The Always More (Doctor Who Fanfiction)

Chapter Twenty-two

I scream, clawing at the ground of the gazebo. "Tony! Help me!"

He's by my side in a moment. They both are, The Doctor and my brother, right as the floor underneath me crumbles. I manage to yank myself onto my elbows, but under me the void seems to grip my ankles and pull. I groan, and grasp Tony's outstretched hand.

"Please get me out." I wail, "It's pulling me!"

"Listen, listen," The Doctor has to yell over the deafening screaming in the sky, getting on his stomach and taking my other hand. "I've got you. Hold on. Tony, pull her up. I just have to get my arms around her."

Tony grasps both my hands, and crouches, putting all his weight into lifting me.

"Please, please," I whisper. He gets my chest to rise above the floor, only to have the gravity-like force try even harder to tear me away. I can feel the line where the drop off meets the floor of the gazebo dig into my stomach. I can't help but scream. Frustrated, in pain, overwhelmed, I grip my brother's hands and refuse to let go. Finally, the greatest feeling in the world grabs a hold of me. The Doctor has managed to wrap his arms around my torso, and drags me away from the grab with little effort.

Once he's sure nothing is pulling me anymore, he sets me down. Tears flood my eyes, and I turn to find Tony. There he stands, one foot towards me, and one behind him. His whole body is strangely still, and he stares at me with a horrified look in his eyes. No. He's not still. He's moving. His back foot, paused against the ground in mid-step, is sliding backwards inch by horrible inch, seemingly out of his control.

"Tony!" I shriek, but my voice is lost in the noise ricocheting through the sky. The Doctor spots him, and lunges. I reach out both my hands because I know he won't make it in time, but it's too late, and my feet refuse to move towards that horrible chasm.

Nothing is to be done. Nothing escapes my mouth when I open it. Nothing stops them both from plummeting into the black abyss. Nothing except the opposite wall, and while The Doctor manages to twist and miss the corner, Tony isn't as lucky.

A sickening cracking noise fills the air.

I scream my brother's name, but he disappears between the two sides of the gazebo floor. I force myself to the edge, and stare down into the black. Already, they are gone. I have to take my chances, go after them.

"Tony!" I cast a glance around me, the scrambling fairies blurred by saltwater, and I jump into the roaring black depth, my eyes sealed shut. In a swift second, the screaming ceases, the falling stops, and my feet hit the ground, jarring me so badly I collapse into sand and the broken rubble of a marble floor.

I slowly open my eyes, and my heart sinks. I lay in the crumbled, dusty ruins of the gazebo pathway, sand blowing through the air above me, a spattered bloody stain on the wall. Darkness encroaches on my vision, and I am all alone.

***

"Don't scream."

It only takes my opening my eyes to ignore the warning. A shrill noise escapes my throat, and I claw at the hideous face- is that a face? - that hovers near mine.

"What the hell are you?" I cry, sitting up rod straight. I slap my hands over my mouth. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to use that word. Who are you? What do you want?"

The mangled flesh of its face looks like it was cut with a scalpel over and over and then scrubbed with sandpaper. This wreck bends and scrunches around bloodshot eyes, too wide for natural occurrence, in what appears to be an expression of confusion. She tilts her head slightly farther than is natural. Her lips are broken in a couple places, and streaked with blood. The sight of it all makes me retch. My stomach finds nothing, since what I didn't lose of my lunch at the pizzeria into the mall bathroom stall has long since been digested. My dry throat feels rubbed raw just thinking about it.