Rescued (Doctor Who Fan Fiction)

Chapter 17- SHADOW

Chapter 17

I opened my eyes, and tried to sit up,

“Where am I?”

The ceiling above me was blindingly bright. I raised my hand to shade my eyes, but I couldn’t move it very far. It was attached to something. I could hear a beeping noise beside me as well.

The Doctor’s face loomed overhead,

“Willow, don’t try to sit up.”

I gulped,

“What happened?”

“You tripped and cut your head.”

A female voice I didn’t recognise sounded from behind me,

“We’ve got you connected to all the machines now. You’re healing fast.”

I realised that my hand was connected to a drip. The beeping noise was a heart monitor.

I looked around, and noticed who the female voice was connected to. A woman with deep red skin and long black hair. She was wearing a white doctor’s coat. She smiled before looking at her clipboard.

The Doctor took hold of my hand. The heart monitor began to beep more quickly. My cheeks flushed bright red.

He smiled,

“Willow, what happened out there? Are you okay?”

I shook my head and glanced up at the ceiling before replying,

“When I was twelve, I became best friends with this boy called Adam. I told him when I first met him that I wanted to meet someone and go travelling. I wanted to have an exciting life. He never listened. As we got older, he kept trying to ask me out. I always refused. He never gave up. Seeing him here… tonight… I didn’t realise how much I’d hurt him.”

The Doctor’s eyes met mine, and I suddenly thought of something,

“How did he get here, anyway? On Mars?”

“I don’t know.”

The woman with the white coat and the clipboard cleared her throat nervously. I shared a suspicious glance with the Doctor and sat up. I studied the woman more carefully, and noticed a badge on her coat. It read ‘SHADOW’.

I frowned,

“What’s SHADOW?”

She looked up,

“Oh, just the name of… this… health place.”

“Sure. Does it stand for anything?”

“No, it’s just the name of the…”

The Doctor let go of my hand and stood up,

“Willow didn’t really see Adam, did she?”

He pulled his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and pointed it at the woman. She looked terrified now. I almost felt sorry for her.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow,

“Let’s see… you are a new species of alien called the Readers.”

I frowned. It didn’t sound creepy. It sounded almost normal.

“You can read the human mind, take bits out and show it as a hologram to the human. You can manipulate them. Scare them. Why would you do that?”

“I didn’t do it! It was my captain! We all work for SHADOW! We had to do it!”
I was beginning to understand,

“So… Adam was just a hologram? He wasn’t real?”
The Doctor looked at me with a worried expression,

“I’m sorry Willow. I don’t know why they did it.”

“Adam kissed me.”

“Like the pyramids, Willow. A new type of hologram.”

The woman with the white coat looked at me, and sighed,

“I’ll let you go. I see what we’ve done is wrong. We were just doing the duty of SHADOW. Get out of here, quickly. I was meant to keep an eye on you in here until my captain came. Hurry.”

The Doctor helped me up,

“Thank you.”

We ran out of the room and into the open air. I could see the TARDIS. Holding onto the Doctor’s hand, I ran as quickly as I could.

I wanted to run away from the hologram, just in case Adam was still there. I couldn’t bear to see him again.

I was confused, too. Why did SHADOW do that to me? A fun trip to Mars with the Doctor had turned into something else.

Just before I slammed the TARDIS doors behind me, I took one last glance around. Mars was a beautiful planet. Perhaps if there hadn’t been any Readers on this planet, we could have had an amazing time.

There were still so many things I didn’t understand.