I Am No Longer Alone

The Forever Dream

I stood in the center of a very large room covered in cables and blinking lights, in four corners of the room were large cylinders that came down from the ceiling and were interrupted by four very large control panels. In between each of these was a hallway each seeming to go on forever. Gallifreain technology is amazing, I thought. Then, suddenly an old man with frizzy hair and a mad smile poked his head through the doorway, "Susan come along!" He exclaimed, "I've found the absolute perfect TARDIS for us, but we must hurry before the authority's catch us!" I followed him somehow knowing he was the Doctor, my grandfather. We reached the TARDIS he spoke of, him exclaiming again how wonderful it would be traveling time and space like all Time Lords should, and my brain decided this was true accepting it somehow.
We walked to the center of this new TARDIS and my grandfather ran his hands across the controls and looked up at the large clear cylinder. "So, anywhere in time and space," he spun around and grabbed me by the shoulders, "we can go anywhere in the universe, tell me Susan where do you want to go?"
Huge grins spread across our faces as I replied, "Show me something new!" In response he spun back to the control panel and started flipping levers and pressing buttons. I laughed and clung to the bar conveniently set all around the circular panel as the ship took off.
"First stop," my grandfather exclaimed, "Planet Earth." The ship landed and I opened the door expecting to see anything but the war scene that unfolded before me. Things where burning all around me, people, buildings and so much more. And oh! The screaming, that was probably the worst part, or at least I thought it was until I saw them, The Daleks! They exploded through the wall, exterminating anything in their path while I stood there frozen in place. This wasn't supposed to happen, somehow I knew I was supposed to be in Britain, enjoying tea in a quaint little café off the east side of the Thames. A Dalek saw me and shrieked "EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE!!"
I yelped and turned to run back to the TARDIS but was faced by another Dalek, the TARDIS nowhere to be seen. The Daleks screaming just got louder as they neared, sending my pulse racing. I couldn't get out of this one, I was going to die to the sound of the Daleks. A tear slipped down my cheek as the first Dalek came in range, "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EEEXXTTERMMMINNAAAAATTEE!!!"
I screamed at the excruciating pain of being shot by one of their laser beams, three more and I'll be dead I thought, only three more. "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!!"
Two more....
"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!! EEEEEXXTTERMMMINNAAAAATTEE!!!!!!!!!
One mo.......
"STOP, BIGGER THREAT DETECTED! MUST DESTROY THE DOCTOR, EXTERMINATE!! EXTERMINATE! EEEEEXXTTERMMMINNAAAAATTEE!!!!"
I looked up at my grandfather through the red haze of pain shielding my vision, while curled in the fetal position on the ground. He stood over me his sonic screwdriver held up in front of him, he was still old but he didn't look like my grandfather. His face was hardened with worry lines and hard decisions, different types of explosives were tucked into the strap that wrapped around his chest. Through the pain, my brain registered that he didn't use guns or weapons, only his screwdriver, no matter how dire the situation. He wore a look of utter hate as he screamed, "NO MORE!!!" and shot down all of the Daleks close enough to hit us, then he threw me over his shoulder, and ran, felling more Daleks as he went. I heard the creak of the TARDIS doors opening as my grandfather kicked them in, I felt my body hit the floor as he set me down, and I watched him spin around to slam and lock the doors. I could relax a little bit as the soft humming of the TARDIS enveloped me, but I was in so much pain. "You're going to need to regenerate," my grandfather whispered, brushing short brown hair from my face. "But I have an idea. What if I use the Chameleon Arch on you, turn you into a baby, put your essence in the locket I gave you, and send you to earth. You'll be safe there, away from the war, granted I couldn't guarantee when you'd get there, or if you ever would, but it's worth a shot, I might be able to save at least one person I love. So how about it, do you want to give it a try?" I nodded and groaned in response. I heard him clattering around, and after what seemed like years later he knelt next to me and said, "It's time, everything's ready." He then picked me up ever so gently and set me in a large metal seat contraption that I guessed was the camel art or whatever, my brain was so muddled now, I had no clue as to what was going on. My grandfather took off my locket and set it in what looked like a cup holder, then he bent down to my eye level, which honestly didn't help much since I couldn't see very well, I new my regeneration was coming soon.
"It hurts." I managed to whimper before golden light shot out of my entire body and my grandfather turned on the machine. I screamed in pain, then everything went dark.

I woke in a cold sweat to my roommate Molly shaking me, "Ashlyn, Ashlyn," she whispered, "you're only dreaming wake up!!"
I gasped and sat up right in my bed whipping my long curly blond hair out of my face that was plastered there by sweat. "Sometimes it doesn't feel like I'm dreaming," I said back to her in barely a whisper so she had to lean in to hear me, "sometimes it feels like this has all happened to me before and somehow I've just forgotten."
"Oh, don't be ridiculous," she replied, "you just haven't gotten enough sleep lately what with finishing up your Masters in Culinary and Art, and starting your own café. What you need is good nights uninterrupted sleep," Molly patted my back as she stood and finished her declaration with a "now get to it." As she climbed into her own bed to take her own advice. I sighed and plopped back down onto my pillows, willing my eyes not to close. Lately the nightmares have been getting worse, starting with something pleasant, but always ending with me dying; or at least I thought it was me even if it didn't look like it I knew it was. My grandfather was always different too, but I still knew somehow that it was the same man but with a different face. I jumped at the sound of Molly's voice as she said "Stop obsessing over it and get some sleep, you can do that in the morning." This time I took my friends advice.