to grab the umbrella and get to her feet.
She stood over him, the umbrella in both of her hands like some kind of sword. He lay on the floor on his back, his hand to his head.
“Caroline…” he groaned. “They need you.”
“I don‘t think so,” she said, raising the umbrella slightly, ready to attack if he made a move.
He growled and like lightning was up and on his feet again before Caroline could even think. He lunged himself at her and she pushed him back, hitting him full-force with the umbrella. It didn’t seem to do any good and he was coming back towards her again. This time she jabbed out with the pointed end of the umbrella and it seemed to cause him some pain. He groaned as he held his stomach.
“They need you!”
“And I need you to got the hell out of my flat!” she yelled, whacking him with the umbrella again.
He tried to grab her, but she pushed him, and he fell backwards straight through the glass coffee table.
The coffee table smashed in three pieces and Caroline watched on as Danny struggled on the floor. A trickle of blood came from the side of his face where the glass had cut him and for a split second she felt a pang of concern. That concern was soon replaced with fear when Danny jumped up again, fast as lightning, and grabbed her around the throat.
“If you won’t come with us,” he growled, “then you’ll have to be made to!”
His eyes burned bright white.
To be continued...
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