тнє ℓαѕт qυєєи // тнє ∂σ¢тσя

The Girl In The Fireplace

"What is it?" Reinette asks with a scared look as she started to breath heavy. "Now, let's think. If you were a thing that ticked and you were hiding in someone's bedroom, first thing you do, break the clock. No one notices the sound of one clock ticking, but two? You might start to wonder if you're really alone. Stay on the bed. Right in the middle. Don't put your hands or feet over the edge."

Theta waves the screwdriver under the bed. Something knocks it out of his hand causing me to slightly jump as I grab onto his arm. "Reinette" I whisper, "Don't look round." A figure in a smiley mask is standing behind her. "You, stay exactly where you are. Hold still, let me look." Theta holds Reinette's head and looks deep into her eyes.

"You've been scanning her brain. What, you've crossed two galaxies and thousands of years just to scan a child's brain? What could there be in a little girl's mind worth blowing a hole in the universe?"

"I don't understand. It wants me? You want me?"

"Not yet. You are incomplete." It speaks, "Incomplete? What's that mean, incomplete? You can answer her, you can answer me. What do you mean, incomplete?" The android walks round the bed and a blade comes out of its hand, "Monsieur, mademoiselle, be careful." She spoke worriedly, "Just a nightmare, Reinette, don't worry about it. Everyone has nightmares."

The android slashes and Theta dodges before it turns to me as well, "Even monsters from under the bed have nightmares, don't you, monster?" The blade gets stuck in the mantlepiece as I moved out of the way. "What do monsters have nightmares about?" Theta grabs me an activates the mechanism and the fireplace rotates again, "Us!"

"Doctor!" Theta grabs a tube from a nearby rack and fires its contents over the android. It seizes up, "Excellent. Ice gun." Mickey laughed, impressed. "Fire extinguisher." Theta threw it at him, "Where did that thing come from?" Rose asked with a frown. "Here."

"So why is it dressed like that?"

"Field trip to France. Some kind of basic camouflage protocol. Nice needlework, shame about the face." Theta removes the android's face to reveal clockwork.

"Oh, you are beautiful! No, really, you are. You're gorgeous! Look at that. Space age clockwork, I love it. I've got chills! Listen, seriously, I mean this from the heart, and, by the way, count those, it would be a crime, it would be an act of vandalism to disassemble you. But that won't stop me." The android beams away, "Short range teleport. Can't have got far. Could still be on board."

"What is it?"

"Don't go looking for it!" Theta pointed towards Rose who looked back offended. "Where're you going?" Rose demanded, "Back in a sec." Theta uses the fireplace again dragging me along again. When we get through I frown, "This is not a little girl's room." I muttered as I looked around. It is a big, plush, split level room. "Reinette? Just checking you're okay." He plays a few notes on a harp, "Ahem."

"Oh. Hello. Er, I was just looking for Reinette. This is still her room, isn't it? I've been away, not sure how long." Theta rambled causing her to look towards me to which I smirk back and winked. "Reinette! We're ready to go." A woman shouted in the background, "Go to the carriage, Mother. I will join you there. It is customary, I think, to have an imaginary friend only during one's childhood. You are to be congratulated on your persistence."

"Reinette! Well. Goodness, how you've grown." Theta appeared shocked at her older self, I figured it would be like this after the first time we went through. The time difference within the fireplace was the reason why. "And you do not appear to have aged a single day. That is tremendously impolite of you." She teased with a small smirk, "Right, yes, sorry. Listen, lovely to catch up, but better be off, eh? Don't want your mother finding you up here with strangers, do we?"