The TARDIS Trap

Eight

EIGHT

 “I’m sorry Miss Mary if I upset you and your sister…” I approached the younger sister hesitantly, I wondered if she could hear me as I moved nearer. “I don’t know what else to do, we need to find the blue box…” I was talking to myself, my words trailed off in despair, I was growing desperate and running out of inspiration.

 The day was wearing thin, the shadows lengthening across the carpet, all was silent except for the background noise of the tide rhythmically drawing in… My eyes ached and felt heavy so I closed them, I don’t know whether it was the tension in the room or the talk of headaches but there was a sudden, sharp pain on top of my head as though a great burden was pressing down on me, I assumed it was the stress of everything that had befallen us since we had lost the TARDIS. My thoughts momentary drifted to the Doctor and then tiredness, it had been such a long day, I couldn’t remember the last time I had slept. But I knew if I was to fall asleep it would be the worst thing I could do, somehow I knew even before I discovered the sickness that lay darkly at the heart of that house, the lifelong game everyone in this house was caught up in…I opened my eyes and jumped in fright as Mary Claverley was standing right in front of me. I wanted to leave the room and suddenly find the Doctor but then Mary placed a swift, restraining hand on my arm, her startling claw like grip even stronger than her sisters. The elderly woman’s eyes focused sharply on me as though she was truly interested in me for the first time, she smiled contentedly even arrogantly and then patted my hand in a confiding manner. Her bold and decisive behaviour couldn’t be more different from the timid creature from earlier. No one in that house was what they at first seemed, it was the younger sister all along who held the balance of power in the Claverley’s  relationship, her flowing words were lucid and surprisingly eloquent. 

 “Miss Bailey, my sister has not dreamed all the same dreams as me. She is jealous for my vision has always been stronger, he speaks to me not to my sister. My lord speaks to me, though I could not free him. Though he knows I would have given my life for him.” The sister regarded me for a moment and then smiled sadly. “Ah but you see I did give my life and now I am old…You my dear belong to him, you shall be his…”

 “Mary who are you talking about?” Every part of me shuddered at her unnatural words, my heart accelerating as a sickening fear built up in my stomach. The conversation had descended down a dark road from which there could be no turning back. I couldn’t begin to understand but in my heart there was no denying it, whoever Mary Claverley was referring to, they had to be the one who had taken the TARDIS. The sister’s grip tightened, her shining eyes widening as she breathlessly whispered full of reverence.  

 “He is waiting for you, he has been waiting for so many years for as long as I can remember.” It was as though I had been held under a terrible spell and before I could offer any response, Mary released her hold, her face resuming its blank mask of indifference as she shuffled from the sitting room, sighing with well-worn obedience, she glanced up at me “Edith needs me… And then it is time we were gone from this place.”

 Then Mary Claverley was gone, I would never see those sisters again. They had played their part in the game. I sunk down onto the nearest chair and mindlessly uttered.

 “He is waiting for you… He is waiting for you.”

 I could not understand why anyone would be waiting for me, when all along it was surely the Doctor and his time machine they wanted.I leaned back my head and closed my eyes but then thinking better of it, I pulled myself from out of the chair andI ran over to the window, forcing it open, the cool air, soothing my feverish thoughts. The outside world was still there, it was reassuring to know in that unreal place as I mumbled to myself.