He looked around the empty room, checking all the corners and cracks to make sure he wasn’t missing anything.
There was a sound coming from up in the sanctuary. It was Caroline’s voice, but the Doctor wasn’t sure what she was saying. He decided he better get back up there and, giving a final look around, he made his way back to the staircase.
It was as he ascended the stairs that he heard the explosion from outside. The entire church shook and he almost fell back down the steps.
“Caroline!” he shouted.
He was about to bound up the stairs when he heard the door open at the end of the corridor leading to the empty room and the vicar emerged, this time with a woman with long, curly-blonde hair.
“Move!” said the American-accented woman as they pushed past him.
“Wait a minute…!” he said, watching them run up the stairs. He was absolutely certain that the room he had been in had been empty.
He wanted to go and check the room again, but decided against it. He had to make sure that Caroline was okay and so made his way back up the steps, following the two strangers.
When he got outside Caroline was on her back, propping herself up by her elbows and the two strangers were standing in front of the glowing crack which had grown to the size of the church.
“What happened?” asked the woman.
“I just touched it!” said Caroline. “I don’t even know why.”
“You stupid woman!” said the vicar. He turned to the blonde who was busy rummaging in a knap-sack slung over her shoulders. “I told you we should have dealt with this.”
“We don’t make the rules, Ben,” she said, as she pulled out a device.
“What on Earth is going on?” asked the Doctor. “It’s not very often I feel out of the loop, but I do today.”
Nobody answered the Doctor.
“I’ll just pretend I’m not here then,” he said as he ran over to Caroline and helped her to her feet. “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” she said, holding her hands out and looking down at them. “It’s like I was drawn to the crack. I couldn’t stop myself from moving.” She looked up at the gaping void. “There was a voice and then I just touched it and it…exploded.”
“Has anything come out of it yet?” asked the Doctor, running the sonic screwdriver up and down her hands.
“No,” she said. “Not as far as I know. Let me guess, though, we’re expecting more ghosts?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” said the blonde haired woman, who had crossed over to them. “You’re friend here blew the dam. Burst the bubble. Kicked a brick out.”
“Yes,” said Caroline, giving her an evil. “I get it. I released them. But why did it affect me?”
“Probably because you had contact with them,” said the vicar - Ben. “They hold a psychic connection over anyone they come into contact with.”
The Doctor looked concerned. “That means me as well.”
“Yes,” said the woman, arching her eyebrows. “So you’re not as untouchable as you might think.”
The Doctor frowned. “You know me?”
“We know of you,” said the woman. She extended her hand. “I’m Margot Dunlop and this is Ben Featherstone. We’ve been keeping an eye on these things for a good few years now.”
“So you know about them?” asked Caroline. “Is there anyway we can stop them?”
Suddenly there was a huge explosion from the crack. The four of them looked up and from the gap dark shapes began to emerge. Cloaked figures were scuttling out of the light and crawling towards the ground.
“Everyone inside,” said the Doctor. “We’ve got to protect ourselves until we can work out how to fight these things off.”
As they ran around the church to the main door Caroline remembered something and turned to Ben. “You said to her,” nodding towards Margot, “that you should have dealt with this.”
All four of them scrambled into the church and the Doctor slammed the door shut behind them.
“Hang on,” said Ben, as they began dragging bits of furniture from the church and barricading the door shut.
“That’s not gonna stop them,” said Caroline. “They can smash windows with snow!”
“She’s right,” said Margot. “They’re going to get in whether we like it or not.”
“We need to get out of the church.”
“No,” said the Doctor. “They’ll just follow us.” He turned to Ben and Margot. “Where have you two been hiding?”
“What?” asked a confused Ben who had taken his vicars robe off to reveal a pullover and jeans.
“You came from the crypt yet when I went in there I saw nobody.”
Ben looked at Margot, who quickly flicked her eyes to the Doctor’s icy stare. “Secret tunnels.”
“What?” asked Caroline.
“We’ve been hiding in secret tunnels.”
The Doctor looked confused and as if he couldn’t quite believe them. “Secret tunnels under the church? I’m not sure I believe it.”
“Actually,” said Caroline, “she could be right.” She thought back to the basic history she knew of the town. “Back in the old days there was a monastery and a nunnery here. There were rumours that the monks used to meet up with the nuns in these secret tunnels.”
“Why ever for?” asked the Doctor.
The three of them simply looked at him, their eyebrows all raised.
“Oh…” realisation dawned on him.
“Anyway, these tunnels are meant to run all the way under the town. I don’t think they’ve ever been mapped out though. I remember an old college friend doing some potholing under the main campus building and going into one of these tunnels.”
“Exactly,” said Margot quickly. “And that’s where we’ve been.” She thought. “It’s the easiest way to get around the town with all the snow up here.”
“Okay then,” said the Doctor, “so you were down in the tunnels when I first went in there. That makes sense. Show me them.”
“Come on,” said Margot as the ghosts began to hammer on the door.
“Doctor!” shouted Caroline as a shadow appeared at the window.
“Run!” shouted the Doctor as the window shattered into thousands of tiny stained-glass pieces and rained down on them.
They ran across the sanctuary and down the stairs to the door that led to the crypt.
“One of them’s behind us,” shouted Ben, who was at the back of the group. “Get the slab up!”
Margot ran into the room, and with the Doctor’s helped managed to lift a small stone slab in the corner.
“Quickly,” said Ben as he slammed the wooden door behind him.
“Everyone in,” said the Doctor, ushering them all into a large hole which the slab had been concealing. He looked up at Ben who was holding the door back. “Come on. You too.”
“I can’t. I’ve gotta hold them back,” he said, his back to the door and his arms outstretched, holding on for dear life.
“You can’t stop them,” said the Doctor. “They’re still going to follow us down anyway. What’s the point in sacrificing yourself?”
“Do you have a better solution? I at least want to give you a fighting chance, mate. I‘ve been at these things long enough now to know that you have to take your chances.”
The Doctor looked to Bens belt. Hanging off it were various devices and tools. And a torch. He went up to Ben and took the torch from the belt, and then activated the sonic screwdriver. He placed it near the bottom of the torch and the bulb inside started to glow brightly.
“When I say move, you move.”
“What are you-?”
“Do you understand?” asked the Doctor, the bulb getting hotter and brighter by the second.
“Okay,” said Ben, trying with all his might to keep the Apparites back.
The Doctor looked intently at the torch. The bulb was now glowing almost a red colour.
“Ready,” said the Doctor. “MOVE!”
He threw the torch at the door just as Ben moved away. The torch hit the door and burst into flames setting the door alight.
They could hear the Apparites behind the flaming door, screaming.
“Come on,” said the Doctor, “that’ll hold them off for a bit.”
They made their way through the hole in the floor and the Doctor slid the stone slab back over as he ducked down.
They were standing in a completely black tunnel. The only thing that lit it up was the light from Margot’s torch.
“What happened?” asked Caroline.
“I overheated the torch. Turned it into a makeshift bomb.” The Doctor shook his head. “Nasty weapons, bombs. But affective if used in the right way.”
“Did you kill it?” asked Margot.
“No,” he said, giving her an accusing glance. “I don’t kill. Not if I can help it. It’ll have been scared off for a bit though. They don‘t like heat. Remember, Caroline, when I scared off that one in your back garden?” He turned to the Ben and Margot. “We need to go. Now.”
They made there way through the tunnels, and when they were sure they were far enough away from underneath the church the Doctor sat down.
“We need to keep moving,” said Margot, who had continued to walk a little further.
“No,” said the Doctor, “we need to talk.”
“Talk about what?” she asked, urgency in her voice.
“Talk about you two and your connection to the Apparites.”
“The Doctor’s right,” said Caroline, sitting down next to him. “We’re not going anywhere until you’ve explained a few things to us.”
Margot came back over to them. She was about to tell them to move again, but when she looked at the Doctor she could tell that he really wasn’t going to be going anywhere until he got his answers. He simply sat there, legs crossed and staring into the darkness.
She sighed and leaned against the damp wall. “We don’t know a lot.”
“Tell me what you do know. No lies, please,” he said, still refusing to meet her eyes.
“We’re just normal people,” she said. “There’s nothing special about us.”
“Who said you’re special?” asked Caroline. “Sounds like you’re trying to hide something already.”
“No,” said Ben quickly. “We have nothing to hide.”
“Alright Ben,” she said sternly. “I can handle this.”
“Go on,” said the Doctor quietly.
Margot took a deep breath. “A few years ago we were attacked randomly by one of those things. Back in 2005. We started doing research into them and found out about the disappearances over the years in and around the town and people going mad, hearing voices and seeing ghosts.”
“So you moved yourself down into these tunnels in case they attacked again?” asked Caroline.
“No. We came down here when the weather started getting bad. The signs all pointed towards a ghost winter,” said Ben.
“And what were the signs?” asked the Doctor.
“It was supposed to be extremely mild this year,” continued Margot.
“Rubbish!” spat the Doctor. “You expect me to believe that rubbish? You’re not telling me the whole truth.”
“I am,” said Margot, crouching down beside him. “I swear.”
“I don’t know,” said the Doctor. “You’re not telling me everything. I can see it in your eyes.”
“I bet you’re a big fan of conspiracy theories,” said Margot, the disdain for him in her voice.
“Oh, a big fan,” he said with a wry smile.
“Everyone seems to be forgetting the main problem,” said Caroline who was standing again. “How do we stop these things?”
The Doctor looked to Margot and Ben. “Well? You seem to have all the answers.”
Margot and Ben exchanged glances. “We were hoping you knew how to deal with them.”
The Doctor and Caroline’s faces dropped.
To be continued...
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