‘Now what?’ asked Kate.
‘You have to try and get them here, Tremond,’ said the Doctor. ‘Try and get Tom. Tom’s ghost was created from Vrezan’s psychic powers. He should hear you.’
Tremond nodded slowly, his face stern, and then he looked directly ahead. He closed his eyes and breathed very, very slowly and deeply. Then he began to talk in an almost whisper like voice.
Tom and Vrezan both heard the voice. They stopped what they were doing. Vrezan dropped the bar and Tom seemed oblivious to the pain. He recognised the old voice in his head. He had heard it since he was young and it always seemed to be a voice of salvation; a release from the pain of the world. It was Father Tremond.
Vrezan sneered. ‘Who is this man?’
‘Tremond,’ said Tom slowly. ‘He’s a vicar in my hometown.’
Vrezan brought his fist down on his leg and growled angrily. ‘I was so distracted with you that I never even sensed his arrival. This is all falling apart.’
‘He’s calling to us,’ said Tom distantly. ‘He wants us to go to the chapel. They want to do a deal.’
Vrezan threw his head back and laughed out loud. ‘A deal? A deal with me?! They’re fools.’
‘Perhaps we should hear them out,’ suggested Tom nervously.
‘No!’ yelled Vrezan, but then he calmed a little. ‘Hmmm. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to hear their pathetic offer.’
‘Any luck?’ asked the Doctor.
As if to punctuate the Doctor’s question, the door burst open and standing in the darkness was a very battered looking Tom and an angry looking Vrezan.
‘Thomas,’ said Tremond in a cracked voice. ‘Oh, Thomas....’
‘Shut up, old man!’ said Vrezan nastily. He walked up to the Doctor and looked in his eyes. ‘What’s this deal?’
‘Firstly you must return the young boy, Mark, and return my TARDIS,’ said the Doctor calmly.
Vrezan shimmered in the dull light. ‘What do I get in return?’
‘Give me the TARDIS and Mark, and I shall tell you.’
‘It’s a trick!’ grumbled Vrezan.
‘I promise you it is not.’ He looked down his nose at Vrezan. ‘I don’t want you on this planet anymore. This planet is special to me. It’s a second home.’
‘This planet will be mine.’
‘How do you fancy the entire galaxy?’
Vrezan froze. ‘What?’
‘The entire galaxy. I can take you out there in my TARDIS.’
Vrezan laughed. ‘I’ve done that my entire life.’
‘But your species can’t go everywhere,’ said the Doctor, crossing his fingers behind his back. ‘I can’t take you to places you never even imagined you could visit.’
‘But why would you do that? Why would you put the galaxy at risk for one, small planet?’
‘Because these people are my friends,’ he said, indicating Tremond and Kate. ‘And they mean more to me than anything. I want them safe.’
A lopsided grin appeared on Vrezan’s face. ‘How can I go against that?’ He closed his eyes and a shadow seemed to loom over the room. Then, as quickly as the shadow had descended, it lifted and standing in the corner of the room was the TARDIS, and lying on the floor was Mark. Kate checked him and he was still alive - just.
‘Now, let me inside your TARDIS, Doctor?’
‘No,’ said the Doctor, grabbing his lapels and holding his chin up.
‘What!?’ growled Vrezan. ‘Is this some sort of joke?’
‘Yes,’ said the Doctor with a smirk on his face.
‘Did you really think I’d sacrifice an entire world for you?’ The Doctor laughed. ‘For a psychic being you didn’t do a very good job of reading me.’
‘You will die for this,’ said Harold.
He looked at the Doctor who had slowly walked in front of the TARDIS door. He had put the key in the door.
‘NO!’ he thundered, ‘YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE ME!’ Vrezan vanished for a split second and then reappeared in front of the Doctor.
In a movement faster than anyone could really make out, the Doctor unlocked the TARDIS, pushed the door open and pushed Vrezan inside.
The Doctor grinned. ‘He’s becoming unstable. Losing his control on everything around him. I’ll be back,’ he said, and ran inside.
The TARDIS dematerialised before their very eyes leaving Tremond, Tom and Kate lost for words. A few moments later Tom began to fade ever so slightly and then was gone completely.
Kate felt her chest and then fell to her knees. Gasping for air she held out for Tremond’s hand. Tremond grabbed it and squeezed tightly. Her body went limp and she flopped to the ground.
The power left over from Vrezan had finally left her. Kate had finally died.
A little way from the prison, in Little Newtown, Mr Feathers awoke with a start. He felt Harold J Stevens leave him. He closed his eyes, contentment within his soul at last.
The Doctor was frantically running his hands across the TARDIS console when Vrezan swished into the console room and came to a stop beside the Doctor. He looked at his hands which were flickering and faltering. ‘What is happening? Where am I?’ asked Harold urgently.
The Doctor gave him a smirking glance and then looked back down at the console. ‘You’re in my TARDIS. If you’re wondering why you’re flickering, it’s because you’ve been distanced from the prison by many, many years and many, many billions of miles in space and time. You’re only living off your own, very weak power. The rest of you was trapped inside the prison. Taking you away from Tom and Kate pulled part of you away. And without you there that part of you is dead.’
‘Take me back!’ said Vrezan threateningly.
‘Okay,’ said the Doctor pressing a button.
Vrezan looked at him warily. ‘Another trick?’
‘No,’ said the Doctor. ‘I just realised that I didn’t want you haunting my TARDIS for the rest of it’s days.’ The time rotor in the middle of the console stopped. ‘We’ve arrived. Now get out of my TARDIS and let me be on my way. Do with the others what you wish.’
Vrezan smiled. ‘You are an odd man, Doctor,’ he said with a sly laugh.
The Doctor chuckled. ‘Yes I am.’
With a stern look on his face he slammed down the door switch. The doors automatically opened, but the view outside was not of the chapel. This was a view of madness. Swirls of colours and clouds spiralled up, over and around the TARDIS. They were in the space/time vortex.
Suddenly Vrezan felt the force of the vortex dragging him from the console room. His image blurred and shifted as he was sucked through the door. His hands clutched the side of the doors and he screamed at the Doctor. ‘YOU TRICKED ME!’
‘Yes,’ shouted the Doctor over the noise of the vortex. ‘I used to believe that there was a glimmer of good in everybody, no matter how bad they were, but there is no good in you. Your species can survive space travel, but out there, in the vortex, it’s a different matter.’
‘HELP ME!’ Vrezan screamed as he begin to lose his ghostly grip.
‘NO VREZAN!’ shouted the Doctor. ‘You have killed innocent people and you’ll just continue. Never stopping. Never caring. It’s over for you, Vrezan.’ The Doctor pointed out of the doors. ‘Towards the end of that vortex exit is a black hole. It will utterly destroy you.’
But to the Doctors horror he realised that Vrezan was clawing his way back inside. He gripped the doors and made a lunge for the Doctor. His ice cold hands grabbed the Doctor around the neck and he fell to the floor. He found himself being dragged towards the open TARDIS doors with Vrezan still on top of him. But Vrezan couldn’t hold on any longer. The spirit was pulled away from him and sucked out of the doors. He screamed as he tumbled through the vortex and towards the distant black hole at the exit. The Doctor watched sadly as Vrezan was obliterated by the black hole. He struggled across to the console and reached up to find the switch. The doors closed and everything remained still.
When the TARDIS eventually came back to the prison he found Danny, Tremond, Caroline, Alex, Mark and Joanne standing around Kate’s body. Alex was crying and the others stood, grim faced.
The Doctor crossed over and joined the mourners.
‘Is it over?’ asked Caroline quietly.
‘It’s all over,’ said the Doctor.
‘And Tom?’ asked Mark.
‘Gone. It was never really Tom’s ghosts. After all, ghosts don’t exist, do they?’ The Doctor straightened up and looked around. ‘Let’s get things cleared up around here.’
Tom and Kate’s funerals had taken place on the same day, a few hours and a few graves apart. Both families had stayed for each of them in respect. Now the Doctor, Caroline and Danny were sat on a bench in the cemetery looking glum as they watched the families walk away from the graves.
‘Why does it always end like this?’ asked Caroline.
‘It doesn’t always,’ said the Doctor.
‘Most of the time it does,’ said Danny quickly. ‘Someone always dies.’
‘Yeah,’ continued Caroline. ‘Someone always dies.’ And with that Caroline and Danny both got up and walked away towards the TARDIS which had been parked under a tree.
‘What we need is a holiday,’ the Doctor said quietly to himself. ‘I’m always telling myself that and it never works out.’ He looked up and almost leapt out of his seat. Standing before him were two extremely faint people. He squinted at them and they seemed to became more vivid. It was Tom and Kate.
‘How you doing, Doctor?’ asked Kate.
‘I don’t-’
‘Don’t try to understand,’ said Tom gently. ‘I guess we both made it out of the prison grounds. He looked back the family groups. ‘Nice turn out.’
‘Yes,’ said the Doctor slowly. ‘But…ghosts aren’t real. Tom, you were never really a ghost.’
Kate smiled. ‘Life is full of questions, and it seems that death is too.’
‘And maybe Vanessa is still out there somewhere,’ said Tom with hope in his eyes.
‘Maybe,’ said the Doctor. ‘I’ve had my eyes opened. If you’re here…maybe anything is possible.’
Tom smiled and took Kate’s hand. ‘See you around Doctor.’
‘I hope not,’ said the Doctor with a smile. ‘I hope I’ve still got a little longer left in me.’
Kate smiled at him sadly.
They turned to walk off, but Kate looked back. Her eyes had turned sad. ‘I said I wouldn’t say anything, but Danny says he thinks he’s still possessed. Something that happened to him back home.’
The Doctor looked straight ahead. ‘I thought so. I couldn’t be too sure though.’
‘In the chapel, he went crazy. He tried to kill me.’
The Doctor closed his eyes. ‘Thank you, Kate.’
And then the Doctor opened his eyes. Had he been dreaming? Had he drifted off for just a few minutes? All he knew was that Kate and Tom had gone.
Caroline called over from near the TARDIS. ‘We’re all off back to Alex’s parents for some drinks. You coming?’
‘No,’ said the Doctor quietly. ‘I think I’ll wait here for you.’
‘Fair enough,’ said Caroline as she walked to join the group.
For a long while the Doctor sat and waited. He had a lot on his mind and his chest had a twinge of pain in it. Soon the pain passed, but the worries didn’t.
THE END
Next time: Putty Love
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