The Always More (Doctor Who Fanfiction)

Chapter Seven

Episode TWO
Going Mental

Chapter Seven
Irene

"How does London sound?"

"I thought that that was where we were headed, anyway," I say, still preoccupied with the world around me.

The TARDIS interior is swept with a universally blue lighting, like the color of the outer box has seeped through to join the inside. The Doctor stands at the hexagonal control mechanism that seems to be the main feature of the room. Hallways lead away from this blue cavern, and I am inclined to explore them, led only by my curiosity.

The dark corners and the cold lighting give me a strange sensation that monsters could seep through the walls at any given moment. I shiver.

"I'm cold," I interrupt his ramblings about something to do with London's delightful Christmas specialties. I look down at my plaid coat. It isn't enough to shield me against the frigid temperature in this cavern.

"Well it's not going to be any warmer in London," he lectures obviously.

"Okay, so I don't know what kind of cold-blooded alien amphibian you are, but humans can't force their body temperature up," I say. He doesn't seem to know how to reply to this. It seems that every time I opened my mouth with phrases that didn't consist of "like" and "totally" every three seconds in a heavy Southern accent, I blow his fragile British mind.

"Well, there's not much to you, little squeak pig. Right. Wardrobe. That corridor there. Turn right, then left, then left again, and then it's the third, next left. Follow the hallway you'll find for about a fourth 'f a mile. Go past the wind swirly thing to the left, then take a sharp right. Has to be sharp, otherwise you'll fall off the floor. Right, then your other right, through the sunroom, careful not to trip over the sun lounger, then you'll see a green door. Don't go in there. Go to your right, follow the wall 'til it gets a but slimy, then take the lift to the fourth floor. Wardrobe straight ahead, you can't miss it."

"How the fish sticks am I supposed to remember that?" I demand, folding my arms.

He acts as if he never heard me. "You know, come to think of it, I might have something lying around for you. Just so we don't waste time."

I follow him down the stairs to the ground level of the blue cavern. This is the floor where the corridors branch off from. Under the grated floor that the control central rests on, the darkness becomes harder to ignore. Shadows cast creases into the stairs, the wiring hung from the ceiling, and the floor.

The central glass cylinder that rises from the above console also plunges down through the grating to meet the hard metal floor. There is another hexagon of metal around this tube, that meets the ground around the edges. The Doctor pries one of the wedges off of the top, and it hinges at the back, to allow him to keep it up. In here is one of the first welcoming sights in this cavern. Glowing with warm lighting, the inside trench is filled with clothes of all kinds. They are all tangled together, and limply they lay over one another.

After digging through the mess of colors, The Doctor extracts a fluffy white Eskimo jacket, and pushes it into my arms. Next comes a multicolored scarf that is about twice my height. He thrusts all kinds of clothing in all sizes and shapes into my arms, and then abandons me there for the floor above us, letting the metal slam shut over the inviting yellow light.

I wonder at the diversity of the clothing as I examine each item. You would think that he would pick things that would relatively fit me, or at least are all in close proximity to one another by the regards of style, but the only similarity between them is how different they are. Bright colors of fabrics flash through the dimness.