Lost In Time: A Doctor Who Fanfiction

Chapter 58 - The God Complex, Part 1

"I think I'd better be able to," she said, biting her lip and glancing down the hallway once more. Wrapping her hand around her charm once more, she accepted Howie's hand and let him pull her up, groaning when her legs protested the action. "Should we go after them, or...?"

"Lyssa! Lyssa, where are you?" the cry came from a new voice, making them both freeze, though Lyssa relaxed when she realized she recognized the voice. A few seconds later, the sound of pounding feet was followed by the appearance of the Eleventh Doctor, complete with dorky bow tie and worried face as he charged down the hallway towards them.

Despite herself, Lyssa felt a relieved smile spread across her face as he grew closer, already feeling calmer just by seeing him. Letting go of Howie, she flung herself into his arms when he grew close enough, burying her face in his chest and wrapping her arms tightly around him. His arms closed around her, and she breathed out a sigh of relief as she finally felt truly safe for the first time since she had arrived.

"Lyssa, are you all right? The woman back there, Rita, she said you'd been hurt, that you'd had a panic attack." She could tell that his face was angled towards her, but she didn't want to move at all from her place of security, instead nestling deeper into his shirt as his hands automatically began to rub her back.

"Better now that you're here," she mumbled honestly, not having the energy to prevaricate at the moment. "What do you know about this place?"

If he was surprised by the question, he didn't show it. "It's a hotel. The doors and windows are fake, meaning escape is impossible at the moment. The walls shift about, meaning it's easy to get lost. And, apparently, the rooms are filled with bad dreams." He shifted his hold on her, arms slowing to a stop. "Is that... is that why you had a panic attack? Because you found your room?"

"No. Yes. No. I don't know anymore," she complained. "I found lots of rooms, heard a monster, and decided to hide. I made a horrible choice, regretted it immediately, and then they found me, and then you found me. Where's the TARDIS? How'd you get here?"

"The TARDIS is gone," he told her regretfully. "We were drawn off course by something, presumably whatever is responsible for the TARDIS going missing. Now, what happened? The panic attack - what happened there? And are you physically hurt as well?" He tugged her away from his chest to scan her, frowning when he saw the blood on her sleeve. "Your arm! What happened to it?"

She blushed under his gaze, wincing when his fingers grazed the cut. "Would you believe me if I said it was a giant chicken?"

He stopped in his examination, face rising to stare at her in bemusement. "I'm sorry, what?" he asked slowly.

"Yeah, that was what I said, too," she said dryly. "Woke up in a hotel room with a giant angry chicken standing over me. Don't know why, or how, but there it was. As you can tell, it got in a few good pecks before I managed to escape, then eventually ended up in a room full of spiders. Walked straight into a massive spiderweb, and I'm pretty sure I caught a glimpse of the spinner." 

She shuddered, trying and failing to avoid thinking of the massive arachnid she had seen. "I got the heck out of Dodge, deciding to take the monster over the spiders, but..." she shrugged unhappily. "I felt like I was still trapped in there, trying to get out of the webs while there were spiders crawling all over me. Not my best moment. Might as well have had a relapse to the whole Canary Wharf thing. Had another stupid panic attack, could have gotten myself killed if the monster had been close by."

"Hey." The Doctor grasped her shoulders firmly and waited until she looked him in the eyes. "It's not stupid, and it's not your fault. Millions of people would have reacted the exact same way to a situation like that, or worse. If there's anyone to blame, it's whoever created this place. They're deliberately forcing people to come face to face with their worst fears. That's all on them, not you. You're not weak, and you're not stupid. It's a completely understandable reaction, especially given that you had already been attacked today. Got it?"