Arcadia's Family (Book THREE)

Keep Holding On

"Something I said? What did I say?" Even it's attendant flies were frozen in the air and I flicked one away. "Why did you stop?"

There was a loud cracking and rumbling of cogs and I looked out of an opening to see sections of the walls rotating in opposite directions with the uppermost faster than the lower ones, like the upper section of the TARDIS time rotor did nowadays. The obstructing wall moved aside and I rans into the revealed room. The cogs stopped, and I tested the springs on the bed, as it was a similar bedroom to mine a Phi's only without the fairy lights or my guitar. 

I picked up one of the sunflowers, Seraphim's favourite from the vase, sniffing it before looking up at a portrait overhanging the fireplace, the paint and varnish old and cracked and peeling, and of course, it was my Seraphina, our twins as such perfect babies, and Clara Oswin Oswalds. There was a jewellers eyeglass, conveniently place next to it, so I examined it. "Old. Very old. Possibly very, very old." And then a fly landed between the twins, and I faced the veil.

"When I was a very little boy, there was an old lady who died." I told it, popping my cheek. "They covered her in veils, but it was a hot, sunny day, and the flies came. It gave me nightmares for years, a nightmare I only ever told my wife. So, who's been stealing my nightmares?" The petals started to fall from the sunflower as I plucked them. "What am I here for? You've known about me for a very long time, right? So why get me and not Phi? She's the powerful one." I put the eyeglass back, before dodging around him, testing his vision. "So, what is it? Is it a trap? Is it a prison? No! Is it a torture chamber? Am I right? Somebody really should know better. Anyone who can put all of this together and steal my bad dreams, they should know better.

"The secrets I have? The visions she never let me tell anyone else? No chance. No telling, not me." I ducked under its arms, grabbing a wooden stool to fend it off. "I told you I was scared of dying. And I wasn't lying either. Advantage, me!" Then I chucked it through the window, and the wind was blowing furiously. "Because you won't see this coming!"

Then I dove through the broken window, and burst into the TARDIS, running to the console and pushed away the scanner. I was falling, I knew I was falling. "Sorry I'm late, Loves. Jumped out of a window. Certain death. Don't you want to know how I survived? Go on. Ask me!" There was silence for a moment. "No, of course I had to jump! The first rule of being interrogated is that you are the only irreplaceable person in the torture chamber. The room is yours, so work it. If they're going to threaten you with death, show them who's boss. Die faster. And you've seen me do that more often than most. Isn't that right, my Phina? Rule one of dying, don't. Rule two, slow down." I looked at the figures with their backs to me, my Phi, holding our toddler twins.

"You've got the rest of your life. The faster you think, the slower it will pass. Concentrate. Assume you're going to survive. Always assume that. Imagine you've already survived. There's a storm room in your mind. Lock the door and think. This is my storm room. I always imagine that I'm back in my TARDIS, showing off, telling you how I escaped, making you laugh, your sweet laugh that always set the twins off. That's what I'm doing right now. I am falling, Seraphina. I'm dying. And I am going to explain to you how I survived. I can't wait to hear what I say. I'm nothing without an audience. One hope. Salt.

"Thought I smelled it earlier. When I broke the window, I was sure. Salty air. This castle is standing in the sea. Diving into water from a great height is no guarantee of survival. I need to know exactly how far I'm going to fall, and how fast, just like when I broke the ice. Why do you think I threw the stool?  Fall time to impact seven seconds. The wind resistance of the stool, the atmospheric density, the strength of the local gravity. Am I spoiling the magic for the twins, love? I work at this stuff, you know? Should hit the water in about point zero two seconds. The chances of remaining conscious are-"