‘I’m worried about them,’ said Kate. She frowned and put her hand to the wound on her chest.
Danny glanced across. ‘Does it hurt?’
‘Just a little bit,’ said Kate, clearly trying to shrug it off. Her body was currently dead and she was trying not to think about that right now. She decided to change the subject. ‘So tell me about yourself then, Danny.’
‘There’s not much to tell really,’ said Danny. ‘I grew up in Thornsby in the UK, met Caroline, went to school with her and college and then moved to Manchester a few years back.’
‘You seem so distant, Danny. Like you’re not really here.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Danny, frowning at her.
‘You and Kate are meant to be great friends, yeah?’
‘Yeah. Since we were little kids.’
‘You’ve hardly said a word to her this whole time. It’s like you’ve cut yourself off from everyone.’
‘Something happened to me back in Thornsby. I’m not exactly sure if I’m okay now.’
‘What?’
‘I was possessed.’
‘By what?’
‘By a ghost.’ He turned to Kate who looked as though she didn’t know whether to believe him or not. ‘Come on Kate, you’re one step away from being a ghost.’
Kate frowned. ‘Real ghosts?’
‘Not exactly,’ said Danny. ‘It was a creature from another dimension. It took over my body. It’s gone now, but since it left I feel…hollow.’
‘Have you told the Doctor and Caroline about this?’
Danny chuckled. ‘Caroline has her own problems, and the Doctor…I don’t know about him. He knows something’s not quite right, but he hasn’t paid much attention to me. Not really.’
‘You need to start talking to people, Danny. That thing with the generator. You knew what to do. You knew how to get that thing working.’
‘I know,’ said Danny. ‘I know.’
He went distant again and Kate noticed, for the first time, that his teeth were pure white and gleamed in the dim light of the chapel. She shivered and the two of them were silent again.
Mark and Joanne made there way across the prison grounds. They just caught a glimpse of the Doctor heading into the main building and then they arrived at some large iron bars.
‘This must be it,’ said Joanne. She looked at Mark who was holding a small EMF detector. ‘Picking up anything?’
‘Nope,’ he said shaking his head wearily. ‘It’s dead.’
Joanne shook her head and then grabbed the box. ‘Maybe if you turned it on it’d work!’ She flicked a switch and the machine started buzzing. A little beeping sound was coming from a small speaker. ‘Wow! Looks like there’s a bit of activity around here.’
‘Do we have to go inside?’ asked Mark, looking into the gloom.
‘We promised the Doctor,’ said Joanne. ‘Come on, we’ll be fine.’
They had found there way into the cells using a torch. After occasionally tripping over debris they finally found a place with enough psychic activity to set up the rest of the equipment and examine the area. They set up a large box-like device in the middle of the room and then sat down on the dusty floor. For a while the machine simply stood there and then, without warning, it began to click.
‘What does that mean?’ asked Mark.
‘It means something is nearby,’ gulped Joanne.
‘Perhaps we should take a look around,’ suggested Mark. But suddenly the machine stopped clicking. The two teenagers frowned. Mark got up nervously and backed to the far wall.
Joanne knelt down over the strange device. She frowned and tapped it a few times.
‘Any luck?’ came Mark's voice.
‘No. The thing seems to be completely dead,’ replied Joanne, shaking her head in frustration.
‘Great,’ sighed Mark from the darkness, ‘that's another fortune we spent for nothing.’
‘Oh well,’ sighed Joanne as she gave the device a little kick. ‘If Tom were here he’d be able to fix it.’
‘I doubt it, he-’
Joanne waited for Mark to continue his sentence.
Nothing.
‘He what, Mark?’
Still no sound.
‘Mark?’ Joanne stepped over to the darkened doorway. ‘Mark are you there?’
No sound came from the doorway. Joanne could feel the panic rising up inside her. Her heart was pounding and she began to tremble. ‘Mark, stop playing tricks!’ she said uneasily.
Joanne stepped backwards and tripped over the device sending her crashing to the floor. She began crying and backed up against the hard, crumbling wall. There she sat for a long time, crying and sobbing into her sleeve.
Caroline and Alex had, meanwhile, made their way across the grounds and back to the cemetery. Alex kept looking back to the chapel. He was obviously very concerned about Kate but Caroline tried to make him see reason.
‘Back there Kate is safe. Nothing bad can happen to her now,’ she said soothingly.
‘You’re right,’ agreed Alex grimly. ‘She’s been killed. What’s worse then that?’
Caroline thought it best not to answer that question, and they carried on walking. Upon entering the cemetery they came across Harold’s grave. Caroline peered into it and shivered. ‘It’s hard to think that a dead body could have clambered out of that.’
‘It’s not hard to not believe anything anymore,’ said Alex, staring into the distance.
Caroline frowned and stood up. She grabbed Alex by his shoulders and looked into his eyes. ‘Alex, you have to try and get yourself together. Bad things have been happening, but the only way we can make it turn out good again is to....is to....well, try and keep calm and not dwell on things.’
Alex, for a moment, looked disgusted with Caroline’s words, but then he smiled weakly and nodded. ‘I’m sorry. I’m just having trouble concentrating at the moment.’
‘It’s fine,’ smiled Caroline. ‘Come on,’ she said, ‘let’s go and check out the other graves.’
But something stopped the two of them in their tracks. It was a scraping sound coming from the bottom of Harold’s grave. A little apprehensively, Caroline and Alex moved towards the edge of the deep pit. Sat in the bottom of the pit was a single, disembodied skeletal hand.
Caroline looked at Alex and then back at the hand and frowned. ‘That wasn’t there before, was it?’
‘No,’ said Alex nervously.
Suddenly the hand leapt up out of the grave and clamped itself around Caroline’s throat. She tried to scream, but couldn’t make any sound come out of her mouth. She found the air being drained from her. Alex tried his best to pull the bony hand away from Caroline’s throat, but it was no good.
‘Help!’ shouted Alex in the vain hope that the Doctor or someone would hear them. ‘HELP!’
Caroline tried and tried to pull the thing away from her throat, but it proved useless. The hand remained tightly clasped around her neck, and she could feel the sharp bones beginning to pierce into her skin. A feeling of tilting sideways and, before she could balance herself with her foot, she was falling into the six foot grave. She landed in the soil with a thump.
Alex yelled and jumped down after her. The two of them tried to wrestle with the hand, but it did no good. Then Alex realised something else was happening. Without anyone doing anything, the earth and soil at the sides of the grave was starting to fall into the pit. Before Alex could react, he found Caroline buried under the earth and his legs buried up to his knees. He looked down just in time to see Caroline’s face completely covered by the earth. He began to panic. His legs wouldn’t move. The soil was filling up the grave. It was now up to his waist and he was stuck fast. Again he shouted out to try and make somebody hear. Now he was neck deep in the earth and Caroline was deep under it. It rose up over his chin and then over his mouth and then finally covered his head entirely. A few seconds later the whole grave was full.
And up above, Danny stared down, confused and unsure of what was happening to him.
Tom stood in the shadows, watching, as the Doctor shone his torch around the main building. He narrowed his eyes when the torch shone into his face but, unsurprisingly, the torch didn’t reveal him. It was then that he became aware of Vrezan emerging from the shadows.
‘How did it go?’ asked Tom.
‘Very well,’ grinned Vrezan. ‘I’ve trapped one of them in the shadows whilst the other is driven insane, and the other two have been buried alive in my - sorry, in Harold’s own grave.’
‘What about Danny and Kate?’
‘I can’t touch them. The one called Danny has....’ he struggled to find the words, ‘...something about him that’s keeping me away. Something...from another dimension.’
‘How has Kate come back to life?’
‘How have you come back to life?’
‘I haven’t.’ Tom thought for a moment. ‘Have I?’
Vrezan chuckled. ‘All living beings leave images of themselves. I’m simply conjuring up your image. And Kate…Kate is a different matter. She absorbed something of me. It temporarily resurrected her.’
Tom looked over to the Doctor’s torchlight. ‘What about him?’
A lopsided grin appeared on Vrezan’s face. ‘Shall we lead him to the execution chamber?’
Tom found himself grinning also. ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’
There was a scrape from up ahead and the Doctor shined his light down the corridor. He was sure he saw a faint shadow slip around one of the doors. ‘Anybody there?’ he called out into the darkness. ‘Is that you, Tom?’
He didn’t really expect a reply, but pressed on anyway. The dust was extremely thick and he was having trouble breathing as he headed deeper in the gloom. Eventually he arrived at what seemed to be a large gate with prison bars running vertically along it. It was slightly ajar so he moved it open some more. The gate screeched - it hadn’t been opened in years, and he squinted into the darkness. There was a very large shape at the end of the long corridor-like room and it was covered with a tarpaulin.
‘Is anybody in here?’ the Doctor called into the darkness.
‘Come forward,’ came a quiet voice that he didn’t recognise.
‘Who’s that?’ asked the Doctor. ‘Is that you Tom?’ He knew that question was stupid. It sounded nothing like Tom.
‘Come forward and I’ll tell you,’ said the voice again.
‘I don’t trust you.’
‘You don’t know me,’ came the reply. ‘How can you judge someone you don’t know?’
‘Good reasoning,’ said the Doctor. ‘I suppose you are this mysterious Harold J Stevens?’
The voice laughed.
‘So it is you,’ said the Doctor slowly. ‘What have you been doing to this place?’
‘This is my place,’ said Vrezan, slightly hurt, ‘and I can do whatever I like to it.’
‘That doesn’t give you the right to terrorise, hurt and even kill people!’ said the disgusted Doctor.
‘I am a soldier!’ growled Vrezan. ‘I’m just living up to my reputation.’ Vrezan sighed and then laughed.
‘And I suspect you’re the one who killed Kate? You’re the one who’s been keeping her alive?’
‘Kate was a mistake. A part of me lodged itself inside her mind, keeping her alive.’
‘You’re not human, are you? You’re not even a ghost.’
‘What human could do all of this?’
‘Like hiding my TARDIS,’ nodded the Doctor.
‘Come forward,’ said Vrezan. ‘I’m just a little way forward.’
The Doctor stepped forward a little. ‘Where?’
‘In the shadows,’ said Vrezan mysteriously.
The Doctor looked about him and then stepped forward. His foot hit something. The Doctor looked down and his heart jumped. Lying on the floor was the body of Tom. The Doctor then looked back to the darkness. ‘What is the meaning of killing Tom!?’ he yelled.
‘Hello, Doctor,’ came a familiar voice at the side of him.
The Doctor turned and his heart sank. Standing in the shadows, with his face obscured by darkness, was a very faint and ghostly image of Tom. ‘What happened?’ he said painfully.
‘He killed me,’ said Tom calmly.
‘Why?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Tom. ‘But it was the best thing that ever happened to me.’
The Doctor shook his head. ‘I can’t believe this. Tom, can’t you see that he’s got to you, and if he’s what I suspect he is then you’re not really Tom. You‘re just an image. A faded picture?’
‘Sit down please, Doctor,’ said Tom calmly.
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘Sit down!’
Tom advanced on the Doctor and he was forced to head down into the darkness and to the shape at the end of the corridor.
Tom pointed at the tarpaulin. ‘Remove it and sit down.’
The Doctor straightened himself up and stared down his nose at the young man, determined to not move.
A metal bar flew up from the floor and hit the Doctor on the arm. He winced in pain and clutched his bruised arm.
‘REMOVE IT AND SIT DOWN!’ shouted Tom.
Vrezan laughed from the shadows. ‘Good, good. You’re learning well, Tom.’
The Doctor, still rubbing her arm, removed the tarpaulin and gasped. Underneath was a very large, wooden chair with manacles and wires connected to it. He knew instantly what it was.
‘The electric chair!’ laughed Vrezan.
Danny returned to the chapel with a look of confusion on his face. Kate had been sleeping, but woke up when the young man walked in.
‘Where’ve you been?’ asked Kate sleepily.
‘I just went for a walk,’ he said without looking at her.
‘You were told to stay here with me,’ said Kate, slightly annoyed.
‘Oh, come off it,’ said Danny. ‘You don’t need anyone to look after you. That’s what you seem to think anyway.’
‘You just invite danger in.’
Danny glanced down at Kate and then walked towards her. ‘That’s my problem, isn’t it? I invite in the danger.’
Kate looked up and frowned. ‘Yeah.’
Danny reached out a hand and put it on her cheek.
Kate pulled away when she realised his hand was freezing cold.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Your hand,’ said Kate nervously, ‘it’s so cold.’
Danny glared down at Kate and then smiled. His teeth were pure white and his eyes seemed to glaze over. He spoke, but his voice sounded different. It had a rasping, throaty sound to it. ‘It is so cold.’
‘Danny?’ said Kate worriedly. ‘How’d you do that.’
Danny suddenly snatched out and put a hand around her neck. She screamed at the coldness of his touch. ‘POOR LITTLE KATE!’
She pulled back and clambered to the other side of the room. ‘Keep away from me or I’ll shout for the others!’
‘Do it then,’ hissed Danny. ‘They won’t come. The Doctor, Joanne and Mark are deep in the prison buildings and Alex and Caroline have been buried alive.’ He laughed.
‘Buried alive?’ Kate began to sob. ‘No. This can’t be happening. Not Alex!’
‘They are all going to die!’
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