A young man with short, dark hair and stubble emerged from a side door and ran around to where the crackling sound was coming from. He wore a vicars outfit and was holding a walkie-talkie in his hands.
In front of him was a crack of energy suspended in mid-air. He looked anxious and held the walkie up to his mouth. “Are you sure about this?”
An American female voice answered back. “Yes. Let him deal with it.”
“I don’t know,” said the vicar as the crack got wider. “We’ve dealt with them before and we should do again.”
“He needs to do it,” came the voice. “Please, Ben, just come inside. He’ll sort it out.”
“And if he doesn’t?” asked the vicar. “It may be too late. It’s already worse than we’ve had to deal with before. Even worse than ‘87 and that was bad.”
“Ben, come inside. That’s an order.”
He hesitated for a moment as the huge, glowing crack expanded to the size of a door, and then he reluctantly went around to the other side of the church and back inside.
Caroline had tried to convince the Doctor to wait until the morning to go and confront the Apparites, but he was determined to go now. He said that the longer they left it the more damage could be done to the town and that she couldn’t argue with.
They’d made Danny comfortable in Caroline’s bed. The Doctor had said he’d be asleep for some time and that he needed rest. Caroline was reluctant to leave him, but she knew it was for the best. She’d then got her coat, hat and boots on again and was ready once more to brave the weather outside.
They stepped out of the front door and onto the street. The snow was coming down thick and fast again and Caroline had trouble trying not to sink into the deep drifts.
“I never thought it could get worse than last winter,” said Caroline. She suddenly had a thought. “Hey, were the ghosts responsible for that as well?”
“No,” said the Doctor as he tried to shield his face against the blizzard. He’d turned down Caroline’s offer of a pink scarf to wrap around himself. “I did some background checks and that was definitely a natural occurrence.”
“So we can’t blame the council this time?” said Caroline, smiling.
“Unfortunately not,” he smiled back. “But the locals will do anyway. It’s better that way really. Can’t panic people, can we?”
Caroline stepped around a fallen over wheelie bin. “That’s a thought,” said Caroline. “What’s with the snow? How does it connect to them do you reckon?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” said the Doctor. “Perhaps it’s an atmospheric disturbance caused by them. Perhaps the snow comes from their world. I don’t know.”
“I guess I’m asking too many questions.”
“No more than people usually ask.”
“So there’s been others then?” It suddenly occurred to Caroline that she didn’t really know what the Doctor’s life was really about.
“There have been many people who have travelled with me before.”
“To other countries you mean?”
“To other planets.”
She stopped, thought for a moment and then carried on. “Lovely.”
“You’re not surprised?”
“Not really. Not after today. How can that surprise you?” She wrapped her scarf a little tighter around her. “I suppose you travel around in that blue box as well.”
“How did you guess?” asked the Doctor, looking a little disappointed that she’d worked it out.
“It’s like Bill & Ted, isn’t it?”
The Doctor laughed. “They copied that idea from me!”
“Doesn’t it get cramped?”
“Bigger on the inside,” said the Doctor, as they turned the corner into Sixhills St.
“Ah, that explains it,” said Caroline. “You’ll have talk me through the ins and outs of that someday.”
“Tell me about yourself, Caroline,” said the Doctor.
“There’s not really much to say about me,” she said, a little glumly. “Dropped out of college. Got a job. Still there. Sad really.”
“But there’s more to you. I don’t know what it is, but the Apparites see it. Somehow you’re connected to them. Do you have any family nearby?”
“Only my parents. They moved to Tillby when I dropped out of college. I don’t see them very often.” She thought for a moment. “Actually I don’t see them at all. We fell out.”
“That’s a shame,” said the Doctor. “Family is very important.”
“Do you have any family?” she asked.
The Doctor didn’t answer and instead stopped to get his bearings. “Another fifteen minutes I think. That’s if we put our best foot forward.”
Caroline decided not to push the matter. She had clearly hit a nerve and they continued on their way to the town centre.
Finally, after much struggling through the snow, the pair arrived at the church. All around the snow was swirling and the Doctor and Caroline could hear a crackling coming from the other side of the church. They made their way around the stone building until they reached the old cobbled expanse that used to be the main entrance to the church until town planners had built a flyover in front of it.
“What the hell is that?” asked Caroline as they spotted the crack of light suspended in the air.
“I have know idea,” said the Doctor, rummaging in his pockets and bringing out his sonic screwdriver. “Usually I have a fair bit of information on things I come up against, but these things…there’s just nothing.”
She watched as he edged towards the crack, his sonic screwdriver pointing forward, buzzing and collecting readings.
“It’s some sort of gateway,” he said, checking the tiny readout on the screwdriver. “It’s how they’re getting through.”
“So if we close it, they won’t be able to?” asked Caroline, hopefully.
“I don’t think it’s as simple as that,” said the Doctor, moving away from it. “The Apparites are seeping in from their dimension to our dimension slowly. One at a time. They don’t need cracks to travel through. They just kind of…fade across. This thing, though, will enable them to come through in full force. Maybe even bring their world through with them.”
Caroline looked horrified. “Then how do we stop it?”
“I hate to say it again, as I feel like I’ve been saying it all day, but I just don’t know.”
Caroline sighed. “Maybe someone can help us,” she offered.
“Who? I’m the expert on these situations.”
Caroline shrugged her shoulders. That’s when she noticed the vicar at the other end of the church, watching them.
“Doctor,” she said, “maybe he can help.”
The Doctor looked towards where she was pointing. “Ah, the vicar. Hello!” he shouted.
The vicar realised he had been spotted and darted back inside the church.
“Well what’s his problem?” asked Caroline.
“Let’s find out, shall we?” said the Doctor as he trudged his way to the door of the church.
They knocked, but when nobody answered the Doctor decided to just go in anyway, much to Caroline’s concern.
“It’s a church!” said Caroline. “You can’t just break in!”
“We’re not breaking in,” said the Doctor. “And it’s a church, as you say. It should be open to all at any time of the day.”
The large oak door creaked open. The vicar had obviously forgotten to lock it in his haste. They made their way inside. It was dark and only a few candles up near the alter illuminated their way.
“How old is this church?” asked the Doctor.
“I don’t know exactly. It was built in the 12th century or something like that.”
“Very old then,” said the Doctor as he moved to the light switch. He flicked the switch and a number of lights high in the rafters flickered to life, illuminating everything around them. “Old with modern appliances. I do love your world.”
They made their way up towards the front of the church. There was no sign of the vicar. The Doctor stood with his hands on his hips, looking around.
“He must be in a room somewhere,” said Caroline.
“Yes.” The Doctor spotted a small wooden door in the side wall. “Caroline, you stay here and take a look around. Don’t go outside though.”
“Where are you going?”
“Through there,” he said, pointing to the door.
“Why can’t I come?”
“I need someone to wait up here in case the vicar comes back. He was clearly worried about something.”
“Alright, but just be careful,” she said, pointing a finger at him.
“I will be,” he said, as he made his way towards the door.
He opened it and it led to a dark passage and a stone staircase. He pulled a small torch out of his inside pocket and made his way down the steps. The further he got down the steps the warmer it became, which he felt was odd. Surely it should have been getting colder.
When he reached the bottom of the stairs he was standing in a stone corridor and at the end of the corridor was a very old wooden door. He listened carefully. He was sure he could hear talking coming from the other side.
He edged slowly up to the door and put his ear against the wood. He was right. It was very faint, but he could hear voices.
He straightened himself up, put his hand on the door handle and went inside.
Upstairs Caroline had searched all the rooms leading off from the main sanctuary of the church but still hadn’t found the vicar. For a second she contemplated following the Doctor down the stairs and was about to until a sound diverted her attention. It was coming from outside where the crack was forming.
The Doctor’s warning not to go outside stopped her from going to investigate and instead she sat down on one of the pews.
She looked up at the main stained glass window over the alter area and could see the light from the crack outside flickering and glowing through the glass.
It must be almost as high as the church now, she thought to herself.
She wanted to go and see. She wanted to investigate, but she forced herself to stay still.
And then she saw the shape outside, creeping up the window like a huge monster trying to force it’s way in. It was the snow, she realised with shock. It was almost alive.
“Doctor!” shouted Caroline. “Doctor, I think you should come up here now.”
There was no reply from beyond the small door.
She kept telling herself that she was safe and that it couldn’t get in. They’d bolted the outer door when they had entered and those windows were pretty strong. Snow wouldn’t be able to get in. It was, after all, just frozen water.
She was wrong. The window started cracking. Caroline jumped up out of her seat.
“DOCTOR!” she shouted again.
And then the window caved in. Heaps of white snow forced its way through the broken window and down the inside of the wall like some giant, snow-snake. It slithered its way across the floor, knocking over the stone font and making its way down the steps towards her.
“Bloody hell!” she said and turned to run. She managed to reach the door just before it reached her feet. She flung the door open and ran outside, shutting the door behind her.
The snow outside wasn’t as active and she leaned against the stone bricks, cursing herself for leaving the Doctor again.
“Poor little Caroline,” came a quiet voice from the other side of the church.
“No,” she said to herself. “This can’t be happening to me.”
“Come and see us,” came the voice. “Come back to us.”
“No,” she repeated, her eyes closed. “Fight it, Caz. Fight it.”
“You can’t fight it,” came the voice.
Caroline felt herself turning and moving around the church to the source of the voice and the crack of energy. She tried to stop herself, but it was like she wasn’t in control of her movements anymore. Something was drawing her to the crack.
When she rounded the corner the crack loomed in front of her. It was now the height of the church, but still there was nothing emerging from it.
“Leave me alone,” she said through gritted teeth. “I don’t know what you want from me.”
“Free us,” said the voice. “Let us come through.”
Caroline felt her arm reaching up towards the crack. She walked slowly towards the fizzing energy, her arm outstretched. She could feel her finger tips tingling from the energy. She tried to fight the ghosts off but to no avail.
She closed her eyes as her hand touched the crack. There was a huge explosion of white light and Caroline was thrown to the floor, sinking nearly all the way into the snow beneath her. She opened her eyes and looked up as the crack rippled and flared in the night sky.
To be continued...
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