‘What am I doing?’ he asked himself as he opened up a toolbox and removed a screwdriver. ‘What on Earth am I doing?’
He jammed the screwdriver in a hole in a side panel and began twisting. He removed the panel and grabbed another tool. He began twisting and turning various screws and dials, still unsure of what he was doing.
At least the voice had stopped - for the moment.
Caroline and Kate hid there faces, and Mark and Alex flinched. Tom simply stood his ground, looking mean and unfazed by what might be behind the door.
The Doctor grabbed the cold door handle, and, getting ready for the unknown, he flung open the door.
Nothing.
‘There’s nobody there,’ said the confused Doctor. ‘There’s nobody out here at all.’
Alex crossed over to the doorway. ‘But we saw somebody. Someone was standing at the door.’
‘Probably the same idiot who stole my van,’ said Tom.
‘Do you think the person’s taken Danny as well?’ asked Caroline.
‘I don’t know,’ said the Doctor slowly. ‘We’ve got to find him. He can’t be safe out there.’ He turned to Joanne and checked her over. ‘She’s unconcious at the moment, but I think she’ll be better soon.’ He crossed over to the doorway and then looked back at the group. ‘Alex, Tom, I think you two and I should go and take a look around.’
‘What about the rest of us?’ asked Mark.
‘Stay here,’ he said. ‘Take care of Joanne and wait and see if Danny comes back.’
‘And what if that person comes back?’ asked Caroline.
‘Then get out of here as quickly as possible.’
That last comment didn’t exactly put confidence into her worries, but by now she was beginning to put her faith into the Doctor with regards to these sort of matters.
After the three men had left, Kate shut the door and put the wooden barrier across it. ‘we don’t want any uninvited guests, do we?’ she said to Caroline.
‘I suppose not,’ said Caroline. ‘I think we should get some weapons ready.’
Mark, who had been knelt beside Joanne’s prone body, crossed over to the two girls. ‘It was a mistake to come here.’
‘I tried to tell you all,’ said Kate, ‘but none of you wanted to listen.’
‘It’s no use blaming anyone now,’ said Caroline as she sat down beside Joanne. ‘I wanted to come here as well. I thought it would be fun.’
Mark was still worried about Joanne and Kate could tell, so she decided to draw him and Caroline into a conversation to take his mind of it. ‘Have you ever had any ghostly encounters before?’
Caroline looked up at Kate. ‘Me? Well, kind of.’ She thought for a moment. ‘What year is this?’
‘What??’ laughed Mark in disbelief.
‘Just tell me what year it is,’ repeated Caroline.
‘It’s 2012, June if you really want to know,’ said Kate.
‘Right. Well, can you remember back at Christmas? There was some weird goings on in England. A small town called Thornsby?’
‘Yeah,’ said Mark. ‘It was all kept pretty quiet though. We didn’t hear much of it this side of the pond’
‘Typical,’ said Caroline sarcastically. ‘Anyway, Thornsby was brought to a standstill by these, well, I suppose you could call them ghosts, but they were something more than that. They were lost souls from another dimension. The ghosts were eventually defeated and that’s when Danny and I started travelling around with the Doctor.’
‘Where’ve you been?’ asked Mark.
‘Oh, here and about,’ said Caroline thinking back. She wanted to tell them all about her adventures, but it would take too much explaining. ‘What about you two?’
‘I’ve never seen a ghost,’ said Kate. ‘In fact I only joined this group to keep an eye on Alex. Sometimes he lets his hobbies take over his life.'
‘I’ve seen a ghost,’ said Mark. He was staring into the distance and he shivered. ‘It always freaks me out when I think about it.’
‘Tell me,’ said Caroline.
‘When I was little I used to visit my nan’s house. She lived in a big old house full of bedrooms and empty rooms that nobody ever went in.’ Mark shuddered and looked around him. ‘When I was about 6, I was running through the house and I went up the stairs. Standing in my nan’s room was a couple of kids dressed in old style clothing, you know, from the civil war or something. They laughed at me and then they just ran through the mirror in the room.’
Mark stopped when Joanne gripped his arm tightly.
‘Is she awake?’ asked Kate.
Caroline knelt beside her and examined her closely. ‘No. She’s still asleep.’
Mark winced as he prised Joanne’s fierce grip from his arm. ‘How the hell did she do that?’ he asked.
‘Harold J Stevens,’ whispered Joanne quietly.
‘Oh god, not again!’ said Kate. ‘Last time she said that everything went crazy.’
‘Now let’s all try and keep calm,’ said Caroline, trying to convince herself as well. ‘It’s just a name. It doesn’t mean anything.’
One of the candles began to flicker.
‘What do we do?’ asked Mark.
‘We do what the Doctor told us to do,’ said Caroline. ‘We get out of here.’
The candle flickered out just as a cold blast of air shot through the room. Unusual shadows seemed to be cast on the pale walls. The flames of the candles danced and jumped about; all the time threatening to extinguish themselves.
Caroline had broken out into a cold sweat as she watched the magical and eerie lights play before her eyes. They had to get out of here. They had to find the Doctor.
There was a heavy thump on the door.
‘Harold J Stevens,’ whispered Joanne again; still with her eyes closed.
Another thump. The three of them looked to Joanne.
‘Harold J Stevens.’
Another thump. A second candle flickered out leaving only two remaining.
‘Harold J Stevens.’
Kate darted across the room and pulled the wooden cross from the wall. She had never been much of a believer or in anyway religious, but this might protect them. She quickly scuttled back to Caroline and Mark.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ said Mark shakily.
Another thump on the old door.
Caroline grabbed one side of Joanne and Mark grabbed the other as they hefted the young girl to her feet. They edged towards the door as the third candle blew out. Time seemed to move so slowly as they stood beside the door that was now being hammered on at a regular beat. Joanne had begun to pant and sweat and she was having another fit.
Caroline extended her hand towards the door. She placed her hand firmly around the cool brass handle and flung the door open.
The last candle went out; the room was in darkness; the silhouette was there again, standing big and dark. Kate held out the cross and the three of them, half-carrying, half-dragging Joanne, ran for the door.
Caroline closed her eyes as she passed the figure and didn’t open them until they had gotten far away.
After a minute of running they collapsed to the ground. Caroline’s heart was pounding faster than it had ever done before and she could feel a headache coming on. Daring at last to open her eyes, she looked around. Mark was also lying on the ground with the now-calmer Joanne lying across his top half.
Kate - where was Kate?
Caroline looked around her in panic. Kate was nowhere to be seen. She looked back towards the area where the chapel had stood - nothing. She had simply vanished.
On the other side of the prison ground, the Doctor was blissfully unaware of what had gone on back at the chapel. He, Tom and Alex where busy shining their torches around and looking for any sign of Danny.
‘So, Tom,’ began the Doctor, ‘you don’t seem like the kind of person who’d be into all this ghost hunting stuff. What made you want to join?’
‘I didn’t join,’ said Tom, ‘I actually formed the group.’
‘But why?’ asked the Doctor.
‘Get Alex to tell you,’ said Tom as he walked off in the other direction.
The Doctor stopped and turned to Alex. ‘What’s wrong with him?’
Alex sighed and sat down on the dry grass. ‘About two years ago his girlfriend was killed. It was an accident and it happened in his flat. He never really said what had happened; something about him not fixing a gas leak. He never forgave himself. He began getting into all this weird occult stuff; wanting to bring her ghost up so he could talk with her.’
‘And did it work?’
‘He says it did, but he never speaks about it. He’s just so closed off from everyone.’
‘I’m sorry to hear all this, Alex, but unless others have hard evidence that this actually happened…well, there’s nothing to say it’s true. It could all be a part of Tom’s broken mind. I’m still finding it very hard to believe that ghosts and ghosts only are responsible for these things happening.’
‘I know that.’ Alex kicked at a stone. ‘But he’s that hell-bent on trying to track down ghosts…well, sometimes I wonder what he’s going to do next.’
The Doctor sighed. ‘Tom needs to be shown the way. I just thought you were all here to investigate.’
‘The rest of us are,’ said Alex sadly. ‘Me and Joanne are here because we are genuinely interested, Mark’s here because he had a few hauntings when he was little, and Kate is here…well, Kate’s here to keep an eye on me.’
‘Doctor!’ came Tom’s voice from the distance.
The Doctor and Alex looked around. ‘Where are you Tom?’
‘I’m over by the cemetery. I think you should look at this.’
Kate was huddled in the corner and had never felt more alone or afraid. She could hear movement in the room, but she didn’t dare speak, open her eyes or even breathe. She just hoped the thing would go away. She was still clutching the cross tightly in her hand, but she never believed anyway, and without faith there was nothing to save her.
Suddenly she heard the door bang shut and her grip loosened on the cross. She dared to open her eyes. The door was closed but the candles hadn’t come back on. She slowly got to her feet and looked around the room. No sign of Caroline, Mark or Joanne, but nothing else had been disturbed.
She crossed to one of the windows and looked out. There was no sign of anybody and the place was still in darkness.
She winced in pain when she felt a sharp sting in her chest. The pain was sucking the very breath out of her and she dared to look down - and almost fell over in shock. The wooden cross was sticking out of her chest and had been pushed in about 2 inches. She gasped in pain and collapsed to the ground, falling beside something warm and red - her own blood. And written in her blood were the words that had started this whole nightmare.
As her last seconds of life bled away she read the words: “Harold J Stevens.”
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