The Always More (Doctor Who Fanfiction)

Chapter Fourteen

Footsteps click and skirts swish into the room. If they come even remotely on my side of the room, I will be in plain sight. When that happens, I have to be ready. I stand up on brittle legs.

That's when I hear the familiar buzzing of the sonic screwdriver. I look down and barely see the tip of it poking out from under the cabinet. I slide down again as quietly as I can. It is only seconds until they discover I am not where I should be. I snatch up the screwdriver, and spring to my feet.

Commotion erupts, and one of the women shouts for the house to be sealed. That doesn't sound good. I clutch the Sonic Screwdriver in my hands. It is humbling to know that a stick of metal is potentially the only reason you will escape the situation that you are in with all of your limbs still intact. The world spins around me, and I watch it from under my eyelashes defiantly. I squint against the darkness in search of a door. I don't expect much. Maybe just a dark rectangular shape, or a giant glowing "Exit" sign. I manage to make out a strange, mangled figure that I hope is not a human on a table. It twitches. With some difficulty, I suppress a whimper that tries to climb up my throat. I want to go home.

The door that the other women came through is all there is, I decide. Clutching the Sonic Screwdriver and swallowing the lump in my throat, I dive under the table that has the twisted human on top of it. There comes a thump on the tabletop above me. I hold back a shriek, and watch the silhouettes of the women who conveniently stand between myself and freedom. Of all the corners to hide in, why had I chosen the one farthest from the door?

The three women inspected the board on which I had laid not five minutes ago. The only chance I have is if they moved out of the way. Even then, beating a hasty retreat the moment the opportunity presents itself might lead me into a trap.

"Now, she could be out among the crowds!" Thundered the younger woman to her mother. "I told you we should have killed her while we had the chance."

"If we had left her in the streets, she would have gone unknowing!"

Clutching the Sonic Screwdriver to my chest, I flatten myself against the wall in the shadows. They move around the room together, two arguing bitterly, and the other scanning the room with eyes that glint like those of a cat. I now have a clear path to the doorway.

Now is my only chance. Taking a shaky breath, I crawl from under this table. I try to move in the shadows, and make noise only when one of the bodies in the room does too.

I am only a few feet from the door when a hiss comes from behind me. I look over to see two glowing eyes like headlights in the night from the other side of the room. All caution breaks away like shattering an eggshell. I scramble to my feet, and lunge towards the door.

Right outside the door, lounging around like there is no torture chamber right next door, a hoard of young women. Their sharp eyes all land on me. In my hand, The Doctor's screwdriver is still suffocated.

I breathe out in a rush, and assess the situation. There are candles littered around the room. The women sink into plush sofas piled with pillows. Mildew grows in on the ceiling. All this, but no door. The women are starting to stir and rise to the occasion. On the far side of the room, I see a hallway. Good enough.

I kick the candle closest to me so it falls to the splintered wooden floor. One of the girls hurries towards it to put out the flame. I knock over another candle, and drop one onto the tassled rug they lay on.

I move around them as quickly as possible, taking down candle after candle. Soon, the panic of fire consumes everyone's attention, and I am forgotten in the frenzy.

Down the murky hallway that I saw, I hear a crackling fire in one room to my left. I consider my chances of getting out of here through the room with a hearth, versus continuing down the hallway. I glance over my shoulder, and see two women coming around the corner. The fire must be under control. I need to create another distraction. The hearth room it is.

There are three women standing around the hearth, watching a large pot of stew on the fire. I spot a newspaper on one of the tables, and snag it quickly. Rolling it up, I join them at the fire and smile sheepishly at their surprise whilst plunging the end of the paper roll into the fire. I catch a whiff of what I hope is beef boiling in the pot. Their hands unfurl like claws towards me, but I reel backwards just in time with my torch.

The women who were following me in the hallway burst through the door. They bring recruits. My brain cycles through a string of very colorful vocabulary. I spot a pile of tinder by the stone hearth, and fling the flaming newspaper in its general direction before booking it towards the door in the corner.

As it turns out, I have made it to the stairwell. Tumbling down the stairs wouldn't have looked any better than what I did in my relief.

I find ring of almost fifteen women sitting in a circle around a statue of some kind of freak cross between a mermaid and a centipede. They all turn to stare at me. My muscles freeze up. I lunge towards the door that looks like it just might be the barrier between me and freedom. I can practically feel the snowflakes on my skin.

I turn the handle eagerly, and find that it is stuck. Of course. She locked it down. I fumble with the Sonic Screwdriver desperately, but my fingers are too slippery to cooperate with metal. It's all I can do not to drop it all together. I shake the handle with all my might, but my slick hand just slides off.

Someone spins me around by my shoulder. I never see the first coming, but it sinks deep in my eye socket seamlessly. Someone screams. It takes me a moment to realize that it is me. I turn fight the hands trying to contain me, and manage to flip on The Doctor's screwdriver. I stumble backwards and break through the door. The door slams shut, and my body flops helplessly into the whispering snow drifts. The quiet is a welcome change as I am dragged into restless, unnatural sleep.

***

My feet are freezing when I resurface from the biome of dark and white noise that was supposed to be sleep. Thin layers of residual cold try to stick my eyelids together when I open them. Far above me, is a gentle auburn fabric instead of a ceiling. It is warmer here than outside, but my feet are still cold. I stretch. "Mmm," I murmur, "Alexander... Hamilton?"

"'Fraid not. Evening, lass."

I jolt. There sitting by the fire, a man sits. After being held hostage in a house of women who wanted to kill me, the sight of a man is a most welcome change. His eyes are soft and light like helium. Strictly speaking, I've never felt solid helium, and I doubt it's soft. He is dressed in a brown suit that is a few shades lighter than his hair. Everything about his brown appearance glows a honey orange in the dancing fire light.

"I'm..." I yawn,"Not dead."

"I don't think so, but I can fetch a doctor if you like closure."

A doctor? Doctor! "Where's The Doctor?" I ask. His eyes widen. I realize immediately what he's thinking. "I don't actually want a doctor. But The Doctor- the man in the bowtie?"

"Irene! You're up." Someone shuffles under the tent wall, bringing with them a thick layer of snow coating their body.

I look over, and smile. "That's The Doctor."

"I hope so," he says, and crouches down by my side. I lean away from the snow that is slowly melting, sending large droplets splashing onto my knees. "I see you've met Luigi."

"That's your name?" I ask the man. "It doesn't fit you. You look more like a Ben, or-"

"Ren," warns The Doctor, cupping my cold fingers in his colder hands. I shut my mouth. I'm sure he thinks he's doing me a favor by trying to warm my hands. Then I open my mouth again, my mind changed, to ask him to stop calling me "Ren."

The urgency in his eyes stops me. "I've found something."

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~ TheLivingParadox